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 http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924029475617 
 
REV. JOHN MURRAY, 
 Feb. 10th, 1921. 
 
THE HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 The Presbyterian Church 
 
 IN 
 
 CAPE BRETON 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JOHN MURRAY 
 
 1921 
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 NEWS PUBLISHING CO. LTD. 
 
 TRURO, N. S. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I 
 The Pioneer Presbyterian Ministers of Cape Breton. 
 
 Rev. James McGregor D. D. 
 Alexander Dick 
 Norman McLeod 
 William Millar 
 Hugh Dunbar 
 Hugh Ross 
 Donald McDonald 
 John McLennan 
 Donald Allan Eraser 
 Aeneas McLean 
 Dugald McKichan 
 Alexander Farquharson 
 John Stewart 
 James Fraser 
 Peter McLean 
 John Gunn 
 Matthew Wilson 
 Murdoch Stewart 
 Hugh McLeod, D. D. 
 
 PART II 
 
 The congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Cape Breton and 
 their Ministers. 
 
 St. Ann's -. ;... r.... ...... ...«....: and its Ministry 
 
 Mabou ' ; " 
 
 Port Hastings ',' 
 
 Middle River '. " 
 
 West Bay " 
 
 Boulardarie " 
 
 Whycocomagh " 
 
 Strathlorne " 
 
 Sydney Mines " 
 
 Mira " 
 
 Grand River " 
 
 Baddeck " 
 
 Cape North " 
 
 Gabarous " 
 
 Leitche's Creek " 
 
 St. Paul's, G. Bay " 
 
CONTENTS— Continued 
 
 Port Morien and its Ministry 
 
 Lake Ainslie 
 
 Falmouth St 
 
 Loch Lomond 
 
 St. Andrew's, Sydney 
 
 St. Matthew's, Nr. Sydney 
 
 North Shore, etc 
 
 Baddeck Forks 
 
 Bridgeport 
 
 St. Peters 
 
 Little Narrows 
 
 Margaree 
 
 Marion Bridge 
 
 St. James, Sydney 
 
 Louisburg 
 
 Reserve Mines 
 
 Knox, G. Bay 
 
 St. Luke's No. 6 
 
 St. Matthews, Inverness 
 
 Warden G. Bay 
 
 Florence 
 
 New Waterford 
 
 Orangedale 
 
 Malagawatch 
 
 Framboise 
 
 Broughton 
 
 Neil's Harbor. .^.'r1»-ir{ 
 
 Mission Fields 
 Pleasant Bay 
 West Bay Points 
 Port Hood 
 
 PART III 
 
 Related and Supplementary Chapter. 
 
 The Centenary of Presbyterianism in Cape Breton. 
 
 The growth of the Presbyterian Church inC.B. during the past century 
 
 Presbyterianism in C. Breton in 1827. 
 
 The Presbyteries of C. Breton. 
 
 Conditions under which our Presbyterian Ancestors lived in the early 
 part of last century. 
 
 The Communion Services of our Ancestors. 
 
 Our Celtic Ancestors their Origin, History, Language Literature and 
 Religion. 
 
 The Men and Women that have gone to our Foreign Mission Fields 
 from Cape Breton. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It has been said that no one ever reads the preface to a book, neverthe- 
 less the writer of this one is disposed to write something equivalent to a 
 preface, if for no other reason, in order to let the reader know how he came 
 to attempt the role of authorship. He never dreamed of such a thing until 
 the Presbytery of Sydney appointed an Historical Committee and made 
 him the Chairman of said Committee. 
 
 The duties of this Committee were not well defined in the terms of its 
 appointment, but it was supposed to discover and record the history of 
 Presbyterianism on the island of Cape Breton from the time of its introduc- 
 tion up to the present time. 
 
 The Presbytery of Inverness appointed a similar committee for a 
 similar purpose and about the same time viz: — at the end of the year 1917. 
 
 It so happened that the writer was the only member of either Com- 
 mittee that was not actively employed in pastoral work, and on that 
 account at liberty to engage in historical research and to give his whole time 
 to the preparation of a history of Presbyterianism on this Island. In these 
 circumstances and with the concurrence of both Committees, he undertook 
 the work of recovering and recording the history of the Presbyterian 
 Church in Cape Breton. 
 
 It may be justly said, that he had certain advantages for this task over 
 any of his brethren, on either Committee, on account of a longer ministerial 
 acquaintance with Cape Breton Island, than any of them could claim. 
 
 Though not a native of Cape Breton, he had served the Presbyterian 
 Church on this Island for a period of about fifty years with some inter- 
 ruptions. He crossed the Strait of Canso, on his way to Cape North, as a 
 student Catechist of the church, on the 1st day of May 1870. That was 
 fifty years ago last May and fifty years after the Rev. Norman McLeod 
 came to Cape Breton in May 1820. It was in the very middle of our 
 century of Presbyterianism! In addition, the writer spent nearly one half 
 of the intervening years on this island, either as Catechist, pastor or re- 
 tired minister. 
 
 And besides it has been his privilege to know five of the pioneer minis- 
 ters of Cape Breton, more or less intimately viz — John Stewart, Peter Mc- 
 Lean, James Fraser, Murdoch Stewart, Matthew Wilson and Hugh Mc- 
 Leod, D. D. 
 
 He was also acquainted with a number of our early ministers, e. g., 
 William G. Forbes, James Ross, Kenneth McKenzie, Abraham Mcintosh 
 and James McLean. 
 
 He can claim to have known Cape Breton when hundreds of the men 
 and women, who came here from Scotland in the third and fourth decade 
 of last century were still alive and active in the work of our church. 
 
 Notwithstanding his long acquaintance with the island, he found the 
 
 5 
 
task he had undertaken no easy one. No one had ever attempted to write 
 a history of our Church iri Cape Breton. Apart from a lecture by the late 
 Rev. Donald McMillan on some of the early ministers of our church here, 
 there was nothing available with which to make a beginning. In order to 
 get the necessary information he had to ransack every possible source of 
 knowledge. He visited nearly every congregation on the island and inter- 
 rogated every aged person that he could find; he read every Presbytery 
 Minute in existence; he waded through' old files of the Presbyterian Wit- 
 ness, Synod Minutes and Church Records; he went to Toronto in order 
 to read several volumes of letters that passed between the Pioneers and the 
 Societies that sent them out from Scotland; he conducted an extensive 
 correspondence with parties in New Zealand and Western New York as 
 well as with former ministers of Cape Breton at home and abroad. 
 
 In short, he sought information wherever it could be found in order, if 
 possible, to put his readers in possession of everything of importance in con- 
 nection with our history as a church on this island. All this took time, per- 
 severance and labor. But it has been a labor of love, interest and pleasure. 
 It will be noticed that the matter contained in this volume is grouped 
 under three heads or "parts." 
 
 This arrangement suggested itself as one well-fitted to classify the 
 subjects treated. 
 
 Part I, "The Pioneer Presbyterian Ministers of Cape Breton" con- 
 tains an account of all the Presbyterian ministers, who helped in any meas- 
 ure, to lay the foundations of the Presbyterian Church on this island be- 
 tween the year 1798 and the year 1850. There were nineteen of these 
 pioneers and th'ey were all of Scottish birth but one, and all of Scottish 
 education but two. Of these pioneers, two came to Cape Breton bfetween 
 1798 and 1820, viz James McGregor, D. D. and Alexander Dick, 
 
 Seventeen of them came here between 1820 and 1850. In chronolog- 
 ical order these were, Norman McLeod, William Millar, Hugh Dunbar, 
 Hugh Ross, Donald McDonald, John McLennan, Donald Allan Fraser, 
 Aeneas McLean, Dugald McKichan, Alexander Farquharson, John 
 Stewart, James Fraser, Peter McLean, John Gunn, Matthew Wilson, and 
 Hugh McLeod, D. D. 
 
 There was no organized presbyterianism on this island p evious to 
 the year 1820, although there were a few presbyterians as early as 1780 
 and those few had been considerably augmentated by immigration, more es- 
 pecially between 1802 and 1820. Organized Presbyterianism in Cape 
 Breton dates from May the 20th, 1820 when the Rev. Norman McLeod 
 with a number of his followers sailed into St. Ann's Harbor. The Centen- 
 ary of this event was fittingly celebrated at South Gut, St. Ann's, under 
 the auspices of the Presbytery of Sydney and the Presbytery of Inverness, 
 on the 8th of July last. 
 
 During the pioneer period of our history we were almost entirely de- 
 pendent on Scotland for our ministers. By the end of that period, we had 
 a Seminary and Theological College of our own established in Halifax. 
 The Free Church College was opened in St. John's Church, in that city, on 
 
 6 
 
the 1st day of November 1848. The Kev. William G. Forbes of Port 
 Hastings was one of the first graduates of that institution. He completed 
 his theological studies in the spring of 1851. Since that time our Cape 
 Breton plulpits have been, largely, if not chiefly, supplied by ministers who 
 were born on our own island and educated in our own Canadian institu- 
 tions of learning. Among the earliest of these home-born ministers were 
 Abraham Mcintosh, Kenneth McKenzie, Donald McDougall, Alexander 
 Farquharson and Hector McQuarrie. 
 
 Later Cape Breton born ministers have been so many and so well 
 known that they need not be mentioned in this connection. 
 
 In Part I, we have endeavoured to furnish the reader with a memoir 
 of the nineteen pioneers to whom, as a church we are so deeply indebted. 
 The majority of them rendered inestimable service to our Church and 
 their memory ought to be affectionately cherished by us, who reap in joy 
 where they sowed in tears. We regret that our account of some of these 
 good men is necessarily so brief. This, however, is due to the small amount 
 of information that has come down to us regarding them. There are two 
 of them, whose presence on this island was unknown to the writer before 
 he began his historical investigations viz. Hugh Dunbar and Hugh Ross. 
 
 By diligent search however, he has been enabled to collect enough in- 
 formation about all these pioneers with which to build a small monument 
 to the memory of their persons, worth and work. 
 
 Portraits of eight of the Pioneers have been discovered and will be 
 found at the end of Part I. 
 
 Portraits of a number of the first minister of several of our congrega- 
 tions will be found at the end of Part II. 
 
 1 
 
 Part II contains a brief account of each of our forty-three congrega- 
 tions and of the two hundred or more ministers that have served them since 
 their organization. In addition to a brief account of each of our present con- 
 gregation, arranged in chronological order, we have given a summary of 
 the life history of each of these ministers. 
 
 This part of our work may be of comparatively little interest to many 
 of our readers, but the limits we assigned ourselves, did not permit us to do 
 any more, in most cases, than to furnish a brief biographical outline. It 
 is hoped, however, that even this short outline of the lives of our ministers 
 will be of considerable interest to the congregations that they served, re- 
 spectively, so well and so faithfully. 
 
 The preparation of this part of the book entailed a very great deal of 
 labor in order that accuracy might be secured in the innumerable details 
 involved. The writer does not venture to claim that all the dates given 
 are accurate in every particular, but he does claim to have taken all possible 
 pains to ensure their accuracy. 
 
 To avoid misapprehension on the part of any of his readers, the writer 
 would say here, that the term "congregation" is invariably to be under- 
 stood as equivalent to a pastoral charge, separate and distinct from all 
 other pastoral charges and having its name on the roll of one of our Pres- 
 byteries as such. 
 
 7 
 
Part III contains a number of articles, that have a more or less close 
 relationship to the History of Presbyterianism in Cape Breton, In the 
 judgment of the writer they will at least supplement what is contained in 
 the other two parts, and furnish information that our people ought to have 
 at hand, and that it is hoped, they will appreciate. 
 
 The writer would have liked to include in Part III an article on the 
 elders of the Church and the very great service our elders have rendered to 
 true religion in Cape Breton during the past hundred years. But the limit 
 of his space was reached and he had to forbear writing what was in his mind 
 and heart on that subject. 
 
 One word more. This book is written specially for the Presb^erian 
 people of Cape Breton and their children, at home and abroad; and the 
 the writer hopes that it may find its way into most, if not all our homes. 
 Its contents are fitted and intended to increase their knowledge of the 
 Presbyterian Church on this beautiful island, and also, to deepen their 
 interest in that Church's history and work. 
 
 JOHN MURRAY. 
 Knox Manse, 
 
 Glace Bay, 
 
 Dec. 31st, 1920. 
 
Rev. James McGregor D. D. 
 
 Dr. McGregor was the Apostle of Presbyterianism in the Maritime 
 Provinces, including Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island 
 and Cape Breton. He was also the first of the Pioneers ministers of the 
 Presbyterian Church that came to Cape Breton. 
 
 Dr. McGregor was born at Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland in the month 
 of December 1759. He grew up to manhood in connection with the Gen- 
 eral Associate, or Antiburger Church. His arts Course was taken at the 
 University of Edinburgh and he studied theology under the direction of 
 the Rev. William MoncreifF, Professor of Divinity to the General Asso- 
 ciate Synod. He was licensed to preach the gospel in the year 1784, and 
 on the 31st of May 1786, he was ordained and designated as missionary to 
 the Gaelic Speaking Highlanders in the County of Pictou, N. S., by the 
 Presbytery of Glasgow. 
 
 Three days later he sailed from Greenoch, on the brig "Lily" for 
 Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he arrived on the 11th of July. By the middle 
 of August 1786 he reached Pictou which was destined to be the centre of his 
 strenuous labors during the remainder of his life. Dr. McGregor's death 
 took place at New Glasgow on Wednesday March the 3rd, 1830 in the 
 seventieth year of his age and the forty sixth of his ministry. 
 
 The late Rev. George Patterson, D. D., has done ample justice to the 
 life and labors of our first Pioneer, in his work entitled "Memoir of the 
 Rev. James McGregor, D. D." And indeed, Dr. McGregor is the only one 
 of the Cape Breton pioneers that has had any justice of this kind done to 
 him, unless it may be the Rev. Donald McDonald of whom a short bio- 
 graphy has been written. This renders it all the more necessary that an 
 attempt should be made to write an account of the lives and labors of these 
 men, at this late period in the history of the Church they loved and served 
 so well. 
 
 The following extract from an address by Jotham Blanchard Esq., a 
 distinguished contemporary and intimate friend of Dr. McGregor, might 
 be given at this stage, in order to show what kind of a man. Dr. McGregor 
 was and the work that he did in Eastern Canada. The address, from which 
 the following extract is taken, was delivered by Mr. Blanchard in the City 
 of Glasgow, at a meeting of the Society for Advancing Liberal Education 
 in the Colonies, shortly after Dr. McGregor's death; "Nearly half a cen- 
 tury ago, this father, animated by an ardent piety, and a more than ordin- 
 ary vigor of mind,took his life in his hand and crossed theAtlantic to preach 
 the gospel to those who, literally, "dwelt solitary in the woods." He had a 
 field as boundless in extent as in difficulties. 
 
 The Eastern part of Nova Scotia and the adjacent islands of Cape 
 Breton and Prince Edward Island were all before him. The inhabitants 
 were few and far apart. Roads in that region were the invention of a 
 later day. The site of the town of Pictou contained but two houses. 
 Marked trees, a pocket compass, or an Indian were the only guides through 
 
 9 
 
the wilderness in those early times, and the frail boats that were used in 
 harbors, rivers and seas afforded a still less desirable mode of travelling. 
 "But the people were in need of the gospel" and that to Dr. McGregor was 
 sufficient to call forth all that duty required. Moreover they were anxious 
 for the gospel and that called forth more. It would be difficult to justify 
 his constant exposure of himself by day and by night, and his almost 
 superhuman exertions from week to week and from year to year. A plank 
 was often his bed and a potato his fare. Sleep was not seldom denied 
 him for several nights together. The people were located in little settle- 
 ments, and when he visited them they all turned out to meet him. 
 Nor were his labors in vain. There are yet many in life, of the best of our 
 people, who received all their religious knowledge and impressions under 
 his ministry." 
 
 Dr. McGregor was more than a self-sacrificing missionary. He was a 
 man of good literary attainments and of scholarly tastes. He was also a 
 poet of no mean order as his published English and Gaelic poems abund- 
 antly testify. His gaelic hymns were highly esteemed and very generally 
 sung, by a former generation, not only in Nova Scotia but in Scotland as 
 well. 
 
 In the year 1822, the Senate of the University of Glasgow conferred 
 the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity upon our pioneer missionary, 
 in recognition of his personal worth and the distinguished services he had 
 rendered to the Presbyterian Church and to Christianity in Eastern Can- 
 ada. 
 
 Dr. McGregor was the first Presbyterian minister that ever came to the 
 Island of Cape Breton for missionary and evangelistic purposes. He 
 made two missionary journeys to our island, one in the year 1798 and the 
 other in the year 1818. The first of these journeys was made at the re- 
 quest of a pious Presbyterian woman by the name of Janet Sutherland. 
 Mrs. Sutherland, her husband, George Sutherland and their three children, 
 Isabel, William and Charles, were living on a farm about three miles to the 
 south of the town of Sydney and on the eastern side of Sydney River. 
 
 The site of the Sutherland home, at that time, may still be seen on 
 the right hand side of the road that leads from the public highway to the 
 pumping Station of the Dominion Steel Company. The cellar of the Suther- 
 land house is quite visible on the rising ground between Sutherland's Cove 
 and the said Station. 
 
 There can be little doubt that Dr. McGregor landed at the head of 
 this Cove in the month of August 1798, nor that he was welcomed and 
 entertained during his stay in Cape Breton, on that occasion, on this very 
 spot. 
 
 George Sutherland and Janet Fordyce, his wife, were natives of 
 Huntley, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. They were married in their native 
 land and they emigrated to Cape Breton in the year 1788. That was 
 several years after their marriage, and four years after the Island of Cape 
 Breton was made a separate province and given a Governor and government 
 of its own. 
 
 10 
 
On the 10th of June 1789, Mr. Sutherland obtained a grant of land 
 from Governor MacCormick on the east side of Sydney River, and settled 
 down to make a home for himself and his family. Two of their children, 
 Isabel and William were born in Scotland. Charles, the third child was 
 born after their arrival in this Country. It was in order to baptize Charles 
 more particularly, that Mrs. Sutherland sent for Dr. McGregor all the way 
 to New Glasgow,Nova Scotia, a distance of nearly two hundred miles. The 
 Sutherlands had been ten years in Cape Breton and during all that time 
 they had not seen the face of a Presbyterian minister. There were several 
 Roman Catholic priests and at least one Episcopalian clergyman in East- 
 ern Cape Breton at that time; but there was no Presbyterian minister on 
 this island, then, nor for twenty two years thereafter. It was in these cir- 
 cumstances that Mrs. Sutherland wrote to Dr. McGregor, and urged him 
 to visit her distant home and bring gospel cheer into her lonely life. 
 
 Compliance with this request involved a long, tedious, expensive and 
 dangerous voyage from Pictou Harbor to Sydney River and back again. 
 But Dr. McGregor could not resist Mrs. Sutherland's appeal. Hiring 
 two men and a boat, he sailed from Pictou Harbor to St.Peter's Bay by way 
 of the Strait of Canso and Lenox Passage. On arriving at St. Peter's he 
 had the boat hauled across the isthmus by a pair of oxen and launched on 
 the waters of the Bras d'Or Lake. There was no Canal there at that 
 time and none had been dreamed of either. Prom St. Peter's Inlet he sailed 
 to the head of East Bay under the impression that he could find a passage 
 for the boat, or at least a foot-path for himself, from the head of the bay to 
 where the Sutherlands were living on Sydney River. But there was neither 
 passage nor foot-path to be found. ■> 
 
 After spending the forenoon of a hot Sabbath day in the vain attempt 
 to fitid a path through woods and swamps between East Bay and Blackett's 
 Lake, he became weary, abandoned the effort and returned to the boat. 
 Getting on board again, he sailed for the Grand Narrows, and thence, by 
 way of St.Andrew's Channel and the Litttle Bras d'Or, he reached the open 
 sea and Sydney Harbor. Sailing up the south-west arm of this harbor, he 
 entered Sydney River where the Coxheath Bridge is now and from there 
 through the Narrows, where the Canadian Government Railway Bridge is 
 at the present time. At this point he was in sight of his destination. 
 Steering the boat into a cove immediately ahead of him, he stepped ashore 
 .within a few yards of the Sutherland home. 
 
 We may be sure that Dr. McGregor received a very warm welcome 
 from Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland and also, that they treated him very hand- 
 somely during his stay under their hospitable roof. 
 
 We have no details of Dr. McGregor's work while at Sydney River. 
 No doubt he spent the time at his disposal to the best possible advantage 
 in ministering to the spiritual needs of the family that he came so far to see 
 and to the spiritual needs of any other family in the immediate 
 vicinity. As far as we know there was only one other family there at that 
 time, viz. Alexander Cantley, of whom we shall have something to say later. 
 
 Sydney town was a very insignificant place at that time, notwith- 
 
 11 
 
standing that it was the capital of British Province and the seat of a British 
 Government. The town was founded by Lieutenant Governor De^ 
 Barres in the year 1785 with g, civil and military population of about eight 
 hundred souls. Ten years later, from various causes, the population was 
 reduced to one hundred and twenty one persons, and twenty six of these 
 were preparing to get away as soon as they could do so. We are told by 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Macarmick, the then Governor, that "When these 
 shall have left, there shall not be a single person in the town except those 
 who have salaries to subsist on — not a tailor, shoemaker, smith, butcher, 
 not even a washer woman." 
 
 This was the condition of Sydney when Dr. McGregor came here in 
 1798 and the condition of Sydney, at that time, was representative of the 
 condition of the whole island. We are told that "There was barely half 
 a dozen miles of passable roads. The coal mines were poorly worked and 
 unprofitable; the garrison at Sydney was down to ten men and there was an 
 air of depression hanging over the whole Colony." 
 
 The population of Cape Breton Island, at that time was but about 
 2,500 including Micmacs, Acadians, English and Irish. A number of 
 Scotch Roman Catholics had recently come to the shores of Inverness 
 County by way of Antigonish, but the Highland Presbyterian immigrants 
 had not yet begun to arrive. There were probably only twenty Pres- 
 byterian families on the whole island at that time, but none of these were 
 from the Highlands of Scotland and none of them spoke the Gaelic language. 
 Eight or nine of these families were living in Mabou and Port Hood, eight or 
 nine more were living at Upper North Sydney and two of them were living 
 on Sydney River. These two were George Sutherland, wife and three 
 children on the east side of the River and Alexander Cantley and two sisters, 
 Mary and Margaret Cantley, nearly opposite on the western side of the 
 River and on what is now known as the Mount Florence property. We 
 are safe in saying that there was not a Presbyterian in the town of Sydney 
 in 1798, when Dr. McGregor came to Cape Breton. Had there been, 
 the Sutherlands would have known him and would have made the doctor 
 acquainted with him. Indeed the doctor does not appear to have been in 
 the town of Sydney at all, although he passed and repassed it on his voyage 
 to and from the Sutherland home; 
 
 Dr. McGregor's stay at Sydney River appears to have been of short 
 duration, probably not more than a few days. He returned to Pictou 
 by the same boat and by the same route that he employed in coming 
 here. 
 
 A number of years later, probably in the year 1812, George Sutherland 
 died at Sydney River and was buried on the river side immediately west of 
 his own home and on his own land. 
 
 The cemetery in which his remains were laid is still to be seen. It is 
 situated immediately north of the Steel Company's pumping station. Soon 
 after Mr. Sutherland's death, probably the following year, Mrs. Sutherland, 
 and her two sons moved to the East River of Pictou in order, chiefly 
 that they might be near to Dr. McGregor and enjoy his ministry. William 
 
 12 
 
Sutherland bought a farm at the Narrows about a mile below where the 
 town of New Glasgow is now. The Eastern Car plant is now situated on 
 a part of that farm. He was made an elder in Dr. McGregor's Church in 
 New Glasgow during the doctor's life time. He died in March 1859, in 
 the 75th year of his age and was buried in Riverside Cemetery, New Glas- 
 gow. 
 
 Charles Sutherland had two sons that studied for the ministry of the 
 Presbyterian Church. One of these was the Rev. George Sutherland, at 
 one time minister of the Free Church in Charlottetown, P. E. Island. He 
 went to Australia in the year 1868, where he died a number of years ago. 
 The other was the Rev. John A. F. Sutherland at one time minister of 
 Little Harbor Congregation, Pictou County. He died in Winnipeg nine or 
 ten years ago. The Rev. J. S. Sutherland, the present minister of St. 
 Paul's Church, Fredericton, N. B., is a son cfthe Rev. John A. F. Suther- 
 land and a great-grand-son of the George Sutherland and Janet his wife, at 
 whoge request the Rev. Dr. McGregor made his visit to Eastern Cape 
 Breton in the year 1798. Janet Sutherland, the mother of William and 
 Charles Sutherland died at New Glas.gow in the year 1818 and wasburied 
 in the Riverside Cemetery there. 
 
 The only other Presbyterian family, living in the vicinity of Sydney 
 beside the Sutherlands, when Dr. McGregor came here in 1798, was Alex- 
 ander Cantley and his two sisters, Mary and Margaret Cantley. They 
 were living on the western side of Sydney River and v.'ithin a half a mile of 
 the Sutherlands. , 
 
 Alexander Cantley was born at Berryden, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. 
 When a young man he was impressed into the British Navy, where he spent 
 a large part of his life and rose to the rank of a naval officer. On his re- 
 tirement from the service he came to Sydney River with his two sisters 
 about the year 1794. In the year 1795 he obtained a grant of land from 
 Governor Macarmick, near the mouth of the river, and settled down to 
 farm. Alexander Cantlejr was never married. His sister, Margaret 
 married one John Howie, who came here from Cullen, Banffshire in the year 
 1814. 
 
 In the year 1830, Alexander Cantley disposed of his land to one 
 Thomas Bowen, and removed to New Glasgow, where he spent the re- 
 mainder of his life in the home of his nephew, George Cantley. He died 
 at New Glasgow at an advanced age and was buried in the Riverside Ceme- 
 tery. 
 
 This George Cantley, the nephew of Alexander Cantley came out 
 from Berryden Banffshire in the year 1810. He obtained a grant of land on 
 the east side of the Sydney River and about midway between what is now 
 Blackett's Lake and the mouth of Sydney River. In the year 1811, 
 George Cantley married Isabel Sutherland, daughter of George and Janet 
 Sutherland, and on August the 13th, 1826, he purchased from William and 
 Charles Sutherland, the block of land that was originally granted by their 
 father on Sydney River. 
 
 On Oct. the 13th, 1830, George Cantley sold this property to the 
 
 13 
 
John Howie, who had married his aunt Margaret Cantley and he removed 
 to New Glasgow shortly thereafter, where his descendants are still to 
 be found. Col. Thomas Cantley, so widely and favourably known, is a 
 grandson of George Cantley and a great grandson of George Sutherland and 
 Janet Sutherland by whose agency Dr. McGregor was persuaded to come 
 to Cape Breton on the summer of 1798. 
 
 We might add that the descendants of John Howie of CuUen are still 
 in possession of the lot of land granted by George Sutherland in the year 
 1785, on the eastern side of Sydney River. 
 
 From all that has been said it is evident that the nineteenth century 
 opened darkly for Presbyterianism 'n Cape Breton. There were only two 
 Presbyterian families to the East of Sydney Harbor and only twenty Pres- 
 byterian families on the whole Island. But the darkest hour is just before 
 dawn and there were bright days at hand for the Church of the Elders in 
 Cape Breton. 
 
 With the year 1802 a stream of Presbyterian immigrants from the 
 Scottish Highlands and Islands began to flow into our valleys, climb our 
 hillsides and settle along our bays and shores. This living stream, of ex- 
 patriated men, women and children continued to flow into Cape Breton 
 during the next forty years. In the year 1842 this stream ceased to flow, 
 but by that time, from ten to twelve thousand Presbyterians were landed 
 on the shores of this island. 
 
 But to resume our narrative of Dr. McGregor and his work in Cape 
 Breton. 
 
 In the year 1818, after the lapse of twenty years, this indefatigable 
 worker in the interests of the Kingdom of God, returned to Cape Breton 
 and spent six weeks here. That summer he hired a boat at Antigonisk, 
 sailed across St. George's Bay, landed at Port Hood, and then proceeded to 
 Mabbu on horseback. He found five or six Presbyterian families at Port 
 Hood and ten or twelve at Mabou. He spent two weeks between these 
 two places, visiting and holding religious exercises in every family. This 
 was the first preaching that had ever been enjoyed there; and the young 
 people, even those arrived at the age of manhood had never heard a ser- 
 mon. "His visit made a deep impression upon many." 
 
 From Mabou and Port Hood he came to Plaster Cove on the Strait 
 of Canso; and from there he went to River Inhabitants and West Bay. 
 
 There were a number of Presbyterians scattered along the Strait at 
 that time. "A considerable number at River Inhabitants and about 
 twenty families at West Bay." Dr. Patterson writes in his Memoir, 
 "Most of them had come thither by way of Pictou, having resided there 
 for longer or shorter periods, during which they had been under the ministry 
 of Dr. McGregor, and some of them looked to him as the instrument of 
 their first saving impression of divine truth;" and again, "Several of these 
 heads of families were decidedly pious. From the time of their settlement 
 they had not heard a sermon till he visited them." 
 
 Dr. McGregor's second visit to Cape Breton was no doubt due to the 
 
 14 
 
presence of parties in both Mabou and West Bay, who met him in Pictou 
 and who desired to see and hear him in Cape Breton. 
 
 There was Captain Benjamin Worth, who brought the doctor from 
 Charlottetown to Pictou, in his schooner, in the year 1791, some twenty 
 years earlier, when Dr. McGregor was returning from his first missionary 
 journey to Prince Edward Island. There was also Mr. William McKeen, 
 who came to Mabou in the year 1812. Mr. McKeen was born in Truro, 
 but he lived for some time in New Glasgow, and met Dr. McGregor there. 
 Some of the settlers of West Bay had actually been parishioners of his 
 during their temporary stay in Pictou County. To quote Dr. Patterson 
 again, "He spent one Sabbath at River Inhabitants, and preached in a barn 
 belonging to Mr. Adam McPherson, both in English and Gaelic. Some of 
 the people of West Bay came through to hear him. On Tuesday following, 
 he went to West Bay and preached again in both English and Gaelic, in a 
 barn belonging to one Mcintosh. His subject in the Gaelic language was 
 Luke XIX :9. 'This day is Salvation come to this house'; with a comment on 
 the whole passage from the first to the tenth verse." 
 
 On his departure from West Bay he was convoyed for some distance 
 on the way to the Straits by John McLeod, one of his former acquaintances 
 in Pictou. The farm is still pointed out near the marshes where John 
 McLeod lived and where Dr. McGregor was so hospitably entertained dur- 
 ing his stay in West Bay. 
 
 The Doctor's first visit to this island had no lasting influence on the 
 Presbyterianism of Cape Breton. The only two families that he met, ap- 
 parently, on that occasion, left the island some years later, and went to 
 strengthen the Presbyterianism of Pictou County. The second visit re- 
 sulted in the formation of a congregation at Mabou and Port Hood when, 
 three years later, these two places united in' a call to the Rev. William Millar, 
 a licentiate of the Associate Church of Scotland, and forwarded the same 
 to the Presbytery of Pictou, for presentation to Mr. Millar on his arrival 
 from the Old Country. This call was in due time presented and accepted, 
 and Mr. Millar was subsequently settled in Mabou and Port Hood, as the 
 first minister of that congregation. No doubt Dr. McGregor was the 
 moving and guiding spirit in this whole transaction. ' 
 
 Dr. McGregor never returned to Cape Breton, .but we have good rea- 
 son to believe, that he never lost his interest in his fellow countrymen and 
 co-religionists, on this island. 
 
 This is evidient from the fact, that the Presbytery of Pictou, in the 
 year 1824 sent two of the first graduates in theology of Pictou Academy, 
 and the only two that had the Gaelic language, to Cape Breton as ordained 
 missionaries, or evangelists. 
 
 We need not doubt that the Presbytery of Pictou sent these men here, 
 at the suggestion and under the influence of Dr. McGregor. 
 
 15 
 
Rev. Alexander Dick. 
 
 i>__, — 
 
 The next Presbyterian Minister that came to Cape Breton and did 
 something for our cause here was the Rev. Alexander Dick. It is true that 
 Mr. Dick, like two or three others of the pioneers, influenced the religious 
 life of this island but very slightly and ineidently. Nevertheless, he must 
 not be overlooked in any complete account of the men that were instru- 
 mental in laying the foundations of our church here one hundred years ago. 
 
 Mr. Dick, like Dr. McGregor, was born in Perthshire, Scotland, and 
 like Dr. McGregor, he was a member of the Associate Church of Scotland. 
 In early life he learned the craft of a carpenter, and wrought at that craft 
 for some years. 
 
 One Sabbath day, Mr. Dick heard a report read from the pulpit of the 
 church where he was accustomed to worship that led him to study for the 
 ministry, and to offer hmself for missionary work in Nova Scotia. That 
 report had been written by Dr. McGregor in Pictou, and sent to Scotland 
 for the information of the people there regarding the need of ministers of 
 the gospel in different places in Nova Scotia but more especially in Maitland 
 Hants County. 
 
 Mr. Dick was deeply moved by what he heard that day. He decided 
 to turn aside from the secular calling in which he was engaged and to pre- 
 pare himself for the service of Jesus Christ in Maitland, Nova Scotia. 
 
 The next six or seven years were devoted to hard study, and on the 
 17th of March, 1802 he was licensed to preach the gospel. Immediately 
 on receiving license, he prepared to leave home and cross the ocean. By 
 the middle of June, he, with his young bride, Ann Eadie sailed from Green- 
 ock on a lumber vessel bound for the Mirimachi River, in New Brunswick. 
 This vessel put into the Bay of Bulls, Newfoundland. Here the young 
 missionary and his wife found a vessel bound for Sydney Harbor, Cape 
 Breton. They took passage on this vessel in the hope of finding another 
 vessel at Sydney that would take them to Pictou or Halifax. This was how 
 Mr. Dick came to this Island. It was not through any design on his part. 
 It was solely by force of circumstances over which he had no control. 
 
 All that we know of Mr. Dick's experience in Cape Breton comes to us 
 through a letter that he wrote to a friend in Leith, Scotland, in the year 
 1803, and that was published in the Christian Magazine some time later. 
 From that letter we learn that he arrived in Sydney Harbor, after a sail of 
 six days from Bay of Bulls, on the first week of August, 1802. His stay 
 here appears to have lasted only for a few days, but he stayed long enough 
 to preach once if not twice at Upper North Sydney. He wrote to his 
 Leith friend as follows, — "Upon Wednesday I preached in the Western Arm 
 of the Bay. The audience here was numerous, exceedingly attentive, and 
 many of them appeared to be a good deal affected. As the people of this 
 part of the country are altogether destitute of public ordinances I was more 
 particular in making inquiry with respect to the religious exercises of their 
 families. Some few of them, I was happy to find, kept up the worship of 
 
 16 
 
God in their homes, and took particular pains in the instruction ot their 
 children. They were exceedingly desirous that I should have stayed among 
 them. They have five hundred acres of land allowed for a minister, and 
 are willing to do everything in their power to make his situation comfort- 
 able. The settlement is but in its infancy and the people in general poor, 
 but why should they perish? If aoy other is coming out soon to our as- 
 sistance, he might embark for Sydney, and stay at least a month or two by 
 the way to refresh the Spirits of these poor people. It will be no difficulty 
 to get to Halifax from Sydney as there is a very extensive coal trade carried 
 on between them (these two places), and vessels may be obtained almost 
 every week through the summer." 
 
 "The soil in this place is good and when it is cleared, brings forth 
 bountifully. The herbage grows to an amazing height. Potatoes, wheat 
 and rye likewise grow well. I could not but remark with what profusion 
 the God of Nature has scattered his bounties even in the impervious forests. 
 Places where the wood was burnt down were covered with the most aston- 
 ishing crop of strawberries, and other kinds of ground fruits. Along the 
 banks of the Great and Little Bras d'Or the land is particularly good. Even 
 in its present state of cultivation it is sufficient for the support of many 
 hundreds of families, and in a few years it will be sufficient for the support of 
 many more. The lakes and bays and streams of water abound with fish, 
 and those of the most excellent quality." "The present inhabitants are 
 perishing for lack of knowledge, and unless the dispensation of gospel or- 
 dinances is introduced speedily among them, it will soon become the land 
 of darkness and shadow of death. Mr. McGregor once visited this island 
 and baptized some children. If we had other laborers sent amongst us we 
 might give them some supply of sermon, but in our present circumstances 
 this is impossible." 
 
 Mr. Dick does not say, in writing to his friend, that he foynd Pres- 
 byterians in his audiences on the "North West Arm" or Upper North 
 Sydney, but we know from other sources that there were a goodly number 
 of Presbyterians settled there at that time, and cultivating the land between 
 Sparling's Brook and Maloney's Creek. It was these Presbyterians 'that 
 wanted him to remain with them as their pastor, and that offered him a 
 comfortable support and more land than he could make any use of. 
 
 The best information that we have goes to show that the first Presbyter- 
 ian settlers on the shores of Sydney Harbor were two Scotchmen, who 
 came from Aberdeenshire in the year 1880, and settled side by side on lots 
 at Upper North Sydney. Their names were Adam Moore and William 
 Campbell. Mr. Campbell was never married and after he died, his land 
 passed into possession of the descendants of Adam Moore. Mr. Moore 
 married a Miss Sparling whose family lived at Sparling's Brook, and he had 
 a large family. All the Moores in this part of the Island are descendants of 
 Adam Moore. Both Adam Moore and William Campbell's graves are to 
 be seen to this day on the lot that Campbell owned in 1802. A few years 
 later than 1780 several other Scottish Presbyterians came to Upper North 
 Sydney and took up land in the immediate neighborhood of Moore and 
 
 17 
 
Campbell. One of them was James Moffatt, the grandfather of Wallace 
 C. Moffatt of Little Bras d'Or. Others bore the name of Musgrave and 
 Jackson. The present Moores, Musgraves and Jacksons are all descendants 
 of these orig'nal Presyterian settlers. A number of these descendants 
 are now Baptists, but that is due to the fact the Presbyterian Church did 
 not look after her own children as she should have done one hundred years 
 ago. 
 
 In 1802, when Mr. Dick spent a few days in Sydney Harbor, there 
 were probably not more than twenty Presbyterian families on the whole 
 island of Cape Breton. Two of these families were at Sydney Kiver, about 
 nine of them were in Mabou and Port Hood, and another nine at Upper 
 North Sydney. 
 
 But the time had now come when Presbtyerian and Gaelic-speaking 
 immigrants from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland were about to 
 arrive in Cape Breton in ship loads. While Mr. Dick was preaching to 
 the few Presbyterians at Upper North Sydney, the first of these immigrants 
 ships was approaching Sydney Harbor with 299 Gaelic speaking people 
 from the Scottish Hebrides. This ship dropped her anchor opposite the 
 town of Sydney on the 16th of August, 1802. From that time until 1843, 
 every summer brought its quota of Highlanders and Islanders to our shores. 
 The last company of these immigrants was landed at the Strait of Canso 
 in 1843, from a ship that was going west to the St. Lawrence River. 
 
 In some summers, there were two and even three shiploads of these 
 people landed on our shores and distributed throughout our island. They 
 came partly from the northern shires of Scotland, but chiefly from the west- 
 ern islands, from Lewis, Harris, North Uist, South Uist, Isla, Coll, Tiree, 
 Raasay, Skye, Mull and Barra. All these people were either Presbyterians 
 or Roman Catholics. It has been estimated that 25,000 Gaelic speaking 
 people were landed in Cape Breton between 1802 and 1843, and the prob- 
 ability is that ten or eleven thousand of these were of the Presbyterian faith. 
 
 These people were our parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents, 
 and we are naturally very much interested in them. We would surely 
 like to know why they came here in such large numbers, and also something 
 of the hardships they had to endure in making homes for themselves and 
 their children on this beautiful island of ours. They brought no material 
 wealth with them, but they brought something far better. They brought 
 healthy bodies, vigorous minds and God-fearing souls. A number of them 
 brought their Gaelic Bibles and a knowledge of the way of Salvation 
 through faith in Jesus Christ. They also brought the good customs of 
 family prayer and of Sabbath observance. 
 
 We are heirs of this precious physical, mental and spiritual inheritance, 
 and it becomes us to prize it highly and to transmit it to their posterity in 
 all its vigor and in all its worth. 
 
 But coming back to Mr. Dick. He reached his destination at the 
 mouth of the Shubenacadie River, in due time, and entered upon his mis- 
 sionary work in the congregation of Douglas, as it was then known. It 
 was a very extensive charge. It included Maitland, at the mouth of the 
 
 18 
 
Shuberiacadie River, Nine Mile River, Noel Shore, Gay's River, Lower 
 Stewiacke and the Upper Shubenacadie. There are now six strong flour- 
 ishing congregations within the bounds of Mr. Dick's field- of labor. Mr. 
 Dick was ordained and inducted^ at Maitland on the 21st of June 1803, 
 and it is worthy of note that; "This was the first ordination of a Presbyter- 
 ian minister by a permanently constituted Presbytery in the Dominion of 
 Canada." 
 
 The Presbytery that ordained Mr. Dick was known as the Associate or 
 Burgher Presbytery of Truro. This Presbytery was organized at Truro, 
 N. S., on the 2nd of August 1786, the year that Dr. James McGregor came 
 to Nova Scotia. 
 
 It was composed originally of three ministers and two ruling elders. 
 It should be interesting to note that, in the intervening one hundred and 
 thirty-four years.our Presbyteries have increased from one to seventy-eight. 
 Our ministers from three to two thousand and six and our ruling elders 
 from about a dozen to eleven thousand, seven hundred and seventy- 
 eight. 
 
 Mr. Dick labored in that very extensive field, with great fidelity and 
 success during the whole of his short ministerial life. He died at Maitland 
 on the 20th of May 1812 in the forty-first year of his life and the nintli of 
 his ministry. 
 
 19 
 
Rev. Norman McLeod. 
 
 The Rev. Norman McLeod was the first Presbyterian minister that 
 made his home on the island of Cape Breton. He was also the most unique 
 personality that we have had among us during the one hundred years of our 
 history as a Presbyterian church on this Island. We date our centenary 
 as a church from his arrival in St. Ann's harbor, on the 20th day of May, 
 1820. 
 
 There were Presbyterians in various parts of Cape Breton before that 
 time, but there was no organized congregation of Presbyterians previous 
 to that time. Organized work, in the interests of Presbyterianism, com- 
 menced on the arrival of Norman McLeod with an unknown number of 
 followers, men, women and children, in St. Ann's Harbor, on board the 
 "Ark" on that May day, one hundred years ago. 
 
 This Pioneer of the Pioneers came here so long ago, and he left for the 
 other side of the world so long ago, that there are very few living men who 
 ever saw him. Tradition has handed down many very extraordinary 
 stories of this remarkable man, but many of these are to be received with a 
 good deal of hesitation. He had enemies as well as friends, like every other 
 strong character that has ever lived. His enemies magnified his faults and 
 failings, and depreciated his virtues; while his friends regarded him as an 
 oracle and saint. 
 
 He left no autobiography, and so far as we know, his life story has not 
 been written by any one. Hence, in order to get at the truth regarding 
 his person, life, character, and work it is necessary to sift the traditions 
 that have come down to us, and preserve only what is well authenticated . 
 
 When we have done this there is presented to us a man of a very re- 
 markable character; independent, self-reliant, and autocratic; a man of 
 outstanding personality, and of dominating influence over his fellowmen, 
 and withall, a man who devoted his life unselfishly to the temporal, social, 
 moral and spiritual interests of his fellowman. 
 
 He was so constituted that he could not work with anyone else; could 
 not do team work. He hoed his own row, and hoed it in his own way. He 
 would not suffer any interference or restraint from any human source. If 
 any man or any body of men attempted to dictate to him, he flung defiance 
 in their faces, and took the course that he thought to be right and best. 
 
 This peculiarity of his temperament was the secret of his antagonistic 
 attitude to the Church of Scotland and her ministers in the Old Country as 
 well as on this Island. 
 
 In the year 1842, Mr. McLeod published a book entitled "Normanism" 
 that throws a good deal of light upon his personality and character, as well 
 as upon his opinions regarding questions on which he differed from his con- 
 temporaries. This book is now quite rare, and moreover hard to read on 
 account of the peculiarities of its style, but any one who reads it through 
 
 20 
 
carefully will have no diflficulty in discovering the uprightness, straight- 
 forwardness, outspokeness, and fearlessness of this much misunderstood 
 man. 
 
 Norman McLeod was born at Stoer Point, in the parish of Assynt, on 
 the west coast of Sutherlandshire, Scotland, on the 17th of September, 
 1780, (140 years ago). His parents were pious people. His father was a 
 member of the Scottish Kirk. His mother was of English family and birth, 
 but a dissenter from the English church. In his boyhood, Mr. McLeod 
 had attended the parish school, and no doubt, he took full advantage of the 
 opportunities therein afforded of acquiring a good common school educa- 
 tion. 
 
 We know nothing about his early life. The people of Stoer Point 
 lived by farming and fishing, and no doubt he followed farming and fishing 
 for a livelihood. The minister at Assynt during his early life was the Rev. 
 William McKenzie. Mr. McKenzie was parish minister of Assynt during 
 a period of 48 years, from 1765 to 1816. 
 
 John Kennedy of Dingwall, in "The Fathers of Rosshire," speaks of 
 Mr. McKenzie in the following terms: "Mr. McKenzie, the minister of 
 Assynt, was almost all that a minister ought not to be, and yet he continued 
 to occupy his charge till his death. Always accustomed to regard his pas- 
 toral work as an unpleasant condition of drawing his stipend, he reduced 
 it to the smallest possible dimensions, and would not unfrequently be absent 
 without reason and without leave, for many weeks together from his charge. 
 
 "This was the usual practice in those days of the moderate stipend- 
 lifters of Sutherlandshire, The visit of one of them to Rosshire would be 
 an affair of a month's length at least, and the people never clamored for 
 his return. During the latter part of his life. Parson William was much 
 addicted to drink. This was well-known to the Presbytery, but could not 
 be easily proved. The people were unwilling to complain and to give 
 evidence against him. The awe of his office was upon them, in spite of 
 the irregularities of his life; and as a man and a neighbor, he was rather a 
 favorite." 
 
 It was under the shadow of Mr.McKenzie's ministry that Norman 
 McLeod's early life was spent. "We need not be surprised if his mind became 
 prejudiced against the Church of Scotland, that permitted such a man as 
 William McKenzie to remain in the ministry and to remain so long. 
 
 In the year 1806, the Rev. John Kennedy Sr., subsequently known as 
 John Kennedy of Kilearnan, became assistant to Mr. McKenzie in the 
 parish of Assynt. Mr. Kennedy was a man of uncommon piety. He 
 was, moreover, thoroughly evangelical in his preaching, and he was pro- 
 foundly interested in the spiritual welfare of his people. Shortly after the 
 commencement of his ministry, a most remarkable work of grace took place 
 in the parish. We are told, by his son, John Kennedy of Dingwall, in his 
 "Fathers of Rosshire," "that his work in Assynt was early blessed and was 
 made effectual for good during the whole of his ministry there. Very sel- 
 dom has as much been done in so short a time in the conversion of sinners. 
 
 21 
 
and in the edification of the Body of Christ, as was done during the period 
 of his labors in Assynt. There were then converted unto God many young 
 men, who to old age, and in several districts of the Highlands, to which 
 they had scattered, bore fruit to the praise of the Lord and the good of His 
 Church." 
 
 Norman McLeod was one of the young men, who, in that season of 
 blessing, experienced the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to awaken, re- 
 generate and save sinners. He was in the twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh 
 year of Ms life whfen this change took place. Immediately thereafter, like 
 Saul of Tarsus, he began to preach Christ to all who would listen to his 
 message. In his new-born zeal to bring his friends to Jesus Christ, he went 
 farther than was considered proper by his Godly pastor, on the part of so 
 recent a convert. 
 
 At that time young and inexperienced Christians were expected, like 
 the women in Corinth, to keep silence in the church. But Norman McLeod 
 could not be silent. He took advantage of every occasion to testify for his 
 new Master. The result was friction between himself and his minister. In 
 Dr. Kennedy's biography of his father entitled "The Fathers of Rosshire," 
 we find the following paragraph regarding him; "Among the young men 
 who then began to make a profession of godliness, was one, perhaps the 
 most talented of them all. Norman McLeod, known before as a clever, 
 irreverent, forward youth, began all of a sudden to join himself to the peo- 
 ple of the Lord. Claiming to have been converted in a way, at least, 
 unusual, if not miraculous, he, all at once, started on a course of profession 
 at a stature, and with a courage that never seemed to have known a child- 
 hood at all. He began at once to prepare for the ministry. But -Gorman's 
 ambition to preach outgrew the slow progress of the stated course of pre- 
 paration; and, cutting short his college studies, he separated from the 
 church and began to form a sect of his own. His power as a speaker was 
 such that he could not fail to make an impression, and he succeeded in 
 Assynt and elsewhere in drawing some of the people after him for a time. 
 His influence over those whom he finally detached from a stated ministry 
 was paramount, and he could carry them after him to almost any extent. 
 
 "A few of the people of Assynt were drawn into permanent dissent. 
 Some even of the pious people were decoyed by him for a 
 season who escaped from his influence thereafter. 
 
 "The anxiety and disappointment of this trying season was peculiarly 
 painful to my father." 
 
 It is impossible for us to apportion the blame for the friction that 
 occurred, in this matter, between Norman McLeod and his godly minister. 
 Norman was self-assertive and aggressive as well as zealous and earnest 
 under the impulses of the divine life; while his minister endeavored to re- 
 strain him and keep him in the back-ground until he should be older and 
 more mature in his Christian experience. The result was that Norman 
 McLeod resented the interference of Mr. Kennedy in what he regarded 
 
 22 
 
as his duty and privilege. The consequence was that Mr. McLeod became 
 antagonistic, not only to Mr. Kennedy, but to the Church of Scotland, as 
 well, and he continued in antagonism to that church during the remainder 
 of his life. And it may be added that subsequent experiences had a ten- 
 dency to increase his dislike to the national church, her presbyteries and 
 ministers. For example, Mr. MacLeod was teaching school in the village 
 of Ullapool in the year 1815. Ullapool was in the parish of Lochbroom 
 and Dr. Ross, the minister of the parish, was a man of violent temper and 
 overbearing conduct. There was a collision between the teacher and the 
 preacher, and Dr. Ross, in order to punish Mr. McLeod for insubordination 
 to his imperious will, arbitrarily and unjustly deprived the teacher of about 
 half the salary which he had earned and to which he was entitled. 
 
 That experience was fitted to embitter his spirit against the Church 
 of Scotland and her ministers, especially when he had a wife and two child- 
 ren dependent on his earnings for a livelihood. 
 
 Another incident may be given on the same line. While teaching at 
 Ullapool, and shortly after the birth of his first child, John Luther, Mr. 
 McLeod and his wife carried their infant boy over mountain and moor, 
 from Lochbroom to Lochcarron, a distance of forty miles, in order to have 
 their child baptised by the far-famed Rev. Lauchlan McKenzie, whom they 
 believed to be an evangelical and godly man. They had no faith in the 
 piety of Dr. Ross, the minister of their own parish, and would not ask him 
 to baptise their child. But they were sorely disappointed. The parish 
 minister of Lochbroom was in the manse of Lochcarron ahead of them, and 
 he most emphatically forbade Mr. McKenzie to baptise the child of a man 
 that belonged to his own parish and that would not ask him to administer 
 the rite. 
 
 Norman McLeod and his good wife had to retrace their forty mile 
 journey to Ullapool, not only disappointed, but indignant. 
 
 This unpleasant experience was not fitted to increase Mr. McLeod's 
 respect, either for Dr. Ross, Mr. McKenzie or the church of which they 
 were both accredited ministers. 
 
 The harsh treatment that Norrnan McLeod received at the hands of 
 Dr. Ross had a good deal to do with his leaving Scotland and his coming to 
 this country. In one of his letters to a friend in Scotland to be found in his 
 book, we find the following regarding Dr. Ross; "Probably I should never 
 have come to this country but for the prosecution if not the persecution of 
 that man." 
 
 And just here it ought to be stated that Mr. McLeod had always the 
 greatest admiration for the Church of Scotland as she was in the days of 
 Knox, Henderson, Gillespie and Guthrie; but for the Church of Scotland 
 as she was at the beginning of the last century, with her patronage, intru- 
 - sion, moderatism and lack of discipline, he had nothing but supreme con- 
 tempt. 
 
 On page 271 of his book, in writing to a friend in Ohio regarding 
 church government, we find him using the following words: "Presbytery is 
 
 23 
 
in my sincerest view, the nearest existent form of government to the apos- 
 tolic standard." 
 
 He withdrew from the Church of Scotland, but he was still a Presby- 
 terian in conviction. He claimed that the Church of Scotland had fallen 
 from her former nobility and purity, and that his conscience would not 
 suffer him to continue in her fellowship. 
 
 Indeed Norman McLeod may be regarded as a forerunner of the move- 
 ment in the Church of Scotland that issued in her disruption in the year 
 1843; on account of intrusion, patronage and moderatism. 
 
 But let us come back to Mr. McLeod's life story. Upon his conversion 
 probably in the twenty-seventh year of his age, he decided to prepare 
 himself for the Gospel Ministry, and to devote his life to the work of 
 preaching Christ, and Him Cricufied. With this object in view, he studied 
 in the University of Aberdeen during four sessions. He graduated in Arts 
 in the spring of 1812 After that he studied theology in the University of 
 Edinburgh for two sessions. By the end of that time he had made up his 
 mind that he could not receive a license to preach the gospel from any pres- 
 bytery of the Church of Scotland. To do so he would have to promise to 
 submit himself to the courts of that church and this he would not do, as the 
 courts of that church were then constituted and composed. He could not 
 be true to his conscience and true to his Master, Jesus Christ, and yield the 
 required submission. 
 
 Having come to this conclusion, he saw that there was nothing to be 
 gained by prosecuting his theological studies any farther, and he did not 
 finish the prescribed theological curriculum of the Established Church. 
 Instead, he turned aside to the teaching profession, and spent the next two 
 years as a school teacher in Ullapool, Rosshire. He might haVe sought a 
 license from another denomination, but he was too good a Presbyterian to 
 do that. 
 
 Dr. Kennedy is certainly mistaken when he says that Norman Mc- 
 Leod "separated from the church and began to found a sect of his own." 
 
 It is a fact, however, that there were a number of people in Assynt and 
 elsewhere at that time who strongly sympathized with him in his views 
 regarding the relation of the church to the state, and the evils that flowed 
 from that connection. It is also a fact that a number of these people at- 
 tached themselves to him as their minister with much loyalty and affectiont 
 These were the people that followed him from Scotland to Pictou in 
 1817, from Pictou to St. Ann's in 1820, and from St. Ann's to Australia in 
 1851. 
 
 About the time Norman McLeod finished his arts course at Aberdeen 
 University he married a young woman of his native parish; the wise and 
 gentle Mary McLeod, by whom he had eight children, two daughters and 
 six sons. 
 
 Mr. McLeod's experience with Dr. Ross in Ullapool was so unpleasant 
 that at the end of his second year as a teacher he came back to Assynt, 
 where he spent about a year in his old occupation of fishing. It was while 
 
 24 
 
thus engaged that he made up his mind to leave his native land with a 
 number of his friends and seek more congenial conditions in Nova Scotia. 
 That was in the year 1817, and Mr. McLeod was now in the 37th year of 
 his life. 
 
 The Sutherland Clearances were taking place at the time, and hun- 
 dreds of friends and acquaintances were under the necessity of seeking 
 homes beyond the sea. 
 
 Leaving his wife and three children to follow him the next year, in 
 the month of July, 1817, Mr. McLeod sailed from Lochbroom on the barque 
 "Frances Ann" bound for Pictou. His fellow passengers were chiefly 
 friends and admirers of his own. The voyage proved long and dangerous. 
 The barque sprang a leak in mid-Atlantic during a gale, and the captain 
 was considering the wisdom of returning to the nearest port in Ireland. 
 Just at this juncture, Norman showed his inherent masterfulness. He 
 said, "No, keep on your course. We are nearer to the coast of Nova Scotia 
 than to the coast of Ireland." The captain blustered and threatened to 
 put him in irons, but finally he took his passenger's advice, and the "Frances 
 Ann" reached Pictou Harbor in safety, after a tedious voyage of nine or 
 ten weeks. 
 
 By the time Mr. McLeod and his friends reached Pictou, all the best 
 land in the country was taken up, but he found some unoccupied lots on the 
 Middle River, between Alma and Gairloch, and here they settled and began 
 to make homes for themselves. He preached to the people on Sunday 
 and labored at clearing his land at McKerr's intervale during the week. 
 He also made preaching excursions among the Gaelic-speaking people of the 
 county. Like himself they were nearly all from one or another of the 
 Sutherlandshire parishes, and they gave him, in most cases, a "Highland 
 welcome." 
 
 According to the testimony of Dr. McGregor, then minister of the 
 East River of Pictou, the Highlanders would "Go much farther to hear him 
 than any other minister;" and George Patterson, D. D., in his history of 
 the county of Pictou, has this to say of Mr. McLeod: "He took up his re- 
 sidence at Middle River, and the people of the upper part of the river 
 Lairg and neighborhood, who had hitherto been under .the ministry of 
 Mr. Ross (Rev. Duncan Ross) generally followed him, so that the latter 
 (Mr. Ross) relinquished to him his church at Middle River." And again, 
 "His influence extended to almost every part of the country, and by his 
 followers he was regarded with unbounded devotion." And still farther, 
 "Those who have heard him at this time describe his preaching as consisting 
 of torrents of abuse against all religious bodies, and even against individual 
 against individuals, the like of which they had never heard, and which 
 was perfectly indescribable. But though so wildly fanatical, he was a man 
 of great power, and gained an influence over a large portion of the High- 
 landers, such as no other man in the country possessed. 
 
 His friends and admirers in the county came to be known as "Nor- 
 manites." 
 
 25 
 
During his second year in Pictou, Mr. McLeod received an urgent 
 call from a settlement of Highlanders in the United States to become their 
 pastor. Where this settlement was we cannot ie quite sure. Some say it 
 was near the mouth of the Mississippi, while others say that it was in Ohio. 
 The writer is inclined to believe that that Scottish settlement was in Ohio. 
 He knows of no such settlement on the lower Mississippi, while there was 
 such a settlement in Ohio, and Mr. McLeod conducted correspondence with 
 a friend at New Lisbon, Ohio as late as the year 1842. 
 
 In any case Mr. McLeod was inclined to accept of this invitation, but 
 he was unwilling to leave his attached people in Pictou and they were 
 equally unwilling to let him go. After much serious consideration and no 
 doubt much earnest'prayer, it was decided that the call should be accepted 
 and that a number of the people should go with their minister to his new 
 field of labor. This meant the construction of a suitable vessel for the 
 transportation of as many as desired to accompany their minister to the 
 mouth of the Mississippi. They expected, no doubt to find their way from 
 the mouth of that great river to Ohio by some other conveyance. It is 
 impossible to speak definitely regarding the size of that vessel or the number 
 of passengers she was designed to carry. Some say that she was a vessel 
 of only twenty tons and that she carried but a few passengers while others 
 claim that she was much larger than that and carried a goodly number. 
 
 In any case the keel of this vessel was laid at Middle River Point in 
 the summer of 1819, and the work of construction went steadily on all that 
 fall and winter. 
 
 The people of Pictou thought the project to be as crazy as the Antide- 
 luvians thought the project of Noah in building the ark and when com- 
 pleted this vessel was named "The Ark." 
 
 In the spring of 1820, as the snow and ice were melting under the warm 
 rays of the March and April sun, the Ark was receiving her finishing 
 touches, and by the first of May she was ready for her long voyage. By 
 the middle of that month, her passengers and crew were aboard, the sails 
 were spread to catch, the breeze and "The Ark" sailed out of Pictou Harbor 
 bound for the Gulf of Mexico. But she was destined never to get there. 
 The next thing we know of her she was in St. Ann's Harbor. 
 
 The story goes that after leaving Pictou Harbor she encountered a 
 furious gale that drove her out of her course and that compelled her to seek 
 shelter in St. Ann's; but whether a gale struck her in the Gulf of St. Law- 
 rence and she came to St. Ann's by way of Cape North or it struck her in the 
 Atlantic after passing through the Strait of Canso, and she came to St. 
 Ann's by way of Scatari, we do not know. In any case "The Ark" cast 
 atochor in the Harbor of St. Ann's, Cape Breton on the 20th day of May, 
 1820. As already stated, we do not know the number of persons that 
 came to St. Ann's on "The Ark." Probably there were not more than fifty 
 all told, but be it remembered that these fifty with their minister, the Rev. 
 Norman McLeod at their head, constituted the first Presbyterian congre- 
 gation that ever gathered for the worship of God on the Island of Cape 
 Breton. 
 
 26 
 
After their terrible experience, Mr. McLeod and his people were sick 
 of the sea, mentally as well as physically. They determined to abandon 
 their purpose of going to Ohio, and they resolved to make homes for them- 
 selves on the shores of St. Ann's. "The Ark" returned to Pictou, appar- 
 ently to bring more of Mr. McLeod's followers to this island, but she was 
 never heard of again. She was evidently lost on the return trip. 
 
 All the land that Mr. McLeod and his people could desire was available 
 on St. Ann's Harbor and at a nominal price. Few, if any, grants of land 
 had been issued, previous to that time in this part of Cape Breton. They 
 could have the whole shore line to themselves. 
 
 The Rev. Norman McLeod took up a block of land at South Gut, at 
 the head of the harbor, containing 1,280 acres equal to two scjuare miles. 
 This block was two miles in length and one in average breadth. His peo- 
 ple took up land at different points all around the bay, from the entrance 
 where Englishtown is now, to the mouth of North River. 
 
 Then all got busy, cutting down the primeval forest, piling and burning 
 the trees and "slash" in order to get at the soil and plant potatoes, oats, 
 etc., so that they might raise food for themselves and their children. 
 
 It was easy to make a livelihood in St. Ann's at that time. The virgin 
 soil, enriched by the ashes of the burnt forest, was fertile. The waters of 
 the harbor and of the nearby sea,as well as the rivers, were teeming with all 
 kinds of fish. Wood for fuel and building purposes was to be had for the 
 labor of cutting and preparing. Every one helped his neighbor, and be- 
 fore the winter came on, every family had a warm log house in which to 
 pass its long dreary hours. 
 
 The next thing was to build a church, a place in which to gather for 
 the worship of God. This church was built at Black Cove, near the resi- 
 dence of the minister, in the year 1821 or possibly 1822. 
 
 That was the first Presbyterian church built on this island. It 
 was a frame church and though not large, it was large enough for the con- 
 gregation at that time. A few years later a school house was biiilt near the 
 church for the education of the children in religious as well as secular 
 learning. Mr. McLeod was a born teacher, and he taught in the St. Ann's 
 school during the greater part of his stay in Cape Breton. 
 
 This school was subsequently enlarged to accommodate one hundred 
 pupils or more. This school was latterly recognized by the government of 
 Nova Scotia as a "grammer school," and the fees received from pupils, 
 constituted the principal part of Mr. McLeod's income while at St. Ann's. 
 
 He did not take a regular or fixed stipend from the people in those days, 
 when they were so poor and money was so scarce. Instead of money he 
 received labor on his farm in the shape of chopping, rolling, stumping, 
 burning, planting and harvesting; also in building houses, barns and ships. 
 
 Indeed, he required every adult man and woman to help in these and 
 other ways to support himself and the means of grace in the community. 
 He took the general oversight of all manual labor in which he was inter- 
 
 27 
 
ested. He knew how work ought to be done, and he saw that it was done 
 right and well. 
 
 Mr. McLeod had a large two-storied house built for himself, and chiefly 
 by labor obtained from his people in this way. He occupied that house 
 until he left for Australia. 
 
 As the population grew, church accommodation was increased in pro- 
 portion. 
 
 In the year 1846, an immense church was built at Black Cove, capable 
 of seating 1000 persons. This church was in use until the year 1893, when 
 it was taken down and the present church was built in a more convenient 
 situation for the people of today. 
 
 When Mr. McLeod left for Australia, he deeded that big church to 
 the Free Church of Nova Scotia. The late Hon. William Ross was one of 
 the board of trustees that Mr. McLeod appointed l^o hold the church in 
 trust for the congregation. 
 
 Evidently by this time Mr. McLeod came to see that the contention of 
 the Free Church with the Established Church of Scotland was similar to 
 his own contention with the Established Church during so many years of 
 his life. 
 
 The Rev. Norman McLeod and his followers did not have the whole 
 of this country to themselves. Hundreds of Gaelic speaking immigrants 
 of the Presbyterian faith came here in subsequent years. These came 
 chiefly from Lewis and Harris. They settled at different pointfe around 
 St. Ann's Harbor, but chiefly on the North River, and on the North Shore 
 all the way down to Smoky Mountain. Some of them settled up the glen 
 towards Baddeck and Big Hill. A number of these Lewis and Harris peo- 
 ple were never great admirers of Norman McLeod. Some of them like the 
 late John Ross, Catechist of Mira and Isaac McLeod of Strathlorne sub- 
 sequently left the congregation because they could not get along with him. 
 They could not endure his arbitrary methods. 
 
 Norman McLeod was a staunch Presbyterian all his life, although he 
 denounced the Church of Scotland so bitterly. He was baptized in the Pres- 
 byterian Church, converted in the Presbyterian Church, admitted to full 
 membership in the Presbyterian church, educated in the Presbyterian 
 church, licensed and ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 We have seen that for conscientious reasons Mr. McLeod did not 
 apply for license to any presbytery of the Scottish church. He came to 
 Pictou without a license, and he came to St. Ann^s without a license. He 
 continued unlicensed during the first five and a half years he was in Cape 
 Breton. 
 
 But he was not content to remain any longer unlicensed and unor- 
 dained. In the summer of 1826 he went to Western New York in order to 
 obtain license and ordination from the presbytery of Genesee, one of the 
 presbyteries of the Presbyterian church in the United States. That 
 church had no state connection and was therefore free from the objection 
 he had against the Church of Scotland. A friend of his by the name of 
 
 28 
 
Alexander Denoon, was a member of that presbytery. Mr. Denoon intro- 
 duced him to the Genesee presbytery and helped him to attain the full 
 ecclesiastical status which he desired. 
 
 The following extracts from the records of the Genesee presbytery for 
 "which we are indebted to the present stated clerk of that presbytery, the 
 Hev. Frank G. Weeks, D. D., will tell the story of Mr. McLeod's licensure 
 and ordination— "Sheldon, New York (First Church) August 29th, 1826." 
 "Norman McLeod of St. Ann's in the Island of Cape Breton, was intro- 
 duced to the presbytery by the Rev. Mr. Denoon, and made a request that 
 he be taken under its care with a view to his licensure to preach the gospel. 
 Mr.' McLeod produced satisfactory testimonials of his church membership, 
 his moral character, and his attention to literary pursuits. 
 
 The presbytery adjourned till the following morning, when the "Pres- 
 bytery resolved to take Mr. McLeod under its care, and it proceeded to 
 examine him. "Le Roy, September 12th, 1826, Mr. Norman McLeod 
 exhibited to the Presbytery a written lecture on Romans, Chapter VII., 
 verses 9, 10, 11 and 12; and a popular discourse, as parts of his trials for 
 license. "It was unanimously resolved that the presbytery are satisfied 
 "with his trials, and that he be licensed in the prescribed form to preach the 
 •gospel. ■■ Then follows an account of his licensure by the presbytery in 
 the usual form, closing with these words — "The presbytery did and do 
 hereby license him, the said Norman McLeod to preach the Gospel of 
 Christ as a probationer for the holy minister, within the bounds of this pres- 
 bytery or wherever else he shall be orderly called." 
 
 Mr. McLeod appears to have spent the winter pf 1826 and 1827 at 
 "Caledonia, New York, with Mr. Denoon, who was minister of a Presbyter- 
 ian Church in that place. This is implied in the following resolut'on of the 
 Genesee presbytery which met in special session on the call of the moderator 
 at Caledonia, N. Y., on the 18th of July, 1827; "A request from Norman 
 McLeod, a licentiate of this presbytery, was received, asking that he be 
 •ordainfed to the work of the Gospel Ministry." "Presbytery heard a dis- 
 course from him which was sustained as an additional part of his trials." 
 Then follows the resolution; "Whereas it has been made fully to appear 
 before the presbytery that the people among whom he has labored for ten 
 months past, express the most entire confidence in his piety and usefulness, 
 •concur with him in the request for his ordination; Therefore resolved that 
 his request be granted, and that presbytery proceed to his ordination this 
 afternoon." 
 
 The ordination took place accordingly that afternoon, and Norman 
 McLeod's name was entered on the roll of the presbytery of Genesee; and 
 it remained there until the 29th of August, 1843, when it wa= dropped on 
 account of a report that had reached the then clerk of Mr. McLeod s death. 
 He lived for nearly twenty-four years after that, and it is doubtful if he ever 
 knew that his name was taken off that presbytery roll. 
 
 The Rev. Norman McLeod spent the best part of his life at St. Ann's. 
 
 29 
 
He was forty years of age when he came here from Pictou in 1820, and he 
 was seventy-one years of age when he left for Australia in 1851. During 
 these thirty-one years the congregation under his care grew and pros- 
 pered, temporally and spiritually. He was their preacher,, pastor and 
 teacher. He was also a justice of the peace, and he took good care that all 
 known violations of the civil law were duly proven and punished. He was 
 scathing in his denunciation of sin and sinners. He was a terror to evil- 
 doers and equally a praise to them that did well. Under his patriarchial 
 administration, St. Ann's was distinguished for intelligence, rectitude and 
 sobriety. He was a mighty force for righteousness in this part of our island. 
 
 Mr. McLeod was one of the earliest total abstainers in Cape Breton 
 and also one of the earliest advocators of total abstinence from the use of 
 alcoholic liquors. He recognized what a great evil the prevalent drinking 
 customs of those days were and he set his face against them. Judge Mar- 
 shall, of Sydhey, and he were co-workers at the inception of the total ab- 
 stinence movement on this island. He also took deep interest iJi the work 
 of the British atid Foreign Bible Society. 
 
 He had an auxiliary of this society formed at St. Ann's in the year 1840; 
 and in addition to the money raised by this auxiliary he devoted all the 
 marriage fees that he received to this worthy object. Nor did he forget the 
 Britisjh and Foreign Bible Society after his settlement in New Zealand. He 
 organized an auxiliary at Waipu shortly after his arrival. That auxiliary 
 is in existence still, and during the intervening years, it has sent thousands 
 of dollars to the parent society in London. 
 
 Strange to say, in all the years of his residence in St. Ann's, Mr. Mc- 
 Leod never dispensed the Lord's Supper, an' ordinance that has the binding 
 force of a special command of Jesus Christ upon all his disciples. It is 
 equally strange that he very rarely administered the sacrament of baptism 
 to either child or adult. And this is as true of his ministry in New Zealand 
 as in Cape Breton. Let no one suppose, however, that this was due to any 
 disrespect for these sacred ordinances nor to any low estimates of their 
 value. On the contrary, his conduct in this matter, was due, on the one 
 hand, to the exceedingly high regard that he had for tiiese sacraments, and 
 on the other, to his high estimate of the character in the recipient of these 
 ordinances, tha,t would justify him in their dispensation. In the d^ys of 
 moderatism in Scotland, piety was not a condition of receiving the sacra- 
 ments. Every parishioner good, bad and indifferent, who applied for them, 
 received the sacraments. Mr. McLeod perceived the wrongfulness of this 
 condition of things,and the result was a reaction that led him to the opposite 
 extreme. Instead of a profession of faith and a life consistent with that 
 profession, he required clear evidences of regeneration!, and a very high de- 
 gree of holiness on the part of all who would come to the baptismal font or 
 to the communion table. Pew could meet the conditions, and therefore 
 few ever applied for the ordinances under his ministry. 
 
 In the year 1847, a letter came into Mr. McLeod's hands from Adelaide 
 
 30 
 
Australia. On opening it he found that it was from his second son, Donald. 
 This young man left home eight years before that, as master of a vessel, 
 built in St. Ann's and largely owned by his father. He took the ship to the 
 Clyde, Scotland, sold her there, transmitted the proceeds to St. Ann's 
 and dropped out of sight. Nothing further was known about him until this 
 letter came to hand. Meantime, Donald had found his way tp Australia. 
 In that letter he told his father of the mild climate, the fertile soil, and the 
 mineral wealth of that great island. He moreover, urged his father to 
 leave the cold, bleak shores of Cape Breton and to go the paradise that he 
 had discovered. 
 
 This letter created a great sensation in St. Ann's. The proposed 
 migration commended itself very strongly to minister and peoI)le. It 
 so happened that just at that time there was a very general feeling of dis- 
 couragement among the people of St. Ann's and elsewhere in Cape Breton, 
 on account of the blight and rot in the potato crop. Famine was threaten- 
 ed, and this condition of things disposed them to think seriously of leaving 
 for the southern seas. They talked and thought and prayed over the 
 matter for a whole year; and the more they thought and talked and prayed, 
 the more the conviction deepened that they should go to Australia. Fin- 
 ally their minds were made up, and they went to work to build a vessel 
 adequate for the transportation of a goodly number of them to the 
 southern seas. 
 
 This vessel was ready to launch in the summer of 1850. She was a 
 barque of five hundred tons, and she was named the "Margaret" after the 
 ' minister's youngest daughter. But she did not get ^way for another year. 
 The delay was due to a lack of money to purchase sails and outfit. Mr. 
 McLeod ofiered his property for sale, but there was no purchaser in sight. 
 It looked for a time as if they would have to abandon the enterprise. But 
 the spring of 1851 brought a purchaser,one John Robertson, a man of means. 
 He bought Mr. McLeod's real estate for the sum of $3,000 cash, and that 
 amount of money put them in a position to go on with their preparation for 
 departure. 
 
 Norman McLeod regarded that sale as a special interposition of Pro- 
 vidence on his behalf and also as a mark of the divine approval of the enter- 
 prise. This sale was indeed opportune for all concerned. It permitted 
 them to get away before the beginning of another winter. 
 
 "The Margaret" sailed oiit of St. Ann's Harbor on the 28th of October, 
 1851, carrying the Rev. Norman McLeod, now in the 71st year of his age, 
 his wife, daughter, and three sons, together with 130 of his people; or 136 
 souls in all. Hundreds of others, with tears in their eyes and sorrow in 
 their hearts, gathered on the shore to witness their departure, lamenting 
 most of all that they themselves were under the necessity of remaining 
 behind, for a time at least. 
 
 "The Margaret," we might add, was built by St. Ann's carpenters, 
 commanded by St. Ann's officers.manned by St. Ann's men, and she carried 
 St. Ann's passengers. 
 
 31 
 
On her way to Adelaide, she called at St. Jago in the Cape Verde Is- 
 lands, and also at the Cape of Good Hope in order to obtain necessary 
 supplies. She reached her destination on the 10th of April, 1852 after a 
 voyage of 164 days, and a sail of 12,000 miles. 
 
 But Mr. McLeod and his associates did not find Southern Australia all 
 that they anticipated. Indeed they were sorely disappointed. They in- 
 tended to go on the land and farm. But they found that the land in 
 Southern AustValia was not suitable for farming on account of the severe 
 droughts to which it was periodically subject. Hence, in the following 
 year, they sent a delegation of their shrewdest men to Northern New 
 Zealand, a distance of over 2000 miles in order to ascertain what the pros- 
 pects were for getting good land on that island. This delegation returned 
 with a glowing account of the soil, the climate and the prospecjts in general. 
 The delegation made arrangements with the then governor of the colony. 
 Sir George Grey, for a block of land of several thousands of acres, at 
 Waipu and vicinity, for the exclusive use of people from St. Ann's, Capfe 
 Breton. No one else could purchase an acre of that reserve. ^ 
 
 The upshot of it was that Norman McLeod and all that went to 
 Australia with him in the spring of 1852 went on another migration to this 
 new Eldorado in, August, 1854. 
 
 In Waipu, Whangaree and MaSigawai, a little north of Auckland, 
 New Ze aland, they f oulnd one of the choicest spots on the face of the earth 
 for agricultural purposes. Here they found a place of rest, peace and pros- 
 perity, and their descendants are there in thousands today. Of course 
 they had their hardships at the outset; but labor, perseverance, patience 
 and thrift enabled them to surmoubt all their difiiculties. 
 
 They wrote to their friends in St. Ann's, encouraging them to leave 
 Cape Breton and go to New Zealand with as little delay as possible The 
 result was a large exodus from this island during the next eight years. Six 
 ships in all were built in St. Ann's and neighboring harbors, in order to 
 carry the people away to the opposite side of the world. 
 
 "The Margaret" sailed on Oct. 28th 1851 with 136 passengers. "The 
 Highland Lass" in Dec. 1852 with 188 passengers; "The Gertrude" on 
 June 24th 1856, with 176 passengers; "The Spray" in Jan. 1857 with 66 
 passengers; "The Bradalbane" in Dec. 1857 with 129 passengers, and "The 
 Ellen Lewes" on Dec. 17th 1859 with 188 passengers. 
 
 Between Dec. 1851 and Dec. 1859, 883 persons, all told, left St. Ann's 
 and went to the Antipodes. St. Ann's lost more than half its population 
 in those years. However, it was not very long before others came in and 
 bought up the vacant farms, and thus it came about that not many years 
 thereafter, the population was about as large as it was before the exodus 
 commenced. 
 
 In New ^aland, as in St. Ann's, Norman McLeod set up a species of 
 
 theocracy in which he himself was prophet, priest and king; a theocracy in 
 
 I which ardent spirits, profanity, tobacco, and litigation were unknown, 
 
 32 
 
and where intelligence, morality and piety characterized the whole com- 
 munity. The following testimony to the life and character of Norman 
 McLeod from the pen of the Rev. Robert Somerville, clerk of the Presby- 
 tery of Auckland, has just come to hand. 
 
 "Mr. McLeod was a wonderful man. There was an aloofness about 
 him that made him a wonder to many. His. word was law in church and 
 state! No one dared contradict him. The Waipu people looked upon him 
 as almost divine. His influence upon them was marvellous. They were 
 most obedient to his commands. He kept them in such restraints that the 
 younger people were glad to breathe a little of the air of liberty occasionally. 
 He would have nothing to do with the presbytery of Auckland, and yet 
 one of his dying requests to his people was to keep united, under Mr. 
 Eneas Morrison, until the Presbytery appointed a successor. He would 
 not baptize the children, because no parent was good enough to receive bap- 
 tism for his little ones. It was the same with the Lord's Supper. Yet, 
 with all his peculiarities, he was a genuinely good man, doing, good in his 
 own way, and doing it successfully." 
 
 Norman McLeod was a man of great physical, as well as mental and] 
 spiritual strength, and his physical strength remained with him until hel 
 was well over four score years. When in his 8ist year, on a certain Saturday,' 
 he rode twelve miles on horseback to one of his churches and preached at | 
 nine o'clock that night. The following Sabbath he preached four sermons, j 
 two in English and two in Gaelic. On the following Monday he preached I 
 again before returning to his home in Waipu. 
 
 His affectionate wife died in the year 1857, three years after reaching 
 New Zealand. He himself lived nine years longer. His death took place 
 on the 14th of March, 1866, in the 86th year of his age. His remains were 
 laid to rest in the Waipu cemetery, a couple of miles out of Waipu. A suit- 
 able tombstone was erected over them, with the following inscription: 
 "Sacred to the memory of the Rev. Norman McLeod, who as a public 
 servant of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, preached the Gospel for 
 sixty years. Born at Stoir Point, Assynt, Scotland, 29th September, 1780. 
 Died at Waipu, New Zealand, 14th March, 1866. "Age 86 years." 
 
 In the year 1914, at a reunion of the survivors of the St. Ann's exodus 
 and their children, which was held at the Presbyterian church, Waipu, a 
 splendid monument to the memory of the me'n,women and children who left 
 Cape Breton, and went to New Zealand between 1851 and 1860, was un- 
 veiled with appropriate services and addresses. 
 
 We are indebted to our correspondent, Mr. Neil H. Campbell of Waipu 
 for a good description of this monument. It stands on a concrete founda- 
 tion, 12 X 12 feet, resting on the solid rock. It is made of Aberdeen granite, 
 cut hexagonally. It stands twenty feet in height and is surmounted with 
 the red lion of the flag of Scotland in rampant attitude. On each of its six 
 faces there is a model inMuistz metal of one of the six ships under full sail 
 that left Cape Breton with the immigrants aboard. Underneath each model 
 there is the name of the ship, date of departure and arrival, together with 
 the names of the different owners and captains. There are a number of 
 
 33 
 
inscriptions on the monument, all in gold lettering. This monument cost 
 seven hundred pounds sterling, or $3,500. One of the numerous inscrip- 
 tions reads as follows: "This monument is erected to commemorate the 
 arrival in New Zealand of a noble band of Empire builders, who left the 
 Highlands of Scotland about the latter half of the 18th century, for Nova 
 Scotia, and emigrated thence during the years 1851-1860; and who by their 
 undaunted courage, and their steadfast faith in God, did so much to mould 
 the destinies of their adopted homes. Where the path of duty was plain, 
 fear had no place; neither danger nor hardship daunted them. 
 
 "But oh, what symbol may avail to tell 
 
 The kindness, wit and sense we loved so well." 
 
 "Erected by their Dekcendants." 
 
 One of the inscriptions on this monument gives the names of thirty 
 eight clans that took part in this remarkable migration from Cape Breton 
 to New Zealand. Another inscription is in the Gaelic language, the lang- 
 uage of all the immigrants. It is taken from the Book of Genesis, chapter 
 twelve, verse one and reads as follows: "Agus thubhairt an Tighearn ri h- 
 Abram, Rach a mach k d' dhuthaich, agus o d' dhilsibh, agus k tigh 
 d'athar, do'n tir a nochdas mise dhuit." 
 
 Although Mr. McLeod was not a member of the Presbytery of Auck- 
 land, after his death, that Presbytery placed the following minute on its 
 records regarding him; "The Presbytery desires to enter upon its records 
 its sense of the great loss which the church has sustained in the removal 
 by death of the Reverend father, Norman McLeod, minister of Waipu and 
 Whangarei. Gifted with rare powers of mind and with a heart deeply 
 imbued by the grace of God, this departed worthy exerted no common 
 influence over all who knew him; while by his thorough knowledge of the 
 Word of God, and faithful exposition of its life-giving truths, he was for up- 
 wards of half a century looked up to by a singularly attached people, as one 
 well qualified, and who ever sought to guide them to the Shepherd of Souls. 
 "In the Lower Provinces of British America, as well as in New Zealand, his 
 death will be mourried over by many to whom his ministry has proved a 
 blessing. Among these mourners the Presbytery desires to take its place, 
 desiring especially to express its sympathies with the congregation and 
 family whom death has bereaved of a Patriarch, a pastor and a father." 
 
 34 
 
Rev. WlUlam MiUar. 
 
 The Rev. William Millar was a native of Tarbolston, Ayrshire, Scot- 
 land, and he studied Theology under Dr. Lawson of Selkirk, a minister of 
 the Associate Church of Scotland. This is all we know of his early life. 
 He came to Pictou, N. S., as a licentiate of that church in the Fall of 1821 
 in response to an urgent appeal that was sent to Scotland a year or two 
 earlier, by the Presbytery of Pictou, for a minister of the gospel for Mabou 
 and Port Hood on this Island. 
 
 That appeal was the outcome of the Rev. Dr. McGregor's visit to 
 Mabou and Port Hood in the year 1818. Three years later, the Presby- 
 terians in these two places prepared a call and sent it to the Presbytery of 
 Pictou for presentation to Mr. Millar on his expected arrival from Scot- 
 land. No doubt. Dr. McGregor had by correspondence in the meantime, 
 obtained the consent of Mr. Millar to come to Cape Breton and take the 
 oversight of Mabou and Port Hood; and no doubt, moreover, Dr. McGregor 
 had drawn up that call and sent it to Mabou and Port Hood for signature. 
 And be it observed that this was the fitst gospel call signed by any Presby- 
 terian congregation on the island of Cape Breton. This call is still in ex- 
 istence, and our readers will be glad to have a copy of it inserted in this 
 memoir of Mr. Millar. 
 
 Mabou and Port Hood, 
 
 August 24th, 1821. 
 
 We, the subscribers, being inhabitants (*f Mabou and Port Hood, 
 considering the great want of the gospel dispensation in those places, have 
 this day ad'dressed'a Call to the Presbytery of Pictou, praying them to send 
 us the Rev.Wm. Millar to be settled among us as gospel preacher, and for 
 his support we promise to pay conjunctly accor ding to our several ability, 
 in the following manner; for the first year of his instalment we engage to 
 pay him the sum of ninety pounds currency; for the second year, one hun- 
 dred, and after that to increase his salary five pounds each year until it 
 amounts to one hundred and fifty poun\ds, which sum we promise from that 
 time forward to pay him, so long as he may be able to perform the several 
 functions of his Office. 
 
 John Gily Benjamin Worth 
 
 Davi'd Hunter W. W. McKeen 
 
 Richard Worth Lewis L. Smith 
 
 David Smith Samuel McKeen 
 
 James McCallum James Hawley 
 
 John Worth Peter Renout 
 
 Benjamin Smith Kenneth McCallum 
 
 Robert Sinclair Davjid Smith 
 
 Prances Bowen David O'Brien 
 
 Henry Shierer Reuben Young 
 
 John Keith George Mulloney 
 
 Joseph Worth James Wright 
 
 35 
 
Hugh Fraser William Worth 
 
 William Bull Christopher Bull 
 
 Andrew Stephenson Robert Brownlee 
 
 Ebenezer Leadbetter John Adams 
 
 James McKeen R. McDonald 
 
 Elisha Young William Wrath 
 
 James Bull Robert Kindle 
 
 Robert Bull Andrew Moore 
 
 John Parker W. W. Crawford 
 
 Wm. Pollock Isaac Smith 
 
 Wm. Crowell Wm. Green 
 
 John Smith Parker Smith 
 
 Giles Corry Alex. Fraser 
 
 Alex. McQuarrie Alex. McCallum 
 Elizabeth Smyth 
 
 Mr. Millar arrived in Pictou about the 1st of November, 1821. As 
 soon thereafter as convenient, a meeting of the Pictou Presbytery was con- 
 vened at Durham on the West River of Pictou. Mr. Millar was present; 
 the call from Mabou and Port Hood was put into his hands, and upon his 
 acceptance thereof , he was duly ordained and designated as minister of that 
 congregation. But on account of the approach of winter, the distance of 
 the field and the lack of facilities for travel, Mr. Millar remained in Pictou 
 until the following spring. Early in June, 1822, he proceeded to Cape 
 Breton and reached his appointed field of labor during that month. He 
 found everything in a very primative condition. There were no highways 
 at that time. Travelling had to be done on foot, horseback or boat. The 
 hous.es were small and cold. There was no place of worship either at 
 Mabou or Port Hood. All services were held in the homes of the people. 
 He was one hundred and forty miles from his nearest brother in the minis- 
 try, viz. Dr. McGregor, who was living on the East River of Pictou. Mr. 
 Millar went to Mabou nearly one hundred years ago, and very little is 
 known about him today. His name is only a memory even in Mabou 
 where he spent the whole of his ministerial life. He was out of touch with 
 the Presbyterianism of Cape Breton for several reasons; firstly, he was a 
 lowlander, and had no Gaelic, while the Presbyterians on thisislan4 were 
 Highlanders and had little or no English; and secondly, Mr. Millar was an 
 Antiburger, while all the other Presbyterians in Cape Breton, Norman 
 McLeod and his followers excepted, belonged to the Church of Scotland or 
 latterly to the Free Church. The people of the Church of Scotland in 
 those days had no more dealings with the Antiburgers than the Jews had 
 with the Samaritans in the time of our Lord. 
 
 One of Mr. Mijlar's successors in Mabou, the Rev. E. Bayne, wrote of 
 him in the year 1804, as follows; "His name is still fresh in the congregation 
 as a good, earnest, pious, persevering pastor. He was always at his post, 
 a faithful, conscientious and godly man." "His life from first to last was a 
 hard struggle. His books were few for he was unable to purchase many. 
 
 36 
 
The bible was his constant companion and study. His ministry continued 
 for thirty years, but he preached ten or eleven years longer, as opportunity 
 offered, and when no supply was provided for the congregation by the 
 Presbytery of Pictou. 
 
 "He preached his last sermon on Sabbath, November the 7th, 1861. 
 The day was cold and wet and stormy. He had a ride of five miles from 
 Brook Village where he lived to the church at Mabou. He was urged to 
 remain at home, but he resolved to go, though suffering from indisposition. 
 "Perhaps," said he, "This is the last time I shall be able to preach." He 
 preached with unwonted earnestness, as if he had a presentiment that he 
 would never preach again. Nine days later on Nov. the 16th, 1861, he 
 died at his home in the seventy-fifth year of his age and the fortieth year 
 of his ministry. Having lived the good man's life, he died the good man's 
 death." 
 
 Mr. Millar's remains were buried in the old Cemetery, on the south 
 side of the Mabou River, and close beside the first Presbyterian Church 
 that was built by the congregation a couple of years after his settlement in 
 Mabou. 
 
 37 
 
Rev. Hogh Dunbar. 
 
 The Rev. Hugh Dunbar was a native of Kctou County. He was born 
 on the West Branch of the East River of Pictou near where Hopewell 
 is now. The date of his birth is not knoWn, but it must have been about 
 the year 1792. 
 
 Tie grew up under the ministry of the Rev. Dr. McGregor, and it is 
 more than likely that it was through the influence of Dr. McGregor s life 
 and teaching that early in life he formed the purpose of studying for the 
 gospel ministry. He was one of the first young men in Pictou County to 
 recognize the claim of JesusChrist upon their lives, and to devote themselves 
 to his service. He was also the only one of the pioneer ministers of Cape 
 Breton that was not of Scottish birth. When Pictou Academy was opened 
 in the autumn of 1817, twenty-three students were eriroUed, and a goodly 
 number of these subsequently became ministers of the Presbyterian 
 Church. Mr. Dunbar was one of that first class of students. On com- 
 pleting his studies in theology in the spring of 1824, he was licensed and or- 
 dained by the Presbytery of Pictou and sent to Cape Breton as a missionary 
 evangelist among the gaelic speaking people on this island. 
 
 All that has been said of Hugh Ross and his mission to Cape Breton 
 applies equally to Hugh Dunbar. Dr. Gregg, in his larger history, says 
 that efforts were made to secure his services, permanently in Cape Breton, 
 and that his ability as a gaelic preacher was highly appreciated but we have 
 nothing definite on these matters. The probability is that his Antiburger 
 antecedents prevented him from receiving the welcome that his evangelistic 
 mission might lead him to expect. Be that as it may, his stay on this island 
 must have been short. The next thing we know of Mr. Dunbar, he was on 
 Prince Edward Island. On March the 27th, 1827, he was inducted into the 
 large and important charge of New London North and Cavendish oh that 
 island. 
 
 Dr. John Kier of Malpeque was his predecessor in thife charge and the 
 Rev. John Geddie, our first missionary to the heathen world, was his suc- 
 cessor. Mr. Dunbar gave eight years of efficient service to this field. On 
 the 15th of June, 1835, he resigned this charge and removed to Norboro, 
 on the road between Summerfield and Kensington, P. E. I., where he 
 taught school on week days and conducted public worship in the Summer- 
 field Church on the Sabbath days during the remainder of his life. When 
 at New London he married a Miss McEwan of Campbellton, N. L., and his 
 descendants are still to be found in several parts of P. E. Island. Mr. 
 Dunbar was considered an excellent preacher both in English and Gaelic. 
 He dropped dead on the highway between his home and his school house on 
 Nov. 27th, 1857 in the sixty fifth year of his age. He was buried in the 
 Cemetery at Summerfield. The Church in which he preached and that 
 was built during his ministry is still standing. It is now used as a Public 
 Hall. 
 
 38 
 
Rev. Hugh Ross. 
 
 The Rev. Hugh Ross was a native of Invernessshire, Scotland, where 
 he was born in the year 1797. He came to Nova Scotia with his parents in 
 1813, when sixteen years of age. For a few years after coming to this 
 country he was employed as a clerk in a mercantile house in the city of 
 Halifax. From Halifax he came to Pictou town and began to study for 
 the ministry at the Pictou Academy. This academy was founded in 1817 - 
 through the efforts of Rev. Thomas McCulloch, D. D. with whom were as- 
 sociated Rev. Dr. McGregor, Rev. James Ross, and other pioneers of Pres- 
 byterianism in Nova Scotia. Its primary object was the education and 
 training of a native ministry. Mr. Ross was one of the first class of stu- 
 dents that entered Pictou Academy after it was opened in the autumn of *• 
 1817. He prosecuted his studies in arts and Theology in that institution 
 during the next seven years. In the spring of 1824 six young men grad- 
 uated from Pictou Academy and were licensed to preach the gospel by the 
 Presbytery of Pictou, and Hugh Ross was one of the six. The other five 
 were Angus McGillivary, John McLean, John L. Murdoch, Robert S. 
 Patterson, and Hugh Dunbar. These six were the first Presbyterian minis- 
 ters to be educated for the ministfy of the Presbyterian Church in any part , 
 ' of Canada. 
 
 Three of these, John McLean, John L. Murdoch and Robert S. Patter- 
 son took a post graduate session iti the Uiiiversity of Glasgow, from which 
 they received the degree of Master of Arts. One of them, Angus McGilli- 
 vary, took a charge on the East River of Pictou, and spent his whole life 
 in that congregation. Messrs Hugh Ross and Hugh Dunbar were licensed 
 and ordained as missionaries to the island of Cape Breton by the Presbytery 
 of Pictou. Both had the Gaelic language and it was supposed that both 
 would find spheres of service among the Gaelic speaking population on this 
 island. 
 
 It speaks well for the Presbytery of Pictou that it sent two of the six 
 first graduates of Pictou Academy to Cape Breton where it hadbut one con- 
 gregation, especially when there were so many gaelic speaking congregations 
 in Pictou County in need of just such men. No doubt, Dr. McGregor, who 
 had been in Cape Breton in 1798 and again in 1818, and who knew so well 
 the destitute condition of the Highland settlements here, was the chief 
 mover in sending these two licentiates to this island. 
 
 But strange to say we have no knowledge of any work done by Messrs i 
 Ross and Dunbar in Cape Breton. They must have come here in the 
 summer of 1824 immediately after graduation and they must have spent \ 
 some time here in endeavoring to discharge their mission by preaching in a ; 
 number of our gaelic speaking settlements. Why did these men leave no j 
 trace of their presence, or work done, on this island? The probability is \ 
 that their apparent lack of success was due to the strong prejudices of the i 
 Gaelic speaking people of Cape Breton in favor of ministers of the Estab- ! 
 lished Church of Scotland and of ministers educated in Scotland. Messrs 
 
 39 
 
Ross and Dunbar were ministers of the Antiburger Church of Nova Scotia, 
 and th«y received their education at Pictou Academy, an institution held 
 in contempt by all kirkmen in those days. Some of us are old enough to 
 remember how these prejudices persisted until very recent times. The 
 kirkmen of Pictou sent their sons to Scotland to be educated for the minis- 
 try at a much later period and they had a great contempt for ministers 
 trained on this side of the Atlantic. 
 
 In any case, Messrs Ross and Dunbar appear to have found the door of 
 usefulness in Cape Breton closed against them, and they had to leave for 
 other spheres of labor. Mr. Ross found his sphere in Tatamagouche and 
 New Annan, Nova Scotia, where he was inducted in the year 1827, and 
 where he continued to minister until the year 1840, when he resigned the 
 charge on account of some difficulties that had arisen in the congregation. 
 
 A year or two later he connected himself with the Church of Scotland 
 and was settled for some years as minister of Georgetown and Murray 
 Harbour in the Province of P. E. Island. In 1844 Mr. Ross left -the 
 Church of Scotland and joined the Free Church of Nova Scotia. A few 
 years later he went back to the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia in 
 which he had been educated, licensed and ordained. 
 
 Mr. Ross died quite suddenly on Dec. the 1st, 1858, in the sixty first 
 year of his age. He is said to have been "a man of good talents, of kindly 
 disposition, and a clear, forceful preacher of the gospel in English and in 
 Gaelic." 
 
 40 
 
Rev. Donald McDonald. 
 
 This remarkable man is entitled to a place among the Pioneer Presby- 
 terian Ministers of Cape Breton. Mr. McDonald was born in Ranoek, 
 Perthshire, Scotland, on the first day of January, 1783. He was educated 
 for the ministry at the University of St. Andrews, which he entered in the 
 fall of 1808, on the twenty fifth year of his age. He was ordained by the 
 Presbytery of Abertarf on the 23rd of August, 1816, in the thirty-third year 
 of his age. During the next eight years he labored as an ordained mis- 
 sionary within the bounds of said Presbytery. In the year 1824 he left 
 Scotland on a sailing vessel with the intention of going to Lower Canada, as 
 the Province of Quebec was then known. While on the voyage from 
 Greenock to Quebec, an epidemic of measles broke out on board the ship, 
 which was very severe, and in many cases, fatal. On this account the Cap- 
 tain put into Sydney Harbor, and cast anchor on the inside of the South 
 Bar. Here all passengers that had measles were put ashore and the vessel 
 was fumigated before proceeding on her voyage. A goodly number of 
 the passengers left the ship while she was in SydneyHarbor and remained in 
 Cape Breton. Mr. McDonald was one of these. Another was Mr. 
 Charles Cameron, the grandfather of Mr. D. A. Cameron, K. C, of Sydney, 
 One of Mr. Cameron's children died in quarantine a few days after being 
 landed at South Bar, and was buried there. 
 
 • Mr. McDonald found his way to Malagawatch soon after landing and 
 he made this place the centre of his operations during the neX;t two years 
 The spot where he lived during those years is still known as "Rudha 
 Mhinstear" 'The Minister's Point.' Unfortunately we have no record of 
 Mr. McDonald's work at Malagawatch. It would appear that he left 
 Scotland without credentials from the Presbytery of Abertarf, on account \ 
 of excessive indulgence in alcoholic liquors and that he never obtained such ' 
 credentials. 
 
 In the fall of 1826, Mr. McDonald left Cape Breton and went to Prince 
 Edward Island to visit a broth^ who had recently come from Scotland, 
 and had taken up land in the vicnity of Orwell, P. E. I. Here he found his 
 life work and entered upou it in the spirit of a true evangelist. According 
 to his own statement be was not converted until after he went to P. E. ,; 
 Island. Shortly thereafter, however, he experienced the great spiritual 
 change, that Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about as the birth from above, and 
 henceforth he was an altogether different man. His biographer tells us; 
 "Multitudes flocked to hear him in bams, dwellings, school houses and in 
 the open air. Here and there he organized a band of workers and ordained 
 elders. As years rolled on his interest in his great work increased, and greiat 
 success crowned his efforts. Spacious and elegant churches began to ta^ 
 the place of rude shanties. His people grew in numbers, in wealth, in 
 respectability and in love for their minister. His eloquence was of a high 
 order. Before commencing his sermon, he generally gave an introductory 
 
 41 
 
address in which he would refer to the national, political and religious ques- 
 tions of the day and comment freely upon them." 
 
 "His sermons were masterpieces of logical eloquence. He would begin 
 in rather a low, conversational tone, but as he proceeded his voice would 
 become stronger. Then the whole man would preach, tongue, countenance 
 eyes, feet, hands, body — all would grow eloquent. The audience would un- 
 consciously become magnetized, convicted and swayed at the speaker's 
 will. Some would fall prostrate in terror, while others would clasp their 
 hands or drop down as if they were dead. 
 
 "Seldom has such pulpit power been witnessed since the days of Wesley, 
 Whitefield and Edward Irving. He attacked sin and vice with giant 
 blows. Woe to the opponent that crossed his pathway! 
 
 "He had rare conversational powers. His spirits were always good. 
 He knew the circumstances of every family in his Widely scattered flock, 
 and remembered the names of the children. Mr. McDonald was never 
 married. He had no certain dwelling place, no fixed stipend, and he be- 
 stowed all he got on objects of charity. He was rather below medium 
 height, stout and powerfully built. He was hale and vigorous looking to 
 the last. His dress, ^ appearance and manners always betokened the 
 christian gentleman. During his life-time he built fourteen churches, 
 he registered the baptism of two thousand two hundred children, and 
 had perhaps baptized as many more, not registered. He had married 
 more people than any other living clergyman. He had prayed beside 
 thousands of deathbeds. He had a parish extending from Bedeque to 
 Murray Harbor and from Rustico to Belle Creek, and he had five 
 thousand followers more attached to their spiritual leader than ever 
 highland clansmen' to their chief. But he was as humble as a child. "To 
 God he gave all the glory." 
 
 He died at the home of one of his people in South Port, P. E. I., on 
 Friday, Feb. the 22nd, 1864, in the 85th year of his age and the fifty first 
 year of his ministry, and was buried at Nigg Cemetery, Orwell. An im- 
 posing monument erected by his affectionate people marks the spot where 
 rests in peace all that was mortal of this unique but godly man. 
 
 Mr. McDonald never connected himself with any church after coming 
 to this country. He was a Presbyterian by conviction as well as by training 
 but he preferred to remain outside of all the organized churches as long as 
 he lived. His followers were known as "McDonaldites" during his lifetime. 
 
 Since his death his people have been ministered to by men born and 
 educated in the Presbyterian Church; but still they hold aloof from the 
 Presbyterian Church in Canada until this day. That church would gladly 
 receive them into her communion, but they have such a reverence for Mr. 
 McDonald and his attitude to the Presbyterian Church that they prefer to 
 remain outside of the Church to which they are so closely related. 
 
 42 
 
Rev. John McLennan. 
 
 The Rev. John McLennan was sent out to P. E. Island by the Church 
 of Scotland in the year 1823. In 1803, twenty years earlier, the Earl of 
 Selkirk, proprietor of a large block of land in the vicinity of Point Prim, 
 P. E. I., sent out about eight hundred Scottish highlanders to settle on his 
 property. Mr. McLennan came to look after the spiritual interests of 
 these immigrants. During those twenty years they had increased numer- 
 ically and prospered materially, but they suffered spiritually inasmuch as 
 they had no minister of the gospel and few means of grace. In the year 
 1820 the Church of Scotland sent out a lay agent by the name of Mr. Walter 
 Johnstone to enquire into conditions among the Selkirk immigrants on P. 
 E. Island and to report to the Church at home. Here is an extract from 
 that agent's report: "Many of the Protestant settlers who have emigrated 
 there, although they left a christian 'country, in name at least, carried little 
 religious knowledge with them, or means of attaining it even after they 
 emigrated; some of them did not even have a bible or the ability to read it. 
 Living so long without the means of instruction, there was nothing to be 
 expected but that many vices would be indulged in and many evil habits 
 contracted. These settlements of Presbyterians that have preachers of the 
 Antiburger persuasion, are but ill supplied with the gospel, and many other 
 settlements are not supplied at all. The Highlanders that cannot read 
 their own language nor understand the English are truly in a pitiable con- 
 dition. It is the duty of every Christian Church, to the best of its ability, 
 to lend a helping hand; but it must be more preeminently the duty of that 
 church from under whose wings these people emigrated to send them spirit- 
 ual help, and to send it without delay, lest generation after generation fol- 
 1 ow one another to the chambers of death, nearly as ignorant as the beasts 
 that perish." 
 
 This is. a dark picture of the state of things in P. E. Island one hundred 
 years ago, and it is no wonder that the Church of Scotland in answer to this 
 and similar appeals sent Mr. McLennan to the rescue as speedily as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Mr. McLennan took up his abode at Belfast and from there as a basis 
 of operation, he ministered to the Presbyterian people living at Point Prim, 
 Flat River, Belle Creek, Wood Islands, Valleyfield, and Orwell, for a period 
 of twenty-six years. 
 
 Between 1834 and 1843, Mr. McLennan gave a monthly service to the 
 Sutherlandshire highlanders living on Mill River and South West River, 
 New London. After rendering excellent service to Presbyterianism in 
 P. E. I. for over a quarter of a century, Mr. McLennan returned to Scot- 
 land, where he became minister of the Gaelic church, Cromarty, and later, 
 minister of the Parish Church of Kilchrennan, where he died on the 11th 
 of February, 1852. 
 
 Mr. McLennan spent six weeks in Cape Breton in the year 1827, and 
 again in 1829, about the same length of time. On his first visit he was ac- 
 
 43 . 
 
companied by the Rev. Donald Allan Fraser, then minister at McLennan's 
 Mountain, Pictou County. 
 
 These two men were sent her to look into the moraj and spiritual con- 
 ditions of the Presbyterian population then on the island of Cape Breton. 
 Their visit and especially the reports of their visit, sent to the Glasgow 
 Colonial Committee, were followed by great benefits to Presbyterianism on 
 this island. The reports of Messrs McLennan and Fraser awakened the 
 Church of Scotland to a sense of the religious destitution that prevailed in 
 Cape Breton at that time, and likewise to a sense of her duty to send minis- 
 ters and teachers to her expatriated people here as speedily as possible. 
 Extracts from these reports will be found elsewhere in this volume and 
 they serve to throw a flood of light on conditions in Cape Breton in 
 the year 1827. 
 
 There were two Presbyterian ministers on the island in 1827, but 
 neither were ministers of the Church of Scotland, the church with which 
 Messrs McLennan and Fraser were connected and with which at least nine 
 tenths of the Presbyterian people in Cape Breton were connected. These 
 two were the Rev. William Millar of Mabou who was connected with the 
 Presbytery of Pictou, and the Rev. Norman McLeod, who was then a 
 member of the Presbytery of Genesee in Western New York. 
 
 A,s already stated, Mr. McLennan made his second visit to Cape 
 Breton in 1829. On that occasion he went over all the ground that he had 
 gone over on his first visit and considerably more. He reached nearly 
 every Presbyterian settlement on the Island. He travelled over three hun- 
 dred miles, visited fifteen settlements, and baptized two hundred children. 
 He reports to the Colonial Committee that he found conditions just as 
 deplorable as on the former visit, and worse than in any other part of the 
 Maritime Provinces. He claims that there were 16,000 Presbyterians of 
 Scottish birth on the island at that time, and that, in some settlements, the 
 population had nearly doubled since his previous visit through immigration; 
 that 5,000 souls had arrived from the highlands and islands of Scotland 
 during the past two years; that the Presbyterian population was scattered 
 over an immense surface of country; that they were separated from each 
 other by lakes, mountains send forests; that they were without the means of 
 the commonest education; that they were without any religious guide or 
 instruction; that they were fast lapsing into barbarism, and that all who 
 were well inclined were inquiring when a minister of the gospel should come 
 to them. In view of all this he urged "Speedy action on behalf of that 
 destitute island." 
 
 Mr. McLennan reported that a Methodist minister had been settled 
 at the Strait of Canso since he was here in 1827, but that he had no Gaelic 
 and therefore was of little service to our people in that locality. That 
 Methodist minister was the Rev. James Hennigar. He came from Halifax 
 to Sydney in the beginning of 1829, and established a Methodist Church 
 there. When the Rev. Matthew Cranswick came out from England that 
 same summer, he took charge of the Methodist Church in Sydney and Mr. 
 Hennigar removed to Ship Harbor, now Port Hawkesbury on the Strait of 
 
 44 
 
Canso to form a Methodist Church in that place. This was the beginning 
 of Methodism in Cape Breton. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church had no organization in Sydney until 1849, 
 and none on the Strait of Canso until 1832, when the Rev. Dugald Mc- 
 Kichan came to River Inhabitants and took the oversight of all the Pres- 
 byterians on that river and on the Strait of Canso and in the intervening 
 country. 
 
 45 
 
Rev. Donald Allan Eraser. 
 
 The Rev. Donald Allan Eraser was born op, the Island of Mull, Scot- 
 land. His father was a parish minister on that island. As a son of the 
 manse, Mr. Fraser enjoyed all the advantages of a good parish school 
 education. After passing through the regular course of study in Arts and 
 Theology, required by the Church of Scotland of her ministers, he was duly 
 licensed by the Presbytery of Mull in the year 1814. 
 
 About that time urgent petitions were sent to Scotland by the ad- 
 herents of the Church of Scotland in Pictou County, N. S., for one or more 
 Gaelic speaking ministers. Mr. Fraser heard the call for help from beyond 
 the ocean and hastened to the rescue. He reached Pictou in the summer of 
 1817 and took up his abode in a log cabin amid the hills and glens of Mc- 
 Lennan's Mountain, seven or eight miles from New Glasgow. There was a 
 settlement of highlanders there that had been expecting him and that 
 received him gladly. There was another settlement of highlanders at 
 Fraser's Mountain in the immediate vicinity of New Glasgow. Mr. 
 Fraser took charge of both settlements, and also of a third settlement far- 
 ther east at the Blue Mountain. 
 
 During Mr. Fraser's ministry in this large territory, he visited and 
 preached in every Gaelic speaking community from St. Mary's on the East 
 to Wallace on the west, and from Salmon River on the south to Merigomish 
 on the north. He also extended his labors to P. E. Island and Cape Breton. 
 
 The only visit that he made to Cape Breton was in 1827, in company 
 with the Rev. John McLennan. 
 
 After twenty years of strenuous work in Pictou, Mr. Fraser removed 
 to Lunenburg, where he became pastor of the congregation over which 
 the Rev. Bruin Romcas Comingoe was ordained in the year 1770, by the 
 first Presbytery ever constituted in British America. 
 
 This Presbytery met in the Dissenting Meeting House in the City of 
 Halifax on the 3rd day of July 1770,in the presence of Lord William Camp- 
 bell, the Governor of Nova Scotia, of several members of his Majesty's 
 Council and of Representatives of different demominations of Christians. 
 
 The Presbytery was composed of two Presbyterian ministers, Messrs 
 Lyons and Murdoch and two Congregational ministers, Messrs Secombe 
 and Phelps. 
 
 Mr. Comingoe was a godly layman. He was born in Holland in 1723 
 and came to Nova Scotia with the first German settlers in 1752. He fol- 
 lowed the calling of a fisherman at Chester, Lunenburg County, N. S. He 
 was a man of good natural abilities and well acquainted with the scriptures 
 but he had no training for the ministry. After ordination he laboured as 
 pastor of the Lunenburg congregation till his death in Janury 1820, in the 
 fiftieth year of his ministry and at the patriarchial age of ninety-six years. 
 
 Mr. Fraser remained in Lunenburg until 1842, when he accepted a 
 call to St. Andrew's Church, St. John's, Newfoundland. He was the first 
 Presbyterian minister ever settled on that island, and here he spent the 
 
 46 
 
remainder of his life. He died in St. John's in the year 1845 in the fifty- 
 second year of his life and the thirty-first of his ministry. 
 
 Mr. Fraser was a man of rare gifts, of great natural ability, and a 
 preacher of more than ordinary eloquence and power. 
 
 A more detailed account of his mission to Cape Breton will be found in 
 another place. His report served to stir up the Presbyterians on Boulardarie 
 n 1827, to apply to the Colonial Society for a minister. The Rev. James 
 Fraser came to Boulardarie in the year 1836, — nine years later in answer 
 to a petition prepared by Mr. Fraser and forwarded while he was in Cape 
 Breton. 
 
 Evidently there was not much missionary enthusiasm in the Church 
 of Scotland at that time, when it took nine years to find a young minister 
 who was willing to leave the comforts of his native land and come to the 
 assistance of the thousands of Scottish immigrants in this island who were 
 in such spiritual destitution. 
 
 47 
 
Rev. Aeneas McLean. 
 
 The Rev. Aeneas McLean came from Scotland to Nova Scotia in the 
 year 1828. He was a native of North Uist in the Hebrides, and a licentiate 
 of the Church of Scotland. He spent two years as a missionary, partly in 
 Nova Scotia and partly in this island, and then he spent an additional 
 two years in Broadcove, Inverness County. While in Broadcove his labors 
 extended to the Margaree River, Lake Ainslie, Middle River, Whycoco- 
 magh and Little Narrows. 
 
 Mr. McLean was not ordained or inducted at Broadcove. He was 
 simply acting as a probationer and missionary with Broadcove as the centre 
 of his evangelistic operations. When Mr. McLean came to Cape Breton 
 in 1831, there was no Presbytery on the island to ordain and induct him, 
 however anxious the people may have been to have him as their minister. 
 At that time, apart from himself, there were only two Presb3i;erian minis- 
 ters on the island, viz., Norman McLeod at St. Ann's, and William Millar 
 at Mabou. But these men belonged to different branches of the Presby- 
 terian family and ould not well be constituted as a Presbytery even if they 
 were so disposed, which they were not. If union is strength, certainly 
 division is weakness. It was especially so in those early days when our 
 cause was so weak and our ministers so few. Happily all division in the 
 Presbyterian Church on this island and throughout the Dominion of Can- 
 ada is a thing of the past. The Presbyterians of Canada are now all in one 
 Church from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
 Mr. McLean left Broadcove about the end of 1832, and went to the 
 province of Quebec. Sometime later he was ordained and inducted minis- 
 ter of the Presbyterian Church at Cote St. George in the Presbytery of 
 Glengarry. While in Broadcove he married Catherine McLean a daughter 
 of John McLean (Ban) the first Presbyterian to settle in that part of Cape 
 Breton. 
 
 The late Rev. John A. McLean, minister of Arnprior in the Presbytery 
 of Lanark and Renfrew, was a son of the Rev. Aeheas McLean. 
 
 The first church in Strathlorne was started in Mr. McLean's time and 
 he held services in that church before he left for the west. 
 
 Our knowledge of Mr. McLean and his work is very meagre indeed, 
 but there is every reason to believe that he did a good work for his Master 
 during those two years, and that he was the instrument in bringing many 
 of those to whom he ministereld to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and 
 to an experimental acquaintance with his saving, comforting and cheering 
 grace. The day will declare it. 
 
 48 
 
Rev. Dougald McKIchan. 
 
 We do not know the place of Mr. McKichan's birth, nor yet the Uni- 
 versity at which he studied for the Christian ministry. He was licensed 
 and ordained at Oban by the Presbytery of Lome on the 12th day of 
 March, 1829. Twelve days later, on March the 24th, and in the Tron 
 Church, Edinburgh, he was designated by the Presbjrtery of Edinburgh 
 as missionary to Merigomish and Barney's River, Pictou County, Nova 
 Scotia. On the following day he sailed from Greenoch in the brig "Thetis." 
 
 The voyage had a disastrous end. Towards the end of April as the 
 "Thetis" was approaching the Strait of Canso, she got caught in the ice and 
 was carried on the rocks in the vicinity of Arichat Island. This was on 
 April 28th, 1829. All the passengers got ashore safely, but they lost nearly 
 all their baggage and the ship was a total loss. 
 
 The following Sabbath, Mr. McKichan preached in the town of Ari- 
 chat in an unfinished, unconsecrated Episcopal Church to about one hun- 
 dred worshippers, Protestant and Catholic. Early that week he started 
 on foot for Merigomish by way of River Inhabitants and the Strait of 
 Canso. By the 16th of May he had reached Pictou where he preached for 
 the Rev. Kenneth J. McKenzie, minister of the Kirk Chiirch in that town. 
 
 On the 31st of May he preached in Gairloch and New Lairg. After a 
 survey of the churches in Pictou County,he finally reached his field and set- 
 tled down to his ministerial work in Merigomish and Barney's River. The 
 following year the people of River Inhabitants and Strait of Canso sent him 
 a call to be their minister and offered him a stipend of £200 Currency. , 
 This call he declined although the stipend he was promised at Merigomish 
 and Barney's River was only $150 currency. It would appear, however 
 that River Inhabitants and the Strait of Canso had some special attraction 
 for Mr. McKichan. He visited those places in 1830 and again in 1831. In 
 the latter year he purchased an intervale farm on the Lower River Inhab- 
 itants near where the village of Cleveland is now. About the end of 1831 
 he left Merigomish, contrary, apparently to the wishes of his brethren in 
 Pictou County and settled on this farm. It would appear from letters that 
 were sent by the Pictou ministers to the Colonial Committee that they were 
 very much displeased with Mr, McKichan for coming to Cape Breton. 
 At a meeting of the Presbytery of Pictou held in August, 1834, the following 
 resolution was put on the records; "That Mr. McKichan, having withdrawn 
 from the Presbytery of Pictou of which he was a member, voluntarily and 
 without giving any reason, his name be struck off the roll." 
 
 The Presbytery of Pictou was constituted in August, 1833, without 
 Mr. McKichan's name being placed on the roll. He was then at River 
 Inhabitants, and had been there since the end of 1831. Hence, it is difficult 
 to understand how his name could be struck off a roll upon which it had 
 not been placed. However, in August, 1837, with the consent of the 
 Synod and at the request of the Rev. John Stewart, Mr. McKichan's 
 name was placed on the roll of the newly organized Presbytery of Cape 
 
 49 
 
Breton. Shortly thereafter he was appointed clerk, of this Presbytery, and 
 so continued until he left the island in 1840. Mr. McKichan gave eight 
 years of his life to Cape Breton, and no doubt rendered excellent service in 
 laying the foundations of our church on this island. He lived at River 
 Inhabitants, and from there as a centre he preached in all the surrounding 
 Presbyterian settlements including West Bay, River Denys, and Mala- 
 gawatch. Grand River and Loch Lomond. Late in the year 1840 Mr. 
 McKichan returned to Barney's River and remained there until 1844, when 
 like so many of the Church of Scotland ministers in Pictou County at that 
 time, he returned to Scotland and became Parish minister of Daviot, 
 where he died in the year 1859. 
 
 It should be added that a son of Mr. McKichan returned to Nova 
 Scotia in the year 1874, and was ordained at Barney's River as minister 
 of that part of his father's first parish. This son was born at River In- 
 habitants, went home with his father in 1844, and was educated for the 
 ministry in the University of Edinburgh. His name was John A. Mc- 
 Kichan. He was minister at Barney's River for twenty^ years, and did 
 excellent work there. In 1894 he went west and became minister of Rosen- 
 field, Manitoba, and also of Summerside, Saskatchewan. He died in Colo- 
 rado Springs, U. S., on Jan. the 22nd, 1918, aged 84 years. 
 
 50 
 
Rev. Alexander Farquharson. 
 
 "The Glasgow Colonial Missionary Society" was formed in the City 
 of Glasgow on the 15th of April, 1825. The Earl of Dalhousie, then 
 Governor General of British America, was the patron of the Society; and 
 the Rev. Eobert Burns, then minister of Paisley, afterwards of Knox Col- 
 lege, Toronto was the Secretary and the driving force of the Society. The 
 object of the G. C. M. S. was "To promote the moral and religious interests 
 of the Scottish Colonists in North America by sending or assisting to send 
 out ministers, catechists, and school masters." A large number of mission- 
 aries were sent out to different parts of Canada by this society in subse- 
 quent years, but so far as we know, not one to Cape Breton. The sup- 
 ply of available men was absorbed by the necessities of Nova Scotia, New 
 Brunswick, and especially of Western Canada. 
 
 In the year 1830, another Society was formed for the purpose of sup- 
 plementing the work of the G. C. M. S. by sending ministers, catechists 
 and school teachers to Cape Breton, especially. This society was or- 
 ganized in the City of Edinburgh by Mrs. Isabella Gordon McKay, the 
 wife of Mr. John McKay, Rockfield, Sutherlandshire. This Society was 
 known as the "Edinburgh Ladies Association," and the purpose <Jf this 
 association was "To raise money to help in sending missionaries, catechists, 
 and school teachers to the Island of Cape Breton." 
 
 Mrs. McKay's attention was directed to the religious and educational 
 necessities of Cape Breton by the reports of the Rev. John McLennan and 
 the Rev. Donald Allan Eraser. These men came to Cape Breton in 1827 
 and their reports of conditions in C. B. were published in Scotland, in the 
 following year. These reports awakened a deep interest throughout the 
 Highlands of Scotland, but more especially in Sutherlandshire, and "Tlie 
 Edinburgh Ladies Association" was the result of that interest. 
 
 Hence, Cape Breton Presbyterianism is under an uns^ieakable debt of 
 gratitude to Messrs McLennan and Eraser for their timely visit to this 
 island, and more especially for their bestirring reports. But Cape Breton 
 Presbyterianism is under an especially deep debt of gratitude to Mrs 
 McKay and "The Edinburgh Ladies Association" for the self-sacrifice and 
 generosity with which they came to the assistance of our ancestors in the 
 lack of ministers and teachers, ninety odd years ago. Between 1833 and 
 1850 this Association was instrumental in sending eight ministers as well as 
 several catechists and school teachers to Cape Breton. It also helped to a 
 greater or less extent in supporting these ministers, catechists and teachers 
 after they came here. It likewise did a good work in providing bibles, 
 catechisms, and religious books for our people in those early days when 
 there was nothing of that kind for sale on this island. 
 
 The first missionary sent to Cape Breton by the "Edinburgh Ladies 
 Association," was the Rev. Alexander Farquharson. Mr. Farquharson 
 was born in Strathardale, Perthshire, on May the 29th, 1793. He was 
 educated at the University of St. Andrews, and was sent out to Cape Breton 
 
 51 
 
as a Gaelic speaking licentiate of the Church of Scotland. He was landed 
 at the Strait of Canso, from a ship bound up the Gulf, in the month of 
 August, 1833. After a brief stay at Plaster Cove, he found a schooner 
 bound for the Miramichi River, upon which he took passage for New 
 Castle, in order to obtain ordination from the Presbytery of New Bruns- 
 wick. This Presbytery had been organized on January the 30th, 1833, 
 and it was to meet at New Castle about the end of August. After receiving 
 ordination from that Presbytery, Mr. Farquharson returned, with no loss 
 of time, to his sphere of labor. He arrived at Plaster Cove on the 11th of 
 September, and the following sabbath he preached his first sermon in 
 Cpae Breton. There was a church built on the old Port Hood Road, in 
 the rear of McMillan's Point, in the previous year and it was in that church 
 that Mr. Farquharson preached that sermon. The church has disappeared 
 but a cemetery, which is still in use, marks its site. 
 
 The following week Mr. Farquharson set out to visit as many Presby- 
 terian settlements as he could overtake previous to the coming of winter. 
 From a report of his itinerary during the next three months which he sent 
 to the Ladies Association, we learn that he had preached during that time 
 in Plaster Cove, West Bay,Grandance, Malagawatch, River Denys, Why- 
 cocomagh. Lake Ainslie, Little Narrows, and Middle River. He spent the 
 winter months in the latter place. Next spring he resumed his missionary 
 explorations and by the end of that summer he had visited and preached 
 in nearly every Presbyterian Community on this island. 
 
 During the month of November\ 1834, he returned to Middle River, 
 and on the last day of the month he was inducted into the pastorate of 
 Middle River and Lake Ainslie by the Rev. John Stewart. 
 
 After seeing all the Presbyterian settlements on the island Mr. 
 Farquharson drew up a plan for the division of Cape Breton into ten 
 parishes with two churches to each parish. 
 
 At the end of his first year in Cape Breton he sent a full report of his 
 work to the Glasgow Colonial Society. At the conclusion of that report 
 he writes as follows: "From what I have written you will learn a little of 
 the desolate condition of many a precious soul in this place. I really 
 believe, from what I have seen and learned, that there is not a place in the 
 whole world professing Christianity, where there are so many families so 
 near to each other and so utterly destitute as our poor countrymen on this 
 island are. There is labor enough for seven or eight faithful and laborious 
 ministers of our church." 
 
 Mr. Farquharson spent the whole of his ministerial life at Middle 
 River and Lake Ainslie. The River section took two thirds of his services, 
 and the Lake section one third. He married Ann McKenzie, the daughter 
 of one of his parishioners at Middle River, and by her he had a goodly 
 family some of whom are still alive. The late Rev. Alexander Farquhar- 
 son, so well and favorably known in eastern Cape Breton, was one of his 
 sons. 
 
 Mr. Farquharson was a man of very fine physique and presence. He 
 stood six feet two inches in height and was stout in proportion. In dis- 
 
 52 
 
position he was quiet, amiable, humble, gentle,affectionate and sympathetic. 
 He was, moreover, faithful and conscientious in the discharge of his minis- 
 terial duties. He was likewise greatly esteemed and loved by his brethren 
 in the ministry. . 
 
 Mr. Farquharson departed this life at his home on the Middle River 
 on the 25th of January, 1858, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and the 
 twenty-fifth of his Cape Breton ministry. 
 
 On his tombstone in the cemetery of Middle River is inscribed the 
 following epitaph; "He was the first missionary sent directly to Cape 
 Breton by the Church of Scotland, and the first Church of Scotland mis- 
 sionary to spend his whole life here. He lived a life of eminent usefulness, 
 self-sacrifice, and self-denial, and he finished his course with joy." 
 
 
 53 
 
Rev. John Stewart. 
 
 The Rev. John Stewart was the second missionary sent to Cape Breton 
 by "The Edinburgh Ladies Association." Mr. Stewart was born at Little 
 Dunkeld, Perthshire, Scotland, in April, 1800. In his boyhood he studied 
 in the parish school and later in the Perth Academy, where he prepared for 
 the University of Edinburgh. After graduating in Arts from that famous 
 institution of learning, he studied medicine for a couple of sessions, with the 
 intention of devoting his life to the healing art. But he turned aside from 
 that honorable profession and studied for the ministry of the Established 
 Church, under the great Thomas Chalmers, D. D., for whom he always had 
 the greatest admiration. 
 
 After completing his Theological studies, Mr. Stewart was licensed to 
 preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Dunkield, on the 26th of June, 
 1832. During the next two years he taught the higher branches of learn- 
 ing in St. Georges Academy in the City of Edinbrugh. Then hearing of 
 the need of ministers of the gospel on the island of Cape Breton, he offered 
 his services to the Edinburgh Ladies' Association as a missionary in that dis- 
 tant field of labor. He left his native land about the end of July 1834 on 
 board a vessel bound for the Miramichi River, N. B., and after a stormy 
 passage of twenty eight days, he was landed at Plaster Cove, Strait of 
 Canso, on Saturday, August the 23rd, 1834. The following day he preach- 
 ed his first sermon in Cape Breton in the unfinished church that had been 
 built two years earlier on the old Port Hood road, and near where that road 
 crossed the road from McMillan's Point to West Bay. The cemetery still 
 marks the site of that old church. The following week he found his way to 
 Port Hood and on Sabbath, August the 31st, he preached to a congrega- 
 tion of 150 persons in that place. On the next Sabbath, Sept. the 7th, he 
 conducted public worship at East Lake Ainslie. Here he found the people 
 building their first church and he encouraged them in their good work. On 
 the second Sabbath he preached at Broad Cove (now Strathlorne) to 
 an audience of 200. Then he went to Whycocamagh and met with the 
 highland settlers of that place on the 3rd Sabbath of the month. At 
 Whycocamagh he met the Rev. Alexander Farquharson, who had come 
 from the Middle River to meet him and escort him thither. At the Middle 
 River he found the people anxious to have Mr, Farquharson settled over 
 them as their minister. While there he prepared a Call, and after public 
 worship he invited his hearers to come forward and attach their names 
 which they did with great heartiness and unanimity. From the Middle 
 River Mr. Stewart went to River Inhabitants and assisted the Rev. 
 Dugald McKichan in the dispensation of the Lord's Supper. After the 
 Communion was over, Mr. Stewart went on to McLennan's Mountain, 
 Plctou County, in order to meet the Presbytery of Pictou and receive 
 ordinaltions at its hands. The Presbytery met on the 6th of October and 
 Mr. Stewart was duly ordained by the laying on of the hands of the Pres- 
 bytery and by prayer. 
 
 64 
 
On the 17th of October we find Mr. Stewart back again in Cape Breton, 
 and preaching at Plaster Cove. Here he purchased a horse, saddle, bridle 
 and watch, and thus fitted out he started on a journey to the eastern parts 
 of the island. 
 
 ,0n the following Saturday, Oct. 24th, he reached Sydney, a distance of 
 about one hundred miles from the Strait of Canso. On the following day, 
 Oct. 25th, he conducted public worship in the Methodist Church of that 
 town. The following week he went on to a settlement of Gaelic speaking 
 people on the Mira River near where Marion Bridge is now. Here he 
 preached in English and Gaelic to large congregations. 
 
 On Tuesday, Nov. the 3rd, we find him at Catalone, and preaching to 
 a congregation that he had to reprove for restlessness, and that he addressed 
 on the necessity of building a place of worship. Returning to Mira, he 
 preached there again on two successive Sabbaths, and got the people to 
 undertake the building of a church with as little delay as possible. 
 
 On November the 8th he preached at Bridgeport Mines in the fore- 
 noon, and in the Methodist Church, Sydney, in the evening. The Bridge- 
 port Mine was opened in 1830 by the General Mining Association and it is 
 likely that there were some Presbyterians at that colliery in 1834. 
 
 The following day he preached at Sydney Mines, and the next day he 
 went on to the North Side of Boulardarie (Big Bras d'Or), where he spent 
 a week evangelizing and baptizing. At the eastern end of the Big Bras 
 d'Or he made arrangements for the erection of a church. At the western 
 end he found a church under construction, which he encouraged the people 
 to ceil, seat and finish inside. He gave them the sum of £5 for the 
 construction of a pulpit. 
 
 On the 19th of November, Mr. Stewart preached at Little Bad deck 
 (Baddeck) and on the 22nd at Big Baddeck (Baddeck Forks) in English 
 and Gaelic. From the Baddeck River Mr. Stewart went on to the Middle 
 River, as he writes, "For the purpose of settling Mr. Farquharson and 
 introducing him to his charge." This he did on the 29th of November, 
 1834. In the settlement of Mr. Farquharson, Mr. Stewart had to discharge 
 all the functions of a Presbytery. He moderated in the Call; he approved 
 it as a regular Gospel Call; he placed the Call in Mr. Farquharson's hands 
 for acceptance; he preached the induction sermon; he put the usual ques- 
 tions to the minister; he offered the induction prayer; he addressed the 
 newly inducted minister, and also the people on their respective duties and 
 responsibilities; and he gave Mr. Farquharson the right hand of fellowship, 
 inducting him into all the rights and privileges of minister in the congrega- 
 tion of Middle River, and Lake Ainslie. There was no Presbytery on the 
 Island of Cape Breton at that time nor for nearly two years thereafter. 
 
 Mr. Stewart got to West Bay on the 18th of December, where he 
 spent the next four or five months very busily preaching and visiting all 
 parts of thai extensive congregation. 
 
 On the 1st day of May, 1835, he renewed his itinerary of the island, 
 on horse back. By the middle of June he had visited Grand River, Mira, 
 Loch Lomond, Louisburg, Catalone, Mira, Sydney, Leitches Creek, and 
 
 55 
 
Sydney Mines. On June the 14th he was in Aspy Bay. In the month of 
 August we find him in P. E. Island, and preaching at Brackley Point, 
 Malpeque Road and North River. After his return from P. E. I., he made 
 a missionary journey to Whycocamagh, Lake Ainslie, Strathlorne and to 
 the Margaree River. In these few sentences we have only attempted to 
 give a brief summary of Mr. Stewart's travails and labors during the first 
 fifteen months of his life in Cape Breton, but this summary wijl serve to 
 show what an energetic man he was. Whatever he undertook to do was 
 done with all his might. About the 1st of October 1835, Mr. Stewart 
 returned to West Bay. By this time a call to the pastorate of this con- 
 gregation was ready for him, and he accepted it- and settled down for a time 
 to regular congregational work. His induction took place on the 19th of 
 October, 1835. It could not have been a regular Presbyterial induction 
 inasmuch as there was no Presbytery in Cape Breton at that time. No 
 doubt the Rev. A. Parquharson and the Rev. Dugald McKichan were 
 present and took part in the induction services on that occasion. 
 
 When Mr. Stew;art became minister of West Bay there were not less 
 than one hundred Presbyterian families living on the shores of that ex- 
 tensive bay, and there were not less than 10,000 Presbyterians in the whole 
 island. But these thousands were settled in groups and colonies generally 
 many miles aparti And besides, the lots of land held by each family were 
 large^ generally several hundreds of acres. This condition of things, to- 
 gether with the lack of highways, made the work of the pioneer ministers 
 very laborious. It also caused an isolation of families and communities 
 that was very unfavorable to the social, educational and religious life of 
 our people. 
 
 There were thirteen Presbyterian Churches under construction at 
 different points on the island at that date, butfew if any of them were either 
 seated, lighted for night services, or heated. The people were anxious 
 enough to own places of worship, but they were so poor and money was so 
 scarce that very slow progress was being made in the line of church building. 
 
 When Mr. Stewart entered upon his ministry at West Bay, there was a 
 church near Black River, but it was of little service in cold weather for lack 
 of heating facilities. Worshipping in such a building with the temperature 
 hovering about zero was not favorable to the culture of piety. But Mr. 
 Stewart tells us that even under such circumstances the services were well 
 attended. 
 
 The people of West Bay promised Mr. Stewart a stipend of £l50 
 currency, one half in cash, the other half in produce. But they were slow 
 in paying what they promised, as indeed were our people all over Cape 
 Breton at that time and for many years thereafter. We have it from the 
 pen of Mrs. McKay, president of the Edinburgh Ladies Association, that 
 one half of the stipend promised Mr. Stewart remained unpaid, at the end_ 
 "ol the first year. Tfor were matters any better in this regard at the end of 
 thFsicond or third year of Mr. Stewart's stay in West Bay.' 
 
 There were no manses in those days; Mr. Stewart, like all the pioneer 
 ministers of the island with the exception of Mr. Wilson, had to provide his 
 
 56 
 
own home. He bought a piece of land about three miles to the east of '; 
 the Black River, and built a log hou^'upon it. To this log house he sub- | 
 sequently brought his bride from one of the elegant residences of the City | 
 of Edinburgh. 
 
 In the summer of 1836 Mr. Stewart returned to Scotland where he took | 
 to wife Miss Alicia Murray Drysdale, daughter of William Drysdale, i 
 jeweller of Lothian Street, Edinburgh. This well connected and highly ; 
 educated lady left the "Modern Athens" with all its refinement, privileges i 
 and comforts to live with Mr. Stewart in that log house at West Bay; it ; 
 was a great sacrifice to make, surely, but she was never known to regret the ' 
 step she had taken. She did her duty by her husband and by his people 
 faithfully and cheerfully. 
 
 In October, 1837, Mr. Stewart received a call from St. Andrews Church, 
 Eraser's Mountain, Pictou County. He referred the matter of acceptance 
 to the Presbytery of Cape Breton and the Presbytery advised him to accept 
 the call. He did not, however, leave West Bay until June 1838. He left 
 Cape Breton for Eraser's Mountain, very much to the regret of his people 
 but also and especially to the regret of the "Edinburgh Ladies Association." 
 
 Mrs. McKay, the President of the Association, writing to a friend, used 
 the following expressions regarding the matter; "Do give me some comfort 
 regarding this Stewart matter." "I am much annoyed about the 
 Stewarts' removal." "A severe blow to our work in Cape Breton." "It 
 is bad for our poor little island." 
 
 After Mr. Stewart went to Eraser's Mountain, now New Glasgow, 
 he began to take a very active part in the anti-patronage and anti-intrusion 
 controversy that preceeded and followed the disruption of the Church 
 of Scotland in the year 1843. His sympathies were very strongly with Dr. 
 Chalmers and the evangelical party in that famous struggle for the freedom 
 of the Church of Scotland from State control. 
 
 When the disruption of the Church of Scotland in Nova Scotia took 
 place in 1844, Mr. Stewart was one of the ministers that came out and that 
 constituted themselves the Free Church of Nova Scotia. He left St. 
 Andrews Church, New Glasgow, followed by a large number of his people, 
 and they formed the John Knox Eree Church in that town. 
 
 Subsequently Mr. Stewart took a very active and prominent part in 
 the work of the Eree Church, especially in the establishment of the Eree 
 Church Academy and Theologiol Hall on Gerrish Street, Halifax, in the 
 year 1848, for the purpose of training young men for the ministry. 
 
 In the year 1851 Mr. Stewart went to Scotland for the purpose of 
 raising money for that Theologial Hall and he returned with the handsome 
 sum of $6,000. 
 
 After serving his church and generation faithfullj>, Mr. Stewart fell 
 asleep at New Glasgow on the 4th day of May, 1880, in the 80th year of 
 his life, and the forty-eighth of his ministry. 
 
 57 
 
Rev. James Fraser, M. A. 
 
 The Rev. James Fraser was born in the Parish of Fodderty, Rosshire,_ 
 Scotland, in the year 1800. He took his Arts course in the University of 
 Aberdeen, from which he graduated as Master of Arts in the year 1824. 
 Before entering upon the study of Theology, he taught the parish school at 
 Loehinver, Sutherlandshire, for a number of years. He studied Theology 
 partly in Aberdeen and partly in Edinburgh under the great Dr. Thomas 
 Chalmers, of whom he was ever after a great admirer. He was licensed by 
 the Presbjrtery of Dornach in the month of May, 1835. Shortly after 
 being licensed, he offered his services to the "Edinburgh Ladies Associa- 
 tion" for missionary work in Cape Breton. That Association wanted a 
 man for Boulardarie and it gladly accepted Mr. Eraser's offer. After or- 
 dination by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, he left Scotland early in August, 
 1836, and arrived in Cape Breton about the middle of September. 
 
 Messrte Farquharson and Stewart were apprised of his coming and were 
 eagerly awaiting his arrival in order to constitute a Presbytery of the 
 Church of Scotland in the island of Cape Breton. The Synod of that 
 church met in Pictou on the 12th of August, 1836, and among other items 
 of business instructed these two brethren to meet with Mr. Fraser, as soon 
 as convenient, after his arrival, and constitute a Presbytery to be known as 
 "The Presbytery of Cape Breton." 
 
 We have no record of the time when or the place where this Presbytery 
 was constituted, but we have the minutes of that Synod for the year 1837, 
 and we find that the Presbytery of Cape Breton was one of the four Pres- 
 byteries of which the Synod was comprised in that year. 
 
 Like Mr. Farquharson and Mr. Stewart, Mr. Fraser spent the greater 
 part of his first year in Cape Breton itinerating among the Gaelic speaking 
 settlements in the different parts of the island. 
 
 Sometime towards the end of the year 1837 Mr. Fraser was inducted 
 into the charge of Boulardarie and he settled down to his life work in that 
 congregation. After a few years he bought a farm at the Big Bras d'Or 
 and built a house thereon. This was the centre of his activities for the 
 remainder of his life. 
 
 Mr. Fraser was the first Presbyterian minister to take charge of a con- 
 gregation in the Eastern end of Cape Breton. Until the arrival of Mr. 
 Wilson in the year 1842, a period of five years, Mr. Fraser Was the only 
 minister of our church in this part of the island. On this account he had to 
 look after the growing Presbyterian population of Littl Bras d'Or, Sydney 
 Mines, Upper North Sydney, Leitches Creek, Sydney, Sydney Forks, Mira 
 and Catalone as well as Boulardarie He also made excursions to outlying 
 places such as Cape North, Loch Lomond and Grand River. Of course 
 these excursions were made in the summer season and for the most part 
 on horse back. There were no roads and no carriages in the early part of 
 Mr. Eraser's ministry. 
 
 These missionary journeys were very trying to flesh and blood, but 
 
 58 
 
Mr. Eraser was endowed with a low-set compact body that enabled him to 
 endure hardships without any prostration or much weariness. 
 
 In the course of time other men came to share the labor of this wide 
 field, and Mr. Fraser was at liberty to devote all his time and energy to the 
 island of Boulardarie and to the people lining on the North side of the Big 
 Bras d'Or or the "Slios" as it was then known. In the course of time he 
 had the satisfaction of seeing a God-fearing people growing up under his 
 faithful preaching, teaching and example. This good man was permitted 
 to continue his pastoral work to within a few months of his death, which 
 took place on the 8th of April, 1874 in the 74th year of his life and the 39th 
 of his ministry. 
 
 Mr. Fraser lived in a quiet, unobtrusive life. He lived with his people 
 and for his people. One who knew him well said of him after his death, 
 "His piety was decided and deep, but also cheerful. Whatever his trials 
 bodily or mental, might have been, and they were many, no complaint was 
 ever heard from his lips. His gentlemanly bearing, genial disposition and 
 tender sympathy made him a favorite with all who knew him." 
 
 His faithful teaching, abundant labors and Christ-like life made a deep 
 and abiding impression on the people of Boulardarie, an impression that 
 still persists after an interval of nearly fifty years since he passed to his re- 
 ward. 
 
 «4^ 
 
 59 
 
Rev. Peter McLean. 
 
 The Rev. Peter McLean was preeminently the evangelist of the Cape 
 Breton pioneers. He was born at Nigg, in the island of Lewis in the year 
 1800. By his own account of himself, he was a very wild and reckless 
 young man. In early life he was engaged in shop-keeping in Stornaway, 
 the principal town in his native island. In the twenty-seventh year of his 
 life he had a revelation of himself that led him to cry for mercy and to feel 
 his need of the sinners' Saviour. After a long and sore struggle with sin 
 and self, at length he found pardon, peace and joy through faith in Jesus 
 Christ. Thereupon he lost no time in winding up his business, paying all 
 his liabilities, and entering upon a course of study that would qualify him 
 for the ministry of the gospel. 
 
 We do not know where his studies were taken, either in Arts or Theo- 
 logy, but we know that after completing his course in both Arts and 
 Theology he .was licensed by the Presbytery of Lewis in the year 1836, when 
 he was thirty-six years of age. In June, 1837, Mr. McLean was ordained 
 by the Presbytery of Lewis, at the request of the Colonial Committee, as 
 missionary to St. Patrick's Channel and Whycocamagh Bay in the island 
 of Cape Breton. The Edinburgh Ladies' Association furnished the money 
 necessary for his outfit and passage. This Association also undertook to 
 pay a certain amount of his support during the first few years of his stay^ 
 in those places. 
 
 Mr. McLean landed in Sydney by way of Halifax on August the 26th, 
 1837. Here he spent his first Sabbath in Cape Breton, and here he con- 
 ducted his first service on this island in the Methodist Church. During the 
 following week he found his way to St. Patrick's Channel and Little 
 Narrows, a part of his mission field, where he preached to his own people 
 on the first Sabbath of September from Psalm 104:31, "Oh, that men 
 would praise the Lord for his goodness and for the wonderful works to the 
 children of men." The next Sunday he preached in Whycocamagh where 
 he had his home while he remained in Cape Breton. 
 
 The people of Whycocamagh received Mr. McLean with great joy 
 and as a special ambassador of Jesus Christ to them. During his stay in the 
 •congregation Mr. McLean lived a very strenuous life, but at the same time 
 he enjoyed many tokens of his Master's presence and blessing upon his 
 labors. He was a very strong, earnest, fervent preacher of the gospel and 
 his preaching was wonderfully owned of God in the conviction, conversion 
 and sanctification of hundreds of his people, both young and old. His 
 preaching was accompanied by very extraordinary effects upon his hearers, 
 not only mentally and spiritually, but also physically. Among these effects 
 there were unconsciousness of surroundings, prostrations of the body, cries 
 of alarm, fear and distress, followed by exclamations of joy, gladness and 
 praise of God. 
 
 Mr. McLean did not limit his ministrations to Whycocamagh and 
 Little Narrows. He went everywhere preaching the Word, and wherever 
 he went similar effects of his preaching were experienced. 
 
 60 
 
But the strain was too much for flesh and blood to endure, and by the 
 end of the year 1841, his health gave way, and he announced his intention 
 to leave and return to his native land for rest. But when the people of 
 Whycocomagh found that he was going to leave them, they made such an 
 ado and lamentation that he remained till the following spring. Then he 
 ■slipped away without letting them know of his intended deparFure, chiefly 
 in order to avoid the distress of parting, both to himself apd to his people 
 as well. 
 
 By the beginning of 1843, Mr. McLean's health was so far restored 
 that he accepted a call to the newly formed Free Church Congregation in 
 Tobermory, Isle of Mull, where he was inducted on the 2nd of August in 
 that year. 
 
 Ten years later in 1853, Mr. McLean revisited the scenes of his former 
 labors and triumphs, not only in Cape Breton but also in Pictou County and 
 Prince Edward Island. lit was in October, 1853, that he conducted that _' 
 memorable communion season at Whycocomagh which has been spoken ■ 
 about ever since as the most Penticostal experience that Cape Breton has 
 ■ever enjoyed. It is said that there were five thousand people present on 
 that occasion, and that parties were there from nearly every congregation 
 in Cape Breton. There was never such a time of spiritual blessing on this 
 island before or since. 
 
 In May, 1855, Mr. McLean accepted a call to the Free Gaelic Church of 
 Stornaway, in his native island. Here again his ministry was distinguished 
 by a remarkable work of grace. Mr. McLean made a third and last visit 
 to these provinces in the year 1866. He spent three months on this occas- 
 sion revisiting old scenes and preaching the gospel with much of the old 
 fervor and power. The writer has very distinct recollections of hearing 
 him preach on two occasions in Pictou County during that visit. He 
 reached Whycocomagh about the end of July and dispensed the Lord's 
 Supper in his first congregation on the last Sabbath of that month. But 
 while he preached with a large measure of his wonted life, energy and 
 pathos, it was manifest to his old friends that he was beginning to fail. His 
 efforts wearied him more than they used to do in other days. It was 
 noticed that when the service was over, he would return to his lodging and 
 rest instead of waiting to greet and talk with old acquaintances as he was 
 accustomed to do on his former visit. Indeed that transatlantic trip was 
 too much for his failing strength. He returned to Scotland very much ex- 
 hausted. His physical strength was giving way and his work was nearly 
 done. After reaching Stornaway he suffered from a bronchial affection, 
 induced very likely from his energetic maner of speaking in the open air 
 and in badly ventilated buildings while in Cape Breton. He was bed- 
 ridden during the last eight months of his life. He passed into the Master's 
 presence on the 20th of March, 1868, in the sixth-eighth year of his age, and 
 the thirty-first of his ministry. . 
 
 Mr. McLean was a large, fleshy man, and he was generally spoken of as 
 "Patrick mor MacLean." 
 
 61 
 
Rev. John Gnnii. 
 
 The Rev. John Gunn was a native of the parish of Far, Sutherlandshire, 
 Scotland, where he was born in the year 1806. 
 
 His classical and theological education was acquired at the University 
 of Aberdeen. 
 
 He came to Pictou, Nova Scotia, under the auspices of the Edinburgh 
 Ladies' Association in the early summer of 1838, and he came to Cape 
 Breton in the autumn of that year. He supplied West Bay for several 
 weeks in the month of November and from there he went to Grand River 
 and LochLomond, where he labored for the next year and a half or two years. 
 Early in the spring of 1840 the people of Broad Cove sent a boat and crew 
 all the way to Irish Cove to meet Mr. Gunn, his wife, three children and 
 effects, and convey them by way of the Grand Narrows, St. Patrick's 
 Channel and Whycocamagh to Lake Ainslie and Loch Ban where it was 
 arranged that he should make his home, and be settled as minister of Broad 
 Cove and Broad Cove River, now Strathlorne. The place where Mr. Gunn 
 lived is know known as Kinloch, in the Gaelic language "caennloch," or 
 head of the lake. 
 
 Here he bought a block of land, built a house, and spent the rest of his 
 life. The land is still in possession of his son, Robert Gunn, M. D., and 
 other members of the Gunn family. 
 
 Mr. Gunn's congregation was very extensive. It included not only 
 Broad Cove and Strathlorne, but also Chimney Corner, Whale Cove, and 
 the Margaree River from bottom to top, from the Harbor to the Big Inter- 
 vale. Mr.Gunn labored in this large field for a period of thirty years. His 
 induction at Broad Cove took place on Sept. the 24th, 1840. He was the 
 first minister of the Presbyterian Church to be regularly ordained, and in- 
 ducted on the island of Cape Breton. 
 
 The Rev. Norman McLeod was neither ordained nor inducted in 
 Cape Breton. The Rev. William Millar was ordained and designated to 
 Mabou at Durham, Pictou. The Rev. Dugald McKichan was not inducted 
 at River Inhabitants and Strait of Canso. He came there from Barney's Riv- 
 er and took charge of our people in those places without the sanction of any 
 Presbytery. Rev. Alexander Farquharson was ordained at New Castle, 
 and inducted at Middle River by the Rev. John Stewart. The Rev. John 
 Stewart himself was ordained at McLennan's Mountain, Pictou County, 
 and inducted at West Bay by his brethern, Messrs Farquharson and 
 McKichan, but they did not act Presbyterially. There was no Presbytery 
 on the Island in 1835. The Rev. James Fraser no doubt had a Presby- 
 terial induction at Boulardarie in Sept., 1836, and the Rev. Peter McLean 
 at Whycocamagh in 1837; but both of these men were ordained in Scotland 
 before coming to Cape Breton. The Presbytery that met at Broad Cove 
 on the 24th of Sept., 1840, for the purpose of ordaining and inducting the 
 Rev. John Gunn, was composed of the Rev. James Fraser, Moderator, 
 Dugald McKichan, Clerk, Alexander Farquharson and Peter McLean. 
 After Mr. Gunn's induction his name was added to the roll of the Presby- 
 
 62 
 
tery of Cape Breton. The second name added to this roll was that of the 
 Rev. Matthew Wilson. That was in 1842. 
 
 In August, 1844, at a meeting of Synod held in the town of Pictou, 
 €very member of the Presbytery of Cape Breton with drew from the Church 
 of Scotland and attached himself to the newly formed Free Church of 
 Nova Scotia. From that time the Presbytery of Cape Breton was a 
 Presbytery of the Free Church of Nova Scotia. All the people followed 
 their ministers, very cordially in this ecclesiastical change. Not one of the 
 Cape Breton ministers remained in the Church of Scotland and not one 
 returned to Scotland for the purpose of getting a parish church as nearly 
 all the Pictou ministers did in 1843 or 1844. 
 
 But in 1860, sixteen years later, when the Free Church of Nova Scotia 
 and the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia united to form the Presby- 
 terian Church of the Lower Provinces, Mr. Gunn declined to enter the 
 United Body and his congregation was loyal enough to their minister to 
 remain out with him. A year or two later, Mr. Gunn attached hmself to the 
 Presbytery of Pictou m connection with the Church of Scotland, and again 
 the people were loyal enough to their minister to go back to the old Kirk 
 with him. 
 
 Mr. Gunn remained a minister of the Church of Scotland until his 
 death in 1870, and his congregation remained in that connection until the 
 general union of Presbyterianism in Canada in June, 1875. 
 
 During the first twenty years of his ministry in Broad Cove Mr. Gunn 
 was accustomed to spend from six to eight weeks of every summer in the 
 north eastern parts of Cape Breton, in Pleasant Bay, Aspy Bay and Bay 
 St. Lawrence. The people living in these isolated places were always glad 
 to see him among them, and they never failed to give him a cordial welcome. 
 They also listened very attentively to his gospel messages, and were doubt- 
 less very much the better for his ministrations. He never asked for any 
 monetary reward for his services in these parts. He did not even have a 
 collection taken at any of his diets of 'worship. But the good people of 
 these localities never allowed him to return without ample compensation. 
 Every one, young and old, gave him something, great or small, according 
 to their means, and they always placed the gift in his own hand with a re- 
 spectful curtesy or bow. The result was that he returned home, well re- 
 warded financially and also with the satisfaction of having rendered good 
 service to his Master and to the souls of a grateful people. 
 
 Mr. Gunn was a man of very unselfish and generous disposition. He 
 never had much of this world's goods, but he was ever ready to share his 
 meagre stock with any one in need. He was not regarded as an eloquent 
 preacher but he was an evangelical and practical preacher. He expound- 
 ed and applied the Word of God with faithfulness and force. His humble 
 and sympathetic nature caused him to be very much esteemed and loved 
 by his own people. 
 
 Mr. Gunn departed this life on the 2nd of November, 1870, in the 
 sixty-fourth year of his age, and the thirty-second year of his ministry in 
 Cape Breton. 
 
 63. 
 
Rev. Matthew Wilson, M . A. 
 
 The Rev. Matthew Wilson was the Nathaniel of the Pioneers. He was 
 born at Chryston near Glasgow, Scotland, on the first day of January, 1806. 
 He studied bothArts and Theology at the University of Glasgow, and 
 graduated in Theology in the spring of 1837. He was licensed to preach 
 the gospel by the Presbytery of Glasgow on the 5th of September, 1838. 
 
 He spent two or three years as City Missionary in Glasgow under the 
 supervision of the Presbytery. In the year 1840 and again in 1841, the 
 Presbytery of Cape Breton sent urgent petitions to the Colonial Committee 
 begging for a man to break the bread of life to the Presbyterians of Sydney 
 Mines and vicinity. Mr. Wilson was selected by the Committee as the 
 best available man for that field. 
 
 When the needs of this transatlantic mission were placed before Mr. 
 Wilson and its claims upon him were urged by the Committee, he promptly 
 consented to cross the sea and do what he could to preach the gospel to this 
 destitute people. Thereupon the Glasgow Presbytery ordained him on the 
 17th of May, 1842, arid sent him away with their benedictions and their 
 prayers. 
 
 Mr. Wilson sailed from the Clyde in a barque owned by the firm of 
 Gammel and Moore of Little Bras d Or. The Captain of the barque was a 
 Mr. Moore of Upper North Sydney; and William Gammel one of the owners 
 was aboard as a fellow passenger of Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson arrived in 
 Sydney Harbor in the month of July, 1842, and shortly thereafter he was 
 inducted by the Presbytery of Cape Breton into the charge of Sydney 
 Mines, Little Bras d'Or and Upper North Sydney. Here Mr. Wilson spent 
 the rest of his life doing faithful and efficient work for his Master and for the 
 souls of his people. 
 
 In the year 1883, on account of age and increasing infirmity, he re- 
 signed the charge and retired from the active duties of the ministry. But 
 still he continued to visit and comfort his aged parishioners and to preach 
 occasionally until within three weeks of his death. 
 
 The circumstances of his last illness and death were particularly sad: 
 One dark night in the month of November, 1884, a man called at the manse 
 with a horse and wagon in order to take Mr. Wilson to see a sick and sup- 
 posedly dying woman. He was not at all well and the night was cold, but 
 he got ready for the journey and went. On the way to the home of the sick 
 woman, the driver lost control of his horse and Mr. Wilson was thrown out 
 of the carriage. The ground was frozen, and in falling his head came in 
 violent contact with the hard earth of the highway. He was taken up in 
 an unconscious condition, and carried back to the old manse, in which he 
 had lived for forty-two years. In the course of a week erysipelas supervened 
 and after three weeks of great siiffering he passed to his rest and reward on 
 the 13th of December, 1884, in the seventy-ninth of his age, and the forty- 
 third of his ministry. 
 
 The following extract from the pen of his colleague, the Rev. Donald 
 
 64 
 
McMillan, will make a fitting close to this short memoir of as godly and 
 guileless a man or minister as ever lived on the island of Cape Breton, or 
 anywhere else. "Mr. Wilson's death was lamented by young and old, 
 of all classes and creeds; for no man was more honored and loved. His 
 charity knew no bounds of sect or race. Every fibre of his nature was re- 
 sponsive to suffering. His sympathetic nature, with his refined and un- 
 failing courtesy and manifold christian graces, caused Mr. Wilson to be 
 esteemed as the most welcome visitor to the bed of the sick and the dying. 
 He may be said to have died a martyr to his lofty sense of duty in this re- 
 spect; for had he declined, as he very properly and reasonably might have 
 done, to start on that last fatal visit, he would in all probability, have lived 
 for years. Mr. Wilson was an excellent preacher, and maintained till the 
 last the finely rhetorical method and persuasive eloquence for which he was 
 distinguished in his prime." 
 
 65 
 
Rev. Murdoch Stewart, M. A. 
 
 This saintly man was born in Rosshire, Scotland, in the year 1809. 
 His father was the catechist of his native parish, and no doubt Mr. Stewart's 
 boyhood was spent in a godly atmosphere. He was studiously inclined 
 from his youth. After passing through the parish school he was sent to 
 Aberdeen University where he studied both Arts and Theology. On grad- 
 uating in Arts he obtained the degree of Master of Arts in 1834. He was 
 a fine classical scholar, but he excelled in mathematics. He graduated 
 in Theology in the year 1838, and was licensed to preach the gospel in the 
 year 1839. 
 
 After teaching in one of the parish schools of his native land for several 
 years, Mr. Stewart offered his services to the Colonial Committee of the 
 Church of Scotland as a missionary to Cape Breton and more especially to 
 the congregation of West Bay. His offer was accepted, and the Committee 
 sent him out to take charge of that congregation. Fitted out by the Edin- 
 burgh Ladies' Association, he sailed from Liverpool for Halifax on the first 
 Tuesday of July, 1843. On arriving at Halifax he found a packet that 
 landed him at Arichat, and from there he found his way to his appointed 
 field of labor in West Bay, about the first of August. In the month of 
 September following the West Bay Congregation called Mr. Stewart to be 
 its second pastor and the Presbytery of Cape Breton ordained and inducted 
 him into the charge. 
 
 West Bay was one of the oldest Presbyterian settlements then on the 
 island of Cape Breton. The earliest settlers came here about the year 1813. 
 The Rev. John Stewart had been settled as their first minister in the year 
 1835 and continued with them until' 1838, when he accepted a call to St. 
 Andrew's Church, New Glasgow. That was five years ago, and during 
 those years West Bay had very few services. When the Rev. Murdoch 
 Stewart arrived in 1843, he found everything in a very primative and back- 
 ward condition. He had to live in a log house like nearly all Lis people at 
 that time. There were very few of the comforts and none of the luxuries 
 of life in those days. There were no carriages and no carriage roads. He 
 had to do all his travelling either on foot or on horse-back, or by boat in the 
 summer time. In winter there were rough sleds that were employed in 
 travelling from place to place. 
 
 His people were by this time well provided with food and clothing, 
 but there was very little money in circulation and it was really difficult for 
 them to pay a stipend that would be adequate for the support of a minister. 
 But Mr. Stewart addressed himself to his pastoral duties with great dili- 
 gence and faithfulness. He itinerated far and near at all seasons of the 
 year and in all kinds of weather. During the first ten years of his pastorate 
 he was the only Presbyterian minister in the County of Richmond, and 
 hence he had to be frequently absent from his congregation visiting and 
 preaching, in other neighboring highland settlements. 
 
 Grandance, Grand River, Loch Lomond, Framboise,River Inhabitants, 
 
 66 
 
Plaster Cove, River Denys, and Malagawatch were all without a minister 
 of the gospel during the first ten years of Mr. Stewart's pastorate at West 
 Bay, and ft devolved upon him to do what he could for these destitute com- 
 munities. The Rev. Wm. G. Forbes took charge of the Strait of Canso, 
 River Inhabitants, and River Denys in 1852, and the Rev. James Ross 
 took charge of the Grand River, Loch Lomond and Framborse in 1853, 
 and the settlement of these brethren permitted Mr. Stewart to give his 
 whole attention to West Bay. 
 
 In the year 1846, after providing a home for himseilf at Black River, 
 Mr. Stewart returned to Scotland for an helpmeet, and he found one in the 
 person of Miss Catherine McGregor of Braemar. She was an excellent 
 woman, and she helped, comforted and cheered him duringi the remainder 
 of his life. After spending a year in his native land, Mr. Stewart returned 
 to his arduous field of labor, and resumed his work. 
 
 He spent the next twenty years in West Bay, meeting and overcoming 
 difficulties such as the country ministers of today have no experience or 
 conception of. Had his people done their duty by him in the matter of 
 financial support as they should have done, and could have done, his minis- 
 try at West Bay would have been much more enjoyable. They allowed 
 arrears to accumulate from year to year, until his circumstances became so 
 straitened that he had to resign the charge in the year 1867. 
 
 By appointment of Presbytery he s|pent the greater part of that year 
 in Port Morien or Cow Bay, as it was then called. Here he helped to or- 
 ganize the present Port Morien congregation. The Block House and 
 Gowrie Collieries were recently started and people were coming in from all 
 parts of the country. Mr. Stewart remained at Port Morien until 1868, 
 when he received a call to Whycocamagh. This call he accepted, and he 
 spent the remainder of his ministerial life in that congregation. After 
 fourteen years of excellent service in Whycocamagh, Mr. Stewart began to 
 feel his strength failing, and he resigned his charge in September, 1882. In 
 the following month he removed with his family to the town of Pictou where 
 two of his sons, John and James, were then living, and practising their re- 
 spective professions, medicine and law. 
 
 Mr. Stewart preached his last sermon in Knox Church, Pictou, on July 
 the 19th, 1884, from Phillippians 11:5-11. He took ill on the afternoon of 
 JWy the 27th, and he passed to his rest and reward on July the 30th, 1884. 
 
 Mr. Stewart was as intellectual and scholarly as he was modest and 
 humble. No man could be more unselfish or more considerate of the views 
 and feelings of others. He was in every sense a christian gentleman, and 
 he was emphatically a man of peace. He pled earnestly for the Union of 
 1860 in the face of strong prejudices among the Free Church people of Cape 
 Breton. Thoroughly loyal to his own church, he took a deep and prayerful 
 interest in all the evangelical churches of Christendom, and also in the ex- 
 tension of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ throughout the whole world. 
 
 He was moderator of the Free Church Synod that met in Halifax in 
 June of the year 1851, and no man could discharge the duties of that office 
 with more urbanity or efficiency, 
 
 67 
 
Rev. Hugh McLeod, D. D. 
 
 The Rev. Hugh McLeod was the last of the Pioneer Presbyterian min- 
 isters of Cape Breton, but he was not by any means the least. Indeed 
 he was in many respects the greatest of them all. 
 
 Dr. McLeod was born in the parish of Tongue, Sutherlandshire, Scot- 
 land, on the 23rd of April, 1803. After completing his primary and second- 
 ary education in the parish school of his native place he matriculated into 
 King's College, Aberdeen University in 1822, when nineteen years of age. 
 Four years later he graduated from this famous University as a Master of 
 Arts. 
 
 He studied Theology and kindred subjects in that University during 
 another four sessions, and finished his preparation for the ministry of the 
 Church of Scotland in the year 1830. In the year 1831 he was licensed, by 
 the Presbytery of Tongue, to preach the glorious gospel of the Grace of God 
 to sinners, through the merits of Jesus Christ, His son. 
 
 In 1832, Mr. McLeod was ordained and inducted as minister of Mel- 
 ness and Eribol by that same Presbytery. Four years later he was trans- 
 lated to the Presbytery of Edinburgh and inducted into the Gaelic Church 
 of that city. After a ministry of several years in the Scottish capital, he 
 was called to the rural charge of Logie Easter, Rosshire, where he labored 
 until the year 1850, when he left his native land and came to Cape Breton. 
 
 It was during Dr. McLeod's ministry in Logie Easter that the disrup- 
 tion in the Church of Scotland took place, and he had an active part in the 
 stirring scenes that led up to that important event in the history of the 
 Scottish Church. He was one of the 450 ministers that came out of the 
 Established Church on the 18th of May, 1843, and that followed Dr. Welsh 
 and Dr. Chalmers from St. Andrews Church on the Castle Hill to Cannon 
 Mills' Hall in the New Town where the Free Church was constituted. 
 
 His large congregation followed him into the Free Church with the 
 exception of half a dozen individuals. 
 
 The Free Church shewed its appreciation of Dr. McLeod's ability 
 and worth by sending him out to Nova Scotia in 1845 as its deputy in the 
 interests of the Free Church movement in these eastern Provinces of Can- 
 ada. Three years later he came again on a similar errand as the agent of 
 the Scottish Free Church. On this occasion he came to Cape Breton and 
 preached in a number of our congregations. He made a remarkable im- 
 pression on our people as a preacher. He was dynamic. They had never 
 heard such preaching before. The Presbyterian population of Eastern 
 Cape Breton was profoundly stirred. They wanted to know if they could 
 possibly have him come and stay among them as their minister. After 
 some correspondence with himself and the Colonial Committee of the Free 
 Church, they were encouraged to prepare a call and transmit it to Dr. 
 McLeod through the Presbytery of Tain. Under the benign and per- 
 suasive influence of the Edinburgh Lkdies Association, Dr. McLeod was 
 moved to accept the call and to leave his native land, with all its prospects 
 
 68 
 
of usefulness and honor, and come to Cape Breton with all its disadvantages 
 and difficulties. This call was signed virtually by all the adult Presbyter- 
 ian population of Eastern Cape Breton, including Sydney, Sydney Forks 
 South Bar, Low Point, Bridgeport, Little Glace Bay, Schooner Pond, Cow 
 Bay, Big Glace Bay, Back Lands Cow Bay, False Bay Beach, Mira River 
 from bottom to top, Catalone, Main a dieu, Louisburg, Gabarus, Big Ridge 
 and Caribou Marsh. It was an immense call and it represented the un- 
 animous desire of an immense territory. 
 
 Dr. McLeod reached Sydney with his family of wife and three children 
 on Saturday, August the 25th, 1850. On the following day he preached in 
 the Methodist Church in the absence of the Rev. Jeremiah Jost, who was 
 away to Ingonish on circuit duty at that time. He preached in the morn- 
 ing in Gaelic and in the evening in English. The next few weeks were 
 spent in visiting his brethren and their congregations and in making him- 
 self acquainted with the conditions that prevailed in the island at that 
 time. On the 2nd day of October the Free Church Presbytery of Cape 
 Breton rr^et at Mira Ferry (now Albert Bridge) for the purpose of inducting 
 Dr. McLeod into the pastorate of the Mira Congregation. That Pres- 
 bytery was composed of all the Free Church ministers then on the island 
 of Cape Breton, viz. Rev. Matthew Wilson, Rev. Alexander Farqu- 
 harson. Rev. James Eraser and Rev. Murdoch Stewart. Mr. Wilson as 
 Moderator preached and inducted the minister; Mr. Earquharson preached 
 in Gaelic from Psalm 102:2; Mr. Wilson preached in English from Isaiah 
 32:2. Mr. Stewart addressed the minister and Mr. Fraser addressed the 
 people. 
 
 There was no church at Mira Ferry then, but that was the most central 
 place in the congregation, and the most convenient for the induction ser- 
 vices. The Presbytery was constituted and it conducted the services of the 
 day under the canopy of a canvas tent, while the people sat in front of the 
 tent under the shade of the forest trees. There were not less than 2,000 
 people there on that intensely interesting occasion from all parts of Dr. 
 McLeod's far flung parish. It was a bright calm autumn day and a day 
 never to be forgotten by any who were privileged to witness the proceedings. 
 Many in that great assembly had hoped and prayed and waited for the 
 settlement of a minister among them ever since they came to Cape Breton. 
 All this time they had been as sheep without a shepherd. But now the 
 Great Shepherd had sent them one of the ablest preachers in Scotland to 
 take the oversight of their souls. It was indeed a day of joy and gladness. 
 
 The Rev. Alexander Earquharson remained over the following Sab- 
 bath', and introduced Dr. McLeod to his people according to the Scottish 
 custom. He preached in Gaelic from Acts 13 :26, "To you is the word of this 
 salvation sent." 
 
 Mr. McLeod livedin Sydney until the spring of 1851. He passed his 
 first winter in a small house on North Charlotte Street, nearly opposite St. 
 George's Episcopal Church. The following summer he bought a piece of 
 land and built a house on the South Side of the Mira River and near where 
 the Marion Bridge is now, in order to be as near the centre of his congre- 
 
 69 
 
gation as possible. After living on fhe Mira River for several years, he 
 purchased the "Sherwood" property in Sydney from the late Edmund 
 Dodd, Esq. and moved into the town. He spent the rest of his life on this 
 property. 
 
 Dr. McLeod's congregation covered nearly one-half the County of 
 Cape Breton. It contained in all about five hundred families and three 
 thousand souls. He continued sole pastor of this extensive charge until 
 the year 1864, and pastor of a large part of it until 1885, when he retired 
 from the active duties of the ministry. 
 
 In the year 1883, Dr. McLeod's ministerial jubilee was celebrated in 
 the original St.Andrew's Church on Charlotte Street, with great enthusiasm. 
 In his reply to a congratulatory address by the Presbytery of Sydney, he 
 stated that he had spent seventeen years of his ministerial life in Scotland 
 and thirty three years in Cape Breton; that during his long ministry there 
 were several precious revivals through which great numbers of men and 
 women were added to the membership of the church; that he had been 
 Moderator of Presbytery twenty times. Moderator of Synod four times, 
 and Moderator of General Assembly once; that he had preached 6000 
 sermons; baptized over 2000 persons, received 1,200 into full communion 
 with the church, and solemnized 800 marriages. 
 
 Dr. McLeod was an outstanding church man in the Presbyterian 
 Church, but he was more. He took a deep interest in everything that made 
 for the welfare of the community, more especially, education and moral 
 reform. He also took a lively interest in civil and political matters. He 
 was an all-round man, well posted in current and national affairs. He also 
 had the reputation of profound scholarship. 
 
 In his later years, Dr. McLeod was very much afflicted with a bron- 
 chial affection, induced probably by much speaking in the open air at com- 
 munion seasons. He passed to hjs rest and reward on Friday, Jan. the 
 23rd, 1894, in the 91st year of his age, and thp sixty-first of his ministry. 
 
 Dr. McLeod was a preacher of rare eloquence and power, both in 
 English and Gaelic. His preachings had several admirable qualities. His 
 sermons were well arranged, scriptural and evangelical, forceful in utterance 
 distinct in enunciation, always concise, and never long or tedious. He 
 knew when to stop, and he always stopped at the point where his hearers 
 were most deeply interested and anxious that he should continue. He had 
 a fine, strong, sonorous voice that could be easily heard by tjie thousands 
 that often hung on his lips on communion occasions.under the blue canopy 
 of heaven. 
 
 The Presbyterian Witness of Jan. the 27th 1894 had the following 
 words regarding Dr. McLeod; — "A stronger man, a sturdier Highlander, 
 a warmer hearted friend, a more powerful and searching preacher, a more 
 useful leader of a great flock, or one who has done more for the advance- 
 ment of his people, spiritually and materially, we do not know, we cannot 
 name in the whole history of our Church from ocean to ocean." 
 
 70 
 
PIONEERS 
 
 REV. NORMAN McLEOD, 
 Pioneer. 
 
 REV. WM. MILLAR, 
 Pioneer. 
 
 REV. JOHN STEWART, 
 Pioneer. 
 
 REV. JAMES FRASER, M. A., 
 Pioneer. 
 
PIONEERS 
 
 REV. PETER McLEAN, 
 Pioneer. 
 
 REV. MURDOCH STEWART, M. A. 
 Pioneer. 
 
 REV. HUGH McLEOD, D. D., 
 Pioneer. 
 
 REV. MATTHEW WILSON, M. A., 
 Pioneer, 
 
PART II. 
 
 +1. .'^i'^.Co"Sregations of the Presbyterian Church in Cape Breton and 
 
 their Ministers. 
 
 St. Ann's and its Ministry. 
 
 This congregation has the distinction of being the oldest Presbyterian 
 congregation on the Island of Cape Breton. It has also the distinction of 
 being the most unique in its origin. It was, so to speak, born in a day; 
 and that day was May 20th, 1820, one hundred years ago. It was on that 
 day "The Ark", with her living cargo of men and women, ran into St. Ann's 
 Harbor in order to avoid shipwreck and loss of life and to find shelter and 
 safety from the storm that was raging outside. When the "Ark" dropped 
 her anchor inside St. Ann's Harbour, she had the original St. Ann's con- 
 gregation on board. She carried the minister, members, and adherents of 
 the congregation, with all their possessions, that day on her deck or under 
 her hatches. Numerically that congregation was not large. In all prob- 
 ability it consisted of less than one hundred persons all told, men, women 
 and children. But it was complete, with minister and people, all ready 
 to unite in the worship of God as soon as they landed on the shores of this 
 beautiful bay. That original congregation, or at least a goodly part of it, 
 was the congregation that Mr. Norman McLeod gathered about him on the 
 upper reaches of the Middle River of Pictou, Nova Scotia, between August, 
 1817, and May 1820. It had even an earlier origin than that. It came 
 across the Atlantic with Mr. McLeod in "The Frances Ann" in the summer 
 of 1817. The people that composed the original St. Ann's congregation 
 were all old acquaintances, friends, admirers, and followers of this extra- 
 ordinary man. He and they had been together in the parish of Assynt, 
 Sutherlandshire, Scotland. They came to Pictou with him in 1817, and 
 they came to Cape Breton with him in 1820; aye more, a number of them 
 went to AustraUa with him in 1851, and to New Zealand in 1854. 
 
 Nothing was further from the intention of Norman McLeod and his 
 people when they left Pictou Harbour, on that May day in 1820, than to 
 come to Cape Breton and settle in St. Ann's. They sailed away from Pic- 
 tou with the intention of going to Ohio, U.S.; but an overruhng providence 
 destined them to come to this island, and to make homes for themselves 
 around this beautiful harbor. They must have been intensely disappoint- 
 ed on finding themselves here, instead of on their way to the mouth of the 
 Mississippi. But at the same time, no doubt, they were filled with thank- 
 fulness that they had not been wrecked at sea, or on some strange shore. 
 And so terrible was their experience during the last few days that they lost 
 all ambition to take another risk at sea. Hence they abandoned their 
 purpose of going to Ohio, and resolved to make the best of the situation in 
 which they found themselves placed. They believed in a sovereign, all- 
 wise and all-determining Providence, and they concluded that it was his 
 will that they should stay where he sent them. They might have returned 
 
 71 
 
to Pictou, but they had disposed of their homes there, and besides, there 
 was no good, free land available in Pictou at that time; while here, around 
 St. Ann's Harbor, there was all the free land they could make use of, and 
 no other people to limit their freedom or effort in any direction whatever. 
 
 There was not an acre of cleared land anywhere around these shores 
 at that time. Heavy forest trees covered the soil in every direction, and 
 these trees had to be cut down and burnt in order to get at the land and 
 raise food for themselves and their children, during the long cold winter 
 that would inevitably be upon them in due time. An encouraging feature 
 of the situation was the abundance of -fish in the rivers and in the neighbor- 
 ing sea. Another encouraging feature was the abundance of wood for 
 house, barn and fuel purposes. During the years spent on the Middle 
 River of Pictou, these Highlanders had learne"d to handle the axe in felling 
 the trees, and in building houses and barns with the tree trunks; and sb' no 
 time was lost in selecting and acquiring lots of land, and in attacking the 
 forest. 
 
 Mr. McLeod obtained a grant of a block of land at the head of the 
 harbour, and on the north side of the South Gut. This block contained two 
 square miles. • It was two miles in length by one mile in average breadth. 
 He built a home for himself at Black Cove near the head of tide water. 
 His followers chose their locations as near to South Gut and Black Cove as 
 possible, in order to be near their minister and the place of worship that 
 was shortly thereafter erected near the minister's residence. 
 
 Those who came later secured grants of land near the mouth of the 
 harbour, or on the North Gut; while those who came later still, found loca- 
 tions on the North River and the North Shore, all the way east to Smoky 
 Mountain. 
 
 By the time of the Australian exodus in 1851, all the land on St. Ann's 
 Harbor, North River and North Shore, was occupied by Gaelic speaking 
 Presbyterians; and it may be added, that after one hundred years, this large 
 district of country is occupied almost entirely by Presbyterians, and the 
 Gaelic language is still their common speech. 
 
 The St. Ann's congregation embraced the whole of this territory until 
 the year 1889, when a division took place; and since that time, the St. Ann's 
 congregation has been limited to South Gut and Englishtown with contig- 
 uous localities. 
 
 The St. Ann's congregation grew steadily in numbers from the very 
 outset partly by additions from Pictou County, but chiefly by immigra- 
 tion from Scotland, and more especially from the islands of Lewis and 
 Harris in the Hebrides. 
 
 The exodus of more than 800 of the parishioners of St. Ann's to Aus- 
 tralia and New Zealand between 1851 and 1860 depleted the congregation 
 very materially, possibly by one half. But the vacant farms were readily 
 bought up by other Presbyterians from other parts of Cape Breton; and so 
 the population of St. Ann's continued to increase until well on in the sixties 
 of last century. By that time there was a surplus of young men and women 
 in the congregation, and another migratory movement began to manifest 
 
 72 
 
itself. These men and women left the homes of their childhood and 
 went for the most part to the United States, to obtain a livelihood. Later, 
 when coal mining and steel producing industries were established in eas- 
 tern Cape Breton, the surplus population of St. Apn's Englishtown, North 
 River and North Shore made homes for themselves at Sydney Mines, 
 North Sydney, Sydney and Glace Bay. In these different localities they 
 generally identified themselves with the local Presbyterian Churches and 
 became good and useful church members and citizens. 
 
 The story of St. Ann's congregation during the first thirty years of its 
 history is chiefiy the story of the Rev. Norman McLeod, its first minister. 
 That story is found in another chapter of this book, and need not be re- 
 peated here. Mr. McLeod, in those days, was monarch of all he surveyed. 
 His personality overshadowed everything. His will or word was law with 
 his people. He was responsible to no one but God and his own enlightened 
 christian conscience. All the influence and power that he possessed was 
 devoted, not to his own personal welfare, comfort or aggrandisement, but 
 to the intellectual, social and religious welfare of his people. 
 
 When Mr. McLeod left St. Ann's there was but one place of worship 
 for this extensive and populous congregation, and this place of worship 
 was at Black Cove on the North Side of the South Gut. It was quite incon- 
 veniently situated for two-thirds of the people, although amply large to 
 hold them all. This was the second church that had been built since the 
 arrival of "The Ark" and the founding of the congregation. The first 
 church was built on the beach at Black Cove, probably in 1821, the year 
 after St. Ann's was settled. The second church was built in 1846, twenty- 
 five years later. The congregation had increased probably seven or eight- 
 fold in the meantime, and the church was built large enough to accommo- 
 date them all. It was seated for 1000 worshipers, and in fine weather, 
 though many of the people had to come from ten to twenty miles there was 
 not an empty seat. 
 
 Before leaving for Australia, Mr. McLeod very wisely and generously 
 conveyed this immense church to the Free Church of Nova Scotia. He 
 also advised his people to look to that church for ministers of the gospel, 
 after his departure. Evidently, by this time, Mr. McLeod came to. see 
 that the principles for which the Free Church had made such great sacri- 
 fices in Scotland were in intimate accord with the principles for which he 
 himself had contended so long and strenuously, both in Scotland and in 
 this country. 
 
 There was a vacancy of over five years in St. Ann's congregation after 
 Mr. McLeod's departure. This vacancy was due, partly to the difficulty 
 of getting a minister of the Free Church at that time, but also to the diffi- 
 culty of getting a minister of any church that could fill the place that this 
 venerable man had held so long, in the esteem and affections of the people. 
 He was more than esteemed and loved; he was, in a sense, adored and idoli- 
 zed. No one else could possibly fill his place. In illustration of the vene- 
 ration in which Mr. McLeod was held by a very large proportion of his 
 people, a story is told of a certain John Smith, who lived at the Barachois, 
 
 73 
 
near Indian Brook on the North Shore. Before Mr. McLeod took his de- 
 parture he paid Mr. Smith a farewell visit. After the visit was over, and 
 Mr. McLeod had gone away, Mr. Smith took down the door by which his 
 venerated pastor had entered and departed from his house. Then he made 
 an opening in another part of the house and fitted the door into that open- 
 ing. This he did in order that no other man might ever cross that thres- 
 hold after Norman McLeod. No other man was deemed worthy of such 
 an honor. 
 
 After a vacancy of five years, the St. Ann's people called Mr. Abraham 
 Mcintosh to be their minister. Mr. Mcintosh was a native of West Bay, 
 Richmond County, Cape Breton. He was the first Cape Breton born 
 minister to be inducted into any of our congregations. Mr. Mcintosh was 
 born in the year 1820, the year that the St. Ann's congregation came into 
 existence. He received the impulse to study for the Gospel ministry under 
 the strong and faithful preaching of two of the pioneer ministers of Cape 
 Breton, viz. Rev. John Stewart, and the Rev. Murdoch Stewart, ministers 
 successively of the West Bay congregation. 
 
 Mr. Mcintosh's preparatory studies were taken at the High School 
 so efficiently taught for many years on the Island of Boulardarie, by Mr. 
 Hugh Munroe. He also took lessons in Classics and Mathematics from 
 his pastor at West Bay the Rev. Murdoch Stewart, who was well versed 
 in these subjects. 
 
 On Nov. 1st, 1848, the Free Church of Nova Scotia opened an Academy 
 and College on Gerrish Street, Halifax, for the purpose of training young 
 men for her ministry. Mr. Mcintosh was one of the first class, of fifteen 
 students, that enrolled in that Academy. After completing his course of 
 study in the spring of 1854, Mr. Mcintosh was duly licensed to preach the 
 Gospel. He spent the next two years as a probationer among the Gaelic 
 speaking charges of Pictou County and Cape Breton Island. In the sum- 
 mer of 1856 he receive a call to the pastorate of St. Ann's congregation, 
 which included at that time, St. Ann's North Shore and North River. It 
 was about forty miles in length by about eight miles average breadth 
 His ordination and induction took place in the big church. South Gut, on 
 the 21st of August, 1856. 
 
 During the first two years of his ministry, at St. Ann's Mr. Mcintosh 
 boarded with Mr. and Mrs. John Robertson, at Black Cove. The Robert- 
 sons were living, at that time, in the house that the Rev. Norman McLeod 
 built and occupied during the last twenty years of his life in Cape Breton. 
 
 In the year 1858, Mr. Mcintosh purchased a farm at South Gut and 
 built a house of his own. He occupied that house during the remainder of 
 his life. There were no manses provided by congregations in these early 
 days. Every minister was expected to provide a honie for himself. The 
 only Manse on this island in 1858, was at Sydney Mines. It was built for 
 the Rev. Matthew Wilson in 1843. 
 
 On the completion of his house Mr. Mcintosh, copied the example of 
 the Apostle Peter and took to himself a wife. Miss Anna Ross of Caribou. 
 Pictou County. She was, an excellent person and an admirable help-mate, 
 
 74 
 
She helped him, to bear the burden of a laborious and ill paid ministry 
 while God spared them to each other. 
 
 It is not our intention, in writing of our Cape Breton Ministers, to say 
 anything about their wives or families. Our space is too limited, for that, 
 when over two hundred ministers have to be mentioned and briefly written 
 about. 
 
 Suffice it to say, once, for all, that our ministers' wives have been of 
 inestimable value,not only to their husbands, but also to our congregations. 
 They not only made the ministers house, bright and cheerful for the 
 minister, they, also made it a centre of brightness and cheerfulness for the 
 people of his charge, old and young alike. 
 
 By their strict economy and good household management, they made 
 the meagre stipend of those days serve all the necessary needs of life. 
 
 And right here we might make a diversion and say a few words re- 
 garding the payment of our ministers in those old days. There was, to 
 begin with, a subscription list prepared, and the subscriber promised to 
 pay annually the sum that he set down opposite his name on that list, 
 generally from two to four dollars, never more than four, or one pound 
 currency. Very few of the subscribers ever paid any part of the amount 
 subscribed until the end of the year. The minister was not supposed to 
 need any money until that time. If all would pay then, the minister might 
 pull through by the help and credit of his merchant. But all did not pay 
 at the end of the year, and many left their subscriptions unpaid from year 
 to year, and of course their arrears were increasing from year to year. 
 The total amount promised as stipend in those days was only $600 or $700 
 at the most. But when the minister had to buy a farm, and very often 
 pay for cultivating a bit of it, build a house, keep a horse, carriage, sleigh 
 and harness, besides other incidental expenses, there were but $400 or $450 
 left for living expenses, travelling expenses, the purchase of necessary 
 books and support of the gospel at home and abroad. 
 
 Hence when a third to a half of the promised stipend remained un- 
 paid from year to year, the minister and his family had to suffer privations 
 that no servant of Jesus Christ should have to endure at the hands of those 
 to whom he ministers the Gospel. We could tell heart-rending tales of 
 what a number of our ministers and their families had to suffer in those days 
 on account of unpaid subscriptions and accumulating arrearages. 
 
 And the people of St. Ann's were not guiltless in this regard. The wri- 
 ter remembers the time when he was sent to St. Ann's, by Presbytery, on 
 a delegation, for the purpose of collecting some of the arrearages due Mr. 
 Mcintosh. That was in the year 1877. On investigation, he found that 
 St. Ann's and Englishtown were in arrears to the extent of $849.22 at the 
 end of 1876, and that this part of the congregation only paid $283.95 during 
 that year; while North Shore and North River were in arrears to the ex- 
 tent of $1170.97, and that this section paid but $162.99 for the year 1876. 
 The total arrearage due by both sections was $2,020.19. This is a sample 
 of how our congregations paid their ministers in those days. Other con- 
 gregations were quite as delinquent, if not worse. When one of our most 
 
 75 
 
distinguished ministeis resigned in the eighties of last centruy, his congre- 
 gation owed him $3,427.27. Somewhere on the minutes of Presbytery, 
 we read a resolution in these words, "The Presbytery is happy to find that 
 the ordinances of the Gospel are well attended, but regret the entire lack 
 of effort on the part of the congregation to pay its minister." This was in 
 the seventies of last century, and that congregation owed its minister seven 
 or eight hundred dollars at that time. 
 
 But we ought to mention some extenuating circumstances in the case. 
 And firstly, our Scottish forefathers had no training in the way of support- 
 ing their ministers in the old country. The heritor or proprietor of the land 
 built the manses and paid the minister's stipend. It took a long time for 
 them and their children to learn the grace of giving, more especially the 
 grace of giving systematically. Then again our people were comparatively 
 poor in those days. Food and clothing were plentiful and they did not 
 want for the necessaries of life, but money was very scarce and hard to get. 
 The wages paid for ten hours of honest, hard, manual labour at that time 
 in Cape Breton, was not more than seventy-five or eighty cents, a day and 
 as far as St. Ann's was concerned, under the pastorate of the Rev. Norman 
 McLeod, the people were not taught to give any money for pastoral ser- 
 vices. He took labour in lieu of money, and that made it more difficult 
 for them to pay his successor in current coin of the realm, and especially 
 to pay promptly and systematically. In those days there were very few, if 
 any, congregations in Cape Breton that did not report arrears of stipend to 
 a greater or less extent, at the end of the congregational year. 
 
 What a happy change has taken place in this matter of arrears of 
 stipend due the minister, during the last few years; Not one of the forty 
 Presbyterian congregations on this island reported any arrears at the end 
 of the year 1919, the last year of our first century. Money is much more 
 plentiful now than it was, in these old days, and besides, our people are 
 learning to give of their substance, for the support of the means of grace, 
 more systematically, liberally, scripturally, than their ancestors gave in 
 years gone by. 
 
 Having served his generation and his Master faithfully and well, Mr. 
 Mcintosh passed to his rest and reward on the 10th day of March, 1889, in 
 the sixty-ninth year of his age, and the thirty-fifth year of his ministry. 
 
 After Mr. Mcintosh's death. North River and North Shore were sep- 
 arated from St. Ann's and formed into a new charge. This change took 
 place on the 3rd of December, 1889. Another long vacancy followed Mr. 
 Mcintosh's death, but finally in 1894, St. Ann's and Englishtown united 
 in a call to Mr. A. J. McDonald, B. A., a recent graduate of the Presby 
 terian College, Halifax. Mr. McDonald, like Mr. Mcintosh, was a native 
 of Cape Breton. He was born at Malagawatch on the 2nd day of June, 
 1866. His Arts Course was taken at Dalhousie University, from which he 
 graduated in the spring of 1892. He graduated in Theology in the spring 
 of 1894. He was licensed, ordained and inducted at St. Ann's by the Pres- 
 bytery of Sydney, on the 6th of June in the year 1894. 
 
 Mr. McDonald's ministry in this congregation was short, all too short. 
 
 76 
 
Accepting a call to Union Centre and Lochaber, on the llth of June, 1895, 
 he was translated to the Presbytery of Pictou, and St. Ann's was vacant 
 once more. 
 
 The congregation found its next pastor in one of her own sons, the Rev. 
 Malcolm N. McLeod. Mr. McLeod was born at Little Narrows, Vic- 
 toria County, on the 1st of January, 1841, but early in life he came to Big 
 Hill, within the bounds of the St. Ann's congregation. In spite of very 
 poor educational facilities at Big Hill, Mr. McLeod qualified himself for a 
 teacher, and taught school until he was well along in life. 
 
 When twenty-eight years of age, he gave his heart to the sinners 
 Saviour, and his life to that Saviour's service. Thereafter, he took an 
 active part in every good cause and work that came to his hand. For 
 several years before entering upon his studies for the. ministry, he was an 
 active elder in the congregation. From 1880 to 1888 he was in the service 
 of the British American Book and Tract Society as a colporteur. During 
 these years he rendered excellent service to the whole island of Cape Breton 
 by the distribution of the Scriptures and of religious literature in the homes 
 of our people. In the latter year, the Presbytery of Sydney, recognizing 
 Mr. McLeod's piety, prudence and aptness in instructing and in exhorting 
 asked the General Assembly to prescribe a short course of study for him, 
 with a view to entering the christian ministry. After taking a three year 
 course in the Presbyterian College, Mr. McLeod was licensed by the Pres- 
 bytery of Victoria and Richmond on the 26th of May, 1891. In Novem- 
 ber, 1892, Mr. McLeod was sent to Cape North by the Presbytery of Syd- 
 ney, as an ordained Missionary. On July 24th, 1894, on the unanimous 
 request of that congregation, Mr. McLeod was duly inducted as pastor of 
 Cape North. After a pastorate of sixteen months, he accepted a call to 
 St. Ann's and was inducted on the 4th of December, 1895. Mr. McLeod 
 spent the next seven or eight years in the pastorate of his native congrega- 
 tion, with much credit to himself and benefit to the people. 
 
 In the year 1906, Mr. McLeod accepted a call to Dundas, Prince Ed- 
 ward Island. He remained in that charge until August, 1914, when he re- 
 signed and retired from the active duties of the ministry. He is now en- 
 joying a well earned rest among his relatives in Baddeck the Shire town of 
 Victoria County. 
 
 In March, 1903, St. Ann's and Englishtown applied to the Presbytery 
 for the settlement of a Mr. John Buchannan, as ordained missionary over 
 them for one year. Mr. Buchannan's papers were not quite satisfactory 
 to the Presbytery; nevertheless the prayer of the congregation was granted 
 and Mr. Buchannan was installed. Mr. Buchannan's ministry was very 
 brief. On the 24th of January 1904, he resigned the charge and went to 
 western Canada. 
 
 The next minister of St. Ann's was the Rev. J. A. McLellan, B.A., 
 now of Valleyfield, P. E. Island. Mr. McLellan was born at Kempt Road 
 Richmond County, C. B., on June the 1st, 1874. He graduated from Dal- 
 housie University in the spring of 1906, and from the Presbyterian College 
 in the spring of 1908. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Sydney on 
 
 77 
 
the 5th of May, and ordained and inducted as minister of St. Ann's and 
 Englishtown on the 28th day of May, 1908. 
 
 Mr. McLellan's ministry continued three years, and during that time 
 he proved himself to be an excellent pastor, as well as an efficient and 
 faithful preacher of the Gospel. 
 
 On the 16th of May, 1911, Mr. McLellan accepted a call to Malaga- 
 watch and River Denys. He was inducted into that charge on the 11th 
 day of June following. In June 1920 he accepted a ciall to Valleyfield, P. 
 E. Island. 
 
 The successor of Mr. McLellan in the pastorate of St. Ann's and 
 Englishtown was Mr. John McColl, a native of the Isle of Skye, Scotland. 
 Mr. McColl was educated partly in Scotland, and partly in the Presbyter- 
 ian College, Montreal. He was licensed by the Montreal Presbytery in 
 the spring of 1911. He came to Cape Breton during that summer and was 
 called by the congregation of St. Ann's and Englishtown. His ordination 
 and induction by the Sydney Presbytery took place on the 23rd of Nov- 
 ember, 1911. Mr. McColl's pastorate was unusually short. On the 17th 
 of the following May he resigned the charge and removed to Ontario, where 
 he served as an ordained missionary for three or four years. 
 
 On November 3rd, 1915, Mr. McColl was settled in the congregation 
 of Strathalbyn and Rose Valley in the Presbytery of Prince Edward Island, 
 where he died on the 21st of August 1917, in the forty-second year of his 
 life, and the sixth year of his ministry. 
 
 The next minister of this congregation was Mr. Norman McLeod, B.A., 
 a native of the island of Lewis, but a graduate of Saskatoon College, Al- 
 berta. Mr. McLeod's induction took place on the 18th of May, 1916 
 Five months later, on October the 31st, he accepted a call to Knox Church, 
 Port Arthur, and was thereupon translated from the Presbytery of Sydne;^ 
 to the Presbytery of Superior. 
 
 The present minister of St. Ann's is the Rev. J. Allister Murray. He 
 also is a native of the island of Lewis, an island that has distinguished itself 
 by the number of great and good men that were born there. Mr. Murray 
 came to this world on the 9th of September 1865. He took his Arts Course in 
 the University of Glasgow, after some years spent in lay missionary work in 
 the highlands and islands of Scotland. Mr. Murray came to Canada in the 
 year 1901, and was engaged in home missionary work during the summer 
 months of the next few years. The winter months he spent in Manitoba 
 College in preparation for the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. After 
 graduating in Theology from that institution in the spring of 1905, he was 
 licensed by the Presbytery of Winnipeg. 
 
 In order to find use for his Gaelic speaking talent, Mr. Murray came to 
 Cape Breton in the year 1911. In July of that year he was called and in- 
 ducted into the pastoral charge of Middle River. Here he remained during 
 the next seven years, and rendered faithful and efficient service. 
 
 On May the 3rd, 1918, Mr. Murray was inducted into the pastorate of 
 St. Ann's and Englishtown, where he is still holding forth the word of life 
 and making full proof of his ministry. 
 
 78 
 
There have been four churches built within the bounds of St. Ann's 
 and Englishtown congregation during the past century. The first was 
 built at Black Cove in the year 1821, in the second year of the existence of 
 the congregation. This was the first Presbyterian Church built on the 
 island of Cape Breton. It was not large, but large enough for a place of 
 worship at that time and for many years thereafter. This church was 
 built on the shore in order that it might be easily accessible to the people. 
 There were no roads at that time, and everybody went to church by boat. 
 This church served the settlement as a school-house until a school-house 
 was built some years later. The St. Ann's people had excellent educational 
 facilities provided for them by the Rev. Norman McLeod from the very 
 outset, and during the whole of his ministry. 
 
 The second church was built on rising ground, overlooking Black Cove 
 in the year 1846, and it served the community as a place of worship until 
 1893, when the present church was built. It was then taken down, and 
 much of its lumber was used in the construction of the third church. That 
 second church was an immense structure for those days. There were 
 probably few churches in Cape Breton at that time so large, commodious, 
 or well finished. It was sixty feet in length and forty feet in width. The 
 walls were twenty feet in height. It had four entrances to the ground floor, 
 and two stairways to the galleries, which ran around three sides of the 
 building. . This church was finished throughout, and seated to accommo- 
 date one thousand worshippers. 
 
 The third, or present church, stands a couple of miles west of the 
 original site and at a point more convenient and central for the congrega- 
 tion of today. It is a well built and commodious structure. 
 
 The fourth church was built at Englishtown in the year 1893. Pre- 
 vious to that time, all divine services conducted at Englishtown were held 
 in the school-house of that district. 
 
 St. Ann's has a good manse with a large glebe attached This manse 
 was built in 1907, during the ministry of the Rev. J. A. McLellan. 
 
 St. Ann's congregation has given a goodly number of excellent men 
 to the ministry of our church; viz. Malcolm N. McLeod, Angus McMillan, 
 Murdoch Buchannan, Kenneth J. McDonald, "William S. Fraser, John W. 
 Smith, J. R. McLeod, William N. McAulay, and A. D. McAulay. 
 
 The presbyteries of Sydney and Inverness, under whose auspices this 
 centennial celebration is held today, congratulate the people of St. Ann's 
 on a hundred years of congregational life.* This congregation has made 
 an honorable record for itself in the hundred years that are now past. The 
 hope and prayer of these presbyteries is that it may make a still more hon- 
 orable record for itself in the hundred years upon which it is now entering. 
 
 As we recall the past, we are impressed with the great changes that 
 time has wrought; and the contrast between the conditions that prevailed 
 in those old days and the conditions that prevail today. In many ways 
 we live in a new and different world. We enjoy privileges and advantages 
 that our fathers never dreamed of. Let us remember that these privileges 
 and advantages carry corresponding responsibilities, that "To whom 
 
 79 
 
much is given, of them much shall be required." Our fathers and mothers 
 did their duty by themselves, their children, their church and their God, 
 with great faithfulness. Let us be true to their example and walk in their 
 footsteps. Thus shall we pass on to our children the heritage of prayer- 
 fulness and piety that our fathers have passed on to us. Let us rise to the 
 height of our responsibilities in all the relations of life, and let us be stimu- 
 lated in every good effort and duty by the thought of the godly ministers, 
 elders, fathers, mothers and friends who have gone before us, "who have 
 fought the good fight, finished their course and kept the faith," and ^e 
 now enjoying the "rest that remaineth for the people of God." The writer 
 ctf the Epistle to the Hebrews conceives of those who had lived and died 
 in faith as interested spectators of living men and women in their efforts 
 to attain to full Salvation; and writes in Hebrews 12: 1, "Wherefore, seeing, 
 we also are compassed about" with so great a cloud of witnesses, 
 let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and 
 let us run with patience the race set before us looking unto Jesus, the au- 
 thor and finisher of our faith." 
 
 *This paper was read at the centenary service held at St. Ann's on July 
 8th, 1920. 
 
 80 
 
Mabou and Its Ministry. 
 
 Mabou Congregation has the distinction of being the second oldest 
 Presbyterian Congregation on the Island of Cape Breton. It has also the 
 distinction of being the first to extend a call to a minister as well as the first 
 to have its call accepted and the first to have a minister settled over it by 
 the action of a Presbytery. It has a still further distinction for it is the 
 only congregation on the Island of Cape Breton that was ever under the 
 supervision otthe original Presbytery of Pictou. This Presbytery was or- 
 ganized on July the 7, 1795, and it was the third Presbytery formed in the 
 Dominion of Canada. 
 
 Port Hood was included in the Mabou congregation from its organiza- 
 tion on August the 24th, 1821 until 1909, when it was separated and formed 
 into a mission field. 
 
 The first protestant settlers of this congregation were Capt. David 
 Smith and his family, consisting of Mrs. Smith, six sons and one daughter. 
 The maiden name of Mrs. Smith was Rebecca Lambert. Mr. Smith was a 
 United Empire Loyalist and a seafaring man. He came from Cape Cod to 
 Port Hood Island in his own vessel in the year 1787. Here he and three of 
 his sons, Isaac, Parker and John, settled down to fish and farm. Two of 
 his sons, Lewis and David, found their way to Mabou and took up land 
 on the north side of Mabou River, between Glendyer and Hillsboro. They 
 were the first Protestants that settled in Mabou. Harding, the sixth of the 
 Smith sons, returned to Cape Cod. Samuel A. Smith of Port Hood is a 
 grandson of Captain David Smith. Capt. Smith came to an untimely end 
 in the year 1789. 
 
 On a fine March morning in that year Mr. Smith took three of his boys, 
 Lewis, David and Isaac out on the drift ice in order to kill seals. While 
 thus engaged, the current moved the pan of ice upon which they were away 
 from the land. Capt. Smith plunged into the ice-cold water with the in- 
 tention of swimming ashore, obtaining a boat and saving his sons. He 
 reached the edge of the board ice, but was so benumbed that he could not 
 climb out of the water. He sank and perished. His body was never 
 found, but a monument in the Protestant Cemetery of Port Hood com- 
 memorates his tragic end. The boys were carried out to sea and given up 
 for lost. But after spending a night on the ice without food or shelter, on 
 the following day, the wind changed and drove the ice to the shore again. 
 The young lads jumped ashore and found their way home, not much 
 worse for their terrible experience. 
 
 One of the early Protestant settlers on the Mabou River was Captain 
 Benjamin Worth. He, too, was a United Empire LoyaUst. He was born 
 in New Jersey, U. S., in the year 1754, and like Captain Smith he was a sea- 
 faring man. He came to the mouth of the Mabou River in his own vessel in 
 the year 1786. He spent his life there fishing and trading, and died there 
 on January 20th, 1827. It was Captain Benjamin Worth that brought Dr. 
 
 81 
 
James McGregor from Charlottetown to Pictou in the summer of 1791 
 after Dr. McGregor's first visit to Prince Edward Island. In 1818 when 
 Dr. McGregor paid his first and last visit to Mabou he was the guest for 
 some days of his old friend, Captain Worth. 
 
 Lewis Smith, son of Captain David Smith, came to Mabou in the year 
 1796, in the twenty-fifth year of his age. He married Christena Worth, a 
 daughter of Benjamin Worth, and had a large family. All the Smiths at 
 Mabou are descendants of this pair. Lewis Smith himself was killed by a 
 bull in May, 1846, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. His wife lived to be 
 eighty-three years of age. 
 
 Another of the early Presbyterians was William McKeen, subsequent- 
 ly the Hon. Wi liam McKeen so well and favorably known as a legislative 
 councillor. Mr. McKeen was born at Truro, N. S., on the 18th of August 
 and he died at Mabou on May the 17th, 1865, in the 76th year of his age. 
 When a young man he spent some time in the vicinity of New Glasgow, and 
 became acquainted with Dr. McGregor. In 1811 he lived for some time 
 in the Musquodoboit Valley, where he met and married his wife, a Miss 
 McDougall. It was in the year, 1812, that Mr. McKeen came to 
 Mabou. He settled at the mouth of the River and for many years he did 
 a large business as farmer and merchant. Mr. McKeen was the father of 
 twenty-four children, twelve of them by his first wife and twelve by his 
 second wife. His second wife was Christianna Smith, a daughter of Lewis 
 Smith and Christina Worth. 
 
 The Hon. David McKeen, late Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, 
 was one of the Hon. William McKeen's sons by his second marriage. 
 
 The Murray's and Hawley's have been prominent families in the 
 Mabou congregation for two or three generations. John Murray came to 
 Mabou in the year 1825. He was born of Irish and Roman Catholic 
 parents in St. John's, Newfoundland, in the year 1804. For a number of 
 years Mr. Murray clerked for Mr. McKeen at the mouth of the River. 
 After acquiring a good knowledge of business as well as a sufficient amount 
 of capital, he opened a general store on his own account at North East 
 Mabou, and later at Hillsboro. Mr. Murray was very successful in busi- 
 ness and he acquired a very considerable amount of substance. He mar- 
 ried Rachael Smith, a daughter of Lewis Smith, and had a large family. 
 Mr. Murray and his family were very generous supports of the Presbyterian 
 church in all her enterprises. 
 
 The first Presbyterian minister that came to Mabou was the Rev. 
 James McGregor, D. D., of Pictou. This was in 1818, and it is more than 
 likely that Dr. McGregor's visit to Mabou on this occasion was made at the 
 solicitation of his friends, Benjamin Worth and William McKeen. The 
 reader will find an account of that visit under another head in this volume. 
 
 The first minister of the congregation of Mabou and Port Hood was the 
 Rev. William Millar. He is spoken of elsewhere as one of the Pioneer 
 Ministers of Cape Breton, and hence we need not say anything about him 
 in this connection. 
 
 82 
 
The second minister of the congregation was the Rev. James McLean 
 D. D. Mr.McLean was born at Springville, East River, Pictou, on March 
 2, 1828. He grew up in a pious home and his mind was inclined to the gos- 
 pel ministry from his earliest years. In the year 1848 the Presbyterian 
 church of Nova Scotia opened a Seminary at Durham, on the west River of 
 Pictou, for the purpose of training young men for her ministry. Mr. Mc- 
 Lean was one of the first students of that institution. Here he studied 
 arts and theology under Professors James Ross, John Kerr, and James 
 Smith. After finishing the prescribed course of study in October, 1853, 
 
 Mr. McLean was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Pictou 
 
 on the first Tuesday of January, 1854. 
 
 During the following summer, Mr. McLean received two calls, one 
 rom the congregation of Gay's River, Lower Stewiacke, and Shubenacadie 
 in the Presbytery of Truro; the other from the congregation of Mabou and 
 Port Hood in the Presbjrtery of Pictou. He accepted the Cape Breton call, 
 and was ordained and inducted at Mabou on Monday, November the 13th, 
 1854, by the Presbytery of Pictou. The Rev. Diavid Honeyman of Anti- 
 gonish preached the ordination sermon on that occabion; the Rev. James 
 Bayne of Pictou presided and inducted Mr. McLean; the Rev. David Roy 
 of New Glasgow addressed the minister, and the Rev. James Watson of 
 D\irham addressed the people. The Rev. Wm. Millar who was present 
 closed the solemn and interesting exeircises by pronouncing the benedic- 
 tion. 
 
 The congregation had an organized existence of 33 years, and yet this 
 was the first time that its Presbytery had the opportunity of meeting 
 within its bounds. It is also to be observed that it was the last. Indeed, 
 this was the first, last, and only time that the Presbyteiir of Pictou was 
 constituted on the island of Cape Breton. By the year 1861,when the 
 next ordination took place in Mabou, the Union of 1860 had taken place, 
 and the Mabou congregation had been placed under the care of the Pres- 
 bytery of Victoria in the United Church. 
 
 Mr. McLean did not remain long in this charge, but while he was here 
 he labored with great diligfence and great success. In the autumn of 1855, 
 the congregation of Gay's River, etc., sent him a second call, which he 
 accepted, much to the disappointment of the Mabou and Port Hood people. 
 
 It should be added that the Jubilee of the Rev. James McLtean's or- 
 dination was cejArated in the Hillsboro church, Mabou, on September 
 the 13th, 1904. On the 20th of July, 1904, the Senate of the Presbyterian 
 College had conferred on Mr. McLelan the honorary degree of Doctor of 
 Divinity, in recognition of his half century of faithful service, and it was 
 fitting that the Mabou congregation, in which he was ordained, should invite 
 him back and honor him by such a service. 
 
 Dr. McLean lived to a good old age. He died at the home of his son, 
 in Calgary, Alta., Feb. 25th, 1915 in the eighty-seventh year of his age, and 
 fifty-ninth of his ministry. 
 
 83 
 
The removal of Mr. McLean was followed by a vacancy of six years. 
 
 On June the 19th, 1861, Mr. Alexander McDonald, a licentiate of the 
 Free Church of Scotland, was ordained and inducted as pastor. We do 
 not know much about Mr. McDonald. In the year 1865 he resigned -and 
 returned to Scotland, where he lived and labored for several years. 
 
 Mr. McDonald's successor in the ministry of Mabou and Port Hood 
 was Mr. William Sinclair, a native of Goshen, Antigonish County, and a 
 graduate of oyr own institution of learning at Halifax. His ordination and 
 induction took place on November the 7th, 1865. Mr. Sinclair's ministry 
 was cut short by tuberculosis on February the 4th, 1870 His mortal 
 remains were laid to rest in the old cemetery on the south side of the river 
 where so many of the early settlers of Mabou are sleeping their long, last 
 sleep. The congregation shewed their appreciation of Mr. Sinclair and his 
 work by the erection to his memory of a marble monument. 
 
 Mr. Sinclair's death was followed by a vacancy of four years. At the 
 end of that time the congregation extended a call to- Mr. Alexander F. 
 Thompson, which he accepted, and his induction took place on September 
 the 8th, 1874. Mr. Thompson laboured in this field until January the 
 21st, 1879, when he accepted a call to the congregation of Economy and 
 Five Islands in the Presbytery of Truro. 
 
 Mr. Thompson was born on the West River of Antigonish, April 8th, 
 1842, and was educatd at Dalhousie University and the Presbyterian Col- 
 lege, Halifax. He departed this life at Truro, N. S., on July 18th, 1916, 
 in the 74th year of his age. 
 
 Mr. Thompson was a good preacher and also a very energetic and faith- 
 ful pastor. During his ministry in Mabou and Port Hood, large additions 
 were made to the membership of the church in both sections of the con- 
 gregation. 
 
 The Rev. Edward Roberts succeeded Mr. Thompson after an interval 
 of three years. Mr. Roberts was a native of Wales, England, and was born 
 in the year 1822. He received his education in the old land. He wab or- 
 dained to the Baptist ministry in his native principality, and served the 
 church in Wales in that capacity for a number of years. He came to Nova 
 Scotia in the year 1876, and some years later was received into the Pres- 
 byterian Church. His induction at Mabou took place on Dec 12th, 1828. 
 He demitted the charge towards the end of 1886. Mr. Roberts died at St. 
 John, N. B., on Dec. 15th, 1914, in the 92nd year of his age. Mr. Roberts 
 was a superior preacher, but his temperament and early training in an In- 
 dependent church were not conductive to good success in a Presbyterian 
 congregation. 
 
 The next minister of Mabou, etc., was a Scotchman by the name of 
 Gloag. He was inducted on the 14th of August, 1888. After a pastorate 
 of two years he resigned on the first of July, 18S0, and returned to Scotland. 
 
 The Rev. Ernest S. Bayne succeeded Mr. Gloag. His memory is still 
 green and fragrant among this affectionate and loyal people, whom he 
 served so faithfully for a period of twenty-eight years. He was inducted 
 
 84 
 
on August 14th, 1890, and passed to his reward on Dec. 30th, 1918. Mr. 
 Bayne was a son of the Rev. James Bayne, D. D., of Pictou. He studied 
 at Pictou Academy, Dalhousie University and Princeton Seminary, U. S. 
 Mr. Bayne was a man of a, genial disposition and a guileless character. He 
 was ever loyal to his master and faithful to the highest interests of his peo- 
 ple. 
 
 Six months after Mr. Bayne's death, the con^gregation called the 
 Rev. Donald Fraser, B. A., to the pastorate. The reader is referred to the 
 chapter on St. Peter's for an account of Mr. Fraser and his work. 
 
 Mr. Fraser was inducted at Mabou on September 10th, 1918. He is 
 here still and it is hoped that his health may be such as to enable him to 
 spend the remainder of his ministry in the picturesque valley of the Mabou 
 River. 
 
 There have been three churches built in Mabou. The first church was 
 one of the earliest built on this island. The church at St. Ann's was the 
 first, the church at Mabou the second, and the church at Malagawatch was 
 the third. 
 
 The first church stood on the South east side of the river and on the 
 site of the old cemetery still visible there. This church was subsequently 
 removed to the north-west side of the river and erected near where the New 
 Cemetery is located. 
 
 The second church was built on the site of the present church in the 
 year 1856. In 1888, the present handsome and commodious church was 
 built at a cost of $3,500. There is a hall in Mabou village in which services 
 are held every Sabbath evening. 
 
 The congregation had no manse for its minister until 1892, during Mr. 
 Bayne's pastorate, when it purchased the plain, but substantial and com- 
 fortable residence of the late Mr. John Murray from his executors. 
 
 Mabou has always done its duty very generously by the missionary 
 enterprises of the Presbyterian church. It was one of the thirty congre- 
 gations that furnished the funds to send the Rev. John Geddie to the New 
 Hebrides in 1846. 
 
 Port Hood ceased to be a part of the Mabou congregation in the year 
 1909. 
 
 Mabou has had a succession of excellent men in the eldership from 
 William Watts, John Smith and James Hawley, who composed the first 
 session down to the present time. Oij that roll of intelligent and godly 
 Presbyters are found such names as Benjamin Smith, John McKeen, Wil- 
 1am McKeen, James Smith, Walter McDonald and others too numerous to 
 mention. 
 
 Mabou has given two excellent men to the ministry of our church 
 viz. John Hawley and Robert P. Murray. Hawley died a number of 
 years ago in P. E. Island. Mr. Murray is now minister of Central Econ- 
 omy, Colchester, N. S. 
 
 85 
 
Port Hastings, etc.. and its Ministry. 
 
 It is Impossible to determine the time when the earliest Presbyterians 
 came to the Strait of Canso, probably about the year 1812 or 1815. When 
 Dr. McGregor paid his second visit to Cape Breton in 1818, he found twenty 
 families at West Bay and twenty or thirty more at River Inhabitants. 
 These forty to fifty families were all Presbyterians. Dr. McGregor does not 
 make mention of any Presbyterian families on the Strait of Canso but there 
 must have been a few there at that time. Nine or ten years later there was a 
 fairly large Presbyterian population in this vicinity. This is evident from a 
 letter that was written at the Strait of Canso on the 10th of April, 1827, and 
 addressed to the Colonial Committee of the Church of Scotland. This 
 letter was signed by John Cameron, J. P., Hugh Millar, J. P., and Angus 
 Grant, J. Pi, three Justices of the Peace. In that letter these three men 
 appealed to the Committee to send them a minister of the gospel. They 
 claim to speakin the name of ninetyPresbyterian families who were then liv- 
 ing within an area of twelve miles in length on the strait and of foJit miles in 
 breadth inland. They state that sixty of the nintety families had already 
 subscribed eighty pounds for the support of a minister, and that although 
 they had no church at that time, they were ready to build one as soon as a 
 minster arrived. 
 
 The first Presbyterian service ever held on the Strait, so far as known 
 was conducted My the Rev. John McLennan of Belfast, P. E. Island, and 
 the Rev. Donald Allan Praser of McLennan's Mountain, Pictou. This 
 service was held either at Port Hastings or Port Hawkesbury, about the 
 end of October, 1827, as these two men were returning from a missionary 
 tour to the different Presbyterian settlements then in Cape Breton. In the 
 report of that visit which Mr. McLennan sent to the Colonial Committee, 
 on his return home, he says of the Gut of Canso."Here I met my friend, Mr. 
 Fraser after returning from his circuit. We both preached on Sabbath to a 
 numerous congregation and baptised twelve children. Along the sides of this 
 much frequented sound, there are at least one hundred Protestant families." 
 
 On this occasion Mr. Fraser made arrangements by whi6h the Strait 
 of Canso and River Inhabitants were to form one pastoral charge, when a 
 minister should be found. 
 
 Pour years later on January the 1st, 1832, the Rev. Dugald McKichan 
 became the first minister of this congregation; but the congregation was 
 formed in October, 1827. The present congregation of Port Hastings and 
 Port Hawkesbury is the legitimate successor of the congregation that was 
 constituted at that time. A biographical account of Mr. McKichan will 
 be found elsewhere. He was one of the Pioneers and is entitled to a place 
 among them. 
 
 About this time there was a Jersey fishing establishment at Ship Har- 
 bor (now Port Hawkesbury), conducted by one Andrew Le Brocq, a 
 Methodist in religion. He erected a small church here in 1828 and offered 
 
 86 
 
that church to the Wesleyan Missionary Society on condition that a Meth- 
 odist minister should be sent to occupy the pulpit. The offer was accepted 
 and in the following year the Rev. James G.Hennigar came here. He is repor- 
 ted to have preached to large and attentive congregations, and to have made 
 a number of converts at Ship Harbor as well as at adjacent settlements. In 
 this way Methodism got an advantage of Presbyterianism at Port Hawkes- 
 bury and vicinity. The Protestants on the strait at that time were chiefly 
 of the Presbyterian faith, but they had no minister and did not get one until 
 1,832, when the Rev. Dugald McKichan came to River Inhabitants. By that 
 time the Methodists were well established at Port Hawkesbury, Sunnyside, 
 Port Malcolm and West Bay Road, and Presbyterianism has been weak in 
 these places ever since. 
 
 The first Presbyterian Church built at the Strait of Canso was built in 
 the early part of Mr. McKichan's ministry, probably ia 1832. It stood on 
 the highway to Port Hood and a little north of Plaster Cove. The ceme- 
 tery on the ilbrth west side of the Long Stretch road marks the site of that 
 first church. All trace of it has now disappeared. This is the church in 
 which the Rev. Alexander Farquharson preached his first sermon after or- 
 dination by the Presbytery of Miramichi on the 16th of September 1833, 
 and the church in which the Rev. John Stewart preached his first sermon 
 on this side of the Atlantic on August the 24th, 1834. Mr. Stewart wrote 
 of it as "a half-finished church which was supplied on alternate Sabbaths by 
 Mr. McKichan." The church was never finished, and during the long 
 vacanacy between the departure of Mr. McKichan in 1840 and the settle- 
 ment of Mr. Forbes in 1853, it was allowed to go to decay. The second 
 church was built in the year 1852. 
 
 This church also stood on the old Port Hood Road, but about a mile 
 nearer Port Hawkesbury than the first one. An abandoned cemetery on 
 the east side of the present highway marks the site of this church. This 
 church was destroyed by fire while undergoing repairs on August 11th, 
 1865. 
 
 A third church was built in the following year, 1866. It also stood on 
 the old Port Hood Road, but on a site intermediate between the other two 
 sites, and on the western bank of Plaster Cove. This church was never 
 finished inside. 
 
 The present church was built in the year 1881 near the centre of the 
 town of Port Hastings. 
 
 The fifth church was built at Port Hawkesbury in the year 1911. Pre- 
 vious to that time the few Presbyterians at Port Hawkesbury and Sunny- 
 side were expected to come to Port Hastings to worship. The policy of 
 leaving Port Hawkesbury so long without a church and services was a ser- 
 ious mistake for our cause in that vicinity. It almost extinguished Pres- 
 byterianism at Port Hawkesbury as it did actually at Sunnyside and Port 
 Mialcolm. 
 
 We had no minister at Port Hastings from 1840 to 1852. These were 
 
 87 
 
trying years on the loyalty of our people in this community, but there were 
 a few godly laymen that saved the situation to some extent by conducting 
 public worship regularly on the Lord's Day. In this connection the names 
 of John McKinnon, Alexander Cameron and John Campbell are worthy of 
 special mention. John Campbell was for many years the leader of these 
 services. He also conducted a Sabbath School as well as a day school at 
 Port Hastings during many years. 
 
 The Rev. William G. Forbes was the second minister of the congrega- 
 tion. He was ordained and inducted by the Free Church Presbytery of 
 Cape Breton in the month of August, 1852, as minister of "Plaster Cove, 
 River Inhabitants and River Denys," Shortly after his settlement he 
 purchased a home for himself at Plaster Cove and here he spent the re- 
 mainder of his life as minister of this extensive charge. He resigned the 
 charge on account of age and infirmity on the 30th of June, 1881. He de- 
 parted this life on September 20th, 1886, in the 86th year of his age, and the 
 34th of his ministry. 
 
 The Presbyterian Witness of September 25th, 1886, containing the fol- 
 lowing obituary notice of Mr. Forbes. 
 
 "Mr. Forbes was the first student of the Free Church College, Halifax, 
 to be licensed and ordained. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Halifax 
 in June 1851. He was ordained at Plaster Cove in 1852. His congregation 
 included River Inhabitants and River Denys, as well as Plaster Cove and 
 all the surrounding country. This was his first and only charge In 1860, 
 he was unanimously elected moderator of the Free Church Synod, and was 
 moderator at the time of the union of 1860, the last moderator of the Free 
 Church. He was a good preacher, especially in Gaelic. He was of a very 
 cheerful disposition, and an Israelite without guile." 
 
 Mr. Forbes was born in North Ronaldshay in the Orkneys, in 1800. 
 He taught school for a number of years in Scotland before coming to this 
 country in 1847. He studied theology at the Free Church College between 
 1848 and 1851. He was one of the first graduates of that institution in the 
 spring of 1851. 
 
 After Mr. Forbes resigned in 1881, there was a vacancy of six years in 
 the pastorate of the congregation. During these years several student 
 catechists rendered good service in the summer time, e. g., Mr. H. K. Mc- 
 Lean, Roderick McLeod and Donald McDonald. 
 
 In the summer of 1887, the congregation extended a call to Mr. Donald 
 McDonald, M. A., B. D., a recent graduate of our own college, Halifax. 
 Mr. McDonald accepted the call and was ordained and inducted as minis- 
 ter of Port Hastings and River Inhabitants on the 7th day of September, 
 By this time River Denys had been separated from the congregation and 
 attached to Malagawatch. This change was made on the retirement of 
 Mr. Forbes in 1881. 
 
 Mr. McDonald was born at the Big Intervale, Aspy Bay, on July the 
 21st, 1855. He had few educational advantages in his native place, but he 
 made the best use of those which he had. After attending Sydney Academy 
 
for two sessions, and teaching school for a couple of years, he matriculated 
 into Dalhousie University in the fall of 1881. In the spr4ng of 1884, he 
 graduated with the degree of Master of Arts. His theological studies were 
 taken at the Presbyterian College, Halifax, from which he graduated as 
 Bachelor of Divinity in the spring of 1887. Mr. McDonald labored dili- 
 gently and successfully in the congregation until the autumn of 1893, when 
 he resigned. A few months later he accepted a call to Strathlorne congre- 
 gation. 
 
 The Rev. Hector McLean was the next minister of this congregation. 
 He was a native of the Middle River, Victoria County, C. B., where he was 
 born on Nov. 13th, 1853. When a youth, Mr. McLean started out to learn 
 the carriage building trade, but having come under the power pf the gospel, 
 and tasted its preciousness, he decided to become a preacher of that gospel 
 to his fellowtaien. After the usual course of study at Dalhousie University 
 and the Presbyterian College, he was duly licensed in the spring of 1887. 
 Very shortly thereafter,he was called to be minister of Union Centre and 
 Lochaber in the Presbytery of Pictou, where his ordination took place in 
 June, 1887. 
 
 Mr. McLean was minister in succession of the following charges: viz.. 
 Union Centre and Lochaber, Acadia Mines, Parrsboro, Port Hastings, 
 Onslow and Chicope, U. S. 
 
 He was inducted as minister of Port Hastings, River Inhabitants, and 
 Port Hawkesbury, on September 9th, 1903. He left for Onslow in May, 
 1906, greatly esteemed and beloved. Mr. McLean died at his old home on 
 the Middle River August 28th, 1915. He came to Cape Breton to rest, 
 recuperate and return to Chicope. But his work was done. After a few 
 days illness he passed to the Higher Service. To quote the words on his 
 tombstone in the cemetery at Middle River, he was "a man of singular 
 purity.and nobility of character; a man of rare faithfulness and a spiritual 
 power." 
 
 The Rev. L. H. McLean succeeded his namesake in the pastorate of 
 this congregation. He too, was one of Cape Breton's sons, having been 
 born at Strathlorne on July 9th, 1866. His preparatory education was re- 
 ceived at the- Normal School, Truro and Pictou Acadenay. He studied 
 Arts in Queens University, from which he graduated B. A. in 1894. He 
 studied theology in the Presbyterian College, Halifax, and graduated in 
 April, 1897. The same year he received the degree of M. A. from Dal- 
 housie. 
 
 Mr. McLean was licensed on May 24th, 1897,and ordained and induct- 
 ed at Port Hastings on the 12th of October in that same year. He took a 
 post graduate course at Queen's University, and also at the United Free 
 College, Glasgow, some years later. On his return from Scotland, Mr. 
 McLean was called to St. Andrew's, Pictou, where he remained until his 
 resignation on December 31st, 1815. 
 
 On March 14th, 1918, Mr. McLean was inducted at Newcastle, N. B., 
 
 89 
 
where he is still, and where he is maintaining his reputation as a preacher, 
 pastor and scholar. 
 
 During Mr. McLean's ministry on May the 16th, 1899, River Inhabit- 
 ants was separated from Port Hastings and a larger proportion of the pastors 
 labor was given to Port HawkeSbury. 
 
 The next minister of Port Hastings and Port Hawkesbury was the 
 Rev. John C. McLeod. Mr. McLeod was born at Big Glace Bay or Dom- 
 inion No. 6, on January 18th, 1874. 
 
 Believing that he should make the best possible use of his life, he re- 
 solved to study for the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. With this 
 end in view, he studied at Pictou Academy, Dalhousie University and the 
 Presbyterian College. After graduating in arts from Dalhousie in the year 
 1899, Mr. McLeod continued his studied at the college, and graduated in 
 the spring of 1901. On May the 28th, 1901, he was licenlsed by the Pres- 
 bytery of Sydney and in June following, he was ordained and inducted as 
 minister of Leitches Creek, C. B. 
 
 Three years later Mr. McLeod was called to Gairloch in the Presbytery 
 of PictoU, where he was inducted in August, 1904. After a ministry of 
 three yl^rs at Gairloch, Mr. McLeod received a call to Port Hastings and 
 Port Hawkesbury, which he accepted, and his induction took place on 
 June the 27th, 1907. Here Mr. McLeod proved himself to be a "workman 
 that needeth not be ashamed, rightly divining the word of truth." 
 
 In September, 1912, he accepted a call to Lanark in the Presbytery of 
 Glengarry, and was translated thither by the Presbytery of Inverness. 
 
 He is now in Battleford in the province of Saskatchewan. 
 
 After a vacancy of over a year, the congregation secured the service, 
 as temporary supply, of the Rev. John Murray, who had recently retired 
 from the active duties of the ministry. Mr. Murray remained in Port 
 Hastings for a period of two years and three months, from January 1st, 
 1914, to April 1st, 1917. The following winter the congregation recalled 
 the Rev. Donald McDonald, B. D., to be their pastor after an interval of 
 twenty-four years. Mr. McDonald was happily situated at Grand River 
 at the time, but he responded favorably to their calljund his induction took 
 place on February the 1st, 1917. 
 
 This congregation has a good manse and it is located on one of the 
 finest sites on the Strait of Canso. It was built in the year 1889,during Mr. 
 McDonald's first pastorate in the congregation. 
 
 90 
 
Middle River and Its Ministry 
 
 The Middle River Congregation takes its name from the river upon 
 which it is located. The Indian name for this river was "Wagamatook," 
 which meant, the clear water, a very appropriate name indeed. 
 
 From the outlet, on St. Patrick's Channel to the head waters of the 
 Middle River.there is a distance of about thirty miles and both sides of the 
 river are lined with Presbyterian homes and farms There is, no doubt, 
 bolder and grander scenery on the Margaree, the North River of Aspy 
 Bay and South Ingonish, but there is no more beautiful scenery in 
 Cape Breton than is to be found on the Middle River. 
 
 The soil on the banks of this river is excellent for agricultural pur- 
 poses and the people are all in good circumstances. They are also intelli- 
 gent, religious and happy. They are all the descendants of Gaelic speaking 
 highlanders who came to this beautiful valley about one hundred years ago. 
 Many of them still speak the language of their ancestors, the old Celtic 
 tongue that was sp/)ken in Caledonia more than two thousand years ago. 
 
 The earliest Scottish settlers on the Middle River went to Prince 
 Edward Island in the first instance and from there they came to this place 
 about the year 1820, some of them a few years earlier. Among those who 
 came by way of P. E. I. there was Donald McRae, great grandfather of the 
 Rev. William McKenzie our first missionary to Korea; Peter Campbell, 
 great grandfather of Mrs. James Eraser ouf minister at Dominion No. 6, 
 C. B.; Kenneth McLeod, great grandfather of the Rev. H. K. McLean, 
 and Roderick McKenzie, grandfather of the late Rev. Alexander Far- 
 quharson of St. Andrews, Sydney. 
 
 In the year 1833, when the Rev. Alexander Farquharson came to the 
 Middle River, there were about sixty families living in the valley of the 
 Wagamatook. The majority of these came from Scotland in the interval 
 between 1820 and 1833. 
 
 During Ml-. Parquharson's ministry Lake Ainslie was associated with 
 the Middle River in the maintenance of gospel ordinances. Middle River 
 took two-thirds of Mr. Parquharson's services and Lake Ainslie one-third. 
 
 After Mr. Farquharson's death in Jan. 1858 a vacancy of nearly six 
 years took place in the pastorate, which proved very injurious to the inter- 
 ests of religion on the Middle River. During this time an enemy came and 
 sowed tares among the wheat. For some years there was strife, discord and 
 confusion in this hitherto peaceful community. That was a very distress- 
 ing episode in the history of the congregation. It would serve no good pur- 
 pose, to go into particulars of that strife at this late date, when nearly all 
 the parties concerned have gone to judgment. 
 
 Mr. Farquharson's successor in the ministry of Middle River was the 
 Rev. Donald McKenzie, a licentiate of the Free Church of Scotland. He 
 was sent out from Scotland by the Colonial Committee of that Church in 
 order to fill the vacancy that had existed for so many years at Middle River 
 and Lake Ainslie. 
 
 91 
 
On his arrival the people united in extending a call to Mr. McKenzie. 
 He was ordained and inducted at Middle River on the nineteenth day of 
 April 1864, and he remained in the pastorate until the 7th of March, 1870, 
 when he resigned the charge and returned to Scotland. 
 
 Mr. McKenzie was very highly esteemed in both sections of the con- 
 gregation and all deplored his departure. The early part of his ministry 
 was rendered very unhappy by the presence at Middle River of a minister 
 of the Kirk Presbytery of Pictou and by the efforts that minister made to 
 alienate the good people of the river section from their own church. Hap- 
 pily, these efforts were ultimately a complete failure, but they must have 
 been very trying to a man of Mr. McKenzie's peaceful disposition, as they 
 were to a large majority of his people. 
 
 The third ministry of Middle River was the Rev. Adam McKay. 
 Between the departure of Mr. McKenzie and the arrival of Mr. McKay a 
 re-arrangement of congregational boundaries had been made in this 
 vicinity. Lake Ainslie had been separated from the Middle River and 
 formed into a new charge, while Little Narrows had been separated from 
 Whycocomagh and united to Middle River to form another new charge. 
 These changes were made by the Presbytery of the bounds on the 6th of 
 Dec. 1870. 
 
 The Rev. Adam McKay was born in Sutherlandshire, Scotland, but 
 he grew up to manhood, in Earltown, Colchester County, N. S. As a 
 young man he learned the blacksmith trade and he wrought at the anvil 
 until over thirty years of age. Hearing and obeying the call to service for 
 Jesus Christ, he dropped his tools and entered upon a course of preparation 
 for the gospel ministry. 
 
 We are not sure where he studied but we know that he was ordained 
 and inducted at Culross in the Province of Ontario. He was inducted into 
 the congregation of Middle River and Little Narrows on the 13th of Nov. 
 1871. After a very strenuous and sucessful ministry of four years in this 
 charge he was called to Ripley in %pe Presbytery of Bruce, where he was 
 inducted in the month of Oct. 1875. He died in Ripley some years later. 
 
 Mr. McKay was a man of uncommon earnestness and burning zeal in 
 his Master's service. He excelled as a preacher in the Gaelic language and 
 the common people heard him gladly. 
 
 Mr. McKay was succeeded in the charge of Middle River and Little 
 Narrows by the Rev. Alexander McRae, a native of Kintail, Rosshire, 
 Scotland, where he was born in the year 1820. His arts course was taken 
 in the University of Glasgow, and his theological course, partly in the Free 
 Church College Glasgow and partly in Knox College, Toronto. He grad- 
 uated from Knox College in the spring of 1871. During the next four 
 years he supplied various Home Mission fields in Ontario. He came to 
 Cape Breton towards the end of 1876, and shortly after his arrival he was 
 called to the pastorate of Middle River and Little Narrows. His ordina- 
 tion and induction took place at Middle River on the 7th day of June 1877. 
 After a faithful pastorate of sixteen years Mr. McRae resigned this charge 
 and retired from the active duties of the ministry on the 7th of June 1893. 
 
 92 
 
The remainder of his life was spent at the Inlet near Baddeck where he died 
 on the 30th of Oct. 1904 in the eighty-fourth year of his life and thirty- 
 third of his ministry. He was buried at Little Narrows. Mr. McRae was 
 a good man, he was diligent in the discharge of his ministerial duties and he 
 was greatly beloved by his people. On the day of Mr. McRae's retirement, 
 Little Narrows was separated from Middle River and both Middle River 
 and Little Narrows became independent charges by action of thePresbytery. 
 
 The Rev. M. A. McKenzie followed Mr. McRae in the pastorate of 
 Middle River. He was the first minister of this congregation as it is now 
 constituted. 
 
 Mr. McKenzie served as ordained missionary in the congregation for a 
 period of two and a half years previous to his settlement as pastor. He 
 was inducted into the pastorate on the 3rd of July 1900. Mr. McKenzie 
 was minister of Middle River until the 15th of July 1904, when he resigned 
 and went to Manitoba. Here he was settled as ordained missionary for 
 three years at Hilton in the Presbytery of Glenboro. At the end of that 
 time he was called to Bowden in the Presbytery of Red Deer, Alberta, 
 where he was inducted on the 2nd of Dec. 1907. In 1911 Mr. McKenzie 
 retired from the work of the ministry. He is now living on a fruit farm at 
 Aldergrove, B. C. 
 
 Mr. McKenzie was born in Strathcona, Rosshire, Scotland on July 
 the 15th, 1854. He studied the Arts in the University of Glasgow and 
 theology in the Free Church College, Glasgow. He was licensed by the 
 Free Presbytery of Glasgow in 1881 and came to Canada in 1885. After 
 spending some years in the Home Mission fields of Ontario, Mr. McKenzie 
 came to Cape Breton, and was called to Grand River on the Presbytery of 
 Sydney. He was inducted into that charge on the 30th of May 1888, and 
 after a ministry of over eight years, he resigned the charge on Nov. 1st, 
 1896. 
 
 Mr."McKenzie was succeeded at Middle River by Mr. Norman Mc- 
 Queen, one of our own young men and a recent graduate of our own Col- 
 lege. Mr. McQueen was ordained and inducted at the Middle River on 
 the 30th day of July 1905. After a ministry of three years he accepted a 
 call to St^ Lukes congregation Dominion No. 6 in the Presbytery of Sydney 
 and removed to that place. Mr McQueen was born at Mira Gut but he 
 grew up to mahihood at Port Morien. After a course of study in Arts at 
 Dalhousie University and theology at the Presbyterian College he was li- 
 censed by the Presbytery of Inverness on the 13th day of July 1905. One 
 week later he was ordained and inducted into the ministry of the Middle 
 River congregation. Mr. MQueen is now minister of the Presbyterian 
 Church in West Somerville, Mass., U. S. 
 
 The next minister of this congregation was the Rev. J. Allister Murray 
 a native of the island of Lewis Scotland, where he was born on the 9th of 
 Sept., 1865. He took his arts course in the University of Glasgow. After 
 spending a number of years as a lay missionary or catechist in different 
 parts of the highlands and islands of Scotland, Mr. Murray came to Can- 
 ada in the year, 1901. During the next three years he was engaged in 
 
 93 
 
Home Missionary work in summer and in studying theology at Manitoba 
 College in winter. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Winnipeg in the 
 sjiring of 1905 and settled in one of our western charges. Mr. Murray 
 came to Cape Breton in the spring of 1911 and was inducted into the con- 
 gregation of Middle River in July of that year. After a successful pastorajt e 
 of seven years he accepted a call to St. Ann's and Englishtown where he is 
 still laboring with great zeal and success. 
 
 The present minister of this congregation is the Rev. J. W. Smith. 
 His induction took place on the 27th of August 1918. Mr. Smith is a Cape 
 Bretonian, having been born at Big Hill, St. Ann's on the 27th of January, 
 1880. 
 
 Coming under the power of the truth while working at his trade in 
 North Sydney, Mr. Slnith entered upon a course of preparation for the 
 ministry by attending the Missionary Institution conducted by Messrs 
 Kenyon and Benaur at Nyack, New York. After studying in this school 
 for three years he returned to Cape Breton in the, summer of 1909. In 
 November of that year he was sent to Cape North as a lay catechist by the 
 Presbytery of Sydney. Mr. Smith's work at Cape North was so satis- 
 factory that the Presbytery licensed him to preach the gospel on August 
 the 11th, 1911, and on the 31st of August ordained and inducted him as 
 missionary at Leitches Creek. On June the 29th, 1915, Mr. Smith was in- 
 ducted as minister of Gabarus, and in August 1918, he was settled at Middle 
 River where he is still faithfully proclaiming the gospel of the grace of God. 
 
 The first Church at Middle River was built in 1834, the year in which 
 Mr. Parquharson was settled here. The present Church is the second 
 that has been erected by the congregation. It was built in the year 1877, 
 during the ministry of Mr. McQueen. 
 
 There is an excellent Manse provided by the congregation. It was 
 built during the ministry of Mr. Murray. 
 
 Middle River has done its duty very well in the matter of supplying . 
 our church with ministers of the gospel. On the roll of ministers from this 
 congrega^on, we find the following names, Alexander Farquharson, 
 Hector K. McLean, Malcolm Campbell, William A. Morrison, A. K. 
 McLennan, Neil McLennan, John D. McParlane, P. K. McRae, and 
 Daniel McQuarrie. 
 
 94 
 
West Bay and Its Ministry. 
 
 In the days of the pioneers, this congregation was known as the con- 
 gregation of St. George's Channel. That was then the name of the large 
 bay that now goes by the name of West Bay. The earliest Presbyterian 
 settlers on the shores of this extensive bay came from Pictou County in the 
 year 1813. They were all Scottish Highlanders who had gone from Scot- 
 land to Pictou some years earlier, but decided that they could do better 
 for themselves by leaving Pictou and coming to West Bay. 
 
 When Dr. McGregor came to this island in 1818, he found twenty 
 Presbyterian families at the head of this bay and a number more at River 
 Inhabitants, which is at present included in the West Bay congregation. 
 Betwen 1818 and 1827 when the Rev. John McLennan and the Rev. Donald 
 Allan Fraser paid their first visit to Cape Breton the population had greatly 
 increased, chiefly by immigration from the Scottish highlands and islands. 
 Mr. McLennan reported to the Colonial Committee that "around this Bay 
 there are no less than one hundred and fifty families without a minister, 
 school-master or catechist." 
 
 Apart from a few services by Mr. Donald McDonald between 1824 
 and 1826, by Aeneas McLean in 1828 and 1829 and by Alexander Far- 
 quharson in 1833, this large body of Presbyterians had no regular gospel 
 ministry, until the Rev. John Stewart became their minister in the year 
 1835. And Mr. Stewart's ministry at West Bay was very short. In the 
 year 1838 he became minister of St. Andrews Church, New Glasgow, Nova 
 Scotia. From that time until 1843, when the Rev. Murdoch Stewart came 
 out from Scotland to look after their spiritual interests, they were indeed 
 like sheep without a shepherd. Murdoch Stewart was minister of this con- 
 gregation from Sept. 1843 to June 1867, when he demitted the charge on 
 the ground of inadequate support and went to Port Morien. 
 
 Biographical sketches of John Stewart and Murdoch Stewart will be 
 found under the heading of "The Pioneers." 
 
 The third minister of West Bay was the Rev. John Sutherland, a 
 native of Sutherland shire, Scotland. He was educated in his native land, 
 and came to Cape Breton in the year 1872, as a licentiate of the Free 
 Church. Accepting a call to West Bay, he was ordained and inducted as 
 pastor on the 18th of March 1873. At that time the congregation included 
 St. Peters, Grandance, the Points and the North Mountain as well as 
 Black River and the head of the Bay. Mr. Sutherland remained but one 
 year in this extensive field. In March 1874 he was translated to the Pres- 
 bjrtery of P. E. I. and by that Presbytery inducted into the congregation of 
 Wood Islands and Little Sands. In the Spring of 1881, Mr. Sutherland 
 resigned this charge and went to Australia. A number of years later he 
 returned to P.E. Island and became minister of the Caledonia Congregation 
 where he died. Mr. Sutherland's departure was followed by a vacancy 
 in the pastorate of more than five years. During this time the congregation 
 was supplied by probationers and catechists more or less regularly. 
 
 95 
 
At the end of this period the people of West Bay united in a call to the 
 Rev. Donald McDougall, then minister of Port Morien. Mr. McDougall 
 had by this time made full proof of his ministry by successful pastorates in 
 New London, P. E. I. and Port Morien C. B. The congregation was in a 
 disorganized condition on account of being so long vacant and Mr. Mc- 
 Dougall was precisely the man for the work to be done. His induction 
 took place on the 10th of Sept. 1879 and his ministry at West Bay was 
 abundantly fruitful both in material and spiritual results. After thirteen 
 years of strenuous labor, Mr. McDougall accepted a call to Greenwood 
 Church, Baddeck,and was inducted there on the 28th of Sept. 1892. 
 
 The Rev. Angus McMillan was the next pastor of West Bay. Mr. 
 McMillan was born at Big Hill, St. Ann's, in the year 1848. He grew up 
 in surroundings that were highly conducive to seriousness and piety. 
 Tasting of the grace of God in early life, he formed the high purpose of 
 serving his Saviour and Master in proclaiming the gospel. His preparation 
 for the ministry was obtained at the Baddeck Academy, Pictou Academy, 
 Dalhousie University and the Presbyterian College. He graduated in 
 theology in the spring of 1881, and was licensed by the Presbytery of P. E. 
 Island a few weeks thereafter. Responding favourably to a call from 
 Malagawatch and River Deny's, Mr. McMillan was ordained and in- 
 ducted into the pastorate of that charge by the Presbytery of Victoria and 
 Richmond on the 25th of Jan. 1882. Mr. McMillan spent the next four- 
 teen years in this extensive and laborious congregation and left for West 
 Bay with the esteem and affection of all the people. 
 
 Mr. McMillan came to West Bay in the year 1893. His induction 
 took place on the 22nd of November in that year and he was minister of the 
 congregation during the next sixteen years. At the end of that time he 
 accepted a call to the congregation of Marion Bridge in the Presbytery of 
 Sydney. He was inducte'd at Marion Bridge on the 30th of Stept. 1909. 
 During Mr. McMillan's ministry at West Bay, Cleveland and Princeville 
 on the River Inhabitants were separated from Port Hastings and attached 
 to West Bay. At the same time the Points and North Mountain were 
 separated from West Bay and other arrangements made for their supply. 
 This change was made by the Presbytery of the bounds on the 28th of 
 Sept. 1905. Mr. McMillan was followed in the pastorate of West Bay by 
 the Rev. Alexander Ferguson, B. A. Mr. Ferguson was born at Long 
 Beach, Port Morien. He studied at Dalhousie University and the Pres- 
 byterian College. After graduating from that College in the spring of 
 1909, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Inverness on the 14th of May 
 in that year. Accepting a call to the pastorate of Strathlorne congregation, 
 he was ordained and inducted by the Presbytery of Inverness in the 
 Strathlorne Church on the 9th of July, 1909. 
 
 Mr. Ferguson's ministry at Strathlorne was shorts- only a few months. 
 On Dec. the 15th 1909 he was inducted into the charge of West Bay, where 
 he remained during the next three years. In Dec. 1912 Mr. Ferguson de^ 
 mitted this charge and went to our western Home Mission field. After 
 about a year in the West he returned East again and was settled for a few 
 
 96 
 
years in the congregation of Strathalbyn and Rose Valley, P. E. Island, 
 Mr. Ferguson returned to C. B. in the early part of 1915 and was inducted 
 into the charge of Little Narrows.on the 1st of June in that year. 
 
 The Rev. J. C. McLennan, B. A., succeeded Mr. Ferguson at West 
 Bay after an interval of about nine months. Mr. McLennan is a native of 
 New Campbellton, Big Bras d'Or, where he was born on Dec. the 29th, 
 1879. Like the large majority of our Cape Breton born ministers, Mr. 
 McLennan acquired his education at Dalhousie University and the Pres- 
 byterian College. He graduated from the University in the Spring of 
 1909 and from the College in the spring of 1912. He was licensed by the 
 Presbytery of Halifax shortly after graduating from the College. 
 
 Immediately upon being licensed, he went West and labored for a year 
 or more at Fort William in the Presbytery of Superior. At the end of 
 that time West Bay sent him a call which he was pleased to accept and his 
 induction took place on the 23rd of Sept. 1913. Mr. McLennan spent fives 
 happy and useful years in this congregation. In the year 1918, Mr.Mc- 
 Lennan accepted a call to Warden Church, Glace Bay and his induction 
 into that charge took place on the 14th of November of that year. 
 
 The first church built in the West Bay Congregation was built at 
 Black River in the year 1836 — the second year of the Rev. John Stewart's 
 ministry. Rev. Murdoch Stewart conducted public worship in this 
 Church during the greater part of his ministry. The present church at 
 Black River was built in the year 1870. This is the principal church in the 
 congregation. There was also a small church built at West Bay Points 
 during the pastorate of the Rev. John Stewart. In 1876 there was a 
 church built at Lime Hill on the north side of the Bay. This church is now 
 in possession of the Marble Mountain congregation. 
 
 In the year 1891 there was a large hall built at the head of the bay as a 
 place of worship and it is still used for that purpose. 
 
 In the year 1905, the Points and Marble Mountain were both separ- 
 ated from the congregation and formed into Mission stations. The 
 Church at Prince ville was built in 1864 by the Kirk people but not finished. 
 It was repaired and finished in the eighties. The church at Cleveland was 
 built in 1874. The Rev. John Stewart had a farm about three miles from 
 Black River oh the way to the Points. The Rev. Murdoch Stewart had a 
 farm in the immediate vicinity of Black River. The congregation pur- 
 chased this farm and the Rev. Mr. McDougall lived for some years in the 
 house that Mr. Stewart built. Subsequently Mr. McDougall bought a 
 farm nearer the head of the bay upon which he lived for some years. 
 
 In the year 1887 the congregation built a Manse at the head of the 
 Bay. 
 
 It remains but for to speak of the ministers that were born within the 
 bounds of this congregation. The first was the Rev. Abraham Mcintosh, 
 minister of St. Ann's from 1856 to 1889. The second was the Rev. Donald 
 Morrison, Missionary to the New Hebrides, where he died in Oct. 1869. 
 The third was the Rev. James William MeKenzie the first missionary of 
 our church to Korea, where he departed this life in the year 1895. Another 
 
 97 
 
was the Rev. John Calder a former ministfer of St; Peters, where he died 
 in the year 1917. An"Dther departed minister, born in West Bay was the 
 Rev. Malcolm N. McLeod, D. D., who died in Pueblo, Colorado in Feb. 
 1919. The ministers from this congregation, who are with us still arid doing 
 good work in their different spheres are the Rev. J. A. McLellan of Valley- 
 field, P. E. I., the Rev. J. W. Nicholson of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. 
 
 98 
 
Boulardarle and Its Ministry 
 
 This Boulardarie congregation takes ife name from the island upon 
 which it is located, and the island is named after Sieur de la Boulardarie, a 
 French officer that came to Cape Breton immediately after the signing of 
 the Treaty of Utrecht in the year 1713. This island is thirty miles in length 
 and about six miles in average breadth. It contains over 100,000 acres 
 of the best soil in Cape Breton. 
 
 Boulardarie is situated at the eastern end of the Bras d'Or Lake, 
 which is really an inland salt water sea. The tides of the Atlantic ebb and 
 flow into this sea by two narrow channels called respectively the Big and 
 the Little Bras d'Ors. The Big Bras d'Or flows on the north side of 
 Boulardarie island and the Little Bras d'Or flows on the south side. The 
 name Bras d'Or was originally Bras de Eau, Arm of Water, not arm of 
 gold as is generally supposed. 
 
 The people connected with the congregation of Boulardarie, live on 
 the north side of the island for the most part. A small proportion of them 
 live on the north side of the Big Bras d'Or at the Slios, New Campbellton 
 and eastward to Cape Dauphin. " 
 
 The ancestors of these people came here from Gairloch, Rosshire, 
 Scotland in the early part of the last century, between 1802 and 1820. 
 When the Rev. Donald Allan Fraser, the first Presbyterian minister to visit 
 Boulardarie, came here in 1827, he found upwards of forty families between 
 Kemp Head and the Big Bras d'Or entrance. 
 
 Under Mr. Fraser's inspiration these forty families together with a 
 number of other families from Little Baddeck sent a petition to the Colo- 
 nial Committee of the Church of Scotland, praying that a minister of the 
 gospel might be sent to them as speedily as possible, and this petition 
 was accompanied by a guarantee of Stipend amouiiting to one hundred and 
 fifty pounds. 
 
 The Rev. James Fraser was sent out to Capie Breton, by the Colonial 
 Committee in 1835 in answer to that and subsequent similiar petitions. It 
 took eight long years to find a man willing to leave the home land and come 
 to this then distant part of the Kingdom. 
 
 When Mr. Fraser took charge of the congregation in the year 1836 it 
 was not limited to its present boundaries. He had to take the oversight 
 of Eastern Cape Breton. His field included the Presbyterians at Little 
 Bras d'Or, Sydney Mines, Upper North Sydney, Leithes Creek and all east 
 of Sydney Harbor and River. It was not until the Rev. Matthew Wilson 
 came to Cape Breton in 1842, and took charge of our people at Little Bras 
 d'Or, Sydney MineS and Upper North Sydney that Mr. Fraser was at 
 liberty to confine his labors to Boulardarie Island. Mr. Fraser's life story, 
 or as much as is known of it, will be found among the pioneer ministers of 
 Cape Breton. 
 
 The second minister of Boulardarie was the Rev. David Drum- 
 mond. Mr. Drummond was a native of Ardchattan, Argyleshire, Scotland, 
 
 99 
 
where he was born on the 16th of July 1828. He entered Glasgow Univer- 
 sity in the fall of 1853, when twenty five years of age with a view to the 
 gospel ministry. He graduated in theology from the Free Church College, 
 Glasgow, in the spring of 1865. That summer he was licensed at Portree 
 by the Free Presbytery of Skye. During the next five years he was em- 
 ployed as Gaelic assistant, first to the Rev. John McRae of Carloway Lewis 
 and then to the Rev. George Kennedy, D. D., of Dornach, Sutherlandshire. 
 In the year 1841 Mr. Drummond left Scotland for Cape Breton with ex- 
 cellent recommendations from the above named ministers and also from 
 the Colonial Committee of the Free Church. He reached Cape Breton in 
 the month of October and received a warm welcome from the brethren on 
 this island. Both of the island Presbyteries were short of men at that time 
 and they were glad to have a man of Mr. Drummond's experience and 
 character come to their assistance. 
 
 The following spring Mr. Drummond was ordained and inducted as 
 minister of Gabarus and Framboise. After the death of the Rev. James 
 Fraser in the autumn of 1874 Mr. Drummond was called to be his suc- 
 cessor in the large and important parish of Boulardarie. He was inducted 
 at St. James Church, Big Bras d'Or on the 25th of Feb. 1875. He spent the 
 remaining twenty nine years of his life in this charge, doing faithful and 
 self-denying service for his Master. 
 
 On account of age and infirmity, Mr. Drummond resigned the charge 
 of Boulardarie on the 31st of Oct. 1904, and retired to Sydney, where after a 
 brief illness, he finished his course on the 18th of Feb. 1905, in the seventieth 
 year of his life and the fortieth year of his ministry. Few of our ministers 
 have ever won so large a place in the affections of their people as Mr. 
 Drummond did in Boulardarie. He was wise, conscientious and faithful 
 in the discharge of all his duties. As a preacher, he was loyal to revealed 
 truth and he never failed to declare the whole counsel of God. 
 
 It was not easy to fill Mr. Drummond's place, either in the pulpits of 
 Boulardarie or in the hearts of its people, but, after a year and nine month's 
 vacancy, the congregation found a worthy successor in the person of the 
 Rev. John Mcintosh, B. D., of St. Columbia Church, Pictou. Mr. Mc- 
 intosh was born at Malagawatch, C. B. on the 27th of Dec. 1865. He ob- 
 tained his education for the ministry at Pictou Academy, Dalhousie Uni- 
 versity and the Presbyterian College, Halifax. He graduated from the 
 latter institution as a Bachelor of Divinity in April 1897.' Upon gradua- 
 tion Mr. Mcintosh was licensed by the Presbytery of Halifax. On the 
 20th of Sept. following he was ordained and inducted at Kennetcook as 
 minister of Gore and Kennetcook. Six months later Mr. Mcintosh re- 
 ceived a call from St. Columbia Church, Hopewell, Pictou which he ac- 
 cepted. His induction into that charge took place on*the month of April 
 1828. After a faithful and successful ministry of eight years in St. Columbia, 
 Mr. Mcintosh received a call to Boulardarie. This call he accepted and he 
 was inducted by the Presbytery on the 12th of July 1906. By the end of 
 three years in this extensive and laborious field, Mr. Mcintosh found the 
 work too much for his strength and he accepted a call to St. James Church, 
 
 100 
 
Sydney, a much smaller and more compact charge. His induction into 
 this young and rapidly growing congregation took place on the 5th of Nov. 
 1909. 
 
 Boulardarie had no regular pastor during the next three years. It 
 was supplied by students and probationers for the greater part of the time. 
 Mr. Mcintosh's successor in the ministry of Boulardarie was Rev. John 
 Praser, M. A. Mr. Eraser was one of Boulardarie's own sons, having been 
 born at Big Bras d'Or in the year 1858. He obtained his education at the 
 Common School of his native place, Pictou Academy.Dalhousie University, 
 and Queen's College, Kingston. He graduated from Queen's in the Spring 
 of 1892, and was licensed by the Presbytery of Sydney on the tenth of May 
 following. The people of North Shore and North River, lost no time in 
 calling Mr. Fraser to be their first minister and on the 21st of June 1892, he 
 was ordained and inducted by the Presbytery of Sydney into the pastorate 
 of that romantic and extensive charge. 
 
 • Mr. Praser remained with the people of North Shore and North River 
 during the next fourteen years. In those years, the congregation entered 
 upon a new phase of existence in matters both spiritual and financial. 
 The people awakened to a sense of their privileges and responsibilities as 
 they had never done before. During those years, one of the best manses 
 in the Presbytery was built at Indian Brook, the three churches were re- 
 novated and put in a very creditable condition, the means of grace were, 
 generously supported, and the spiritual life of the congregation was greatly 
 augmented. 
 
 On the 27th of Feb. 1906 Mr. Fraser accepted a call to Loch Lomond 
 and Framboise and his induction to that charge took place on the 31st of 
 the following May. 
 
 After four and a half years of the most strenuous labor in Loch Lomond 
 and Framboise, Mr. Fraser's health gave way and he was under the neces- 
 sity of resigning and taking a rest. His resignation was accepted on the 
 4th of October 1911. 
 
 By the end of the following year Mr. Fraser's health was so far re- 
 covered that he was able to resume work and his native congregation in- 
 vited him to become its pastor. The call was issued on the 7th of Nov. 
 1912 and Mr. Fraser's induction took place in St. James Church, Big Bras 
 d'Or on the 21st of the same month. 
 
 During the next six years, Mr. Fraser discharged the duties of his 
 calling in Boulardarie, with ever increasing acceptance and success. 
 
 But a deadly disease had fastened itself upon him, and under the 
 advice of his physician he entered the Massachusetts General Hospital for 
 an operation, in the hope of prolonging his life. The operation proved 
 unsuccessful, and Mr. Fraser passed away on the 19th of Nov. 1918, in the 
 sixtieth year of his age and the twenty sixth of his ministry. His mortal 
 remains were taken to Boulardarie for burial and laid to rest in the Ceme- 
 tery at St. James Church amid the profound and universal sorrow of his 
 late people, his brethren in the ministry and all who knew him. 
 
 The Rev. John Mcintosh, Mr. Fraser's immediate predecessor, wrote 
 
 101 
 
of his brother as follows: "He was a prince of men. His was a deep piety 
 coupled with the most practical sagacity and eminently a man of prayer but 
 equally a man of good works and generosity; a man of the highest honor and 
 integrity of character but with the tenderness of his Master for the erring. 
 He was a splendid preacher, one, who out of a deep religious experience 
 could bring comfort and help to others. But it was in the Gaelic tongue 
 that he excelled. His Highland fervor and mysticism intensified by grace 
 made him without a peer in his power to stir the Highland heart as he pro- 
 claimed the evangel of God." 
 
 There are three fine churches and four good halls for holding religious 
 meetings in this congregation, and they were all built during Mr. Drum- 
 mond's long and active ministry. These churches and halls represent an 
 outlay of from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. 
 
 The sons of Boulardarie that devoted their lives to the Christian min- 
 istry are a noble band; only second in numbers to those of Lake Ainslie. 
 There are thirteen of them all told, and their names are, John Fraser, John 
 A. Matheson, Lauchlin Beaton, William McNeil, David Patterson, W. 
 A. Fraser, James Fraser, Kenneth M. Munroe, J. C. McLennan, W. K. Mc- 
 Kay, D. C. McLeod, A. C. Fraser and John McDonald. 
 
 f 
 
 102 
 
Whycocomagh and Its Ministry. 
 
 This congregation takes its name from the name of the beautiful bay 
 ■where it is located. Whycocomagh is a Micmac word and means, the head 
 of the waters. This locality is situated at the western end of St. Patricks 
 channel, an arm of water that runs inland from the Bras d'Or Lake about 
 thirty miles and is not over one mile in average breadth. Whycocomagh 
 is certainly at the head of the waters and is well named. There is an In- 
 dian Reserve here and twenty five or thirty Micmac families living on this 
 reserve. They are all Roman Catholics and they have a church and school 
 of their own. The white people in Whycocomagh are practically all Pres- 
 byterians. 
 
 The first Presbyterians that settled in this part of Cape Breton came 
 from the island of Lewis in the Hebrides about the year 1815 or 1816. We 
 have no record of the names of these early settlers nor of the exact date of 
 their arrival. Nearly all the later immigrants to Whycocomagh came from 
 that same island.no doubt through the solicitations and encouragements of 
 the friends who had preceded them. 
 
 In the year 1827, when the Rev. John McLennan came to Cape Breton, 
 on his first visit, he found a large number o.f Gaelic speaking people, not only 
 at Whycocomagh but also on both sides of St. Patrick's Channel. 
 
 In his report to the Colonial Committ^, speaking of "Lake Hogomach" 
 as he calls the place, he says "The number of Protestant families along the 
 sides of this lake, I do not exactly know, but I am sure they cannot be less 
 than eighty or ninety. They are all new settlers and with few exceptions 
 very poor." But they were increasing in numbers and in worldly sub- 
 stance from year to year; — in,numbers by immigration and natural in- 
 crease, in worldly substance by God's blessing on their own industry and 
 frigality. As early as the year 1830 they sent urgent petitions to the 
 Church of Scotland to send them a minister of the gospel. No man came 
 in answer to these petitions until the year 1837, when the Rev. Peter 
 McLean arrived to take charge of their spiritual interests. The reader 
 will find Mr. McLean and his work in Cape Breton spoken of elsewhere. 
 
 Whycocomagh and Little Narrows constituted one congregation from 
 1834 to 1870, when, during the ministry of the Rev. Murdoch Stewart, 
 Little Narrows was separated from Whycocomagh and connected wtih 
 Middle River. 
 
 Since that time Whycocomagh has been an independent and self- 
 sustaining charge. After five years of singular success in the ministry of 
 this congregation,Mr. McLean's health gave way and he left for Scotland 
 in the spring of 1842, literally amid universal lamentations. 
 
 His departure was followed by a long and deplorable vacancy of V 
 fifteen years, from 1842 to 1857 when his successor was installed. These 
 long vacancies have been the weakness and bane of our Church in Cape 
 Breton all down the years. They were due, partly to the scarcity of minis- 
 ters to supply all our congregations and partly no doubt to the poverty of 
 
 103 
 
our people in these early days, but too often to the indifierence that pre- 
 vailed in many of our congregations to the highest and best things in life. 
 And even today with ministers more plentiful and money more abundant, 
 some of our country congregations suffer severely from long vacancies. 
 
 In the spring of 1854 Whycocomagh and Little Narrows extended 
 a call to Mr. Charles Ross, a student who had just graduated from the 
 Presbyterian Collage at Halifax. This call, Mr. Ross accepted and he was 
 ordained and inducted as pastor about the end of May. Mr. Ross had been 
 supplying the congregation as student catechist during the two preceding 
 summers. Mr. Ross was a native of Caribou, Pictou County. He was a 
 man of fine presence. He was an exceptionally fine preacher in English 
 and Gaelic and his ministry was for several years one of great usefulness 
 and power. 
 
 Unfortunately in the year 1864 for reasons that need not be related 
 here, Mr. Ross came under the discipline of his Presbytery, and was de- 
 posed from the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Some years later he was received into the ministry of the Congrega- 
 tional Church in Ontario, where he rendered good service to that deno- 
 mination. 
 
 After Mr. Ross' removal there was another vacancy in the pastorate 
 of Whycocomagh of nearly four years. 
 
 The third minister of Whycocomagh and Little Narrows was the ven- 
 erable Murdoch Stewart, a saintly and scholarly man. Mr. Stewart's 
 ministry began in the year 1868 and ended with his resignation on account 
 of age and infirmity in the year 1882. Mr. Stewart was one of our pioneers 
 and he is spoken of more particularly in another place. 
 
 On the 6th of Dec. 1870, during Mr. Stewart's ministry, Little Nar- 
 rows was separated from Whycocomagh and joined to the Middle River. 
 At the same time Whycocomagh was constituted into an independent and 
 self-sustaining charge. 
 
 The next minister of this congregation was the Rev. John Rose, a 
 licentiate of the Free Church of Scotland, who had recently arrived in 
 Cape Breton with good credentials from the Colonial Committee. 
 
 Mr. Rose was a native of Aberdeenshire. He was educated at the 
 University of Aberdeen and at the New College, Edinburgh. 
 
 The Whycocomagh" people extended a hearty call to Mr. Rose and his 
 induction took place in the month of August 1884. Mr. Rose was minister 
 of this large and loyal congregation until Sept. 1892, when he was translated 
 to the Presbytery of Maitland, Ontario, and became minister of Ashfield 
 there. Pour years later, Mr. Rose returned to Cape Breton in answer to a 
 call from Malagawatch and River Denys. This was in the summer of 
 1896. His induction took place on the 27th of August, and Mr. Rose was 
 minister of Malagawatch and River Denys until 1909, when he received a 
 call from Crossbost, in the island of Lewis and returned to his native land. 
 
 The Rev. Alexander Ross, M. A., succeeded Mr. Rose in the ministry 
 of Whycocomagh. Mr. Ross was inducted as pastor of this Church on 
 Dec. the 24th 1895. On July the 21st 1903 he resigned the charge and re- 
 
 104 
 
tired from the active duties of the ministry on account of infirmity. After 
 that he made his home in London, Ontario, where he departed this life, on 
 the 18th of December 1919 in the eighty-ninth year of his age and the 
 fifty-ninth of his ministry. 
 
 Mr. Ross was a native of Rosshire, Scotland, where he was born in the 
 year 1830. He was educated at Fain Academy, the Normal School 
 Edinburgh, Aberdeen University, where he obtained his M. A., and the 
 New College, Edinburgh. On completing his theological studies he was 
 licensed by the Presbytery of Fain on June the 6th 1860. Immediately 
 thereafter he left for Pictou, where he arrived on the 28th of June. On 
 Sept. the 19th 1860 Mr. Ross was ordained and inducted into the charge of 
 Knox Church, Pictou by the Free Church Presbytery of Pictou — just in 
 time to take part in the Union of 1860, which took place at Pictou on the 
 4th of October, following. After nineteen years in Pictou, Mr. Ross ac- 
 cepted a call to Woodville in the Presbytery of Linsday. This was in June 
 1879. After a ministry of fourteen years in Woodville, he was under the 
 necessity of resigning on account of failing health, but after a rest of two or 
 three years his health was sufficiently restored to undertake the pastoral 
 charge of Whycocomagh. To quote from the Presbyterian Witness: 
 "Mr Ross was a man of ripe and broad scholarship. He kept abreast of 
 modern thought in theology and philosophy and was an able expositor' of 
 the Scriptures. He was equally at home in the English and Gaelic languages. 
 His sermons were evangelical, rich in thought, practical. He excelled as 
 a teacher of the Bible. 
 
 Mr. Ross was a man of modest and retiring disposition. Few knew 
 that he had a Doctor's degree of which he never made any use. 
 
 There was a certain aloofness and almost austerity about his manner, 
 which quickly vanished on acquaintance. He was one of the kindest and 
 most genial of men among his friends, and his rich fund of quaint lore and 
 anecdote made him one of the most entertaining of men." 
 
 The present minister of Whycocomagh is the Rev. John W. McLean. 
 He was inducted as Mr. Ross' sucessor on June the 30th 1905. Mr. McLean 
 is a native of Scotland. He was born on the island of Bernera, in the 
 Hebrides, in the year 1865. His father was Free Church Catechist of that 
 island. Mr. McLean came to Canada with his parents in the year 1889. 
 His studies for the ministry of the Presbyterian Church were taken at 
 Queen's University, Manitoba College and Knox College, Toronto. He 
 completed his theological studies at Knox in the spring of 1897 and was 
 licensed by the Presbytery of Glengarry in the month of May thereafter. 
 Mr. McLean's first charge was at Kirkhill, Glengarry, where he was or- 
 dained and inducted June 1st, 1897. From Kirkhill, he was called to 
 Strathalbyn, P. E. Island, where he was inducted in Dec. 1902. Three 
 years later Mr. McLean accepted a call to the congregation of Whycoco-. 
 magh, where he is still and where he is ministering faithfully to a large and 
 loyal people. Mr. McLean's induction at Whycocomagh took place on 
 the 30th of June 1905. 
 
 Whycocomagh has had a succession of great preachers. From the 
 
 105 
 
first to the last they were all able ministers of "the gospel of the grace of 
 God. The people in this congregation have been highly favoured in this 
 matter, and it is to be hoped that they fully appreciate their privileges 
 in this regard and their responsibilities likewise. 
 
 The first Church in Whycocomagh was built in 1835 or 1836 under the 
 inspiration of the Rev. John Stewart who, wherever he went on his mis- 
 sionary journeys, urged the people to build houses where the"y could meet 
 on the Lord's Day for the worship of God. This church like so many of 
 the early churches on this island was never finished inside. And besides it 
 was too small to contain all the people, especially in summer time. At 
 that season, for several months every summer, the services were held in the 
 open air. This was the Church in use during the Rev. Peter McLean's 
 ministry, from 1837 to 1842 and indeed until the year 1857 when the pre- 
 sent Church, known as McLean Church was built on the site of the old one, 
 at Stewartdale. McLean Church is a large structure, seating not less 
 than eight hundred worshippers. Though built in 1857, it was not finished 
 until the spring of 1861. There is another Church in the village of Why- 
 cocomagh. It is called Stewart Church in memory of the Rev. Murdoch. 
 Stewart. McLean Church commemorates the Rev. Peter McLean. 
 
 Whycocomagh has a fairly good manse on a very fine site. It was 
 built in the year 1872 during Mr. Stewart's pastorate. B 
 
 This congregation has supplied the Presbyterian Church with a num- 
 ber of excellent ministers. A few of them are with us still but the majority 
 have finished their labors and are enjoying the rest that remaineth for the 
 people of God. The names of the ministers from Whycocomagh are 
 John McDonald, Allan McLean, Donald McDougall, Peter McLean, Mc- 
 Donald, Donald M. Gillies, D. D., Bunyan McLeod and Daniel Dunlop. 
 
 106 
 
Strathlorne and Its Ministry. 
 
 This congregation is in the County of Inverness, and under the care 
 of the Presbytery of Inverness. In the early days it was known as the con- 
 gregation of Broadcove. The first Presbyterian that came to Broadcove 
 was a man by the name of John McLean, commonly known as Ian Ban . 
 He was born on the Island of Rum, on the west coast of Scotland. He 
 came here in the year 1810 by way of Pictou.Antigonish and the Strait of 
 Canso. Mr. McLean took up four hundred acres of land on the shore 
 about where the Inverness Colliery is now. Soon after acquiring his land, 
 he wrote to his friends in Rum concerning the many advantages of his 
 location, its abundant fish, its good soil, its plentiful supply of timber, etc. 
 Upon Mr. McLean's representations, four of his brothers, Murdoch, 
 Allan, Neil and Rory, were induced to leave the old land and come to 
 Broadcove. All four took up land, either on the shore or farther inland on 
 the Strathlorne River. During the next fifteen or twenty years, a goodly 
 number of Presbyterians from several islands of the Hebrides come out 
 and settled in the vicinity. The Presbyterians of today are nearly all the 
 descendants of these early immigrants. The Rev. John Morris McLean, 
 one of our ministers, is a grandson of Ian Ban McLean. 
 
 The Presbyterian population of Broadcove must have attained con- 
 siderable proportions before a minister of the Gospel was settled among 
 them. Possibly the Rev. William Millar, who was settled at Mabou in 
 1822, may have visited them, but as he had no Gaelic, and they had no 
 English,it is very doubtful if they derived much benefit from Mr. Millar's 
 ministrations. 
 
 The First Presbyterian minister who gave any continuous services to 
 the people of Broadcove was Mr. Aeneas McLean, a licentiate of the Church 
 of Scotland, who came to Cape Breton in the year 1828. Mr. McLean 
 spent four years on this island, two of them itinerating from place to place 
 among the Presbyterian settlements and two of them, 1831 and 1882, in 
 this congregation. During these two years he did not confine his labors to 
 Broadcove. He made missionary tours to the northeast and southeast of 
 that place. He preachedin Chimney Cornor, Whale Cove, Margaree Harbor, 
 Margaree River, Middle River, Little Narrows, Whycocomagh and Lake 
 Ainslie. There were Presbyterian settlements in all these places, and they 
 were without anyone to break the Bread of Life to them. 
 
 Mr. McLean was not ordained or inducted at Broadcove. Indeed 
 there was no Presbytery on the island at that time, and no ordination or in- 
 duction could take place. It is true there were two Pesbyterian ministers 
 in Cape Breton in 1831, when Mr. McLean came to Broadcove, viz., the 
 Rev. Norman McLeod in St. Ann's, and the Rev. William Millar at Mabou 
 but they belonged to different Presbyterian churches and could or would not 
 unite in the services of ordination. 
 
 While at Broadcove, Mr. McLean married Catherine McLean, a 
 
 107 
 
daughter of Ian Ban. One of their three sons, Rev. J. A. McLean, was 
 minister of Arnprior, in the Presbytery of Lanark and Renfrew, for many 
 years. Mr. McLean left Cape Breton for Lower Canada towards the end 
 of the year 1832. He was subsequently ordained and inducted as minister 
 of Cote St. George in the Presbytery of Glengarry. 
 
 The next minister to do any christian work in Broadcove was the Rev. 
 Alexander Farquharson. He arrived in Cape Breton in the summer of 
 1833, and in his itinerary of the Presbyterian settlements, no doubt, spent 
 some time in this one. Nor would he forget the people of Strathlorne after 
 his ordination at Middle River the following year. The Rev. Joh;i Stewart 
 preached in Broadcove once or twice after his arrival in 1884,and during his 
 stay on the island. 
 
 The first inducted minister of Broadcove was the Rev. John Gunn, a 
 sketch of whose life and labors will be found among the pioneers. He was 
 thefirst regularly ordained and inducted minister of our church on the is- 
 land of Cape Breton. 
 
 Norman McLeod was licensed and ordained by the Presbytery of 
 Genesee, Western New York, in 1826. The Rev. William Millar was or- 
 dained and designated at Durham by the Presbytery of Pictou in the 
 month of November, 1821. The Rev. Dugald McKichan, who took 
 charge of the Strait of Canso and River Inhabitants in the 1st of January, 
 1832, was ordained in Scotland before coming to Cape Breton. There was 
 no Presbytery on the island of Cape Breton until September, 1836, when 
 the Presbytery of Cape Breton was constituted by order of the Synod of 
 the Church of Scotland, that met in the town of Pictou in August of that 
 year. Tiie members of that first Presbytery were — Alexander Farquhar- 
 son, John Stewart and James Fraser, Mr. McKichan, tho then at River 
 Inhabitants, was not a member of that Presbytery until the following year. 
 
 No doubt the Presbytery of Cape Breton held several meetings be- 
 tween 1836 and 1840, but there are no records of such meetings extant and 
 we do not know when or where such meetings were held. But we have good 
 reason for believing that there was a meeting of the Presbytery of Cape 
 Breton held at Broadcove on the 24th of September, 1840, for the purpose 
 of ordaining and inducting Mr. Gunn into the pastorate of the Boadcove 
 congregation. Our account of the life and ministry of Mr. Gunn is to be 
 found among the Pioneers, and will throw light on this subject. 
 
 Mr. Gunn's death took place in November, 1870, and was followed by 
 a vacancy of six or seven years. During these pastorless years, the spiritual 
 necessities of the congregation were partially supplied in summer months 
 by student catechists from the Presbyterian College, Halifax. Meantime 
 the General Union of the four Presbyterian churches in Canada had taken 
 place at Montreal in June, 1875, and the congregation of Strathlorne, as it 
 came to be known by this time, came into line with the united church — 
 "The Presbyterian Church in Canada." 
 
 108 
 
The second minister of Strathlorne was the Rev.John McLean, a native 
 of Strathalbyn, P. E. I., and a graduate of our own Theological College. He 
 spent the summer of 1876 as catechist in the congregation and after grad- 
 uation in the spring of 1877,he received a unanimous call to the pastorate. 
 
 Accepting this call his ordination and induction took place on the 4th 
 of July 1877. After a very strenuous and successful ministry of fifteen 
 months, Mr. McLean was obliged on account of failing health to resign 
 and rest a while. Some months later, he was settled for a short time at 
 Kempt and Walton in the Presbytery of Halifax, where he died of tuber- 
 culosis on November 19th, 1880, in the thirty-fourth year of his life, and the 
 fourth of his ministry, Mr. McLean's burning zeal, fervent manner, and 
 evangelical preaching made a deep impression on the people of Strathlorne. 
 
 Two years after Mr. McLean's resignation the congregation called 
 Mr. Malcolm Campbell, another graduate of our own literary and 
 theological college. Mr. Campbell had been a catechist at Strathlorne in 
 the summer of 1880. After completing his studies he was licensed by the 
 Presbytery of Sydney on the 29th of June, 1881. He was ordained and 
 inducted at Strathlorne on the 30th of August following. Mr. Campbell 
 was born at the Middle River, Victoria Co., N. S. on the 21st of February, 
 1845. He taught school for a number of years before entering upon a course 
 of study for the ministry. Mr. Campbell was minister at Strathlorne for 
 four years and during that time he rendered excellent service to his Master 
 and to the church. About the end of 1884 he received a call to Wood 
 Islands P. E. Island, where he was inducted on the 3rd of January, 1884. 
 From Wood Islands he was called to Strathalbyn, where he was inducted on 
 the 11th of November, 1890. In 1904, Mr. Campbell became minister of 
 Marsboro in the Presbytery of Quebec, where he is still and is rendering 
 excellent service. 
 
 The Rev. Roderick McLeod followed Mr. Campbell as minister of 
 Strathlorne. Mr. McLeod was born in the island of Harris, one of the 
 Scottish Hebrides. He was educated partly in Scotland, and partly in 
 the Presbyterian College, Halifax. His ordination and induction took place 
 in the church at Strathlorne on July 26th, 1886, and his pastorate continued 
 till October 14th, 1890, when he was translated to the congregation of 
 Kenyon in the Presbytery of Glengarry. From Kenyon he went to Ripley 
 in the Presbytery at Maitlahd. Subsequently Mr. McLeod returned to 
 Scotland and became a parish minister on the island of Lewis. 
 
 Mr. McLeod was succeeded by the Rev. Donald McDonald, B.D., on 
 April 4th, 1894. After a very successful ministry of twelve years in Strath- 
 lorne, Mr. McDonald accepted a call to St. Luke's Church, Dominion No. 
 6, Cape Breton, where his induction took place on November 1st, 1906. 
 
 The next minister of Strathlorne was the Rev. Alexander Ferguson, 
 M. A., a native of Port Morien, C. B., where he was born. 
 
 Mr. Ferguson graduated as a Bachelor of Arts from Dalhousie in the 
 spring of 1904, and from the Presbyterian College in the spring of 1907. 
 He was licensed by the Presbytery of Inverness onMay 14th of the same 
 
 109 
 
year. Mr. Ferguson supplied the congregation as catechist for a summer 
 while tailing his theological course. After completing his studies for the 
 ministry, he was called to the pastorate. His ordination and induction 
 took place on the 9th of July, 1907. In December, 1909, Mr. Ferguson 
 ■was translated to the congregation of West Bay, where his induction took 
 place on Decembr 15th, 1909. 
 
 The next pastor of Strathlorne was the Rev. Roderick McKenzie, a 
 native of Scotland, and educated partly in Scotland, and partly in Manitoba 
 College. Mr. McKenzie was inducted on September 24th, 1912. On the 
 8th of May, 1917, he resigned the charge. Subsequently, he received a call 
 to the congregation of Cape North, where he is at the present time. His in- 
 duction at Cape North took place on the 6th of December, 1917. 
 
 The first church at Strathlorne was commenced in the year 1831, 
 during the time of Aeneas McLean. This church was in use until the year 
 1856. It was in this church that the Rev. John Gunn was ordained on 
 September 24th, 1840, by the original Presbytery of Cape Breton. 
 
 The second church was built during Mr.Gunn's ministry in the year 
 1856. 
 
 The present church was built during the ministry of the Rev. Donald 
 McDonald, in the year 1895. It is a very handsome and commodious 
 structure. These three churches were built on the same site. 
 
 The congregation built two manses. The first was built in the year 
 1877 during the ministry of the Rev. John McLean, and the second during 
 the ministry of the Rev. Donald McDonald in 1899. The first manse was 
 consumed by fire on the 4th of February, 1899, in the absence of Mr. 
 McDonald, and very unfortunately, all the records of the Presbytery pre- 
 vious to that time were in the manse, and were consumed with the manse. 
 Mr. McDonald was clerk of Presbjrtery at that time, and he had the 
 records in his possession. 
 
 The people lost no time in rebuilding the second manse. It was ready 
 for occupation by the end of November that same year. This manse cost 
 $2,300. 
 
 It was during Mr. McDonald's ministry that the Inverness Colliery 
 was opened within the bounds of the congregation; and he supplied our 
 people in that locality with religious service, until they were numerous 
 enough and strong enough to assume the support of a minister of their own. 
 
 Strathlorne has a number of professional men to its credit. Among 
 Presbyterian ministers, there are Hector McQuarrie, for many years a 
 successful teacher at Grand River, Richmond Co. and later minister at 
 Leitche's Creek; J. Morris McLean, for some time minister of St. John's 
 Church, Chatham, N. B.; L. H. McLean, B. D., of Newcastle; Daniel Mc- 
 Gregor, formerly of Amherst, but now dead; Murdoch McGregor, who 
 died as he was through college and about to begin the work of the min- 
 istry; John B. McKinnon, B. D., now minister of Baddeck; Charles 
 Mclnnes, and John McQuarrie. 
 
 There is but one church in this rural charge. Tiere are two outlying 
 
 110 
 
settlements where the minister is expected to hold week-evening services 
 occasionally, viz., Scotsville and Hay River. 
 
 The Gaelic language is still spoken in many of the homes, and the 
 minister is expected to conduct public worship and to preach in Gaelic 
 every other Sabbath. 
 
 Ill 
 
Sydney Mines and its Ministry. 
 
 Like a number of our congregations in Cape Breton, Sydney Mines 
 owes its existence and growth to the presence of coal in this vicinity. There 
 is this difference however; Sydney Mines was the first congregation in 
 Cape Breton that came into existence through the development of the coal 
 industry. Others followed and most of them followed many years later. 
 The General Mining Association began to produce coal at Sydney 
 Mines in the year 1830. For this purpose, the Association had to import 
 miners, engineers and mechanics from the old country and a large number 
 of these were from the lowlands of Scotland. A large proportion of these 
 Scottish workmen were Presbyterians. Among them there were Boiinars, 
 Browns, Scotts, Campbells, Caldwells, Andersons and Carmichaels. Those 
 Scottish Presbyterians constituted the first members and adherents of the 
 Sydney Mines congregation. They had no Gaelic and of course they did 
 not require a Gaelic speaking minister like the large majority of our people 
 on this island. 
 
 In the year 1836, the Rev. James Fraser took charge of the Presbyter- 
 ians on the island of Boulardarie, and finding a growing Presbyterian popu- , 
 lation at Sydney Mines, he gave, what attention he could to their spiritual 
 interests. 
 
 Under Mr. Fraser's fostering care our cause at Sydney Mines grew 
 and prospered until it was strong enough to be self-supporting. 
 
 On the 25th of April 1840 Mr. Fraser had the satisfaction of dedicating 
 to the service of God, the first Presbyterian Church that was built at the 
 Mines. The site of this Church with enough land for a cemetery was 
 given to the congregation by the G. M. A. as a gift. The cemetery is there 
 still although the church has disappeared. This original church was 
 seated for three hundred worshippers, it cost the sum of $2,000 and it was 
 finished inside as well as outside before its dedication. It even had a bell 
 in the .belfry to call the people to worship. This was the first Presbyterian 
 church in Cape Breton to be finished before being used for worship. It was 
 also the first to be furnished with a bell. 
 
 By 1840 Sydney Mines had a population of 650 persons all told and a 
 majority of these were of the Presbyterian faith. One hundred and fifty 
 of the employees of the Association at that date were Presbyterians and in 
 receipt of good wages for those days. This condition of things enabled the 
 Sydney Mines congregation to start on a self-sustaining basis and to offer 
 a stipend of £l50 with the prospect of a Manse to their first minister. The 
 Manse was not built at this time but it was proposed and it was built short- 
 ly after the Rev. Mr. Wilson's settlement, a few years later. This was the 
 first Manse in the Island of Cape Breton. Sydney Mines was also the 
 first charge on the Island to be self-sustaining from the start. In Sep- 
 tember 1840 the Presbytery sent an urgent appeal to the Glasgow Colonial 
 Committee for a minister of the gospel for this congregation. It was in 
 answer to this appeal that the Rev. Matthew Wilson, M. A. came out to 
 
 112 
 
■Cape Breton in the summer of 1842. Mr. Wilson's story will be found else- 
 where and shall not be repeated here. Suffice it to say, that Mr. Wilson 
 was well adapted to the work that required to be done among the lowland 
 Scotch people of the Mines. He was from ,the lowlands of Scotland him- 
 self and had much in common with his parishioners. By his unwearied 
 labors and his sympathetic nature he won and held the affections of his 
 people to the end of his life in the year 1884. 
 
 After over thirty years of arduous, persevering and successful work at 
 Sydney Mines, the Ponds, Little Bras d'Or and North Sydney, Mr. Wilson 
 began to feel the need of an assistant to share his burden and carry on 
 the work of an ever growing congregation efficiently. 
 
 Having expressed his desire in this matter to the congregation, the 
 Rev. Donald McMillan was duly called to be colleague with Mr. Wilson in 
 the whole charge and successor at Sydney Mines after his retirement. 
 Mr. McMillan was a Cape Bretonian, having been born at Lake Ainslie on 
 the 25th of Dec. 1835. He entered the Free Church Academy, Halifax as a 
 candidate for the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in the year 1850. In 
 1861 he graduated from the Free Church College and on Dec. the 4th of 
 that year he was ordained and inducted as minister at La Have and New 
 Dublin in the County of Lunenburg, by the Presbytery of Halifax. Mr. 
 McMillan remained in this charge until he was called to be Mr. Wilson's 
 assistant and successor at Sydney Mines, Little Bras D'Or and North 
 Sydney. His induction took place in St. Matthew's Church, North 
 Sydney on Nov. the 12th, 1879. On the retirement of Mr. Wilson in May 
 1883, North Sydney was constituted a new congregation and Mr. McMillan 
 became sole minister of Sydney Mines and Little Bras D'Or. This charge 
 he continued to serve until June the 30th 1904, when he resigned and re- 
 tired from the active duties of the ministry, after forty two years of service 
 — sixteen of which were spent in La Have and twenty five of which were 
 spent in North Sydney and Sydney Mines. 
 
 Mr. McMillan was striken with paralysis in the. autumn of 1907, but 
 lived until March the 15th 1912 ^hen he died on the 77th year of his life 
 and the 51st of his ministry. Mr. McMillan was a man of fine physique, 
 genial disposition, a good mixer and a good preacher. 
 
 The next minister of Sydney Mines was the Rev. Hector McLean 
 McKinnon, B. D. Mr. McKinnon was also a Lake Ainslie man. 
 
 He was one of five brothers who studied for the ministry of the Pres- 
 byterian Church and who brought much honor to their native place by the 
 excellent service they rendered to the Presbyterian Church in Canada and 
 in the United States as well. 
 
 Mr. McKinnon's education for the ministry was acquired at Queens 
 University, Kingston from which he graduated with the degree of Bachelor 
 of Arts in the Spring of 1897 and with the degree of Bachelor of Divinity 
 in 1900 and also a Scholarship in 0. T. Hebrew and N. T. Greek. 
 
 After licensure by the Presbytery of Edmonton on May the 30th 1900 
 Mr. McKinnon spent some time in Home Missionary work at Olds, Alberta 
 and from there he was called to be colleague and successor to Mr. McMillan 
 
 113 
 
at Sydney M,ines, where he was inducted on the 8th of Dec. 1903. Mr. 
 McMillan resigned in June 1904, whereupon Mr. McKinnon became sole 
 pastor of the congregation. Mr. McKinnon was minister of Sydney 
 Mines for a period of fourteen years, during which the church continued 
 to grow and flourish from year to year. On the 31st of August, 1917, Mr. 
 McKinnon resigned this charge and removed to Medford, Mass., U. S., 
 where he took the oversight of a Congregational Church. 
 
 In Feb. -1920, however he returned and became pastor of St. Andrew's 
 Church, Fort William in the Presbytery of Superior. 
 
 The Rev. A. D. Wauchope, B. D. succeeded Mr. McKinnon in the 
 pastorate of St. Andrews Church. Mr. Wauchope was a native of Vir- 
 ginia, U. S., where he was born of Scotch-Irish parents in the year 1878. 
 He was the son of a Presbyterian minister, a Bachelor in Arts of Sydney 
 College, Hampden, Virginia and a Bachelor in Divinity of Union Seminary, 
 Richmond, Virginia. 
 
 Mr. Wauchope had several charges in the United States before coming 
 to Nova Scotia in 1916. He was minister of Hopewell, Pictou Co. for a 
 year or two before coming to Cape Breton. His induction at Sydney 
 Mines took place on the 3rd of Jan. 1918. Mr. Wauchope received the 
 offer of Superintendent of Evangelistic Work in his native state about the 
 end of the year 1919. This offer he accepted, and resigning the charge 
 of St. Andrew's Church he left Sydney Mines on Nov. the 30th, 1919. Mr. 
 Wauchope was of a decidedly evangelistic disposition and his brief ministry 
 in Sydney Mines was highly appreciated by the people and very helpful 
 in the upbuilding of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in that place. 
 
 There are now four Presbyterian congregations within the bounds of 
 Mr. Wilson's original congregation. These are, Sydney Mines, North 
 Sydney, Florence, etc and Leitches Creek. Mr. Wilson conducted services 
 in Leitche's Creek occasionally for over twenty years after coming to this 
 country. 
 
 The first church, opened in 1840 was replaced by a larger and more 
 commodious church in the year 1876. This second church had a seating 
 capacity of 500 and cost $6,000. After the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal 
 Company purchased the interests of the General Mining Association at 
 Sydnes Mines in the year 1900, the centre of population moved a mile or 
 more to the north of where it had hitherto been. Hence it was found 
 necessary to secure a new site and move the church there. This was done 
 at a cost of not less than $2000 in the year 1903. But so rapid was the 
 growth of the congregation on account of the expansion of the steel and 
 coal industry, that this church became utterly inadequate to the needs of 
 the congregation. Hence a new, larger and more modern place of worship 
 had to be provided. This church was completed in May 1907 at a cost 
 of $20,000. The dedication services were held on May the 12th of that 
 year. This is one of the finest sanctuaries owned by the Presbyterian 
 Church on the island of Cape Breton. 
 
 Very shortly after Mr. Wilson arrived at Sydney Mines the congrega- 
 tion implemented its promise, and built a Manse. Mr. Wilson spent the 
 
 114 
 
whole of his life in that manse. After his death, in 1884, St. Andrews con- 
 gregation disposed of the old Manse and purchased a larger and better 
 house, for a Manse. Mr. McMillan lived in this house until his retirement 
 when the congregation made it over to him as his own. Mr. McMillan 
 continued to live in this house until the end of his life. 
 
 The congregation had no manse during Mr. McKinnon s ministry. 
 He lived in a rented house. 
 
 After Mr. Wauchope came to Sydney Mines, the congregation built a 
 manse for his own and his family's accommodation. This manse is con- 
 venient to the Church and is in every way a credit to the congregation. 
 It is modern in every respect. 
 
 The Rev. Francis Fraser McKenzie Ph. D. was inducted into St. 
 Andrew's Church, Sydney Mines,on June the 17th, 1920, as Mr. Wauchope's 
 successor. 
 
 Notwithstanding a long able and faithful ministery Sydney Mines has 
 given but a very few young men to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. 
 Alexander Smith was one of the earliest. He became a minister of our 
 church away back in the fifties of last century. Mr. Archibald McDonald 
 was ordained in 1911. He is now a Presbytrian minister in the United 
 States. Mr. John D. McLellan was studying for the ministry of the Pres- 
 byterian Church, but he died in the year 1910 before graduating. 
 
 115 
 
Mlra and Its Ministry. 
 
 This congregation takes its name from the remarkable River, on the 
 banks of which a large proportion of the people live. The Mira River is 
 not strictly speaking a river at all, but a long narrow arm of the sea with a 
 tidal outlet on Mira Bay. This arm of the sea runs inland a distance of 
 about thirty five miles, while the average breadth is not more than a few 
 hundred yards. 
 
 The late Dr. George Patterson, one of our best historians and anti- 
 quarians, claimed that the name of Mira was given to this arm of the sea by 
 the Portuguese, in the sixteenth Century, on account of its likeness to an 
 inlet of that name in Portugal. 
 
 In superficial extent the present Mira congregation covers but a very 
 small part of the territory covered by the origi'hal Mira congregation. 
 There are today fifteen congregations within tlie bounds of the congrega-^- 
 tion that called the Rev. Hugh McLeod of Logie Easter, Scotland to be its 
 minister in the year 1849. At that time the Mira congregation covered 
 nearly half the County of Cape Breton. It included all the Presbyterians 
 living east of Sydney Harbor. It embraced the Mira River, from the, 
 outlet to Salmon River, Sydney Forks, Sydney town. South Bar, Lovsr 
 Point, Glace Bay, Big Glace Bay, Port Morien, Mira Bay, Catalone, 
 Mainadieu, Louisburg, Gabarus, New Boston, Big Ridge and Cariboa 
 Marsh. 
 
 This immense congregation continued unchanged and unbroken until 
 the year 1864, when Canoe Lake, Gabarus and Kenington Cove were set 
 apart as a congregation and placed under the care of the Rev. Isaac Mc- 
 Kay as minister. 
 
 In the Spring of 1867 the congregation of St. Pauls, at Little Glace 
 Bay was formed out of the Mira congregation. St. Pauls at that time 
 embraced the whole shore from Lingan Bay to Schooner Pond. In the 
 autumn of 1868 the congregation of Cow Bay (now Port Morien) was 
 organized out of the Mira Congregation. On July the 6th 1875, Falmouth 
 St. Church, Sydney was by order of Synod, organized out of this Congre- 
 gation. A few weeks later, on August the 25th 1875, St. Andrews Church, 
 Sydney, upon the induction of the Rev. Alexander Farquharson, as col- 
 league and successor to Dr. McLeod, Sydney, became a separate charge 
 from Mira. 
 
 In 1898, Marion Bridge was disjoined from Mira and constituted a 
 distinct congregation, and finally in the year 1900, Louisburg was separted 
 from Mira and erected into a new and separate charge. Between 1850 
 and 1900 a period of half a century, seven congregations were carved out of 
 the original Mira congregation and nevertheless, Mira is still a congrega- 
 tion of no mean proportions. 
 
 The original settlers on the Mira River and Catalone Lake came from 
 the island of North Uist, in the late twenties and early thirites of last 
 century. In the year 1828 three ships laden with immigrants from North 
 
 116 
 
Uist came into Sydney Harbor and the large majority of those immigrants 
 settled on the lower Mira and at Catalone Lake. For a number of years 
 these people had few opportunities of hearing the gospel. IShey had no 
 church and no minister. After 1833, the pioneer ministers paid them an 
 occasional visit during the summer months, but during the long and dreary 
 winter months, they had to depend upon a few pious laymen of their own 
 number for any Sabbath or week day services that they enjoyed. 
 
 The Rev. John Stewart visited Mira and Catalone in the fall of 1884. 
 We are told that on this occasion, he preached several times to large con- 
 gregations at Catalone Lake and also at a place in the neighbourhood of the 
 present Marion Bridge. In both places Mr. Stewart urged the people to 
 build churches as speedily as possible. A few years later three churches 
 were built in the congregation, one near Marion Bridge, one at Catalone 
 and one at Black Brook, Cow Bay. The Church near Marion Bridge and 
 the church at Catalone were built in the year 1838. The church at Black 
 Brook was built in 1842. 
 
 On account of the difficulty of getting ministers from Scotland to 
 supply the people with the means of grace, the Presbytery of C^pe Breton 
 about the year 1840, found itself under the ncecessity of appointing godly 
 laymen to act as catechists in certain very needy places. Under this ex- 
 pedient the Presbytery persuaded Mr. Donald Ross to leave Peter's Brook, 
 Victoria County and to settle at the back lands of Cow Bay. Mr. Ross 
 bought a farm near what is now known as Belloni post office and from there, 
 as a centre, he ministered to the spiritual needs of the people settled on 
 Mira Bay, Cow Bay and the adjacent country, for the next thirty years, 
 with remarkable efficiency, acceptance and power. 
 
 The first minister of Mira was The Rev. Hugh McLeod, D. D. He was 
 one of the pioneers and his life and work is dealt with in another place. 
 Dr. McLeod was minister of this congregation from 1850 to 1885 a period of 
 thirty five years. In the summer of 1886 the Mira people called Mr. W. R. 
 Calder to be their minister. Mr. Calder was a young Scotchman of popu- 
 lar gifts, but to the great disappointment of the congregation and of the 
 Presbytery he proved to be deplorably lacking in rectitude of character. 
 After the exercise of much forbearance the Presbytery found itself under the 
 necessity of deposing him from the ministery of the Presbyterian Church. 
 This action was taken on Dec. 4th, 1901. 
 
 The next minister of Mira was the Rev. John McKinnon, B. D., a 
 native of West Lake Ainslie, where he was born in the year 186'5. Mr. 
 McKinnon studied his arts and theology at Queens University, Kingston, 
 Ontario. He graduated Master of Arts in the spring of 1894, and Bachelor of 
 Divinity in the spring of 1897. He was licensed by the Presbytery of 
 Glengarry on May the 4th 1897, and on the 25th of that month he was or- 
 dained and inducted by said Presbytery into the charge of Dalhousie Mills. 
 
 Mr. McKinnon was inducted as minister of Union Church, Mira by 
 the Presbytery of Sydney on the 27th of January, 1903. Ih August, 1905, 
 he received a call from Calvin Church, Louisburg, which he accepted and 
 his induction into that charge took place on Sept. 12th 1905. After eight 
 
 117 
 
years of efficient service in Louisburg, on Dec. the 31st 1913, Mr. Mc- 
 Kinnon was translated to the Presbytery of Inverness and by it inducted 
 into the pagtoral charge of Greenwood Church, Baddeck, where he is still 
 and is doing good and faithful work for his Master. 
 
 A few months after Mr. McKinnon's departure to Louisburg, the Mira 
 congregation extended a call to the Rev. Donald McLeod, M. A., minister 
 of Little Narrows, to be their spiritual counsellor and guide to the better 
 land. Mr. McLeod is a native of the island of Lewis and was born in the 
 year 1855. He studied in the University of Aberdeen and took his Master 
 of Arts degree in 1884. He graduated in theology in the spring of 1890 
 and was licensed by the Presbytery of Dornoch a few months later. Mr. 
 McLeod came to Canada in the year 1893 and after spending some time in 
 the Presbytery of Winnipeg, as an ordained missionary, he came to Cape 
 Breton in the summer of 1897. In October of that year he was inducted 
 into the pastorate of the congregation of Little Narrows in the Presbytery of 
 Inverness. From that charge he came to Union Church Mira where his 
 induction took place on the 21st of Dec. 1905. 
 
 When Dr. McLeod took charge of the Mira people in the year 1850 as 
 we have already stated, there were three small churches within the bounds 
 of his extensive congregation. In that same territory there are now more 
 than wenty churches and most of them are fine specimens of ecclesiastical 
 architecture. 
 
 In the year 1858 the present large church was built at what was then 
 known as Mira Ferry, but now as Albert Bridge. The situation was central 
 and the intention of the Doctor was to dispense with the use of the three old 
 churches and to have all the people worship together in one large Central 
 Church and hence the name given to this place of worship was "Union 
 Church." This scheme worked all right in Dr. McLeod's time. The 
 Church near Marion Bridge was not used any more. The church at Cata- 
 lone was used very little and finally disappeared. The Church at Black 
 Brook continued to be used on an occasional Sabbath during the summer 
 season, but some years later, it too went into decay and disappeared. In 
 those early days of Dr. McLeod's ministry the people were accustomed 
 to walk ten and twelve miles every Sabbath morning to worship with the 
 multitude in Union Church and to enjoy the inspiring preaching of their 
 eloquent pastor. The Church was built to accomn'odate a thousand wor- 
 shippers and in summer time and on fineSabbaths it was full to its capacity. 
 But after Dr. McLeod had served his day and generation, there was no such 
 attraction and these immense audiences melted away. It was really 
 too much to expect people to go so far to church and churches had to be 
 built for their accommodaton on the outskirts of the congregation again — 
 at Marion Bridge, Catalone and Milton, so that the people might be 
 reaqhed with the gospel. The consequence is that the church at Albert 
 Bridge is twice as large as the requirements of today. 
 
 The first church at Marion Bridge was built as we have seen in 1838, 
 and the first Church at Catalone about the same time. There were two 
 churches built at Black Brook. The first of these was built in 1842. This 
 
 118 
 
church was blown down by a gale the following year. But a second church 
 was built on the same site in the year 1844. This church was in use as late 
 as the early seventies, but very occasionally. It had to be taken down in 
 1874 to prevent it from falling and destroying the tombstones in its im- 
 mediate vicinity. This church was 32 ft. in length by 28 ft. in breadth 
 and 14 feet post. It had a gallery in one end and a pulpit and precentors 
 box in the other. It had a two leaved door on the west side facing the 
 highway. It stood on the crown of the hill in the centre of the Black Brook 
 Cemetery. The last service in this church was held in October 1870. Dr. 
 McLeod preached in Gaelic from Eph. 5:14 and the writer, then a student 
 catechist in English from John 15:11-24. That was a memorable day in 
 the life of all who were present. 
 
 The great revival of 1870 was in progress and during Dr. McLeod's 
 sermon, so loud was the weeping of the congregation that he had to stop 
 in the middle of it and give out some verses of a psalm. The singing 
 calmed the commotion and the Dr. was enabled to go on and finish his 
 discourse in comparative quietness. 
 
 There is a hall at Catalone in which services are held on alternate 
 Sabbaths. There is also a church at Milton, near Broughton, where ser- 
 vices are held occasionally. 
 
 The Manse is at Albert Bridge and conveniently near to the Church. 
 
 Mira congregation has not been lavish in its contribution to the minis- 
 try of our Church, but it has given us two good men viz. John Angus 
 Morrison and John Mclnnis. 
 
 119 
 
Grand River and Its Ministry. 
 
 This congregation takes its name from the river that flows through it. 
 That river drains the Loch Lomond Lakes and pours its waters into the 
 Atlantic Ocean. The people have their homes, for the niost part, on the 
 banks of the Grand River. The church is on the east side of the river and 
 the manse on the west side. A substantial bridge spans the river in the 
 vicinity of the church. 
 
 The grandfathers and grandmothers of the present generation came 
 from Lochalsh in Rosshire, a few of them as early as 1813, and the majority 
 of them between 1820 and 1830. When the Rev. John McLennan came to 
 Cape Breton in 1827, Grand River was the first place he visited in his round 
 of the different Presbyterian settlements. He- found forty-three Scot- 
 tish families on the Grand River at that time. In his report of that 
 visit to the Colonial Committee, he says that with the exception of one 
 other, he was the first minister of the gospel that ever came to this place'. 
 Who that other was he does not say and we cannot tell. It must have been 
 either Donald McDonald of Malagawatch, or Norman McLeod of St. 
 Ann's. These were the only Presbyterian ministers on the island previous 
 to the year 1827, with the exception of Mr. Millar of Mabou, who had no 
 Gaelic and as far as is known, never went beyond the bounds of his own con- 
 gregation during his ministerial life. Mr. McLennan came to Cape 
 Breton a second time in the year 1829, and the probability is that he took in 
 Loch Lomond and Grand River in his itinerary, though he does not say so. 
 
 Between 1833 and 1837, no doubt, our people in these settlements had 
 an occasional visit from the Rev. Alexander Farquharson and the Rev. 
 John Stewart; also from the Rev. James Fraser and the Rev. Dugald Mc- 
 Kichan. These were the only Presbyterian ministers in Cape Breton 
 during those years, with the exception of the Rev. Wm. Millar and Rev. 
 Norma McLeod. We know from his own letters that the Rev. John 
 Stewart preached at Grand River for a week in May 1835, when he 
 says he "had to do battle with witchcraft." He wrote to the Colonial 
 Committee "I got the people to proceed with their church and then left for 
 the Lakes of Loch Lomond," where he also preached. He found the people 
 of Loch Lomond too poor to attempt the building of a church, but got them 
 to build a school-house as there was one in the settlement who could teach. 
 
 Three years later the Loch Lomond people built their first church; 
 That was in 1838. 
 
 The Rev. John Gunn came to Cape Breton in the summer of 1838. 
 He served as a probationer between Grand River, Loch Lomond and con- 
 nected settlements until the summer of 1840 when he went to Strathlorne, 
 where he was subsequently settled as pastor. 
 
 We cannot learn that any minister of the Presbyterian Church spent 
 any length of time in this large Presbyterian community between 1840 
 and 1853, when the Rev. James Ross became minister of the congregation. 
 Apart from the services conducted by a few local laymen, who acted as 
 
 120 
 
leaders and catechists, the people were left almost entirely destitute of the 
 means of grace during those thirteen years. The wonder is, that under such 
 conditions and for so long a time, our people in these parts did not relapse 
 into heathenism or drift away from the church of their fathers. Such 
 consequences were only averted by the characteristic loyalty of these High- 
 landers to their own church, to the prevalent custom of family worship, 
 and to the sabbath services and midweek prayer meetings which were 
 regularly conducted by pious laymen of their own number during all those 
 years. 
 
 At length however, in the year 1853, the neglected but long-suffering 
 people of Grand River obtained a faithful minister of the gospel in the person 
 of the Rev. James Ross. The congregation over which Mr. Ross was 
 settled included St. Peters, Lardoise, Grand River, Loch Lomond, Fram- 
 boise, St. Esprit and L'Archeveque, a territory in which there are four con- 
 gregations today. Mr. Ross assumed the duties of this extensive and 
 laborious field with characteristic courage and he continued to labor therein 
 during the next twenty-three years. In the year 1876, Mr. Ross, on ac- 
 count of decreasing strength, resigned the Loch Lomond and Framboise 
 sections of his charge. But by this time his work was nearly done. On 
 the 12th of July, 1877, after a brief illness, he entered into rest, the rest 
 that remaineth for the people of God. 
 
 Mr. Ross was a native of Redcastle, Rosshire, Scotland. We do not 
 know the date of his birth. He studied for the ministry at Aberdeen 
 University. He came to this country as a licentiate of the Free Church in 
 the year 1851. He labored within the bounds of the Presbytery of Pictou 
 for a couple of years before coming to Cape Breton. Mr. Ross was a gospel 
 preacher of no mean order. The common people heard him gladly. He 
 was also a man of rare uprightness of character. In all the relations of life 
 he conducted himself as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. He commanded 
 the esteem of his brethren in the ministry and they all loved him as a father. 
 
 Mr. Ross was succeeded in the pastorate of Grand River by the Rev. 
 George Lawson Gordon. Mr. Gordon was a native of Brora, Sutherland- 
 shire, Scotland, where he was born in the year 1853. He came to Cape 
 Breton in the Spring of 1874 as a catechist. He spent that summer at 
 River Inhabitants. He studied for the ministry of our Church at Dal- 
 housie University and the Presbyterian College, Halifax. He graduated 
 from the latter institution in 1879. He was licensed to preach the gospel 
 by the Presbytery of Sydney on the 10th of September 1879 and on the 
 same day he accepted a call to Grand River. His ordination and induction 
 took place on the 6th day of October thereafter. After several years of 
 successful service, Mr. Gordon, on account of failing health resigned the 
 charge of Grand River on the 27thof May,1885. Not long thereafter he was 
 called to Salem Church,River John, where he labored for twenty-two years. 
 
 In the year 1911, his health failed again. This caused him to resign 
 Salem Church and go to Alberta in the hope of regaining his health. Find- 
 ing the change beneficial, he accepted a call to Redcliflfe, Alta., in 1912, 
 and continued pastor of that charge until his death on Jan. the 22nd, 1919, 
 
 121 
 
in the sixtieth year of his life, and the thirtieth of his ministry. As, a 
 preacher of the gospel, Mr. Gordon was fluent, earnest, scholarly and 
 evanelical. He was equally at home in English and Gaelic. 
 
 The Rev. Murdoch A. McKenzie followed Mr. Gordon in the pastoral 
 charge of Grand River on May the 30th, 1888. For further particulars of 
 Mr. McKenzie and his ministry the reader is referred to the article on the 
 Middle River Congregation. 
 
 The next minister of Grand River was the Rev. William Grant. He 
 was inducted into this charge on the first day of June, 1899, and he died 
 here on the 18th of December, 1906, in the seventieth year of his age. The 
 reader is referred to the chapter on Port Morien for a fuller account of Mr. 
 Grant and his ministry, in Cape Breton and elsewhere. 
 
 The Rev. Donald McDonald, B. D., succeeded Mr. Grant. Mr. 
 McDonald was not only born in Cape Breton, but he has given the whole 
 of his ministerial life to Cape Breton. He has been minister of four 
 different congregations on the island, and he is now minister of one of the 
 four, a second time. He began his work at Port Hastings and he is now 
 back at Port Hastings again. This is a mark of his worth as a minister 
 that very few receive. A more extended notice of Mr> McDonald and his 
 work in Cape Breton will be found in connction with his pastorates in Port 
 Hastings, Strathlorne and Dominion No. 6. 
 
 The present pastor of Grand River is the Rev. Lauchlin Beaton. Mr. 
 Beaton, like so many of our ministers, is a native of this island. He was 
 born at Boulardarie in July, 1863. He prepared for the ministry by 
 studying at Sydney Academy, Dalhousie University, Auburn Seminary, 
 U. S., and the Presbyterian College, Montreal, from which he graduated 
 in April, 1898. Mr. Beaton was licensed by the Presbytery of Montreal 
 on the 28th of June, 1898. On August the 2nd, 1893 he was settled at Cape 
 North as an ordained missionary. Since that time he has been pastor in 
 several congregations. He was inducted at Roxborough, Presbytery of 
 Glengarry, in December, 1900; at Caledonia, Presbytery of P. E. I., in 
 May, 1910; at Blackville, Presbytery of Miramichi in May, 1912. His 
 induction at Grand River took place on Oct. the 10th, 1917. 
 
 The first church was built at Grand River in 1836. It was not finished 
 on the inside until the year 1852. The present church was built in 1891, 
 during the ministry of the Rev. Murdoch A. McKenzie. It is a very 
 creditable, commodious and convenient country church. There are no 
 churches at the out stations, Lardoise, St. Esprit, Larchevique. Services 
 held in these places are held in school houses or private residences. 
 
 There is a very good manse. It too, was at least started, in Mr. 
 MacKenzie's time. The Rev. James Ross owned his own house with a large 
 block of land attached. The congregation bought this property from Mr. 
 Ross' heirs and built the manse on the site of Mr. Ross' house. 
 
 The ministers that were born in Grand River were; Angus W. McKay, 
 E. D. McKillop, Lake Ainslie; John A. Shaw, West Virginia; F. Kemp, 
 San Fernando; D. G. McLennan, Colorado; D. J. McKay, J. K. Murchi- 
 sbn; G. J. Patterson and Edward J. Shaw. 
 
 122 
 
Baddeck and Its Ministry. 
 
 This congregation is named after the town in which it is located, the 
 shire town of Victoria County. 
 
 The name Baddeck is derived from the Micmac name for the small 
 island immediately opposite the town. The Indians called that island 
 Abaduckt, which means in the Micmac tongue, the island near the land. 
 The name of this island came to be applied to the opposite shore and 
 country and finally to the town that came into being on that shore . 
 
 Baddeck is famous for the natural beauty of its surroundings and also 
 for the salubrity oi its atmosphere. For these two reasons, Baddeck is the 
 resort, in summer time, of many Americans in search of health or pleasure. 
 
 Beinn Bhreagh the summer home of Professor Graham Bell, the in- 
 ventor of the telephone is situated on a very picturesque site near Baddeck. 
 
 The earliest information that we have regarding Presbyterianism in 
 Baddeck comes to us through the Rev. Donald Allan Fraser, who came on 
 a missionary excursion to Cape Breton in the year 1827. On that occasion 
 Mr. Fraser spent ten days between Boulardarie and Baddeck and he 
 preached several times in both places. 
 
 There were a number of Presbyterians here at that time and Mr. 
 Fraser proposed to them that they should join with their brethren on 
 Boulardarie island in applying to the Colonial Committee for a minister 
 who would preach in both places. As a result of this proposal, a joint 
 petition from the people of Baddeck and Boulardarie was actually pre- 
 pared and transmitted to the Committee in the following year, together 
 with a guarantee of adequate financial support for the man that might be 
 sent. 
 
 Seven years later the Rev. James Fraser was seiit out in answer to that 
 petition but in the meantime the Presbyterians on Boulardarie and its 
 vicinity had increased numerically to such an extent, that they required 
 the whole of Mr. Fraser's time and also that they were able to provide for 
 his support themselves without the assistance of Baddeck. Hence after a 
 year spent in general missionary work, Mr. Fraser settled down as minister 
 of Boulardarie, about the end of the year 1836. 
 
 The Rev. Donald Allan Fraser, in his report to the Colonial Committee 
 made special mention of two men, who were ready to give their "active 
 support and liberal aid" to the settlement of a minister between Boulard- 
 arie and Baddeck. These two were Lieutenant Duffus, R. N. residing on 
 Duffus' Island Baddeck and his brother William Duffus at Big Bras d'Or 
 on Boulardarie Island. "These two" he adds "had fostered the strong 
 partiality of their neighbours for our church." Lieutenant Duff-us was at 
 that time conducting a general business on the island. There was no 
 town on the opposite shore at that time — indeed there was hardly a tree 
 cut on the site of Baddeck town at that time. All communications with 
 the Duffus establishment was by boat and by this method of transportation 
 
 123 
 
there was easy access to the Duffus store from all parts of the Bras D'Or 
 Lake. 
 
 After the death of Lieut. Duffus, William Kidston, another Scotchman 
 from Glasgow, married the widow of Mr. Duffus and carried on the island 
 business for a number of years. Among the earliest settlers on the present 
 site of Baddeck were four men that gave the town a decidedly Presbyterian 
 complexion. These were: Robert Elmslie, who came here in 1841 and 
 started a general store, Dougall Robertson, who came from Pictou a year or 
 two later and opened a second general store and Alexander Taylor, who 
 came from Halifax in 1845 and opened a third general store. 
 
 The town was flanked and backed by Presbyterians from an early 
 date. They settled all round Baddeck Bay, westward along the shore of St. 
 Patrick's Channel; back towards the Big Baddeck River and on both sides 
 of that river. After the Rev. Alexander Farquharson became minister of 
 Middle River and Lake Ainslie in 1834, he attended to the spiritual needs 
 of Big and Little Baddeck as best he could until the year 1857, when the 
 Rev. Kenneth McKenzie was ordained and inducted minister of Baddeck 
 and Baddeck Forks. 
 
 Mr. McKenzie was born in Caribou, Pictou County on the 8th of 
 June 1826. His preparatory studies were taken at Pictou Academy, his 
 Arts studies at the Halifax Academy and his theological studies at the Free 
 Church College, Halifax. He was one of the earliest students of that in- 
 stitution and one of the earliest graduates of the college. He supplied 
 Baddeck and Big Baddeck as probationer for a year or more after licensure. 
 At the end of that time he was called to the pastorate. He was ordained 
 and inductd as minister in the first church that was ever built in Baddeck 
 on the 2nd of Dec. 1857. Mr. McKenzie purchased a home in Baddeck, 
 soon after his induction, married a good wife and settled down to a long 
 pastorate of forty six years. The work was arduous and the remuneration 
 small, but Mr. McKenzie went on perserveringly to the end. Mr. Mc- 
 Kenzie was a man of great meekness and patience. He was never known 
 to complain of the hardness of his lot, although his toil was incessant and the 
 cupboard often very bare. In order to replenish his exchequer and keep 
 the wolf from tRe door, he took the school Inspectorship of the County of 
 Victoria for a period of six years, in addition to his pastoral and ministerial 
 duties. He was clerk of his presbytery for thirty four years and he dis- 
 charged the duties of that office with admirable efficiency. 
 
 On the 31st of March 1901, Mr. McKenzie resigned the charge and 
 removed to Halifax, where the remainder of his life was spent. On June 
 the 20th 1904, the end came and he passed peacefully into the presence of 
 the Master whom he served so faithfully, in the 78th year of his age and 
 the forty-seventh of his ministry. After Mr. McKenzie's resignation, 
 Baddeck Forks was separated from Baddeck and the latter became a self- 
 supporting and independent congregation. The Rev. Donald McDougall 
 succeeded Mr. McKenzie as minister of Baddeck. Having dwelt at some 
 length on Mr. McDougall's ministry in Port Morien and in West Bay, we 
 need not say much of his ministry in Baddeck. Suffice it however to add 
 
 124 
 
that as he grew in years, he grew in faithfulness to the souls under his care 
 as well as to the Master and Saviour whom he loved and served, so long and 
 well. Mr. McDougall was inducted at Greenwood Church, Baddeck on 
 Sept. 28th 1892. On Sept. the 3rd 1907, he resigned the charge expecting 
 to spend many happy years in his own home in Baddeck as ex-pastor of 
 the congregation. But that was not to be. In the following spring, 
 while at Glace Bay on his way to Broughton to fulfil an appointment he 
 was taken suddenly ill and after a few days of suffering he passed into his 
 Saviour's presence on the 4th of May,1908, in the seventy-second year of his 
 age and forty-third of his ministry. 
 
 The Rev. Charles C. Mcintosh, B. D. followed Mr. McDougall in the 
 pastorate of Baddeck. Mr. Mcintosh was a native of Malagawtach, C. B., 
 and was born there on Feb. 25th 1871. Mr. Mcintosh's preparatory stud- 
 ies were taken at Sydney Academy. 
 
 He studied the Arts in Dalhousie University graduating in 1899 and 
 obtaining the degree of B. A. He studied theology in the Presbyterian 
 College, Halifax and graduated from the latter institution in the Spring of 
 1901. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Halifax in April 1901, on the 
 completion of his theological course. On Jan. the 2nd 1902 Mr. Mcintosh 
 was ordained and inducted as minister of Gordon Church, Reserve Mines. 
 After six years of excellent service in this church, he was called to Baddeck, 
 and on April the 16th 1908, he was inducted into the charge of Greenwood 
 Church by the Presbytery of Inverness. 
 
 Five years later Mr. Mcintosh was translated to the Presbytery of 
 Pictou and by that Presbytery inducted into Sharon Church, Stellarton, 
 on the 4th of Dec. 1903. After graduation Mr. Mcintosh took a post 
 graduate course in theology at the United Free Church College, Glasgow, 
 Scotland. 
 
 The next minister of Baddeck was the Rev. John B. McKinnon, B. D. 
 His induction took place on the 7th of January 1914. We have already 
 «poken of Mr. McKinnon's life and work in connection with the congrega- 
 tion of Mira and hence need to say nothing farther in this connection. 
 
 Suffice it to say that Mr. McKinnon is still minister of Baddeck and 
 that he is doing his work with efficiency and success. 
 
 The first Presbyterian Church in Baddeck was built about a mile to 
 the east of the village on the road to St. Ann's. This was for the purpose of 
 accommodating members and adherents of the congregation living at Red 
 Head and at the head of Baddeck Bay. This church was built in 1841 
 and according to the custom of these days in the congregational graveyard. 
 This church was never finished inside.but it served the purposes of a church 
 after a fashion until the year 1865; when it was taken down and a second 
 and larger church was built onthe same spot, and named after the great 
 Scottish Reformer, Knox Church. 
 
 After some years it was felt that this church A^as inconveniently sit- 
 uated, especially for the people living in the town. The congregation 
 owned a central and suitable site within the town and in 1890, Knox Church 
 was abandoned and Greenwood Church was erected on that site. 
 
 125 
 
The Church of Scotland had a church built on this same site in 1862' 
 but it was never finished and very rarely used. 
 
 A few Antiburger people living in Baddeck in the early fifties of last 
 century also built a church in the town, but after the Union of 1860 it was 
 of no farther service. 
 
 The congregation built a manse on a very fine site, nearly opposite the 
 present church in the year 1893 during the pastorate of the Rev. D. Mc- 
 Dougall. 
 
 The men born in this congregation, who have entered the ministry of 
 our church include__R£v^JLPraaet£ampb^l, Dj_p.J^^ft^ 
 ary in Rutlam,_India. The Rev. D. A. McRae, JB_. A., missionaryin 
 CGieaf~K. A. McLeod, t£i present pastor of Trenton, N. STTTarquKar 
 ISIcRae, D, D., one of the pastors of Philadelphia, U. S.; Rev. Mcintosh 
 McLeod and Rev. J. D. McLeod. 
 
 ^ 
 
 126 
 
Cape North and Its Ministry. 
 
 The Cape North Presbyterian congregation is not appropriately- 
 named. It should be Icnown as the Aspy Bay congregation, rather than 
 the Cape North congregation. Cape North is not habitable and no one 
 lives there. The church is in Aspy Bay, and nearly all the people con- 
 nected with the congregation live at Aspy Bay, indeed all except about 
 twenty families that live in Bay St. Lawrence, seven miles distant. 
 
 Aspy Bay means the last bay. And this is indeed the last bay, not 
 only in Cape Breton, but also on the continent of North America, in a 
 north-easterly direction. Three rivers drain the country' to the south west 
 of Aspy Bay and they empty themselves through as many harbors into the 
 bay. These rivers and harbors are known respectively as the North, 
 Middle and South Rivers, and harbors. The people live upon the banks of 
 these rivers and harbors, and upon the ridges that rise between them. The 
 habitable area of Aspy Bay is flanked by two ranges of mountains, one on 
 the north side and the other on the south. These ranges are known as the 
 North and South Mountain respectively. There is nothing remarkable 
 about the South Mountain, but the North Mountain is a particularly bold, 
 precipitous and imposing range of high land. It rises to a general elevation 
 of 1,100 feet above the North River which flows at its base. From several 
 vantage points on the Big Ridge, this mountain can be seen for a length of 
 twenty miles, from Money Point on Cabot Strait to the Head of the Big 
 Intervale. The Sugar Loaf, a peak in this mountain range, rises to a height 
 of 1,250 feet. The Sugar Loaf is believed by many to be the "Prima Terra 
 Vista" of the Cabots, and the first part of North America ever seen by the 
 eyes of a European. This was on June 24th, 1497, when John Cabot and 
 his son Sebastian Cabot, made their famous voyage of discovery to this 
 western world. Be that as it may, one thing is certain, there is no grander 
 mountain scenery in Nova Scotia than is to be found in Aspy Bay. 
 
 The first white man that we know of, who came to Aspy Bay, was a 
 fisherman by the name of Captain Harris. He belonged to Mass., U. S., 
 and came to this bay in the year 1812. Captain Harris settled near the head 
 of the North Harbor. In the year 1813, Captain Harris was followed by 
 John Gwynne and his three sons, James, William and Joseph. The 
 Gwynnes were friends of Captain Harris, and came from the same place in 
 the United States. Captain Gwynne and his sons took up land near the 
 head of the North Harbor, and under the shadow of the North Mountain. 
 There are a number of their descendants here still. John Gwynne was a 
 pious man, and he was accustomed to hold religious services among the 
 people of those days in Aspy Bay. 
 
 The -earliest Scottish settler of Aspy Bay came from the Isle of Skye. 
 They began to come as early as 1820, and continued to come until the year 
 1841, when the last immigrant arrived. The ancestors of the McLeod's 
 and the McPherson's arrived in 1828, some of them by way of Prince Ed- 
 
 127 
 
■ward Island. The Morrisons, McGregors and McLennans followed short- 
 ly thereafter. The McDonalds came in 1840. 
 
 Sandy McDonald came to Sydney Mines from the Isle of Skye, in 
 1838 but at the end of two or three years he removed to the Big Intervale, 
 Aspy Bay. In 1841 he removed to the north end of the north harbor 
 beach, and settled under the shadow of the Sugar Loaf, where some of his 
 descendants are still found. Apsy Bay was then a particularly easy place 
 in which to obtain all the necessaries of life. The soil was good, and the 
 fishing was the best on the coasts of Cape Breton. There was a good mar- 
 ket at St. Pierre for all their surplus products, consisting chiefly of split oak 
 for puncheon staves, sheep, cattle, butter and cheese. Here they obtained 
 at a very cheap rate, tea, sugar, molasses and tobacco; also French brandy 
 and wine. There was no custom house at Aspy Bay until 1872, and all 
 these articles were imported duty-free, and of course cheap. 
 
 The first Presbyterian minister to reach Aspy Bay was the Rev. John 
 Stewart. This was in August 1835. There was no road to the Bay at that 
 time. Hence, Mr. Stewart went by a small schooner from North Sydney 
 to that, then, so inaccessible a place. Mr. Stewart spent two Sabbaths 
 here. He preached several times, and baptized a number of adults as well- 
 as children. Mr. Stewart wrote, "1 had now to retrace my steps if I should 
 not remain at the Cape. There was everything to entice me to this. The 
 scenery there is on a grand scale, and the settlement one of the finest in 
 Cape Breton." The probability is that the Rev. Alexander Farquharson- 
 visited Aspy Bay between 1835 and 1840, but we have no record of such a 
 visit. 
 
 Between 1840 and 1860, theRev. John Gunn of Broadcove was in the 
 habit of making an annual missionary journey to Pleasant Bay, Aspy Bay 
 and Bay St. Lawrence. On these occasions he spent from four to six weeks 
 among the people, preaching, teaching, baptizing and visiting the aged and 
 the sick. Old and young showed their appreciation of Mr. Gunn and his 
 services by slipping a coin of more or less value into his hand while he was 
 among them. Any remuneration that he received for his services at Cape 
 North was a personal and free-will offering given in this way. 
 
 Aspy Bay had no settled minister until 1860, when the Rev. Donald 
 Sutherland was called to be the first minister of the congregation. He was- 
 ordained at Baddeck on June 6th, 1860, and the Rev. John Gunn waa 
 appointed by Presbytery to proceed to Cape North and introduce Mr. 
 Sutherland to his people. At that time the congregation was composed of 
 all the Presbyterians between Smoky Mountain in Victoria County, and 
 Fishing Cove in Inverness County, a distance by the shore line of not less 
 than one hundred miles. The people were then living, as they are still, in 
 groups in the bays and coves that are found on that shore line, viz.. South 
 Ingonish, North Ingonish, Neils Harbor, New Haven, White Point, Aspy 
 Bay, Bay St. Lawrence, Pouletts Cove, Pleasant Bay and Fishing Cove. 
 There were a few Presbyterians in all these places and not very many any- 
 where except in Aspy Bay, where there were seventy or eighty families. 
 There was not a carriage or a carriage road within the bounds of the con- 
 
 128 
 
gregation at that time. All the travelling had to be done either on foot 
 or on horse-back, over mountains or bridgeless rivers, or by boat from bay 
 to bay and cove to cove. 
 
 There was one small unfinished church at Aspy Bay in 1860, when Mr. 
 Sutherland became pastor, but it was only used for a few months in the 
 summer season. It was built in the early forties, forty-one or forty-two. 
 It was never heated and was not fit for use in winter time. 
 
 Mr. Sutherland was born in Earltown, Colchester Co., N. S., in the 
 year 1834. He received his education at Pictou Academy, the Truro 
 Seminary, and the Free Church College, Halifax. He completed his pre- 
 parations for the ministry in the spring of 1857. Mr. Sutherland remained 
 in Cape North until November 4th, 1863, when he resigned the charge and 
 accepted an appointment to Newfoundland and Labrador for a couple of 
 years. In 1867 he went to Ontario and from there to Kansas in the 
 United States. 
 
 In June, 1870, Mr. Sutherland returned to Cape Breton, and spent 
 some years at Pleasant Bay, within the bounds of his first congregation. 
 On the 17th of August, 1875, he was inducted into the pastoral charge of 
 Gabarus, Kenington Cove, and Forchu. He labored in this congregation 
 with great diligence and faithfulness until July 29th, 1903, when he died 
 suddenly, sitting in a chair on his own verandah at Gabarus. Mr. Suther- 
 land was a man of many parts. He was a linguist, geologist and mineral- 
 ogist as well as a theologian and preacher. 
 
 After Mr. Sutherland's resignation of Aspy Bay in 1863, there was 
 no settled pastor in this congregation for a period of nine years. The 
 field however obtained a supply of Gospel ordinances from probationers 
 and catechists during the summer season, and pious laymen conducted 
 services during the winter. The late Rev. Wm. Grant was there in the 
 summer of 1867 and 1868. The Rev. Samuel C. Gunn was there in the 
 summer of 1869, and the writer was sent there by the Presbytery of Syd- 
 ney in May, 1870, and again in May, 1871. The memory of those two 
 summers in that romantic place is still fresh and inspiring. 
 
 In the autumn of 1873 the congregation called the Rev. Peter Clarke 
 to be its minister. His ordination and designation took place at St. James 
 Church, Big Bras d'Or, on November 12th, 1873. Mr. Clark was born in 
 Scotland. We do not know where he was educated nor the Presbytery by 
 which he was licensed. After serving as a probationer of the Free Church 
 of Scotland for a number of years, he came to Cape Breton, with good re- 
 commendation from the Colonial Committee of the Free Church, in June, 
 1872. 
 
 Mr. Clarke spent the rest of his life at Apsy Bay. He labored with 
 perseverance and faithfulness. He entered into the Joy of his Lord on the 
 27th of August, 1887. Mr. Clark was a good preacher, a diligent pastor 
 and a saintly man. 
 
 The next minister of Aspy Bay was the Rev. Ewen McKenzie, a native 
 of Rosshire, Scotland. He was educated at the Glasgow University, and 
 the Free Church College, Glasgow. He came to Cape Breton as a licen- 
 
 129 
 
tiate of the Free Church in the summer of 1888. The Presbytery of Sydney 
 sent him down to Aspy Bay as an Ordained Missionary for one year, in the 
 following spring. At the end of that year he was caUed to the pastorate of 
 the congregation, and his induction took place on the first of August, 1890. 
 After two years of praiseworthy service, Mr. McKenzie resigned the charge 
 on the 8th of October, 1892, and went to our Northwestern Mission Field, 
 where he received an appointment to the Indian Reserve at the Hurricane 
 Hills. He labored here with diligence and success until his death on the 
 31st of January, 1915, in the sixtieth year of his life. Mr. McKenzie was a 
 meek, retiring, humble and godly man. 
 
 Mr. McKenzie was succeeded in the pastorate of Apsy Bay by the 
 Rev. Malcolm N. McLeod. The reader will find an account of Mr. Mc- 
 Leod's life and work for the Master in the Chapter on St. Ann's and its 
 ministry. 
 
 The next minister of Aspy Bay was the Rev. Lachlan Beaton. For an 
 account of Mr. Beaton's life and ministry, the reader is referred to the 
 Chapter on the Grand River Congregation. Rev. John McFarlane fol- 
 lowed Mr. Beaton in this charge. By turning to the Chapter on Loch Lo" 
 mond, the reader will find a summary of Mr. McFarlane's life and ministry. 
 Mr. McFarlane was succeeded in the ministry of Aspy Bay by the Rev. 
 J. W. Smith, now of Middle River. Under the head of Middle River the 
 reader will find a brief account of Mr. Smith and his work on this island. 
 
 Rev. Hugh Michael followed Mr. Smith in the pastorate of Aspy Bay. 
 Mr. Michael was a native of Kilmorach, Invernesshire, Scotland, where he 
 was born on the 15th of May, 1862. He studied his Arts in Glasgow Uni- 
 versity and finished his preparation for the ministry in the spring of 1893. 
 He studied theology in the Free Church College, Glasgow, from which he 
 graduated in the spring of 1898, Mr. Michael was licensed by the Free 
 Church Presbytery of Tongue, on June 17th, 1898. He came to Canada in 
 August, 1906, and was ordained and inducted at Orwell by the Presbytery 
 of P. E. Island on November 27th, 1906. Two years later he came to 
 Cape Breton and was appointed Ordained Missionary at Broughton in the 
 Presbytery of Sydney on July 19th, 1908. On March 26th, 1912, he was 
 sent by the Presbytery to Aspy Bay as Ordained Missionary, and on the 
 17th of the following July he was inducted and settled as minister. On 
 August 17th, 1917, Mr. Michael resigned the charge and went to Quebec. 
 He is now ordained missionary at Jersey Mills in that Province. While in 
 Cape Breton, Mr. Michael proved himself to be an honest, earnest worker 
 in the Lord's vineyard. 
 
 The present minister of Cape North is the Rev. Roderick McKenzie . 
 He was born in the parish of Lochs, Lewis, Scotland. He took his Arts 
 Glasgow University and his theology in the New College, Edinburgh, 
 graduating in 1898. After licensure, Mr. McKenzie served some years in 
 Mission work as minister of the U. Free Church. After coming to Canada 
 he was called to the pastorate of Winslow, Quebec. After eight years in that 
 charge Mr. McKenzie came to Cape Breton and was inducted at Strath- 
 lorne in 1912 and at Cape North in Dec. 1919. The present church 
 
 130 
 
was built in the year 1868 by the late Samuel W. McKeen, of 
 Sydney. This church was not finished inside until the year 1875 during 
 the ministry of Rev. Mr. Clark. It was renovated and modernized during 
 the ministry of Rev. Mr. McFarlane, and it is now a comfortable and ser- 
 viceable place of worship. There is a good manse near the church, built 
 in 1876 while Mr. Clark was minister, at a cost of $600. The people fur- 
 nished most of the lumber and did much of the labor gratuitously. 
 
 There is a church at Bay St. Lawrence seven miles from the central 
 church. There are about twenty families living in this outpost of our 
 church and they receive a service every alternate Sunday. The only young 
 man from Cape North who entered our ministry was Rev. Donald Mc- 
 Donald, B. D. now of Port Hastings. Murdoch McPherson, another Cape 
 North man of great promise, entered upon a course of study for the minis- 
 try but was called to his rest and reward before completing his course of 
 preparation for service. 
 
 131 
 
Gabarus and Its Ministry. 
 
 The'name Gabarus is a transformation into English of the French name 
 Chapeau Rouge, which means Red Head. Chapeau Rouge was the name 
 by which the French knew this locality when they owned Cape Breton 
 Island. The original settlers of Gabarus were English. They located on 
 the shore where the village of Gabarus is now. The early Methodist 
 preachers got among them between 1835 and 1840, and the result was that 
 the people living in Gabarus Village are largely Methodists in religion. 
 
 We do not know exactly when the Gaelic speaking highlanders and 
 islanders began to settle in the vicinity of Gabarus Bay. When they came 
 they took up land at Kennington Gove and Canoe Lake. Hence, there are 
 few Presbyterians in Gabarus Village. They are to be found farther inland. 
 The Rev. John Stewart went to Gabarus in the spring of 1835, and 
 spent some days among the few Presbyterian people who were there at that 
 time. It is very likely that others of the pioneers followed his example in 
 later years, but we have no definite information on this matter. 
 
 There is a tombstone in the cemetery of Gabarus that commemorates 
 a minister of our church that died there in the 1855, by the name of Wil- 
 liam Dunbar. It appears that he came from Scotlandto Gabarus in 1853, 
 and that he labored among the Scottish people there during the next two 
 years. He is said to have been a good man and a good preacher, in English 
 and Gaelic. He dropped dead on the streets of Gabarus. In the year 
 1878, the Rev. Donald Sutherland, had this tombstone erected to the 
 memory of a brother he had never seen, but of whom his people had told 
 him many favorable things. 
 
 The Gabarus congregation was originally a part of the extensive con- 
 gregation of Mira. It was given a separate existence in the year 1864, and 
 placed by the Presbytery at that time under the care of the Rev. Isaac 
 McKay as its first pastor. As at first constituted, the congregation in- 
 cluded Kennington Cove, Canoe Lake and Gabarus. 
 
 Mr. McKay was a native of Sutherlandshire, Scotland and a nephew 
 of the Rev. Hugh McLeod, D. D. He came to Cape Breton in the year 
 1862 as a licentiate of the Free Church. During the first two years of his 
 stay in C. B. Mr. McKay was employed as principal of the Sydney Acad- 
 emy. He was a good scholar, and in this capacity gave every satis- 
 faction to citizens and trustees. On the 18th of July, 1864, Mr. McKay 
 was ordained and inducted as minister of Gabarus. In October 1866, he 
 resigned the charge and left for Scotland. Subsequently he went to Aus- 
 tralia, where he died. 
 
 In the year 1869, by arrangement of Presbytery, the Rev. Cornelius 
 E. McLean, then minister of Leitches Creek, gave Gabarus one third of his 
 time, and this arrangement continued for a couple of years. On the 18th 
 of June, 1872, the Rev. David Drummond was ordained and inducted into 
 the pastorate of Kennington Cove, Gabarus, Fourche and Framboise. Mr 
 Drummond labored in this wide field with characteristic diligence until his 
 translation to Boulardarie in February, 1875. 
 
 132 
 
Not long after Mr. Drummond's departure, the Rev. Donald Suther- 
 land was called. His induction took place on the 17th of August, 1875. 
 Some months after Mr. Sutherland's settlement, Framboise was separated 
 from Gabarus, and connected with Loch Lomond. This change lightened 
 his labors very considerably. 
 
 Mr. Sutherland's ministry continued during a period of twenty-eight 
 years, and ended with his sudden and unexpected death on the 29th of 
 July, 1903. He died sitting in his chair on the verandah of his manse. 
 Apparently, he fell asleep and never awakened. The Lord's Supper was 
 to have been dispensed at Gabarus the following Sabbath, and all arrange- 
 ments had been made for commemoration of the death accomplished for 
 sinful men at Jerusalem, but other members of the Presbytery had to dis- 
 pense that sacred ordinance. 
 
 The Rev. Donald Sutherland was a man of uncommonly fine physique; 
 tall, stout and handsome. He was rather eccentric at times, but he had a 
 very tender and sympathetic heart. 
 
 About a year after Mr. Sutherland's death, the congregation called the 
 Rev. Malcolm Campbell, at that time minister of Strathalbyn, P. E. Island 
 Mr. Campbel responded to this call, and was inducted as minister of. 
 Gabarus on August 23rd, 1904. Mr. Campbell spent ten fruitful years in 
 this congregation. At the end of that time, on August the 5th, 1914, he 
 accepted a call to Marsboro, in the Presbytery of Quebec, whether he was 
 translated, and where he is still proclaiming the Gospel of the Grace of God. 
 
 Mr. Campbell had two pastorates on this island; one at Gabarus; and 
 one at Strathlorne. He also had two pastorates on P. E. Island; one at 
 Wood Islands and the other at Strathalbyn. In all these spheres of labor, 
 he proved himself to be a diligent and faithful worker. 
 
 Gabarus lost no time in finding a successor to Mr. Campbell. They 
 found him in the person of the Rev. J. W. Smith at that time minister of 
 Leitches Creek. Mr. Smith was inducted into this charge on the 29th of 
 June, 1915, and he remained until the 20th of August, 1918, when he was 
 translated to the Presbytery of Inverness, and subsequently inducted into 
 the congregation of Middle River, where he is still, and where the Lord's 
 work is prospering under his strong, clear proclamation of the Gospel. 
 
 The present minister of Gabarus is the Rev. T. R. Davidson, M. A., 
 Ph. D. Mr. Davidson is a son of the manse and was born on the island of 
 Harris in the Hebrides. He took his Arts course in Aberdeen University, 
 specializing in Science and Classics. He also studied theology in Aberdeen 
 and at the Free Church College there. 
 
 He was licensed by the Free Presbytery of Skye on the 7th of February, 
 1899. After coming to Canada, he obtained the degree of M. A. from 
 Oskaloosa College, Iowa, U. S., in June, 1916, and the degree of Ph. D. 
 from the same institution on October 27th, 1917. 
 
 Mr. Davidson was ordained and inducted at Little Narrows on Octo- 
 ber 16th, 1906, and inducted into the congregation of North Shore and 
 North River on December 8th, 1907; and into the congregation of Har- 
 
 133 
 
court, New Brunswick, on October 18th, 1917. His induction at Gabarus 
 took place on July 3rd, 1919. 
 
 The first church was built in Gabarus in the year 1860, and continued 
 in use until January 29th, 1911, when it was consumed by fire. The present 
 church was built on the same site in the year 1912, at a cost of $6,000. 
 
 A hall for exclusively religious purposes was built the same year about 
 four miles west of the church on the Forchu road, at a cost of $2,000. 
 
 The first manse was built in 1876 during Mr. Sutherland's ministry, 
 and on a lot of fifty acres. After Mr. Smith became minister in 1916, a 
 new, larger and better manse was built at a cost of $4,000. 
 
 Gabarus has not given any of her sons to the ministry of our Church. 
 
 134 
 
Leltches' Creek and Its Ministry. 
 
 This congregation includes four church centres, viz. Lietches Creek, 
 Upper Leitches Creek, Beachmont and Edwardsville. 
 
 Leitehes Creek is an extensionof the north west arm of Sydney Har- 
 bor. It takes its name from a Lowland Scotchman, who came here about 
 the year 1780 and squatted on lands by the Creek. Subsequently, in 1789, 
 he took out a grant of land on the Little Bras d'Or where he spent th3 re- 
 mainder of his life. 
 
 The first Gaelic speaking Presbyterians that settled at Upper Leitches 
 Creek were six brothers by the name of McDonald. Four of them came 
 here from North Uist in the year 1827 and the other two in the year 1829. 
 John Beaton came from the same island in the year 1832. Beaton had 
 seven sons and five of them settled in this vicinity. The descendants of 
 these McDonalds and Beacons are the majority of the population at the 
 present time. 
 
 There was no place of worship in the congregation until 1841 when the 
 first Church was built at Upper Leitches Creek. From 1836 to 1842 the 
 few Presbyterians that were here received morg or less attention from the 
 Rev. James Fraser of Boulardarie. From 1842 to 1864 they shared to 
 some extent in the ministrations of the Rev. Matthew Wilson, the minister 
 of Sydney Mines. In 1864 Upper Leitches Creek, Leitches Creek proper 
 and Ball's Creek were constituted into a congregation, by the Presbytery of 
 Cape Breton and the Rev. Alexander Farquharson Jr. was called to be its 
 first minister. Mr. Farquharson was born at the Middle River in the 
 year 1835 and was the son of one of the pioneer Presbyterian ministers of 
 Cape Breton. He received his training for the ministry at the Free 
 Church Academy and College on Gerrish Street Halifax. He graduated 
 from this college in the Spring of 1863. During the following summer he 
 labored as a missionary within the bounds of the Presbytery of Miramichi 
 N. B. He received licensure at the hands of that Presbytery sometime 
 during the same summer. In the autumn of 1864 Mr. Farquharson re- 
 ceived a call from the recently formed congregation of Leitches Creek, 
 which he accepted. His ordination and induction took place in the old 
 church at Upper Leitches Creek on Dec. 14th, 1864. Mr. Farquharson 
 had the peculiar distinction of being the first minister of three congregations 
 within the bounds of the same Presbytery viz. of Leitches Creek, St. Pauls, 
 Glace Bay and of St. Andrews, Sydney. 
 
 The second minister of Leitches Creek was the Rev. Cornelius E. Mc- 
 Lean, a native of Rosshire, Scotland, and a licentiate of the Free Church. 
 He came to Canada in the year 1857. His first charge was at Winslow in the 
 the Presbytery of Montreal, where he was ordained and inducted in the 
 year 1858. In the Spring of 1869, Mr. McLean came to Cape Breton and 
 shortly thereafter he was called to the pastorate of Leitches Creek con- 
 gregation, into which he was inducted on the 24th of August. Mr. McLean 
 was minister of Leitches Creek until Sept. the 30th, 1876, when he re- 
 
 135' 
 
signed and removed to Consecon, Ontario, where he died some years later. 
 During his pastorate at Leitches Creek Mr. McLean gave a part of his time 
 to Gabarus. He also gave a monthly service in Gaelic for some time at 
 Sydney Mines. 
 
 After Mr. McLean s departure this congregation was vacant for eight 
 or nine years and dependent for public services upon such probationers 
 and catechists as were available. 
 
 On July the 1st 1885, the Rev. Hector McQuarrie was ordained and 
 inducted into this charge. Mr. McQuarrie was born at Mabou Mountain 
 in the congregation of Strathlorne. He began to study for the ministry 
 early in life and with that end in view he attended the Free Church Acad- 
 emy Halifax for several sessions. Then he seemed to lose his ambition in 
 this direction and settled down as a school teacher at Grand River, Rich- 
 mond County. In the year 1880 when well along in life, he renewed his 
 studies and after a short course at the Presbyterian College, he was li- 
 censed by the Presbytery of Sydney on August the 2nd, 1882. He was 
 ordained and inducted at Leitches Creek on the 1st of July, 1885. He 
 labored in this charge, with much acceptance until 1891, when his health 
 gave way and he had to demit the congregation. 
 
 He departed this life on April the 18th 1893. While teaching at Grand 
 River, Mr. McQuarrie was accustomed to conduct public worship in the 
 absence of the Rev. Mr. Ross. 
 
 The Rev. John C. McLeod succeeded Mr. McQuarrie at Leitche's 
 Creek. The reader will find an account of Mr. McLeod's life and ministry 
 in the chapter on Port Hastings and Port Hawkesbury. The Rev. W. S. 
 Galbraith was the next minister of the congregation. Mr. Galbraith was 
 born on the island of Arran, Scotland. He took his Arts course in Scotland 
 and his theology in the Presbytrian College, Halifax. He graduated in the 
 spring of 1908, and was licensed by the Presbytery of Sydney about the 
 first of May. On the 18th of May 1908 he was ordained and inducted into 
 the pastorate of this congregation. On Feb. the 15th 1911, Mr. Galbraith 
 was translated to the Presbytery of London and settled in St. Andrew's 
 Church, Thamesford, where he is still. 
 
 The Rev. J. W. Smith succeeded Mr. Galbraith. A fuller notice of Mr. 
 Smith and his ministry will be found in the chapter on Middle River, where 
 Mr. Smith is minister at the present time and ministering to his fourth 
 congregation on the island. 
 
 In Nov. 1916 the Presbytery appointed Mr. M. D. McDonald, a lay 
 preacher, who had recently come to Cape Breton from the great Home 
 Mission Field of the West, to look after the spiritual interests of Leitches 
 Creek. Mr. McDonald went from Leitches Creek to Framboise and the 
 reader is referred to the chapter on Framboise for further information con- 
 cerning him. Shortly after Mr. McDonald's appointment to Framboise 
 in May 1818, the Rev. William McLeod came to Leitches Creek, and re- 
 mained for a couple of years. 
 
 Mr. McLeod ^as born on the North River of Colchester Co., N. S., 
 on the 11th of October, 1856. He is one of three brothers that devoted 
 
 136 
 
their lives to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The 
 other two were the Rev. W. A. McLeod, Ph. D. and the Rev. John W. 
 McLeod. Both ceased from their labors a number of years ago. Dr. 
 McLeod was minister of Thorburn, Pictou Co. for a number of years and 
 his brother was one of our missionaries to Trinidad. Their father was a 
 man of mark in the religious life of his time first in Pictou County and sub- 
 sequently in Colchester County. 
 
 The Rev. William McLeod studied for the ministry at Dalhousie 
 University and the Presbyterian College. He graduated from the latter 
 institution in 1889. He was licensed at New Castle by the Presbytery of 
 Miramichi in July of that year.- He was ordained and inducted at Har- 
 court by the same Presbytery on the 12th of the following month. He was 
 inducted at Leitches Creek by the Presbytery of Sydney as ordained mis- 
 sionary on August the 6th 1918. Mr. McLeod's ministry has been an 
 unusually prepatetic one. He has been regularly inducted into the pas- 
 torate of four charges and he has been appointed to supply fifteen vacant 
 charges for a year or more, in Labrador, Newfoundland, Prince Edward 
 Island, New Brunswick and Quebec as well as Nova Scotia. He is ani- 
 mated by a restless spirit and is ever seeking new worlds to conquer for 
 his Master. His forte is along the line of evangelism, and he has done 
 much good in many places in the exercise of the evangelistic gifts with 
 which he is endowed. 
 
 A second church was built at Upper Leitches Creek in the year 1912. 
 The church at Lower Leitches' Creek was built in the year 1872, and the 
 Manse along side of this church was built in the year 1901, during the 
 ministry of the Rev. J. C. McLeod, at a cost of $2,250. There is a Church 
 at Beechmont and another at Edwardsville. 
 
 The Rev. J. K. Mclnnis of Upper Stewiacke, Nova Scotia is the only 
 young man from Leitches Creek that has given his life to the ministry of 
 our Church. 
 
 137 
 
Saint Paul's, Glace Bay and Its Ministry. 
 
 Saint Paul's congregation, Glace Bay, takes its name from the church 
 in which it worships. St. Paul's was not adopted as the name of this 
 church, however, until the year 1895, twenty-eight years after the congre- 
 gation was organized. Previous to 1895 this congregation was known as 
 the congregation of Little Glace Bay, although it included all the Presbjrteri- 
 ans on both sides of Little Glace Bay from the Gardiner Mines on the West 
 to Schooner Pond on the east. 
 
 Kev. Hugh McLeod, D. D., was pastor of the few Presbyterians on this 
 shore from 1850 to 1867. In the year 1860 there were only sixteen Pres- 
 byterian families between Lingan Bay and Schooner Pond. But in 1867 
 there were enough to require the formation of a new congregation and with 
 a little assistance from the augmentation fund to support a minister. The 
 increase of our people in this part of the island between 1860 and 1867 was 
 due to the development of the coal mining industry during those years. 
 This statement is equally true of the increase that has taken place in the 
 Presbyterianism of this region between 1867 and the present time, when we 
 have six large and prosperous congregations in this same territory We 
 owe all our growth to the existence of valuable coal seams in this vicinity 
 and the development that has taken place in the coal mining industry. The 
 soil is not adapted to farming and but for the presence of valuable seams of 
 coal the Glace Bay shore would be occupied only by a few fishermen until 
 the present day. 
 
 Rev. Alex. Farquharson, junior, was the first minister of St. Paul's 
 congregation. While Mr. Farquharson was minister of Leitche s Creek 
 between 1864 and 1867, by arrangement of Presbytery, he gave one-third 
 of his time to Little Glace Bay and its vicinity. About the end of 1866 
 there was a move made to secure the whole of Mr. Farquharson's time in 
 this locality. A little later he was called to the pastorate of Little Glace 
 Bay and his induction took place on the 13th March, 1867. The stipend 
 promised by the congregation was $600 — but the Presbytery undertook to 
 obtain an additional $150 from the augmentation fund. There was no 
 church at that time in Little Glace Bay. There was a church however at 
 Big Glace Bay for a number of years previous to that time. The first 
 church in Little Glace Bay was built in 1869 on a site at the corner of Com- 
 mercial and Yorke streets. Between 1867 and the autumn of 1869 when 
 this church was ready for use the people of Little Glace Bay met for wor- 
 ship, first in private houses and then later in a hall situated in the vicinity 
 of Table Head, or "The Roost" as it was then known. That first church 
 was remodelled after the present church was built in 1895 and used as an 
 Orange hall. Recently it has been moved and it now stands next to Knox 
 Church, facing Commercial Street. The second church was built m 1895 
 at a cost of about $20,000. It was opened for divine worship by the late Rev. 
 James Robertson, D. D., the great home missionary superintendent of our 
 church in the west. 
 
 138 
 
Rev. A. Farquharson was minister of this congregation during eight 
 and a half years and by the end of that time the foundations -of the church 
 were well and truly laid. In August, 1875, Mr. Farquharson accepted a 
 call to St. Andrew's Church, Sydney, as colleague and successor to Rev. 
 Hugh McLeod, D. D., in the Sydney section of the doctor's charge. 
 
 Fourteen months after Mr. Farquharson's departure this congregation 
 called the Rev. Allan McLean to be its minister. He was inducted by the 
 Presbytery of Sydney on December 5th, 1887. Mr. McLean was born in 
 one of the western Islands of Scotland, but he was brought to Whycoco- 
 magh by his parents in his childhood and grew up in that romantic spot. 
 He studied for the ministry of our church in the Halifax Academy and the 
 Free Church College. He was ordained and inducted into the congrega- 
 tion of Dundas and Bay Fortune, by the Presbytery of Prince Edward 
 Island, in the early sixties and he spent the greater part of his ministerial 
 life in that charge. Mr. McLean's ministry in St. Paul's was very short, 
 only nine months. In September, 1878, he resigned and returned to Prince 
 Edward Island, where ha was called and settled for a number of years at 
 Tryon and Bonshaw. He died in 1893, while pastor of this congregation. 
 
 • Mr. McLean's resignation and departure from Glace Bay was almost, 
 if not entirely due to the depressed industrial conditions that prevailed in 
 Cape Breton at the time of his settlement. Between 1875 and 1882 the 
 coal trade in Cape Breton was in a most deplorable condition. A number 
 of our collieries were under the necessity of closing down. Employment 
 at Glace Bay was very scarce and wages very small. Laboring men were 
 receiving only from 80 to 90 cents a day, and there was no work for two, 
 three and even four months in the winter time. Consequently congrega- 
 tions like St. Paul's, Glace Bay and St. John's, Port Morien, that were en- 
 tirely dependent upon the coal industry for their financial necessities were 
 at their wits end to keep their church doors open. 
 
 Finally conditions became so bad that St. John's Church, Port Morien, 
 and St. Paul's Church, Glace Bay, petitioned the Presbytery to send them a 
 Gaelic-speaking catechist, on the understanding that he would give half of 
 his time and services to the one and half to the other. After trying this 
 expedient and finding it unsatisfactory, these two congregations petitioned 
 the Presbytery to unite them and permit them to call a minister to the 
 united charge. The Presbytery granted their request and the union of 
 these two churches was effected on March 2nd, 1881. 
 
 Shortly after this the united churches extended a unanimous call to 
 Rev. John Murray of Falmouth Street Church, Sydney, to become their 
 minister. This call Mr. Murray declined chiefly on account of the difficulty 
 involved in ministering efficiently to so extensive and laborious a field. 
 
 By this time, however a favorable crisis was reached in the coal trade 
 in Cape Breton and the outlook began to brighten. The union of St. Paul's 
 and St. John's, which was designed to meet an emergency, was dissolved 
 by the Presbytery of Sydney on June 29th, 1881. In September following 
 St. Paul's Church called Mr. James A. Forbes, a recent graduate of the 
 Presbyterian College, Halifax,to be its minister. Mr. Forbes accepted the 
 
 139 
 
call on the understanding that he would be permitted to spend the following 
 winter in post graduate studies in the New College, Edinburgh. Mr. 
 Forbes' ordination and induction took place in St.Paul's Church on October 
 6th, 1881 and on the following day he left for Scotland. Mr. Forbes re- 
 turned in May 1882, and began a ministry of uncommon strenuousness. 
 The field was large and by this time, growing rapidly on account of the 
 revival of the coal trade. Mr. Forbes' congregation included Schooner 
 Pond, Port Caledonia, Reserve Mines, Gardiner Mines and Bridgeport, as 
 well as Caledonia and Little Glace Bay. 
 
 By 1884 a tide of prosperity had begun to flow that carried St. Paul's 
 and its minister on its bosom to such a measure of, at least temporal, pros- 
 perity,as few congregations or ministers have ever experienced in Cape Bret- 
 on. During the next ten years this congregation had grown to such an extent 
 that a new church had to be built in Glace Bay with seating accommodation 
 for one thousand people. Churches had also to be built at Bridgeport' and 
 Reserve Mines to accommodate the people living in these localities. By 1901 
 the work of the pastor had become so onerous that another man had to be 
 obtained to assist him in the discharge of his duties, notwithstanding that 
 Bridgeport and Reserve Mines had already been separated from the con- 
 gregation and constituted into a distinct charge some years earlier. 
 
 On May 29th, 1901, Rev. Wm. Meikle, M. A., was inducted as co- 
 pastor with Mr. Forbes, and the co-pastorate continued until August 31, 
 1903, when for various reasons that need not be related, both pastors re- 
 signed and their resignations were accepted by Presbytery. On his retire- 
 ment, in recognition of faithful services rendered to the congregation for a 
 period of 21 years, Mr. Forbes was presented with the manse, on South 
 Street, in which he lived for nearly twenty years and $500 in cash. By this 
 time the congregation had a second manse. It was built for Mr. Meikle's 
 use in the summer of 1901 on Yorke Street. 
 
 After his retirement from the pastorate of St. Paul's, Mr. Forbes ren- 
 dered good service for a number of years in supplying vacant congregations 
 and mission fields in Cape Breton. On August 31, 1911, he was inducted 
 into the congregation of Earltown and Waugh's River in the Presbytery of 
 Wallace. He was minister of this charge until December, 1919, when he 
 resigned and retired from the active duties of the ministry. 
 
 Shortly after Mr. Meikle's resignation of St. Paul's Church, Knox 
 Church was organized in the town of Glace Bay and Mr. Meikle was called 
 to be minister of this new congregation. Mr. Meikle had conducted evan- 
 gelistic meetings in the town of Glace Bayjn the year 1905 and he was very 
 well known and highly esteemed. 
 
 Rev. Donald McMillan Gillies, D. D., succeeded Messrs Forbes and 
 Meikle in the pastorate of St. Paul's. He was inducted on the 24th of 
 November^ 1903. Dr. Gillies is a native of Cape Breton having been born 
 near Whycocomagh. He obtained his education at Pictou Academy,! Mani- 
 toba College and the San Francisco Seminary, California. He was or- 
 dained and inducted pastor of the Holly Park Presbyterian Church, San 
 Francisco, on May 10, 1897. While attending Manitoba college he rend- 
 
 140 
 
ered valuable service as a catehist in the home mission field of Western 
 Canada. Dr. Gillies returned to the Maritime Provinces in the year 
 1902 and was settled as pastor of Phillips' Church, Westville, in October 
 of that year. During his pastorate this church came into the Presbyterian 
 Church in Canada. About one year later he came to Glace Bay as minist- 
 er of St. Paul's church, and he is here still doing faithful service for the 
 Master. In the year 1911, on representations of his friends regarding the 
 good work Mr. Gillies was doing in St. Paul's as pastor and preacher, 
 Oskaloosa College, Iowa, conferred on him the honorary degree of doctor of 
 divinity. St. Paul's congregation has a fine manse on Yorke Street. 
 It was built in 1901 and was occupied by Rev. Meikle while pastor of this 
 church. This manse cost $4,000 when it was built twenty years ago and of 
 course is worth very much more at this date on account of the great in- 
 crease in prices of labor and material. 
 
 141 
 
Port Morten and its Ministry. 
 
 During the early part of last century Port Morien was known by the 
 name of Cow Bay. The Protuguese in the sixteenth century named it 
 Baie le Morrienne. Evidently the present name of this bay is an Anglican- 
 ized form of the original Portuguese name. 
 
 The earliest settlers of this bay were United Empire Loyalists. They 
 came here about the year 1784. They settled at the head of the bay, in the 
 vicinity of Homeville, and were of the Episcopal persuasion. 
 
 The first Scottish and Presbyterian settlers came to this locality about 
 the year 1832. They were men by the name of McAulay. They ob- 
 tained land where the town of Cow Bay is now. The Fergusons came to 
 this locality in 1842 and they settled at Long Beach. 
 
 The first Presbyterian Church was built in 1842 about two miles south 
 of where the town is now and on the site of the present Black Brook Ceme- 
 tery. There was no church in the town of Port Morien, until the year 
 1866. 
 
 The first religious services that were conducted in this locality were led 
 by Mr. Donald Ross, who was a distinguished catechist in this part of the 
 country between 1844 and 1877. 
 
 The first service held on the site of Port Morien by any Presbyterian 
 minister was held by the Rev. Hugh McLeod, D. D. This service was con- 
 ducted at what was then known as the Block House Mines, on July the 
 24th 1865. The locality was included in Dr. McLeod's extensive parish 
 but up to this time there were but few Presbyterians living here. The 
 Block House Mines were opened in 1860 and the Gowrie Mines in 1864. 
 As a consequence of the opening of these two collieries our people began to 
 flow in from the surrounding country and provision had to be made for 
 their spiritual needs. Early in 1865; the Presbytery applied to the General 
 Mining Association for a free site upon which to build a place of worship 
 for our people at Port Morien. 
 
 The request was readily granted and preparation began for the erec- 
 tion of a church. The site chosen for the new church was conveniently 
 situated about midway between the two collieries. This church was built 
 in the summer of 1866, and it was opened for worship in August of that 
 year, by the Rev. Hugh McLeod, D D., and the Rev. Peter McLean of 
 Stornaway, Lewis Scotland, who was on a visit to Cape Breton at that time. 
 This church had seating capacity for 400 worshippers on the ground floor. 
 It had no end or side galleries in the first instance, but these were supplied a 
 few years later, chiefly to strengthen the building. Members of Presbytery 
 assisted Dr. McLeod in giving occasional services at Port Morien during 
 1865 and 1866. The first regular services conducted at this place were by 
 the Rev. Murdoch Stewart of West Bay acting as assistant to Dr. McLeod. 
 Mr. Stewart supplied from Oct. 1866 to August 1867. 
 
 On January the 1st 1868, Port Morien was separated from the Mira 
 congregation and formed into a distinct charge. 
 
 142 
 
A few weeks later, steps were taken to call the Rev. Donald Mc- 
 Dougall as pastor. The call was cordial and unanimous and Mr. Mc- 
 Dougall was duly inducted on the 26th of Feb. 1868. 
 
 Mr. McDougall was born at Whycoconiagh on August the 15th 1837. 
 He studied at the Boulardarie Academy, the Halifax Academy and the 
 Free Church College. He graduated from that College in the spring of 
 1865 and he received his license to preach the gospel on June the 14th, 
 1865; from the Presbytery of Prince Edward Island. Mr. McDougall was 
 ordained and inducted at NewLondon S6uth P.E.I, on the 15th of Novem- 
 ber, 1865. After a brief pastorate in New London, Mr. McDougall re- 
 signed that charge and returned to Cape Breton. 
 
 ' When Mr. McDougall was inducted at Port Morien, there were only 
 ten communicants in the congregation, but under his faithful ministrations 
 the membership increased rapidly. During the summer of 1870, "a most 
 remarkable religious movement originated under Mr. McDougall's minis- 
 try that swept over a large part of Cape Breton and that continued for 
 about a whole year. While this movement was in progress, thousands 
 came under the power of gospel truth and identified themselves with one 
 or other of our churches. 
 
 "The Revival" as it was known, began in the mid-week prayer meeting 
 at Port Morien, and it began without any special effort on the part of either 
 the minister, the session or anyone else — spontaneously, so to speak. The 
 attendance at this social service began to increase and the interest to deep- 
 en. Then the worshippers were moved as a field of wheat is moved by the 
 breeze on a summer's day. Many were deeply convicted of sin and cried 
 aloud for mercy, while others shouted for joy on account of the knowledge 
 of sin forgiven through faith in the sinner's Saviour. There was no human 
 instrumentality at work to account for this wonderful movement among 
 the people. 
 
 It could only be accounted for by the presence and operation of the 
 spirit of God, the penticostal Spirit. And wherever men met for prayer, in 
 those days, the same power was felt and similar manifestations of the power 
 were exhibited. These meetings were continued for months in Port Morien 
 and elsewhere during the autumn of 1870 and the following winter On 
 Nov. the 15th 1870, the Presbytery of Sydney met at Sydney Mines and 
 placed the following minute on its records regarding that revival movement 
 "Thereafter the Presbytery had a conference on the State of religion within 
 their respective congregations from which it appeared that the Lord has 
 been pleased to pour out of his spirit on certain congregations so that min- 
 isters have been enabled to preach with much greater liberty than they 
 used to do; that sinners have been awakened, and from what men can see, 
 hopefully converted; that prayer meetings have been established in many 
 places in which both old and young take part with life and great earnest- 
 ness. A largely increased interest in hearing the word of God is manifested 
 by the attendance of the people on the means of grace, both on Sabbath 
 and week days." 
 
 At the next communion at Port Morien, on the first Sabbath in Jan. 
 
 143 
 
1871, forty persons were received into the fellowship of the Church. The 
 impulse of that revival continued during Mr. McDougall's ministry in this 
 congregation. Every subsequent communion saw large additions to the 
 membership and many of these became active and liberal in the service of 
 Christ at home and abroad. 
 
 Mr. McDougal continued in Port Morien until Sept. 10th 1879 when 
 he was translated to the Presbytery of Inverness and by it inducted into the 
 pastoral charge of West Bay. After twelve laborious and fruitful years in 
 West Bay, Mr. McDougall accepted a call to Greenwood Church, Baddeck 
 and was inducted into that congregation on the 22nd of Sept. 1902. Five 
 years later on Sept. the 30th 1907, he resigned the charge and retired from 
 the active duties of the ministry, in the seventy second year of his life. 
 Mr. McDougall did not live long to enjoy his respite from congregational 
 toil and responsibility. He died at St. Joseph's Hospital, Glace Bay after a 
 brief illness on the 4th of May 1908. 
 
 Mr. McDougall took his work as a minister of the gospel very seriously. 
 No man could be more faithful as an Ambassador of Jesus Christ, than he 
 was. Nor did he labor in vain. In all the fields in which he labored, 
 he gathered fruit unto eternal life. 
 
 After a vacancy of over two years during which the congregation was 
 fairly well supplied by catechists and probationers, on May the 23rd, 1882, 
 the Rev. John McDonald became minister of Port Morien. Mr. McDon- 
 ald was a Scotchman. His pastorate was short. He demitted the charge 
 on the 31st of Oct. 1884 and returned to his native land where he died in the 
 year 1896. 
 
 The Rev. William Grant was the third minister of Port Morien. Mr. 
 Grant was born at Sunny Brae, Pictou Co. on March the 21st, 1843. He 
 studied for the ministry at Dalhousie University and "the Presbyterian 
 College. He took his last session in theology at Princeton, New Jersey 
 U. S. and graduated in the spring of 1869. He was licensed by the Pres- 
 bytery of Pictou on the first day of June in that year. His first charge 
 was at Earltown in the Presbytery of Wallace, where he was ordained 
 and inducted on the 28th of Sept. 1869. 
 
 After eight years in Earltown, Mr. Grant accepted a call to West River, 
 Clyde River and Brookfield in the Presbytery of Prince Edward Island. 
 That was in 1877. In the year 1886 Mr. Grant was called to Port Morien 
 and inducted on the 11th of May into the pastorate of that church. Thir- 
 teen years later, on June the 11th 1899, he was inducted into the congrega- 
 tion of the Grand River, where he labored until his death on Dec. the 18th, 
 1906 in the 67th year of his life and 37th of his ministry. Mr. Grant pre- 
 pared for the pulpit carefully, preached earnestly and wrought diligently 
 in the four congregations of which he was minister. In the spring of 1886, 
 during Mr. Grant's pastorate in Port Morien, Messrs Meikle and Gerrior 
 held a series of evangelistic meetings in this and several neighboring 
 congregations that proved very helpful to the interests of the Kingdom of 
 our Lord. As a result of these special meetings, one hundred and sixty 
 
 144 
 
persons were received at one tjme into the fellowship of the Port Morien 
 Church. 
 
 The next minister of this congregation was the Rev. Kenneth J. 
 McDonald, B. D. Mr. McDonald wa:s born in Port Morien, but he grew 
 up at Big Hill, St. Ann's. He got his primary education at the feet of the 
 Rev. Malcolm N. McLeod, who was teaching the Big Hill School in Mr. 
 McDonald's boyhood. His secondary education he received at the Bad- 
 deck and Sydney Academies. 
 
 Mr. McDonald went to Queens, Kingston for both Arts and theology. 
 He graduated bachelor of Arts in 1894 and bachelor of divinity 1896. He 
 was licensed by the Presbytery of Sydney in June 1896. In November 
 1896, Mr. McDonald was ordained and inducted into Knox Church, Beaver- 
 ton in the Presbytery of Lindsay. Four years later he became minister of 
 Port Morien, where he was inducted on the 22nd day of May 1900. 
 
 Mr. McDonald's ministry in this congregation was short. The 
 humidity of the climate disagreed with him and he resigned the charge 
 on the 19th of May 1903, and went west, where he has had several charges 
 in the mean time. He is now minister of First Church Gait in the Pres- 
 bytery of Guelph. 
 
 Mr. McDonald was followed by the Rev. J. W. McPhail, a native of 
 this island. Mr. McPhail was born at Upper River Denys, on the 1st of 
 May 1870. He studied both his Arts and theology at Bangor, Maine. 
 His last session in theology was spent in the Presbyterian College, Halifax, 
 and he was licensed by one of our own Presbyteries. Mr. McPhail was 
 minister in Wallace before coming to Port Morien, where his induction took 
 place on the 23rd of Feb. 1904. On the 30th of Nov. 1909, Mr. McPhail 
 resigned the Port Morien Church and went to the United States, where he 
 has had several charges. He is now in Leechburg, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. McPhail's successor in St. John's Church, Port Morien, was the 
 Rev. J. A. Mackeigan, B. A., a native of the North West Arm of Sydney 
 Harbor. He was born on the 5th of Nov. 1879. Mr. MacKeigan grad- 
 uated from Sydney Academy in the spring of 1897 with a grade B certificate. 
 He taught in our public schools during the following six years. He was 
 principal of the Whitney Pier School for four of these years. In the aut- 
 umn of 1904 he entered Dalhousie University and in the spring of 1908, 
 he graduated with a bachelor of Arts degree. In the Spring of 1910 he 
 graduated with honors from the Presbyterian College and was licensed by 
 the Presbytery of Halifax immediately thereafter. 
 
 On Nov. the 26th, 1910, Mr. MacKeigan was ordained and inducted 
 into the St. John's Church, Port Morien and he continued in the pastorate 
 of this church until the 8th of April 1912, when he was translated to the 
 Presbytery of St. John, and ten days later inducted into the charge of St. 
 Davids Church, St. John, where he is still and where he is doing excellent 
 work for his Master. During the late war Mr. MacKeigan rendered good 
 service to his King and Country as a chaplain to the Canadian forces. The 
 Rev. A. J. Hoyt Fraser was the next minister of St. John's Church. Mr. 
 Fraser is a native of Pictou County and was born at Bridgeville on Sept. 
 
 145 
 
the 6th 1870. After studying at Pictou Academy and the Provincial Nor- 
 mal School, he went to the National University of Ohio for his classical 
 education. He studied theology at Auburn, New York. Returning to 
 Nova Scotia on the completion of his theological studies in 1898 he was 
 licensed, ordained and inducted by the Presbytery of Lunenburg into the 
 charge of New Dublin and Conquerall. 
 
 In 1903 Mr. Fraser became pastor of our people at Port Royal, Annap- 
 olis County and in 1907, he succeeded the Rev. M. G. Henry at St. Croix 
 and EUershouse. 
 
 In 1912 Mr. Fraser became minister of Port Morien, where he remained 
 until 1917 when he was under the necessity of resigning on account of ill 
 health. 
 
 The present minister of Port Morien is the Rev. J. F. PoUey, B. D.,Fh. 
 D. Mr. PoUey was born at St. Stephens, N.B. on May the 3rd, 1867. 
 After graduating from Dalhousie University in the Spring of 1895, Mr. 
 PoUey studied theology at the Presbyterian College, Halifax and was 
 licensed by the Presbytery of Halifax in April 1895. He received the de- 
 gree of B. D. from the Presbyterian College, Montreal in 1905 and the 
 degree of Ph. D. from Dalhousie University in 1907. His first charge 
 was at Lower Musquodoboit, where he ws ordained and inducted on June 
 the 11th, 1895. 
 
 After holding three or four other charges in Nova Scotia and New 
 Brunswick, Mr. Policy was inducted at Port Morien on Dec. the 20th, 1917. 
 
 The present Church was built in the year 1901 at a cost of $10,000. It 
 was dedicated on the 16th of Feb. 1902. 
 
 The Manse was built on the year 1886 during the pastorate of the Rev. 
 William Grant. 
 
 Port Morien has given four men to the ministry of the Presbyterian 
 Church viz. Daniel McVicar, Alex. Ferguson, A. Gordon McRury and 
 J. Allison McRury. 
 
 146 
 
Lake AlnsUe and Its Ministry. 
 
 The congregation of Lake Ainslie derives its name from the lake on the 
 north east side of which our people have their comfortable and happy 
 homes. This Lake was named after General Ainslie, the last Governor of 
 Cape Breton as a separate province. The first grant issued to settlers on 
 this lake were issued by Governor Ainslie between the years of 1816 and 
 1820, the last year of his administration. His memory is perpetuated by 
 the name of this lake. Lake Ainslie is twelve miles in length by about six 
 miles in average breadth. It is the largest sheet of perfectly fresh water 
 on the island of Cape Breton. The overflow waters of Lake Ainslie run to 
 the north and enipty themselves into the Margaree River at Margaree 
 Forks. This lake lies in a hollow on the height of land betweenWhycoco- 
 magh Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is surrounded by hills of con- 
 siderable elevation on the north east and south west. There is no grandeur 
 in the scenery around Lake Ainslie,but there is a quiet picturesqueness that 
 is very pleasing to the eye; One his truly said of this locality, "Nature has 
 done much to make this locality famous, but the highland folk have done 
 more. The beauties of the lake and hill and river must be sought after to 
 be admired, but the stalwart sons who were cradled in the rustic cottages, 
 under the shadows of her hills and crooned to sleep by the lapping of her 
 waters, have gone forth from their birth place to force the world to ad- 
 miration and esteem. Scores of them are today standing in pulpit and on 
 platform and behind the desk proclaiming to their fellowmen that push and 
 perseveranceliftmenfromthe valley to the hilltop of life; and that no ob- 
 stacle can block the way of the man, who has high aspirations." 
 
 Yes verily, the sons of Lake Ainslie have done honor, not only to the 
 place of their birth, but also to the Celtic race from which, they sprang and 
 to the Presbyterian faith in which they were nurtured. They have found 
 their way to the top both in the church and in the state. 
 
 The earliest account that we have of the Lake Ainslie people comes 
 to us from the pen of the Rev. John McLennan of Belfast, P, E. I., who 
 visited this locality in 1827 and again in 1829. He reported to the Colonial 
 Committee of the Church of Scotland that, on his fist visit,he found sixty 
 Presbyterian families on the north east side of the lake and all in very poor 
 circumstances. Nor is it to be wondered at that they were poor. A few 
 years previously they were driven from their small crofts on the islands of 
 Mull, Tiree or Coll in the Scottish Hebrides, by cruel landlords or factors 
 in, practically a penniless condition. They were landed in Sydney Harbor 
 and from there they found their way to the unbroken forest around this 
 distant lake. Few of them had ever seen a tree and fewer of them had ever 
 learned to cut a tree down. And yet they had to cut down, junk, pile and 
 burn the trees that gfew so tall and stout on their grants before they could 
 raise a mess of potatoes with which to feed themselves and their families. 
 It took a number of years of the hardest kind of toil to produce enough 
 from the soil to supply the merest necessities of existence. 
 
 147 
 
But it was, do or die, and these early settlers made the most 6f their 
 slender opportunities. They feared God and kept his commandments and 
 he blessed them and their children, in things temporal and spiritual alike> 
 Mr. McLennan says in his report to the Colonial Committee; "There is an 
 excellent young roan settled here as school master among them, whom by 
 his example as well as by his diligence in instructing both old and young, I 
 consider of great benefit to the settlement." That young man, whomsoever 
 he may have been, left his mark on the people of Lake Ainslie and that mark 
 ^ is there till this day. It is evident in the fondness of the Lake Ainslie 
 people for education and in their characteristic piety. 
 
 The first Presbyterian minister that labored in Lake Ainslie was the 
 Rev. Aeneas McLean. Mr. McLean came to Broadcove early in the year 
 1831 and remained there till the end of 1832. 
 
 During this time he conducted religious services at Lake Ainslie. 
 ■ The second minister of our church that supplied Lake Ainslie with 
 gospel ordinances was the Rev. Alexander Farquharson. Mr. Farquharsoi* 
 arrived in Cape Breton in August 1838. He was settled as minister of 
 Lake Ainslie and Middle River in Nov. 1834 and he continued to minister 
 in both of these places until his death on the 25th of Jan. 1858. 
 
 After Mr.Farquharsons's death, Lake Ainslie and Middle River con- 
 gregation was without a minister during a period of six years. At the end 
 of that time the Rev. Donald McKenzie was ordained as minister. His in- 
 duction took place at the Middle River on the 1st of April 1864. Mr. Mc- 
 Kenzie continued in the congregation until Dec. the 6th 1870 when he re- 
 signed and returned to Scotland, his native place. Upon Mr. McKenzie's 
 departure the Presbytery separated Lake Ainslie from the Middle River 
 and constituted it a new and independent charge. At the same time the 
 Presbytery attached Whale Cove, Margaree Harbor and the Big Intervale 
 of Margaree to Lake Ainslie in order to increase its strength numerically 
 and financially. The first minister of this new congregation was the Rev. 
 Alexander Grant, a native of Rosshire, Scotland, where he was born in the 
 year 1817. In the year 1843 Mr. Grant heard a sermon preached that was 
 the means of his conversion and of turning his attention to the work of the 
 ministry. 
 
 He studied in the University of Edinburgh and in the New College. He 
 was licensed by the Free Presbytery of Lewis on the 4th of August 1862. 
 During the next eleven years of his life he was employed as assistant to 
 several Free Church ministers in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. 
 Mr. Grant came to Cape Breton in the summer of 1871, and receiving a call 
 from the people of Lake Ainslie, he was ordained and inducted at East 
 Lake Ainslie Church on the 6th of Dec. 1871. 
 
 During the following ten years he continued to supply Whale Cove, 
 and the Margaree River from bottom to top, notwithstanding the distance 
 of these places from his home at Lake Ainslie. In tiie year 1881 these dis- 
 tant stations were separated from the central congregation and Mr. Grant 
 became minister of the lake only.Here he continued to labor until the 6th 
 of Dec. 1894, when on account of failing strength he resigned the charge and 
 
 148 
 
retired to Whycocomagh, where he spent the last seven years of his life and 
 where he departed this life on the 13th of May 1911 in the 94th year of his 
 age and the 49th of his ministry. 
 
 Mr. Grant was very highly esteemed by his brethren in the ministry 
 and greatly beloved by the people of Lake Ainslie. He walked with God 
 and the gospel from his lips was a savor of life unto life to many a precious 
 soul in Lake Ainslie and elsewhere. 
 
 The Rev. Neil Currie followed Mr. Grant in the ministry of the con- 
 gregation. Mr. Currie came from Scotland to Cape Breton by way of the 
 United States. On his arrival, he was appointed ordained Missionary at 
 Lake Ainslie for one year and at the end of that time he was called to the 
 pastorate. His induction took place on the 16th of Nov. 1897. After 
 rendering good and faithful service for a period of nine years he resigned 
 the charge on the 18th of Sept. 1906. Subsequently he went west and was 
 employed in our great western Home Mission field. He is now retired 
 from active duty. 
 
 Mr. Currie's successor as minister of Lake Ainslie was the Rev. 
 Alexander Miller. Mr. Miller was born in Scotland. He was minister at 
 Ashfield, in the Presbytery of Maitland for some years before he came to 
 this island. 'His induction at Lake Ainslie took place on Jan. 20th 1910 
 On Dec. 1914, Mr. Miller resigned this charge and returned to Scotland, 
 where he became minister of Melness in the United Free Presbytery of 
 Tongue, Sutherlandshire. 
 
 The present minister of Lake Ainslie is the Rev. E. D. McKillop. Mr. 
 McKillop was born at Grand River on the 24th of August, 1869. He was 
 brought up on the farm and he spent the earlier part of his life farming 
 and school teaching. He taught school in Cape Breton for twenty five 
 years, and for fifteen of these years he taught in his native school section. 
 He likewise took an active part in Sabbath Schools and prayer meetings 
 during all this time. Mr. McKillop was well advanced in life before 
 he entered upon a course of study for the ministry. He took a partial 
 course in Arts but a complete course in theology. He graduated from the 
 Presbjrterian College, Halifax on the 26th of April 1916, and on the same 
 day he was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Halifax. On 
 the 30th of May 1916, Mr. McKillop was ordained and inducted by the 
 Presbytery of Inverness into the pastorate of Lake Ainslie congregation. 
 He is still in this field and laboring with much acceptance and success. 
 
 Three churches were built at Lake Ainslie since our people came here 
 in 1818. The first was built about 1835, shortly after the settlement of the 
 Rev. A. Farquharson. The present Church was built in 1880. It was 
 renovated in 1919 and is now a very comfortable place of worship. 
 
 The Manse was built during the pastorate of the Rev. Alexander 
 Grant. 
 
 Lake Ainslie has given a large number of yourg men to the ministry 
 of the Presbyterian Church more indeed than any other congregation on the 
 island. Fifteen of her sons have studied for the ministry and dedicated 
 their lives to the proclamation of the message of mercy and of grace through 
 
 149 
 
Jesus Christ. The names of these fifteen are; Hugh McMillan, Donald 
 McMillan, Duncan McMillan, Donald Campbell, Allan McKay, A. D. 
 McKinnon, Murdoch McKinnon, Hector McKinnon, Archibald McKin- 
 non, John J. McKinnon, C. C. McLean, John McKinnon, Robert McKin- 
 non, A. D. McMillan, and C. R. F. McLennan. 
 
 150 
 
Falmouth Street. Sydney and its Ministry. 
 
 This congregation takes its name from the street in Sydney upon 
 which its place of worship stands. 
 
 It was organized by the authority of the Synod ofthe Maritime Pro- 
 vinces. It is the child of the Synod and not the child of the Presbytery, as 
 all other congregations are. It is also the first born child of the Presbyter- 
 ian Church in Canada, inasmuch as it was the first congregation in this 
 great church that was organized after the union of all the Presbyterian 
 Churches in Canada on June the 15th, 1875. On July the 6th, three weeks 
 later, the Falmouth Street Congregation was organized by the Rev. Donald 
 McDougall and the Rev. Cornelius McLean, the commissioners appointed 
 by the Synod for this purpose. 
 
 ■ Falmouth Street was the fourth congregation that was organized 
 within the bounds ofthe original Mira Congregation of 1850. Gabarus 
 was the first in the year 1864; St. Paul's Glace Bay, was the second in 1867, 
 St. John's, Port Morien, was the third in 1868, and Falmouth Street was 
 the fourth in 1875. 
 
 This congregation was the outcome of some dissatisfaction that arose 
 in the Sydney section of the Mira congregation in the early seventies of last 
 century. This dissatisfaction was due to the limited supply of ministerial 
 services which this section was receiving at that time. By that time this 
 section was about a third of the Mira congregation numerically, and it was 
 receiving about a third of the services of the minister; but that was not 
 sufficient to meet the needs of a growing town like Sydney, which was 
 just then waking up from a long sleep. New conditions had come into ex- 
 istence in the old town that required new conditions in the Presbyterian 
 church of the town. In 1871 the "Glasgow and Cape Breton Coal Co" 
 opened a colliery at Reserve Mines and built a railway right into Sydney, 
 and a shipping pier on the harbor almost abreast of the town. The result 
 was a large influx of people. The town which had hitherto been practically 
 limited to the north side of Pitt Street began to grow southward towards 
 Falmouth and Townsend streets. Sydney was in fact having a second 
 boom after an interval of eighty six years. 
 
 In these circumstances it was eminently reasonable that the Presby- 
 terians living in Sydney should be inspired by a desire to get out of the old 
 ruts and adapt themselves to the new conditions and the new needs. 
 
 Accordingly it was proposed that Sydney and neighborhood should be 
 disjoined from Mira and formed into a new and separate charge. It was 
 also proposed that the Rev.- Hugh McLeod, D. D., the then minister of 
 Mira and Sydney, should be retained as minister of this new congregation. 
 There was entire unanimity among the Presbyterians of Sydney with re- 
 gard to both of these proposals. A subscription list was circulated about 
 that time, which shewed, that the peoplp of Sydney were well able to sup- 
 port a minister of their own and to maintain ordinances among themselves. 
 
 In these circumstances the way seemed clear for a united and harmon- 
 
 151 
 
ious forward movement of Presbyterianism in the town of Sydney. But the 
 expectations of the people in that regard were not to be realized. Dr. 
 McLeod, no doubt for reasons good and suflEicient to himself, would not 
 consent to a separation of Sydney from Mira congregation. However, he 
 was willing that the Sydney section of his congregation should call a col- 
 league and successor to himself and that this colleague and successoi; should 
 give the whole of his time and attention to the Sydney section of his con- 
 gregation. 
 
 This was not what the Presbyterian people of Sydney desired, but 
 the large majority of them acquiesced in their pastor's wishes in the matter 
 and in the course of a few years a colleague and successor to Dr. McLeod 
 was called and settled in St. Andrew's Church, Sydney. 
 
 But there was a minority that did not acquiesce in this solution of the 
 difficulty. They wanted separation from Mira and the formation of an 
 independent congregation in Sydney, and this they were determined to 
 have. After a struggle, that lasted for several years, to get St. Andrew's 
 separated from Mira and formed into a new and distinct charge this min- 
 ority in the early part of 1875, decided to abandon the effort and to peti- 
 tion the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces, to 
 "erect them into a separate charge." 
 
 The Synod met that year on the 10th of June in the City of Montreal 
 for the purpose of forming a general union of all the Presbyterians in the 
 Dominion of Canada. The petition of the minority came up for consider'a- 
 tion of Synod on the 14th of June, and the Rev. George Patterson, D. D., 
 was heard on their behalf and in support of their petition. The Presbytery 
 of Cape Breton was then heard in opposition to granting -the request of the 
 petitioners. 
 
 Parties being removed from the bar it was moved by the Rev. C. B. 
 Pitblado and seconded by Dr. Watters "That the prayer of the petition be 
 granted." It was moved in amendment by the Rev. T. Sedgewick, D. D., 
 and seconded by the Rev. M. Stewart "That the Synod cannot see their 
 way clear in the meantime to grant the prayer of the petition and therefore 
 refuse it." 
 
 "On a division the motion was preferred and the Synod resolved ac- 
 cordingly that the petitioners be organized into a congregation under the 
 supervision of the Cape Breton Presbytery." 
 
 Three weeks later, as already stated, this congregation was duly or- 
 ganized in the Temperance Hall, Charlotte Street, Sydney. 
 
 It certainly had a very inauspicious birth ; its mother theSynod prompt- 
 ly passed the new born child over to the Presbytery of Cape Breton as its 
 foster mother. It was an unwelcome gift. Its foster-mother had no love 
 for the child and the child received no care from its foster-mother. In- 
 deed for a while she expected it to die an untimely death and would have 
 rejoiced over its demise. 
 
 But it had wonderful vitality and it surprised friends and foes by its 
 steady if not rapid growth. 
 
 At the time of its organization the congregation was composed of two 
 
 152 
 
elders, fourteen members, one hundred adherents and twenty-five families. 
 The elders were Samuel W. McKeen and Frederick Falconer, both for a 
 number of years active office bearers in the Sydney section of the Mira 
 congregation. The members were Mrs. S. W. McKeen, Mrs. F. Falconer, 
 Alexander D. McGillivary, M. D., and Mrs. A. D. McGillivray, Cassie 
 McKeen, George K. McKeen, Duncan McQueen, Angus Ferguson, Jeannie 
 Lepper, Emma Barnhill, Mrs. John Gillis, Isaac Archibald, Henry Sinclair 
 and Mrs. Abner McKeen. 
 
 At the time of its organization the congregation had no church and but 
 few members, adherents or families; but it had an abounding courage, a 
 determined purpose and unlimited confidence in the righteousness of its 
 aims. Small though it was, it started out on a self-sustaining basis. It 
 "has never either asked for, nor received any aid from any fund of the 
 church. 
 
 The Rev. John McGillivray conducted the first public service with this 
 congregation on the 11th day of July, 1875, in the old Temperance Hall on 
 Charlotte street. On the 31st of August the Rev. Donald McDougall pre- 
 sided at a meeting for moderation in a call to a minister, in the same place. 
 The call came out unanimously and heartily in favor of the Rev. John 
 Murray at that time minister of New London, Prince Edward Island. 
 Mr. Murray accepted this call on the 17th of November following. He 
 arrived in Sydney on the 9th of December and took charge of the congrega- 
 tion from that date. His induction took place on the 26th of January, 
 1876. 
 
 At a New Year service held in Temperance Hall on the 1st day of 
 January, 1876, the congregation decided to build a place of worship on the 
 corner of Falmouth and Bentick streets during the following summer, and 
 also that the congregation should be known as "The Falmouth Street Con- 
 gregation." It was arranged that until the proposed church was com- 
 pleted the Sabbath services should be conducted in the Temperance Hall 
 and the week night services in the Baptist church on Pitt Street. 
 
 On the 19th of March 1876 the first Communion Service was held in 
 Temperance Hall. By this time thirty-five additional members had con- 
 nected themselves with the congregation, making forty-nine in all, more 
 than quadrupling the membership in the first eight months of the congre- 
 gation's history. 
 
 During the summer of 1876, about thirty families living at Lingan 
 Mines and Victoria Mines applied to the session of the new church for a 
 portion of the pastor's services, and promised to pay a certain amount to 
 the pastor's support. This request was granted and Mr. Murray had these 
 two places under his care during the remainder of his stay in Sydney. 
 
 The new church was commenced early in May and was ready for 
 opening by the middle of November. It was dedicated to the service of 
 God by the Rev. Robert Ferrier Burns, D. D., of Fort Massey Church, 
 Halifax, on November the 19th, 1876. The church and site cost $5,500, 
 all of which was paid on the opening day with the exception of $1,400. 
 About this time there was great depression in the coal trade in Cape Breton 
 
 153 
 
and this depression continued well on into the eighties. Nevertheless 
 Falmouth Street church continued to grow, slowly but surely. 
 
 It was distinguished for its liberality, both in the matter of self support 
 and in its contributions to the schemes of the church. On February the 
 18th, 1887, the Presbytery of Sydney put the following minute on its re- 
 cords regarding this church: "The Presbytery would record its admiration 
 of the remarkable energy that has always characterized Falmouth Street 
 church and its pleasure in finding, that notwithstanding serious losses this 
 congregation has multiplied its families threefold and its communicants 
 ninefold since its organization; also its surprise at the extraordinarily high 
 average liberality per family, both for all purposes and for schemes, which 
 has been attained and sustained; its delight, moreover, at the efficient state 
 of affairs indicated by the reports of session and managers for the past year. 
 The Presbytery recognizes the good influence which the example of Fal- 
 mouth Street Church is calculated to exercise on other congregations in the 
 matter of Christian giving. The Presbytery congratulates the congrega- 
 tion and pastor on having surmojinted all the difficulties they had to en- 
 counter in the past and prays that the future of Falmouth Street church 
 may be one of great enlargement, usefulness and prosperity." 
 
 After fifteen years of hard, self-denying labor in Sydney, Mr. Murray 
 left for a new field in which to continue his ministry, but Falmouth Street 
 has gone from strength to strength under the efficient ministry of his several 
 successors, until it is now one of the largest and most efficient congregations 
 in the Synod of the Maritime Provinces. The Rev. John Murray was born 
 at Scotsburn, Pictou Co., on the 16th of September, 1843. He was edu- 
 cated for the ministry at Dalhousie University, The Presbyterian College, 
 Halifax, and the New College, Edinburgh. He was licensed by the Pres- 
 bytery of Prince Edward Island on the last day of August, 1872. He was 
 ordained and inducted at New London, South P. E. I. on the 2nd of Jan- 
 uary, 1873. He was minister of Falmouth Street Church, Sydney from 
 December 12th, 1875 to February the 4th, 1891, when he was translated to 
 the Presbytery of Halifax and inducted into the Congregation of Shuben- 
 acadie on February the 9th, 1891. 
 
 Towards the end of 1903, Mr. Murray was recalled to his first charge, 
 New London, P. E. I., and inducted there a second time on the 29th of 
 September. On the 1st of October, 1913, Mr. Murray resigned his charge 
 with the permission of the general assembly, and retired from the active 
 duties of the ministry, after more than forty years of service. 
 
 Mr. Murray's successor in the pastorate of Falmouth Street church 
 was the Rev. Edward Rankine, M.A., a native of Greenock,Scotland, where 
 he was born in 1863. He was a graduate of Glasgow University in Arts, 
 and of the Edinburgh University in Theology. He was licensed by the 
 Presbytery of Greenock and came to Nova Scotia in 1889. His first con- 
 gregation in this country was St. John's Church, Stellarton, into which he 
 was inducted shortly after his arrival. 
 
 On the 26th of August, 1891, Mr. Rankine was inducted into the pas- 
 torate of Falmouth Street Church where he remained during the next 
 
 154 
 
twelve years, doing adnurable work for his Master and for the congrega- 
 tion. On the 15th of August, 1903, Mr. Rankine resigned his charge much 
 to the regret of his attached congregation, and returned to his native land. 
 In the following year he received the presentation to the White Kirk Parish 
 Church where he rendered good service until his death by drowning on the 
 21st of August, 1916. 
 
 Mr. Rankine's ministry in Sydney was remarkably successful. Out- 
 ward circumstances were abundantly favorable to success. It was during 
 Mr. Rankine's ministry in Sydney that the Dominion Coal Co., and the 
 Dominion Iron and Steel Co. came into existence. Millions of money were 
 invested and expended in Sydney and vicinity during those years. 
 
 The population trebled and quadrupled in a few years, and all the 
 churches shared in the general material prosperity that followed. The 
 f amilies.membership and contributions of Falmouth street church more than 
 doubled during the twelve years of Mr. Rankine's pastorate. The church 
 accommodation was enlarged to meet the demand for pews, and a manse 
 was built for the use of the pastor. Mr. Rankine was spoken of as the saint 
 of the Sydney Presbytery. He was a thoughtful and instructive preacher, 
 a diligent pastor and a wise administrator. 
 
 Mr. Rankine was followed in the pastorate by the Rev. William H. 
 Smith, B. D., Ph. D., D. D. Dr. Smith, like so many of our ministers, was 
 a Pictonian, having been born in Piedmont Valley, Pictou Co., on the 21st 
 of March, 1867. He is a graduate in arts of Dalhousie University, and in 
 theology of the Presbyterian College, Halifax. He was licensed by the 
 Presbytery of Halifax on the 28th of April, 1896 and ordained and inducted 
 by the Presbytery of Pictou into the charge of Zion Church, Ferona, on 
 the 2nd of June following. 
 
 After two years in Ferona, Dr. Smith was translated to the Presbytery 
 of Prince Edward Island and inducted into the Presbyterian Church at 
 Summerside. Called from thence to Sydney he was inducted into Falmouth 
 Street church on April the 29th, 1904. In November, 1908, Dr. Smith 
 accepted a call to St. Paul's church, Fredericton, New Brunswick, and in 
 1916 to St. John's church, Vancouver, B. C. In October, 1919, Dr. Smith 
 was appointed Principal of Westminster Hall, our theological College in 
 British Columbia, and about the same time the senate of the Presbyterian 
 College, Halifax, conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in re- 
 cognition of his scholarship and efficient wotk in the ministry. 
 
 During Dr. Smith's ministry in Sydney, Falmouth street continued to 
 grow and prosper at such a rate that a second and much larger church be- 
 came necessary. The first church was moved back and remodeled for 
 Sabbath school and social purposes,and the new church was built on the site 
 of the old one. 
 
 The corner stone of the second church was laid by the Rev. E. D. 
 Millar, Moderator of Synod of the Maritime Provinces in October, 1905, 
 and the church was dedicated by Sir Robert Falconer, principal of Toronto 
 University on the 6th of May, 1906. This church has a seating capacity 
 of nearly one thousand. It cost $25,000. During his ministry of four and 
 
 155 
 
a half years, Dr. Smith rendered splendid service tg the city as well as to the 
 church. Dr. Smith is now well and favorably known from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific as a scholar, preacher and author. His book, entitled "The 
 Church and Men" is a valuable treatise on an important theme. 
 
 Dr. Smith was followed in the pastorate of this church by the Rev. 
 Finlay H. Mcintosh, M. A. He, too, is a son of Pictou County. He was 
 born at Sunny Brae on August 28th, 1871. His preparation for the minis- 
 try was obtaind at Pictou County, Academy, Dalhousie University, and 
 Presbyterian College. He graduated in arts in the spring of 1898 and in 
 theology in the spring of 1900. He was licensed by the Presbytery of 
 Halifax shortly thereafter. Mr. Mcintosh was ordained and inducted as 
 minister of Onslow by the Presbytery of Truro on May the 15th, 1900. He 
 spent the winter of 1905 and 1906 in Glasgow attending theological lectures 
 in the United Free College there. After returning from the Old Land in 
 1906, he was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Antigon- 
 ish where he was inducted on September, 1906. On the 4th of February, 
 1909, Mr. Mcintosh was inducted into Falmouth Street church, Sydney. 
 In this charge he continued the good work of his predecessors until Novem- 
 ber the 22nd, 1914, when he accepted a call to Lindsay, Ontario, and was 
 translated thither by the Presbytery of Sydney. 
 
 Mr. Mcintosh was a man of fine intellectual gifts, and a scholarly 
 preacher. The next minister of Falmouth street church was the Rev. Al- 
 vin H. Campbell, B. A. Mr. Campbell was born at Milford, Hants County 
 N. S., on the 2nd of October 1869. He qualified for matriculation into 
 Dalhousie at the Halifax Academy. He obtained the degree of B. A. from 
 the senate of Dalhousie in 1896, and he graduated from the Presbyterian 
 College in the spring of 1898. He was licensed by the Presbytery of 
 Halifax immediately upon graduation and one week later he was ordained 
 and inducted at Waterford, N. p. by the Presbytery of St. John. The fol- 
 lowing winter he spent in post graduate work in the United Free College, 
 Glasgow, Scotland. 
 
 In May, 1901, Mr. Campbell became minister of the church at Lower 
 Musquodoboit; in March, 1904, minister of Lower Stewiacke, and in April, 
 1913, minister of Bridgewater. Mr. Campbell came from Bridgewater to 
 Sydney and was inducted pastor of Falmouth street church on the 15th of 
 December, 1915. 
 
 We need add nothing more regarding Mr. Campbell and his work in 
 Sydney. He is here still, and his success speaks for his personal worth, 
 and the energy and wisdom with which he is doing his duty. 
 
 The congregation owns a comfortable manse, which was built during 
 the pastorate of the Rev. E. Rankine. 
 
 Only one young man has gone into the work of the ministry from this 
 congregation, viz., the Rev. John P. Falconer, now in Rodney, Ontario, 
 son of Frederick Falconer, one of the first elders of Falmouth street church. 
 
 156 
 
Loch Lomond and Its Ministry. 
 
 Loch Lomond was originally included in the congregation of Grand 
 Eiver and Loch Lomond, the congregation of which the Rev. James Ross 
 -was minister from 1853 to 1875. In the latter year,. Mr. Ross demitted 
 the Loch Lomond part of his charge. Thereupon the Presbytery con- 
 stituted Loch Lomond into a new and independent charge. This was done 
 on the 21st of July 1875. On March the 1st 1876 Framboise was separated 
 "from Gabarus and attached to Loch Lomond. This was done in order to 
 strengthen Loch Lomond, financially as well as numerically, but the change 
 added very considerably to the labor of the minister. 
 
 The first pastor of Loch Lomond and Framboise was the Rev. Gavin 
 Sinclair. Mr. Sinclair was born on the island of Arran, Scotland. He 
 studied for the ministry at the University and Free Church College of 
 Glasgow. He came to Canada in the year 1873, as a licentiate of the Free 
 C!hurch of Scotland. After spending two or three years as a probationer in 
 the Province of Quebec, he came to Cape Breton in the autumn of 1876. 
 The following winter he was called to the pastorate of Loch Lomond and 
 Framboise and he was inducted at Loch Lomond on the 20th of April 1877. 
 After a ministry of over six years, Mr. Sinclair resigned the charge on Dec. 
 "the 31st 1883 and removed to New Mills, New Brunswick, where he spent 
 the remainder of his life. The second minister of Loch Lomond was the 
 Rev. Malcolm McLeod. Mr. McLeod was a native of the island of Lewis, 
 Scotland, and he had all the perfervidum Scottorum of his coun- 
 try men, without their traditional caution and judgment. The greater 
 part of Mr. McLeod's studies were taken in Glasgow University and the 
 Free Church College there. The remainder was taken in our own College 
 at Halifax. His first charge was at Linwick, Quebec. His induction at 
 Loch Lomond took place on the 18th of Oct. 1887. His pastorate contin- 
 ued until July the 12th 1904 when he resigned and returned to Scotland. 
 Not long thereafter he was settled in the Free Church parish of Kinloch 
 in the Lewis, where he died a few years later. The next minister of this 
 
 congregtion was the Rev. John Fraser, a native of Boulardarie, Cape 
 Breton, where he was born in the year 1857. Mr. Fraser studied at Pictou 
 Academy, Dalhousie University and Queens College, Kingston. He grad- 
 "uated from Queens in the spring of 1,892. In June of the same year he 
 accepted a call to North Shore and North River in thePresbytery of Sydney 
 and was ordained a^d inducted into that charge on June 21st 1892. His 
 labours in this congregation during the next four years were abundant and 
 fruitful. 
 
 li^^, Mr. Fraser was inducted into the charge of Loch Lomond and Fram- 
 boise, on May the 31st 1906. His coming was like the breath of Spring 
 upon the cold, hard frozen earth. A new life appeared in the congregation. 
 Old divisions were healed, the liberality of the people, greatly stimulated 
 and the membership greatly multiplied. Two fine large churches were 
 built during Mr. Fraser's pastorate and one old Church was renovated. 
 
 157 
 
But Mr. Eraser's strenuous ministry in this congregation was too 
 much for his physical strength and he was under the necessity of resigning 
 and taking a rest. The Presbytery accepted his resignation on the 4th of 
 Oct. 1911. 
 
 After a rest of nearly a year Mr. Eraser's health was so far restored 
 that he accepted a call to the pastorate of Boulardarie, his native parish. 
 He was inducted at the Big Bras d'Or on Nov. 1st 1912, and he spent the 
 remainder of his life in this congregation. He died at the Massachusetts 
 General Hospital, Boston, after an operation for cancer of the kidney on the 
 19th of November 1918. 
 
 The Rev. John Fraser was succeeded in the ministry of Loch Lomond 
 by his cousin, the Rev.James Fraser. He also was a native of Boulardarie, 
 a congregation that has given a number of excellent men to the ministry 
 of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. James Fraser was born on January 7th, 
 1883. He studied for the ministry of our Church at Dalhousie University 
 and the Presbyterian College, Halifax. He completed his curriculum in the 
 University in the spring of 1909 and his curriculum at the College in the 
 Spring of 1912. While prosecuting his studies, he did excellent work as a 
 catechist in several congregations and mission fields. He was licensed 
 by the Presbytery of Halifax in April the 24th, 1912. 
 
 On the 29th of May 1912, Mr. Fraser was ordained and inducted at 
 Framboise. He continued to labor in this congregation with admirable 
 zeal,wisdom and success until the 1st of February 1916, when he accepted 
 a call to St. Luke's Church, Dominion No. 6, and was inducted there on the 
 8th of that month. On the 2nd of May 1916 at its own request. Framboise 
 was separated from Loch Lomond and constituted an augmented charge. 
 
 The Rev. J. D. McFarlane followed Rev. James Fraser as pastor of 
 Loch Lomond. He was inducted on the 30th of July 1918, Mr. 
 McFarlane is a native of Middle River, Victoria Co., where he was born on 
 the 28th of March 1850. He took his literary course in Dalhousie Univer- 
 sity and his theological course in the Presbyterian College, graduating in 
 the spring of 1888 . He was licensed by the Presbytery of St. John, on the 
 1st day of May 1888. His first charge was at Springfield in the Presbytery 
 of St. John, where he was ordained and inducted in Oct. 1888. Prom there 
 he was translated to the Presbytery of Pictou and inducted at the East 
 River of Saint Mary's on July the 18th, 1893. 
 
 On Jan. 1st 1901, Mr. McFarlane was appointed ordained missionary 
 to Cape North by the Presbytery of Sydney. In Sept. 1902 he was called 
 and inducted into the pastorate of this congregation. On Oct. the 6th 
 1908, Mr. McFarlane was translated to Margaree Harbor, where he re- 
 mained till he was called to Loch Lomond. 
 
 Mr. McFarlane has labored in a number of our congregations. In all 
 of them he did good and faithful work and left with the esteem and affec- 
 tion of his people. 
 
 The early name of the beautiful sheet of water around which the Loch 
 Lomond people live, was Grand River Lake. This was a very natural and 
 appropriate designation in view of the fact that the Grand River consti- 
 
 158 
 
tutes the channel by which the surplus waters of Loch Lomond and Loch 
 Uist are drained into the Atlantic Ocean. It was Mr. Dugald McNabb, so 
 well known in Cape Breton as a Government Land Surveyor, in the 30's 
 and 40's that applied the name Loch Lomond to this lake, and Loch Lo- 
 mond it has been ever since. The first settlers of this part of the country 
 came from the western Islands of Scotland, more especially from Harris 
 and North Uist. Most of them came between 1820 and 1842, when the 
 tide of Scottish emigration ceased to flow into Cape Breton. 
 
 The hardships to which these early settlers were subjected in hewing 
 •out homes for themselves in the primeval forest, it is impossible for us to 
 understand or even imagine. But they faced their task with great courage 
 and often with much cheerfulness. Nor did they flinch until they had ob- 
 tained their objective. Today their grandchildren are enjoying the fruits 
 of their toil, and perseverance. The greatest trial experienced by these 
 God-fearing ancestors of ours at Loch Lomond and elsewhere in Cape 
 Breton was the absence of the means of grace, to which they had been ac- 
 customed in their native land. Apart from an occasional service by one or 
 other of the pioneers, spoken of elsewhere. Loch Lomond had no regular 
 gospel services until 1853 when the Rev. James Ross became their minister. 
 But many of these early Gaelic speaking immigrants from the western 
 islands of Scotland "knew the grace of God in truth." They had their 
 Gaelic Bibles and they read, loved and obeyed them. They remembered 
 the Sabbath day and kept it holy. They had no church, for many years in 
 which to meet for the worship of God, but like the Christians in Apostolic 
 ■days,they met "from house^to house" under the leadership of pious men of 
 their own number, such as Donald McMillan, a young man of unusual 
 piety. Then in later days they met under the leadership of Angus Bethune 
 and Roderick Bethune, his brother, men of considerable learning, as well 
 as of remarkable ability in prayer and in exposition and application of the 
 word of God. In addition to these, there were Angus McLean and Donald 
 Munroe, men of equal piety though not of ability. Roderick Bethune, 
 Angus McLean and Roderick Bethune were lay catechists and they ren- 
 dered invaluable service to the Loch Lomond people during many years 
 before they had a settled minister. And even after Mr. Ross became min- 
 ister one or other of these men conducted the services on alternate Sab- 
 baths when their pastor was at Grand River. 
 
 The Rev. John Stewart was one of the first Presbyterian ministers to 
 spend any time in Loch Lomond so far as our record goes, although it is 
 very probable that the Rev. John McLennan visited Loch Lomond in 1829 
 and the Rev. Alexander Farquharson in 1834. 
 
 Mr. Stewart spent a week here in May 1835. He wrote of that visit 
 as follows: "The people were too poor to attempt the building of a church 
 but I succeeded in getting them to build a schoolhouse as there is one in 
 the settlement who can teach school." 
 
 That school house served the purpose of a church for several years. 
 The first church was built at Loch Lomond in the year 1838. Like all the 
 early churches in Cape Breton it was rectangular and very plain. There was 
 
 159 
 
no attempt at ornamentation of any kind. It was about twenty four feet 
 in width by about thirty feet in length. There was a door at each end and 
 the pulpit was on one side of the church. This church was replaced by 
 another in the year 1878. The present church was built in the year 1909, 
 during the ministry of the Rev. John Fraser, and it is probably the most 
 commodious, handsome and expensive country church in Cape Breton. 
 It cost about thirteen thousand dollars in that day of comparatively cheap 
 lumber and labor. 
 
 The Rev. John Gunn supplied Grand River, and Loch Lomond with 
 religious services during the greater part of the years 1838 and 1839. After 
 he left for Strathlorne in the spring of 1840,we cannot learn of any one who 
 who preached in this large Presbyterian Community until 1853 when the 
 Rev. James Ross became their minister. 
 
 Unfortunately, in the early sixties of last century there were divisions 
 among the people of this lake, as there were among the Corinthians in the 
 days of the Apostle Paul. But these divisions are all healed now and have 
 been for many years past. 
 
 For too long a time, the people of the north side of the lake and the 
 people of the south side of the lake spoiled their tempers and wasted their 
 energies over fancied distinctions between Kirk Church and Free Church. 
 
 Now, however, there is entire harmony and cordial cooperation all 
 round those peaceful and beautiful lakes, illustrating "How good and how 
 pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." The following 
 young men entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church from Loch 
 Lomond viz. William C. Morrison, Norman A. McLeod Duncan McKenzie 
 and John B. McCush. 
 
 160 
 
St. Andrew's, Sydney and its Ministry 
 
 St. Andrew's congregation is located in tlie city of Sydney, one of the 
 most important cities in the Dominion of Canada. This city was founded 
 in the Spring of 1785, as the capital of the Province of Cape Breton, by 
 Major Frederick Willets Des Barres, the first Governor of said Province. 
 The Island of Cape Breton was constituted into a Province by the British 
 Government in the year 1784. In 1820, after an existence of thirty six 
 years this Province was annexed to the Province of Nova Scotia and it has 
 remained in that connection ever since. Governor Des Barres named the 
 new capital Sydney in honor of Lord Sydney, the British Colonial 
 Secretary of that time 
 
 Sydney has had what we might call three boom periods during its 
 history of 135 years. The first was in 1785 when Governor Des Barres 
 landed on the peninsula to start the town. He was accompanied by 800 
 men, partly military and partly civilian. Immediately on landing all 
 started in to cut down the forest, clear the land, lay out streets and build 
 houses for civilians and barracks for soldiers. Six companies of the thirty- 
 third regiment were on their way from Halifax and accommodation had to 
 be provided for them. The old town never had a busier season than it had 
 in the summer of 1785. The northern end of the peninsula was set apart 
 for military purposes. The remainder of the peninsula from Des Barres 
 Street to Fresh Water Creek, was laid out in street blocks and lots. There 
 were four streets laid out lengthwise of the peninsula viz. the Esplanade, 
 Charlotte Street, Bentick Street and George Street. George Street was 
 so named in honor of the reigning Sovereign, King George the Third. 
 Charlotte Street was so named in honor of his wife. Queen Charlotte. 
 Bentick Street and all the cross streets were named after prominent civil 
 and military men of that day. There is an important chapter of history 
 in the names of the streets of Sydney. 
 
 The second boom came in 1869 to 1871. In 1869 the International 
 Coal Company invested in coal at Bridgeport, built a railway from the 
 mines to Sydney Harbor, a pier on the Harbor and began shipping coal in 
 the vicinity of Sydney. Then in 1871 The Glasgow and Cape Breton 
 Company invested in coal at Reserve Mines, built a railway into Sydney 
 and began to ship coal on the harbour front between Wentworth and Fal- 
 mouth Streets. A great deal of money was expended by these two com- 
 panies in and around Sydney and nearly every one had money to burn in 
 those days. 
 
 The third boom occurred in 1899. when the "Dominion Iron and Steel 
 Company" was incorporated and began to build the immense steel plant 
 for which Sydney is so distinguished and which is the main cause of its 
 present growth and prosperity. 
 
 It is well known that the first and second booms were followed by re- 
 actions that left Sydney for a time, in a worse condition than if they had 
 never taken place. Let us hope that the third boom will have no such a 
 
 161 
 
reaction and that this city will continue to flourish for generations yet un- 
 born. 
 
 The first Presbyterian minister that came to the vicinity of Sydney 
 was the Rev. James McGregor, D. D., the Apostle of Presbyterianism in 
 Pictou, Nova Scotia. Dr. McGregor came from Pictou Harbor to Sydney 
 Harbor in a sail boat in the summer of 1798, in answer to the urgent request 
 of George Sutherland and his wife, Janet Sutherland. The Sutherlands 
 came here from Banffshire, Scotland, some years earlier and got a grant 
 of land on Sydney River, about three miles south of Sydney town, where 
 the Steel Company's Pumping Station is now. Dr. McGregor, after spend 
 ing several days with the Sutherlands, returned by the same boat to Pictou. 
 It does not appear that he came ashore at Sydney on this occasion and the 
 probability is that there were no Presbyterians in the town at that time, 
 unless there may have been a few among the soldiers in the barracks. 
 
 The next Presbyterian minister that came this way was the Rev. 
 Donald Allan Fraser, minister of McLennan's Mountain, Pictou County. 
 He came to the town of Sydney in November 1827. From a report of this 
 visit sent by Mr. Fraser to the Colonial Committee of the Church of 
 Scotland, we learn that Mr. Fraser "was greeted with unequivocal cord- 
 iality and preached twice to a respectable and appreciative audience." 
 In that report Mr. Fraser speaks of Judge Marshall as a man who "Is 
 well calculated to give useful information regarding the religious wants of 
 the island generally and who is well disposed towards our cause." We 
 learn moreover that Mr. Fraser "has himself been personally supplicated 
 to reside among them. Nor does he doubt that if a minister of our 
 church could be found willing to endure some little privations and zeal- 
 ous to preach Christ and Him crucified, a congregation might speedily 
 be formed in that place." 
 
 Mr. Fraser is silent as to the presence of Presbyterians in Sydney at 
 that time, and the probability is that there were very few, if any. It is 
 true that Scottish immigrants had been arriving in Sydney Harbor since the 
 year 1802 but there was nothing in Sydney to detain them there. These 
 highlanders and islanders came here to get land and they lost no time in 
 getting out into the country in order to select their lots, get their grants 
 and grow food for themselve § and their families. 
 
 The respectable and appreciative audiences to which Mr. Fraser 
 preached were composed of Judge Marshall and other like minded persons 
 who had- left the Episcopal Church some years earlier and had built a 
 place of worship of their own. 
 
 This company of spiritually minded persons were at that very time 
 and had been for several years seeking an evangelical man to fill their 
 pulpit. They had already applied to the Congregational Church in the 
 United States for a man, and the Rev. J. S. C. Abbott (John Stevens Cabot 
 Abbott) was sent to them. But he only remained a short time. He sub- 
 sequently became famous as a preacher and writer in the United States. 
 They then applied to Scotland for a Presbyterian minister but without 
 success. They desired Mr. Fraser to remain and break the bread of life 
 
 162 
 
among them, but he was unable to comply with their wishes. At length 
 Judge Marshall and his friends applied to the Methodist District Meeting 
 of Halifax. The District Meeting responded favourably and sent the Rev. 
 James G. Hennigar to minister to their spiritual necessities in the year 
 1829. In this way Judge Marshall and his dissenting friends became Meth- 
 odists rather than Presbyterians; and a Methodist Church was formed in 
 Sydney in 1829 instead of a Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterians 
 could not supply the needed man and they lost the opportunity. 
 
 The next Presbyterian minister that came to Sydney so far as the 
 record goes, was the Rev. John Stewart, afterwards of West Bay and later 
 of New Glasgow, N. S. Mr. Stewart came here on the 25th of October 
 1834 as he was on his first missionary journey to Mira and Catalone. Mr. 
 Stewart conducted public worship in the first Methodist Church, North 
 Charlotte Street on this occasion and he does not speak of any Presbyterians 
 being in Sydney at that date. The Rev. Alexander Parquharson and the 
 Rev. James Fraser may have conducted services in Sydney between 1834 
 and 1840, as they passed and repassed through the town on their mission- 
 ary journeys to the Mira River and Catalone Bay, but we have no record 
 of such services. It is doubtful if there were any number of Presbyterians 
 in Sydney during these years. The Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, 
 and Roman Catholics were well represented, but there were few if any 
 Presbyterians in Sydney in the year 1840, and even later. In the year 
 1848, the Rev. Hugh McLeod, D. D., came to Cape Breton as the Deputy 
 of the Free Church of Scotland and in the interests of the Free Church on 
 this island. He preached in Sydney on that occasion, but in the Methodist 
 Church. There was no Presbyterian place of worship here at that time 
 nor for four years thereafter. 
 
 In the year 1849, however, we have decisive evidence of the presence of 
 Presbyterians in Sydney. In that year the Presbyterians living in Sydney 
 and vicinity, had themselves Incorporated by an Act of the Provincial 
 Legislature as "St. Andrew's Congregation, Sydney" with Hugh Munro, 
 M. P. P., Donald McQueen, Barrister; John Ferguson, merchant; Hugh 
 Sheriff, William Turnbull, merchant and William Kynoch, as Trustees. 
 
 In their application for incorporation they represent themselves as 
 "Having not more than twenty families and but six comn^micants" in 
 Sydney and its vicinity which would include all from South Bar to Black- 
 ett's Lake. 
 
 In that same year all the Presbyterians in Eastern Cape Breton joined 
 in a call to Dr. McLeod to come out from Scotland and take the oversight 
 of their souls. The "twenty families and six communicants" in Sydney and 
 vicinity joined heartily in this call. 
 
 After Dr. McLeod's arrival here similar Acts of Incorporation were 
 passed by the Legislature of Nova Scotia for Catalone, Mira, Cow Bay and 
 the Forks. 
 
 The story of Dr. McLeod's life and ministry will be found elsewhere. 
 
 When Dr. McLeod was inducted as minister of the Mira congregation 
 in October 1850 there were only three small churches within the bounds of 
 
 163 
 
his extensive charge. One near Marion Bridge, one at the head of Catalone 
 Lake and one at Black Brook, Cow Bay. There was no Presbyterian 
 Church in Sydney then and any services held in Sydney during the first 
 two years of Dr. McLeod's ministry were by the courtesy of the Methodists 
 and of the Revd. Jeremiah Jost, their pastor at that time, conducted in 
 the Methodist Church on North Charlotte St. 
 
 The first Presbyterian Church in Sydney was built in the year 1852. 
 It stood on the west side of North Charlotte Street and a little north of 
 Dorchester Street. It was a plain rectangular building with no architect- 
 ural pretensions whatever; but amply sufficient for the accommodation of 
 all the Presbyterians then in and around Sydney. 
 
 The Presbyterians in connection with St. Andrew's Church, Sydney 
 were never but a fraction of the people under Dr. RlcLeod's care and of 
 course the proportion of services to which they were justly entitled was 
 small. Even as late as the year 1870 the Sydney Section of the Mira 
 congregation only had a service every fourth Sabbath. But a change was 
 near at hand and Presbyterianism in Sydney was about to enter upon its 
 modern career of numerical growth and christian activity. In the years 
 
 1869 and 1870 there was a goodly addition to the population, of the town 
 for reasons already stated and a considerable proportion of the new citizens 
 were of the Presbyterian faith. Then again towards the end of the year 
 
 1870 a remarkable wave of religious interest swept over the eastern end of 
 Cape Breton that proved a great blessing to many of our congregations, 
 and to St. Andrew's among the rest. That "revival" was the beginning of 
 a new era for Presbyterianism in Sydney. On January the 15th, 1871 the 
 Lord's Supper was dispensed for the first time under Presbyterian auspices 
 in the town. That revival and that first communion season gave an im- 
 pulse to our Church in Sydney that has been felt ever since. The following 
 item regarding that communion appared in the Presbyterian Witness of 
 Jan. 22nd, 1871: "The Presbyterians celebrated the Lord's Supper here on 
 the 15th, for the first time. They occupied their own church and Temper- 
 ance Hall at the same time, and both buildings were literally packed full and 
 running over. God is among them of a truth. There were nearly 100 new 
 communicants from town and country. Their preaching is almost pure 
 Methodism. The Christian Association is doing well — no lack of young 
 men to pray. We had a glorious Week of Prayer, the best Sydney ever 
 saw." 
 
 This item was written by a Methodist in Sydney to a friend in Halifax 
 and found its way into the Witness. Prom that time and as a result of a 
 quickened interest in divine things,there sprang up among the Presbyterians 
 of Sydney an agitation for regular services every Lord's Day in St. 
 Andrew's Church,instead of srvices every third or fourth Sabbath,as in the 
 past. 
 
 This laudable object was partially gained during the next two or three 
 years by the employment of Assistants to Dr. McLeod in Sydney. But 
 the demand for daily Sabbath services and adequate pastoral supervision 
 in the town of Sydney was only fully satisfied when Falmouth Street con- 
 
 164 
 
gregation was organized by order of Synod on the 6th of July 1875 and St. 
 Andrew's was separated from Mira by action of Presbytery on the 25th of 
 August following. Falmouth Street enjoyed regular supply from the 
 date of its organization until the settlement of its first pastor and St. An- 
 <lrew's had the Rev. Alexander Farquharson inducted as its first pastor on 
 the date of its separation from Mira on August 25th, 1875. 
 
 There was, no doubt a great deal of friction and strife before things 
 came to this pass; but looking back upon the intervening years, we think 
 all must acknowledge that the great Head of the Church has overruled all 
 that happened to his own glory and to the welfare and growth of Presbyter- 
 ianism and godliness in Sydney. 
 
 The Rev. Alexander Farquharson was the first minister of St. Andrew's 
 as a distinct charge. He was the son of a pioneer missionary of the church 
 of Scotland to Cape Breton. Mr. Farquharson was born at the Middle 
 River, Victoria County on the 16th of June 1835. He received his training 
 for the ministry at the Free Church Academy and the Presbyterian College 
 Halifax. After finishing his studies at the college in the spring of 1863 he 
 was licensed at Newcastle, N. B., by the Presbytery of Miramichi. The 
 following year he was called by the congregation of Leitches Creek, where 
 he was ordained and inducted on the 14th of Dec. 1864. On the 13th of 
 March 1867 Mr. Farquharson was inducted into the pastoral charge of the 
 newly formed congregation of Little Glace Bay. After nine years in Glace 
 Bay, Mr. Farquharson accepted a call to St. Andrew's, Sydney as colleague 
 and successor, in the Sydney section of Mira congregation to the Rev. Hugh 
 McLeod, D. D. His induction took place on the 25th of August, 1875. 
 After a faithful and successful ministry of more than seventeen years in 
 Sydney, Mr. Farquharson departed this life on the 21st of October, 1892 
 in the fifty seventh year of his age and the twenty-ninth of his ministry. 
 
 Mr. Farquharson was an excellent preacher and pastor. He was also 
 a man who was greatly beloved by his parishioners and very highly 
 esteemed by all who knew him, on account of his genial and affectionate 
 disposition. 
 
 The Rev. John Franklyn Forbes was the second minister of St. An- 
 drew's. Mr.Forbes was born at the Blue Mountain, Pictou County on the 
 2nd of Feb., 1834, but his early years were spent in Goshen, Guysboro 
 County, whither his parents removed when he was but a child. He 
 studied for the ministry at Dalhousie College, Knox College and Princeton 
 Seminary, New Jersey. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Bruns- 
 wick, New Jersey, U. S., in the spring of 1866 immediately after the com- 
 pletion of his theological studies. In Feb. 1867 Mr. Forbes was ordained 
 and inducted into the charge of Union Centre and Lochaber by the Pres- 
 bytery of Pictou. After nineteen years of strenuous and successful labour 
 in this field he accepted a call to West River and Green Hill, Pictou County 
 and was inducted at Durham in the year 1886. On the 14th of Feb. 1894 
 Mr. Forbes was inducted into the charge of St. Andrew's, Sydney and he 
 continued to labour here until his sudden and lamented death on Jan. the 
 4th 1905, in the seventy first of his life and the thirty eighty of his ministry. 
 
 165 
 
Mr. Forbes had a very happy disposition. He brought sunshine with him 
 wherever he went. He was also a good preacher and under his strong 
 ministry St. Andrew's continued to grow and prosper. The Synod of the 
 Maritime Provinces called Mr. Forbes to preside over its deliberation in 
 the session of Oct. 1898 in St. Matthews Church, Halifax and no man ever 
 discharged the duties of Moderator with more tact and efficiency than he 
 did. For a year or two before his death, Mr. Forbes had an efficient as- 
 sistant in the person of the Rev. F. C. Simpson. Mr. Simpson was born 
 In Hull, England in 1859. He came to Nova Scotia in the early eighties. 
 He finished his theological studies in the Presbyterian College, Halifax in 
 the spring of 1888. He had several charges, in the Maritime Provinces 
 and Newfoundland before coming to Sydney. After leaving Sydney he 
 was employed as Agent for the circulation of the Presbyterian Witness. 
 Mr. Simpson died very suddenly at Bridgetown, N. S. on March the 17th. 
 1918 in the 59th year of his life and 30th of his ministry. 
 
 The third pastor of St. Andrew's Church was the Rev. Clarence Mc- 
 Kinnon, D. D., LL.D. Dr. McKinnon was called from Park St. Church, 
 Halifax as colleague and successor to Mr. Forbes and his induction took 
 place on August the 6th 1902. After Mr. Forbes' death Dj. McKinnon 
 became sole pastor and so continued until the 20th of May 1905, when he 
 accepted a call to Westminister Church, Winnipeg and went west. Dr. 
 McKinnon was born at Hopewell, Pictou Co. on March the 12th 1868. 
 He was the son of the Rev. John McKinnon, minister of Hopewell at that 
 time. While Clarence was yet a boy, his parents went to Scotland and his 
 father became minister of a Free Church congregation in Rosshire. This 
 charge brought the young man within reach of the Tain Academy, where 
 he prepared for the University of Edingburgh, where he received his M.A. 
 in 1889. He studied theology at the New College, Edinburgh and received 
 his B. D. in 1894. Meantime he had been licensed by the Presbytery of 
 Truro and likewise ordained and inducted at River Hebert in the year 
 1892. Dr. .McKinnon became minister successively of Middle Stewiacke 
 in 1894, of Park Street, Halifax, 1896, of St. Andrews, Sydney in 1902 and 
 of Westminster Church, Winnipeg in 1905. Dr. McKinnon was appointed 
 Principal of the PVesbyterian College, Halifax by the General Assembly 
 in 1909. He received the degree of D. D. from Manitoba College in 1909 
 and the degree of LL. D. from the Senate of Dalhousie University in 1919. 
 
 Dr. McKinnon enlisted in the military service of his country in March 
 1916 and after rendering excellent service to the Empire as Chaplain, 
 during three years of the late war he received his discharge on the 9th of 
 April 1919. 
 
 Dr. McKinnon is well known from ocean to ocean and it would be 
 superfluous to add anything regarding his eloquence, versatility, tact, wis- 
 dom and activity in all lines of christiafl effort. 
 
 The Rev. F. W. Anderson, M.A. was the next minister of St. Andrew's. 
 
 He was called from Brantford in the Presbytery of Paris ajnd inducted 
 on the 1st day of August 1905. After a very creditable ministry of less 
 than three years, Mr. Anderson resigned and returned to Ontario. 
 
 166 
 
Subsequently he became minister of the Presbyterian Church in 
 Orillia in the Presbytery of Barrie. During the late war, Mr. Anderson 
 was on active service as a Chaplain for several years. Since his discharge 
 and return, he has been settled in St. Paul's Church, Port Hope, Ontario. 
 During his pastorate in St. Andrew's, Mr. Anderson was assisted by the 
 Rev. A. D. McKenzie, B. D., a native of Strathalbyn, P. E. 1., and a grad- 
 uate of the Presbyterian College, Montreal. Mr. McKenzie was ordained 
 and inducted as Mr. Anderson's colleague in May 1906. Mr. McKenzie 
 went from St. Andrew's to Trinidad, but for climatic reasons was not able 
 to remain long in that mission field. He was subsequently settled as 
 minister of St. Luke's Church, Montreal. He is now minister of 
 John's Church, Vancouver, where he was inducted on the 1st of April 
 1920. The Rev. Mr. Anderson was succeded in the pastorate of St. 
 Andrews by the Rev. John Pringle, D. D., LL. D. Dr. Pringle was in- 
 ducted on the 10th of Feb. 1909 and is still in charge. The space at our 
 disposal is too limited to say anything adequately about Dr. Pringle and 
 the work he has done for Canada and the Empire as well as for the Church 
 as a whole and St. Andrew's Church in particular. Nothing less than a 
 volume could do justice to that subject and we forbear to touch it in this 
 sketch of St. Andrew's and its ministry. Neither can we speak of the Rev. 
 T. A. Rodgers, who was Dr. Pringle's assistant and locum tenens from 
 Dec. 15th 1915 to Dec. 3rd 1919, when he went to Toronto and became 
 assistant in St. John's Church there. He is now sole pastor of that church. 
 
 The first St. Andrews Church was built in 1852 on a site on North 
 Charlotte Street which was donated to the congregation by the late Judge 
 Edmimd Dodd. 
 
 The second St. Andrew's Church was built during the Rev. Alexander 
 Farquharson's ministry. This church was built on Pitt Street and was 
 dedicated to the worship of God on the 24th of March 1888. It was en- 
 larged in 1897, after the Dominion Steel Company began operations in 
 Sydney, in order to provide accommodation for an ever growing congrega- 
 tion. 
 
 The third church was built on Bentick Street in the year 1910. This 
 is a very fine brick structure. It seats 1000 people and it cost $70,000. It 
 has the only set of chimes in the city or on our island, so far as the Presby- 
 terian church is concerned. 
 
 There is a church at the Forks, seven miles from the City and also a 
 Hall at Sydney River. Services and Sabbath Schools are conducted in 
 both of these places every Sunday, by either the pastor. Dr. Pringle or his 
 assistant. 
 
 The first Sunday School in connection with St. Andrew's Church was 
 opened on the 26th of May 1867. Previous to that time the few Presby- 
 terian children in Sydney attended the Methodist Sunday School. 
 
 The late A. D. McGillivary, M. D. was appointed Superintendent of 
 that school and he was succeeded by the late Frederick Falconer. 
 
 The young men that were born in connection with St. Andrew's 
 Church and studied for the Presbyterian ministry make a goodly company. 
 
 167 
 
They are John W. McLennan, John A. MacKeigan, D. H. .McKinnon, 
 William McLean, D. W. McLeod, Kenneth McLeod, Stewart McLennan, 
 Gordon McLennan and J. C. McDonald. 
 
 168 
 
St. Matthews, North Sydney and Its Ministry. 
 
 St. Matthews Church, North Sydney, perpetuates the name of the 
 late Rev. Matthew Wilson. North Sydney was included in the Sydney 
 Mines Congregation from 1842, when Mr. Wilson arrived in Cape Breton, 
 until May 20th 1883, when he resigned the charge. Thereupon North 
 Sydney was constituted a new and independent congregation. 
 
 The first Presbyterian service conducted within the bounds of the 
 North Sydney Congregation was held at Upper North Sydney on the first 
 Wednesday in August, 1802. This service was conducted by the Rev. 
 Alexander Dick, one of the Pioneers, "On the Western Arm of Sydney 
 Harbour." The precise spot cannot now be determined, but that service 
 was held at or near the farm formerly occupied by the late Belcher Moore. 
 There were from half a dozen to a dozen Presbyterian families in the 
 vicinity at that time, and a number of their descendants are there still 
 They bear the good old Scotch names of Moore, Moffatt, Musgrave and 
 Jackson. They came from Aberdeenshire, Scotland between 1780 and 
 1790. They had no Gaelic. 
 
 The first church of any denomination on the north side of Sydney 
 Harbor was built in this vicinity in the year 1828, and it was built through 
 the instrumentality of the Rev. William Hull, a Baptist Minister who came 
 here about that time. He made a number of converts among the mixed 
 people that he found there, and a place of worship was built as the common 
 property of Presbyterians, Baptists and Congregationalists. About the 
 year 1840, the Baptists built a church of their own at Maloney's Creek, 
 and the original church became the exclusive property of the Presbyterians 
 Indeed this original church was built on property owned by a Presbyter- 
 ian by the name of William Campbell. The Rev. Matthew Wilson con- 
 ducted public worship in this church from 1842 to 1849, when the old 
 "Bethel" was built at the "North Bar," and occasionally for several years 
 thereafter. The first church was standing, though not in use, as late as 
 1860. The "Bethel" was built at the "North Bar" for the use of all the 
 Protestants living in that vicinity in the year 1849. 
 
 North Sydney had practically no existence until the year 1834, when 
 the General Mining Association built a coal shipping pier under the shelter 
 of the North Bar and extended a railway from Sydney Mines to said pier, 
 for the shipment of their coals. 
 
 The construction work, in connection with this pier and railway, as 
 well as the shipping that followed, created a considerable demand for labor 
 and a heterogeneous population began to gather in the neighborhood of the 
 shipping pier. The Bethel was built for the convenience of these people. 
 That Bethel was the only Protestant place of worship in North Sydney 
 until 1876, when St. Matthews and one or two other denominational church- 
 es were erected. It is still to be seen standing on the same site, dark, dingy 
 and vacant. 
 
 The first St. Matthews Church was dedicated on the 3rd of December, 
 
 169 
 
1876. By the year 1898, this church was not adequate to the needs of the 
 congregation, and a second church was built. It was dedicated on the 
 sixth of March, 1899. The first church cost between five and six thousand 
 dollars. The second church cost about eight thousand and was destroyed 
 by fire on the 30th of September following its dedication. The present 
 church was dedicated on the 9th of June, 1901. It cost eighteen thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 The Rev. Matthew Wilson conducted divine worship regularly in 
 that first church from the time of its opening in 1876 until Nov. the 12th, 
 1879. On this date the Rev. Donald McMillan was inducted as colleague 
 and successor to Mr. Wilson. Mr. McMillan had special charge of St. 
 Matthews and Little Bras d'Or until the date of Mr.Wilson's resignation 
 on May 20th, 1883, when he became sole pastor of Sydney Mines and 
 Little Bras d'Or. At the same time St. Matthews was constituted a new 
 and independent congregation. 
 
 The first pastor of this new charge was the Rev. Isaac Murray, D. D. 
 Dr. Murray was inducted on August the 13th, 1884, and he labored in this 
 field for a period of twelve years. He resigned the charge on account of 
 age and infirmity on April the 14th, 1896, and retired to New Glasgow 
 Pictou County, where he spent the remainder of his life. 
 
 Dr. Murray was born near Scotsburn, Pictou Co., on March the 
 24th, 1824, and he died at New Glasgow on December the 7th, 1906, in the 
 83rd year of his life, and the 56th of his ministry. He studied at Pictou 
 Academy, the West River Seminary, and Princeton Seminary, New Jersey, 
 U. S. He was licensed by the Pictou Presbytery in connection with the 
 Presbyterian Church in Nova Scotia in May, 1849. 
 
 Dr. Murray was ordained and inducted into the charge of New London 
 North, and Cavendish, as successor to the Rev. John Geddie, who had gone 
 to the New Hebrides, on the 16th of January, 1850. On July the 11th, 
 
 1877, Dr. Murray was inducted into the newly formed charge of New 
 London North and New London South. His ministry here was very brief. 
 On Nov. 27th, 1878, he was inducted into the resuscitated Prince Street 
 Church, Charlottetown. After a brief struggle, this congregation was 
 under the necessity of closing its doors, and Dr. Murray accepted a call to 
 Thorburn, Pictou Co. After a few years in Thorburn he came to North 
 Sydney. 
 
 Dr. Murray received the degree of Doctor of Divinity in the year 1876 
 from Queens College, Kingston, in recognition of the excellent work that 
 he did on P. E. Island in the interests of the Public Education, and also in 
 the interests of Presbyterianism and Christianity, on that island, and in the 
 Maritime Provinces in general. 
 
 He was Moderator of Synod twice, first in 1873 and again in 1892. 
 He was Clerk of the Sydney Presbytery for the eight years immediately 
 preceding his resignation. Dr. Murray was a fluent speaker, a deep 
 thinker, a well read theologian, a strong evangelical preacher and a dilig- 
 ent pastor. 
 
 His Jubilee was held at Cavendish, P. E. Island, on Jan. 16th 1900. 
 
 170 
 
The present manse at North Sydney was purchased for the accommodation 
 of Dr. Murray and his family when he came here in 1884. 
 
 The Rev. T. C. Jack, D. D., succeeded Dr. Murray. Dr. Jack was 
 a native of St. Stephens, N. B., where he was born on Oct. 26th, 1850. 
 His father was the Rev. Lewis Jack, one of the pioneer Free Church Minis- 
 ters of New Brunswick. Dr. Jack obtained the M. A. degree from the 
 University of New Brunswick in the spring of 1876, and the degree of B. D. 
 from the Presbyterian College, Halifax, in the spring of 1879. He was 
 licensed by the Presbytery of Lunenburg and Yarmouth in August the 
 18th, 1879, and ordained and inducted into the pastoral charge of Maitland 
 . by the Presbytery of Halifax on Oct. the 14th, 1879. Seventeen years 
 thereafter he was translated to the Presbytery of Cape Breton and by it 
 inducted into St. Matthews, North Sydney, on Sept. 2nd, 1896. He spent 
 the remainder of his life in this congregation. 
 
 On account of a fatal disease he resigned his charge on May the 7th 
 1918, but by request of his affectionate people his name was retained on 
 the roll of Presbytery as pastor Emeritus until his death. 
 
 His nephew, the Rev. Wilmer Rosborough, by request of the congre- 
 gation and by appointment of Presbytery, carried on Dr. Jack's work 
 until after his death on August the 14th, 1918, in the 68th year of his 
 life and the 39th of his ministry. 
 
 The senate of the Presbyterian College, Halifax, conferred the degree 
 of Doctor of Divinity upon Dr. Jack in 1906. He was Clerk of Presbytery 
 during the last nine years of his active life. Dr. Jack was small physically, 
 but big mentally and morally. He was pre-eminently a student and a great 
 lover of books. He had them stacked around him in his study. He took 
 a very prominent part in meetings of Presbytery, Synod and General 
 Assembly. As a preacher he was crisp, fresh and forceful. As a pastor 
 he was uncommonly diligent in the oversight of his people. He was a good 
 judge of the value of a new book, and he was always adding the best new 
 books to his library. 
 
 The third pastor of St. Matthew's Church is the Rev. Kenneth M. 
 Munro, B. A. Like so many of our ministers, Mr. Munro is a native of 
 Boulardarie and a grandson of Mr. Hugh Munro, at one time a famous 
 school teacher on Boulardarie Island. 
 
 Mr. Munro was born on August 5th, 1885. He grew up in a christian 
 home and under the spiritual influence of the Rev. David Drummond's 
 ministry. He prepared for the ministry of our church by studying at the 
 North Sydney Academy, Dalhousie University and the Presbyterian Col- 
 lege, Halifax. H)e graduated from the University with the degree of B. A. 
 in the spring of 1909, and from the college in theology in the spring of 1911. 
 He was licensed by the Presbytery of Halifax in April, 1911. 
 
 On May the 11th, 1911, he was ordained and inducted into the charge 
 of our church at Inverness by the Presbytery of Inverness. Here he re- 
 mained for the greater part of two years and abundantly proved his ap- 
 titude for the work of the ministry. In March, 1913, Mr. Munro was 
 
 171 
 
translated to the Presbytery of Boston and duly inducted into the first 
 Presbyterian Church in that city on the 11th of April, 1913. 
 
 In the spring of 1919, St. Matthews extended a call to Mr.Munro. 
 This call he accepted, and his induction took place on the 27th of March, 
 1919. 
 
 In North Sydney, Mr. Munro has a fine sphere of usefulness and there 
 are no more loyal and liberal people in our church than the people of St. 
 Matthews. 
 
 The Rev. A. P. Logan and the Rev. John Beaton of Calgary are sons 
 of St. Matthews. The Rev. Wilmer Rosborough might be credited to this 
 congregation, though born at Sheet Harbor. 
 
 & 
 
 172 
 
North Shore, etc., and its Ministry. 
 
 The original settlers of the North Shore and North River Congrega- 
 tion, came chiefly from the Hebrides, especially from Lewis and Harris 
 between 1828 and 1840. 
 
 A large number of Sutherlandshire people followed the Rev. Norman 
 McLeod from Pictou, but these came earlier than 1828, and they settled 
 on St. Ann's Harbor in the vicinity of their venerated minister. Few, if 
 any of them settled as far away from him as the North River or the North 
 Shore. 
 
 When the emigrants from Lewis and Harris came to Cape Breton they 
 found the land about the Harbor already in possession of Mr. McLeod and 
 his followers, and they had to make homes for themselves farther north and 
 east. They availed themselves of the ministry of the pastor of St. Ann's, 
 and most of them became as much attached to him as were the people that 
 came with him from Pictou. 
 
 The Celt is by instinct and training a hero worshipper. The clan 
 system that prevailed for so many centuries in the Scottish Highlands and 
 Islands was well fitted to inspire and cherish reverance for and loyalty to 
 the chieftain or head of the Clan. The Chief was regarded as the father of 
 the clan and the clansmen thought of themselves as his children. Clan 
 is a contraction of "clann," the Gaelic for children. 
 
 Norman McLeod had all the necessary characteristics of a Highland 
 Chief. He had a fine personal appearance. He was tall and stout and 
 strong. He was kind, generous, patronizing and paternal to his friends; 
 but at the same time he was stern, haughty, autocratic and implacable to 
 his enemies. He was in short a masterful man, and when the Celt finds a 
 man of that stamp he is ever ready to admire, adore, obey and follow him 
 at almost any sacrifice. 
 
 The devotion of many of the North Shore and North River people to 
 NormanMcLeod is very strikingly illustrated by a story that is told of one 
 John Smith, who lived at the Barachois, near Indian Brook. 
 
 After Mr. McLeod had made his last visit to Mr. Smith's home, before 
 leaving for Australia, this devoted parishioner boarded up the door-way 
 by which his minister had entered and departed from his house so that no 
 other man should ever cross that threshold after Norman McLeod. 
 
 By this peculiar action he meant to show his devotion to his minister 
 and his conviction that no other man could possibly arise who would fill the 
 place about to be left vacant by the Rev. Norman McLeod. 
 
 It was this spirit of devotion and loyalty that caused so many Suther- 
 landshire people to come to Pictou with Mr. McLeod in 1817. It was this 
 same spirit that induced so many to come with him to St. Ann's in 1820 
 and it was that same spirit of loyalty that moved over eight hundred to 
 leave St. Ann's thirty years later and go on a voyage of 14,000 miles to 
 Australia and New Zealand. Nor ought we to forget that many of those 
 who remained behind were as deeply imbued with this spirit of loyalty as 
 
 173 
 
those who went away. Some of them showed their loyalty to Norman 
 McLeod by never going to hear any other preacher of the gospel. They 
 believed that no other minister could be worth going to hear by any one 
 who had sat under the teaching of Norman McLeod. And in addition some 
 of these people were so loyal that they thought it would be a disparage- 
 ment and belittlement of Norman McLeod to sit under any other man. 
 
 Doubtless these people allowed their devotion to this good man to 
 carry them too far. Their conduct was little short of worship of the man, 
 idolatry! 
 
 The Rev. Abraham Mcintosh ministered to the people of North 
 Shore and North River from his settlement in St. Ann's in 1856 to his death 
 in 1889.. 
 
 There were three churches built in this part of his congregation during 
 Mr. Mcintosh's ministry, one at North River, one at Indian Brook and one 
 at French River. They were all built between 1857 and 1865, 
 but none of them were finished inside until much later. The congregation- 
 al chariot moved slowly and heavily in those days. The congregation was 
 too large for any man to do the work that needed to be done, with much 
 efficiency. It contained not less than three hundred families and these 
 families were scattered over an immense territory. It was from forty to 
 fifty miles in length and from ten to twelve miles in breadth. After Mr. 
 Mcintosh's death this congregation was divided. North Shore and North 
 River was set apart by the Presbytery of Sydney and in response to the 
 wishes of the people into a hew and distinct charge. This action was 
 taken on the 3rd of Dec. 1889. 
 
 The Rev. John Fraser, M. A. was the first minister of the North Shore 
 and North River congregation. His induction took place on the 21st of 
 June 1892. Mr. Fraser was born at the Big Bras d'Or, Boulardarie, in the 
 year 1857. 
 
 Like a goodly number of the young men from Cape Breton, that 
 studied for the ministry of our church, Mr. Fraser went to Queen's College 
 for both Arts and theology. On the completion of his studies, he came 
 back to Cape Breton and was licensed by the Presbytery of Sydney, on the 
 10th day of May 1892. Six weeks later he was ordained and inducted at 
 Indian Brook, into the pastorate of extensive congregation. 
 
 Mr. Fraser entered upon his ministerial work with great enthusiasm 
 and energy and he was not long in awakening both enthusiasm and energy 
 in the people of his charge. His preaching was of the fervent, emotional 
 and energetic kind that the Celt especially delights to hear, and that he 
 hears with deep interest, admiration and profit. 
 
 Mr. Fraser's ministry on the North Shore and North River was 
 abundantly fruitful both materially and spiritually. The old Church at 
 Indian River was finished inside after standing unfinished for over thirty 
 years. It was also painted throughout and made to look like a place of 
 worship rather than like a barn. The churches at North River and French 
 River were similarly renovated. 
 
 174 
 
A very fine Manse was built at Indian Brook in 1894, the second year 
 of IVTr. Fraser's pastorate at a cost of $3,500. 
 
 These outward and material improvements were a visible token of 
 the spiritual change that came over the people. They were roused, stim- 
 ulated and enthused in spiritual matters by Mr. Fraser's fiery eloquence and 
 devotion to duty. 
 
 In 1896, Mr. Fraser accepted a call to Loch Lomond and Framboise 
 congregation, and he left North Shore with the esteem and love of his 
 people. 
 
 The second minister of this congregation was the Rev. T. R. Davidson, 
 Ph. D. Dr. Davidson's life and work is spoken of in connection with our 
 article on Gabarus. 
 
 After Dr. Davidson left for New Brunswick in the autumn of 1917, 
 the congregation was without a pastor until the 7th of July 1920, when 
 Mr. Archie C. Fraser was inducted. The congregation received religious 
 attention from Student Catechists during the summer months of 1918 and 
 1919. 
 
 North River and North Shore has given a number of excellent young 
 men to the ministry of our Church. Their names are D. J. Nicholson, M. 
 D. McLeod, A. D. McLeod, D. J. McLeod, D. J. McRae, John Montgom- 
 ery, John McAskill and A. D. Sutherland. 
 
 
 175 
 
Baddeck Forks and its Ministry. 
 
 The micmac aborigines of Cape Breton named the island opposite the 
 town of Baddeck Abaduckt. The white man transformed Abaduckt into 
 Baddeck and then he applied this transformed Indian name to the country 
 between the island and the mountain range that lies about eight miles in- 
 land. The portion of the country bordering on the Bras d'Or waters he 
 called Little Baddeck and the portion of the country that lies toward the 
 mountain range he called Big Baddeck. Baddeck Forks is the name given 
 to the place on the Baddeck River, where Peters Brook joins that River. 
 Here the Church and Manse of Baddeck Forks congregation are located 
 and it would be hard to find a more beautiful place for either a church or a 
 manse. 
 
 The congregation is entirely rural. The people are living on the 
 banks of these two streams and cultivate the rich, alluvial soil formed by 
 the river and the brook. The scenery is enchanting Summer and winter, 
 day and night the rushing waters of brook and river, as they descend from 
 the mountains to the sea make perpetual music in the ears of an honest, 
 industrious and happy people. 
 
 Baddeck River was settled very early in the last century by United 
 Empire Loyalists. Some of these Loyalists came here about the end of the 
 eighteenth century, a few of them as early as 1782. Others came in 1817, 
 among them the Lavers, Jones, etc. Highland Scotch immigrants began 
 to arrive a few years later and in the early twenties. By the year 1834 
 when the Rev. Alexander Farquharson settled on the Middle River there 
 were between thirty and forty Gaelic speaking families in the Baddeck 
 River valley. Mr. Farquharson gave these people all the religious at- 
 
 tention they received between 1834 and 1850. The first Presbyterian 
 Church was built at the Forks under Mr. Farquharson's encouragement and 
 direction in the year 1837. Among those who helped to build that Church 
 were Thomas Rice, Kenneth McKay, Alexander McKay, Donald McRae, 
 Farquhar McRae, Duncan McRae, Mark Crowdis, Styles Ingraham, 
 William Watson, John Buchannan, Donald Buchannan, George Watson, 
 Malcolm McLeod, John Maple, Malcolm Beaton, Donald Buchannan and 
 Norman Buchannan. 
 
 The present Church was built in the year 1865 during the ministry of 
 the Rev. Kenneth .McKenzie. It is centrally situated and the only church 
 in the congregation. The manse was built in the year 1900 during the pas- 
 torate of the Rev. P. K. McRae. 
 
 There was no session until after Mr. McKenzie's settlement in the 
 year 1857. The first session was chosen- and ordained in the year 1859. 
 The elders that composed that session were Donald McAulay, Archibald 
 McDearmid, Donald McDearmid and Donald Campbell, generally known 
 as the catechist. 
 
 Mr. Campbell deserves more than a passing notice. He was one of a 
 class of laymen that rendered great service to the cause of true religion in 
 
 176 
 
many of our congregations in Cape Breton when ministers were few. Mr. 
 Campbell came to C. B. from the island of Harris with his parents in 1830 
 when eleven years of age. He attended the school taught by the Rev. 
 Norman McLeod at St. Ann's when a young man and acquired enough 
 education to fit him for teaching school. After teaching in Little Bras 
 d'Or for some years he removed to Big Baddeck, in the year 1858 and 
 taught the school there for many years. He was an elder in Big Baddeck 
 for forty one years from 1859 till his death in 1900. He was also precentor 
 during all these years, and no man could lead in the Gaelic service of song 
 with more harmony and power. Every alternate Sabbath, Mr. Campbell 
 had charge of the services in the sanctuary at the Forks on account of the 
 absence of the Rev. Mr. McKenzie in the village church. He was a 
 favorite speaker at the men's service on ceist day in connecton with com- 
 munion services. He was a man of God and he was a tower of strength to 
 the minister and to the cause of truth and righteousness at Baddeck Forks 
 during his whole life. 
 
 The Rev.Kenneth McKenzie was the minister of Baddeck and Baddeck 
 Forks during the whole of his active ministerial life — from 1854 to 1901 a 
 period of forty four years. After his resignation in 1901, Baddeck Forks 
 was constituted an augmented charge by the Presbytery of the bounds. 
 
 The first minister of Baddeck Forks congregation was the Rev. P. K. 
 McRae, whose induction took place on the 24th of Oct. 1891. Mr. McRae 
 was born on the Middle River, Cape Breton on the 2nd of Nov. 1856. He 
 studied at the Sydney Academy. He took his Arts Course in Queens 
 University, Kingston and graduated in April 1892. His theological 
 studies were taken in the Presbyterian College, Halifax, from which he 
 graduated in April 1895. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Halifax at 
 the same time. Mr. .McRae was called to the pastorate of Earltown and 
 West Branch as soon as he was licensed and his ordination and induction 
 by the Presbytery of Pictou took place on the 22nd of May 1895. He was 
 called f;-om Earltown and West Branch to Baddeck Forks and inducted by 
 the Presbytery of Inverness on Oct. the 24th 1899. Mr. .McRae was 
 minister of Baddeck Forks for nearly ten years during that time he rendered 
 excellent service to the congregation and earned a, good degree for himself, 
 in educational matters as well. At the end of that time he was called to 
 Little Narrows and inducted on the 2nd of March 1909. In January 
 1913, Mr. McRae received a call to Lament in the Presbytery of Vermillion 
 Alberta, where he is still working faithfully and happily. 
 
 After Mr. McRae left for the Little Narrows, the Baddeck Forks 
 people found a worthy successor in the Rev. John .McNeil, who is with them 
 still and happy in his work among them. Mr. McNeil was inducted on 
 Jan. 4th, 1910. 
 
 Mr. McNeil was born at lona, C. B., in the year 1856 of Roman Cath- 
 olic parents. In his boyhood he lived for some time in a godly Presbyterian 
 home, where he learned the simple, short, sure and scriptural way of pardon 
 and peace for the sinner through trust in the Person and work of Jesus 
 Christ alone. He embraced the- true and only way of Salvation by faith in 
 
 177 
 
Jesus, and came to know the blessedness of the man whose sins are par- 
 doned, whose iniquities were covered. The darkness had passed away 
 and he was now basking in the light of the divine favour through Jesus 
 Christ. Was it any wonder that a man who had experienced such a change 
 as this should, like Paul, make up his mind to preach Christ and Him 
 Crucified? He resolved to study for the ministry of the Presbyterian. 
 Church so that he might preach to his fellowmen the gospel that he had 
 found so precious to his own soul, the gospel of the grace of God. 
 
 Mr. McNeil took his preparatory studies in Pictou Academy. From 
 there he went to Queen's for Arts and Theology. He graduated in theology 
 in the spring of 1888 and was licensed by the Prepbytery of Kingston very 
 shortly thereafter. His ordination and induction took place at Maxwell, 
 Ont., by the Presbytery of Orangeville on the 26th of Sept. 1888. 
 
 Mr. McNeil has had charges in the Presbyteries of Barrie, Huron^ 
 London and Inverness. One can hardly conceive a more desirable charge 
 than Baddeck Forks for a man who likes a quite studious life, far from the- 
 strefes and strain of modern conditions. 
 
 178 
 
Bridgeport and its Ministry. 
 
 By the end of the year 1891, the Presbyterian population of Glace Bay 
 and its surroundings had multiplied to such an extent that it was utterly 
 impossible for the pastor of St. Paul's Church, the Rev. James A. Forbes, 
 adequately to overtake the work that required to be done. On this account 
 it was proposed that the Presbyterians of Bridgeport and Reserve Mines 
 should be separated from Glace Bay and given an organization of their own. 
 Accordingly, on November the 10th 1891, a deputation from Bridgeport 
 and Reserve Mines consisting of Alexander McLennan, Norman Mc- 
 Donald, and William McLennan, appeared before the Presbytery of 
 Sydney with a petition asking that Bridgeport and Reserve Mines be sep- 
 arated from Glace Bay and constituted into an independent congregation. 
 Upon being shown that these two sections of the Glace Bay congregation 
 were able and willing to support ordinances among themselves, the Pres- 
 bytery granted the prayer of this petition. 
 
 The new congregation was organized on Jan. the 1st, 1892. On the 
 10th of May, 1893, a meeting for moderation in a call to a minister was held 
 in Gordon Church, Reserve Mines. The call came out in favour of Mr. 
 J. A. McGlashen, M. A., B. D., a recent graduate of the Presbyterian Col- 
 lege, Halifax. 
 
 This call Mr. McGlashen accepted, and on the 31st of May he was 
 duly ordained and inducted to the pastorate of the congregation. Eight 
 years later, on October 30th, 1901, Reserve Mines was separated from 
 Bridgeport, and formed into a new congregation, but Mr. McGlashen con- 
 tinued to be minister of Chalmers Church, Bridgeport. Mr. McGlashen 
 was minister of this church until Nov. the 7th, 1916, when he accepted a 
 call to the Stairs Memorial Church in the Presbytery of Halifax and left 
 for this new field. Mr. McGlashen was a Pictonian. He was born at 
 East French River, Pictou County, on the 6th of May, 1862. He received 
 his preparation for Dalhousie University at the New Glasgow High School 
 and the Pictou Academy. He graduated as B. A. from Dalhousie on April 
 26th 1891, and from the Presbyterian College on April the 3rd 1893. He 
 received his B. D. from this college in April, 1894. 
 
 Mr. McGlashen was licensed by the Presbytery of Sydney on the 31st 
 of May, 1893, and ordained and inducted at Reserve Mines on May 31st, 
 1893. The following winter he spent in post graduate studies in the New 
 College, Edinburgh. Mr. McGlashen spent twenty-three years in the 
 congregation of Bridgeport, and in the Presbytery of Sydney, and he was 
 always ready for every duty required of him by that court. He was an 
 excellent preacher and a diligent pastor. He has been a member of the 
 Foreign Mission Board since his induction in 1893, and the Commissioner 
 of that Board at the World Conference on Missions in Edinburgh in 1910. 
 
 Mr. McGlashen wields a facile pen, and he has been special corres- 
 pondent for the Presbyterian Witness and the Morning Chronicle for many 
 
 179 
 
years. His reports of meetings of our Synods and Assemblies are always 
 full of life and interest. 
 
 The present minister of Chalmer's Church is the Rev. William A. 
 Whidden, B.A., who was inducted on the 4th of May, 1917. Mr. Whidden 
 was born at Brookfield, Colchester County, N. S., on the 26th of March, 
 1888. 
 
 He obtained his preparation for Dalhousie University at his home 
 school and Truro Academy. He graduated from Dalhousie with a B. A. 
 in April, 1910, and from the Presbyterian College, in April, 1912. He was 
 licensed by the Presbytery of Halifax on April the 24th, 1912. A few weeks 
 later Mr. Whidden was ordained and inducted by the Presbytery of Truro, 
 as minister of the Clifton congregation within its bounds. 
 
 The first service ever held by a Presbyterian minister in Bridgeport 
 was conducted by the Rev. John Stewart in the month of November, 1834. 
 There were very few families of the Presbyterian faith between Lingan and 
 Big Glace Bay at that time and for many years thereafter. After Mr. 
 Farquharson came to Little Glace Bay, Bridgeport was within the scope of 
 his supervision and he held an occasional service in the home of Donald 
 Mclsaac there. This was between 1867 and 1875. In the year 1887 a 
 Union Church was built and used by both Presbyterians and Methodists. 
 The Rev. James A. Forbes conducted public worship in that church. Soon 
 after, Mr. McGlashen became minister, steps were taken for the erectio^i 
 of a Presbyterian Church, and the church was dedicated to the worship of 
 God on the 23rd of December, 1894. In the year 1900, on account of the 
 development of the coal mining industry at Dominion No. 1, this church 
 became too small for the accommodation of the congregation, and a second 
 church was built in that year and dedicated on the 17th of February, 1901. 
 On September the 17th, 1917, this church was destroyed by fire and a third 
 church had to be built. This third church was built on the site of the 
 second and dedicated on the 16th of March, 1919. "The new Chalmers 
 Church is of gothic construction and is rectangular in plan,measuring 32 
 feet in length by 46 ft. in width, with an extra bay shaped extension at the 
 rear for a choir space. The front is flanked by two massive towers, one of 
 them containing a forty-eight inch Bowl den Bell, and rising to a height of 
 67 feet, while the other is 47 feet, in height. There are three entrances 
 from the front opening into a spacious and well lighted vestibule with steps 
 at each end leading to the auditorium. The entire basement is finished 
 and is well lighted and airy. It has a large assembly room, separate class 
 rooms for Sunday School, Secretary's room. Library, Parlour, Kitchen and 
 boiler room. The building is lighted by the semi-indirect system of electric- 
 lighting, and is heated by the Trane System of Vapor Heating, the most 
 modern system of steam heating. 
 
 "The Auditorium which seats 450 is furnished in clear spruce grained 
 to a light oak finish. The pews are in solid oak and of modern construction." 
 
 This is one of our latest and best appointed churches. What a con- 
 trast this church is to the very plain, rough, unseated, unpainted, unlighted 
 and unheated churches that were built by our grandfathers in the early days;, 
 
 180 
 
What a happy change in circumstances and tastes is suggested by the kind 
 of churches our ancestors worshipped in and the churches in which we wor- 
 ship. Our grand-fathers no doubt built the best churches that they could 
 afford, and we only build the best we can afford. 
 
 But let us never forget that the Being Whom we worship in our church- 
 es is a Spirit and that He requires us to worship him in spirit and in truth. 
 We can't build a church big enough to hold God, nor beautiful enough, nor 
 costly enough to be a fit habitation for Him. Heaven is His throne, the 
 earth is His footstool. His favourite dwelling place is the lowly, the hum- 
 ble and the contrite heart. 
 
 Chalmers' Church has not given any ministers to the Presbyterian 
 Church. Our ministers come almost exclusively from our rural charges. 
 Industrial centres are not good breeding ground for preachers of any de- 
 nomination. There is a large demand for labor at good pay and the boys 
 yield to the ever present temptation to become wage-earners, rather than 
 students. 
 
 Indeed it is difficult to keep them in the common school long enough 
 to be more than half prepared for the duties of life. 
 
 
 *ii 
 
 181 
 
St. Peter's and Its Ministry. 
 
 Saint Peter's is the English for Santo Pedro, the name the Por- 
 tuguese gave to this part of our Island in the sixteenth century, when they 
 were accustomed to come to our Northern waters to catch fish. The 
 French name for the place was Thoulouse. They had a strong fort at the 
 portage between the ocean and the Bras d'Or Lake, called Fort Thoulouse. 
 When the British got final possession of Cape Breton in 1758, they named 
 the place St. Peter's, the name it has borne ever since. There was a canal 
 cut through the narrows between the Atlantic and St. Peter's Inlet in the 
 year 1865 by the Province of Nova Scotia Government. This canal has 
 been of very great advantage, not only to St. Peter's, but to the whole 
 island. Two years ago this canal was greatly enlarged and improved. 
 
 There were a few Prtsbyterians at St. Peter's previous to the year 
 1865. They were R.G. Morrison, D. Urquhart, Duncan McRae, Alexander 
 McKeen, Joseph Humes, John Morrison, John D. Matheson and Mur- 
 doch Smith. About the time the canal was under construction, some more 
 came from the neighboring Presbyterian settlements, such as West Bay 
 and Loch Lomond. Among these were Alexander McCuish, Archibald 
 McCuish, John M. Kemp, Angus McAskill, J. W. Morrison, W. R. Morri- 
 son, John McDonald, and Donald McKenzie. These early settlers re- 
 ceived an occasional service from the Rev. Murdoch Stewart of West Bay 
 until he left for Port Morien in 1867. Between 1865 when the canal was 
 opened and 1877 when he died, the Rev. James Ross, Minister of Grand 
 River, was accustomed to conduct divine service in the school house of the 
 village. After Mr. Ross's death, his successors in the pastorate of Grand 
 River, Rev. G.L. Gordon, Rev. M.A. McKenzie and Rev. Wm. Grant gave 
 a proportion of their time and labor to St. Peter's. 
 
 On May the 10th, 1892, St. Peter's was raised to the status of an aug- 
 mented charge by the Presbytery of Sydney. The first minister of this 
 charge was the Rev. Alexander B. McLeod, a native of Strathalbyn, 
 P. E. I., where he was born on the 17th of March, 1853. In early life he 
 started out to prepare himself for a mercantile career. Hie clerked at 
 New London and Summerside for several years. It was while clerking in 
 New London South, during a series of Special Meetings conducted by the 
 writer that Mr. McLeod came under the power of the gospel and decided 
 to study for the ministry. He prepared for Dalhousie by studying at the 
 Grammar School at Alberton, P. E. I. He entered Dalhousie University 
 in the fall of 1875 and after a four years course in Arts, he studied theology 
 for two sessions in the Presbyterian College and for another session in 
 Auburn Theological Seminary, New York from which he graduated in the 
 spring of 1882. He was licensed at Mt. Stewart by the Presbytery of 
 P. E. Island in the following June. 
 
 "On the 31st of October, 1882, Mr. McLeod was ordained and inducted 
 into the pastorate of West Cape, Campbellton and Brae, by the Island 
 Presbytery. On the 29th of May 1886 he was inducted into the charge of 
 
 182 
 
Mt. Stewart and West St. Peter's, where he labored for seven years. His 
 next charge was St. Peter's, C. B., where he was. inducted on the 13th of 
 June, 1893. On account of family illness Mr. McLeod left St. Peter's in 
 October, 1894, and on the 18th of that month he was inducted into the 
 congregation of Coldstream, in the Presbytery of Truro. Mr. McLeod 
 was minister of Coldstream for twelve years. During that time the con- 
 gregation became self-sustaining and its missionary givings were doubled. 
 
 In August, 1906, Mr. McLeod was inducted into the charge of Souris 
 and Bay Fortune, where he remained for the next five years, and resigned 
 on account of ill health. After a rest of two years he took charge of 
 Marshfield, P. E. I., as ordained missionary, but he had to resign at the end 
 of six months and return to Charlottetown. Subsequently he served as 
 chaplain to the P. E. I. Hospital, but his strength failed, and he passed 
 away on the 19th of April, 1916, after a ministry of 35 years. 
 
 The second minister at St. Peter's was the Rev. Joseph Greenlees. 
 Mr. Greenlees was born in the City of Glasgow, Scotland. See the Chap- 
 ter on St. James, Sydney, for an outlines of Mr. Greenlees' life and work. 
 
 The third minister of St. Peter's was the Rev. John Calder, B. A., B. D. 
 Mr. Calder was a native of the island, havihg been born at West Bay on 
 the 10th of October, 1860. His early education was obtained at the com- 
 mon school of West Bay. After obtaining a teacher's license he taught 
 school for a couple of seasons. He prepared for matriculation into Dal- 
 housie by attending Pictou Academy. He graduated from Dalhousie 
 University with a B. A. in the spring of 1886. After attending the Presby- 
 terian College for three sessions he graduated with a B. D. in the spring of 
 1889. Shortly after graduation he was licensed by the Presbytery of Pic- 
 tou and also ordained and inducted at Sunny Brae by the Presbytery of 
 Pictou. At the end of three years, Mr. Calder, on account of ill health was 
 compelled to resign this charge and rest for a couple of years. At the end 
 of that time he felt well enough to resume the work of teaching, for which 
 he had a great aptitude. He taught first in the West Bay and then in the 
 Port Hood Academy. 
 
 In 1897 Mr. Calder accepted a call to Port Mulgrave, where he spent 
 two years in the faithful discharge of his pastoral duties. In 1899, he was 
 called to St. Peter's, where he spent the next thirteen years, and labored up 
 to the measure of his strength. In February, 1913, Mr. Calder went to 
 Boston and became minister of the Scotch Church there. In the summer 
 of 1916 he returned to Cape Breton in search of health, but some weeks 
 later he met with a railway accident, thatcompelled him to resign his 
 Boston charge. He spent the last years of his life in St. Peter's where he 
 departed this life on the 15th of November, 1917. 
 
 "Mr. Calder was an excellent scholar and an efficient teacher. As a 
 preacher he was easily among the best in the land, — clear, strong, sympathe- 
 tic, evangelical. As a man he had many gifts and graces,fine qualities of 
 head and heart, humble, devout, cheerful, bright, gracious, companionable 
 and true to his own high ideals." 
 
 183 
 
After Mr. Calder went to Boston, St. Peter's called its fourth minister 
 in the person of the Rev. Donald Fraser, B. A. 
 
 Mr. Eraser's induction took place on the 2nd of October, 1913. He 
 was born in New Glasgow, N. S., in March, 1864. His parents removed to 
 Pictou Town some years later and Mr. Fraser grew up to manhood in that 
 far famed educational centre. After graduating from P ctou Academy 
 in 1883, as a George Munroe Bursar, he entered Dalhousie University in 
 the autumn of that year. In the spring of 1887 he graduated with a B. A. 
 During the next two years he was principal of the Baddeck Academy on this 
 island. He studied theology at Princeton Seminary, New Jersey, for one 
 season, and then at the Presbyterian College, Halifax, for two more. He 
 graduated in the spring of 1892. After licensure by the Presbytery of 
 HahfaX on the 5th of Ma;y, 1892, Mr. Fraser was ordained and inducted 
 into the congregation of Gore and Kennetcook on June the 1st 1892. 
 
 Mr. Fraser's health has been very precarious during the whole of his 
 ministry and for this reason he has never been able to remain in one con- 
 gregation for any length of time. He had to retire and rest quite fre- 
 quently. Mr. Fraser was inducted into the following congregations in 
 succession, viz. Hampton, N. B., June 1st, 1894; Richibucto, N. B., Oct. 
 14th, 1897; Lahave, N. S., March 24th, 1904; Riverside, N. S., December 
 12th, 1906; Portapique and Bass River. Cardigan, P. E. I., June 14th, 
 1910; Riverfield and Howick, Quebec, June the 10th, 1912; St. Peter's, 
 Oct. 12th, 1913; and Mabou, C. B., Sept. 10th, 1918. 
 
 The fifth minister of St. Peter's is the Rev. C. R. F. McLennan, B. D. 
 Mr. McLennan was born in Waipu, New Zealand, on the 4th of March, 
 1892, and he was the son of the Rev. Neil K. McLennan, a native of 
 Middle River, Cape Breton. He received his primary education at Lake 
 Ainslie, his secondary education at Inverness Academy and his classical 
 and theological education at Queens College, Kingston. He graduated 
 B. A. in the spring of 1916, and as B. D. in the spring of 1918. He was 
 licensed by the Presbytery of Kingston on the 25th of April, 1918, and or- 
 dained and inducted at St. Peter's on Sept. the 25th, 1918. 
 
 The first church was built at St. Peter's in 1873, but only stood for a 
 few weeks when it was blown down by the great gale of August the 24th in 
 that year. It was subsequently rebuilt and served its purpose until the 
 present church was erected in 1888. The St. Peter's Manse was built in 
 the year 1893. 
 
 St. Peter's has not given any ministers to our Canadian Church. The 
 Rev. A. J. McDonald grew up here, but his birth-place was Malagawatch. 
 
 184 
 
Little Narrows and Its Ministry. 
 
 The early settlers at Little Narrows came here between 1812 and 1820 
 and chiefly from the island of Lewis, Scotland. 
 
 The Little Narrows congregation was included in the congregation of 
 Whycocomagh from the year 1837 when the Rev. Peter McLean came to 
 Cape Breton until the year 1870. In the latter year Little Narrows was 
 separated from Whycocomagh and attached to Middle River. On Dec. 
 the 6th 1870 Lake Ainslie was separated 'rom the Middle River and formed 
 into a new and independent congregation. This change left Middle River 
 too weak to be self-sustaining and Little Narrows was added to make it 
 strong enough to maintain a minister. At the same time Whycocomagh 
 was constituted a self-sustaining congregation under the ministry of the 
 Rev. Murdoch Stewart. 
 
 The Little Narrows remained in connection with the Middle River 
 until the 7th of June 1893, when the connection was dissolved and both 
 became independent congregations, and so remain until the present time. 
 
 The Rev. Peter McLean ministered to the people of Little Narrows 
 from 1837 to 1842, when, on account of broken health, he left Cape Breton 
 and returned to Scotland. 
 
 The Rev. Charles Ross succeeded Mr. McLean in the pastorate of 
 Whycocomagh and Little Narrows in the year, 1857, after a vacancy of 
 fifteen years. Mr. Ross was minister of this charge until the year 1864. 
 In the year 1868, the Rev. Murdoch Stewart was inducted into the pastor- 
 ate of Whycocomagh and Little Narrows. In the year 1871, Mr. Stewart 
 resigned the Little Narrows part of the congregation on account the labor in- 
 volved in ministering to that section, and confined his ministrations to Why- 
 cocomagh. There upon LittleNarrows was connected with the Middle River. 
 
 In November 1871, the Rev. Adam McKay was inducted into the 
 charge of Middle River and Little Narrows. Mr. McKay also preached 
 at Malagawatch on the afternoon of the Sabbaths he was at Little Narrows. 
 After a very strenuous and successful ministry of four years, Mr. McKay 
 received a call from Ripley, Ontario and left Cape Breton for that field in 
 Sept. 1875. His departure was followed by a vacancy of two years, when 
 the congregation called the Rev. Alexander McRae. He was ordained 
 and inducted by the Presbytery on the 7th of June 1877. 
 
 Mr. McRae was a native of the island of Lewis, Scotland. He con- 
 tinued to serve the Little Narrows and the Middle River with commend- 
 able diligence until the 7th of June 1883, when on account of age and in- 
 firmity he resigned the charge and retired from the active ministry. Mr. 
 McRae spent the remainder of his life at the Inlet,between Baddeck and 
 Nyanza. He departed this life on the 80th day of Oct., 1904 and his re- 
 mains Were buried at the Little Narrows Cemetery. On June the 7th 1893, 
 Little Narrows was separated from the Middle River and both were con- 
 stituted into independent charges. 
 
 The first minister of Little Narrows congregation was the Rev. Rod- 
 
 185 
 
erick S. McLeod. He was a Lewlsman and he was educated in Scotland. 
 He was inducted into the charge of Little Narrows on the 29th of Jan. 
 1888. On the Slst of Oct. 1890 Mr. McLeod resigned and returned to 
 Scotland. His ministry was not a happy one, either for himself or for the 
 congregation. Instead of confining his attention to his ministerial duties 
 exclusively he assumed the duties of the Managers as well and also the 
 duties of the collectors and treasurer. Of course there was trouble involved 
 in such a line of action and his resignation became a necessity. During 
 Mr. MeLeod's ministry the first manse was built on the north side of the 
 Narrows. This manse was too far from church and school and inconven- 
 iently located. The next minister of Little Narrows was the Rev. Duncan 
 Campbell, a Scotchman and a Lewisman. We have not been able to as- 
 certain either the date of Mr. Campbell's induction or resignation, but his 
 ministry only lasted about two years. 
 
 During most of this time he was in a nervous condition bordering on 
 insanity and hence incapacitated for the duties of the pastorate. After 
 his resignation, Mr. Campbell returned to Scotland. 
 
 The third minister of Little Narrows was the Rev.Donald McLeod, 
 M. A. He also was a native of the Island of Lewis. He was inducted into 
 the church at Little Narrows on the month of October 1907. Mr. McLeod 
 is now minister of the Mira congregation and a fuller biographical notice of 
 him will be found in our account of that congregation. Mr. McLeod was 
 translated to the Presbytery of Sydney and inducted at Union Church 
 Mira in Dec. 1905. 
 
 The fourth minister of Little Narrows was the Rev. T. R. Davidson, 
 M. A,, Ph. D. 
 
 Mr. Davidson is of Scottish birth. The reader will find a fuller 
 account of Mr. Davidson under the article on Gabarus, where Mr. David- 
 son is now minister. 
 
 The Rev. P. K. McRae followed Mr. Davidson. His induction took 
 place on the 2nd of March 1909. In 1913 he accepted a call to Lament in 
 the Presbytery of Vermilion, Alberta. For a more particular account of 
 Mr. McRae the reader is referred to our account of Baddeck Forks and its 
 ministry. The present manse, on the south side of the Little Narrows, 
 was built in Mr. McRae's time. Mr. McRae did good work at the Little 
 Narrows and his ministry is still affectionately remembered. 
 
 The next minister of the Little Narrows was the Rev. Alexander Fer- 
 guson, M. A., a native of Port Morien, C. B. The reader is referred to our 
 article on West Bay and its ministry for a more detailed account of Mr. 
 Ferguson and his work in connection with our church in C. B. He re- 
 signed the charge of Little Narrows on the Slst of March, 1920. Some 
 months later he accepted a call to Earltown in the Presbytery of Wallace. 
 
 There is but one church in this country congregation. It was built 
 in the year 1856 and opened for divine service on the 24th of March 1857. 
 It stands on the north side of the Narrows, although two thirds of the con- 
 gregation live on the south side and are under the necessity of using a 
 ferry boat to get to their church. 
 
 186 
 
It is to be hoped that a bridge will be built at this point in the near 
 future. During the summer of 1919, the Little Narrows Church was re- 
 novated internally as well as externally. It is now a very handsome as 
 Well as comfortable place of worship. 
 
 The following ministers were born at or near the Little Narrows, viz; 
 D. C. McLeod, D. D., St. Lewis, U. S., John Mclvor, D. D. U. S., J. J. 
 McAskill, Montreal, John S. McKay, Angus Mclnnes and Daniel McLeod 
 all in the United States. 
 
 187 
 
Margaree and Its Ministry 
 
 This congregation has great length but small breadth. It extends 
 from the head of the Big Intervale of the Margaree River to Margaree 
 Harbor, at the mouth of that river, a distance of twenty-five miles, and 
 then westward along the shore to Chimney Corner, a distance of from 
 eight to ten miles more. The Presbyterians are found in small groups 
 along this distance of thirty-five miles. There are seven or eight families 
 at Chimney Corner, four or five at Whale Cove, twenty-five or thirty at 
 Margaree Harbor, three or four at Margaree Forks, a few at the North 
 East Margaree, and twenty-five or thirty at the Big Intervale. 
 
 The Protestant Families at North East Margaree are nearly all con- 
 gregationalists. There are thirty or forty families of these in all, at the 
 North East, where they have a church and minister of their own. There 
 is every prospect that the Prebyterians and the congregationalists on this 
 magnificent river will ere long be one congregation. Such a union would 
 be greatly in the interests of Protestantism and true religion in the Mar- 
 garee Valley. The first Protestant settlers on the Margaree River were 
 United Empire Loyalists who found their way to the North East after the 
 American Revolution. The congregationalists of today are the descend- 
 ants of these loyalists. 
 
 Presbyterians from the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland 
 began to arrive in this part of Cape Breton as early as the year 1810. One 
 Hector McKay came to Chimney Corner in that year, and there are six 
 families of McKays there today, and all descendants of that original Mc- 
 Kay. One John McLean came to Whale Cove in 1827 and his descendants 
 are found there at the present time The cemetery at Whale Cove is on 
 the site of the first clearing made by John McLean. 
 
 The first Presbyterian Church built within the bounds of the congre- 
 gation was built where this cemetery is situated in the year 1830. A sec- 
 ond church was built at this Cove in 1869, but on a different site. This 
 building is still standing, but has not been in use since 1887, when a church 
 was built at Margaree Harbor, a couple of miles distant from the Cove. 
 
 Gaelic speaking people, chiefly from the Isle of Skye, began to arrive 
 at the Big Intervale in 1827 and they continued to come until about 1840. 
 The first of these was a man by the name of Angus Ross. His son Murdoch 
 Ross is still alive in the hundredth year of his age, and living on the farm 
 cleared by his father in those early days. One of the earliest settlers at the 
 Harbor was a lowlander from Saltcoats, Scotland, by the name of Henry 
 Taylor. He came here in 1808, and for many years he conducted a large 
 business in fish and fishermen's supplies. He died in 1853 and his grave is 
 still to be seen in the old cemetery at Whale Cove. Mr. Taylor was noted 
 for his hospitality, especially to Presbyterians who might pass that way. 
 
 Aeneas McLean, was the first Presbyterian minister that ever went to 
 Chimney Corner, Whale Cove, Margaree Harbor or the upper reaches of 
 
 188 
 
the Margaree River. This was in 1831 or 1832, while he was stationed at 
 Broadcove. 
 
 The Rev. Alexander Farquharson had the people at the Big Intervale 
 under his care during the time he was minister at Middle River, between 
 1834 and 1858. 
 
 The Rev. Alexander Grant of Lake Ainslie had charge of Chimney 
 Corner, Whale Cove, Margaree Harbour, and the Big Intervale from 1871 
 when he was settled at Lake Ainslie until 1880 when he resigned those dis- 
 tant places on account of the labour involved in attending to them. 
 
 Prom 1880 to 1895 this extensive field was supplied with the means of 
 grace to some extent, by means of probationers, students, and catechists, 
 more particularly during the summer season. In the summer of 1894 
 Mr. A. M. Thompson was catechist on this river and he did such excellent 
 work that, on his graduation from the Presbyterian College in the following 
 spring, he received a hearty and unanimous call to be the first minister of the 
 congregation. Mr. Thompson was ordained and inducted on June the 
 5th, 1895. He spent the next four years with this people and his ministry 
 was greatly appreciated and blessed. On May the 10th, 1899, Mr. Thomp- 
 son was translated to the Presbjrtery of Pictou and shortly thereafter in- 
 ducted minister of Ferona, Pictou County. 
 
 Mr. Thompson was a native of Kennetcook, Hants Co., N. S. He 
 studied at Dalhousie University and the Presbyterian College. He is now 
 minister of the Presbyterian church in Houlton, Maine, U. S. 
 
 After a vacancy of five or six months the Rev. W. B. Morrison, a native 
 of Loch Lomond, was appointed ordained missionary on the Margaree. 
 This was on Oct. 24th, 1899. Early in 1903 Mr. Morrison resigned and 
 went to Jamaica. He is now in charge of our cause at Grand Falls, New- 
 foundland. 
 
 In November, 1903, the Rev. R. H. McPherson was appointed or- 
 dained missionary in Margaree by the Presbytery of Inverness. Mr. 
 McPherson remained on the river until December, 1906, when he accepted 
 a call to Marble Mountain, where he was inducted on the 3rd of July, 1907. 
 Mr. McPherson was a native of Malagawatch. He obtained his education 
 chiefly in Bangor, Maine. 
 
 The Rev. William McLeod followed Mr. Morrison at Margaree, as 
 ordained missionary. He was appointed on Jan. 22nd, 1907, for one year. 
 Mr.McLeod's life and work is spoken of in connection with Leitche's Creek. 
 
 The next minister of this congregation was the Rev. John D. Mc- 
 Farlane, who was called from Cape North and inducted on October the 
 20th, 1908. 
 
 Mr. McFarlane and his work is spoken of more particularly in con- 
 nection with Loch Lomond and the reader is referred to that chapter. 
 
 The church at Big Intervale was built in the year 1868. The manse 
 is located at the Harbour and was built in the year 1904 during the ministry 
 of the Rev. R. H. McPherson. 
 
 189 
 
Marion Bridge and its Ministry. 
 
 This congregation was organized by the Presbytery of Sydney on Jan. 
 10th, 1898, in answer to a petition from the Presbyterians living in the 
 vicinity of Marion Bridge. The people of this community were originally 
 an imporant part of the great Mira congregation. The earliest settlers on 
 this part of the Mira River, came from the island of North Uist between 
 1824 and 1834. They bore the name of McNeil, McPherson, McLean, 
 Morrison, Lamond, McDonald, Ferguson, McOdrum, etc. They were 
 a reverent. God-fearing people and their descendants have not departed 
 from the good old paths in which their fathers walked so humbly, prayer- 
 fully and uprightly. 
 
 The first Presbyterian minister to visit them and break the bread of 
 life to them, so far as the record goes, was the Rev. John Stewart. Mr. 
 Stewart came here in Nov. 1834 and preached several times about a mile 
 to the east of where Marion Bridge now spans the Mira river. There was 
 no place of worship here at that time and Mr. Stewart urged the people 
 to build a church as speedily as possible. They took his advice and two 
 years thereafter a small church was built and finished outside. It was 
 never finished inside. This church was in use until 1858 when the big 
 church at Louisburg Ferry was built and this one was closed. Between 
 1858 and 1887 all the Presbyterians on the Upper Mira as far as Sanfield 
 worshipped in Union Church at the Ferry. Good people from Morley's 
 Road walked 30 miles in going and coming to Union Church; in 1887, 
 however, St. Columba Church was built at Marion Bridge for the conven- 
 ience of the large population living in this part of the Mira congregation. 
 This church was dedicated to the worship of God on the 1st day of January, 
 1888. It cost about $5,500. There is a manse at Marion Bridge also. It 
 was built in 1898, during the pastorate of Mr. McOdrum at a cost of 
 $3,500. The Rev. Donald McOdrum was the first minister of the Marion 
 Bridge congregation. His ordination and induction took place at St. 
 Columba Church on the 11th of June 1894. Mr. McOdrum was born at 
 Mineral Rock within the bounds of the congregation. He is the grandson 
 and namesake of Donald McOdrum one of the earliest settlers and one of 
 .the first elders ordained in the Mira congregation. Mr. McOdrum Sr. was 
 a man of distinguished christian character. At the beginning of last cen- 
 tury, religious life in many parts of Scotland and the Hebrides was in a 
 very flourishing condition, and many of the people who were compelled 
 to leave their native land and seek homes for themselves beyond the sea, 
 were truly pious. They brought their piety with them to Cape Breton, 
 and they were sources of light and life where ever their lot was cast. It was 
 from among these men that the catechists and elders of pioneer days were 
 chosen. 
 
 The Rev. Donald McOdrum studied at Pictou Academy, Dalhousie 
 University and the Presbyterian College. After graduating from this 
 college in the spring of 1899, Mr. McOdrum was called to Marion Bridge, 
 
 190 
 
and on the 6th of June he was ordained and inducted into the pastorate 
 of St. Columba Church. Two and ahalf years in this congregation proved 
 Mr. McOdrum to be fitted to fill a larger sphere. On Feb. the 12th 1900 
 he received a call to Moncton iii the Presbytery of St. John. This call he 
 accepted and he was translated thither by the Presbytery of Cape Breton. 
 
 After Mr McOdrum's departure, this congregation called the Rev. W. 
 A. Fraser, a recent graduate of our own College to be its second minister. 
 Mr. Fraser was a native of Big Harbor, Victoria Co., where he was born in 
 the year 1868. He prepared for the ministry by studying at Baddeck 
 Academy, Sydney Academy, Queens University, Kingston and the Pres- 
 byterian College, Montreal. 
 
 He was licensed by the Presbytery of Halifax in May 1902 and or- 
 dained and inducted as minister of Marion Bridge on May the 20th, 1907. 
 Mr. Fraser laboured in this congregation with great faithfulness until the 
 25th of Sept. 1906, when he was compelled to resign on account of failing 
 health. After spending some time in Graniteville, Vermont, U. S. A. he 
 went to Colorado Springs in the hope of prolonging his life. But all was 
 in vain. He died on a train on Jan. the 18th 1906, a victim of tuberculosis; 
 and he was buried among strangers at Holly, a few days later. Mr. Fraser 
 was a man of a very fine christian spirit, and he was very much esteemed 
 and loved by all who knew him. 
 
 The Rev. Angus McMillan succeeded Mr. Fraser in the pastorate of 
 this congregation. Mr. McMillan came to St. Columba after a long and 
 successful experience in the christian ministry in two of our Cape Breton 
 congregations. Mr. McMillan is a native of this island. He was born at 
 Big Hill, St. Ann's in the year 1848. He studied at Baddeck and Sydney 
 Academies. His Arts Course was taken at Dalhousie College and his 
 theological course at the Presbyterian College, from which he graduated in 
 the spring of 1881. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Prince Edward 
 Island shortly after graduation. 
 
 Mr. McMillan's first charge was at Malagawatch and River Denys, 
 where he was ordained and inducted on he 23rd of Jan. 1882. After 
 eleven years of hard work in this charge he accepted a call to West Bay, 
 and was inducted at Black River in 1893. Here he spent the next fifteen 
 years and rendered excellent service to that congregation. In Sept. 1908, 
 Mc. McMillan accepted a call to St. Columba Church, ivlarion Bridge and 
 his induction took place on the 30th day of that month. He is here still, 
 and he is serving his Master with diligence, perseverance, patience and 
 wisdom. 
 
 The Marion Bridge congregation has given four good men to the minis- 
 try of the Presbyterian Church, viz., Donald McOdrum, Donald McGuire, 
 John H. Mclnnes and Alexander Morrison. 
 
 191 
 
St. James*, Sydney and its Ministry. 
 
 St. James' Church, Sydney, was organized on the 3rd day of July,1900. 
 There were only a few Presbyterian families on the north east side of 
 Muggah's Creek previous to 1892, when the Dominion Coal Company was 
 formed, and began to ship coal at the old International pier in this vicinity. 
 
 Most of the Presbyterians that were here had come from St. Ann's 
 about ten years earlier and bought farms that were in the market at a very 
 low price. Town lots in Sydney, and farms in the vicinity of Sydney went 
 a begging for a purchaser in those days. Among those who came from St. 
 Ann's and bought land in this quarter were Allan iVlcLeod, John McDonald, 
 John Morrison and Donald McLennan. These all worshipped in St. An- 
 drew's Church, Sydney. In the year 1899, the Domionion Iron and Steel 
 Company, Limited, was organized and began to build its blast furnaces, 
 coke ovens and rolling mills immediately to the east of Muggah's Creek. 
 The result was a very large addition to the population of this part of the city, 
 and of course a goodly proportion of the newcomers were of the Presbyter- 
 ian Faith, and required attention from the Presbyterian Church. In these 
 circumstances, St. Andrew's Church, with which a majority of these people 
 were more or less connected, applied to the Presbytery for assistance in 
 supplying the religious needs of a rapidly growing Presbyterian population. 
 
 The Presbytery thereupon, made an arrangement by which the Rev. 
 F. C. Simpson, who was then assisting the Rev. John F. Forbes, minister 
 of St. Andrew's Church, should give half his time and labor to the 'Pier 
 District" as it was then called. 
 
 This arrangement continued from Nov. 1st, 1899 to June the 1st, 19Q0, 
 when this district was constituted into a Home Mission Field. One month 
 later, however, on July 3rd, 1900, on account of the promising outlook 
 and the rapid growth of the Presbyterian population, the Presbytery de- 
 termined to organize a Presbyterian Church here to be known by the name 
 of St. James' Church. Since that date, the city of Sydney has had three 
 Presbyterian Churches within its bounds, viz. St. Andrew's, Falmouth 
 St., and St. James. The Rev. Frank Baird was missionary during the 
 short time this field was a mission station. 
 
 The first minister of St. James' Church was the Rev. A. J. McDonald, 
 B. A. Mr. McDonald was a native of Malagawatch, C. B., where he was 
 born on the 2nd of June, 1866. He is a graduate in Arts, of Dalhousie 
 University, and in Theology of the Presbyterian College, Halifax. He 
 graduated in Arts in 1892, and in Theology in the spring of 1894. He was 
 licensed by the Presbytery of Sydney in June the 6th, 1894, and on that 
 same day he was ordained and inducted as minister of the St. Ann's and 
 Englishtown congregation. 
 
 After a short pastorate at St. Ann's, and a longer pastorate at Union 
 Centre and Lochaber in the Presbytery of Pictou, Mr. McDonald was 
 called to St. James' Church and inducted by the Presbytery of Sydney, on 
 the 3rd day of July 1901. Mr. McDonald's ministry in St. James' con- 
 
 192 
 
tinued to August the 31st, 1909 when he was translated to the Presbytery 
 of Truro, and inducted into the First Church, Truro, on the 9th of Septem- 
 ber following. After some years in Truro, Mr. McDonald received and 
 accepted a call to Lunenburg, where he remained until the year 1915, when 
 he received an appointment as Chaplain to the 85th Highlanders, and went 
 overseas to do duty for his King and Country against the Germans. When 
 the war was over, after rendering admirable service as chaplain, Mr. Mc- 
 Donald accepted a call to Bridgewater where he is engaged in the service 
 of the -King of kings. 
 
 The second minister of St. James was the Rev. John Mcintosh, D. D., 
 who was inducted on the 5th of November, 1909. He is still in charge, 
 doing faithful and effective work. 
 
 Mr. Mcintosh, like Mr. McDonald, is a native of Malagawatch 
 wherehe was born on the 27th of December, 1865. He took his Arts course 
 in Dalhousie University, and graduated Master of Arts in the spring of 
 1894. His theological studies were taken in the Presbyterian College from 
 which he graduated as a Bachelor of Divinity in April, 1897. Mr. Mcintosh 
 was licensed by the Presbytery of Halifax immediately after graduation, 
 and some weeks later h« was ordained and inducted at Kennetcook as 
 Ordained Missionary of Gore and Kennetcook congregation. Six months 
 later, Mr. Mcintosh received a call to St. Columba Church in the Presby- 
 tery of Pictou, where he was inducted in April, 1898. Mr. Mcintosh was 
 minister of St. Columba until 1907 when he accepted a call to Boulardarie 
 congregation in this island. His induction took place at St. James Church, 
 Big Bras d'Or in July, 1907. The work in this large and laborious charge 
 proving too much for Mr. Mcintosh's strength, on October the 19th, 1909, 
 he accepted a call to St. James Church, Sydney, where he was inducted on 
 Nov. 5th, 1909, where he is still, and where he is doing excellent work for 
 the congregation and for the Master. 
 
 The first church was built in the year 1901. This church was de- 
 stroyed by fire on July the 29th, 1906. But the people lost no time in re- 
 placing it with anotherand a better one. The corner stone was laid on 
 July the 1st, 1907, and on the 2nd of October, 1907, the new church was 
 dedicated to the worship of God. 
 
 The congregation has a good manse on a fine site overlooking Sydney 
 Harbor. This manse was built in the year 1902, during the ministry of the 
 Rev. A. J. McDonald. 
 
 And just here it is fitting that something should be said about St. 
 Mark's Church, a church that the Presbytery amalgamated with St. James 
 Church in 1919. 
 
 This Mission Church was started on Laurier Street near the Coke 
 Ovens by Falmouth Street Church, in March, 1901, in order to bring the 
 means of grace to a growing population in that vicinity. 
 
 This mission had a varied experience during its existence of eighteen 
 years. It passed from a mission station to an Ordained Mission Status 
 and then to the status of an Augmented Charge. It was served by a num- 
 ber of excellent men while passing through these different stages; e. g. 
 
 193 
 
E. S. Ramsay, A. P. Logan, A. F. Thompson, J. A. Greenlees R. J. Cap- 
 bell and William McKenzie. But after all the time, effort, and montsy ex- 
 pended on St. Mark's, our cause at this point never became firmly estab- 
 lished. This fact was no doubt, diie to the heterogeneous character of the 
 people that crowded into that community. Few Presbyterians cared to 
 remain there for any length of time. Finally the Presbytery abandoned 
 the effort, and put the few people connected with St. Mark's under the care 
 of St. James, on Feb. the 4th, 1919. 
 
 The Rev. J. A. Greenlees mifiistered to our people at St. Mark's from 
 Nov. 25th, 1902, to Mai-. 16th, 1911. Mr. Greenlees was a Scotchman 
 born in the city of Glasgow, a Master of Arts of Glasgow University, 
 from which he graduated in the year 1889. He studied theology in the 
 Glasgow University for two years, and in the Presbyterian College, Halifax, 
 for a third, graduating in the spring of 1891. 
 
 He was licensed by the Presbytery of Halifax on April the 26th, 1891, 
 and ordained at New Mills, N. B., on the 8th of December, following. 
 After a ministry of four years at St. Peter's, C. B.— 1894 to 1898,— in 
 1899, Mr Greenlees took a post graduate course at the Presbyterian Col- 
 lege, London, England. On his return, he went, by appointment of the 
 Home Mission Board, to Wabana, Nfld., where he spent the next three 
 years. After leaving Sydney in 1911, Mr. Greenlees was settled at Upper 
 Stewiacke for one year. Then he did missionary work at Grand Falls, 
 Nfld. In Dec. 1914, Mr. Greenlees was called to Georgetown, P. E. I. 
 where he is still. 
 
 The Rev. A. F. Thompson also labored diligently in St. Mark's for a 
 period of two years. Mr. Thompson was inducted at St. Mark's as 
 ordained Missionary on Jan. 18th, 1912. He demitted the charge, and 
 retired from the ministry on Feb. 28th 1914. He died at Truro, some time 
 later. The Rev. A. P. Logan was born at North Sydney, and graduated 
 from our own Nova Scotian Educational Institutions. After several pas- 
 torates in several parts of the province, he was inducted at St. Mark's on the 
 24th of May, 1914. On the 3rd of August 1915, he resigned the charge 
 and left the Island. 
 
 St. James' Church has not, so far, given any young men to the minis- 
 try of our church. It is a deplorable fact that we rarely get young men from 
 our town and city congregations to consecrate their lives to the greatest 
 of all callings, to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ to a lost world. 
 
 194 
 
Loulsburg and its Ministry. 
 
 This congregation was raised to the status of an independent charge 
 on the 17th of July, 1900, after a long and tedious struggle for existence. 
 
 Although Louisburg is one of the oldest and most famous commun- 
 ities in Cape Breton, there were very few Presbyterians in the town until 
 1872, when the Glasgow and Cape Breton Railway Company extended its 
 railway from Reserve Mines to Louisburg, built a pier there, and began to 
 ship coal in the old French Harbor. After that time Presbyterians began 
 to come in from the surrounding settlements and make homes for them- 
 selves here. 
 
 In the year 1873, the Rev. David Drummond, who was then minister 
 of Gabarus, gave an occasional service in a private house to the half dozen 
 families that were in the place at that time. 
 
 About this time. Cape Breton began to experience a period of. stag- 
 nation in the coal trade, of extreme severity. A number of collieries were 
 closed. The Glasgow and Cape Breton Company was forced into liquid- 
 ation, and Louisburg relapsed practically into a fishing village. This period 
 of stagnation continued until well on in the eighties. It was not till the 
 year 1889 that the Presbytery of Sydney felt justified in constituting Louis- 
 burg into a Mission Station. By that time there were thirteen Presbyter- 
 ian families in the town. Louisburg continued to be merely a Mission Sta- 
 tion until the year 1897. During these seven or eight years, a number of 
 excellent young catechists labored in this Mission Field during the summer 
 season. Among them were Louis Jordan, D. O. McKay, Duncan Mc- 
 Millan, W. A. Morrison, K. J. McDonald, and John Mcintosh. 
 
 In October, 1897,Louisburg was advanced to the Status of an Ordained 
 Mission Charge, and Mr. John B. Falconer, of Sydney was ordained and 
 inducted as missionary for one year. 
 
 Mr. L. H. McLean of Strathlorne was ordained and inducted as the 
 second missionary of Louisburg, on May the 25th, 1899. During all this 
 time the people of Louisburg had no church. They met for worship first of 
 all in private houses, then in a school house, and later in a building kjiown 
 as Mitchell's Hall. In June, 1892, the Presbytery selected a site for a 
 church and a manse. During that same summer the Lord's Supper was 
 dispensed for the first time to the few members of the Presbyterian 
 Church, who were living there the by the Rev. David Drummond of 
 Gabarus. 
 
 The present church was built on the site chosen by the Presbytery in 
 the year 1894 at a cost of $3000. It was dedicated by several members of 
 the Presbytery on June the 10th, 1896. The manse was built in the year 
 1902, during the ministry of the Rev. Murdoch Buchannan. It stands be- 
 side the church, and is a very superior building. 
 
 The Rev. Murdoch Buchannan, B. A., was the first minister of the 
 Louisburg Congregation. He was ordained and inducted on the 17th of 
 
 195 
 
July, 1900. But unhappily, his ministry was very short. He died of 
 tuberculosis at Brooklyne, Mass., U. S. He went there in search of health, 
 but he became suddenly worse instead of better, and passed away on tlie 
 28th of April, 1905. Mr. Buchannan was born at Big Hill, St. Ann's, on 
 Dec. the 26th, 1869. After his conversion, in early life, he resolved to 
 study for the ministry and devote his life to the preaching of the Gospel. 
 After studying at Baddeck Academy for a term and at Sydney Academy 
 for a second term, he matriculated into Dalhou'sie University in the autumn 
 of 1894. He graduated as Bachelor of Arts in April, 1898. He studied 
 theology at the Presbyterian College, and graduated from that institution 
 in April, 1900. 
 
 During Mr. Buchannan's ministry, the congregation became self- 
 sustaining and began to realize it's mission. The families and members 
 multiplied, and the liberality of the congregation increased, in proportion. 
 
 In September, 1900, Kennington Cove was detached from Gabarus 
 and connected with Louisburg. This Cove is made famous by the landing 
 of General Wolfe at this point on June the 8th, 1768, a few weeks before 
 Louisburg was finally surrendered to the British Forces on July the 27th, 
 of that year. 
 
 There is a neat little church at Kennington Cove in which a service is 
 held once a month by the pastor of Louisburg. 
 
 The Rev. John McKinnon, B. A., B. D., succeeded Mr. Buchannan as 
 pastor of Calvin Church. He, too, is a Cape Bretonian, having been born 
 at West Lake Ainslie in the year 1856. Mr. McKinnon is a graduate in 
 both Arts and Theology of Queen's University. He graduated in Arts in 
 1894, and in Theology in 1897, when he obtained the degree of Bachelor of 
 Divinity. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Glengarry on the 4th of 
 May, 1897, and he was ordained and inducted by that same Presbytery, 
 into the charge of Dalhousie Mills twenty-one days later. 
 
 Having accepted a call to Mira and Catalone, Mr. McKinnon was 
 inducted into that charge by the Presbytery of Sydney, in Union Church, 
 Albert Bridge, on the 27th of January, 1903. After rendering good service 
 in this congregation for nearly three years, Mr. McKinnon accepted a call 
 to Calvin Church, Louisburg. His induction into this charge took place 
 on the 12th of Sept., 1905. On Dec. the 31st, 1913, he accepted a call to the 
 congregation of Baddeck in the Presbytery of Inverness, and was duly in- 
 ducted in Greenwood Church, Baddeck, on the 7th of January, 1914. 
 
 The next minister of Louisburg was the Rev. D. A. McMillan. He 
 also, is a Lake Ainslie man. 
 
 He took his Arts course at Dalhousie University, and his Theological 
 Course at the Presbyterian College, Halifax. He graduated from the 
 University in 1913, and from the College in April, 1915. He was licensed 
 by the Presbytery of Halifax on the 28th of April in that year. On the 
 27th of May, 1915, Mr. McMillan was ordained and inducted into the pas- 
 toral charge of Louisburg congregation, where he is still. Under his faith- 
 ful ministry, this congregations has prospered materially and spiritually. 
 
 This congregation, like all our congregations, owes much of its success 
 
 196 
 
to its loyal, generous laymen, and especially to its Elders. The latter have 
 been men of good judgment, fine christian character, and much zeal in 
 forwarding the interests of the Kingdom of God in connection with Calvin 
 Church. 
 
 Two young men from Louisburg are studying for the ministry of our 
 Church viz., A. E. Kerr and J. A. Nicholson. 
 
 
 197 
 
Reserve Mines and Its Ministry. 
 
 This congregation was constituted an independent charge on the 30th 
 day of October, 1901. 
 
 The locality where the Reserve Collisry is now situated was under forest 
 until the year 1871, when miiiing operations were commenced by a company 
 of British capitalists, which was known as "The Glasgow and Cape Breton 
 Company." This company had millions of borrowed capital at its dis- 
 posal. But it spent its money recklessly and the consequence was that 
 in less than three years it became bankrupt and thousands of working men 
 were out of employment. A few years later, ahother British Company, by 
 the name of "The Sydney and Louisburg Company," got possession of the 
 colliery and began to develop its mineral wealth. But after working the 
 mine for a couple of years, it also went into liquidation and a large popula- 
 tion was once more without anything to do. This fine coal property con- 
 tinued to a large extent in this unsatisfactory condition until 1893, when the 
 Dominion Coal Company got possession of it. Since that time this col- 
 liery has been one of the best coal producers on the island. 
 
 When the Reserve Mines was originally opened, it was within the bounds 
 of the St. Paul's congregation, Glace Bay, and the Rev. A. Farquharson 
 supplied the Presbyterian population with more or less services. From 
 1875, when Mr. Farquharson left St. Paul's for St. Andrew's, Sydney, until 
 May 1882, when the Rev. James A. Forbes began his work at-Glace Bay, 
 our people at the Reserve Mines received but few services. During the 
 greater part of that time there was no mining and the Presbyterian popula- 
 tion was but small. In 1882 the depression that had prevailed for seven or 
 eight years, in the Cape Breton coal trade, began to pass away and popula- 
 tion began to return to this colliery. 
 
 Mr. Forbes gave a monthly service to Reserve Mines, from the time of 
 his settlement in St. Pauls' until Jan. 1st 1892,when Bridgeport and Reserve 
 Mines were organized into a new and separate charge. For several years 
 the services were conducted in the Reserve School house, but in the year 
 1885 the people built a church at Lorway and named it "The Gordon Me- 
 morial Church" in memory of the hero of Khartum. 
 
 The Rev. J. A. McGlashen was minister of Bridgeport and Reserve 
 Mines from 1893 to 1901 when these Mines were separated from Bridge- 
 port and formed into a new congregation. 
 
 The Rev. C. C. Mcintosh, B. A., was the first minister of Reserve 
 Mines congregation. His ordination and induction took place on the 
 2nd day of January 1902. 
 
 Mr. Mcintosh is a Cape Bretonian. He was born at Malagawatch on 
 the 25th of Feb. 1871. His education for the ministry of our church was 
 obtained at Pictou Academy, Dalhousie University and the Presbyterian 
 College, Halifax. 
 
 Mr. Mcintosh's pastorate at Reserve Mines continued for. five years 
 and four months. At the end of that time he received a call from the 
 
 198 
 
congregation of Baddeck in the Presbytery of Inverness and was translated 
 thither by the Presbytery of Sydney on the 16th of April, 1908. Mr. Mc- 
 intosh's pastorate at Reserve Mines was crowded with work, well and 
 faithfully performed. During those busy years, he proved himself to be 
 possessed of qualities that fitted him for wider spheres of usefulness. 
 
 The congregation did not remain long vacant. On the 23rd of July 
 1908, the Rev. D. J. Nicholson was inducted as minister of the charge. 
 Mr. Nicholson was likewise a Cape Bretonian, having been born at Jersey 
 Cove, North Shore, St. Ann's on Oct. the 6th 1872. He entered Dalhousie 
 University in the fall of 1898 and graduated in the Spring of 1902, as a 
 Bachelor of Arts. 
 
 After a three years' course in Theology at the Presbyterian College, 
 he graduated on April the 20th 1905. He was licensed by the Presbytery 
 a few weeks later. On the 23rd of May 1905. Mr. Nicholson was ordained 
 and inducted by the Presbytery of Pictou as minister of Union Center and 
 Lochaber. Three years later he was called to Reserve Mines, where he was 
 inducted on the 20th of July 1908. Mr. Nicholson was minister of this 
 charge until April the 15th 1918 when he was translated to the Presbytery 
 of Pictou and inducted as pastor of Union Church, Hopewell. About this 
 time Mr. Nicholson's health began to fail and by Dec. 1919 he was under 
 the necessity of resigning Union Church and taking a rest. 
 
 Mr. Nicholson's successor at Reserve Mines was the Rev. Charles 
 H. Ballard. He was born in England, came to Canada in the year 1909. 
 He studied theology at Queen's College, Kingston, and was licensed by the 
 Presbytery of Kingston on the 2nd of April 1917. Mr. Ballard was in- 
 ducted at Gordon Memorial Church on July the iBth 1918. He spent the 
 winter of 1919-20 in post graduate work in the University of Chicago with 
 the permission of his congregation and leave of absence of the Presbytery. 
 
 This congregation has a good manse. It was built in 1904 during the 
 ministry of the Rev. C. C. Mcintosh. 
 
 The Rev. A. F .McDonald of New Annan is the only minister that this 
 congregation has given to the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 199 
 
Knox, Glace Bay and Its Ministry 
 
 Unlike most of our churches in Cape Breton, Knox Church, Glace Bay- 
 had no infancy and very little youth. It came into existence as a full 
 grown congregation on the 16th of September, 1903, with 112 members, 
 152 families and 700 adherents. Previous to that time these members, 
 families and adherents, were connected with St. Paul's Church, but for 
 reasons that need not be mentioned here, they came to the conclusion that 
 they could do more and better work for the Presbyterian church, as well as 
 for themselves, by being formed into a new and distinct charge. 
 
 On the 31st of August, 1903, Rev. James A. Forbes and the Rev. 
 William Meikle, who had been joint pastors of St. Paul's Church since May, 
 1901, laid their resignations on the table of the Presbytery. These resigna- 
 tions were in due time accepted and St. Paul's church ipso facto became 
 vacant. This vacancy cleared the ground for a new arrangement of the 
 Presbyterian forces in Glace Bay. Those who believed that a second con- 
 gregation should be formed in the town lost no time in pressing this matter 
 to the front. Accordingly those in sympathy with such a movement ap- 
 peared before the Presbytery of Sydney at its next meeting, on the 2nd of 
 September, with a petition signed by 370 persons, all members or adherents 
 of St. Paul's Church praying that they might be organized into a new Pres- 
 byterian congregation in the town of Glace Bay. 
 
 After due consideration and investigation, the Presbytery at a meeting 
 held on the 16th day of September, granted the prayer of the petition and 
 constituted the petitioners a new congregation. The first service by this 
 new congregation was held in Victoria hall on the following Sabbath and was 
 conducted by Rev. E. D. Millar, D. D., of Yarmouth who happened to be 
 in Cape Breton at the time. The offering made by the congregation on that 
 day amounted to over eighty dollars. 
 
 The first business meeting of the congregation was held in the same 
 hall on the 12th of October for the purpose of completing organization 
 and electing trustees and managers. At that meeting it was resolved that 
 a church should be built as speedily as possible and that that church should 
 be designated "Knox Church," in honor of the great Scottish reformer'. It 
 was also resolved to extend a call to Rev. William Meikle and that a salary 
 be offered of $1,200 and a free house. 
 
 Some weeks later a member of Presbytery moderated in a call which 
 came out in Rev. Mr. Meikle's favor. This call was signed by 112 com- 
 municants and 259 adherents. Mr. Meikle accepted this call and he 
 was duly inducted in Victoria Hall, where the congregation worshipped 
 until the new church was ready on November 14th, 1913. 
 
 The new church was built on Commercial street during the following 
 summer. It was opened for divine service by the Rev. Clarence McKin- 
 non, D. D., on the 30th of January, 1905. On the following evening the 
 presbytery of Sydney met with the congregation and held a dedicatory 
 service. On that occasion members of presbytery spoke in the highest 
 
 200 
 
terms of the energy and liberality shown by the people of Knox church in 
 erecting so large, handsome and convenient a place of worship in so short 
 a time. Knox church has a seating capacity of 800. It has also a basement 
 to accomodate 500 and is well suited for Sabbath school, prayer meeting 
 and social purposes. The church cost $28,000. Two years later the con- 
 gregation built a fine manse on Yorke street at a cost of $5,600. 
 
 The first minister of Knox Church, Rev. William Meikle, was born in 
 New Glasgow, in 1856, and lived to be one of the most widely known and 
 successful evangelist- that the Presbyterian church in Canada has ever had 
 in her ministry. 
 
 In the Spring of 1875 during a series of special evangelistic meetings 
 conducted by the late Rev. E. A. McCurdy, in St. James Church, New 
 Glasgow, William Meikle came under the power of the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ. Immediately hereupon, he made a complete surrender of himself 
 to Christ and His service. There were never any half measures with 
 Meikle in the service of his Master. 
 
 The meetings were hardly over when Mr. Meikle and two other young 
 men with a similar experience started out to hold evangelistic meetings in 
 the country districts of Pictou Coutity. A few months' experience taught 
 these young men the need of a better education than any of them had in 
 order that they might preach the gospel with more efficiency. All three 
 determined to study for the ministry and all three were ultimately ordained 
 as ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The other two were 
 John Gerrior and James Murray, both now deceased. 
 
 In the Fall of 1877, Mr. Meikle matriculated into Queen's University, 
 Kingston, and he'distinguished himself during his undergraduate course by 
 taking prizes in chemistry, natural science, history, metaphysics, ethics and 
 Hebrew. He obtained his bachelor of arts degree in the Spring of 1881. 
 In the autumn of that year he went to Princeton seminary, and after a 
 brilliant course in theology at that institution he graduated in the spring of 
 1884. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Lanark and Renfrew the fol- 
 lowing May and immediately thereafter entered upon his career of evangel- 
 ization. During the next twelve years he was constantly engaged in holding 
 evangelistic meetings on the northern end of the continent of America, in 
 Canada from Cape Breton to British Columbia, in Newfoundland and in a 
 number of places in the United States from Maine to California. 
 
 In 1896 Mr. Meikle was ordained as minister of a Presbyterian Church 
 in Vancouver, B. C, where he remained two years. During that time 150 
 persons became members of his church. In 1901 Mr. Meikle became co- 
 pastor with Mr. Forbes in St. Paul's Church, Glace Bay and then in 1903 
 minister of Knox church where he labored until September 30th, 1906, 
 when he resigned to resume evangelistic work. After a number of strenu- 
 ous years in this line he suffered a nervous breakdown that laid him aside 
 from all work. During the last two years he has been in the Provincial 
 Hospital, Battleford, Saskatchewan. 
 
 During the years of his active ininistry scores of young men through his 
 
 201 
 
instrumentality becam* ministers of the gospel and thousands of souls 
 tasted of the grace of God in truth. 
 
 On Mr. Meikle's departure, Knox began to look around for a worthy 
 successor and it found one in the person of Rev. D. N. McRae, Ph. D., of 
 Griswold, Man. Mr. McRae was a son of the late Rev. Donald McRae, 
 D. D., formerly minister of St. Stephen's Church, St. John, and latterly 
 principal of Morrin College, Quebec. He was born in St. John and re- 
 ceived his elementary education in the St. John public schools and high 
 school. After attending Pictou Academy he took his literary and classical 
 course in McGill University and the University of Manitoba. His theo- 
 logical training was received in Manitoba college and the University of 
 Indiana. 
 
 Mr. McRae was inducted into Knox Church, Glace Bay, on the 14th 
 of April, 1904. He served this church with great efficiency and success 
 for a period of three years and six months. At the end of that time he ac- 
 cepted a' call to the Presbyterian church in Mitchell, Ont., and was trans- 
 lated thither on the 11th of July, 1914. He remained in this, charge until 
 April, 1920, when he resigned to spend a year in travel and special studies. 
 
 The next pastor of Knox church was Rev. Hugh Millar, M. A., B. D. 
 Mr. Millar was born at the Garden of Eden, Pictou County, December 
 13th, 1878. After graduating from Pictou Academy, Mr. Millar studied 
 at Dalhousie and graduated from that institution with the bachelor's degree 
 in the spring of 1905. He obtained his Master's degree from Dalhousie 
 in 1907. After attending the Presbyterian college for three sessions he 
 graduated in theology in 1908 and obtained the B. D. degree in 1916. He 
 was licensed by the Presbytery of Pictou in May, 1908; and ordained and 
 inducted into Union Church, Hopewell, on the 28th of that month. On 
 October 17th, 1911, Mr. Millar was inducted into Knox Church, Glace Bay 
 and remained here during the next four years and eight months. On June 
 15th, 1915, Mr. Millar was translated to the presbytery of Miramichi and 
 inducted into St. Andrew's Church, Campbellton, on June 18. 
 
 The fourth minister of Knox church was Rev. Albert McLeod, M. A., a 
 native of Lome, Pictou County, where he was born on December 24th, 
 1874. Mr. McLeod like a majority of young men of Pictou county who 
 studied for the ministry of the Presbyterian church, went to Pictou Academy 
 for his secondary education and from there to Dalhousie University and the 
 Presbyterian college. He graduated from Dalhousie in the spring of 1899 
 as Bachelor of Arts. He graduated from the Presbyterian college in 1901 
 and was licensed by the presbytery of Pictou a few weeks afterwards. On 
 the 23rd of May, 1901, Mr. McLeod was ordained and inducted at Miller- 
 ton, N. B., by the Presbytery of Miramichi. In March 1903, he was in- 
 ducted into the congregation of Canard by the Presbytery of Halifax. 
 In 1909 he was called to Clifton in the Presbytery of Truro and inducted 
 by that presbytery into said charge. Two and a half years later Mr. Mc- 
 Leod accepted a call to the Presbyterian church at Hyde Park, Boston 
 where he labored for over four years. On December 16th, 1915, he began 
 his ministry in Knox Church, Glace Bay, where he is at the present time 
 
 202 
 
and where he is performing his ministerial duties with diligence and success. 
 The young men from Knox Church for the ministry of our church were 
 George McAulay and Peter McAulay, his brother, both Presbyterian minis- 
 ters in the United States; John N. Morrison, also in the United States; 
 Hector Ferguson, Pas, Manitoba and William McKenzie, who has nearly 
 completed his studies for the ministry at the Presbyterian College, Halifax. 
 
 203 
 
Dominion No. 6 and Its Ministry, May 10th, 1915. 
 
 The field embraced in this congregation was included in the original 
 Mira congregation from 1850 to 1867 and in the congregation of St. Paul's, 
 Glace Bay from 1867 to 1905. Dr. Hugh McLeod was probably the first 
 Presbyterian minister to conduct public worthip and preach in this locality. 
 Mr. Donald Ross, catechist held services here between 1844 and 1870. 
 The Rev. Alexander Farquharson, supplied this section of his congrega- 
 tion with gospel ordinances between 1867 and 1875 while he was minister 
 at St. Paul's, Glace Bay, and the Rev. James A. Forbes did likewise 
 between 1882 and 1903, while he was at Glace Bay. 
 
 There were twelve or thirteen Presbyterian families all told between 
 Schooner Pond, Big Glace Bay and Sand Lake in 1860. They were, 
 Roderick McLellan, Ewen Robertson, Archie McQueen, Angus McDonald, 
 Rory McLean, John McDonald, Hugh McDonald, Donald McRae, Donald 
 McDonald, Angus McPherson, John McPherson and Neil McDonald. 
 
 These men came from Scotland between 1830 and 1843. They had 
 no place of worship until the year 1860. In that year a site for a church 
 was selected by Dr. McLeod, where the Cemetery is now, and a Church 
 was erected thereon. Of course it was a small building as were all the early 
 churches in Cape Breton except the big church that the Rev. Norman 
 McLeod built at St. Ann's in the year 1846. 
 
 Some years later, when the Ontario mine was opened at Big Glace Bay 
 and Port Caledonia was made at the Eastern end of Big Glace Bay beach, 
 this Church was moved to the vicinity of the new harbor and coal mine, in 
 order that it might be more convenient to the mines and laborers in this 
 vicinity. In the year 1906, when the Dominion Coal Company began to 
 raise coal where it is operating now, this Church was moved back again to 
 the vicinity of its original site. It was, some time thereafter, enlarged to 
 accommodate an increasing Presbyterian population, but becoming again 
 too small, it was finally sold. That old building is now used as a public 
 hall. 
 
 The present church was built in the year 1913 and 1914. It was 
 opened for public worship on the 18th day of May 1914, during the ministry 
 of Mr. Gardener. 
 
 On the 2nd of May, 1905, the Presbyterians, who were then living in 
 this community asked the Presbytery of Sydney to separate them from St. 
 Paul's, Glace Bay, and constitute them into a Home Mission Station, and 
 to appoint the Rev. James A. Forbes, who had retired from the pastorate 
 of St. Paul's Church in 1903, as Ordained Missionary over them for one 
 year. The Presbytery granted their request on the 10th of May, 1905, 
 and thereupon, Dominion No. 6 started on an independent career of its own. 
 At the expiration of the year, the Mission Station was raised to the Status 
 of an Augmented Charge under the name of St. Luke's Church, Dominion 
 No. 6. On the 10th of September, 1906, St. Luke's Church called the Rev. 
 Donald McDonald, B. D., then of Strathlorne, to be its first settled minister 
 
 204 
 
Mr. McDonald was inducted on the 5th of Nov., 1906. Mr. McDonald's 
 ministry was short, only about eighteen months, but during that time the 
 congregation became self-sustaining. 
 
 In May, 1908, Mr. McDonald accepted a call to Grand River, and was 
 translated to that field. 
 
 Thereupon, St. Luke's extended a call to the Rev. Norman McQueen, 
 who was then settled at Middle River, Victoria County. Mr. McQueen 
 was born at Mira Gut but he grew up in Port Morien. He studied at 
 Dalhousie University, and the Presbyterian College. He graduated from 
 this College in the spring of 1905; and was licensed by the Presbytery of 
 Inverness on the 13th of July in that year. Mr. McQueen was ordained 
 and inducted at Middle River by the Presbytery of Inverness on July the 
 20th 1905. He was inducted into the charge of St. Luke's on the 21st of 
 August, 1908. Mr. McQueen's ministry in this charge was very short. 
 He resigned it on the 5th of September, 1909. His resignation was due to 
 a general strike of the miners and laborers that paralyzed the operations 
 of the colliery from July, 1909 to May, 1910. After his resignation, Mr. 
 McQueen was for some time assistant in St. Andrew's Church, Sydney. 
 
 Mr. Gordon McLennan supplied St. Luke's during the dreary winter of 
 1909-10 as catechist. 
 
 After the strike was ended and work resumed at the colliery, the con- 
 gregation called the Rev. G. S. Gardener, then Ordained Missionary at 
 Mulgrave, to be its minister. Mr. Gardener accepted the call, and he was 
 inducted on the 30th of November, 1911. It was on May the 1st, 1914, 
 , during Mr. Gardener's ministry, that the second (the present) church was 
 opened and dedicated. On the 30th of September, 1915, Mr. Gardener 
 accepted a call to the congregation of Rexton and Richibucto in the Pres- 
 bytery of Miramichi. 
 
 The present minister of St. Luke's is the Rev. James Fraser. He was 
 called from Loch Lomond on Dec. the 16th, 1915, and inducted at No. 6 
 on Feb. 1st, 1916. We have already spoken of Mr. Fraser in connection 
 with his ministry at Loch Lomond, and we need not add anything more in 
 this place except to say that he is as faithful, diligent, and successful in the 
 Master's work at No. 6, as he was at Loch Lomond. The colliery has 
 been working steadily since he came here, and the church has prospered 
 under his care. 
 
 The congregation has a good manse. It was built in the year 1906, 
 and was ready for occupation when Mr. McDonald took charge in Decem- 
 ber of that year. 
 
 The only young man that studied for the ministry from Dominion No. 
 6 is the Rev. J. C. McLeod, now minister in Battleford, Saskatchewan. 
 
 205 
 
St. Matthews, Inverness and Its Ministry. 
 
 St. Matthews Congregation is located in the town of Inverness, an 
 important mining centre in the County of Inverness. The original name 
 for this locality was Broadcove, a very appropriate name from a geographi- 
 cal point of view, inasmuch as it is situated on a broad open Cove facing the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 The first Scottish immigrants of the Presbyterian faith that came to 
 these parts settled on the shore of this Cove and on the site of the present 
 town of Inverness. Those who came later settled farther back and up 
 the Strathlorne valley. It was in this valley that the first Presbyterian 
 Church was built in the year 1832. When these settlers formed themselves 
 into a congregation they were known as the Broadcove congregation. Sub- 
 sequently the name was changed and for many years this congregation has 
 been known as the Strathlorne congregation. The Presbyterians living 
 on the Broadcove shore were in connection with the Strathlorne congrega- 
 tion until the 1st of August, 1905, when they were formed into a new and 
 independent charge. 
 
 The formation of this new congregation was due to the presence of 
 coal at this point and the commencement of coal mining. In the year 1900 
 the Inverness and Richmond Railway Company got control of the coal 
 areas in this vicinity and began to extract coal from them. They also built 
 a railway to the Strait of Canso and began to ship coal at Port Hastings. 
 In consequence of this industrial development, miners and laborers began 
 to flow into the colliery and the town of Inverness began to have an exist- 
 ence. Some of those who came to the new mining town were Presbj^terians 
 and it became the duty of the Strathlorne session to see that their spiritual 
 wants were supplied. The first step was the formation of a Sabbath School 
 in the summer time and that was followed by a prayer meeting in one or 
 other of the homes of the people occasionally. As early as 1900 a Christian 
 Endeavour Society was organized and the Rev. Donald McDonald, the 
 then pastor of Strathlorne, began to hold an occasional Sabbath afternoon 
 service in the schoolhouse at the "Corner." In the following year a fort- 
 nightly Sabbath afternoon service was commenced. At the end of 1901 
 steps were taken to build a hall for religious purp<)ses. This hall was ready 
 for use by the following Spring. It served as a place of worship until the 
 church was built several years later. By the beginning of 1904 a service 
 was conducted in this hall every Sabbath evening either by Mr. McDonald 
 or by any one else whom he could get to take his place. 
 
 In June of that year, a staff of elders was chosen and ordained. These 
 elders were Adam Spiers, Malcolm McFadyen and William D. Lawrence. 
 In Dec. 1904, a series of special evangelistic services were conducted by 
 Evangelist Josephs. McKay, which proved of great service in stimulating 
 saints and converting sinners. 
 
 By this time there were sixty Presbyterian families and about as many 
 communicants in the town and a movement was set on foot in favor of 
 
 206 
 
separation from Strathlorne and the formation of a congregation of their 
 own in the town of Inverness. The steps to this end were duly taken and 
 the congregation was organized by the Presbytery on the 1st day of August 
 1905. Pour months later this congregation called the Rev. J. W. A. Nichol- 
 son, M.A. to be its first minister and he was inducted into the pastorate on 
 the 18th of Jan. 1906. 
 
 Mr. Nicholson was born at Ur(iuhart's Mountain, Richmond Co. 
 His primary education was obtained in the district common school of his 
 native county, and his secondary education in the Arichat Academy and 
 the Halifax Academy. He is a graduate in Arts of Dalhousie University 
 and in theology of the Presbyterian College. 
 
 Upon graduating in Theology in the spring of 1901, Mr. Nicholson 
 was licensed and ordained by the Presbytery of Pictou and appointed to 
 supply Mulgrave for the summer months. In the month of Nov. 1901 
 Mr. Nicholson went over the sea and spent a year and a half in post grad- 
 uate studies at the New College, Edinburgh, and in Marburg and Berlin, 
 Germany. 
 
 Returning in the Spring of 1903 Mr. Nicholson supplied Calvin Church 
 St. John, N. B., as an ordained missionary from June 1903 to April 1905. 
 Early in 1906 he became pastor of the Church at Inverness. He remained 
 with the people of this town until the beginning of 1911 when he was trans- 
 lated to the Presbytery of Halifax and inducted minister of St. James 
 Church, Dartmouth on the 31st of March. 
 
 Mr. Nicholson is Convener of the Synods, Committee on Systematic 
 Giving and he is rendering excellent service to the Church along financial 
 lines. 
 
 After Mr. Nicholson removed to Dartmouth, this congregation fo'und a 
 successor in Mr. Kenneth M. Munroe, B. A., who had but recently grad- 
 uated from the Presbyterian College, Halifax. Mr. Munro was born on 
 Boulardarie Island. 
 
 He obtained his education for ttie ministry at Pictou Academy, 
 Dalhousie University and the Presbyterian College. He completed his 
 theological studies in the spring of 1911. On the 11th of May following 
 he was ordained and inducted in St. Matthew's Church, Inverness by the 
 Presbytery of Inverness. Mr. Munroe's ministry in this congregation was 
 brief, but efficient. In March 1913 he was translated to the Presbytery 
 of Boston and inducted into the First Presbyterian Church in that city. 
 Mr. Munroe remained in Boston until March 1919, when he returned to 
 his native land and was inducted into the congregation of St. Matthews 
 Church, North Sydney. 
 
 Mr. Munroe's successor in the pastorate of Inverness was the Rev. 
 Archie D. McKinnon, B. A., a native of East Lake Ainslie, where he was 
 born on the 24th of February 1877. After a course of study in his home 
 school, Whycocomagh School and the school at North Sydney, Mr. McKin- 
 non took third year in the Boston English High School. In the fall of 1900 
 hfe matriculated into Queens University, Kingston and graduated in the 
 spring of 1904. After completing his Theological course at the Presbyter- 
 
 207 
 
ian College, Halifax in the Spring of 1908, he was licensed by the Presbytery 
 of Halifax and also ordained and inducted into the pastoral charge of Water- 
 ville. Kings Co., N. S. on May the 28th of that year. 
 
 In the year 1911 Mr. McKinnon was called to St. Paul's Church in 
 Boston and in 1912 to St. Andrews in the same city. 
 
 In the summer of 1913 Mr. McKinnon was called to St. Matthews 
 Church, Inverness and in August 1916 to St. Andrews Church, Lunenburg, 
 where he is now laboring, with commendable diligence and success. 
 
 Mr. McKinnon's induction into St. Matthews Church took place on 
 the 24th of June 1913. 
 
 Mr. McKinnon, was succeeded in the pastorate of St. Matthews by the 
 Rev. Alexander Stirling, B. A., a native of Scotsburn, Pictou County, 
 N. S., where he was born on the 31st of Dec. 1874. 
 
 Mr. Stirling obtained his preparation for Dalhousie University at 
 Prince of Wales College, Charlottetown, P. E. Island. He graduated from 
 Dalhousie as Bachelor of Arts in the Spring of 1896, and from the Presby- 
 terian College, Halifax two years later in the spring of 1898. 
 
 After licensure by the Presbytery of Halifax, Mr. Stirling was ordained 
 and inducted into the pastorate of Cylde River, in the County of Shel- 
 burne, N. S., by the Presbytery of Lunenburg and Yarmouth, on the 13th 
 of July 1898. 
 
 He was subsequently inducted into the charge of East River and 
 Glenelg in the Presbytery of Pictou, and from there he went to Kensington 
 and Long River in the Presbytery of P. E. Island, where he was inducted 
 on the 10th of October in the year 1904. 
 
 In December 1910 Mr. Stirling was inducted into the congregation of 
 Scotsburn, Pictou County, where he was born. 
 
 After a successful pastoral of six years in his native parish, Mr. Stirling 
 accepted a call to St. Matthews Church, Inverness. His induction into 
 this charge took place on the 23rd of November, 1916. At the end of 
 March 1920, Mr. Stirling accepted a call to the congregation of Brookfield 
 and Middle Stewiacke in the Presbytery of Truro, where he was duly in- 
 ducted and where he is laboring at the present. 
 
 There is a good church and Manse in this congregation. The Church 
 was built in the year 1908 at a cost of $12,000 and the Manse was built in 
 the year 1907 at a cost of $3,000. 
 
 St. Matthew's Church has not yet given any of her young men to the 
 ministry of our Church. 
 
 208 
 
Warden Congregation, Glace Bay and Its Ministry. 
 
 This is the third Presbyterian Congregation that was formed in the 
 town of Glace Bay. This congregation was a long time in coming to ma- 
 turity. As early as 1892, the Rev. James A. Forbes, at that time minister of 
 St. Paul's perceived the growing need for religious services in the western 
 end of the town of Glace Bay. Under his direction the session of St. Paul's 
 started a Sabbath-School in this vicinity, in a private house. Mr. William 
 McKenzie, one of the elders, took charge of the school as superintendent. 
 That Sabbath School was continued from year to year until the year 1903. 
 On November the 10th, 1903, in answer to the petition of the people re- 
 siding in New Aberdeen, as this part of the town came to be called, and with 
 the approval of St. Paul's Session the Presbytery of Sydney organized a 
 mission station here. Mr. P. S. "Vance, a student of the Presbyterian 
 College, Halifax, spent the summer of 1903 here as catechist and did ex- 
 cellent work. 
 
 Warden Church was built during that summer at a cost of $6,000. 
 It was dedicated to the worship of God by the Rev. Clarence McKinnon, 
 D. D., the then Moderator of the Presbytery of Sydney, on the 22nd of 
 November, 1903. 
 
 On the 3rd of May, 1904, Mr. Vance was ordained and inducted into 
 the charge of Warden Church as ordained missionary. On the 10th of 
 July in the same year the first elders were ordained and the first session con- 
 stituted. These elders were H. A. McMullen, A. D. McCuish, J. G. Mc- 
 Kenzie, and D. L. McKay. On August the 27th, 1904, the congregation 
 held its first communion service. ' The members at that time numbered 
 twenty-seven. In February, 1905, Mr. Vance, on account of the state of 
 his health, was compelled to resign his charge. His work was done. 
 Tuberculosis had marked him as its victim. He lived two years longer but 
 he grew weaker and weaker until he breathed his last in Sept. 1907. Mr. 
 Vance gave promise of great usefulness. He won the hearts of the people 
 and they deeply lamented his resignation and death. 
 
 "The Lord buries His workmen, but carries on His work." On the 
 25th of May, 1905, the Rev. Robert B. Layton, B. D., was put in charge of 
 Warden Church by the Presbytery of Sydney as Ordained Missionary. 
 Under his ministrations during that year, the congregation became self 
 sustaining and assumed the full burden of self-support. At the end of the 
 year the congregation called Mr. Layton to be its pastor, and he was in- 
 ducted as the first minister of the congregation on Jan. 29th, 1906. 
 
 On December the 31st, 1907, Mr. Layton resigned in order to continue 
 his studies. He spent the winter of 1908 and 1909 in post graduate work 
 in the United Free Church College, Glasgow. On his return from Scotland 
 he accepted an appointment by the Foreign Mission Committee to Trinidad; 
 He spent the next two years as Missionary in Susamachar Church, San 
 Fernando in that island. Returning to Nova Scotia in the summer of 1911 
 in broken health he supplied Bethamy Church, Northwest Arm for a year 
 
 209 
 
or two. In November, 1913, Mr. Layton was inducted Into the Presbyter- 
 ian Church at Kentville, N. S., where he is at the present time. 
 
 Mr. Layton is a son of the Rev. Jacob Layton. He was born at Upper 
 Stewiacke, Colchester Co., N. S., on February the 13th, 1879. He was 
 educated at Elmsdale, N. S., the Halifax Academy and Dalhousie Univer- 
 sity. He graduated from this University with the degree of B. A. in April, 
 1901. After a year, as a missionary, in Labrador, Mr. Layton entered the 
 Presbyterian College, Halifax, in 1902, and graduated in the Spring of 
 1905. Mr. Layton obtained the degree of B. D. from the senate of the Pres- 
 byterian College, Halifax, for postgraduate work in history. 
 
 The second minister of Warden Church was the Rev. D. H. McKin- 
 non, B. D. Mr. McKinnon was born near Sydney, C. B., on December the 
 20th, 1877. After attending Sydney Academy for a couple of sessions he 
 entered Dalhousie University and after completing his course in Arts he 
 entered upon the study of Theology in the Presbyterian College, Halifax, 
 from which he graduated in the Spring of 1902. He was ordained and in- 
 ducted by the Presbytery of Miramichi at Flatlands, N. B., on the 27th of 
 May 1902. Resigning that charge he supplied at Bethany and Rockingham 
 in the Presbytery of Halifax, from May the 1st, 1903, to September the 
 30th, 1906. His induction into Warden Church, Glace Bay, took place 
 on March the 8th, 1908. After a pastorate of ten years he resigned this 
 charge on the 30th of June, 1918. He is now settled at Great Village, Col- 
 chester County, in the Presbytery of Truro. 
 
 Warden Church has a good manse. It was built in the summer of 
 1908 at a cost of $3,500. In the year 1913, the church was considerably 
 improved by the erection of a belfry, the installment of a good bell and also 
 of steam heating apparatus. It was still farther improved in the summer of 
 1920. 
 
 Mr. McKinnon took a post graduate course in the United Free Church 
 College, Glasgow, in the winter of 1907. After leaving Warden Church in 
 1918. Mr. McKinnon spent some months in post graduate studies in 
 Union Seminary, New York. 
 
 The Rev J. C. McLennan, B. A., followed Mr. McKinnon in this 
 charge. Mr. McLennan was borti at New Campbellton, Victoria County, 
 on December the 29th, 1879. He prepared for Dalhousie University at 
 North Sydney Academy and Sydney Mines Academy. He graduated from 
 the Presbyterian College, Halifax, in the Spring of 1912, and was licensed by 
 the Presbytery of Halifax immediately thereafter. He labored as an or- 
 dained missionary at Port William, Manitoba, during 1912, and part of 
 1913. On Sept. the 23rd, 1913, he was ordained and inducted into the con- 
 gregation of West Bay by the Presbytery of Inverness. After some years 
 of hard and successful work at West Bay he accepted a call to Warden 
 Church, Glace Bay, where he was inducted on the 14th of Nov., 1918. 
 
 Mr. McLennan graduated in Arts from Dalhousie University in the 
 Spring of 1909 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
 
 No young men from this congregation have hitherto studied for the 
 ministry of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 210 
 
Florence and Its Ministry. 
 
 There are four churches in the Florence congregation; viz, Wilson 
 Church at Florence, Chalmer's Church at Grove's Point, St. Andrew's 
 Church at Little Bras d'Or, and George's River Church at George's River. 
 
 Wilson Church was built in the summer of 1907, and dedicated to the 
 worship of God on the 28th of July in tha^ year. Chalmer's Church, 
 Grove's Point, was also built in 1907. Any services held at that Point per- 
 vious to 1907 were held in the School House of the district. The present 
 St. Andrew's Church at Little Bras d'Or was built in 1896 and it was 
 opened for Divine Worship in the month of July in that year. This is the 
 second St. Andrew's Church that was built at the Little Bras d'Or. The 
 first was built in the year 1843, the year after the Rev.Mr. Wilson came to 
 Sydney Mines. Little Bras d'Or was at that time in connection with 
 Sydney Mines Congregation, and under the care of Mr. Wilson. Mr. 
 William Gammel was doing business at the Little Bras d'Or at that time. 
 He took a very prominent part in getting Mr. Wilson to Cape Breton. He 
 also took a very prominent part in the erection of the church, and in the 
 support of ordinances in connection with the church. The second St. 
 Andrew's Church at Little Bras d'Or was built on the site of the first St. 
 Andrew's. That original St. Andrew's was taken down and rebuilt at 
 George River where it is still in use as a place of worship. 
 
 Some of the first Presbyterians that came from Scotland to Cape 
 Breton settled at the Little Bras d'Or. They obtained grants of land there 
 between 1785 and 1800. Others came later and settled at the Ponds, 
 Groves Point and Georg River. 
 
 The Rev. Matthew Wilson conducted religious services at Little Bras 
 d'Or from 1842 to 1883 when he resigned and retired from active work. 
 The people of George's River worshipped at Little Bras d'Or during Mr. 
 Wilson's time, and the people at the Ponds worshipped at Sydney Mines. 
 The people at Grove's Point got more or less attention both from the minis- 
 ter of Boulardarie and the minister of Sydney Mines. 
 
 The Rev. Donald McMillan, assistant and successor to Mr. Wilson, 
 conducted services at Little Bras d'Or, Georges River and Grove's Point 
 from 1879 to 1883, when he became sole pastor of Sydney Mines. Then 
 George's River, Little Bras d'Or and Grove's Point were constituted into a 
 Mission Field, and so continued until 1901. During these years this 
 Mission Field was served by a number of catechists; among them, William 
 Rainnie, A. F. Fraser, K. J. McDonald, L. H. McLean, A. D. Archibald, 
 A. H. Denoon, Melville Grant, and A. M. McLeod. In 1902, Little Bras 
 d'Or, George's River and Grove's Point were connected with St. Matthew's 
 Church, North Sydney, and the Rev. Gordon Dickie, M. A., became as- 
 sistant to Dr. Jack in order that the whole field might receive due attention. 
 This arrangement only continued for a couple of years. Meantime, in the 
 year, 1903, the Scotia Steel Company began mining operations at Florence 
 
 211 
 
by opening up Slope'No. 3. This caused an influx of population at this point, 
 and many of the new-comers were Presbyterians. 
 
 In November, 1904, the Presbytery of Sydney met with our people 
 at Florence in conference, and the result of that conference was that the 
 Florence people were constituted a mission station, under the care of the 
 session of St. Matthew's Church, North Sydney. A year later, in Dec, 
 1905, the Presbytery constituted Florence, Little Bras d'Or, George's 
 River and Grove's Point into an Ordained Mission Charge, and appointed 
 he Rev. J. H. Hattie as Ordained Missionary in this field. 
 
 Mr. Hattie served this mission faithfully until August, 1906, when he 
 resigned and left to take charge of a congregation in Prince Edward Island. 
 
 Shortly after Mr. Hattie's departure, the Presbytery of Sydney 
 erected Florence, Grove's Point and Little Bras d'Or and George's River 
 into a regular charge with the right of calling a minister of its own. 
 
 The congregation called the Rev. G. W. Murray, B. A., to belts first 
 pastor; and Mr. Murray, accepting their call was inducted on the 3rd of 
 January, 1907. Mr. Murray rendered excellent service to the congrega- 
 tion for a period of nearly two years. On the 30th of November, 1908, 
 he demitted the charge and removed to New Brunswick, where he became 
 minister of Glassville in the Presbytery of St. John. It was during Mr. 
 Murray's brief ministry that Wilson Church, Florence, and Chalmer's 
 Church, Grove's Point were built and dedicated. The manse at Florence 
 was also built while Mr. Murray was minister of the congregation. 
 
 The second minister of this congregaton was the Rev. Harry Burns, 
 B. A. His ordination and induction took place on the 27th of May, 1909. 
 Mr. Burns was born at Murray's Corner, Westmoreland, N. B., on Decem- 
 ber the 25th, 1877. He studied the Arts in the University of New Brunswick 
 and Theology in the Presbyterian College, Halifax, from which he grad- 
 uated in April, 1909. After being licensed by the Presbytery of Halifax, 
 he accepted a call to Florence, etc., and was ordained and inducted at St. 
 Andrew's Church, Little Bras d'Or on the 27th of May, 1909. 
 
 Mr. Burns remained in the congregation during the next nine years. 
 In that time, he did a lot of hard, faithful work, and when he left, he left 
 with the esteem and affection, not only of his own people, but also of all 
 classes of the community. The congregation was augmented to a greater 
 or less extent until January 1st, 1913, during Mr. Burn's ministry, when it 
 became self-sustaining. 
 
 Mr. Burns was followed in the pastorate of Florence by the Rev. F. 
 M. Milligan, B. A. His induction took place on the 2nd of January, 1919. 
 
 Mr. Milligan is a native of St. John, N. B., where he was born on the 
 30th of July, 1887. After preparing for the University at the Digby 
 Academy and the Bear River High School, he entered Dalhousie in the 
 autumn of 1906, and graduated on the 25th of April, 1910 with the degree of 
 B. A. After three sessions at the Presbyterian College, Halifax, he com- 
 pleted his Theological Course in April, 1913. Mr. Milligan was licensed 
 by the Presbytery of Halifax a few days later. His ordination and induc- 
 
 212 
 
tion took place by the Presbytery of Truro at Upper Londonderry on the 
 8th of May, 1913. 
 
 Mr. Mllligan was inducted into the charge of Little Bras d'Or etc., on 
 the 2nd of January, 1919. 
 
 About the end of April, 1920, Mr. Milligan resigned to become tra- 
 velling secretary of Sabbath School work in connection with the Maritime 
 Synod of the Prebyterian Church. 
 
 213 
 
New Waterford and Its Ministry. 
 
 The New Waterford congregation is of comparatively recent origin. 
 It was organized by the Presbytery of Sydney on the 15th of Dec. 1908. 
 
 Its existence is due to coal mining at this place by the Dominion Coal 
 Company. That Company acquired its leases in this vicinity from the 
 General Mining Association in the year 1890 and it began to mine coal in 
 the year 1907. The General Mining Association had been mining at Lin- 
 gan and at Old Victoria between 1854 and 1890. 
 
 The earliest settlers on the Low Point shore, between Lingan and 
 South Bar were Irish Roman Catholics, but there were a few Presbyterian 
 families among them. These families were from Ulva in the Hebrides. 
 They were all Gaelic speaking people, bearing the name of Livingstone, 
 McGillivray, McPhee and Petrie. The Livingstones were closely related 
 to Dr. Livingstone, the great African missionary. 
 
 The descendants of these Presbyterians are now all Roman Catholics, 
 on account of the way in which the Church of Scotland neglected her 
 children, exiled to Cape Breton, in the early part of last century. 
 
 The first lighthouse at Low Point was built by the Government of 
 Nova Scotia in Sept. and Oct. 1832. In June 1833 that Government ap- 
 pointed Mr. Robert McNab, keeper of that lighthouse. Mr. McNab was a 
 lowland Scotch man, born in the city of Glasgow and a good Presbyterian. 
 The lighthouse has been in the care of Mr. McNab's descendants ever since. 
 After the General Mining Association began to win coals, first at Lingan 
 and later at Old Victoria, a few Presbyterians gathered round these two 
 mines, but they received littl or no attention from their own church until 
 the summer of 1876, when the Rev. John Murray, then of Falmouth Street 
 Church, Sydney, began at each of these places, to give an occasional ser- 
 vice on week nights. The result was that the Presbyterians at both these 
 places connected themselves with the Falmouth Street Church, and support- 
 ed Falmouth Street Church during the ministry of Mr. Murray in Sydney. 
 At Lingan, services were held in one end of an Association house, and at 
 Victoria, by the kindness of the then manager, Mr. Donald Lynk, a 
 whole Company house was fitted up and placed at the disposal of the 
 people for religious purposes. 
 
 When the Dominion Coal Company opened its Coal Seams at New 
 Waterford in 1907, Presbyterian officials, miners, mechanics and la- 
 borers began to gather at the new colliery, and there sprang up a demand 
 for the means of grace. 
 
 During the summer of 1908, Mr. M. D. McLeod, student in Theology 
 conducted service at New Waterford as Catechist. The services were held 
 in a boarding house owned by the Company. The average attendance 
 during that summer was only about twenty persons. The total contribu- 
 tions only amounted to $54.88 for about twenty Sabbaths. The bill that 
 had to be paid by the Home Mission Board for services supplied was 
 $147.82. Mr. J. H. Hamilton was Catechist for about eighteen months 
 beginning with May, 1909. During that summer a Hall was built in which 
 
 214 
 
the people gathered for worship. It was built on a site selected by the 
 Presbytery, in the preceding October, when the people were organized 
 into a congregation. On the 14th Feb. 1910, a Kirk Session was elected 
 and ordained, consisting of William F. Hamilton, John D. Keith, and Archi- 
 bald G. Graham. 
 
 On the 30th of August, 1910, the congregation petitioned the Pres- 
 bytery to granf Moderation in a Call to a minister. The prayer of the 
 petition was granted, and the Call came out in favor of the Rev. Norman 
 McQueen who was then assisting the Rev. Dr. Pringle, St. Andrew's 
 Church, Sydney. This Call was signed by thirty-seven members and 
 forty-nine adherents. A stipend of $800 and a free house was offered with 
 this Call, and his induction took place in the Hall, on the 14th of Novem- 
 ber, 1910. Mr. McQueen remained in New Waterford until Feb. the 6th, 
 1912 when he resigned his charge and removed to West Summerville, 
 Mass., U. S., where he is still. 
 
 The second pastor of the congregation was the Rev. J. H. Hamilton, 
 B. A. He had been catechist here during eighteen months and was well 
 known by the people. Mr. Hamilton was born at Westville, Pictou Co., 
 on the 1st of Nov., 1887. His secondary education was obtained at the 
 Pictou Academy. He graduated as Bachelor of Arts from Dalhoijsie 
 University in the Spring of 1908. He studied Theology at the Presbyter- 
 ian College, Halifax, and the United Free Church College, Glasgow, Scot- 
 land. He graduated in theology in the Spring of 1912. 
 
 After licensure by the Presbytery of Halifax in April, 1912, he accepted 
 a call to New Waterford and was ordained and inducted into that charge 
 on the 4th of June, 1912. Mr. Hamilton remained at New Waterford for 
 over- five years. During that time he wrought strenuously and successfully 
 in building up the congregation. On Sept. the 1st, 1917, Mr. Hamilton 
 accepted the position of Superintendent of Work among the Foreigners in 
 Cape Breton. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton was succeeded by the Rev. George. E. Whidden in the 
 pastorate of New Waterford. 
 
 Mr. Whidden was born at Hilden, Colchester Co., N. S., on the 21st 
 day of August, 1877. He was educated at Truro Academy, Queen's 
 College, Kingston; Bangor, Maine; and the Presbyterian College, Halifax. 
 He was ordained and inducted at Maitland, Hants Co., N. S., on the 7th of 
 May, 1914. He was called to New Waterford on January 3rd, 1918, and 
 inducted on February 1st, 1918. 
 
 The Hall that was built in 1909 had to be enlarged in 1912 to accommo- 
 date the congregation. This Hall served for all purposes until 1918 when 
 the present fine church was built at a cost of $24,000. 
 
 This church was dedicated to the worship of God by appropriate ser- 
 vices on September 14th, 1919. This building is 110 feet in length and 45 
 feet in width. The auditorium is Seated for the accommodation of 400 
 worshippers. There is an end gallery that will seat forty or fifty more. 
 There is also a large, well lighted basement for Sabbath School and Social 
 purposes. This young and vigorous congregation has a fine manse in 
 which it houses its ministers. 
 
 215 
 
Orangedale, etc., and Its Mlnlstery. 
 
 This congregation was constituted by the Presbytery of Inverness on 
 the 10th day of November, 1914, under the ministry of the Rev. J. A. 
 McLellan by separating Malagawatch from River Denys and forming it 
 into a Mission Station. 
 
 From March the 8th, 1881 to November 10th 1914, River Denys and 
 Malagawatch constituted the Presbyterian Congregation in this vicinity. 
 This was the congregation of which the Rev. Angus McMillan was minister 
 from Jan. 25th, 1882, to October, 1893, and of which the Rev. John Rose 
 was minister from August 27th, 1896, to March 31st, 1909, when he re- 
 turned to Scotland. This was also the congregation into which the Rev. 
 J. A. McLellan was inducted on July 21st, 1911. 
 
 The change in congregational boundaries was made on Novi 10th 1914, 
 for several reasons; more particularly on account of the growth of our cause 
 at Orangedale, and also the difficulty that Mr. McLellan experienced in 
 ministering to his people while living in the Malagawatch manse at the 
 eastern extremity of the congregation. 
 
 The Orangedale Section of the congregation built a manse near 
 Orangedale Station in the year 1913, on the assumption that Mr. McLellan 
 would be glad to leave Malagawatch and live in Orangedale, a much more 
 central and convenient place for him to reside in, and from which to do his 
 work. When this manse was finished, Mr. McLellan availed himself of the 
 better facilities which it afforded for doing the work of the congregation. 
 He left the old manse at Malagawatch and took up his abode in the 
 new manse at Orangedale. 
 
 The Malagawatch people were much displeased on account of all 
 this, and they petitioned the Presbytery for disjunction from Orangedale 
 and River Denys, and erection into a Mission Station. The Presbytery 
 complied with their request, and thereupon, Orangedale and River Denys 
 became a new congregation, as already stated, upon the 10th of Novem- 
 ber, 1914. This change lightened Mr. McLellan's labor very considerably,- 
 and made it possible for him to give River Denys a larger proportion of ser- 
 vice. 
 
 The first church was built at River Denys in the year 1835. The Rev. 
 Dugald McKichan was at that time minister of River Denys as well as of 
 River Inhabitants and Strait of Canso. The present church at River Denys 
 was built in 1854, and called Forbes Church, out of compliment to their 
 minister the Rev. William G. Forbes. It has been repaired since then, and 
 is now in good condition. After Mr. Forbes came to Plaster Cove in 1852, 
 River Denys was a part of his congregation and he was accustomed to 
 preach in that old church. Port Hastings, River Inhabitants and River 
 Denys were together until 1881, when Mr. Forbes resigned the whole charge 
 and retired from his arduous labors. 
 
 There is no church, properly speaking, at Orangedale so far, but there 
 
 216 
 
is a good large Hall which is owned by the people, and used as a place of 
 worship. 
 
 Mr. McLellan was called from St. Ann's and inducted in Forbes 
 Church, Upper River Denys, on July 21st, 1911. He is a native of Cape 
 Breton. He was born at Kemp Road, Richmond County, on June 1st, 
 1874. He took his Arts Course at Dalhousie College, graduating in the 
 spring of 1906; and his Theological Course at the Presbyterian College, 
 graduating in 1908. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Sydney on the 
 5th of May, 1908. On the 28th of May, he was ordained and inducted as 
 minister of St. Ann's and Englishtown. 
 
 After three years of faithful labor in St. Ann's, Mr. McLellan accepted 
 a call to Malagawatch and River Denys. In the year 1920 Mr. McLellan 
 was called to Valleyfield, Prince Edward Island and left his charge in Cape 
 Breton at the end of June with the universal esteem of his people and all 
 who knew him. 
 
 This congregation has given a number of good men to the ministry of 
 the Presbyterian Church viz., R. H. McPherson, now in Alberta, J. W. 
 McPhail in Pennsylvania, U. S., M. McL. McPhail, Ph. D., also in Penn- 
 sylvania, A. J. McNeil in New Brunswick and D. M. Gillies, D. D., in 
 Glace Bay, Cape Breton. 
 
 217 
 
Malagawatch etc., and Its Ministry, 
 
 Malagawatch and Marble Mountain were united to form a new con- 
 gregation on Nov. 14th, 1916. 
 
 Malagawatch is one of the oldest Presbyterian communities in Cape 
 Breton, while Marble Mountain is one of the youngest. A number of 
 Gaelic speaking families found their way to Malagawatch between 1810 
 and 1820. The Rev. Donald McDonald came to Malagawatch in the 
 year 1824, and remained here until 1826, when he left for Orwell, Prince 
 Edward Island. The place where he lived is still called the Minister's 
 Point; in Gaelic, Rudha a Mhinistear. 
 
 The third Presbyterian Church built on this island was built at 
 Malagawatch. The first was bui.t at South Gut, St. Ann's, in 1821 or 
 1822; the second at Mabou in 1824 and the third at Malagawatch in 1829. 
 The Malagawatch church was opened for public worship by the Rev. 
 Dugald McKichanin 1830, the year after he came to Nova Scotia. The 
 second church at Malagawatch was built in 1874, and was opened by the 
 Rev. Adam McKay, at that time minister of Middle River and Little 
 Narrows. The text of Mr. McKay's sermon on that occasion was 1 John 
 3; "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we 
 should be called the sons of God." 
 
 There was a manse built at Malagawatch in 1883 during the ministry 
 of Rev. Angus McMillan in the congregation of Malagawatch, and River 
 Denys. Mr. McMillan was ordained and inducted into this charge on 
 Jan. 25th, 1882. 
 
 On Nov. 10th, 1914, Malagawatch was separated from River Denys 
 and formed into a Misson Station. After two years in this condition, on 
 Nov. 14th, 1916, it was united to Marble Mountain to form a new congre- 
 gation. 
 
 Malagawatch was supplied with occasional services by the Rev. 
 Dugald McKichan when he was at River Inhabitants, between 1832 and 
 1840. It also received some service from the Rev. John Stewart while he 
 was at West Bay between 1835 and 1838; also from the Rev. Peter McLean 
 while he was at Whycocomagh and Little Narrows between 1837 and 1842. 
 
 The first Presbyterian Sabbath School on this island was opened at 
 Malagawatch by Mr. Lauchlan McDonald, a young man who was sent out 
 from Scotland, by the Edinburgh Ladies Association, in the autumn of 
 1838 as a school teacher. He opened a day-school at Malagawaitch on the 
 1st day of December, 1838, and a Sabbath School in the spring of 1839. 
 Both the day school and the Sabbath School were condtictd in the Malaga- 
 watch church. The pupils in the day school ranged from six to twenty- 
 five years of age, and the enrollment of the school was about eighty. Mr. 
 McDonald also taught for a year at West Bay Points. 
 
 After spending three years in teaching in these two places, Mr. Mc- 
 Donald went back to Scotland and studied for the ministry. A number 
 of years after completing his studies, he came back to Cape Breton as a 
 
 218 
 
minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He was subsequently settled in 
 Earltown, Colchester Co., N. S., where he ended his days in 1868, aged 58 
 year. 
 
 Malagawatch gave several excellent young men to the ministry of the 
 Presbyterian Church, viz., John Mcintosh, Charles C. Mcintosh, and A. 
 J. McDonald. 
 
 The Marble Mountain section of this congregation was originally 
 included in the West Bay Congregation. It was during the ministry of 
 Mr. McDougall, about 1882, that the North Mountain part of the West Bay 
 congregation was separated and connected with Malagawatch and River 
 Denys. This North Mountain is no doubt the finest body of limestone and 
 dolomite on this island. Some belts of this dolomite are very much like 
 marble. This large deposit of lime stone rock was discovered by a Mr. 
 Brown of Prince Edward Island in 1868. He quarried marble and dolomite 
 for agricultural and building purposes here between 1869 and 1884. In the 
 latter year the late Dugald McLachlan bought the property, and formed 
 the McLachlan Lime Company. 
 
 This Company sold its interests to the Dominion Steel Company in the 
 year 1902, and Marble Mountain is now the principal source of limestone 
 and dolomite for iron smelting in the steel furnaces at Sydney. 
 
 After the Steel Company began operations in 1902, the population in- 
 creased very considerably and the Presbytery of Inverness sent Catechists 
 here for several successive summers. 
 
 A church was built at Marble Mountain in the year 1903, and the 
 Mission was raised to the status of an Ordained Mission Charge. in 1906, 
 The Rev. R.H. McPherson was inducted here as Ordained Missionary about 
 the end of December in that year. 
 
 The following summer Mr. McPherson was called to the pastorate, 
 and he was inducted on July the 3rd, 1907, as the first minister of the con- 
 gregation. Mr. McPherson remained in charge unti. Sept. the 3rd, 1910, 
 when he resigned. From that time till May, 1917, the Mountain was 
 supplied by catechists in the summer season. 
 
 On November 14th, 1916, Marble Mountain and Malagawatch were 
 united, and on the 13th of May, 1917, the Rev. W. K. McKay, B. A., was 
 inducted as minister. 
 
 Mr. McKay was born at Kempt Head, Boulardarie, on the 26th of 
 July, 1886. He studied with a view to the ministry at North Sydney 
 Academy, Dalhousie University, and the Presbyterian College. He grad- 
 uated from the latter in the spring of 1916. During his College Course he 
 was missionary on the Labrador Coast for two years. He was licensed by 
 the Presbytery of Inverness on the 6th of October 1916. 
 
 There is a fine manse at Marble Mountain. It was built in the year 
 1918 at a cost of $6,000. 
 
 There are three churches in the congregation; viz, one at Malagawatch, 
 one at Marble Mountain and one at Lime Hill, seven miles to the west of 
 Marble Mountain. The Lime Hill Church was built in 1876. 
 
 219 
 
Framboise and Its Ministry. 
 
 On May the 2nd, 1916,the people of Framboise appeared before the 
 Presbytery of Sydney, asking to be separated from Loch Lomond, and to 
 be constituted an Ordained Mission Field. With the consent of Loch 
 Lomond, the request was cordially granted, and thus Framboise, that had 
 always hitherto been a part of either Grand River, Gabarus, or Loch Lo- 
 mond, became an independent though an augmented charge. 
 
 While connected with Grand River, Framboise was ministered to by 
 the Rev. James Ross. While it was in connection with Gabarus, it was 
 ministered to by the Rev. Isaac McKay and Rev. David Drummond; and 
 while it was in connection with Loch Lomond, it was ministered to by the 
 Rev. Gavin Sinclair, Malcolm McLeod, John Fraser and James Fraser. 
 
 At the close of the ministry of the Rev. James Fraser in May, 1916, 
 though not more than fifty families the people of Framboise were so en- 
 thusiastic, optimistic, and self-reliant, that they determined to have a 
 minister of their own. They were supplied by catechists in the summer of 
 1916 and 1917. In the spring of 1918, the Presbytery appointed Mr. M. 
 D. McDonald to labor among them for one year. 
 
 Mr. McDonald was born in the island of Lewis, on the 7th day of 
 February 1868. He was ordained an elder in the Free ChUrch of his native 
 parish, before coming to Canada, in April 1895, to labor in our great west- 
 ern mission field. He was employed for some time at East Selkirk, near 
 Winnipeg in the Presbytery of Manitoba. In 1904 he was appointed to the 
 mission field of Prairie Rose, in the Presbytery of Yorkton, Saskatchewan. 
 In 1907 he was appointed to the Princeville Mission in the same Presbytery. 
 In 1911 he was sent by that Presbytery to labor in the Poynton Mission 
 field. 
 
 By invitation of Dr. Jack, clerk of the Sydney Presbytery, Mr. Mc- 
 Donald came to Cape Breton in 1916 and spent two years in the congi'ega- 
 tion of Leitche's Creek. At the end of that time the Presbytery appointed 
 him to Framboise for one year. 
 
 Mr. McDonald has not had a classical or theological education, never- 
 theless he has done good work in the various mission fields that have been 
 under his care. 
 
 In the spring of 1919 the Presbytery of Sydney applied to the General 
 Assembly for permission to license Mr. McDonald to preach the gospel. 
 This request was granted and Mr. McDonald was licensed in December 
 1920. 
 
 The Framboise people built a very convenient manse in the summer of 
 1919. They have also engaged with the Presbytery to pay their minister a 
 stipend of one thousand dollars and by so doing they have qualified for aid 
 from the Home Mission Fund. 
 
 This congregaton has a very creditable church. It was built during the 
 ministry of the Rev. John Fraser in the year 1909. The first church in 
 Framboise was built in the year 1862. 
 
 220 
 
One young man of Framboise has studied for the ministry of our 
 church, viz., Mr. D. J. Morrison. He finished his theological studies at 
 the Presbyterian College, Halifax in the spring of 1920. He was ordained 
 and inducted as minister of Strathlorne on the 15th of June following. 
 
 221 
 
Broughton etc., apid Its Ministry 
 
 Broughton is located near Belloni Station on the Sydney and Louis- 
 burg Railway. Birch Grove, an other section of this congregation is lo- 
 cated near Port Morien Station on the same line of railway. Both places 
 are coal mining centres of considerable importance. Birch Grove was in 
 connection with Port Morien from the time the Dominon Coal Company 
 began operations there in the year 1908 until Dec. the 7th, 1920, 
 when the Presbytery connected this Colliery with Broughton and raised 
 the two places to the status of a congregation. Neil's Harbor and asso- 
 ciated stations. South Ingonish, North Ingonish and St. Paul's Island were 
 constituted a congregation at the same time. 
 
 Broughton Colliery has had a very checkered career ever since its in- 
 ception in the year 1903. It was in that year that an English Company 
 under the name of "The Cape Breton Coal Iron and Railway Company" 
 opened a coal seam at Loon Lake and began to mine coal. At that time all 
 the people in that vicinity were Presbyterians. About two thirds of them 
 belonged to the Mira Congregation and about one third of them to the Port 
 Morien Congregation. There was a church on the Milton Road, not far 
 from where the new colliery was established, in which the minister of Mira 
 had been accustomed to hold services occasionally. This church was built 
 in the year 1892 in order to accommodate the people living in this vicinity. 
 They were too far away to worship at the central church, Albert Bridge, 
 except on fine days and in summer time. 
 
 In the year 1905, when the mining population had multiplied consider- 
 ably, it was thought well to have a place of worship near the colliery and 
 near the residences of the miners. A petition was thereupon drawn up 
 and transmitted to the Presbytery representing conditions at Broughton 
 and praying for a student catechist under the supervision of the Mira 
 Session. The prayer of this petition was granted and a student was sent 
 accordingly. By the end of 1905, the Presbytery erected Broughton into 
 a Mission Field and it continued in that status until it was joined to Birch 
 Grove to form a new congregation at the end of 1920. 
 
 On the 1st of January 1906 the Rev. P. C. Simpson went to Broughton 
 and remained there five or six months. In the beginning of July in that 
 year the Rev. James A. Forbes was sent here by the Presbytery and re- 
 mained until the month of Sept. 1907. 
 
 From Sept. to the end of the year the Rev. Malcolm Campbell attend- 
 ed to the religious needs of this people. 
 
 On Jan. 2nd 1908, the Rev. Donald McDougall took charge of Brough- 
 ton in the expectation of remaining during the whole of that year, but in 
 April following he was called to rest from his earthly labors. In Sept 
 1908 the Presbytery appointed the Rev. Hugh Michael as Ordained Mis- 
 sionary at Broughton for two years, and at the end of that time he was re- 
 appointed for two years more. 
 
 222 
 
The Rev. S. C. Gunn and the Rev. R. H. McPherson supplied this 
 field during the year 1912. 
 
 Mr. Willam McKenzie of Glace Bajr supplied from March 1914 to 
 May 1915. During the next six months a student from Ontario, by the 
 name of Angus Mcintosh gave his services to this community. At the 
 end of that time he enlisted and went to France where he was subsequently 
 killed in the service of his country. 
 
 In the summer of 1917 Mr. J. D. McLeod, student, looked after the 
 interests of this station for several months. The Rev. Malcolm McLeod 
 of Baddeck spent four months among this people in the summer of 1918 
 and the Rev. John Murray of Glace Bay about the same length of time in 
 the summer of 1919. 
 
 The families in connection with Broughton have been few, not more 
 than thirty at the njost, but they have been very energetic and very liberal. 
 
 The colliery has been closed since the fall of 1914, but we are in hopes 
 that it will open again before long and that there is a good future in store 
 for this field. The place of worship is a Hall, but it is amply large for 
 present requirements, well seated, heated and lighted. It was built in 1914 
 at a cost of $1,200. It was dedicated to the worship of God, by the Pres- 
 bytery of Sydney on Jan. the 10th, 1915. 
 
 Birch Grove is a prosperous colliery and it is hoped that this new 
 congregation will shortly become one of the largest and best within the 
 bounds of the Sydney Presbytery. 
 
 223 
 
Nell's Harbor and its Ministry. 
 
 In this congregation there are four distinct centres of population. 
 South Ingonish, North Ingonish, Neil's Harbor and St. Paul's Island. 
 South Ingonish Church is seven miles from North Ingonish Church, North 
 Ingonish Church twelve miles from Neil's Harbor Church and Neil's Har- 
 bor' Church, twenty five miles from St. Paul's Island. From South In- 
 gonish at the one extremity to St. Paul's Island, at the other is a distance of 
 over forty miles. St. Paul's Island is, of course, only to be reached by 
 water and for a few months in the summer season. There are only about 
 thirty Presbyterian families in the whole field. Of these families, there are 
 eight at South Ingonish, twelve at North Ingonish, twelve at Neil's Har- 
 bor and four or five on St. Paul's. There is no church en St. Paul's Island. 
 There are good churches at the other three places. The church at Neil's 
 Harbor was built in 1890 and finished in 1893. The churches at the two 
 Ingonishes were built a few years later. 
 
 Ingonish and Neil's Harbor were in connection with the Cape North 
 congregation from 1860 when the Rev. Donald Sutherland was inducted 
 there until May the 30th 1897, when they were separated by Presbytery 
 and constituted into a Mission Field. Since that time, this mission field 
 has been supplied by student catechists, during the summer months. 
 There are a number of Methodist families at North Ingonish, but it is 
 hoped that ere long they will identify themselves with their Presbyterian 
 neighbours and help to strengthen the cause of religion in this place. 
 
 The principal employment of the people in the Ingonish and Neil's 
 Harbor, is fishing. The people on St. Paul's Island are in the service of 
 the Dominion Government as light-house keepers, etc. The minister in 
 charge of this field is expected to visit this lonely island, at least once during 
 the summer and to spend a Sabbath or two there. 
 
 St. Paul's is so little known by our people, that we shall devote the re- 
 mainder of this article to that isolated part of our church's jurisdiction. 
 It is in telephonic connection with the world all the year round by means of 
 a cable laid between Bay St.Lawrence, C. B., and Atlantic Cove, St. Paul's 
 Island. 
 
 The writer was the first Presbyterian minister or indeed minister of 
 any denomination to visit St. Paul's Island. That was in the summer of 
 1880. He went out by schooner, spent ten days there apd conducted a 
 number of services with the people. 
 
 As a result of that visit, the Superintendent, Mr. Samuel Cunnard 
 Campbell and the other four heads of families, then on the island con- 
 nected themselves with Falmouth St. Church and supported that church 
 until 1891, when his pastorate in Sydney came to an end. 
 
 Between 1891 and 1920 St. Paul's was supposed to be looked after by 
 the minister of Cape North. 
 
 During the time, he was in Sydney, the writer tried to make an annua 1 
 visit to St. Paul's, usually in the month of August, when he spent from two 
 
 224 
 
to four weekte under the hospitable roof of his very dear friends, Mr. Camp- 
 bel and his admirable wife. What delightful memories are associated 
 with these visits. Both Mr. and Mrs. Campbell are now in the better 
 land, but their kindness can never be forgotten. 
 
 After his return from one of his annual visits to St. Paul's island, 
 he penned the lines that are appended to this article. 
 
 As a Life Saving Station, St. Paul's Island is entirely under the control 
 of the Dominion Government, while for educational and electoral purposes 
 it is under the control of the Government of NoVa Scotia. The island lies 
 in Cabot Strait, at the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is situated 
 fifteen miles from Cape North, Nova Scotia and thirty five miles from Cape 
 Ray, Newfoundland. This island is about three miles in length and about 
 three quarters of a mile average breadth. The highest land is not more 
 than five hundred feet and the average height of the land above the sea, 
 is about one hundred feet. The surface of the island is covered with 
 scrubby spruce for the most part. There are two small lakes on the island, 
 named respectfully Lena Lake and Ethel Lake, after the late Superintend- 
 ent, Samuel C. Campbell's two youngest da'ughters. 
 
 The island is indented with coves, but there is no harbor. Landing is 
 always difficult except at two or three points and then only with the wind 
 off the shore. There is a Life Saving Station on Atlantic Cove, a light house 
 on the south west end of the island and another on the north east end. There 
 is a fog-alarm of tremendous power situated about the middle of the island. 
 In foggy weather, this alarm is kept going day and night, in order to warn 
 ships in the vicinity of tlieir danger. 
 
 Between forty and fifty vessels of all kinds and sizes have been wrecked 
 on the rugged reefs and towering cliffs of this dangerous island, and many 
 brave men have found a watery grave in its surf; while a number more have 
 starVed to death on the island after escaping death by drowning. 
 
 A number of the coves and headlands are named after vessels that 
 were wrecked at those particular spots. Jessie Cove at the south-west 
 end of the island, is a case in point. 
 
 The brig Jessie was built in New London Harbor, Prince Edward 
 Island in the early part of 1824, by Captain Donald McKay, a Sutherland- 
 shire man. After loading her with square timber in Pictou Harbor, Mr. 
 McKay sailed for the Clyde, Scotland, on the afternoon of Dec. the 24th, 
 1824, with a crew of twenty men. 
 
 The night proved dark and stormy and the following morning found 
 the Jessie stranded on St. Paul's Island. Her crew managed to reach the 
 shore, only to die of starvation by the following spring. There was no 
 shelter and what provision they saved did not last long. The tragic fate 
 of Capt. McKay and his crew was discovered by fishermen from Cape 
 Breton, who went out to St. Paul's in the following summer. 
 
 Two years later, the Government of New Brunswick built a place of 
 shelter .for shipwrecked mariners at Petri6's Cove, on the west side of the 
 island and sent two men out there to take care of shipwrecked crews. 
 
 In 1826, the government of Nova Scotia built a place of shelter at 
 
 225 
 
Atlantic Cove on the south east side of St. Paul's and sent a man by the 
 liame of Hector McKenzie out to spend the winter there and help t'6 save 
 shipwrecked seamen. This arrangement continued till 18S7, when at the 
 request of the Imperial Government, the Government of Nova Scotia built 
 two light-houses on St. Paul's, one at north east end of the island, an- 
 other at the south wast end and also a life saving station at Atlantic Cove. 
 Mr. John Campbell, a native of the island of Coll, Scotland, was sent 
 out to superintend the construction of these buildings, and two years later 
 when the work of construction was completed, Mr. Campbell was ap- 
 pointed Governor of St. Paul's, and he held this position until 1858, when he 
 resigned and retired. On Mr. Campbell's retirement his son, Samuel Crfa- 
 nard Campbell received the appointment of Governor, and when he re- 
 tired in the year 1904, his son, John Malcolm Campbell was appointed to 
 the position that this father and grandfather had filled so efficiently for a 
 period of sixty five years. 
 
 In the summer of 1919, John M. Campbell was promoted to the Gov- 
 ernorship of Sable Island, and Abraham McLeod of Wreck Cove, Victoria 
 County was appointed his successor. 
 
 The Rev. Malcolm N. McLeod, minister of Cape North visited St. 
 Paul's Island in the summer of 1895. and wrote as follows: "When I visited 
 the island first I was agreeably disappointed in the opinion I had of the 
 social and moral condition of that small community. There were then 
 there five families and a large number of young men and women who were 
 in the employ of Governor Campbell. They had an excellent day school 
 and an admirable Sunday School under the efficient management of Mrs. 
 Campbell. To this school, young and old gathered on the Lord's Day, and 
 it was to them a little sanctuary. The children were excellent singers — 
 even the little girls were not ashamed to lead the singing at my services 
 there." 
 
 We are sorry to say that a great change has taken place on St. Paul's 
 since these words were written. There are no children on the island at the 
 present time, and of course no Sunday School or day school. 
 
 Ex-Governor S. C. Campbell was born at Whycocomagh in the year 
 1836. He died at the Victoria General Hospital, Halifax on March the 
 31st 1911. Mr. Campbell was very highly esteemed by all who had the 
 pleasure of his acquaintanceship. He was a manly man, and, as good and 
 true a friend as the writer ever had. He left one son and four daughters 
 and all are filling places of usefulness in different parts of Canada at the 
 present time. 
 
 St. Pauls ! O lonely sea-girt isle; 
 
 Thou stand'st apart, so still and calm 
 
 While restless waters round thee roar 
 
 In everlasting turmoil wild. 
 
 Twixt Newfoundland and bold Cape North 
 
 Thou guard'st St. Lawrence's stormy gulf, 
 
 Gainst broad Atlantic's mighty waves. 
 
 Thy rocky cliffs receive the shock 
 226 
 
Of every crested wave that rolls 
 
 In majesty before the winds 
 
 From North and South, from East and West. 
 
 Thou art the dread of sea-men bold. 
 
 The bones of thousands lie around 
 
 The bases of thy towering cliffs 
 
 And in thy caverns deep and dark. 
 
 But on thy storm-swept bosom wild 
 
 Is generous hospitality. 
 
 A Campbell's hearty welcome greets 
 
 The friend who lands to spend a while 
 
 In converse sweet, with much loved friends, 
 
 In their secluded island home. 
 
 Nor can an ever grateful heart 
 
 Recall the scene, the time, the host, 
 
 The hostess too, without a flood 
 
 Of tender recollections sweet. 
 
 As I do here today and now. 
 
 Sydney, October 24, 1882. 
 
 ^VJ, 
 
 227 
 
Pleasant Bay Mission Field. 
 
 In the early days of last century this bay went by the name of Grand- 
 ance Bay and locally by the name of Grandtosh Bay. It was the Rev. 
 Donald Sutherland that popularized the present name when he was living 
 there between 1870 and 1875. Pleasant Bay is located on the Gulf of 
 St. Lawrence and about midway between Cheticamp and Bay St. Law- 
 rence. Rugged mountains rise behind the bay and threaten to shut it off 
 from the rest of the world. 
 
 During five months of the year Pleasnt Bay can be reached by water, 
 quite easily, but during the winter months the only way of access is by a 
 narrow foot path over the mountains, either by way of Cheticamp from the 
 west, or by way of Aspy Bay and Big Intervale from the south. There is 
 no carriage road to Pleasant Bay from any direction, although there are a 
 few carriages in use at the bay itself. 
 
 Three rivers, the McKenzie, the Pond aad the Red, drain the plateau, 
 of the mountains that encircle Pleasant Bay and they empty their waters 
 on its shores. 
 
 There are thirty-five families living in this isolated but romantic lo- 
 cality. They are all, practically, Presbyterians and all are in very comfort- 
 able circumstances. They have few luxuries, but they have plenty of good 
 food, warm clothing and neat houses, with contentment and happiness — all 
 that any man really needs on his short pilgrimage through time to eternity. 
 
 They live partly by farming, but chiefly by fishing. In the waters of 
 the gulf, just in front of them, there is an abundance of fish — lobster, 
 herring, cod, haddock, halibut, salmon and mackerel. The inhabitants of 
 Pleasant Bay are all expert fishermen, and they make the most of their op- 
 portunity to gather the harvest of the sea in its season. There is a sub- 
 stantial government wharf at the eastern end of the bay, which is a very 
 great convenience to these people. There is also a lobster factory at the 
 shore end of the wharf. 
 
 The primitive sail boat has been discarded in the operation of fishing 
 and the motor boat has taken its place, to the great advantage of that in- 
 dustry. 
 
 Previous to May, 1895, Pleasant Bay was included in the Cape North 
 or Aspy Bay congregation. Since that time it has been under the care of 
 the Presbytery of Inverness as a Home Mission Field. This Presbytery 
 is generally able to provide the people with a student catechist during four 
 or five months in the summer time. During seven or eight months of the year 
 they have to depend on their own resources for spiritual food. And, to their 
 very great credit, be it said, they have never failed to meet the demand in 
 this regard. Indeed, the people of Pleasant Bay have been largely depend- 
 ent upon themselves for religious services since the beginning of their his- 
 tory. As a matter of fact, public worship on the Lord's Day and a mid- 
 week prayer meeting has been regularly conducted in Pleasant Bay ever 
 since the first settlers came from the Isle of Skye over ninety years ago. 
 
 228 
 
In these eaHy days they had no church, but they met in one or another of 
 their own houses for the worship of God. Now, however, and for many 
 years, they have a very comfortable church in which they meet regularly 
 for divine worship on Sabbath and on week-nights. In the absence of a 
 minister or catechist, one of the elders takes charge of the service, while the 
 other elders and members assist in prayer and praise. A sermon is always 
 read at these Sabbath services and occasionally an exhortation given by the 
 leader. 
 
 Such services by laymen were quite common among our godly fore- 
 fathers, both in Scotland and among the early settlements of our people 
 in Cape Breton, Pictou county, and P. E. Island. Our godly Presbyterian 
 ancestors believed that where two or three disciples of Christ meet together 
 in His name, they could count on the Master's presence with them, ac- 
 cording to His promise. It is highly advantageous to have a minister of 
 the gospel to lead the worshippers in their devotions, and also to instruct 
 them in religious things, but that is not essenljial. The essential things are 
 praise and prayer and reading of God's Word by spiritually minded men 
 and women under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. "God is a Spirit and 
 they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." "Where 
 the spirit is there the church is." 
 
 The Pleasant Bay people from force of circumstances have persisted 
 in this admirable custom, much to their own and their children's benefit. 
 They never let the fire burn out on the altar. They added the fuel of their 
 devotions Sabbath after Sabbath and year after year ever since they land- 
 ed on these rock-bound shores. 
 
 In their isolation and lack of many privileges enjoyed by other places, 
 these loyal Presbyterians have always laid much stress on three things, viz., 
 the home, the sanctuary and the common school. And hence they have 
 been distinguished above many more favored settlements, for character, 
 piety and intelligence. From this small community has come one of our 
 best ministers, Rev. John Peter Mcintosh, who died at Bridgewater on 
 February the 23rd, 1918, and also a professor in Dalhousie College, Mr. 
 D. S. Mcintosh Professor of Geology in that famous institution. 
 
 The first settlers of Pleasant Bay came from the Isle of Skye nearly 
 one hundred years ago. Like so many others of their kindred they were 
 driven from their native land by the proprietors of the soil in order to 
 make room for sheep and deer — four footed animals. There were six 
 families of them, three McLean's and three Mcintosh's with their wives and 
 children. The three McLean's were John, Donald Junior and Donald 
 Senior. The three Mcintosh's were James, Donald Senior and Donald 
 Junior. These six families came to the bay about 1828, and their descend- 
 ants are the principle citizens of the place at the present time. 
 
 Donald McLean, Jr., was known as "the bard." He was highly gifted 
 in the expression of profound thought in measured words. A number of 
 his poems are still to be seen in manuscript as they were taken down from 
 his own lips by the late Rev. Donald Sutherland and written out in Gaelic. 
 
 The next arrivals were Donald Sutherland, a Caithnessshire man, and 
 
 229 
 
Andrew Moore. The latter came from Mabou, and his name is found on 
 the call that the people of Mabou extended to the Rev. Wm. Millar in 1821. 
 Mr. A. D. Moore, one of the elders of Pleasant Bay at the present time is a 
 grandson of Andrew Moore. Another of the early settlers was James 
 Hingley with his excellent wife. Mrs. Hingley was a woman of fair 
 education as well as of deep piety. She started the first Sabbath School 
 in the bay soon after her arrival. She took a great interest in the welfare 
 of the young, and she is still spoken of with respect and esteem. 
 
 These eight families were in Pleasant Bay as early as 1830, and they 
 were all pious, God-fearing people. They laid the foundation of industry, 
 sobriety, morality and religion, upon which their children have been building 
 ever since. 
 
 It is doubtful if any minister of the gospel ever went as far as Pleasant 
 Bay before 1841, when the Rev. John Gunn of Broadcove is supposed to 
 have made his first missionary journey to the far north-east of Cape Breton 
 including Pleasant Bay, Aspy Bay and Bay St. Lawrence. After that time, 
 Mr. Gunn made an annual journey to these parts and spent one or two 
 Sabbaths at Pleasant Bay in going or returning. These one or two 
 Sabbaths a year of gospel privileges must have been very highly appreciated 
 and enjoyed! 
 
 In the month of May, 1847, the religious life of this locality was greatly 
 helped by the arrival of Mr. John Mcintosh with his family. He was a 
 brother of James and the two Donalds that came in 1828. John Mcintosh 
 left the Isle of Skye in his boyhood and found his way to Aberdeenshire 
 on the east coast of Scotland. Here he met and married his excellent wife, 
 Helen Watt, by whom he had five children. At the time of the Disruption, 
 in 1843, Mr. Mcintosh joined the Free Church and began to take an 
 active part in church work. On his arrival at Pleasant Bay, on account of 
 his intelligence and piety, he became very appropriately, the leader in all 
 religious services, and he held this position during the next thirty-five 
 years, when age and infirmity compelled him to retire. 
 
 John Mcintosh departed this life on the 2nd of March, 1884, in the 
 84th year of his age, greatly esteemed and lamented by all who knew him. 
 His son, Alexander Mcintosh, took up the fallen mantle of his father 
 and carried it with much credit to himself and benefit to the congregation 
 for many years. Then when he became infirm and unable to attend to 
 duty, his nephew, Mr. A. H. Mcintosh took the place of leadership in the 
 Sabbath services, Sabbath school and prayer meetings. Thus the Lord's 
 work has been carried on from generation to generation in this, the most 
 out of the way part of our church in Cape Berton. 
 
 The Rev. Donald Sutherland was settled at Aspy Bay in the year 1860 
 and he suppli d Pleasant Bay with gospel ordinances while minister in that 
 place. The Rev. Peter Clark ministered to this field from 1873 to 1887, 
 and the Rev. Malcolm N. McLeod from July, 1894, to March, 1895, when 
 the bay was placed under the care of the Presbytery of Inverness. Since 
 that time nearly every summer has found a catechist among this people for at 
 least a few months. 
 
 230 
 
There are four elders and thirty communicants. The only minister 
 that we have had from Pleasant Bay is the Rev. J. P. Mcintosh, already 
 referred to. During the last few years the people of Pleasant Bay have 
 experienced great difficulty in getting teachers for their school. Conse- 
 quently the education of their children is in a backward way at the present 
 time. They have a good school house and between thirty-five and forty 
 children growing up to manhood and womanhood, without such an educa- 
 tion as they ought to have and such an education as the children of Pleasant 
 Bay have been receiving in past year. 
 
 West Bay Points Mission Field. 
 
 West Bay Points were included in West Bay Congregation until July 
 the 4th, 1905, when they were separated by action of Presbytery and formed 
 into a Mission field. Since that time, this somewhat isolated locality has 
 been quite regularly supplied by Students in the summer season. 
 
 There are 42 families in this field. They have a good church and they 
 are liberal in their support of the means of grace. 
 
 231 
 
Port Hood Mission Field. 
 
 Port Hood was connected with Mabou from 1821 to Feb. 16th, 1909, 
 and received a share of the Mabou minister's services during all these 
 eighty-eight years. In 1909, however, the people of Port Hood thought 
 the time had come when they could do better for themselves by having a 
 separate organization. The coal mines of Port Hood were in active oper- 
 ation at that time, the population was growing and the outlook for the 
 future was good. In these circumstances the Port Hood people petitioned 
 the Presbytery of Inverness to constitute them an ordained Mission Charge. 
 They engaged to raise and pay an ordained Missionary the sum of $500. 
 The Presbytery complied with their request and decided to apply to the 
 Augmentation Committee for the sum of $300 in case of a settlement. 
 In November, 1909, the congregation called the Rev. D. Stiles Fraser 
 to be its pastor. He accepted the call and was inducted some weeks later. 
 But Mr. Fraser did not remain long. At the end of his first year in Port 
 Hood he resigned. Then for the best part of a year the congregation was 
 supplied in succession by the Rev. John D. McGillivray and the Rev. Alex. 
 F. Thompson. On the 13th of February, 1911, the Presbytery appointed 
 the Rev. R. H. McPherson ordained Missionary for one year. But a few 
 months thereafter the colliery was closed and he was under the necessity 
 of resigning and withdrawing. The collapse of the Colliery caused prac- 
 tically the collapse of our cause in Port Hood. The Presbytery sent student 
 catechists to Port Hood in the summers of 1912 and 1913, but there was 
 very little financial support forthcoming, during that time. 
 
 Finally, our people at Port Hood asked the Presbytery not to send 
 any more catechists in the meantime, nor until such time as they would be 
 able to pay for a catechist's services. That time has not come yet. Mean- 
 time the dozen Presbyterian families in this place are worshipping with 
 the Methodists on Sunday morning and evening, but they keep up their 
 own Sabbath School. They have the Lord's Supper dispensed in their 
 own church once or twice a year and they contribute to the Missionary 
 funds of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 This is a place where a union of the Presbyterians and Methodists 
 would be for the best interests of Protestantism and religion. 
 
 There is a large and valuable coal field at Port Hood and doubtless, 
 some day, that coal will be mined and there will be a large increase in the 
 population and wealth of the town. 
 
 232 
 
EARLY MINISTERS 
 
 REV. ISAAC MURRAY, D. D., 
 Early Minister. 
 
 REV. KENNETH MoKENZIE, 
 Early Minister. 
 
 REV. JAMES ROSS. 
 
 REV. ABRAHAM McINTOSH, 
 Early Minister. 
 
EARLY MINISTERS 
 
 REV. A. FARQUHARSON, 
 Early^. Minister. 
 
 REV. D. SUTHERLAND, 
 
 Early JVIinister. 
 
 REV. JAlVtES McLEAN, 
 Early Minister, 
 
 REV. ADAIW McKAY, 
 Early Minister. 
 
EARLY MINISTERS 
 
 REV. D. McDOUGALL, 
 Early Minister. 
 
 REV. DAVID DRUMMOND, 
 Early Minister. 
 
PART III. 
 
 The Centenary of Presbyterlanlsm In Cape Breton. 
 
 The hundredth anniversary of organized Presbyterianism on this 
 island was a notable event in our history. 
 
 The day selected for the celebration of that event was looked forward 
 to with ever deepening interest by our people and when the day arrived, 
 they were present in large numbers, and from nearly every congregation 
 within our sea-girt shores. 
 
 The movement to celebrate the centenary of the arrival of the Rev. 
 Norman McLeod with his followers at St. Ann's on the 20th of May, 1820, 
 originated in the Presbytery, Sydney on the second day of Dec. 1919, with 
 the adoption of the following resolution; "That the Presbytery of Sydney 
 cordially approves of celebrating the centenary of organized Presbyterian- 
 ism on the Island of Cape Breton in May 1920 or on such date thereafter as 
 may be most convenient to all concerned in such celebration; that the Pres- 
 bytery of Inverness be cordially invited to co-operate with this Presbytery 
 in a fitting and worthy celebration of this important event in our common 
 history and that all arrangements for this centennial celebration be en- 
 trusted to the Historical Committee." 
 
 The Presbytery of Inverness responded very cordially to the invitation 
 of the Presbytery of Sydney for co-operation in the proposed centennial 
 celebration. The pastor of St. Ann's and his people were also found willing 
 and eager to co-operate with the two Presbyteries in making the celebration 
 a complete success. The 8th of July was chosen, by the Historical Com- 
 mittee, as the most convenient day for holding the centenary services and 
 the church at South Gut, St. Ann's as the most suitable place. A pro- 
 gramme was drawn up by that committee that provided for two sessions, 
 with an interval between for dinner. 
 
 The forenoon session was to begin at 10.30 a. m. and end at 12.30 p. m. 
 and the afternoon session at 2 p. m. and end at 4.30 p. m. The morning 
 session was intended to give special prominence to the life and character 
 of the Rev. Norman McLeod by the reading of a suitable paper on that 
 subject while the afternoon session was to lay special emphasis on Mr. 
 McLeod's people and the congregation of St. Ann's by the reading of a 
 suitable paper on that subject. 
 
 The preparation of these two papers was entrusted to the Chairman 
 of the Historical Committee. 
 
 The programme provided that the Rev. D. A. McMillan, moderator 
 of the Presbytery of Sydney, should preside at the forenoon session and 
 that the Rev. E. D. McKillop, moderator of the Inverness Presbytery 
 should preside at the afternoon session, and also that certain members of 
 both Presbyteries, as well as certain expected visitors from abroad should 
 take some definite part in the exercises of these sessions. It wa3 also pro- 
 
 233 
 
vided that each session should open and close with suitable religious ex- 
 ercises, in both English and Gaelic. July the 8th arrived in due time 
 and though overcast and a heavy mist was resting on the hills surrounding 
 St. Ann's the day was quite favourable for the celebration. By ten 
 o'clock people began to arrive at South Gut from the most distant parts of 
 the island, such as Louisburg, St. Peters, Port Hastings, Port Hawkesbury, 
 Mabou, Strathlorne and Cape North. 
 
 Interested outsiders were there from New Glasgow, Halifax and Lunen- 
 burg. One man came all the way from New Zealand to show his interest 
 in the event. We may be sure that he was a worthy descendant of one 
 of those men who emigrated to that distant island from St. Ann's, some 
 sixty or seventy years ago. Unfortunately this man arrived a day too 
 late to take any part in the exercises. 
 
 It was also a matter of regret that the S. S. Aspy, with several hundred 
 passengers aboard from Port Morien, Glace Bay, Sydney and North Syd- 
 ney, was an hour or more late in arriving on the scene, almost too late indeed 
 to participate in the forenoon session. 
 
 By the time for commencing the celebration had arrived the South 
 Gut Church was crowded to capacity and there were scores on the outside 
 seeking admittance. 
 
 The Rev. A. Murray, pastor of the congregation began the day's 
 exercises by calling upon all to join heartily in singing the one hundredth 
 psalm. After reading the seventy second psalm, he called upon the 
 Rev. W. A. Whidden to lead in prayer, in English and upon the Rev. J. W. 
 McLean to lead in prayer, in Gaelic. 
 
 After some appropriate introductory remarks by the Chairman and the 
 singing of four verses of the forty eighth psalm, the Rev. John Murray read 
 his paper on the life and character of the Rev. Norman McLeod. This 
 paper will be found in Part I of this volume. 
 
 The reading of this paper was followed by short reminiscent addresses 
 by John Morrison Esq., an aged St. Ann's citizen, who remembered 
 Norman McLeod very well and who received his first lessons at school 
 from that great teacher; the Rev. Malcolm McLeod, who was born in the 
 congregation and was its minister for a number of years, and by the Rev. 
 J. A. McLellaft, who was also a former minister of St. Ann's. 
 
 Mr. Peter H. Ross, a native of St. Ann's, and a son of the late Senator 
 William Ross, but now a citizen oi Lunenburg, N. S. brought congratula- 
 tions from the Presbyterian Church in Lunenburg to the Presbyterian 
 Church in St. Ann's from a church that had recently celebrated its one 
 hundred and fiftieth anniversary to one that was celebrating its one hun- 
 dredth anniversary. 
 
 Mr. W. D. Stewart, of New Glasgow, N. S. and a son of the Rev. John 
 Stewart, one of the pioneer ministers of Cape Breton, took the platform 
 at this stage and made a very happy and appropriate address. 
 
 A written message from the Rev. A. J. McDonald of Bridgewater, 
 a former pastor of St. Ann's, was read expressing best wishes for the success 
 of the centenary celebration and for the congregation of St. Ann's. 
 
 234 
 
After singing a portion of the forty sixth psalm the Rev. D. M. Gillies, 
 
 D. D. moved the adoption of resolution appropriate to the occasion for 
 engrossment in the minutes of the Presbytery of Sydney and the Pres- 
 bytery of Inverness. This resolution was cordially adopted after Dr. 
 Gillies had eloquently supported it in English and the Rev. Donald McDon- 
 ald as eloquently in the Celtic tongue. 
 
 The old paraphase, "0 God of Bethel, etc" was then sung, the Apos- 
 tolic benediction pronounced and this session adjourned to partake of the 
 refreshments that the St. Aim's people had so bountifully provided. 
 
 The afternoon session opened under the Chairmanship of the Rev. 
 
 E. D. McKillop, with a Gaelic service of praise and prayer, the Rev. James 
 Fraser leading in prayer, and an admirable Gaelic choir leading in praise. 
 
 The large audienpe then listened to a paper on the St. Ann's congre- 
 gation. It was read by the Rev. John McKinnon,, B. D., of Baddeck, 
 and will be found in the second part of this volume. 
 
 The reading of this paper was followed by a number of appropriate 
 addresses by several gentlemen. 
 
 The first was by the Hon. George H. Murray, Premier of Nova Scotia 
 and representative of the County of Victoria, in which St. Ann's is sit- 
 uated. Mr. Murray was among his friends and his address was very happy 
 and very highly appreciated. 
 
 The Rev. Angus McMillan followed the Premier in a very interesting 
 address on the early days and the early ministers of St. Ann's. Mr. 
 McMillali was born in this congregation, was one of the first young men to 
 study for the ministry from the congregation, and of course he spoke from 
 intimate knowledge as well as with much feeling. 
 
 By this time it was getting late in the afternoon, and the remaining 
 addresses had to be curtailed and some of them left unspoken. We had 
 only time to hear from the Rev. John Mcintosh on "The Growth of our 
 church in Cape Breton from 1820 to 1920;" from the Rev. Kenneth M, 
 Munroe on "The Growth of our Church in Canada from 1820 to 1920"; and 
 from the Rev. John Pringle, D. D., on "The Future of our Church in Can- 
 ada." 
 
 These addresses were all admirable and every one was sorry that they 
 had to be crowded into so shori a space of time. 
 
 After singing the long meter Doxology, the Apostolic Benedittion was 
 pronounced and the St. Ann's Centenary was a thing of the past. We 
 had entered on a new centenary of Presbyterian history on the Island of 
 Cape Breton. 
 
 What the century may have in store for the Presbyterian church in 
 days to come, time alone will reveal. All will depend under God on the 
 consecrated energy that we put into the work of the church as ministers, 
 elders, members and adherents. God will not fail to help if we adequately 
 help ourselves. 
 
 235 
 
The Growth of the Presbyterian Church In Cape Breton In the 
 
 Past Century. 
 
 The population of Cape Breton Island in the year 1820 was 15,000. 
 Of that number 500 were Indians, 1600 were French, 500 English and 
 12,400 were Scotch — all from the highlands or islands of Scotland and all 
 Gaelic speaking. The lowland Scotch never came to Cape Breton in any- 
 considerable numbers. The only place on this island where people from 
 the lowlands of Scotland made homes for themselves to any extent was at 
 Sydney Mines and in connection with the mining industry there. 
 
 The 12,400 Gaelic speaking people in Cape Breton, one hundred years 
 ago, were all either Presbyterians or Roman Catholics. These were 
 practically the only two faiths in Celtic, Scotland at the beginning of last 
 century, and, of course, the only two faiths the Scottish immigrants brought 
 with them to this country. 
 
 The Roman Catholics came from western Invernesshire and from the 
 adjacent islands; more especially from Barra and South Uist. 
 
 The Presbyterians came almost entirely from the Hebrides, and more 
 especially from North Uist, Harris, Skye and Lewis. Very few if any 
 Presbyterians came here from the mainland of Scotland, except those who 
 came from Assynt, Sutherlandshire with the Rev. Norman McLeod. 
 
 The Roman Catholic immigrants began to arrive by way of Pictou, 
 Antigonish and the Strait of Canso in the last decade of the eighteenth 
 century. The Gaelic speaking Presbyterians did not begin to arrive -until 
 the first decade of the nineteenth century. 
 
 By the year 1820 there were, to the best of our knowledge, over five 
 thousand Presbyterians on the Island and over seven thousand Roman 
 Catholics. 
 
 The adherents of these two churches settled for the most part in groups 
 at difiEerent points within our island,and their descendants are still found to a 
 large extent in clusters, Presbyterians by themselves and Roman Catholics 
 by themselves. Loch Lomond was settled exclusively by Presbyterians 
 while Grand Mira was as exclusively settled by Roman Catholics. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1820, the Presbyterians of Cape Breton 
 did not have a single minister, church or organized congregation. 
 
 They were busy hewing out homes for themselves in the primeval 
 forest and subsisting upon fish and potatoes with more or less oatmeal, 
 butter, cheese, etc. 
 
 They were living in small log houses, spinning their own wool, wearing 
 their own home made clothing, tanning their own leather, making their own 
 boots and shoes and building their own boats. They owned few, if any, 
 horses, ploughs or carts. They had no roads and of course waggons were 
 not dreamed of. The axe, the hoe and the sickle were the chief agricultural 
 instruments. The Ox was the principal draft animal in those days. Tra- 
 velling was done almost entirely on the water and by boat or small vessel. 
 
 There were no schools and no teachers and hence the children were 
 
 236 
 
growing up without any instruction in reading, writing or arithmetic, ex- 
 cept what their parents might be able to give them. 
 
 There were few merchants on the island at that time and these were 
 far apart. 
 
 There was very little money in circulation and there was practically 
 no market for anything that our ancestors could gather from sea or land. 
 Trade was conducted almost entirely by barter or exchange of commod- 
 ities. 
 
 One hundred years ago there were no books for sale on this island. The 
 few books that were to be found in the homes of the people were taken 
 from the motherland and were much read and dearly cherished. They 
 were all of a religious character and the Gaelic Bible held a pre-eminent place 
 among them. Religious services were unknown, except in settlements 
 where there happened to be a pious layman who could read God's Word 
 and conduct public worship with his neighbors. In such cases, the people 
 of the settlement gathered, on the Lord's Day, in one or other of their 
 own houses for the worship of God. On such occasions a sermon by one of 
 the old divines, such as Thomas Boston, Richard Baxter or John Welsh 
 was usually read. 
 
 There was not a newspaper published on this island at that time and 
 very few in Canada. How little our ancestors must have known of what 
 was transpiring in the great world outside of their own little community ! 
 
 Very few of our forefathers could write letters, and if they could the 
 rate of postage was almost prohibitive of correspondence for people in their i 
 circumstances. As late as the year 1850, it cost three shillings, or seventy 
 cents of our money, to carry a letter from Pictou, Nova Scotia to London, ■ 
 Ontario. 
 
 One hundred years ago there was not one dollar given by the Pres- 
 byterians of Cape Breton for the support of the gospel at home, nor for the 
 spread of the gospel abroad. 
 
 Missionary effort and missionary giving had not then been thought of. 
 That was indeed the day of small things. What a change has taken place 
 in the mean time! 
 
 The growth of the Presbyterian Church on this island has been slow 
 but steady and gratifying. The greatest drawback has been the emmigra- 
 tion of our young people from the f arm to the town and from our island to 
 the United States and to Western Canada. Had we been able to retain our 
 young men and young women in Cape Breton, our Presbyterian population 
 would have been, by this time, two or three times as great as it is. But 
 they are not lost to our Church by any means. They and their children 
 are, with very few exceptions, ^ound loyal to the Church of their fathers 
 the church of the elders and the Church of the blue banner. 
 
 The first Presbyterian congregation or pastoral charge that was 
 formed on the island of Cape Breton was the congregation of St. Ann's. 
 
 The nucleus of this congregation landed on the shores of St. Ann's 
 Harbor with the Rev. Norman McLeod, its first pastor on the 20th day of 
 
 237 
 
May 1820. It had been at sea in a raging storm. It ran into this harbor 
 for shelter and it remained here. 
 
 The second congregation came into existence at Mabou on the 24th of 
 August 1821 when under the inspiration of Dr. James McGregor the people 
 of Mabou and Port Hood signed a call to the Rev. William Millar of 
 Ayrshire, Scotland. 
 
 This call was signed by fifty two men and one woman. 
 
 Eleven years later the third cogregation of our Church came into ex- 
 istence. 
 
 This was on the 1st day of January 1832, when the Rev. Dugald Mc- 
 Kichan came to River Inhabitants from Barney's River, Pictou County and 
 assumed the oversight of all the Presbyterians on River Inhabitants, the 
 Strait of Canso and the intervening country. 
 
 On Nov. the 29th 1834 a fourth congregation came into existence. It 
 Was on that day that the Rev. Alexander Farquharson was inducted by the 
 Rev. John Stewart into the pastoral charge of Middle River, Lake Ainslie 
 and surrounding territory, including Baddeck River. 
 
 On October the 15th, 1835 the Rev. John Stewart was inducted into 
 the congregation of West Bay. There was no Presbytery on this island at 
 that time, but the Rev. Alexander Farquharson of Middle River and the 
 Rev. Dugjild McKichan of River Inhabitants presided at the induction 
 service on that occasion. 
 
 In September, 1836, Boulardarie was added to the list of our Cape 
 Breton congregations, on the arrival of the Rev. James Fraser as its first 
 minister. On Mr. Fraser's arrival there were three ministers of the Church 
 of Scotland on the island in good and regular standing, and no doubt the 
 Presbytery of Cape Breton was constituted that autumn in accordance 
 with the instructions of the Church of Scotland Synod that met in Pictou 
 town on the 12th of August, in the year 1836. 
 
 Probably Mr. Fraser's induction as minister of the congregation of 
 Boulardarie was one of the first Acts of the Presbytery of Cape Breton. 
 
 In any case, his was the first induction by a regularly constituted 
 Presbytery, that ever took place on this island. 
 
 About a year later, on Sept. the 1st 1837 Whycocomagh fell into line 
 with our multiplying congregations with the induction of the Rev. Peter 
 McLean as minister of Whycocomagh and Little Narrows. 
 
 Then followed Strathlorne by the induction of the Rev. John Gunn on 
 the 24th of Sept. 1840; Sydney Mines by the induction of the Rev. Matthew 
 Wilson in the end of July 1842; Mira, by the induction of the Rev. Hugh 
 McLeod, D. D., on the 2nd of October 1850; Grand River by the induction 
 of the Rev. James Ross sometime in the summer of 1853; Baddeck, by the 
 induction of the Rev. Kenneth McKenzie on Dec. 21st 1857; Cape North 
 by the induction of the Rev. Donald Sutherland on June 6th 1860; Gabarus 
 on the induction of the Rev. Isaac McKay on July 18th 1864; Leitches 
 Creek on the induction of the Rev. Alexander Farquharson on Dec. 14th 
 1864; St. Pauls, Glace Bay on the induction of the Rev. Alexander Far- 
 quharson in March the 13th 1867; Port Morien on the induction of the 
 
 238 
 
Rev. Donald McDougall on Jan. 1st 1868; Lake Ainslie on the induction 
 of the Rev. Alexander Grant on Dec. 6th 1870; Falmouth Street Church, 
 Sydney, by its organization according to the instructions of Synod on July 
 the 6th 1875; Loch Lomond by authority of Presbytery on the 21st of 
 July 1875; St. Andrew's, Sydney upon the induction of the Rev. Alexander 
 Farquharson and by action of Presbytery on August the 25th 1875; St. 
 Matthew's, North Sydney on the retirem'ent of the Rev. Matthew Wilson, 
 on May the 20th 1883; North Shore and North River on Dec. the 3rd 
 1881; Baddeck Forks on Sept the 1st 1891; Charlmers Church, Bridgeport 
 on Jan. 1st 1892, St. Peters on May the 10th 1892; Little Narrows on June 
 the 7th 1893; Margaree on June the 5th 1895; Marion Bridge on Jan. 10th 
 1898. St. James, Sydney on July the 3rd 1900; Louisburg on July 17th 
 1900; Reserve Mines on Oct. 30th 1901; Knox Church, Glace Bay on Sept. 
 the 16th 1903; St. Luke's, Dominion No. 6 on May the 1st 1905; Inverness 
 on August 1st 1905; New Aberdeen on Jan. 29th 1906; Little Bras d'Or on 
 Dec. 15th 1908;Orangedale and River Denys on Nov. 10th 1914, Malaga- 
 watch and Marble Mountain on Nov. 28th 1916, Framboise on May the 
 2nd 1916. 
 
 On the 7th of December 1920 Broughton and Birch Grove, and also 
 Ingonish, Neil's Harbor and St. Paul's Island were raised to the status of 
 Congregations by the Presbytery of Sydney. 
 
 There are three Mission Fields on the island, and all in the Presbytery 
 of Inverness. They are Pleasant Bay, which was constituted a Mission 
 Field on May the 22nd 1895; Port Hood was similarly constituted on Feb. 
 16th 1909 and West Bay Points in the year 1905. 
 
 We have thus forty three congregations and three Mission Fields 
 under the Supervision of our two C. B. Presbyteries at the end of the cen- 
 tury. 
 
 We have a Presbyterian population of not less than thirty thousand. 
 
 We have in our congregations and stations 5,752 families, 8,087 com- 
 municants, 373 elders, 146 Sabbath Schools, 765 teachers and 7,288 schol- 
 ars receiving religious instructions in these Sabbath Schools. 
 
 Over five hundred persons were received into full communion with our 
 Church during the last year of our first century. 
 
 We ha:ve eighty-five places of worship within our bounds at the be- 
 ginning of our second century and a number of them are well appointed 
 and costly structures. 
 
 And now what of our standing in the matter of finance at the end of 
 the century? During the year 1919 our congregations gave for all pur- 
 poses the sum of $186,944. They gave for local purposes the sum of 
 $143,363 and for missionary and benevolent purposes the sum of $43,585. 
 
 Our church property is valued at $813,600 of which only $86,140 re- 
 mains unpaid. 
 
 Then a rather remarkable fact in this connection is that there were 
 no arrears due on minister's stipend by any of our congregations at the end 
 of 1919. All had paid the full amount of stipend which they had pro- 
 mised. That was not the usual state of things in days gone by. Forty, 
 
 239 
 
fifty and sixty years ago, when stipends were, on an average, considerably 
 less tlian half what they are now, there were few congregations in Cape 
 Breton that entered upon a new year without arrears, and in many cases 
 these arrears were accumulating from year to year. 
 
 Yes verily, we have grown and prospered as a church during the past 
 century, but we have nothing to boast of. It becomes us, rather to 
 acknowledge that we have been unprofitable servants. We have not 
 by any means done what we might and should have done by ourselves, by 
 our fellowmen, nor by the Kingdom of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. 
 We must confess that we have been slothful and half-hearted in the great 
 work that He has given us to do in our beautiful island home. 
 
 Let us give Him all the glory for any success that we have had in the 
 past and let us address ourselves with redoubled earnestness, consecration 
 and prayer to the extension and establishment of the Redeemer's Kingdom 
 in Cape Breton in the days that lie before us. 
 
 240 
 
Presbyterlanlsm In Cape Breton In 1827. 
 
 For our knowledge of Presbyterlanism in Cape Breton in 1827, ninety- 
 two years ago, we are indebted to two of our pioneers, the Rev. John Mc- 
 Lennan and the Rev. Donald Allan Fraser. They came here in the 
 autumn of that year in order to ascertain the conditions that prevailed at 
 that time among the Presbyterian population of the island and to report 
 to the Glasgow Colonial Society, for the information of that society and of 
 the Scottish Church in general. They made their reports early in the fol- 
 lowing year. Mr. McLennan directly and Mr. Fraser through the Rev. 
 Mr. Martin, of Halifax. These reports are now in the archives of Knox 
 College, Toronto and the writer has had the privilege of perusing them. 
 
 The following extracts from these reports are taken from Dr. Gregg's 
 History of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Mr. McLennan wrote to 
 the Glasgow Colonial Society as follows early in the year 1828: "A general 
 plan having been formed by the few ministers of our connection that are in 
 this part of the world to extend their labors as much as possible among 
 those remote and scattered districts which are destitute of the means of 
 religious instruction, I beg leave to transmit for the information of your 
 society the following brief account of my journey through Cape Breton in 
 the months of September and October last. On the 12th of September I 
 sailed from Pictou in company with the Rev. Donald Allan Fraser, and after 
 an agreeable passage arrived the next day at the Strait of Canso. Here 
 Mr. Fraser and I parted, as we considered that the object of our Mission 
 would be best served by taking different routes. The first Presbyterian 
 settlement which I have visited is called Grand River, situated on the south 
 side of the island, and distant about 35 miles from the Gut of Canso. It is 
 inhabited exclusively by Scotch Highlanders, about forty-three families, 
 and very few of them are able to read or write. Some of them have been 
 settled here for the past fifteen years, and during all these years did not see 
 any clergyman but myself, except once and that was three years ago. They 
 had a school master among them, who was in the habit of reading on the 
 Sabbath days, but from whatever cause, I regret to say that this laudable 
 practice has been for some time back entirely given up. A few among them 
 I was happy to observe, seem deeply concerned about the things belonging 
 to their Eternal Peace. The great bulk alas, are careless and ignorant." 
 
 "I preached to them on Sabbath and the following Monday and bap- 
 tised twenty children together." 
 
 "The people all appeared to be very anxious to procure a minister to 
 preside among them, but I fear without efficient aid from some foreign 
 quarter, that there is very little prospect of this desirable event taking 
 place. The settlers are, generally speaking, very poor. Their position is 
 so isolated and so remote that they can hardly ever expect to share with 
 any other settlement the labors of a clergyman." 
 
 Mr. McLennan does not appear to have heard of the presence of High- 
 landers at Loch Lomond, within six or seven miles of Grand River on this 
 
 241 
 
occasion and the probability is that there were very few here at that early- 
 date. 
 
 "The next place I visited is called the entrance to St.George's Chancel, 
 on the north-west arm of the Bras d'Or Lake" — the West Bay of today. 
 "Around this Bay there are no less than one hundred and fifty Protestant 
 families, without a minister, school-master or catechist. In the north side 
 of the Bras d'Or Lake are the settlements of Merrigonish (Malagawatch), 
 Denny's Lake (River Denys Basin) and River Denys, consisting of two 
 hundred families scattered over a surface of twenty or thirty miles, much 
 indented with water and consequently of very little access. Each of these 
 I visited in turn and baptised thirty children among them. These three 
 settlements might be joined under one minister." "At present they 
 are under exactly the same deplorable situation respecting gospel ordinances 
 with those already mentioned. Next in order lies the settlement of Lake 
 Hogomah (Whycocomagh) a most beautiful basin of water about twenty 
 miles long and from one to two broad. The number of Protestant families 
 along the sides of the lake I do not know, but I am sure they cannot be less 
 than eighty or ninety. They are all new settlers and with few exceptions 
 very poor. They will be unable for many years to come, to support a 
 minister by their own resources. Here I preached on a week day to a 
 numerous audience and baptised five children." 
 
 "On the morning of the 23rd of September, being Sabbath Day, ~I 
 arrived at River Waga-Matkook (Middle River), and although the weather 
 was remarkably rough and stormy a large congregation soon assembled. 
 There are upwards of fifty families on this river, pretty compact together 
 and some of them are in very independent circumstances. This settlement 
 joined with those of Brodeck (Baddeck) on the south, distant fifteen miles, 
 and Margaree on the north, might form one charge for an active and 
 zealous clergyman." "Having again preached at Waga-Matkook on Mon- 
 day and baptized 20 children at once,in the evening I continued my journey 
 to the settlement of Margaree already referred to." 
 
 "Here I preached to about sixty people,those from a distance not having 
 heard of my arrival. The great bulk of the inhabitants are American re- 
 fugees or their descendants, and very much divided in their religious senti- 
 ments. There are not more than a dozen families who could be depended 
 upon as attached to the doctrines or mode of worship of one church, but 
 they declared with one voice, if there was a faithful minister of the gospel 
 settled in that place, that they would all join him." 
 
 "About seventeen miles to the north west of Margaree lies Lake 
 Ainslie, a fine sheet of fresh water, twelve miles long and six broad, inhab- 
 ited on the east side by Highland Scotch Presbyterians and on the west by 
 Roman Catholics. Of the former there are about sixty-three families,' all 
 very poor. There is an excellent young man settled as school-master 
 among them, whom, by his example,as well as by his diligence in instructing 
 both old and young, I consider of great benefit to the settlement. Here I 
 also preached and baptized six children." 
 
 "The north-westerly extremity of Lake Ainslie lies about four miles 
 
 242 
 
from the settlement of Broadcove on the north shore of the island. In this 
 place there are only a few Protestant families scattered here and three over 
 a great extent of surface." "About two years since, a considerable number 
 of families settled in the neighborhood of a high promontory called Cape 
 Mabou." "The Lake Ainslie people and those settled about Broadcove 
 would be a sufficient charge for one clergyman. They have last year 
 transmitted a bond to Scotland, by the hands of Judge Marshall of Cape 
 Breton, a man as eminent for his piety as for respectability in his own pro- 
 fession, but whether they have succeeded in their object I have not heard." 
 
 "From Broadcove to the Gut of Canso is a distance of fifty miles 
 settled all by Roman Catholics with the exception of a small number of 
 Protestants in and about Mabou. Here the only Protestant minister 
 on the island resides (Rev. William Millar) and it is only lately that I 
 knew of this same one. He is of the Antiburger Connection and bears an 
 excellent character, but however diligent and laborious in discharging the 
 duties of his office, the benefits of his ministrations, must necessarily be 
 circumscribed more especially as he is totally unacquainted with the Gaelic 
 the only language spoken or understood by nine-tenths of the Protestant 
 population of the island." 
 
 "After leaving Broadcove I made no stay until I arrived at the Strait 
 of Canso. Here I met my friend Mr. Fraser after returning from his cir- 
 cuit. We both preached on the Sabbath day to numerous congregations 
 and baptized 12 children. Along the sides of this much frequented sound 
 there are at least a hundred Protestant families. They made several at- 
 tempts to procure a clergyman, but they are so disunited and many of 
 them are so callous about the matter that they have hitherto failed. The 
 great bulk of them are poor, but there are some who are well able, and I 
 doubt not, willing also, to contribute handsomely to the support of a 
 minister." 
 
 "There are several other Protestant (Presbyterian) settlements in 
 Cape Breton which I did not visit on my last visit through the island, such 
 as River Inhabitants, Grandancs, Broderick, Boulardarie Island, Sydney, 
 etc.; most of these were visited by Mr. Fraser. They are equally des- 
 titute of the word of Life." 
 
 "It was superfluous to offer any comment on the facts above stated 
 they show the religious wants of these Provinces of North America and 
 especially of Cape Breton in a stronger light than any language can do. 
 Here are literally many thousands of poor creatures perishing for lack of 
 knowledge, none caring for their souls, and verging fast to a state of bar- 
 barity. They raise their public appeal to their country-men, professing 
 the same religious belief with themselves for aid in their distress. Oh, let 
 not their cry be heard in vain!" 
 
 This is Mr. McLennan's testimony regarding the condition of Presby- 
 terianism in Cape Breton as he saw it in the year 1827, nearly one hundred 
 years. 
 
 Now let us hear Mr Fraser's testimony on the same subject. Mr. 
 Fraser did not report directly to the Glasgow Colonial Society, regarding 
 
 243 
 
his experiences on that missionary journey. He sent his report to the Rev. 
 John Martin at Halifax and Mr. Martin sent a summary of that report to 
 the society. From that summary we quote the following extracts: "In 
 the month of September last, the Rev. Donald A. Fraser of Pictou proceed- 
 ed on a missionary journey to Cape Breton accompanied by the Rev. John 
 McLennan of Prince Edward Island. These gentlemen separated at the 
 Strait of Canso, the latter proceeding in such a direction as would enable 
 him to take the northern part of the island in his route and the former pur- 
 suing his tour southward. Mr. Fraser states that he found much difficulty 
 in gaining the object of his mission on account of the peculiar manner in 
 which Cape Breton is intersected with water." "By perseverance, how- 
 ever, and at the expense of much personal fatigue, he arrived at the beau- 
 tiful and interesting island of Boulardarie, situated in the Bras d'Or Lake. 
 
 "The south side of this island is almost entirely occupied by persons of 
 the Roman Catholic persuasion but the north side presents one unbroken 
 line of families earnestly desirous of obtaining a minister from our mother 
 church. They are chiefly from the district of Gairloch in the Highlands 
 of Scotland, and almost all exhibit those features of industry, sobriety and 
 decorum, which peculiarly distinguishes emigrants from that district. To 
 them Mr. Fraser preached repeatedly, and was highly delighted not only 
 with the affectionate warmth which distinguished their inception of him- 
 self, but more especially with the zeal they manifested in attending his 
 public ministry. There are upwards of forty families, extending along a 
 coast somewhat more than thirty miles in length and on every occasion on 
 which he preached, he represented them as following him by'f amilies in their 
 boats." 
 
 "They are not far from the settlement of Baddeck, where he also 
 preached and where these affectionate beings accompanied him. The 
 population of Baddeck is not exclusively Scottish, but they all seemed 
 willing to united with the islands' population in applying to your society for 
 a clergyman. Mr. Fraser remained fourteen days in their settlements, and 
 found frequent occasions to exercise his ministerial functions. From 
 thence he proceeded to Sydney, the capital of Cape Breton. There he was 
 also greeted with unequivocal cordiality and preached twice to a respectable 
 and highly appreciative audience. Many persons have been awakened to a 
 sense of a coming judgment in that place and some have given undoubted 
 evidence that Christ is precious to theni. It was here alone that Mr. Fraser 
 encountered any but Roman Catholics or Presbyterians. The Baptists 
 haVe gained a few proselytes and there is a clergyman of the Church of 
 England settled there; still the general feeling seemed leaning towards the 
 simplicity of our forms, and Mr. Fraser has himself been supplicated to 
 reside among them. Nor does he doubt that if a minister of our church 
 could be found willing to endure some little privations,and zealous to preach 
 Christ and Him Crucified, a congregation might be speedily formed in that 
 place. He is particularly anxious to direct your attention toChief Justice 
 Marshall, who is well calculated to give useful information regarding the 
 religious wants of the island generally, who is well disposed to our church 
 
 244 
 
and above all who feels an earnest desire for the salvation of souls. He 
 resides in Sydney, and occasionally corresponds with Mr. Fraser concerning 
 the state of that place." "After a stay in Sydney which was delightful 
 in everything but its shortness, Mr. Fraser returned again to Boulardarie 
 Island, and finally bidding adieu to his countrymen in this sequestered spot, 
 who followed him with prayers and tears he proceeded by water to the head 
 of the northwest arm of the Bras d'Or Lake (West Bay) visiting in his pro- 
 gress the coasts and islands of that superb expanse of water. 
 
 Generally speaking the inhabitants are, as far as could be ascertained 
 either Roman Catholics or Presbyterians, and while he found the former 
 tolerably well supplied with priests of their own communion, the latter 
 are, alas! perishing in ignorance and with few means of instruction." 
 
 "From the Bras d'Or he pursued his journey to River Inhabitants 
 and onwards to the Strait of Canso, where after many toils and pleasures, 
 he once more met with his fellow laborer, Mr. McLennan." "On the fol- 
 lowing day, which was the Sabbath, they both preached to respectable 
 congregations in the English and Gaelic languages." Further on Mr. 
 Martin writes to the Society as follows,^"Mr. Fraser wishes you to be 
 aware of the active co-operation and liberal aid with which Lieutenant 
 Duffus, R. N., residing at Baddeck, and his brother, Mr. William Duffus 
 of Boulardarie Island, have fostered the strong partiality of their neighbors 
 for our church." "Mr. Fraser represents Cape Breton as an object wor- 
 thy of all Christian sympathy and of your most serious consideration. The 
 present generation still bears the impression of men who heard the joyful 
 sound of the word of Life. They are all more or less alive to the destitution 
 of their situations and many amongst them are mourning in sorrow of soul 
 over the remembrances of privileges once enjoyed and the anticipations of 
 privations yet to be endured. But if this feeling be not cherished — if those 
 kinsmen according to the flesh and members of our own church are left to 
 experience that sickness of heart which is caused by hope deferred, it is to 
 be feared than another race will spring up who feel little of this desire, and 
 that moral darkness will fall upon these poor people which it were probably 
 easier to prevent than remove. There is little doubt that if the vivid and 
 living reality of Cape Breton were placed before the eye of the Scottish 
 public it would call forth bursts of benign sympathy which would enable 
 your Society to dispel the gloom which palls the hopes of our countrymen 
 in these wilds." 
 
 Dr. Gregg from whose history these paragraphs are extracted remarks: 
 "The publication of the affecting details contained in the reports of Messrs 
 McLennan and Fraser's visits awakened in Scotland a deep interest in the 
 Spiritual conditions of the settlers in Cape Breton. Several years however 
 lapsed after the visits were made before a missionary was sent to their re- 
 lief." 
 
 "The Glasgow Colonial Missionary Society, or rather "the Society for 
 promoting the Religious interests of Scottish Settlers in British North 
 America" was organized in the city of Glasgow in the year 1825. Its ob- 
 ject was to "Promote the Moral and Religious interests of Scottish Colo- 
 
 245 
 
nists in North Amer ica by sending or assisting to send out ministers, cate- 
 chists and school-masters." 
 
 The reports of Messrs McLennan and Fraser were sent to the Society. 
 But that Society's resources were already overtaxed in providing for the 
 necessities of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and 
 Western Canada in the matter of both men and money. Hence five years 
 passed away before any Presbyterian minister came to relieve the destitu- 
 tion so prevalent in Cape Breton. 
 
 Providentially, the reports of Messrs McLennan and Fraser regarding 
 the religious destitution of the Scottish Presbyterian immigrants in Cape 
 Breton came to the knowledge of a benevolent lady by the name of Mrs. 
 Isabella Gordon McKay, widow of John McKay, Esquire, of Rockfield 
 Estate, Reay County, Sutherlandshire. 
 
 The sympathetic soul of Mrs. McKay was so deeply affected by the 
 deplorable condition of our people on this island that she gathered a num- 
 ber of like minded women friends in the City of Edinburgh about her and 
 organized "The Edinburgh Ladies Association" with a view to help Cape 
 Breton. 
 
 This Association was formed in the year 1828. The object of the As- 
 sociation was to supplement the work of the Glasgow Society, more es- 
 pecially in providing for the spiritual necessities of Cape Breton by sending 
 out ministers school teachers, catechists Bibles and other good books. 
 
 The Association rendered admirable service to our people on this island 
 in after years. "The Edinburgh Ladies Association" was instrumental in 
 sending out to Cape Breton eight ministers, and several school teachers. 
 
 It also sent out hundreds of Bibles and thousands of other religious 
 books. 
 
 The first missionary sent to Cape Breton by this Association was the 
 Rev. Alexander Farquharson who arrived in August 1833. He was fol- 
 lowed in succession by the Rev. John Stewart in 1834, the Rev. James 
 Fraser, in 1836, the Rev. Peter McLean in 1837, the Rev. John Gunn in 
 1838, the Rev. Matthew Wilson in 1842, the Rev. Murdoch Stewart in 
 1843, and the Rev. Hugh McLeod, D. D., in 1850. 
 
 Mrs. 'McKay died on the 15th of November, 1850, but the Association 
 went on doing its benevolent work under the Presidency of Mrs. Tennant 
 for a number of years longer. 
 
 When Messrs. McLennan and Fraser were here in the year 1827, the 
 entire population of Cape Breton was 18,700. Of that number 500 were 
 Indians, 2000 French Acadians, 600 were of English descent and language 
 while 15,600 were Gaelic speaking people from the Highlands and Islands of 
 Scotland, chiefly from the islands. 
 
 In fact these 15,600 were all either Presbyterians or Roman Catholics — 
 the RomanCatholics preponderating by a couple of thousand at least. In the 
 year 1827 there were only two Presbyterian ministers in Cape Breton to 
 supply the religious needs of between seven and eight thousand Presby- 
 terian people, scattered all over the island from the Strait of Canso to Cape 
 
 246 
 
North and from Main a Dieu to Port Hood. These two were the Rev. 
 Norman MacLeod at St. Ann's and the Rev. William Millar at Mabou. 
 
 Five years later in 1832, the Rev. Dugald McKichan came to River 
 Inhabitants and began to minister to our people on that River, and also to 
 those living on the Eastern side of the Strait of Canso, that is to say in 
 Port Hawkesbury and Port Hastings with adjacent localities. 
 
 247 
 
The Presbyteries of Cape Breton. 
 
 In this Chapter we shall consider the Presbyteries that have exercised 
 authority in Cape Breton for longer or shorter periods and to a greater or 
 less extent during the past one hundred years. 
 
 There are two Presbyteries in Cape Breton at the present time viz; the 
 Presbytery of Sydney and the Presbytery of Inverness. The former ex- 
 ercises presbyterial jurisdiction in the eastern half of the island and the 
 latter in the western half. 
 
 The Presbytery of Sydney supervises twenty nine congregations while 
 the Presbytery of Inverness supervises fourteen congregations and three 
 Home Mission Fields. 
 
 These congregations and fields are pretty well distributed over the 
 whole island from Louisburg on the east to Port Hood on the west, 
 and from Port Hawkesbury on the south, to Bay St. Lawrence on the north. 
 These forty three congregations and three mission fields comprise eighty 
 five places of worship or churches. 
 
 It is a matter for regret that in the year 1920, the first year of our 
 second century, there should be several of otir forty-three congregations 
 without ministers. This state of things is due chiefly to a shortage of men 
 and especially of Gaelic speaking men, to man the pulpits of our Gaelic 
 sp'eaking churches. For it is true that after the hundred years of our his- 
 tory, our people are still a Gaelic speaking people and they require ministers 
 *ho can speak to them anji preach the gospel to them in their Celtic mother 
 tongue. There are really only five or six of our forty-three congregations 
 where Gaelic is not required to a greater or less exterit. 
 
 The first Presbytery that had anything to do with Cape Breton was 
 the Presbytery of Pictou in connection with the Presbyterian Church of 
 Nova Scotia. This Presbytery was formed on the 7th day of July, 1795, in 
 a barn, at McCulloch's Brook, between New Glasgow and the Middle 
 River of Pictou. It was composed originally of three ministers, James 
 McGregor, Duncan Ross and John Brown, with one elder from the town of 
 Pictou. 
 
 Dr. McGregor, the senior member of the Presbytery, came to eastern 
 Cape Breton in the year 1798. In the year 1818 he came to Mabou and 
 Port Hood on a missionary journey. As the direct result of that visit, the 
 Presbytery of Pictou three years later had the satisfaction of ordaining and 
 designating the Rev. William Millar as the first minister of Mabou and 
 Port Hood. In this way the Presbytery of Pictou came to have oversight 
 of one of our Cape Breton congregations and it continued to exercise super- 
 vision of that congregation from the year 1821 until the union of the Pres- 
 byterian Church of Nova Scotia, and the Free Church of Nova Scotia, at 
 Pictou on the 4th of October, 1860. During these years the Presbytery of 
 Pictou met but once on the island and that was on November the 13th, 
 1845, when it came to Mabou for the purpose of ordaining and inducting 
 the Rev. James McLean as Mr. Millar's successor in the pastoral charge of 
 
 248 
 
Mabou and Port Hood. This Presbytery sent two young men to Cape 
 
 Breton in the year 1824 as ordained evangelists. Their names were Hugh 
 Ross and Hugh Dunbar. They had just completed their course of study 
 for the ministry in our oldest Theological College in the town of Pictou. 
 The Presbytery of Pictou licensed and ordained them for missionary work 
 on the island of Cape Breton immediately after graduation in theology. 
 
 Unfortunately we know nothing about their work here. No doubt 
 they came and attempted to carry out their commission from the Presby- 
 tery, but where and how we do not now. Two years later we find them at 
 work in other places in the Maritime Provinces, the one in New London, 
 P. E.I. and the other in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. 
 
 .The second Presbytery that was represented in Cape Breton was the 
 Presbytery of Genesee. This Presbytery has its seat in western New York 
 and was organized on the 13th of April, 1819. It was represented on the 
 island by the Rev. Norman McLeod from August, 1827, when he was or- 
 dained by the Presbytery of Genesee, until November, 1851, when he sailed 
 away to Australia. 
 
 At. St. Ann's, Mr. McLeod was over a thousand miles beyond the 
 bounds of his Presbytery. It is not known that he ever attended a meet- 
 ing of his Presbytery, and it is very certain that his Presbytery never met 
 with him on the island of Cape Breton. He may have corresponded with 
 the Presbytery, but there is no evidence of such correspondence. In these 
 circumstances, conditions were precisely to his liking. There was practi- 
 cally no supervision of himself or his congregation by the Presbytery of 
 Genesee. He had all the freedom of an independent church minister, while 
 at the same time he hadall the authority of a Presbyterian Chrch minister. 
 
 Norman McLeod kept the fact of his licensure and ordination by the 
 Presbytery of Genesee and the fact of his status as a Presbyterian minister 
 a close secret during all the remaining years of his life in Cape Breton. The 
 Presbytery of Cape Breton was not aware of these facts in the autumn of 
 1840,, when it addressed the latter to Mr. McLeod that called forth such a 
 staggering reply. 
 
 The Presbytery's letter and Mr. McLeod's reply will be found farther 
 on in this article. 
 
 The third Presbytery that had something to do with Cape Breton was 
 the original Presbytery of Pictou in connection with the Church ofScotland. 
 
 This Presbytery was organized on Augifst the 30th, 1833. It con- 
 sisted of Donald Fraser, Kenneth J. McKenzie, John McRae, and Alex- 
 ander McGillivary. 
 
 In the month of September 1834, this Presbjrtery ordained the Rev. 
 John Stewart as a missionary in and for Cape Breton. This was the only 
 thing that that Presbytery ever did for the island. Mr. Stewart's name 
 was placed on the roll of that Presbytery and he must have been a member 
 of the first Kirk Presbytery of Pictou during the next two years, while 
 laboring on this island. 
 
 This Presbytery became extinct in 1843, when six of its seven ministers 
 left Pictou in order to occupy parish churches in Scotland that were va- 
 
 249 
 
cated by ministers who, for conscience sake, had thrown up their emolu- 
 ments and joined the Free Church. The only one of the Pictou JCirk min- 
 isters that remained after that exodus was the Rev. Mr. McGillivary, then 
 of McLennan's Mountain. 
 
 The fourth outside Presbytery that exercised some suthority in Cape 
 Breton wag another Pictou Presbytery connected with the Church of Scot- 
 land. The Church of Scotland Synod that was organized in Halifax in 
 August, 1833, became extinct in 1844, through the return of so many of its 
 members to Scotland on the one hand, and the organization of the Free 
 Church of Nova Scotia on the other. 
 
 By the year 1854 a nuinber of Church of Scotland ministers had come 
 to Nova Scotia and by them that Synod was resuscitated on the 4th of 
 July of that year. 
 
 It was the Presbytery of Pictou, in connection with that reconstructed 
 Synod that exercised an influence in Cape Breton to a certain extent be- 
 tween 1860 and 1875. Unhappily there was some dissatisfaction in some 
 of our congregations on this island over the union of 1860. Some of our 
 people could not reconcile themselves to merging the'Free Church with the 
 Antiburgers, as they were called. 
 
 The Kirk Presbytery of Pictou, much to its own discredit, took ad- 
 vantage of the dissatisfaction that existed and souglit to turn it to its own 
 denominational advantage. The Rev. John Gunn, of Strathlorne, was the 
 only Presbyterian minister in Cape Breton that was opposed to the union. 
 He remained out and his congregation remained out with him. 
 
 The following year both Mr. Gunn and his congregation placed them- 
 selves under the care of the Presbytery of Pictou, and both remained in 
 that connection during the remainder of Mr. Gunn's Ufe. 
 
 Strathlorne congregation continued under the supervision of the Pres- 
 bytery of Pictou until 1875, when the general union of Canadian Presby- 
 trianism took place in the city of Montreal. 
 
 There was considerable dissatisfaction with the union in Middle River. 
 In 1864 the Rev. Neil Brodie, a member of the Presbytery of Pictou, came 
 to Middle River and tried to swing the whole congregation into connection 
 with the Kirk Presbytery of Pictou. His efforts proved utterly abortive 
 in the end, but at the time very discreditable to himself and all the parties 
 associated with him in that attempt. His efforts also proved very deplor- 
 able in their effects upon religion in this congregation. 
 
 Decisive courses were also encouraged by the Presbytery of Pictou at 
 several other points within the island; for example, River Inhabitants and 
 Loch Lomond where delegates from the Presbytery of Pictou were sent, and 
 catechists were located during a number of years, especially in the summer 
 time. Kirk churches were built at several points in those days. 
 
 Happily the union of 1875 .put an end to this very unseemly and un- 
 christian experience. 
 
 The fifth Presbytery that exercised authority on this island was a local 
 Presbytery and it was very appropriately designated the Presbytery of 
 Cape Breton. 
 
 260 
 
The fourth Synod of the original Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia 
 in connection with the Church of Scotland was constituted in the town of 
 Pictou, on the 12th of August, 1836. 
 
 At one of the sessions of that Synod the Rev. Alexander Farquharson 
 and the Rev. John Stewart were instructed to meet with the Rev. James 
 Fraser, who was then on his way from Scotland to Cape Breton, and to 
 constitute a Presbytery on this island to be known as the Presbytery of 
 Cape Breton. We do not know the day on which the Presbytery met and 
 was constituted, but we know that Mr. Fraser arrived about the middle of 
 September and the probability is that the Presbytery of Cape Breton was 
 organized about the end of that month. 
 
 The following year the Synod met in New Glasgow on the 9th of 
 August. On the roll of that Synod the Presbytery of Cape Breton appears 
 for the first time. It contained the following ^names — Alexander Far- 
 quharson, John Stewart, James Fraser, Peter McLean and Dugald Mc- 
 Kichan. Peter McLean was then on his way to Whycocomagh and his 
 name was placed on the roll of the Cape Breton Presbytery in anticipation 
 of his early presence on our Island. Dugald McKfchan's name was placed 
 on the roll of the Cape Breton Presbytery at this meeting, on the motion of 
 the Rev. John Stewart. Mr. McKi chart came to River Inhabitants about 
 the end of the year 1831. He was there in 1833 when the original Kirk 
 Synod was constituted and the Presbytery of Pictou was organized, but his 
 name was not given a place on the roll of that, or either of the other two 
 Presbyteries, that were formed at that time. He was still at River In- 
 habitants in 1836 when the Presbytery of Cape Breton was organized but 
 he was not given a place among its members. All this is rather strange. 
 But there is an explanation, and the explanation is that Mr. McKichan 
 was persona non grata, outof favor, with his brother Presbyterian ministers 
 in Pictou at, that time, and he was out of favor for this reason: viz. that he 
 had left his charge at Barney's River in 1831 and came to River Inhabit- 
 ants, C. B. without their consent and contrary to their wishes. Hence the 
 absence of his name from the roll of the original Presbytery of Pictou in 
 1833 and its absence from the roll of any Presbytery until 1837. 
 
 We have no record of any meetings held by the Presbytery of Cape 
 Breton earlier than the 24th of September, 1840. On that date this Pres- 
 bytery evidently held a meeting at Broadcove for the ordiYiation and in- 
 duction of the Rev. John Gunn ilito the charge of Broadcove, Whalecove 
 and Margaree. This was the first ordination and induction by a regularly 
 constituted Presbytery on this Island. The Rev. James Fraser was in- 
 ducted by the Presbytery of Cape Breton several years earlier, but he was 
 ordained in Scotland. 
 
 The Presbytery that met at Broadcove made an ill-advised attempt to 
 bring the Rev. Norman McLeod under its control. It sent him an official 
 and manditory letter requiring him to appear before the Moderator within 
 forty days with certain documents or be prepared to sufler the conse- 
 quences or refusal. 
 
 The correspondence that took place between the Presbytery of Cape 
 
 251 
 
Breton and Mr. McLeod on that occasion is an interesting episode in our 
 history and should be preserved. It was as follows: — 
 
 Broadcove, September 24th, 1840 
 Reverend Sir: — We, the undersigned forming the only Presbyterial 
 and the highest ecclesiastical authority acknowledged by the Established 
 Church of Scotland in this Island, and in that capacity possess jurisdiction 
 over all the members, probationers and ministers of that church residing 
 within the bounds of Cape Breton. 
 
 We have learned that you claim the status of a minister of that church. 
 Therefore, we, in the exercise of the jurisdiction competent to us, call upon 
 you to produce at our bar or before our Moderator, within forty days of 
 this date, the documents on which you found your claim. 
 
 We add that in the event of no satisfactory credentials being within 
 that time produced, we may at the expiration thereof feel ourselves called 
 upon to take more public maasures in reference to the claim you advance. 
 We, are, Rev. Sir, 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 JAMES FRASER, Moderator, 
 DUGALD McKICHAN, Clerk, 
 JOHN GUNN, 
 PETER McLEAN, 
 ALEX. FARQUHARSON. 
 Rev. Norman McLeod, 
 St. Ann's, 
 
 Cape Breton. 
 This joint letter of the Presbytery of Cape Breton shows how well Mr. 
 McLeod had kept the secret of his connection with the Presbytery of 
 Genesee, N. Y. After the lapse of thirteen years the supposition was that 
 he was, or claimed to be, a minister of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 Mr. McLeod's answer to this letter was very prompt and very em- 
 phatic. It reveals his attitude to the Church of Scotland as well as to the 
 members of the Presbytery of Cape Breton, in a way that cannot be mis- 
 understood or gainsaid. Here it is: — 
 
 St. Ann's, C. B., 
 
 October 6th, 1840 
 Rev. Sirs: — Your letter of the 24th, ult., signed at Broadcove by 
 yourself and the rest of your Rev. Brethren on the Island, I received this 
 morning, to which I beg to answer that it requires a piece of self-denial in 
 me to take any notice of such a fulminating farce; but the sacred proverb 
 says, "Answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own con- 
 ceit." And of all fools, I seriously consider religious fools at the pinnacle 
 of the profession, to be the most seared up to every mode of conviction of 
 their own religious miscarriage. 
 
 I flatly deny having ever claimed the. "Status of a minister of the 
 Church of Scotland," and in all humility and sincerity, desire to bless 
 heaven for having enlightened my mind to dread and abhor that status. 
 
 252 
 
I have certainly from time to time professed myself in my own estim- 
 ation a poor and unworthy member of the once venerable and glorious 
 Church of Scotland, but the meagre pitiful and degenerate thing that 
 passes now under the pompous and bloated sanction of that name, I utterly 
 and indignantly disclaim with all its alarming 'bar' and awful authority, in 
 the most open and unreserved manner possible, so that you or any other 
 cannot make this avowal, more public than I freely allow,and without down- 
 right and wilful misrepresentation. I openly defy all the information in the 
 country to substantiate anything beyond the scope of this plain declaration 
 against me on the subject. 
 
 I feel no diffidence on this stable ground, and since ever I arrived at 
 my convictions on these points, I have never felt desirous of evading candid 
 and dispassionate investigations of them. 
 
 I do not wish to excite your anger, which is, alas! but too manifestly 
 shown on the least occasion, but in consideration of your dangerous and 
 wilful extravaganace, wild and fanatical charges, under the name of con- 
 versation worked up by the silly and disgustful art of some of you and 
 fostered by all of you together with your openly profane and indiscriminate 
 administration of the most solemn and sacred ordinances, exclusive of 
 many similar means of conviction,in the obvious tenor and tendency of your 
 conversation and conduct, cannot but infer, without contradicting all 
 scriptural reasoning on the point that the church that gives place and avtp- 
 port to the like of your characters in her highest office, must in fact be any- 
 thing other than but a living church of Jesus Christ. This has been my 
 most serious and deliberate view of the subject for the long space of forty 
 years together, and every day confirms me more in this grievous though 
 unavoidable determination. 
 
 In fine, I heartily regret that your unfortunate, offensive and confirm- 
 ed insolence and pride, so conspicuous in your letter as a true specimen of 
 your general disposition and conduct as ministers towards all who dare 
 obj ect to your measures, render it impossible for me to answer you in a more 
 agreeable style. "With the forward thou shalt shew thyself forward." 
 
 I am Rev. Sir, 
 Yours etc. 
 
 NORMAN McLEOD. 
 Rev. James Fraser, 
 
 Boulardarie Island. 
 
 To say the least, the Presbytery of Cape Breton did not get much 
 satisfaction out of their efforts in this matter. But Norman McLeod's 
 reply is important as a revelation of the man, of his opinions, his character 
 and his style. 
 
 He is certainly unjust in his strictures on the members of the Pres- 
 bytery of Cape Breton but they were ministers of the Church of Scotland, 
 and that was enough in itself, in his estimation, to warrant the worst that 
 could be said, regarding them. He had very strong prejudices in that di- 
 rection and not altogether without cause, in view of his experience in the 
 homeland. 
 
 253 
 
But to return from this digression, the Presbytery of Cape Breton con- 
 tinued to be the only local Presbytery for a number of years. From its 
 formation in the autumn of 1836, to August, 1844, it was a Presbytery of 
 the Church of Scotland in Nova Scotia. 
 
 In the year 1843, the disruption of the Church of Scotland took place 
 and the Free Church of Scotland came into existence. In that great 
 struggle the sympathies of all the Presbyterian ministers of Cape Breton 
 were strongly and unanimously with the Free Church movement. The 
 result was that there was a miniature disruption on this side of the ocean 
 in 1844, and the Presbytery of Cape Breton became a Presbytery of the 
 Free Church of Nova Scotia. The membership of the new Presbytery was 
 the same, but the Presbytery itself became a Presbytery of a new and 
 different ecclesiastical body. 
 
 This Presbytery was the fifth Presbytery that exercised jurisdiction 
 on our Island, and it continued to exercise control within our bonds until 
 the year 1857. 
 
 By that time our congregations and ministers had considerably in- 
 creased in numbers and it was thought that three Presbyteries could super- 
 vise the work of our Church in Cape Breton more effectually than one. 
 Accordingly the Free Church Synod that met in Halifax on June the 18th, 
 1857, with the conciu-rence of all parties interested, formed three Presby- 
 teries for this Island, viz., the Presbytery of Cape Breton.the Presbytery of 
 Richmond and the Presbytery of Victoria. The Presbytery of Cape 
 Breton was enlarged to embrace the Rev. Moses Harvey of St. John and the 
 Rev. Alexander Ross, of Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. These three 
 Presbyteries were duly constituted sometime during the summer of 1857. 
 
 Hence it came about that in October, 1860, when the Synod of the 
 Free Church of Nova Scotia united with the Synod of the Presbyterian 
 Church of Nova Scotia to form the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Pro- 
 vinces, there were three Presbyteries in Cape Breton. 
 They were composed of the following ministers: — 
 The Presbytery of Cape Breton 
 
 Rev. Hugh McLeod, D. D., Mira 
 Rev. James Fraser, Boulardarie 
 Rev. Matthew Wilson, Sydney Mines 
 Rev. Moses Harvey, St. John's, Nfld. 
 Rev. Alex. Ross, Harbor Grace 
 The Presbytery of Richmond 
 
 Rev. Murdoch Stewart, West Bay 
 Rev. William G. Forbes, Port Hastings 
 Rev. James Ross, Grand River 
 Rev. Charles T. Ross, Whycocomagh 
 The Presbytery of Victoria 
 
 Rev. John Gunn, Broadcove 
 Rev. Abraham Mcintosh, St. Ann's 
 Rev. Kenneth McKenzie, Baddeck 
 Rev. Donald Sutherland, Cape North 
 264 
 
These three Presbyteries continued for some years, but they had serious 
 • disadvantages and they were subsequently reunited. 
 
 The Rev. John Gunn did not enter the United Church and his name 
 was dropped from the roll of the Presbytery of Victoria. The Rev. Don- 
 ald Sutherland of Cape North was too far away to attend the meetings of 
 his Presbytery with any regularity. That left the Presbytery of Victoria 
 with but two members, practically. It was too weak to do any effective 
 ■work. Then again Messers Harvey and Ross were too far away to attend 
 the meetings of the Presbytery of Cape Breton and in their absence that 
 Presbytery was too wea'c to do its work efficiently. 
 
 In these circumstances another reconstruction of Presbytery bounds 
 was felt by all parties to be necessary, and this reconstruction was made by 
 the Synod of 1864 at the request of the Presbyteries themselves. At that 
 meeting of Synod the three Presbyteries were reunited under the original 
 name of the Presbytery of Cape Breton, the reunited Presbytery con- 
 sisting of the following ministers, viz., 
 
 Rev. Hugh McLeod, D. D., Mira 
 
 Rev. James Fraser, Boulardarie 
 
 Rev. Matthew Wilson, Sydney Mines 
 
 Rev. Murdoch Stewart, West Bay 
 
 Rev. Wm. G. Forbes, Port Hastings 
 
 Rev. Abraham Mcintosh, St. Ann's 
 
 Rev. Kenneth McKenzie, Baddeck 
 
 Rev. Donald McKenzie, Middle River 
 
 Rev. Isaac McKay, Gabarus 
 
 Alexander Farquharson, Leitches Creek 
 
 Under this arrangement the Newfoundland ministers were left off 
 the roll of the new Presbytery and their names were transferred to the roll 
 of the Presbytery of Halifax. 
 
 This reunited Presbytery was however, short-lived. At the meeting 
 of Synod held on the 27th of June 1865,this Presbytery petitioned for a 
 division into two Presbyteries, to be known as the Presbytery of Cape 
 Breton and the Presbytery of Victoria and Richmond. The Prayer of the 
 petition was granted and the new Presbytery of Cape Breton held its first 
 meeting in St. Andrew's Church in Sydney, on the 26th day of July, 1865, 
 while the new Presbytery of Victoria and Richmond held its first meeting 
 at Lake Ainslie on the 24th day of July, 1865. 
 
 The Presbytery of Cape Breton was constituted with the following 
 ministerial members, viz: 
 
 Rev. Hugh McLeod, D. D., Sydney. 
 
 Rev. James Fraser, Boulardarie 
 
 Rev. James Ross, Grand River 
 
 Abraham Mcintosh, St Ann's 
 
 Rev. Isaac McKay, Gabarus 
 
 Rev. Alexander Farquharson 
 
 255 
 
The Presbytery of Victoria and Richmond constituted with the fol- 
 lowing ministerial members, namely, 
 
 Rev. Murdoch Stewart, West Bay 
 
 Rev. Wm. G.Forbes, Port Hastings 
 
 Rev. Kenneth McKenzie, Baddeck 
 
 Rev. Donald McKenzie, Middle River 
 
 Rev. Wm. Sinclair, Mabou 
 The boundaries of these two Presbyteries have remained ever since as 
 they were fixed by the Synod in June,1865, although the names of the Pres- 
 byteries have been changed. 
 
 On June the 12th, 1875, the Synod of the Maritime Provinces met in 
 Cote St. Church, Montreal for the purpose of entering into a union of all 
 the Presbyterian Churches in Canada at that time. At one of the sessions 
 of that Synodical meeting, the Synod changed the name of the Presbytery 
 of Cape Breton to the Presbytery of Sydney, and this has been its name ever 
 since. At its meeting in the city of Montreal in June, 1892, by the request 
 of the Presbytery of Victoria and Richmond, the General Assembly changed 
 the name of that Presbytery to the Presbytery of Inverness. And so it 
 comes about that we have two Presbyteries on the island of Cape Breton at 
 the present time, the Presbytery of Sydney and the Presbytery of Inverness. 
 What about the records of the Cape Breton Presbyteries from 1886 
 to 1920? Had they been carefully preserved, what a mine of information 
 regarding the History of Presbyterianism in Cape Breton would be avail- 
 able! But, alas, a large proportion of these records is lost. There is not a 
 minute of any Cape Breton Presbytery in existence earlier than July 1857 
 an,d there are great blanks in these records between 1857 and 1866. We 
 have no records of the original Presbytery of Cape Breton organized in 
 1836, nor of the Free Church Presbytery of Cape Breton organized in 1844 
 and divided into three Presbyteries in 1857. Fortunately the records of 
 the Presbytery of Victoria, during its existence of seven years (July 1857 
 to July 1864) have recently been discovered in the possesion of a private 
 party. The records of the Presbytery of Richmond during those seven 
 years are in the vault of the College at Halifax. The records of the Pres- 
 bytery of Cape Breton, during those seven years, are lost. 
 
 The records of the Presbytery of Cape Breton that was formed in 1864 
 by the reunion of the Presbyteries of Richmond, Victoria and Cape Breton 
 are also lost. We have complete records of the Presbytery of Cape Breton 
 which was formed in July 1865 and of its successor the Presbytery of 
 Sydney which was formed in 1875. 
 
 The records of the Presbytery of Victoria and Richmond which came 
 into existence in July 1865 and also of its successor the Presbytery of In- 
 verness from its inception in June 1892 to Feb. 1899 were destroyed in the 
 Strathlorne manse, by fire. The Records of the Presbytery of Inverness 
 from 1899 to date are intact and in the custody of the clerk of the Inverness 
 Presbytery. All our written up records should be in the vault of the 
 Presbyterian College at Halifax in order to be entirely safe from destruction 
 or loss. 
 
 256 
 
Conditions Under Which Our Presbyterian Forefathers Lived In 
 Cape Breton In the Early Part of the Last Century. 
 
 The Island of Cape Breton constitutes the north-eastern extremity 
 of the continent of North America. It is separated from the mainland by 
 the Strait of Canso. This island has an exterior coast line of not less than 
 three hundred miles, and a land surface area of 3,700 square miles. In the 
 centre of Cape Breton Island, there is an inland Sea which is generally 
 known by the name of the Bras d'Or Lakes. This inland sea is connected 
 with the Atlantic Ocean by three channels, viz. The Big Bras d'Or, the 
 Little Bras d'Or and St. Peters Canal. The two Bras d'Or Channels 
 are navigable and the ocean tides flow regularly into and out of this inland 
 sea by said channels. The waters of the Bras d'Or Lakes cover an area of 
 four hundred and fifty square miles, and, on account of the numerous 
 bays, inlets and channels connected with these lakes,they have a coast line 
 of about on five hundred miles. 
 
 The Bras d'Or Lakes make the enterior of Cape Breton much more 
 accessible than it would be without them. They also add very materially 
 to the picturesqueness of the island. 
 
 The ambitious tourist can never be satisfied until he has spent some 
 days sailing on these beautiful lakes and in admiring the prospects that open 
 up on every side. 
 
 When our Scottish forefathers began to arrive in Cape Breton at the 
 beginning of the last century, they found the primeval forest almost un- 
 broken. There were about 500 French speaking people at Isle Madame on 
 the south coast and as many more at Cheticamp.on the north west side of 
 the island. There were a few English-speaking people from the United 
 States at Port Hood, Mabou, Northeast Margaree and Homeville, and a 
 few more from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on Sydney Harbor and Sydney 
 River. 
 
 The only Gaelic speaking people on this island in the year 1800 were a 
 number of Roman Catholic families that had settled at Craignish and 
 Judique, some eight or nine years earlier. 
 
 The policy of the British Colonial office, in not issuing grants of land 
 in Cape Breton, until 1784, when the island was given a government of its 
 own, prevented settlers from coming here. As soon, however, as grants 
 were available, immigrants began to arrive. Our Presbyterian forefathers 
 began to come here in summer of 1802 and they continued to come, with 
 more or less interruption, during the next forty years. The tide of immi- 
 gration reached its maximum height in the year 1828, when it began to sub- 
 side. In the year 1842, this immigration suddenly ended, with the arrival 
 of two immigrant ships, at Sydney, the. Salinas and the Hercules. The 
 Hercules arrived about the middle of September with 400 passengers aboard, 
 chiefly from North and South Uist, in the Hebrides. It has been estimated 
 that during these forty years, not less than 20,000 Gaelic-speaking people, 
 Protestant and Catholic.were landed on the island of Cape Breton. 
 
 257 
 
Perhaps Cape Breton was not the best place in the world for our fore- 
 fathers to go to, but they had to go somewhere and this island was easier to 
 get to than any other part of the American continent. It was the nearest 
 available place to their native land. It also cost less money to come here 
 than it would cost to go anywhere else, and money was a very important 
 consideration with these poor people. They loved their native mountains, 
 glens and islands, and it was with unspeakable grief that they left them,but 
 they had to go. They were driven away by cruel landlords. The special 
 attraction that Cape Breton had for them was the prospect of getting all 
 the land they could use, at a nominal price. In Scotland they could never 
 hope to own any land.while in this island, they could be landlords in their 
 own right. With this prospect in view, they left the land of their birth in 
 thousands, braved a long and dangerous voyage across the Atlantic and 
 landed on these strange shores. They came, for the most part in families, 
 parents, children and grandparents. They brought little worldly substance 
 with them but they brought the fear of God, abounding courage and a de- 
 termination to work and prosper. Some of them settled on the long shore 
 Ifne around the island or on the numerous bays and harbors of that shore 
 line. Others settled on the still longer interior shore line of the Bras d'Or 
 Lakes. Others still found their way to Lake Ainslie or to the lakes of Loch 
 Lomond or Loch Uist, while many more sought locations on the numerous 
 fine rivers that drain the uplands of Cape Breton, the Mira, the Grand, the 
 Inhabitants, the De'nys, the Middle, the Baddeck, the Mabou, the Skye, 
 the Margaree, the North and the North Aspy. 
 
 But wherever they made their selection for a home, they found the 
 soil covered with a thick and heavy growth of forest trees. There were no 
 roads at that time, and the only way to reach their future home-sites was 
 either by boat or by a blazed path through the woods. Having found 
 the spot selected, the first thing to do was to cut down a few trees and build 
 a small house with the trunks. Having provided a rude shelter for himself 
 and his family, the settler attacked the surrounding forest with axe and 
 fire in order to get at the soil and grow food. 
 
 Year by year the little farm grew larger and larger as the primitive 
 forest was cut down and burnt. 
 
 The ashes of the consumed trees fertilized the virgin soil and caused it 
 to produce abundant crops of potatoes, wheat, oats, barley and hay. There 
 was no potato blight in these early days, and no potato bug either. There 
 was no weavil in the wheat, nor rust on the oats. Everything planted, or 
 sown, yielded an abundant return. The waters of the rivers, the lakes 
 and the ocean were swarming with all kinds of fish. Cattle, sheep and hogs 
 increased as fast as food could be provided for their sustinence. The sur- 
 rounding forest supplied an abundance of fuel and of timber. In such cir- 
 cumstances a few years sufficed to provide our ancestors with a plentiful 
 supply of food and clothing. As their substance increased, they built a 
 better class of houses and barns. The women brought the art of making 
 woolen and linen garments with them from Scotland. They sheared the 
 sheep, spun the wool into yarn, wove the yarn into cloth and finally tailored 
 
 258 
 
the cloth into coats, trousers, etc for their men. They also made sheets and 
 table linen from home grown flax, as well as drugget for their own garments 
 and blankets for bedding. 
 
 The men soon learned to tan the skins of their animals and to make 
 moccasins, shoes and boots. At a later stage peripatetic tailors and shoe- 
 makers were employed to make clothing and footwear, for the family. 
 They came around about once a year and usually made all the garments or 
 footwear required by the household during the next year. 
 
 The new settler needed a blacksmith to make his axes, hoes, dogirons, 
 and build cranes etc ; also a carpenter to frame and build his house and barns 
 and to make doors, sashes, cupboards, etc. 
 
 But "necessity is the mother of invention" and it was not long until a 
 number of these people became expert in shaping wood, moulding iron, 
 building boats, and even small trading schooners. Merchants were few and 
 far between in those early days. The demand for the products of the farm 
 and of the sea was small, and money was very scarce. Trade was chiefly 
 carried on by barter. Pork and fish and butter were exchanged for tea, sugar, 
 cotton and household utensils. But their wants were comparatively few. 
 The beginning of winter soon found their larders well supplied with corned 
 beef, corned pork, salt herring, dried cod, tubs of butter, home made cheese 
 and of course plenty of oat meal, which was to them the very staff of life. 
 
 Fuel was abundant in the surrounding forests, and at night fall when 
 the big back log was in place in the broad chimney and the hard wood fire 
 blazed brightly on the hearth, our forefathers and their children were incom- 
 parably happier than the landlords who drove them from their small crofts 
 in the western islands or in the highland glens. 
 
 Many of them, moreover, had the felicity that can only come to 
 the individual, and the home, in connection with the fear of God and of 
 obedience to His will. Nearly every home in those days was a "House of 
 God" the family altar was found there, and the morning and evening sacri- 
 fice of prayer and praise, was regularly offered around that altar. 
 
 Our forefathers brought their piety with them from Scoland. Moderat- 
 ism was prevalent in the Church of Scotland about the time they 
 emigrated. But there was also a decidedly evangelical movement abroad, 
 that produced blessed results, in the conversion of sinners, in the edification 
 of Saints and in raising up laymen of extraordinary gifts and graces. This 
 latter class were generally known by the designation of "the men." At 
 the head of this evangelical movement there were such fervent gospel 
 preachers as Lauchlan McKenzie of Lochcarron, Alexander McLeod of 
 Lewis, Roderick McLeod of Skye, John Kennedy of Killearnan, John Mc- 
 Donald of Ferintosh and many others. Under the preaching of these men, 
 there was a deep and genuine revival of spiritual life in many of the churches 
 in the highlands and islands of Scotland, and some at least of those who 
 tasted of the grace of God in that revival of religion were among the im- 
 migrants to Cape Breton. 
 
 Dr. Kennedy, in "The Days of the Fathers in Rosshire" writes as fol- 
 lows: "It is worthy of remark, that it was at the climax of its spiritual 
 
 259 
 
prosperity, the cruel work of eviction began to lay waste the hillsides and 
 the plains of the north. Swayed by the example of the godly among them, 
 and away from the influences by which less sequestered localities were cor- 
 rupted, the body of the people of the Highlands became distinguished as 
 the most peaceable and virtuous peasantry in Britain" and again, in speak- 
 ing of a certain locality in the north of Sutherlandshire, Dr. Kennedy says:- 
 "The homes of this blessed hamlet, were close together, around the sides of 
 an amphitheatre, through which a small river had torn a course for itself. 
 Standing on the edge of the declivity above this glen, on a quiet summer 
 evening, one could hear the songs of praise from all these houses, mingling 
 together, before they reached the listeners ears. One at least felt, while 
 listening to the psalm-singing, in these blessed homes, as if the place were 
 none other than the house of God and the very gate of heaven. By one 
 ruthless eviction, all the tenants of that glen were banished from their 
 homes, and most of them found no resting place till they reached the 
 back woods of Canada. ' 
 
 What Dr. Kennedy says of the people of Rosshire and Sutherlandshire 
 was equally true of the people of Lewis, Harris, Skye and North Uis.t — 
 the people that came to Cape Breton between 1802 and 1842. 
 
 They were distinguished for their fear of offending God and the practise 
 of prayer, in the closet, the family and the social meeting. And it was well 
 for themselves, their children and religion on this island that our fore- 
 fathers were so pious and prayerful, inasmuch as no ministers of the gospel 
 came with them to instruct and shepherd them. Nor did any minister of 
 the Church of Scotland follow them to their far distant homes during the 
 first thirty years of their stay in Cape Breton. In these circumstances, 
 godly men were found in nearly every settlement, that conducted Sabbath 
 services and prayer meetings regularly. These good men kept the fire of 
 piety burning, in the different Presbyterian communities on this island, until 
 ministers arrived to instruct and guide the people. Nor were the services 
 of these pious men dispensed with after the arrival of ministers from Scot- 
 land. They had already abundantly proved their value and worth, and 
 Ministers were glad to avail themselves of their help in their congregations. 
 A number of the ablest, wisest and best of these pious men were chosen to the 
 eldership. A few of those who were prominent for scriptural knowledge and 
 ability to teach others were appointed catechists, some of them in th« 
 congregations in which they lived and some of them in other congregations 
 than their own. All of them received more or less remuneration for their 
 services, either from the Session or from the Home Mission Board, after that 
 board was organized. Since the general union of the Presbyterian Church- 
 es in Canada, no lay catechists have been employed in Cape Breton only 
 Student Catechists. Angus McLean of Cape North was the last lay cate- 
 chist that served our church in Cape Breton. 
 
 The Rev. Malcolm Campbell has published a short account of eight 
 of these catechists, viz. Angus McLeod, of Hunters Mountain, Duncan 
 McDonald of Boulardarie, Donald McDonald of North River, Malcolm 
 McLeod of River Deny's, Donald Campbell of Big Baddeck, Donald Mac- 
 
 260 
 
Aulay of Baddeck Bay, Angus McLean of Cape South and Donald Ross of 
 Cow Bay. The name of John Mcintosh of Pleasant Bay, Inverness County 
 might well be added to that number. He did the work of a catechist, at 
 Pleasant Bay for a period of thirty-seven years, without appointment by 
 any church Court and without any remuneration,except the satisfaction of 
 doing good. During all these years, Mr. Mcintosh conducted public 
 worship with the people every Sabbath day. He also conducted a Sabbath 
 School and a prayer meeting every week. He likewise visited the sick and 
 buried the dead. Few men have left a more honorable record, in our Church 
 of services well done, than John Mcintosh of Pleasant Bay. 
 
 The special duty of the lay catechist in Cape Breton as in Scotland 
 was to teach the Shorter Catechism to young and old. This duty he usual- 
 ly discharged by holding periodical meetings in the homes of the people, 
 at which the catechism was recited and its teachings explained. But the 
 duties of the catechist were not confined to teaching the catechism. He 
 was expected to conduct public worship in the absence of an ordained min- 
 ister, expound the scriptures and exhort the people. And some of the Cape 
 Breton Catechists excelled in these duties. This was especially true of 
 Donald Ross, probably the best known, most highly gifted and greatly 
 esteemed of them all. His glowing exhortations were greatly blessed to 
 the conversion of sinners and the upbuilding of the saints. 
 
 Donald Ross was born in the parish of Uigg, island of Lewis, in the 
 year 1802. He was converted in the year 1824 under the ministry of the 
 Rev. Alexander McLeod,said to have been "the first evangelical minister 
 settled in either Lewis or Harris." Alexander McLeod was a native of 
 Stoir Point in Assynt, where the Rev. Norman McLeod of St. Anns was 
 born, and both of these men were converted under the preaching of the Rev. 
 John Kennedy, minister of Assynt in the year 1807 or 1808. 
 
 Mr. Ross received a good common school education in his native parish 
 and after his conversion he became very active and useful in Christian 
 service in Uigg and elsewhere in the island of Lewis. 
 
 In the year 1830, in the twenty-eighth year of his age, he came out to 
 Cape Breton under the patronage of the Edinburgh Ladies' Association, to 
 assist in establishing and maintaining religious services in our Highland 
 settlements. He spent the first fourteen years of his life in Cape Breton, 
 at Peters Brook, near Baddeck Forks. In the year 1844, the Presby- 
 tery of Cape Breton appointed Mr.Ross a Catechist for the eastern end of 
 Cape Breton County, and more especially for Cow Bay and Mira Bay. 
 Four years later he bought a farm, near where Belloni Railway Station is 
 now, and here he lived during the remainder of his life. He died in the 
 home of one of his sons, at Port Morien, after a few days' illness, on the 
 14th day of July 1877, in the 75th year of his age. 
 
 Mr. Ross was catechist of this large district for a period of thirty three 
 years, and during that time, he rendered services of incalculable value to 
 the people, through the faithful discharge of his duties. After, Dr. Hugh Mc- 
 Leod became minister of Mira, in 1850, Donald Ross was made an elder. 
 He was also clerk of Session, precentor and treasurer of the congregation. 
 
 261 
 
He was likewise a Justice of the Peace and Land Surveyor for the com- 
 munity. During his life time Mr. Ross distributed thousands of copies of 
 the Bible and of other religious books. These Bibles and books were sent 
 from Scotland by the Edinburgh Ladies' Association, to his care, for dis- 
 tribution among his fellow country men. There was no literature of that 
 kind for sale in Cape Breton at that time and we may be quite sure that 
 these books were very highly appreciated, and that they served a very im- 
 portant purpose. 
 
 The earliest opportunity that our Gaelic speaking ancestors had of 
 getting their children baptized was when Dr. McGregor came to Cape 
 Breton in the year 1818, but this opportunity was limited to a small pro- 
 portion of the population. The next opportunity was in 1824, when the 
 Rev. Donald McDonald came to Malagawatch, where he spent the next 
 two years. But comparatively few could avail themselves of Mr. 
 McDonald's services in this regard. 
 
 The first general opportunity to obtain baptism came in 1 827 when the 
 Rev. John McLennan and the Rev. Donald Allan Fraser, made a tour of 
 nearly all the highland settlements on the island and baptized hundreds 
 of children and many adults. After Mr. McKichan came to River In- 
 habitants in 1832 and Mr. Farquharson and Mr. Stewart to the island in 
 1833 and 1834 respectively, facilities for obtaining baptism became quite 
 common. 
 
 The first account we have of the dispensation of the Lord's Supper 
 in Cape Breton was in 1834, when the Rev. Jonn Stewart assisted the Rev. 
 D. McKichan in dispensing that ordinance at River Inhabitants. After 
 Messrs Farquharson, Stewart, Fraser and McLean were settled here the 
 Lord's Supper was observed regularly, once a year in the congregations to 
 which they ministered. No doubt this ordinance was observed in the 
 English speaking congregation of Mabou, and Port Hood from the time 
 Mr. Millar took charge in the year 1822. The Lord's Supper was not dis- 
 pensed in St. Ann's until after the settlement of the Rev. A. Mcintosh in 
 the year 1856. 
 
 Between 1840 and 1890, the dispensation of the Lord's Supper or "The 
 Communion" as it was called was the great event of the year in the Presby- 
 terian Congregations on the island. It was generally observed in the 
 month of July. It was looked forward to and prepared for during several 
 weeks preceding. It was an occasion of generous hospitality to all comers. 
 The ministers of all neighboring congregations were usually present and 
 a goodly proportion of their people likewise. 
 
 The services began on Thursday morning and continued daily till 
 Monday afternoon. Thursday was the day of fasting and humiliation 
 and was kept with appropriate sermons and services. Friday was the 
 "ceist" or question day. The ministers conducted the opening devotional 
 exercises, but the speaking was chiefly by laymen, elders, catechists and 
 others from far and near, who had a reputation for godliness and who were 
 endowed with the power of speaking intelligently and experimentally. 
 
 262 
 
Saturday was the day of preparation for the specially sacred services to be 
 observed on the morrow. 
 
 Sabbath day was the "great day of the feast," when the emblems of 
 the Saviour's body and blood were uncovered.set apart by prayer, distribut- 
 ed to communicants and partaken of with profound solemnity, reverence, 
 and devoutness. 
 
 Monday was observed as a day of thanksgiving to God for all the 
 tokens of His favor which he bestowed in His providence and in His grace, 
 more especially during that communion season. 
 
 These precious services were closed by singing a psalm of thanks- 
 giving and then the worshippers bade each other an affectionate farewell 
 and dispersed to their respective homes. 
 
 There were only three Presbyterian places of worship on this island 
 previous to 1830. There were only about a dozen in 1835 and all of these 
 were very plain, unfinished structures . 
 
 The first church to be finished throughout before being used was a 
 church at Sydney Mines. This church was built in the year 1840. During 
 these churchless years the people met for divine worship as the early 
 Christians did, in apostolic days, in private houses. 
 
 Our Presbyterian ancestors were under very great disadvantages 
 from an educational point of view. Few of them could teach their child- 
 ren the elements of learning and teachers were not availa"ble, and besides 
 they were too poor to pay for their services. 
 
 There was an excellent school opened by the Rev. Norman McLeod, 
 at St. Ann's about 1825. This school rendered excellent service, not only 
 to St. Ann's, but also to a large part of Cape Breton until 1851, when Mr. 
 McLeod left for Australia. 
 
 There was another good school at Lake Ainslie as early as the year 
 1827, conducted, we believe, by a Mr. John Campbell. Some years later Mr. 
 Campbell removed to near Port Hastings, where he taught school for many 
 years. In the year 1838 there was a school opened in Malagawatch by a 
 young man, sent out from Edinburgh, Scotland, by the Edinburgh Ladies' 
 Association, whose name was Lauchlan McDonald. He taught in the 
 first church that was built in Malagawatch. He reported eighty pupils in 
 attendance, on the 28th of January 1839. Mr. McDonald taught a Sab- 
 bath School in the same place — probably the first S. School opened in Cape 
 Breton. About the same time the Edinburgh Ladies' Association sent 
 out another teacher, a Miss Gordon, who afterwards became the wife of the 
 Rev. Hector McQuarrie of Leitches Creek. Miss Gordon taught first at 
 Middle River and later at Kinloch by Strathlorne. There was a superior 
 school opened on Boulardarie by Mr. Alexr. Munro and his wife, Mrs. 
 Munro, on Nov. the 21st 1839. The Munros were sent out by the Ladies 
 Association. This school was opened in the church at Boulardarie with 
 sixty pupils. By March 24th, 1840, there were one hundred pupils in at- 
 tendance, a number of them from distant parts of the island. Several of 
 these were studying Latin, Greek, Algebra, Geometry etc. Some of them 
 were preparing to teach school while a number more were looking forward 
 
 263 
 
to the Christian ministry. Mrs. Munro gave special attention to the 
 girls and taught them ewing, cooking, etc. 
 
 This school came to be known as the "Boulardarie Academy." It had 
 an attendance of over two hundred pupils, some years later. 
 
 Our ancestors were great believers in co-operation, "that many hands 
 make light work." When anything more difficult than usual was to be 
 done, they called. their neighbors to their assistance. In other words they 
 made a frolic, as they called it. The men had their chopping, rolling, house 
 or barn raising frolics, the women had their spinning and quilting frolics. 
 The men and women together, had their planting, reaping, and fulling 
 frolics. These frolics were frequently followed by a f orenight of dancing, 
 four and eight hand, Scotch reels, to the music of the fiddle or the bagpipe. 
 They were also accustomed to exchange social visits between neigh- 
 boring homes,especially in the long winter and fall evenings, after the day's 
 work was done. The Gaelic name for those social visits was Ceilidh. 
 
 How qjiickly the hours passed when dne was on ceilidh. There was 
 so much to talk about and all were so happy. The young people talked of 
 the current events and laughed the time away in innocent amusement. 
 The old people gradually fell into a reminiscent mood, their thoughts would 
 wander back to the Hebrides and they talked of the hardships they experi- 
 enced at the hands of cruel landlords and the pain with which they left their 
 native land. If piously inclined, as many of them were, they would re- 
 cite "notes" from the lips of the ministers or catechists that they heard on 
 certain occasions in the old land. These "notes" or sayings were treasured 
 like jewels and were only produced on special occasions and in the hearing of 
 those who could appreciate them. 
 
 When the time for departure came the "brand" a stick with one end 
 burning, was ready. There were no lanterns in those days and the brand 
 had to serve the purpose of a lantern in lighting the way home. The path 
 through the woods was very dark and wild animals were plentiful. It 
 was no unusual thing for the fire of the brand to be reflected from the 
 eyes of a wild cat as the visitor found his way home. 
 
 It would be interesting to speak of many other things in connection with 
 the lives of oxir ancestors in the early part of last century but we forbear. 
 
 What a change has come over Cape Breton since the time when that 
 first generation of Scottish people passed away! The material improvement 
 of later years is much in evidence, in our industries, railways, electric power 
 plants etc., etc. 
 
 Has our moral, social and religious progress kept pace with our material 
 progress? The seen and temporal is ever the enemy of the unseen and 
 eternal. 
 
 264 
 
The Communion Services of our Presbyterian Ancestors In Cape 
 
 Breton. 
 
 Our Celtic forefathers brought their customs, as well as their language, 
 with them, when they came to this island, about one hundred years ago. 
 They left their age-long clan feuds behind them, but little else that was 
 distinctive, whether good or bad. 
 
 Perhaps the only bad traits that they brought with them to Cape 
 Breton were their superstitions regarding witches, fairies, ghosts, etc and 
 their fondness for whiskey. 
 
 Happily, by this time, these ghostly superstitions are almost unknown 
 to their descendants and whiskey drinking, in a social way, has almost, if 
 not entirely disappeared. Some of us, however are old enough to remember 
 a time when telling stories of fairies and witches was a common pastime, 
 around the big hardwood flre on the old fashioned kitchen hearth, and when 
 the health of visiting friends was drunk from the decanter that was always 
 kept in the cupboard for the purpose of shewing hospitality to old acquaint- 
 ances and remembering "the days of auld lang syne." 
 
 We are also old enough to remember the time when bread, cheese and 
 whiskey were provided at funerals for all comers. And as for weddings, 
 whiskey was considered indispensible on such occasions. 
 
 In those days houses of entertainment were found every few miles, 
 all along our principal highways, where whiskey was openly and freely sold 
 to thirsty travellers, for the purpose of keeping them warm, if the weather 
 was cold, of keeping them cold if the weather was hot, and of keeping 
 them happy whether the weather was cold or hot. 
 
 But our ancestors brought a number of good customs with them 
 from their native land. Among these good customs we might make men- 
 tion of a few. There was first of all a strict observance of the first day of the 
 week as a day of rest and worship. They remembered the Sabbath day and 
 kept it holy. Then again, they practised family worship daily,both morn- 
 ing and evening. 
 
 The family altar was erected in every home, the bible was placed upon 
 it and prayer was offered around it. Then too, they were very regular in 
 their attendance on the public means of grace. The house of God had a 
 large place in their affections and they attended public worship often 
 under very adverse circumstances, such as having to walk long distances 
 to church. 
 
 Another good custom that our good God-fearing forefathers brought 
 to this island and practised in their homes was the custom of committing 
 the Shorter Catechism to memory and of having a recitation of a portion 
 of that Catechism on the Sabbath evening, with such explanations as the 
 father and mother were able to give. 
 
 There were no Sabbath Schools in those early days.nor were such schools 
 required when there was virtually, a Sabbath school in every home. 
 
 And still another custom which our pious ancestors brought from the 
 
 265 
 
old land, demands attention, and that was the Annual Open Air Communion 
 Season. The observance of this custom is still in existence in several of our 
 Gaelic speaking congregations, but it is on the decline in proportion as the 
 use of the Gaelic language is on the decline. The likelihood is that the 
 time is not far distant when, both the open air Communion Services and 
 the Gaelic language will be things of the past on the island of Cape Breton. 
 For this reason, if for no other, it is desirable that an institution which was 
 so profitable and so dear to our ancestors, both in the old country and in 
 this, should receive some special attention in these pages. 
 
 We have no means of ascertaining the precise time when this custom 
 came into existence. The probability is that it was a gradual growth. 
 In any case, it arose out of the religious and political conditions that exist- 
 ed in Scotland between 1581, when the "National Covenant" was adopted 
 by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and 1688 when the 
 Revolution Settlement was effected when Episcopacy was abolished by Act 
 of Parliament and when Presbyterianism was fully recognized by law as the 
 religion of Scotland. 
 
 The Covenanters in the South of Scotland, as we are well aware, 
 had to.flee from their persecutors and find shelter in the moors, glens and 
 mountains, where there were no churches and where, of necessity, God 
 had to be worshipped and the Lord's Supper observed under the blue 
 canopy of heaven. But there were Covenanters in the north of Scotland 
 as well as in the South and they too, had to endure persecution and to wor- 
 ship God in secluded places among the hills where there were no churches. 
 It was under such circumstances that the open air communion with its 
 peculiar accompaniments of fast day, self examination day, preparation 
 days, communion day and thanksgiving day had its rise and progress. 
 By the time that the Stuart dynasty had ceased to reign and William and 
 Mary came to the throne, this custom had become quite general among the 
 Presbyterians of northern Scotland and it has survived to our own time. 
 
 The open air communion in the summer season grew in favor with the 
 Gaelic speaking people of Argylshire, Invernessshire, Rosshire, Sutherland- 
 shire, Caithnesshire and the adjacent islands on the west coast, until it 
 became at length the special religious event of the year in many of the 
 northern and western parishes. This practise attained its highest develop- 
 ment towards the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century, between 1750 and 1850, and it was always associated with the 
 fervent and evangelical preaching of eminently godly- men like Lachlan 
 McKenzie of Lochcarron Rosshire, John McDonald of Ferintosh and John 
 Kennedy of Kilearnan. There were many other consecrated gospel preach- 
 ers in Scotland during that time, but these three were universally recognized 
 to have a preeminence, like David's three mighty men nearly two thousand 
 years earlier. 
 
 This custom was ever associated with the preaching of evangelical 
 ministers. Moderatism, which prevailed so extensively in Scotland at 
 that time, did not furnish the warm gospel atmosphere in which the open 
 air communion with its adjuncts could flourish, but wherever there were 
 
 266 
 
fervent preachers of Christ and Him Crucified as the only Savior of sinners, 
 there the open air communion was observed, appreciated and enjoyed. 
 
 The most remarkable and characteristic feature of the Highland Com- 
 munion was the services on Friday, when the godly laymen occupied a large 
 part of the time in speaking to a question or ceist propounded by one of 
 themselves. The propounder of the question was supposed to have a 
 difficulty of an experimental nature, regarding which he desired help from 
 the varied and larger experience of his lay brethren who were present. The 
 men who took'part in "Ciest" day services were not formalists or nominal 
 Christians. They were men to whom the gospel came, "not in word only 
 but also in power and in the Holy Ghost." Without the preaching of a pure 
 gospel, there would be no "men" to speak of an experience of divine things 
 and without the "men" the open air communion would have lost much of 
 its interest and usefulness. Our open air communions in Cape Breton 
 began to lose their interest to our people, when the prayerful, humble 
 holy and spirit-taught men who came out from Scotland in the early part of 
 last century, began to pass away. 
 
 They are all gone now and we shall never see their like again. They 
 were sui generis. Their type of religion was peculiar to themselves. It was 
 emphatically subjective and introspective. They thought a great deal about 
 their own states and feelings and they were ever lamenting that these 
 states and feelings were so far from being what they ought to be, longed to 
 be and hoped to be. They were familiar with Paul's experience of himself 
 when he exclaimed, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from 
 this body of death?" But they also could say with Paul, "I thank God 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." They could find no rest or peace from 
 anything in themselves. They found the source of their peace only in 
 Christ; in Him who "made peace by the blood of his cross." But they look- 
 ed within for evidence of a saving interest in Christ, for the fruits of the 
 spirit which are "Love, Joy, Peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
 faith, etc." 
 
 We shall bring this article to a close with two extracts; the first from 
 Dr. Kennedy of Dingwall in his well known "Memoir" of his father, the 
 Rev. John Kennedy of Killearnan, and the second from a letter that was 
 written from Cape Breton to an Ontario paper, by the late Rev. Professor 
 McKerras of Queens College. 
 
 To quote from the said Memoir: 
 
 "Mr. Kennedy was a man eminent for piety to a degree seldom sur- 
 passed in any age and probably scarcely at all equalled in his own gener- 
 ation. The years of his ministry at Killearnan were times of peculiar and 
 valued privilege, not only to those in the parish who "hungered for the 
 bread of life," but also to many in the surrounding districts, and to not a 
 few in distant parts of the north and West Highlands. Many of the choic- 
 est of the Lord's people travelled steadily between 12 and 18 miles (the 
 double journey being from 24 to 36 miles), and a few walked from the re- 
 mote parishes of the west of Ross and Sutherland, distances varying from 
 about 100 to 160 miles to hear the savory preaching of the famous minis- 
 
 267 
 
ter of Killearnan. Distance, was no obstacle in tliose pedestrian days. 
 Killearnan, like the parish of Ferintosh in the immediate vicinity was a 
 centre to which the most noted of God's heritage flocked in vast numbers. 
 On communion occasions, as many as fifty parishes have been represented 
 at Killearnan, and two thousand have been known to partake of the sacred 
 elements at those solemn gatherings. Those were times of high festival 
 at Redcastle. The minister was assisted at those special services, by the 
 most gifted and popular preachers in the Highlands. His saintly brother, 
 Mr. Kennedy of Loggie, and his immediate neighbor. Dr. McDonald of 
 Ferintosh, the famous "Apostle of the North", also Mr. Lachlan McKen- 
 zie of Lochcarron, were invariably there together with other ministers of 
 noted preaching power. The heritage of God was refreshed and strengthen- 
 ed. During the services, the burdens and fears of many were removed, apd 
 souls were plucked as brands from the burning. After enjoying sweet fel- 
 lowship with God, the source and fountain of all blessing and joy, the multi- 
 tude "that kept holiday day" dispersed to return to their homes, renewed 
 in spiritual energy and revived in hope." 
 
 Similar experiences were enjoyed in Whycocomagh, Mira and else- 
 where in Cape Breton under the preaching of the Rev. Peter McLean, Hugh 
 McLeod and others. 
 
 "In the month of August, 1872 the Rev. Dr. Masson^of Edinburgh 
 and the Rev. Professor McKerras of Queen's College, Kingston, Ont. paid 
 a visit to Cape Breton and dispensed the Lord's supper at Strathlorne. 
 Professor McKerras wrote of that communion as follows: 
 
 "Here we witnessed a genuine Highland Sacrament of the olden time. 
 Let me attempt a description of it. The day succeeding our arrival 
 opened the services connected with the annual Communion season of the 
 Congregation. 
 
 "As is customary and felt to be desirable on such occasions there was 
 -a "spate" of ministers. There was Dr. Masson of Edinburgh, Mr. 
 Stewart of Pictou, Eraser Campbell of Halifax, Mr. A. Grant of Lake Ains- 
 lie, Mr. G. L. Gordon, Catechist of River Inhabitants and myself. Thurs- 
 day was the fast day. Serviced were conducted in the English language 
 inside and in the Gaelic outside the Church. 
 
 On Friday was the "Ceist" i.e. The Question. After the opening serv- 
 ices the presiding minister asked "the men" — a class of communicants 
 peculiar to congregations in the North Highlands of Scotland composed of 
 those grey-haired fathers, who combine rich stores of experimental religious 
 and fluency of speech and are looked up to with a veneration only second 
 and sometimes superior to that accorded the minister^ — if any of them had a 
 case of conscience or subject for edifying discussion to propose. A vener- 
 able elder suggested "the one thing needful" as a topic suitable to the solemn 
 occasion. 
 
 This, on the spur of the moment and without any previous intimation 
 of the question to be spoken, was ably opened up in the principal bearings 
 by Mr. Stewart. Then followed remarks by about a dozen of the men, who 
 
 268 
 
offered in a tone of becoming humility practical suggestions, more or less 
 pertinent, based on their own experience, of the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 What a crowd was there drawn together from all directions by the time- 
 hallowed associations of the sacred ordinance! 
 
 Hundreds on hundreds eagerly bent over to catch the tones of the 
 several speakers, as if listening to the utterances of an oracle. Many had 
 come thirty, several forty, some fifty and one seventy-five miles in order 
 to enjoy the occasion. 
 
 The diets of worship were well attended on Saturday, but the Sabbath 
 was the great day of the feast. On this day the interest and solemnity 
 culminated. 
 
 But alas! the weather had changed and become unpropitious in the 
 last degree. On Saturday, the sky began to assuime an ominousappear- 
 ance and by night-fall a "down-piour" set in. Morning dawned, but with 
 it came no abatement of the storm and everything betokened a day of 
 rain. 
 
 As I was to conduct all the English services in the church, I congratu- 
 lated myself on the thought that the "dry" would on that day assuredly be 
 the popular preacher. Accustomed to the fairweather Christianity of 
 our town congregations, 1 despaired of seeing a large turnout of people. 
 However, the church was well filled, but not crowded. 
 
 When the services inside were concluded, I repaired to the tent. 
 
 Though I could not hope to be edified by hearing, as the exercises were 
 conducted in a tongue unknown to me, I certainly was by the sight which 
 then presented itself. To reach the place I had to cross the public highway. 
 Far as the eye could reach were vehicles of every description. 
 
 Beyond the billow-shaped graveyard and up into a retired glen, 1 found 
 myself at the outskirts of a mass of people hanging on the lips of the 
 speaker. 
 
 The ministers, being in a tent constructed like a large sentry-box, alone 
 were protected from the weather. Before them extended a row of support- 
 ed planks improvised into a communion table. On the slopes rising around 
 in the shape of an amphitheatre sat at least 1000 persons, from the grand- 
 sire of eighty winters to the youth of twelve summers! Men in their prime 
 and girls in their teens; here a line of aged women, eye glassy with the tear 
 of emotion, mvch covered with dark silk handerkerchief, the black shawl 
 held up by one corner to the mouth with one hand; there a clump of old men 
 with head bare of bonnet or protecting locks, leaning each on his staff 
 and devouring the preached word. 
 
 For five hours and twenty minutes that multitude sat upon the soaking/ 
 sward as if glued to it. During the first two hours of that time, the rain 
 came down incessantly. Comparatively few had umbrellas to raise and 
 every male had his head uncovered. 
 
 As I cast my eye over the scene my first thought was "Does not God 
 love mercy rather than sacrifice." But as I continued to gaze and saw 
 that every look, every gesture, every shade of expression betokened intensed 
 earnestness, high-wrought interest and soul-wrought devotion, other the 
 
 269 
 
thoughts suggested themselves and I was led to pay the tribute of admir- 
 ation to the robustness of their religion. While the preacher was serving 
 the last table from the text "Behold the Lamb of God" the feelings of 
 many seemed to master them and a swell of agitation heaved the bosoms 
 of the communicants. Awe crept over me as I looked from face to face 
 and took in the impress of the whole scene. A new light was thrown 
 upon my mind as to the deep meaning of these passages in which the 
 Psalmist gave expression to his fervent devotion. "As the hart panteth 
 after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul, after Thee O God, my soul 
 thirsteth for God, for the living God. My flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and 
 thirsty land where no water is. My soul followeth hard after Thee." Again 
 those features lighted up with a glow indicative of such spiritual joy as to 
 render them insensible to physical discomfort gave me an insight into the 
 spirituality of that outburst of the Bride, representing the Church; "I 
 sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my 
 taste." 
 
 They did not stir from that spot until nearly half past four o'clock, 
 and yet two prayer meetings (the one conducted in gaelic, in the church 
 and the other in English in a neighboring school house) held at six o'clock 
 were numerously attended. Greedier hearers of Gospel truth, it has never 
 been my privilege to witness. 
 
 The more they got, the more thirstily desirous were they to receive 
 more preaching. Who can doubt that the Holy Spirit was working might- 
 ily in many an anxious heart then present? As I looked out from the tent 
 upon that congregation, I could not help contrasting with these noble 
 highlanders of Broadcove, who will rise up in the judgment and condemn 
 us, many of those wretched apologies for Christians found in so many of our 
 congregations, who seated on crimson cushions yawn and frown and count 
 the passage of time by the second hand of their watches, if the preacher 
 exceeds by five minutes the fashionable half hour, no matter how frought 
 with the fire of scripture truth or how well delivere'd the sermon may be." 
 
 270 
 
Our Celtic Ancestors, Their Origin, History, Language, Literature 
 
 and Religion. 
 
 It would be a large contract to deal in any adequate way with so large 
 and varied a subject as is involved in the heading of this Chapter. All 
 that we can attempt is, to give a general outline of these subjects for the 
 benefit of the ordinary reader, who may not have literature on these differ- 
 ent matters under his hand. 
 
 Jehovah said to his people, through the prophet Isaiah "Look unto the 
 rock whence ye were hewn, and the hole of the pit whence ye were digged. 
 Look unto Arbraham your father and unto Sarah that bare you." It 
 should be both deeply interesting and highly profitable for us, who are of 
 Celtic extraction, to think back to our ancestors and to reflect on their 
 origin, racial affinity, history, language, literature and religion. 
 
 When Columbus discovered this western world in the year 1492 he 
 found the red-man here ahead of him, and the red man had been here many 
 centuries before Columbus was born. 
 
 In like manner, when the Roman armies, under Julius Caesar reached 
 the British Isles, in the year 55 B.C. they found our Celtic ancestors there 
 ahead of them. And these ancestors of ours had been there many centuries, 
 earlier than that time. 
 
 It is supposed <;hat the American Indians came to this continent from 
 Asia by way of Behring Strait; at a remote period in the world's history; 
 and we have good reasons for believing thajt our ancestors came from the 
 head waters of the Euphrates, in Asia, to Britain, by way of Asia Minor 
 Southern Europe and'France, at least 1500 years before the Christian era. 
 We can trace the course of their migration, in the Keltoi, of the Greeks and 
 the Celtae, of the Romans. The Galatians of Asia Minor, in the Apostle 
 Paul's time, were a fragment of the Celtic race which had been left behind 
 in their westward march. 
 
 One writer says: "At the beginning of the historic period, the domain 
 of the Celts included no mea'n portion of the soil of Europe, including, Brit- 
 ain, Gaul, a part of Spain and the north of Italy. Some of the provinces of 
 Central Europe were also in their possession." From France (the 
 
 Gallia of the Romans) the Celts passed over to England, and thence to 
 Wales, Ireland and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland where their 
 descendants are to be found at the present time. Probably the purest Celtic 
 blood in the world today is to be found in the highlands and western islands 
 of Scotland. 
 
 When the Roman armies reached the Scottish Highlands, under Julius 
 Agricola, in the year 80 A.D. they met our Celtic ancestors at Ardoch, 
 Perthshire. Here the battle of Mons Grampius was fought, and the Cale- 
 donians, as the Celts were then known, suffered a decisive defeat, at the 
 hands of the Romans under the great chief, Galgacus. But the Caledon- 
 ians were not utterly conquered on that occasion. They retreated to the 
 shelter of their rugged mountains for a time but only to recruit and prepare 
 
 271 
 
to resume the attack on their world conquering enemies, at a more conven- 
 ient and favorable season. Finally, in the year 367 A.D., they followed 
 their retreating foes into England and overcame them there. Collier, in 
 his British History tells us "That they marched as far as London itself, 
 which they emptied of all its treasures, carrying away the citizens to be 
 Slaves." 
 
 The men of the Scottish Highlands were never beaten in War but 
 once, and that was in the year 1746, when Charles Edward Stewart per- 
 suaded a large number of them to follow him in the hopeless and crazy eflfort 
 to regain the throne, and Crown of Britain for the discredited Stewart 
 dynasty. On Culloden Moor, Charles and his followers met with a crush- 
 ing defeat at the hands of the British under the Duke of Cumberland. 
 
 That was a disastrous defeat for the Celtic population of the 
 highlands and island of Scotland. It was followed by legislative measures 
 that destroyed the paternal relations, which had existed for more than a 
 thousand years between the Scottish Chiefs and the members of their res- 
 pective Clans. To this change was primarily due, the emigration of our 
 forefathers to Cape Breton and other parts of the world, in such large num- 
 bers in succeeding years. 
 
 On the 1st of August 1847, the British Parliament passed, what was 
 known as "An Act of Indemnity." To get the benefit of that Act every 
 highlander had to take the following dreadful oath, or suffer the conse- 
 quences of refusal. 
 
 ''I, A. B. do swear, as I shall answer to God at the great Day of Judg- 
 ment, I have not, nor shall I have in my possession any gun, sword, pistol 
 or arm whatsoever, and never use tartan, plaid or any part of the Highland 
 garb; and if I do so, may I be cursed in my undertakings, family and pro- 
 perty; may I never see my wife and children, father, mother or relations; 
 may I be killed in battle as a coward and lie without Christian burial in a 
 strange land, far from the graves of my forefathers and kindred. May 
 all this come across me if I break this oath." 
 
 This Act created the deepest dissatisfaction throughout the whole of 
 the north and west of Scotland, and multitudes voluntarily left the country 
 rather than take the oath. It broke up the ancient feudal system that had 
 existed among the Celts for ages. The leaders, in the rising under "Prince 
 Charlie," were executed and their followers left the country rather than take 
 the oath and remain under the new conditions. A large number of high- 
 landers went to North Carolina, U.S., in the year 1760. The famous 
 ship "Hector" landed a number more in Boston in the year 1770. Then 
 again in 1773, the same ship landed two hundred persons, from Loch- 
 broom, Rosshire, in Pictou Harbor, Nova Scotia. About the same time 
 a large number of Gaelic speaking people emigrated to Caledonia in Western 
 New York and a number more to the State of Ohio. 
 
 In the year 1803, the Earl of Selkirk, sent three ship loads of high- 
 landers to Prince Edward Island. There were eight hundred souls in all, 
 aboard these three ships. 
 
 The Celtic emigration to Cape Breton began as early as the year 1792, 
 
 272 
 
and continued during the next fifty years. During that time not less than 
 20,000 Gaelic speaking people left their native land and settled on this island. 
 
 In 1745 every strath and available piece of land in the highland and 
 islands of Argyleshire, Invernesshire, Rosshire and Sutherlandshire were 
 full of people. Since that time, the emigration has been so great that 
 these places are now almost a desolation, with the inhabitants few and far 
 between. 
 
 When the Romans reached North Britain at the beginning of the 
 Christian Era, they found the Celts divided, into two large groups, the 
 Picts on the East and the Scots on the west. The Scots were pure Celts 
 but the Picts had a strain of Norwegian blood in their veins on account of 
 intercourse with the Norse peoples. 
 
 These two groups were subdivided into twenty-one Clans and each 
 Clan inhabi ing a different str?ith or island and was ruled by its own Chief. 
 The term Clan is from the gaelic, word Clann, which means children. 
 H The Clan system was patriarchal, and old as the human race. The 
 Chief was regarded as the father of the Clan, and all the members of the 
 clan were regarded as his children. The land belonged to the chief and 
 to the clan in common. They shared the soil of the domain with him but 
 on the understanding, firstly that they would follow the chief to battle 
 against the common foe and secondly that they would pay the chief, 
 annually, a certain amount of tribute or homage money. There was no 
 rent to be paid by the Clansman to his Chief under the feudal system. 
 The land belonged to all the members of the Clan. This condition of 
 things continued until after the rising that ended so disastrously at 
 Culloden. After that all was changed. The Clan system was broken up. 
 The chief disapt»eared and his clan was either dispersed or made to pay rent 
 for their small crofts, to strangers, who got possession of the land and be- 
 came proprietors of the soil. 
 
 Towards the end of the eighteenth century, these proprietors discover- 
 ed that they could make more money by keeping sheep, cattle and deer on 
 their lands, than by renting it to human beings. Thereupon they began to 
 evict their tenants and replace them with dumb brutes. 
 
 Nearly every island on the Hebrides and every strath on the main- 
 land suffered, sooner or later, from this merciless procedure. The evicted 
 tenants were under the necessity of leaving their native land in thousands 
 and of seeking homes either in the cities of the south or beyond the sea. 
 
 The Rev. Donald Sage, author of "Parish Life in tlie North of Scot- 
 land" gives us a striking account of the Sutherlandshire evictions, which 
 took place while he was minister in Achness at the head of Strathnaver. 
 We give the following extract from Chapter XVI of said book:"The period 
 of my ministry at Achness, however was fast drawing to a close. The reck- 
 less, lordly proprietors had resolved upon the expulsion of their long stand- 
 ing aivd much attached tenantry, from their widely extended estates, and 
 the Sjitherland clearances of 1819 was not only the climax of their system 
 of oppression for many years before, but the extinction of the last remnant 
 of the ancient highland peasantry in the north" "Summonses of eject- 
 
 .273 
 
ment were issued and despatched all over the district. These must have 
 amounted to upwards of a thousand, as the population of the mission alone 
 was 1600 souls, and many more th^n those of the mission were ejected. 
 The summonses were distributed with the utmost preciseness. They were 
 handed in at every house and hovel alike. All were made to feel the 
 irresponsible power of the proprietor" "On the Sabbath, a fortnight prev- 
 ious to the fatal day, I preached my valedictory sermon at Achness, and 
 the Sabbath thereafter at Ach-na-h'uiaghe. Both occasions were felt by 
 myself and my people, from the oldest to the youngest to be among the 
 bitterest and most overwhelming experience of our lives. I preached and 
 the people listened, but every sentence uttered and heard was in opposition 
 to the tide of our natural feelings, which, setting in against us, mounted at* 
 every step higher and higher. 
 
 At last all restraints were compelled to give way. The preacher 
 ceased to speak, the people to listen. All lifted up their voices and wept, 
 mingling their tears together. It was indeed the place of parting and the 
 hour. The greater number parted,never again to behold each other in the 
 land of the living." 
 
 "The middle of the week brought on the day of the Strathnaver clear- 
 ances. It was on a Tuesday, At an early hour of the day Mr. Sellar, ac- 
 companied by the Fiscal and escorted by a strong body of Constables, 
 Sheriff, Officers and others commenced work at Gummore, the first, 
 inhabited township to the west of Achness district. — Their plan of oper- 
 ations was to clear the cottages of their inmates, giving them about half 
 an hour to pack up and carry off their furniture, and then set fire to their 
 cottages. To this plan, they ruthlessly adhered, without the slightest 
 regard to any obstacle, that might arise, while carrying it into execution." 
 
 The following week Mr. Sage had occasion to pass down the evicted 
 Strath and he tells us what he saw in the following terms: "The spectacle 
 presented was hideous and ghastly. The banks of the lake and the river, 
 formerly studded with cottages, now met the eye as a scene of desolation. 
 The thatched roofs were gone off all the houses, but the walls remained. 
 The flames of the preceding week still slumbered in the ruins; and sent up 
 into the air spiral columns of smoke, whilst here a gable and there a long 
 side wall, undermined by the lire burning within them, might be seen 
 tumbling to the ground." "The sooty rafters of the cottages, as they were 
 consumed, filled the air with a heavy and most offensive odor. In short, 
 nothing could more vividly represent the horrors of grinding oppression, 
 and the extent to which one man,dressed up in a little brief authority will 
 exercise that power without feeling or restraint,to the injury of his fellow 
 creatures." 
 
 And Mr. Sage adds: "The Strathnaver clearances of 1819, dissolved 
 my connection with my first congregation and extinguished a ministerial 
 charge in that part of the Highlands." 
 
 The writer, a number of years ago, drove up Strath Kildonan, from 
 Helmsdale, for a distance of nine or ten miles, in order to see for himself the 
 desolation wrought in that beautiful strath between 1810 and 1819, when 
 
 274 
 
more than three hundred houses were burnt down in one day and their 
 tenants scattered to the four winds of heaven. The sites of their former 
 homes are still quite visible in the green grass plots that line the sides of 
 the highway that leads to the head of the strath. For over one hundred 
 years, Strath Kildonan has been occupied by a few shepherds, whose busi- 
 ness it is, with their Collie dogs, to look after the thousands of sheep that 
 graze in this beautiful valley, 
 Robert Burns wrote: — 
 
 "Man's inhumanity to man 
 
 Makes countless thousands mourn;" 
 
 and the world has seldom seen greater "inhumanity to man" than was per- 
 petrated on our Scottish Ancestors in their native land and as to the mourn- 
 ing and suffering that accompanied that inhumanity, it is utterly impossible 
 to form any adequate conception. The descendants of these evicted 
 Sutherlandshire people are found today in Pictou, N.S., Glengarry,Onta!rio, 
 and on the Red River Manitoba. 
 
 The language spoken by our ancestors was the Gaelic. They brought 
 that language with them from the head waters of the Euphrates, the origin- 
 al home of the Celtic race. 
 
 In its original form the Gaelic was one of the oldest languages of the 
 world. It has been claimed by ardent celts that Gaelic was the language 
 spoken by our flrlst parents in the garden of Eden. Of course that claim 
 cannot be substantiated, but there can be no doubt about the great anti- 
 quity of this language. It can be shown, that Gaelic is closely related to some 
 of the older languages, such as the Sanscrit, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. 
 In the course of time this language underwent many changes, as all un- 
 written languages have done. 
 
 We have several dialects of the Celtic tongue at the present time in 
 Britain, we have the Welsh, the Manx and the Erse, or Irish, as well as the 
 Scottish gaelic; but all have grown from the one common stock in the course 
 of the centuries. Of course we hold to the fond conceit, that the Scottish 
 Gaelic is the oldest and purest of these different dialects. It is now stand- 
 ardized for all time by a very considerable literature, but more especially 
 by the publication of the Holy Scriptures in gaelic in the year 1826. 
 
 Similarly, the English language was Standardized by the publication 
 of King James version of the old and New Testament Scriptures in the 
 year 1611 A.D. 
 
 The first book that was printed in the Scottish Gaefic was a vocabulary 
 or list of words, prepared by one Alexander McDonald, a school teacher in 
 Moidart in the year 1741. Mr. McDonald also published the first original 
 poem in Gaelic under the title of: Ais-eiridh na Seann Chanain Albannaich. 
 
 The first translation of the scriptures into Scottish Gaelic was made in 
 the year 1766, by the Rev. James Stewart of Killin with the assistance of 
 McDougald Buchanan. This translation consisted of the New Testament 
 
 275 
 
only. It was published by the Society for Propagating knowledge in the 
 following year. 
 
 A translation of the old Testament into gaelic was made by Dr. Stew- 
 art of Luss and Dr. Smith of Campbellton between 1783 and 1807. It was 
 published in the latter year. Subsequently these translations were revised 
 and the whole Bible was printed, as we have it now, in the year 1826, by 
 the Scottish Bible Society. 
 
 The golden age of gaelic poetry did not arrive until after the year 1745. 
 "The Beauties of Gaelic Poetry" was published 1841. This book is a col- 
 lection of the best poems in the gaelic language. It contains the best 
 poems of about forty composers, the very cream of the Celtic boards of 
 Scotland. 
 
 There was little, if any, prose literature published in the gaelic before 
 the middle of the eighteenth century. Since that time, a number of 
 English books of a religious character have been translated into gaelic and 
 published by Societies,interested in the welfare of the people of the high- 
 lands and islands of Scotland. These translations include for example 
 Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress, Doddridge's Rise and Progress, Boston's 
 Fourfold State and AUeine's Alarm. 
 
 Of original prose works in the gaelic, we have very little. There is a 
 history of the "Forty Five" by John McKenzie, author of the Beauties of 
 Gaelic Poetry, first published in 1845 and republished in 1906. 
 
 We have also "Caraid nan Gaedheal" by the Rev. Norman McLeod 
 D.D. Thelatest edition of this work was issued in 1910. It contains "The 
 most accurately printed specimens of the language, which have hitherto 
 been issued, and it contains a rich store of indomatic gaelic?" 
 
 It must be admitted, however, sorrowfully, that the gaelic is a decadent 
 language in Scotland as well as in Canada. Desperate efforts have been 
 made from time to time, at home and abroad to stimulate its use and keep 
 it alive, but these efforts have not been attended with very great success. 
 The English language, is evidently crowding the gaelic language, steadily 
 and persistently into a smaller and still smaller space, in our own island. 
 
 Its use in the homes of our people is decreasing and the demand for 
 gaelic speaking ministers is decreasing. 
 
 Our Celtic ancestors were pagans, when the curtain of history was 
 lifted over the British islands, at the beginning of the Christian era, and 
 they continued to be pagans for a number of Centuries thereafter. The 
 religion of Jesus Christ reached the lowlands of Scotland about the begin- 
 ning of the third ce'htury. How it came, we cannot tell. It may have been 
 by Roman soldiers who had learned of a Saviour in Italy. It may have been 
 by means of sailors, trading between Scotland and ports on the Mediter- 
 ranean sea. It may have been by missionaries of the cross who had 
 found their way to this distant part of the Roman Empire. In any case, 
 by the end of the third century, there were a few Christian churches on the 
 banks of the Clyde and these churches suffered persecution during the reign 
 
 276 
 
of Diocletian, the Roman Emperor. At Bonaventure, now Kilpatrick, 
 near Dumbarton, there was born of Christian parents, in the year 372 
 A.D. a child that was named Sucat. This child subsequently became 
 known as St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland. 
 
 When sij^teen years of age, Sucat was kidnapped by Irish pirates, and 
 taken to Ireland where he was sold as a slave. During his captivity he 
 thought seriously of the christian instruction which he received in his early 
 home and as a result he was converted to faith in Christ as His Saviour. 
 After six years in Ireland, he escaped from his master and returned to his 
 native place. Some years later he went back to Ireland as a missionary and 
 spent the remainder of his life there as a preacher of the gospel. He died 
 in 461. 
 
 As the lowlands of Scotland gave St. Patrick to Ireland, so a number of 
 years later, Ireland gave St. Columba to the western islands and the high- 
 lands of Scotland. It was in the year 565 that Columba landed at lona, 
 Argyleshire, with twelve like minded followers, in order to evangelize the 
 pagan Celts of the Scottish islands and highlands. 
 
 Druidism was then the religion of that people. From lona, as a centre, 
 Colurnba and his disciples travelled all over that north country on their 
 mission of love mercy and grace. Nor did they labor in vain. Through 
 their preaching and teaching, multitudes renounced paganism and em- 
 braced Christianity. Bruide, the King of the Picts, whose castle was at 
 Craig Phadric, near Inverness, was converted and through his influence the 
 stronghold of paganism in the highlands was surrendered and Christianity 
 became, nominally the religion of a large portion of Scotland. 
 
 The character of the Christianity that Columba; his disciples and suc- 
 cessors disseminated in Scotland, during the next five hundred years, may 
 be gathered from the following extracts from Dr. Merle D'Aubigne's 
 history of the Reformation.'' A school of theology was founded there 
 (lona) in which the word of God was studied, and many received through 
 faith the salvation which is in Christ Jesus." "The judical sacerdotal- 
 ism, which was beginning to extend in the Christian church found no 
 support in lona. They had forms, but not to them did they look for life 
 It was the Holy Ghost, Columba maintained, that made a servant of God. 
 When the youth of Caledonia assembled around the elders, on these savage 
 shores, or in their humble chapel, these ministers of the Lord would say 
 to them: The Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith. Throw aside 
 all merit of works and look for salvation to the grace of God alone. Beware 
 of a religion which consists of outward observances. It is better to keep 
 your hearts pure before God than to abstain from meats. One alone is 
 your head, even Jesus Christ. Bishops and Presbyters (or elders) are 
 equal. They should be the husbands of one wife and have their children 
 in subjection, "The sages of lona knew nothing of transubstantiation, 
 or of the withdrawal of the cup in the Lord's Supper, or of auricular con- 
 fession, or pra;^ers for the dead, or tapers, or incense." "Synodal assemblies 
 regulated the affairs of the church, and the papal supremacy was 
 
 277 
 
unknown. The sun of the gospel shone upon these wild and distant 
 shores." 
 
 The testimony of another historian, Rev. K. McDonald, is to the 
 same purpose. He says Columba founded a monastery in lona, or more 
 correctly speaking, a theological institution. It was not a monastery in 
 the modern sense of the term. Columba and his associates were mission- 
 aries. Their work was to make arrangements for spreading the know- 
 ledge of the truth among their fellow men. They studied the doctrines 
 of Salvation for the sake of their fellow-creatures, as well as for themselves. 
 Students from Caledonia were attracted to the institution and they proved 
 to be apt scholars. After a course of training they were licensed and or- 
 dained for missionary work in the true Presbyterian form. There was no 
 mixture of Romanism and Ritualism in their ecclesiastical proceedings. 
 At that date a true Presbyterian Church existed among our Gaelic speaking 
 people." 
 
 Columba died in the year 597 and was buried at lona, where his grave 
 may be seen at this day, but his work was carried on by faithful disciples, 
 Baithean, Coinneach, Ciaran, Donnan, Malruba and others. 
 
 Malruba founded a monistary or theological seminary similar to the 
 one at lona, at Applecross Rosshire in the year 6*73 and from that place as 
 a missionary centre, he labored in the districts of Lochcarron and Lochbroom 
 also on Skye and other islands of the Hebrides. To quote Mr. McDonald 
 again "The Culdee Church in the highlands refused to the end, to come 
 under the jurisdiction of the church of Rome. Nectan, the Pictish King, 
 in his misguided zeal drove them out of his dominions in the year 717, but 
 he failed to extinguish them. They were active in some parts of the north 
 and north west Highlands for upwards of four centuries after that date. 
 We can trace them in Applecross up to the fourteenth Century and we 
 find them there at that late period in undisturbed possession of their 
 rights and privileges." Mr. McDonald says farther, "Prelacy was 
 established by King David in 1124 and this was followed by the suppres- 
 sion of Prebtyerianism. We are not to suppose, however, that the Culdees 
 disappeared as preachers of the gospel. They maintained their own tenets 
 and they had their followers among the people. When driven from the 
 more public places of the south, they found shelter in the highlands and 
 they were permitted to carry on the good work among some devoted people, 
 in some places up to the time of the reformation. I do not mean to speak 
 in detail of the successive stages through which , the Church 
 in Scotland had passed, during the centuries that intervened be- 
 tween David and the reformation. Generally speaking, as popery advanc- 
 ed, the religious life of the nation was ebbing away. The preaching of the 
 gospel was neglected. The bishops were ignorant of the doctrines of 
 free grace. They were zealous enough about such matters as shaving the 
 crown of the head and observing Easter after the Romish fashion, but they 
 paid no heed to the needs of immortal souls." "If any one had the courage, 
 to lift his voice against the errors of his day, he did so at the cost of his life. 
 Pope, Bishop and King all combined to keep the light of life away from 
 
 278 
 
Scotland. Matters went on from one decade to another in this fashion, 
 till the darklness and the wickedness of the time began to be felt by the 
 nation." "The good seed sown by the Culdees brought forth fruit which 
 then appeared in the number of people who were ready for the reformation 
 when the Lord raised up men to lead them." 
 
 "Relief came at last. An act of Parliament which abrogated'the papal 
 jurisdiction was passed in the year 1560. In consequence of this the Presby- 
 terian Church was set free from the tramels of popery and prelacy, and she 
 was permitted to exist according to scriptural arrangement to which the 
 Scottish people have ever been so strongly attached. This state of things 
 continued for about a century, till Charles the Second, the deceitful man 
 he was, made another attempt to restore prelacy and extinquish Presby- 
 terianism. This was in 1660. The scenes that followed are well known to 
 readers of Church history, and certainly they are not creditable to king or 
 prelate. Some of the best men of the nation, who were the very salt of the 
 earth, were summarily condemned to be burnt or executed, for no other 
 reason than that they dared to obey God rather than man. For long twenty 
 eight years, matters went on in that troublesome manner till the Revolution 
 Settlement in 1688 restored to the people of Scotland the rights and privi- 
 leges for which they contended." 
 
 We, the Presbyterians of Cape Breton are the heirs of these blood 
 bought rights and privileges and we ought to appreciate them at their real 
 worth, preserve them at any cost, and hand them down to our children and 
 to future generations without any diminution in quantity or quality. 
 
 279 
 
Men And Women who Have Gone From Cape Breton, To One Or 
 Other Of Our Foreign Mission Fields 
 
 After the preceding chapters had been in the hands of the printer, it 
 occurred to the writer that he should add a chapter on the Missionaries that 
 have gone to heathen lands from Cape Breton and also insert cuts of as 
 many of these missionaries as might be obtainable within a few weeks. 
 
 If cuts of all our Missionaries do not appear and if sketches of them are 
 meagre, the reader will be kind enough to recognize that this defect is due 
 to the short time at the writers disposal till the work must go to press. 
 
 Nine missionaries in all, have gone from Cape Breton to the Foreign 
 Field, six men and three women. The men were Reverends, Donald 
 Morrison, William J. McKenzie, J. Fraser Campbell, Duncan M. McRae, 
 J. C. McDonald and H. F. Kemp. The women were Mrs. D. M. McRae, 
 Mrs. E. J. O. Fraser and "Miss Maude J. McKinnon. Possibly the names 
 of Mrs. R. B. Layton and Mrs. C. G. Gumming should be added. 
 
 The Rev. Donald Morrison was born at West Bay Points, in July 1828 
 By private tuition at the hands of his pastor, the Rev. Murdoch Stewart, 
 he was fitted to teach school and also to enter the Free Church Academy 
 Halifax. He graduated from the Free Church College Halifax, in the spring 
 of 1860. He was ordained and inducted at Strathalbyn, P. E. Island, in 
 the following summer. In the month of March 1862, he resigned this 
 charge in order to go to the New Hebrides, as a missionary. On Oct. the 
 22, 1863 he sailed for that distant field, aboard the "Dayspring," arrived 
 on the 5th of June 1864 and was settled on the island of Fate on the 5th of 
 August. 
 
 But, he had hardly acquired the language of the natives before his 
 health failed and he had to leave for New Zealand, where he died, on the 
 23 of October 1869. 
 
 The Rev. Wm. J. McKenzie was born at West Bay, on the 15th of 
 July 1861. He taught school in his native place when only fourteen years 
 of age. After studying at Pictou Academy, he entered Dalhousie Univer- 
 sity, from which he graduated with an M.A. in 1888. Entering the Pres- 
 byterian College, in 1889, he graduated in 1891. He labored as mis- 
 sionary on the bleak coast of Labrador, from May 1888 to Oct. 1889. 
 
 After a short pastorate at Lower Stewiacke, he spent a year in the 
 study of medicine with a view to missionary work in Korea. The Presby- 
 terian Church had no mission in that part of the world at that time, but 
 the women of the church supplied the funds and Mr. McKenzie left Nova 
 Scotia for Korea in the autumn of 1893. 
 
 In Feb'y 1894 he began his work at Sorai, and by the end of June, he 
 had gathered a group of converts and built a church. But death ended his 
 life and work, on June the 24th 1895. No more consecrated missionary 
 than Mr. McKenzie ever lived or died in the service of Jesus Christ. 
 
 280 
 
The Rev. J. Praser Campbell was a native of Baddeck. He studied 
 for the gospel ministry in the University of Glasgow, between 1863 and 
 1871. After graduation he returned to Nova Scotia and was settled in 
 1872 as minister of Richmond and Northwest Arm, a Kirk congregation in 
 Halifax County. 
 
 In 1874 he offered his services to his church as a missionary to India 
 and was accepted. In 1876 Mr. Campbell reached Madras. Subsequent- 
 ly, he labored in Mhow and later still in Rutlam, Province of Indore, where 
 he remained until 1820 when he resigned after spending forty-five years in 
 India. 
 
 The Rev. Duncan M. McRae was born in Baddeck. He studied at 
 the Baddeck and Pictou Academies. He. matriculated into Dalhousie 
 University in the anthem of 1891, and graduated in 1895 He studied 
 theology in the Presbyterian College, and graduated in the Spring of 1898. 
 By this time the synod of our church had taken up missionary work in 
 Korea and Messrs W. R. Foote and Robert Grierson were under appoint- 
 ment to that new field. Mr. McRae went to Korea in the autumn of 1898 
 under the auspices of the students missionary Society of the College . That 
 society undertook to support Mr. McRae for two years. With the excep- 
 tion of a couple of furloughs, Mr. McRae has been in Korea ever since. He 
 resigned at the end of last year and is now on his way back to Cape Breton. 
 
 -^-^ ^ 
 
 Mrs. McRae was also a native of Cape Breton. Her birth place was 
 Port Hastings. As Mr. McRae's wife she rendered excellent service in 
 North Korea. 
 
 The Rev. J. C. McDonald was born in Sydney and grew up in connec- 
 tion with St. Andrew's Church there. He studied for the ministry in the 
 Sydney Academy, Dalhousie University and the Presbyterian College. 
 Mr. McDonald went to San Fernando, Trindad in the year, 1914. He is 
 there still and doing excellent work. 
 
 Miss Maude J. McKinnon was also born in Sydney C. B., and in con- 
 nection with St. Andrew's Church. After graduating from Sydney Acad- 
 emy, she took a course in Business College. Subsequently she became a 
 graduate nurse of St. Joseph's Hospital. She also took a course in a Bible 
 Training School in New York. 
 
 She was designated to North Korea as Missionary and trained nurse, 
 in Sept. 1914. After serving as superior of Native Nurses, in Korea and 
 Manchuria, for nearly five years, her health failed and she returned for 
 rest, and treatment, with the intention of resuming the work among the 
 Koreans. 
 
 281 
 
The Rev. H. F. Kemp, B.A., was born in L'Archeveque, Richmond 
 County. He is a graduate of Dalhousie University and the Presbyterian 
 College Halifax. He went to Trinidad in the year 1913 and he labored in 
 the San Fernando district there until June 1920. 
 
 Mrs. Fraser is the wife of Rev. E. J. 0. Fraser of Wonsan in North 
 Korea. She was born in Pleasant Bay, Inverness County: As Mr. 
 Fraser's wife she has been helping to evangelize the Koreans since the year 
 1914. 
 
 282 
 
MISSIONARIES 
 
 MRS. D. M. McRAE AND MR. McRAE, 
 Missionaries to Korea. 
 
 REV. J. c. Mcdonald, 
 
 Missionary, Trinidad. 
 
 REV. H. F. KEMP, 
 Missionary, Trinidad. 
 
 ■) 
 
 MISS MAUD J. MeKINNON, 
 Missionary to Korea. 
 
MISSIONARIES 
 
 THE LATE REV. DONALD MORRISON, 
 Missionary .to the New Hebrides. 
 
 REV. WM. J. McKENZIE, 
 IVIissionary, Korea. 
 
 REV. J. FRASER CAMPBELL, 
 Missionary, India. 
 
 REV. DUNCAN M. McRAE, 
 Missionary to Korea.