Campobello: An Historical SketchWells, Kate Gannett
History
Campobello: An Historical Sketch
Wells, Kate Gannett
Campobello Island (N.B.)
=North Road Baptists.= At last the North Road residents had their own
church, to which they were devotedly attached. The land for it cost
forty dollars in gold paid down to Captain Robinson, as the proceeds of
the efforts of sewing-circles and ladies' teas. The great Saxby gale of
some twenty-five years ago blew it down. Two years after it was rebuilt
for $447, and finally finished ten years ago. The devoted Episcopalians
at Welch Pool have made no greater sacrifices for their church than did
the little band of zealous North Road Baptists. Though their regular
ministers have been few, their irregular preaching and their prayer
meetings have been constant.
Still it was but natural that, as the boys of the Baptist islands
married the girls of St. George and other New Brunswick towns where the
Church of England was the prescribed form of faith, Episcopalianism
spread itself, not only among the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay, but at
Campobello.
=Church Corporation.= Soon after Admiral Owen had become resident
magistrate and commissioner for solemnizing marriages, to which the
witnesses as well as the bridal couple signed their names, he signalized
his authority by giving for three years certain wild lands as commons
for cattle to those who should belong to the "Church Episcopal
Congregation," when formed. The lease was duly signed by himself and by
John Farmer, in trust for the people. Such privilege, even if actuated
by worldly motives, proved of sacred benefit, for measures were
immediately taken to form a Church Association and corporation, with the
proviso that such persons as had decided objections to profess
themselves members of the church could by no means become a part of such
corporation. The Admiral's cattle ranged free in the commons, but on all
other licensed and marked cattle were paid the fees which accrued to the
benefit of religion, and large must have been the income thereof.
The regularly ordained preacher was sent from St. Andrews but four or
five times a year. On all other appointed days the Admiral read his
beloved service, even till 1842, when a resident missionary came to live
on the Island. Thirteen years after, in 1855, the church and burial
ground were consecrated by the bishop of the diocese. Most solemn and
tender must have been those first rites, when confirmation was
administered to three persons, and holy communion to forty others, in
that little building surrounded by the dark balsamic firs, looking with
its cross over the waters toward the New England steeples.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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