HISTORY OF ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH
Chapter 5 0f 23

James Fitzmaurice died in December 1842 over on Whittier Ridge. The date is worthy of note since the late Mr. Fitzmaurice had given a church site at Whittier Ridge, for the first building in the "Mission of St. Patrick." The edifice was some twenty by thirty feet with a small entry porch, and by December 11, 1842 was boarded and shingled - so vouches Anne Montgomery - who with a companion on their way to the wake of E. Fitzmaurice took great pleasure in entering the building and playing among the interior staging of the new church. During the early years, Mass was read occasionally, but about the summer of 1860, a Rev. Quinn had fixed the visit to the second Sunday of each month.

In 1857, Otis Prey of Brockway made a contract with Father James Quinn to take down the church and rebuild it at Rollingdam on land given by Mr. John McGowan and Mr. William Scullin.

In 1882, the Rollingdam St. Patrick's church was considerably shaken and the porch carried off by the Saxby Gale. The old church did, however, serve its purpose. It was then taken down and all serviceable lumber was used in the construction of the church that exists today.

The land was cut out of a corner on the adjoining McGowan and Scullin properties that touched on the Digdeguash River. St. Patrick's church was situated just off the Rollingdam Road, dead centre on the former property line. The cemetery forms the majority of property behind the church. It too would be proportionately divided by the old McGowan/Scullin property line.







As I grew up attending Mass in St. Patrick's weekly, I came to notice that all McGowans attending the church always sat in pews on the McGowan property side of the church (at the front) and William Scullin's descendants sat on the Scullin side. As further testimony to this type of ritual, I find it interesting to note that to this day, all McGowans buried here are also located on the McGowan property side and William Scullin descendants are buried on the Scullin side.