Exhibits

THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND

Scottish Highland settlers arrived on Pictou Island in 1819, including John MacDonald, Donald MacDonald and Charles Campbell; Kenneth McKenzie followed in 1820. MacCallum and named MacLean family lines have documented Tiree connections. The precise Scottish origin of the Pictou Island Patterson line remains unresolved. These Highlanders brought the Church of Scotland with them. The “Kirk” was a Calvinistic Protestant faith with Presbyterian roots in the southwest of Scotland. Its ethos of industry and community was the perfect salve to the hard scrabble existence the first settlers faced.

Island history describes nearly a century of worship before the Island had a church building, with Gaelic central to religious life. Sunday morning services were held in various family homes, with Sunday afternoons reserved for Sunday school. Additional prayer meetings on Sunday and Wednesday evenings meant there was no shortage of opportunity to worship.

Ruth Munro, citing the Truro News, reports visits by Rev. Robert Grant in the summer of 1845. The original newspaper account has not yet been inspected, and the minister’s exact identity and pastoral charge remain unresolved. Local histories place an Island school in the mid-nineteenth century. Official education records directly confirm that a Pictou Island school was operating by 1872, while the exact date of the first school and the succession of early school buildings remain uncertain. Local history says church services and events were held in the school in the summer months.

Over time the influence of the Church of Scotland waned, and parishioners began to identify as members of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. By the 1880’s, with the population hovering at 200, most were Presbyterian save Lewis Lawrence, a Portuguese fisherman and Roman Catholic who had married Ann Patterson. The 1884 Inveralt salvage disaster had direct Island connections: Lawrence, an Island resident, and native Islander Hugh MacFarlane were among the losses, while Island crews also took part in the rescue.

Island history remembers the Presbytery sending student ministers to stay on the Island from June until September. They boarded with various members of the congregation, or stayed in a house that might be vacant. Three of them even found Island brides! Once a year, an ordained minister arrived to hold the Sunday service and offer Holy Communion. On these occasions, children born over the past year, were baptized. The ordained minister would also come across to perform funeral rites if a member died in the summer. In the winter, funerals were conducted by Islanders themselves. Weddings were generally held on the mainland, with everyone returning to the island for a joyous party and celebration.

A HOUSE OF WORSHIP

By the turn of the century the congregation was ready for a church of their own. Island history recalls that in 1908 the young student minister Archibald Sutherland of Trenton advocated for the project, while “Deacon” Charles MacCallum is credited with donating a plot of land. It was finally agreed that each member would contribute $50, more than a month’s wages, in cash or labour in kind, and the Islanders set about building their very own church. Two years later, after coordination and encouragement from the congregation and its supporters, construction was completed. The Pictou Advocate announced the formal opening for Friday, 14 October 1910, and its later report describes the church being dedicated for public worship that evening. A preparatory communion service followed on Saturday, 15 October. The first Sunday services, on 16 October, included Gaelic and English worship, communion, an afternoon baptism and an evening closing service. The newspaper’s retrospective reports about thirty communicants and five infants baptized. Hector MacDonald and Charles MacCallum served as the first elders of the church.

The PIHS interpretive account describes the congregation continuing as Presbyterian until 1925, when the national movement to unite the various Protestant denominations, under the Church Union Act, arrived on Pictou Island. A vote left the congregation fairly evenly divided, and it was decided that the Presbyterians would continue to use the church, while the members of the new United Church of Canada moved back to the schoolhouse for their services. Within a few years it became clear to the Presbyterians that maintaining a church required the whole Island and a compromise was reached. Everyone agreed they would all worship together in the church, alternating student ministers, one year Presbyterian, the next year United. Island history associates the Sutherland name with Archibald Sutherland’s support for the church project and places the naming at the 1961 anniversary celebrations. The exact donor and namesake history has not been resolved from the underlying church and land records. Over the years, like churches on the mainland, weekly services continued and groups formed, including Canadian Girls in Training, Crusaders, Lady’s Auxiliary, Sunday School, Bible School, and a Church Choir. Many older members of the community have fond memories of the beloved Sunday School Picnic - especially Jack Rankin‘s magic tricks, and the homemade ice cream. The practice of student ministers continued into the early 1970’s. At that point, the loss of government services on the Island led many longtime residents to leave for the mainland to be closer to schools and hospitals. The dwindling population made sending a student minister impractical.

Stewardship of the Church passed to The Kirk - Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian in Pictou. A group of Islanders, led by Alfred MacLean, Lorraine MacMillan and Janet Rankin struggled to maintain both the building and the congregation. They convinced the Kirk to continue sending an ordained minister once a year to perform Communion. On the allotted Sunday, a minister would arrive, along with a few members of his own congregation, offer Communion, and perform baptisms as required. At one point, Alfred convinced the Presbytery in Ottawa to lend the congregation $10,000 to replace the existing stone foundation with a new cement foundation, no small feat.

A NEW ERA

Despite difficulties, the Church marched on, and money was found to paint the interior and the exterior on more than one occasion. In 1992, a beautiful stained glass window was donated, in memoriam, by a family member of Mr. and Mrs. William MacDonald (Lena Bill and Bill Cole). Also, in the early 1990’s, several new Islanders joined the Sutherland Presbyterian Church, either by confirmation or transfer, but the financial struggles continued. By the late 1990’s, the Pictou Island Community Association (PICA) had assumed responsibility for the church as the money raised at the yearly service barely covered the insurance costs. In 2010 PICA formed the Church Committee and in 2013, the Committee brought forward the suggestion that PICA seek ownership of the church building from the Presbytery. Despite having paid to build and maintain the structure for over 100 years on donated land, Islanders were surprised by the Presbytery’s offer to sell it for the appraised value. After some negotiation, the two parties agreed to transfer ownership of the Church building if PICA assumed all legal fees. The Church was decommissioned and ownership was transferred early the following year.

Since then, the Church has continued as an anchor in the community, hosting concerts and community events and yes, even a religious service at least once a year. The old windows were replaced when the Church Committee initiated a fund raiser encouraging families in the community to donate a window. In spite of everyone’s best efforts, the upkeep of the exterior, especially the bell tower, exceeded the means of a small community. Then, in 2024, the Church/Cemetery Committee applied for a grant from the Provincial Department of Communities, Cultures, Tourism and Heritage and, to the delight of the community, was awarded enough to cover most of the costs. Combined with funds already on hand, we have been able to restore the Church structure and its exterior.

The Church’s 115th anniversary in 2025 was an occasion to express hope for a new beginning for a building that had brought the community together for more than a century.

An earlier burial ground

Island history places an earlier burial ground on a knoll overlooking the south shore. Community tradition remembers two young boys who drowned off the west end as the first people buried there. That account has not yet been independently verified.

A surviving Pioneer Cemetery memorial records the death of Donald McCallum on 9 May 1830 at the age of three. His is the earliest death date identified in the current NovaStory/PARL memorial collection. The inscription establishes his name, age and death date; by itself it does not establish how he died, where his remains are located, or whether the present stone is the original marker.

From the shoreline burial ground to Pioneer Cemetery

The registered deed is dated 13 September 1890 and records Joseph A. McInnes transferring land to Alex J. Campbell, James Currie and John C. McDonald, trustees of the Pictou Island cemetery, for $40. It was registered on 3 November 1890. The deed describes part of Lot 11, including a public road twenty feet wide from the main road, and states that the road and cemetery together contain about one and one-half acres, more or less. That is a combined area, not a measurement of the cemetery alone. The deed does not establish the first burial date, which stones were moved, or whether remains were reinterred. County Council independently granted a cemetery public-road petition in January 1892; that later decision is distinct from the 1890 deed. The January 1893 Pictou County Council proceedings record the later cemetery-road confirmation as disallowed, following the granted petition of January 1892. These are distinct municipal stages. The records do not demonstrate road construction, establish the same surveyed alignment, explain the disallowance, or revoke the access described in the separate 1890 deed. Source: Pictou County Registry of Deeds, Book 98, pages 245–246, FamilySearch DGS 008627798, image 127.

Island history records that headstones were moved from the earlier shoreline burial ground as erosion threatened it. No complete list of moved stones or reinterments has been found. A stone’s present location does not necessarily tell us where a person was first buried or whether remains were moved.

Memorials older than the present site

A 2013 Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library survey includes 79 public-domain photographs of the cemetery associated with 75 positions in the source records. Eighteen photographs show at least one death before 1890, the year of the land transaction for the present site.

A date of death does not tell us when a gravestone was made or placed. Some early memorials may have been moved from the shoreline burial ground; others may have been replaced or erected later. No individual pre-1890 stone is identified as a confirmed transfer without separate evidence.

Erosion, memory and uncertainty

Islanders remember erosion exposing human remains at the earlier shoreline cemetery. These recollections convey the loss of the old burial ground, though the fate of every burial is not known.

The precise location and condition of the earlier cemetery, the number of burials affected, and the extent of any recovery or reinterment remain uncertain.

Restoration and stewardship

Island history records a major restoration at Pioneer Cemetery in 1991, when volunteers cleared heavy growth and worked to restore the grounds. Community care continues today, including maintenance and headstone cleaning.

In August 2013, the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library recorded the cemetery in a plot plan and photographic survey. Those records, along with older transcriptions, photographs and family histories, help visitors explore the cemetery today.

Reading the cemetery record

The surviving stones are an important historical record, but they are not a complete list of everyone buried on Pictou Island. Unmarked burials, lost stones, replacement memorials and the eroded shoreline cemetery all complicate the record.

The Cemetery Explorer brings together inscriptions, photographs, family histories and other records. It notes where a burial place or the movement of a stone remains uncertain.

THE PIONEER CEMETERY RESTORATION

Outmigration accelerated during the late twentieth century as schooling, employment, fisheries, services and other pressures changed. Regular public-school classes ended in 1971, while some later PIHS accounts use 1972 for the broader closure transition. Many Islanders chose Seaview Cemetery on the mainland; cemetery changes formed part of a wider demographic history rather than resulting from school closure alone.

Island history recalls the cemetery becoming overgrown with trees and bushes, particularly black locust. One story says Maggie Jane McCallum bought a plant sold as a rosebush by a travelling peddler and placed it on a family grave.

Island history records that Ron MacDonald, a son of former lighthouse keeper Jack “Happy” MacDonald, returned to live on Pictou Island in 1989 and organized fundraising to restore the overgrown cemetery. The account credits donations from descendants and a $3,000 provincial grant with helping to bring machinery across to clear stumps and lift fallen headstones.

The restoration account describes Ron and fellow volunteers reclaiming the cemetery in the summer of 1991. Volunteers remembered repeatedly sharpening saws while clearing dense black locust, spruce and bushes. Their recollections preserve the work involved in recovering the landscape.

Community care continues through maintenance and headstone cleaning. Island history reports some burials after the restoration, though the people buried and the date of any formal closure decision remain unconfirmed.

In August 2013, the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library documented the cemetery with a plot plan and photographs. These and other records help visitors explore the memorials, though they do not form a complete burial register.

The cemetery remains a place of remembrance and community care. Reading its memorials connects visitors with Island families, their Scottish places of origin where inscribed, and the generations who maintained those connections.