Today a community of a few scattered farmhouses, the Seven Mile Bay community continues to support their large and impressive (for such a small community) Catholic church. Settled in the early years of the nineteenth century by Scottish immigrants from Uist, the first St. Peters was build nearer the shore, about a mile west from the present site, accompanied by this burying ground. In 1851 a second church was built on the site of the present church and a new cemetery established behind it. A wood framed building, it met with a common fate of wooden churches when
Struck by Lightning on July 5, 1955. Its replacement, the present church, was begun in 1957.
This was the first cemetery we visited after crossing the Confederation Bridge entering Prince Edward Island. Located in Prince County, this, the original Roman Catholic church cemetery in the area, has, over the years, come to be known as Pioneer Cemetery. Established about 1815, it is now long forgotten, with only a couple of headstones remaining. It is difficult to determine how many individuals are buried here. There is one headstone that appears to read the death date in the 1850s, which would be correct, as the new church was built in 1851 or 52.
Now overgrown and either forgotten or ignored by the Catholic Church, this little cemetery will one day go the way of the church which once stood beside it.
There is one headstone that appears to read a death date in the 1850s.
Find a Grave lists three known interments, James Murphy, birth and death unknown, Jereusha Murphy, BIRTH 1799, DEATH Apris 12, 1855, and John Murphy, birth and death unknown. Doubtless there were more burials, each marked with a wooden or sandstone marker, now dissolved back into the earth. We noticed one wooden cross, partially hidden in the bushes.
A history of the early years of the parish, written circa 1885 by Rev. Alfred E. Burke, follows.
The Mission of St. Peter,
Seven Mile Bay (1885)
This mission is one of the oldest in the diocese. It was settled in the first decade of the present century by Highland emigrants from Uist.
These men built their pioneer Church under the direction of Bishop, then Father McEachern about the year 1815. This little log chapel stood down near the shore on a farm now occupied by Mr. Matthew Lowther, and beside it was the old burying ground. After a few years the chapel was removed to the site occupied by the present church of St. Peter.
When arrangements were made for building a new church at Seven Mile Bay, Father James McDonald, then Pastor of Indian River, took charge of the whole parish with its outlying districts, consolidated it, and superintended the building of the church. This structure which is fifty feet in length by forty in width with a wall of twenty feet, was framed ...
... are of stained glass; everything about the church is very neat and in perfect order.
In the early days, owing to the scarcity of priests in the diocese, Mass was celebrated but seldom at Seven Mile Bay, sometimes only twice a year, and many through want of the spiritual aids of Holy Religion, grew cold in the faith for which their fathers had suffered and even "turned" away at their hearing from the truth.
In the part of the parish nearest to Charlottetown, Father Reynolds used to hold a station at the house of Mr. Michael Dalton, and Father Morris used to hold one at Mr. Martin Dolyles.
The old families of Scotch Settlers have for the most part become extinct, some have moved to old homes and Seven Mile Bay is now chiefly settled by Irish families.
The origin of the name of this district is not known. Some people say it was so called on account of its being Seven Miles from the settlement of Bedeque, others give as a reason, the width of the Bay which measures Seven miles from Sea Cow Head to Carleton Point.
Since the opening of the railway from County Line, Cape Traverse has become quite a busy place, and when the Tormentine Branch shall have established a connection with the Intercolonial Railway, it will be one of the chief ports of the Province. Such being the case, it is the intention of the Bishop to remove the church of St. Peter from its present site and to place it in the village of Cape Traverse, so that it will be more conveniently situated and easier of access to the majority of the parishowners, as well as to the pastor, the Rev. Patrick Doyle who has been in charge of the mission for twenty years, he having first said mass in St. Peter's Church on the 9th September 1866.
From The Brick Walls