Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 2.
Stone for St. Stephen's
Recalled by Richard Mulvihill in 1965
St. Stephen‘s Church in Old Chelsea is dated 1879. Richard Mulvihill, born in 1878, was christened in the old church — possibly a log building. The new church was made of the same ‘Corkstown Road Stone’ as the Parliament Buildings. The men of the community used to haul a load of logs to the Parliament Buildings —— for heating, pick up a load of sandstone and unload it at the church on the way home. A cousin of Richard Mulvihill's, one of the Hendricks family, used to leave home at 3 a.m., get a load of logs on his sleigh, take it to town, get it measured (by Grandmaitre who always gave them good measure), then pick up a load of sandstone to bring back to the church, arriving home at 9 or 10 p.m. Sometimes he took a load of hay to town and retutrned with stone. The whole community brought stone for the church — bit by bit.
Richard Mulvihill, who died two years ago, farmed all his long life in Ho/low Glen, West Hull, on a farm cleared by his father, Philip Mulvihill.