Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 7.
Footnote to History
Stone for St. Stephen's
St. Stephen's Church in Old Chelsea is dated 1879. Richard Mulvihill, born in 1878, was christened in the old church — a wooden building. The new Church was made, at least in part, 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 Mu|vihill's, one of the Hendricks family, used to leave home at 3 a.m., get a load of logs on his sleigh, and 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 returned with stone. The whole community brought stone for the church — bit by bit.
Recalled by Richard Mulvihill in 1965 who, prior to his death in 1974, farmed all his long life in Hollow Glen, West Hull, on a farm cleared by his father, Philip Mulvihill. Reprinted from the 1976 edition of ‘Up the Gatineau!'.