Stone guardian

By Mary Beth Hartill

St. Patrick’s United Church stands majestically atop a hill looking down over the town of Kearney.

The stone structure is rich in history, telling the story of the town’s Irish settlers who took on the backbreaking work of erecting the church stone by stone.

“It was constructed from hand-gathered fieldstone,” says Patti Gilchrist, chair of the church’s restoration committee. “When the Irish came to this community, there were a significant number of them and they decided they would build this church.”

A labour of love, volunteers from the community gathered the stone manually and transported it to the site by horse and wagon. The result was a building that has been a landmark in the community for more than 100 years.

The building was eventually designated a heritage site by the Town of Kearney in 1986, and served as an active church until 2004, when a structural issue forced its doors to close. For six years St. Patrick’s was empty, but the restoration committee was determined to return the church to its former glory and finally the doors were re-opened in August of 2010.

Despite a concrete post beneath the sanctuary collapsing and the roof needing some repair, the church is still in good shape and its supporters hope it’s here to stay.

“It’s on a nice big, thick wall,” says Gilchrist. “The main beam that supports the church is hand-hewn log with bark still on it even after all these years. That is not part of the structural difficulty. Not at all, it’s in very, very good shape.”

The foundation walls are a strong 24 inches thick and the roof trusses are a scissor design using 6×6 lumber. There is a vaulted nave and two smaller vaulted sections and the original tin ceiling that soars 32-feet above the floor.

“The big timbers that they used below are perfectly intact even though they are over 100 years old,” says Dolores White, who is descended from J.K. O’Connell, one of the original settlers instrumental in building the church. “We were amazed that there was nothing wrong with those. The timbers are just like they were put in yesterday.”

“The type of building that they did, you just don’t see anymore,” says Gilchrist.

The front window above the grand doorway is decorated with bits of pottery and other decorative bobbles placed meticulously by those original settlers. Even the original stained glass ceiling windows remain intact, including one that depicts the church’s namesake: Saint Patrick.

“It was dedicated in memory of Thomas D’Arcy McGee and the Irish Exiles,” says Gilchrist. “He was one of the Fathers of Confederation and the only Father of Confederation to be assassinated, so this was dedicated in his memory.”

It was Bishop John Francis Jamot who encouraged many of the early settlers to come to the area and work in the thriving lumber trade. These settlers included John O’Connor, Martin Corcoran Sr., and Tim and Con Holland Sr.

Bishop Jamot travelled to Welland, where workers toiled on the Welland Canal. He convinced many families – including the Kearneys – to come up north and work in the lumber industry.

“A lot of people came here because of lumbering for the white pine, used for ships’ masts and ships’ timbers,” says White.

It was also Jamot who encouraged the building of a church at the site where the stone church is today. In 1888 a small 30-by-40-foot log church was built to house local parishioners. As the town grew, so did the need for a larger church and it was the first pastor, Father Thomas Fleming, who encouraged the entire parish to participate in construction.

“He was the one responsible for building the bigger church because the population had grown and they needed the bigger facility,” says White.

The church now seats about 300 people.

St. Patrick’s officially opened in 1904 – four years before the town itself was incorporated.

“It took a while to build the church,” says White. “It was opened in 1904 officially, but it had been available before that. We know it had been built because we have a window in the choir loft that says it was installed in 1902.”

White says construction began in 1898, but the church was officially opened when the bishop came from Peterborough to bless it in 1904.

Today, the church and its wonderful architecture garner much attention.

“We’ve had people from various universities come in,” says White. “They’re studying architecture and because they’ve heard about this church, they want to look through it. They want to know when it was built, who built it and the style of architecture.”

White says the building is very much a gothic style because of the free-span ceiling.

Mary Lesperance, another involved parishioner, says work that has been done to reconstruct the church is nothing short of miraculous with people, regardless of religion, contributing. She says the church is a root to the heritage of the community, which is why so many have given to it over the years.

St. Patrick’s stands as a symbol of the strong Kearney community that has been passed down from generation to generation, making it a wonderful sight to see as you enter the town.

For Lesperance, it’s a welcomed sight for those entering the town. “When you come over the hill,” she says, “what do you see, but the steeple.”