Cape Breton Deaths courtesy of CAPE BRETON GENEALOGY & HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION VISIT OUR WEBSITE - <http://www.cbgen.org/>www.cbgen.org NEW MEMBERS WELCOME Cape Breton Post September 05, 2013 Thursday "Church marking 100th anniversary" INGONISH - St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a special Sunday mass this weekend. The 4 p.m. service will be officiated by Bishop Brian Dunn of the Diocese of Antigonish. The history of the church was grounded in the settlement of Irish Catholics in present day Ingonish during the 1820s. Coming from the southeast coast of Ireland, the new settlers brought their Catholic faith and their cultural traditions to the Ingonish area. Some Catholic Highland Scots as well as a few Acadians from Little Bras d'Or eventually joined the Irish in Ingonish. The first permanent Catholic church was built in Ingonish in 1857. It was eventually replaced by a new wooden building, which burned in 1911. Reacting to the tragic fire, the people of Ingonish began to build a concrete church. The cornerstone was laid in 1913 and St Peter's was completed by volunteer effort, with young and old contributing in their own way. The gravel for the concrete was hauled from the Clyburn River. Men hauled up to 10 loads of gravel per day from morning to evening. All the concrete was mixed by hand at the church. Others cut and hauled the main wooden beam of the church from up behind Warren Lake. Dora (Donovan) Baker, a native of Ingonish, living in Boston purchased the altar for the church. Rev. Ronald Rankin, who had witnessed the burning of the church in 1911, oversaw the construction of the new building. On Aug. 15, 1915, he blessed the bell that is still in the church today. Following the mass this Sunday, a social will be held at the Ingonish fire hall where master of ceremonies, Ken Donovan, will display a presentation on the history of the church and the surrounding community.