Bernard Creamer : Altars, Churches, and Fine Buildings

Event

Creamer, Eric

2006-11-03

01:04:40

This is a lecture by Eric Creamer titled “Bernard Creamer: Altars, Churches, and Fine Buildings”, where he discusses farming, Souris, immigration, education, East Point, religion, parishes, convents, church fire, construction and building of a church, Kelly’s Cross, and other life events of Bernard Creamer.

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Held by Benevolent Irish Society

Opening statement, Introduction, overview of what he will talk about -Bernard Creamer. Background Information surrounding his topic
Bernard Creamer was born in 1860 in Kelly’s Cross, but lived most of his life in Souris. He was a successful farmer and contractor. He is the grandson of John Creamer who was one of the first Irish settlers in Kellys Cross, and might have been born on the ship coming over from Ireland.
Bernard received a district school education in South Melville. Then, shortly after, he moved up to East Point and also had properties in North Lake. He set up his building contract/business in East Point. He also married Elisa Champion whose family settled there as well. Champions were survivors of a shipwreck and walked ashore there at East Point. “The Santa Domingo” was the ship on which they arrived.
East Point was famous for shipwrecks. The brand-new British warship Phoenix crashed there and how it crashed was a scandal. It was a half sailing ship, half steam ship with 400 crew aboard and had 900 horsepower. It was believed that it crashed into a reef, which resulted in its Captain Sir Rupert Grenville and crew losing their licenses. But it was later discovered that the crash was due to a lighthouse being placed at the wrong place. Bernard at age 25 was contracted to move the lighthouse to the correct location, which was a big undertaking on greased planks and using horses. It was 65 feet high and 11 tons.
He also helped set up a new steam-operated fog alarm system for the lighthouse. His uncle Hugh Creamer was a sailor who died in the West Indies. He had five children with his wife Elizabeth. Elizabeth was burned to death after an accident involving lighting the stove. She made 5 children orphans. After the tragic death of his uncle and Elizabeth, Bernard took on one of the orphaned children, Ellie Creamer. Alexander Beaton, the lighthouse keeper, talked about how Bernard would carry Ellie on jobs to the lighthouse. Alexander liked Ellie and eventually adopted her.
Bernard built Alexander Beaton’s house, at Saint Columba’s Parish. Father Alfred Burke wrote a wonderful source for all Parishes on the island. He wrote that Bernard built the pulpit of St. Columba's church using some wood from the wreck of the Phoenix.
The renovation of St. Joseph’s Convent was the second major project Bernard was involved in, in 1885. The convent used to be St. Andrew’s Chapel, which was one of the first of PEI’s major churches. In 1862, it was replaced by a larger church and the building was offered by the Bishop for the school. It was moved on skies and crashed through the ice. It was rescued and moved to Pownall Street. This is also the first school for Irish Catholic girls on PEI. Irene Rogers described this church in her Book of Charlottetown praising “the harmony in its design”. Bernard was involved in the design for the church. For 111 years, it contributed to the education of Charlottetown.
Sadly, the school had a fire in 1987. Catherine Hennessey and others tried to save the building by cutting it into four pieces and had it hauled out to St. Andrews, where it still serves as a museum and for lectures.
In 1894, a home was built for a jeweler, Mr Shaw of Souris and it was designed by William Richard Digwell who was a master carpenter and poet. It was also the home of Dr. Gusta, who is famous for reattaching a young lad’s two feet in Souris. The history book, Prince Edward Island Past and Present, said that in 1898 Bernard moved to Chepstow. He bought a farm and built a woodworking shop there. By the 1900s, he was building most of the altars and churches in King’s County. However, many written records were lost due to fire. The altar at Saint Andrews was his work.
In 1901, the construction of Saint Mary’s Church began in Souris. James MacArthur and Edward Duffey contracted Creamer to work on this church as the foreman. Creamer was in charge of its roof, which has a sophisticated design. 1928 the church caught fire which destroyed most of it, leaving the stones which had come from a Kinkora Quarry in Chepstow. The altar was saved and refurbished. Files suggest that Bernard was involved not only in Catholic churches. He built the high altar in Kinkora which is situated in St. Malachias Church built in 1901. Kinkora was named after Brian Boru who is an important High King of Ireland.
The speaker gives descriptions of the Kinkora altar and Bernard's other works. The white wood and white enamel altar is 26 feet and 6 inches high, 13 feet and 5 inches wide according to the Guardian report. There are 932 pieces of carpet and 59 spires. In 1903, Bernard built 3 altars and 1 pulpit for the church on Palmer Road near Tignish. The church is one of the biggest wooden churches on PEI. In 1905, Bernard got a federal contract to build a postal office and customs house in Souris. It’s 28 feet wide on the main street with 4 floors including the basement. The post office is on the first floor and the custom's house is on the second floor. The keeper of the building is on the third floor. This construction employed over 50 people and cost over 12,000 dollars. It still is a library and a town hall today. In 1906, Bernard got his biggest contract in his life, the Cathedral of Charlottetown. He accepted a subcontract to do the stucco work for over 50,000 dollars, which was increased to 62,000 dollars by the time it was finished. This value converts to millions of dollars today (in 2006 money).
The speaker speaks about St. Dunstan's Cathedral of Charlottetown and its carvings. On September the 12th, 1907, it officially opened.

He reads the Examiner’s Report of the cathedral, which praises its design. The main floor with a 42 feet altar has a beautiful gothic design and was surmounted by a statue of Saint Dunstan. Archbishops and bishops of the maritime region attended a ceremony event for the cathedral with dinner afterwards at St. Joseph’s Convent. Around 1910, a major fire happened in Souris and by that time, Creamer had a second woodworking shop. He then built churches on PEI, Cape Breton and Quebec, applying gold leaf on the altars. He ended up building the Church of Saint Pierre on the Madeleine Islands, which is the second largest wooden church in North America. It had been struck by lightning and burnt down several times, and most of its wood for its rebuilding is from shipwrecks. The interior, in Bernard’s style, had a high gothic altar.
Saint Anne’s Parish in the Hope River was settled by numerous Irish immigrants from Wexford and Kerry counties of Ireland. Around 1911, Bernard built a church at St. Anne. A Sister of St. Martha non named Ellen Marie Cullen wrote that it was Bishop Henry O'leary who decided to use brick instead of wood in the building of this church as well as five or six other churches. This decision caused much trouble such as snow penetrating and bad humidity. It was said Dr. Ellis’s secretary has a postcard of one of these churches and because they had so much trouble with that church, this story circulated that the church was cursed. Rose Clarkin walked the perimeter of the property and cursed it. There was a series of fires occurring in these brick churches, one of which burnt down. The Parish wanted to renovate but instead decided to rebuild them. However, they gave up a few years later because of the costs.
In 1912 and 1913, Bernard Creamer was on the town council of Souris and on the sidewalk committee. He had 1.5 miles of sidewalk put in.
March 7th 1913, St. Dunstan's Cathedral caught fire. The Bishop’s Palace next door also suffered severe smoke and water damage. Architect John Thurnte, who built churches in Souris, was in charge of the rebuilding. There were 5,000 ft of stones that needed to be replaced. When rebuilding and extending the church and the Bishop’s Palace, 50,000 ft of stones were used extending it to twice its size. In 1915, Bernard was contracted to construct a church in Kelly’s Cross, which is where Bernard grew up. His grandfather, John Creamer was one of the first Catholic settlers there. Father Burke in his Parish History wrote about John Creamer. He immigrated to Kelly’s Cross with his family in 1834 after his discharge from the Napoleonic War. He was a successful farmer and built himself a house there. Four years later, he accommodated other Irish immigrants arriving in the community. The idea of building a church was under discussion but the idea fell through.
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A church was eventually built and used for 55 years in Kelly’s Cross. In 1896, St Joseph’s Church parishioners in Kelly’s Cross were going to build a second church. The second church was built in 1898, having a capacity of 600 people. Sadly, it was burnt to the ground on Christmas Eve of 1914. This led Bernard to come back to build the third church in 1915. People argued about whether it should be built using brick or wood. They decided on brick because of the previous fire incident. It opened in 1916.
Sadly the bricks cracked. Father Curren refused to pay the rest of Bernard’s contract due to faulty workmanship. Bernard wrote to the bishop for permission to take this matter to court to preserve his reputation. After examining all the evidence under oath it was decided by the Holy See of the Vatican that all of the money should be paid to Creamer plus the interests for 12 years plus half of the legal bills. This decision was found by Father O’Shea in the Diocese’s archives.
Conclusions and questions
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