There have been three main churches
in Bocabec: United, Presbyterian, and Baptist. The United Church, which
was Methodist prior to 1925, burned in the 1968 Bocabec Forest Fire, but
was rebuilt within a few years. It is still active and is part of the St.
Andrews Pastoral Charge, the other church in the Charge being Wesley United
Church in the town of St. Andrews itself. The Bocabec Community Cemetery
is located behind the United Church. The Presbyterian Church was burned
in the same 1968 fire, but not rebuilt. The Baptist Church was torn down
in the 1930s (see D.G. Hanson Scrapbook). It was also called 1st St. Patricks
Baptist Church, because it was the first Baptist church in the parish.
Both the Presbyterian and Baptist Churches sites have cemeteries that are
still cared for and easy to access. The three church sites are all within
half a kilometer or so of each other on Highway 127, just west of the bridge
where it crosses the Bocabec River. The Baptist is directly on the river
on the south side of the highway. The United is perhaps one or two hundred
meters further west, on the north side of the highway. Continuing along
the highway up the hill another few hundred meters is the Presbyterian
site.
The book "Memoirs of Annie
M. Holt and the People of Bocabec", 1968, notes that there was briefly
an Anglican
Church in the early 1900s still
further west along Highway 127. It would be about halfway between the Presbyterian
Church and Holt's Point Road. There
is no cemetery.
I cannot comment extensively
on other churches in the parish, other than to say that there was a United
(formerly
Methodist) church in Digdeguash.
It was sometimes called the Elmsville United Church. It was closely associated
with
the Bocabec United Church and was
always part of the same Methodist circuit or United Church pastoral charge
as
Bocabec.
by Craig Walsh 3/2/2000
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