Introduction . . .
The name for this area was in use in 1832. There is some suggestion that the area was named for Bishop A. Bernard MacEachern. Several of his relatives moved here from eastern Queens County. Rt. Rev. Angus Bernard MacEachern (1759-1835) was born at Kinloch Moidart, Scotland in 1759. He was a missionary priest in the Roman Catholic Church. He was educated in Scotland and Valladolid, Spain and came to the Island in 1790. He ministered to the populations of P.E.I., N.B., northern N.S., Cape Breton and the Magdalen Islands. He was the first Bishop of the Diocese of Charlottetown. Rev. MacEachern also established the first college of higher learning on the Island in St. Andrews. He resided in and died at Canovoy in 1835. An 1847 map notes Railing Priest Pond Bridge. Priest Pond Creek flows into the pond.
A brief history . . .
In a week of storms and shipwrecks, the Newfoundland schooner
Orpheus, en route to Quebec with a load of dried fish, ran aground at Priest Pond on November 3, 1903. The crew was saved by local residents.
Ten crewmen were lost when the 1,600 ton four-masted barque Sovinto wrecked on Carew's Reef, near Priest Pond on November 6, 1906. It was carrying over 1,000,000 board feet of lumber. It was the third wreck in two days along that stretch of coast. Locals Austin Grady and Duncan Campbell were presented the Carnegie medal for their bravery in attempting to rescue a member of the crew.
The Rocket House was built here in 1907. It was a life-saving station for storing rescue equipment, including cables which were meant to be shot to ship in distress, using a rocket. A crew of 12 members of the community practiced the techniques, but never had to use them or the equipment. The late Adele Townshend wrote an article for the Island Magazine, entitled The Wreck of the Sovinto.
Interesting individuals associated with the community . . .Ronald MacDonald 1797-1854, a Seminarian, Teacher, Educator of the Hearing & Speech Impaired and a Newspaper Editor in Quebec City was born here. He was one of two young Island men to begin their studies for the Roman Catholic priesthood, in 1812.
Priest Pond resident, Wanda Lee MacPhee was chosen as Miss Eastern Kings and later Miss P.E.I. in 1987.
Today . . .
Copyright
Waldron H. Leard 
