St. Margarets Pioneer Cemetery Restoration

The Mandarins Secret

The following is story that was published in the FAMILY HERALD of Montreal, Quebec, and which has since ceased publication.

The story has its beginning in China.  Three men from St. Margaret's, P.E.I., who were part of a crew on a merchant ship were in court.  The surname of one of the men was MACPHEE.  The surname of the other two men was MACDONALD.  They had went ashore the previous night, got drunk, got in trouble.  Arrested by Chinese police, placed in jail.  The penalties in China were very severe, one, two or three fingers cut off depending on the offence.

As they were waiting to be called before the Judge, called a MANDARIN in China.  One of the three P.E.I. men spoke to the other two in Gaelic.  "LETS MAKE A BREAK".  To their surprise the MANDARIN answered them in GAELIC.  "I wouldn't try that".

The Mandarin called a recess to the court, he took the three men into his office .  He told them that his name was MACPHEE and that he was from St. Margaret's, P.E.I.   He then told them the story of his life.  He had been shipwrecked on the coast of China.  Somehow he had reached shore more deaad than alive.  He was found by a man, a Mandarin, who was out for a walk.  This Mandarin had no sons, he did have daughters.  He considered this to be an answer to his prayers to God for a son.  The Mandarin took him to his home and nursed him back to life.  He married the Mandarins daughter.  When the Mandarin passed away, he inherited the position of Mandarin.

He had no memory of his previous life after the shipwreck ordeal.  When the P.E.I. man spoke in GAELIC, it brought back his memory.  They told him that his parents had passed away several years ago.  That his parents had placed a monument in his memory in the St. Margaret's cemetery.  He told them to leave the monument as it was, that he would not be returning to P.E.I., that he had a wife and children.  China was his home and life now.

Monument:  MACPHEE, LOST AT SEA, 1869

Roddy McPhee - Chinese Mandarin

From the book of short stories, "More Recollections of an Ole Salt", by Lorne Johnson, 1983.

From the misty corridors of two centuries comes this strange and fascinating story which may not have an equal anywhere, especially on P.E.I.   

In the late 1700's, Danny Dhu McPhee, a tall good looking Scotchman in his early twenties, left the Isle of Barra on the west coast of Scotland with his young bride.  No one knows if they were planning to land on the wild uninviting north east coast of P.E.I. or not, but land they did.  When Danny carried his bride ashore and set her down on the barren rocks, she said, "Why Danny dear, the rocks here are as barren as they were back home on Barra."  Hence the name Rock Barra, which is the name of that school district to this day.

The following spring, a bonnie wee boy named Roderick, arrived to brighten their young lives and apparently he was quite a boy.  His mother and father taught him all they knew becuase until a few years later there was no school house.  In turn, Roderick taught the neighbour's children in his parents home until the time he was able to help his dad clear the new land.  When Roderick was approximately eight years old he had to quit teaching school, chiefly because his dad needed all the help he could get clearing the land.

As time went by new settlers arrived, and with the the clearing of additional land, new roads were opened.  One evening Roderick was returning on one of these roads from the little village of Souris West.  The late October sky was overcast and heavy frowning clouds skimmed the tops of the many hills of Gowan Brae, a small school district near Rock Barra.  Young Roddie was in a hurry, he was cold and hungry, also he had to pass through the many hills and valleys made eerie to him in the early twilight because of the many fascinating ghost stories he had heard, as a young boy.   Besides all of this, the roads of early pioneer days were rough, which made for a slow progress, especially after dark.

As if a young fellow of 17 didn't have enough worries, the black cat that might cross his path would scarcely put a dent in what might happen if a black bear happened along.  As Roddie stopped to get a drink from a roadside brook he glanced apprehensively oover his shoulder at a tall dark handsome man approaching.  The stranger didn't understand Gaelic and Roddie had no understanding of English.  After using some sign language, Roddie realized the man was captain of a ship and was looking for a young man to replace one of his crewmen who had suddenly become ill.

WHA’S LIKE US? DAMN FEW AND THEY’RE A’DEID

Alistair MacIsaac provided the following story, and provided it as a reference for his appeal to commence the original 1973 restoration.  We are not sure who wrote the piece.

The average man in the home he calls his castle, slips into his national costume—a shabby raincoat—patented by chemist Charles Mac Intosh from Glasgow, Scotland. En route to his office he strides along a lane surface with a material developed by John MacAdam of Ayr, Scotland, or he drives a car fitted with tires invented by John Boyd Dunlop Dreghorn, Scotland.

At the office he receives the mail bearing adhesive stamps invented by John Chalmers of Dundee, Scotland.   During the day, he uses the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, Scotland. At home in the evening, his daughter pedals her bicycle invented by Kirkpatrick MacMillan, blacksmith of Dumfries, Scotland.  He watches the news on television, an invention of John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland and hears an item about the US Navy, founded by John Paul Jones of Kirkbean, Scotland.

He has now been reminded too much of Scotland and in desperation he picks up the Bible only to find that the first man mentioned in the good book is a Scot—King James 1—who authorised its translation.

Nowhere can he turn to escape the ingenuity of the Scot. He could take a drink, but the Scots make the best in the world. He could take a rifle and end it all but the breech-loading rifle was invented by Captain Patrick Ferguson of Pitfours, Scotland. If he escapes death, he could find himself on an operation table injected with penicillin, discovered by Alexander Fleming of Darvel, Scotland and given an anaesthetic discovered by Sir James Young Simpson of Bathgate, Scotland.

Out of the anaesthetic he would find comfort in learning that he was as safe as the Bank of England, founded by William Paterson of Dumfries, Scotland.  Perhaps his only remaining hope would be to get a transfusion of Scottish blood which would then entitle him to ask— WHA’S LIKE US?

Alistair was visiting PEI with his family who originated from the Rock Barra region. He and his father found the sandstone monument of his ancestor Flora (Mac Isaac) MacPhee. Flora had emigrated to PEI in 1791 with her eleven children. Her husband Roderick Mac Isaac had died at sea. She arrived at Tea Hill and made her way to Tracadie to stay with friends who had arrived there earlier.

Flora (born a Mac Neil from the Isle of Barra) had an aunt who lived in Rock Barra. She went to Rock Barra with her oldest son John M. Mac Isaac and thus began the Mac Isaac clan at Rock Barra. Many of these people are buried in St. Margaret’s Pioneer Cemetery.