The ninth resident pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, West Arichat, was Father Alexander Beaton, a Cape Breton priest of Scottish descent who spoke the three principal languages then used in the Diocese of Antigonish. There seems to have been a mutual respect and love between him and the West Arichat People if one can draw such a conclusion from the fact that he was pastor there twice. He was pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, West Arichat, the first time from Aug. 1, 1887 to Oct. 15, 1889. When he had been there only six months he became an involuntary participant in an event. A newspaper account confirms the details of this extraordinary event on Jan. 16, 1888 and it reads:
“Police Constable Robert Peel went to West Arichat yesterday to arrest, under a warrant, Jean Valjean for assaulting and beating a constable. He found his man in the church and at the close of divine worship proceeded to arrest him. Valjean resisted and a number of the congregation came to his rescue and beat the constable off, chasing him from the church and belabouring him with sticks. The constable found refuge in the Glebe House, while the crowd remained outside, threatening and demanding of the priest that he be given up to them. The priest refused to surrender him and after a while the constable effected a safe retreat. This morning a warrant was issued for the arrest of 12 of the culprits, and three have thus far been secured and lodged in jail. The affair created a great deal of excitement here and at West Arichat.”
10. The 10th resident pastor, Father Amable Evariste Monbourquette, was the fourth Acadian priest to have charge of the parish. He was born at Lower L’Ardoise in 1863, and received his early high school and college training from Father Ethier in the L’Ardoise Glebe House, from 1879 to 1883. Father Monbourquette’s last record at West Arichat is dated Nov. 6, 1890. Always dependable, he served in five successive parishes during the first eighteen years of his priesthood, became pastor of Arichat on Nov. 1, 1907 and governed that parish for a few days more than 38 years. In 1939, his parishioners and his brother priests celebrated at Arichat the Golden Jubilee of his priesthood. He resigned his parish in 1945 and died at Arichat July 23, 1949. He had been a pastor for 56 years and a priest for nearly 60. He was buried at Arichat. The Acadian people owe him a great deal.
11. The full name of the 11th resident pastor of West Arichat was Gédéon Béliveau. Born at St. Grégoire, near Nicolet, P.Q., April 9, 1836, he was a French Canadian but his great-grandfather was one of the Acadians expelled in 1755. He was 54 years of age when he came to West Arichat and his records there extend from Nov. 8, 1890 to May 21, 1891. At West Arichat there followed another interregnum of nearly five months, during which the First Communion class was prepared by Dr. Chisholm of D’Escousse and Father James M. Quinan of Arichat, and emergency ministrations were given by Father Quinan until the end of July, and thereafter by his assistant, the newly ordained Father Moses Coady (Uncle of Monsignor Moses M. Coady, D.D. founding director of the StFX Extension Department).