Low Down Articles
Echoes from the Past
Article 74 of 111
This article first appeared in the "Echoes from the Past" column of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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St. Andrew's Presbyterian / United Church - Cantley
from a sketch by Eirene McClelland (date unknown)
At the time when the first settler, David Blackburn, arrived in the Cantley area, in 1827, a Methodist Chapel was under construction in South Hull about a mile east of Aylmer's town limits. From this mission chapel no less than ten other chapels or churches came into being in the surrounding area. One of these was a small log church built by the Protestant community on Land donated by William Thompson in 1877. Mr. Thompson's gift also included an acre to be used as a burying ground (cemetery).
During this period a number of ministers of the Anglican, Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian persuasions visited the areas under their jurisdictions. They were often called "circuit riders". They did not always hold service in churches but private homes, if large enough, were made to serve.
The Methodists were the first to organize the people in the Hamilton neighbourhood (which was renamed Cantley in 1857) as a viable congregation.
In the fall of 1899 the little old log church which as was the practice, also served as a school, was destroyed by fire.
Turning to the Presbyterians in the Cantley area, they were being ministered to by Ottawa's St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. However, a Red Letter Day came their way on the 7th of April 1876 when the deed of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church at Cantley was registered.
The land for the new church was given by James McClelland. It was on the N.W. corner of his farm. David Blackburn and John Storey were the first elders. Rev. David Findlay was the first resident minister. He, with his family lived in the house of Herbert Smith. The church had been built in 1877.
The Pulpit was made by a Roman Catholic craftsman, Louis Lavasseur, from St. Pierre de Wakefield. The pews were bought for about $250, most of the money being raised by the Ladies' Aid. The women meeting in the afternoons to sew articles for sale.
to be continued