Embedded Files
Churchville's formative years were shaped by the Late-Loyalist, Reform-minded Methodists who settled in the area from the United States. Religious tensions emerged quickly as these settlers struggled against the Anglican and Presbyterian establishment and, for the Methodist Episcopal (American) adherents, pressure to accept British influence and authority over their church. In the mid 1830s the newly-formed Church of Latter-Day Saints took hold in the village, and many Methodist Episcopal households converted and left Churchville to join the greater congregation back in the U.S.
As the Reform spirit faded in the wake of the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion, Anglican families began to settle in the village. With the closest place of worship being Trinity Anglican down in Streetsville, the dream of a Church of England chapel in the village began to take hold. The leading Anglican families in the village were the Elliotts, Frazers, Hoopers, Arnotts and Hardys, as you can see in this advertisement that appeared in the Brampton Conservator on February 19th, 1878:
The following excerpt comes from William Perkins-Bull’s 1938 book From Strachan to Owen: How the Church of England was Planted and Tended in British North America. It gives us a little bit of insight into the troubled establishment of Churchville’s St. John’s Anglican church, which used to stand near the southwest side of the bridge, somewhere between the Coates' and Manser's properties. William Elliot lived and farmed in Meadowvale, was Reeve of Toronto Township and represented Peel in Ottawa from 1878 to 1882 as a Conservative M.P.
“Churchville, reopened about the same time as Caledon, was also, Canon Allen suggests, a community
rather than a denominationalized group, yet in 1878 the Church commenced a brick building and the
cause for a time looked very promising. There was probably little done there after 1885, though the
name remained on the lists until 1919, four years after the church was torn down. Col. William Elliott,
M.P., was a parishioner.”
Churchville was, undeniably, a Methodist stronghold. Even after the unification of the different branches of Methodism, it proved impossible for another denomination to take root in the village. When St. John's was finally demolished in 1915, it is believed that a number of beams were salvaged and used to build an addition to the (former Gruenwald's home at) 7601 Credtiview Road.
This is the only (relatively) clear image of St. John’s Anglican that I have been able to find over the years.
Looking northwest from the top of the Hall’s Lane hill (now Hallstone Rd). The rear of St. John’s is visible just south of the Credit. Picture predates the Radial Railway, so it must have been taken before 1917. The barn and buildings in centre were located where the Rush home is now, and were likely first built for Pointer's Tannery.
Looking north from the top of the South Hill in 1900. The white frame church sits in its original location in the midground, with the steeple of St. John's just visible in the background.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse