Updated: April 12, 2025
D. Rollings

Before they came to British Colonial America, the Church family lived in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, England. Samuel Church, Jr. (Dec 18, 1737- Feb 25, 1804) and Rhoda Bush (Dec 15, 1741- Dec 30 1819) were both born in Sheffield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts Bay Colony. They were married on August 6th, 1761, and had their first child, Orpha Church, in 1763, when Samuel was 26 and Rhoda was  20. In all, they had twelve children: Orpha, Amaziah, Ephraim, Sarah, Olive, Daniel, Mary ("Polly") Rhoda Ann, Huldah, John and Lucinda. Huldah and John were twins. The 1790 Census lists the family in Milton, Vermont, with two “Free White Males” over 16 years old (Samuel and Amaziah), one “Free White Male” under 16 (Ephraim) and six Free White Females (likely Azubah, Sarah, Olive, Huldah, Rhody and Mary. You can read an explanation of the terminology used in the 1790 US Census here. 

        Samuel may have owned the first paper mill in Sheffield, in an area called South Lee. Samuel served as a Private in the militia in the Revolutionary War, alongside his 15 year old son Amaziah and Ephraim Blackman, whose son eventually married Samuel’s first daughter Orpha. They all served in Lemuel Hyde’s Company of Militia, in Col. Webster’s Regiment. Lemuel Hyde’s son Heman eventually married Samuel’s daughter Mary ("Polly"), and they migrated to Streetsville Ontario, where they became wealthy running the Reciprocity Hotel and the Ontario Mills. Heman and Mary’s property in Streetsville was located at the corner of Mississauga Road and Ontario Street. Later in life, Mary was known affectionately in the Streetsville community as Mother Hyde.

       During the War for Independence Samuel and Rhody moved their family from Sheffield Massachusetts to Milton, in the new territory / state of Vermont. Amaziah was known to have operated a mill on Mallet's Creek, although it is difficult to look at that small creek now and to imagine it supporting industry. This new home on Lake Champlain was only a short journey south of the Lower Canadian border, and it seems that around 1796, several of Samuel and Rhoda’s offspring migrated north to seek their fortunes in the vicinity of Hawkesbury, LaChute, St. Andre de Argentuile and Carillon, Lower Canada. Amaziah and his brother-in-law, Dr. Abner (or Aner) Matthews, under the leadership of Colonel William Fortune, swore an oath of allegiance to the Queen in 1798 along with a group of American immigrants, and received a grant of 200 acres in Hawkesbury (on the south side of the Ottawa River).

      Many aspects of Amaziah’s story are still shrouded in mystery. He lived in and around the Ottawa River for about fifteen years, and all five of his children were born by the time that he left Hawkesbury. He is next noted as squatting on the flats of the Credit River, operating a rudimentary saw mill in the near wilderness. His wife, Azubah (Azubiah, Zubah), died in (or around) 1815, which begs the question of why he would subject the family to such an experience. He may have moved out to settle in the wilderness because of the predominant anti-American (and corresponding anti-Episcopalian Methodist) sentiment that was commonly directed at Late Loyalists in the early 19th Century. There is no record of him arriving in Port Credit, where he must have set out along ancient indigenous trails north along the banks of the river. The stories of he and his sons forging a path up the Credit while dragging their millstones until he reached the flats feel like the stuff of colonial-era legends. 

      What we do know for certain is that in summer 1820 his son, Orange Church, leased a Clergy Reserve lot at Lot 12, 5th Concession West of Hurontario. In the image to the right, you can see Orange's 200 acres highlighted in the bottom centre, and the site of Church's Mills highlighted near the top. 

      The Crown granted the northern section of what would become Churchville (Lot 15, 3rd Concession West of Hurontario) to Mr. Andrew Scott, a member of the Beattie Caravan of Wesleyan Methodist settlers. You can see a copy of his original grant in the image to the left. If Amaziah was already living on the lot, they may have found common ground through their shared devotion to Methodism. Scott only held the land for three months before selling it to the leader of the Beatty Caravan (and founder of both Meadowvale village and Victoria University), John Beatty, who then sold it to Dr. Thomas Stoyell. As the two sales occurred on the same day (Oct 12, 1822), it may be that Andrew Scott was not living in the vicinity and that Beatty was acting as an intermediary on his behalf. Stoyell had married widow Rhoda Church Mathews, Amaziah's younger sister, only nine days earlier. The land transactions were not officially reported to the government until February 12, 1831. 
        Dr. Thomas Stoyell and his wife Rhody Church Matthews Stoyell played the most significant role in the early development of the community, which seems to have begun being referred to as The Village of Churchville between 1830 and 1831.

        Dr. Stoyell (sometimes called Stolly and Stoyles) was born in Genessee County, New York in 1760. Trained as a medical doctor but never actually practicing, he moved to York / Toronto in 1799. He was a widower and prominent citizen, very involved in the politics of the small town. He owned and operated one of the first breweries and a hotel in York. He married Rhoda Ann Matthews in St. James Cathedral on October 3rd, 1822. Rhoda Ann's first husband, Dr. Aner Mathews, had died in 1817. When the Stoyells moved to the Churchville area they built a home overlooking the Credit Valley named Whitehall, which is still standing at 7825 Churchville Road. They may have been drawn to the isolated area by a combination of land speculation and the increasing anti-American sentiment that permeated York / Toronto following American invasion during the War of 1812. Rhoda's nephew Orange Church was already leasing in the area and her sisters Orpha Blackman and Mary (Polly) Hyde settled in Streetsville around the same time. 

      Thomas and Rhoda Ann subdivided their new land, creating the basic streetscape that still exists in downtown Churchville. Keeping 95 acres (including the mill) for themselves, they sold off 5 acres worth of properties between the bridge and the bottom of Raine's Hill. These lots were developed by Casper H. Hooker, Erastus Wiman Sr., who built a home and general store at 7772 Churchville Road (still standing), Orange Church, who built the hotel / tavern at 7767 Churchville Rd and is known to have built and operated the large grist mill on the river, Isaiah Bennett, a blacksmith who lived at 7777 Churchville Road (still standing), Henry Trickey, and Rhoda's sons Cassius Matthews and Aner Matthews Jr.

      We know that Amaziah Church was operating a mill in the village at this point, as he petitioned the government in 1827 to intervene in a conflict that he was having with his neighbors the Densmores about rights to the land on the flats just above Steeles Avenue; he complained in the petition that he could not feasibly run his mill unless he could lease and flood that land. 

       In April 1830, Dr. Stoyell published an ad in the Christian Guardian, giving us special insight into the community's progress over the previous eight years. The Stoyells had cleared about 40 of the 95 acres that they owned. Their property contained nearly-new grist and saw mills. There were five cottages and a large shed on the property, as well as a stable and outhouses. In the community down in the valley, essentially between the bottom of the hill and the bridge, there was a carding machine, a fulling mill, a schoolhouse, a site for a meeting house (church?) and a "number of other buildings." 

       Amaziah Church died on September 7th 1831 at 66 years of age. The cause of death is unknown. His memorial states that “friends and physicians could not save my mortal body from the grave”, which could seem to imply that he died unexpectedly, though this could have simply been a common saying at that time.  Dr. Stoyell died in 1832 and Rhoda Ann died in 1835. All are buried in the cemetery which is located near the northern boundary of the property and the Township.

     Strangely, the last record of Amaziah Church before his death listed him as working at an inn in Market Square, near St. Lawrence Market in Toronto (assuming that this was the same individual). This may have been Milligan’s Hotel or Johnson House, both of which faced the Market. Milligan’s is still standing in 2023, and is now known as the Armory Hotel. It is admittedly difficult to imagine how the 64 year-old Amaziah might have ended up working in the heart of the city after sacrificing so much to see the establishment of the community named in his honour. This may be a case of mistaken identity, as he had a grandson, also named Amaziah Church, who was born in Churchville in 1826.

       Many members of the Church family (particularly in the Mathews branch) left Ontario to travel south with the Mormons, after Joseph Smith Jr’s visit to the village in  August 1837. Another branch of the family moved to Streetsville and continued there.

      Throughout the 19th century, many of the people who settled in the village ended up with only one or two degrees of separation between their families and the Church family. Interestingly, both Amaziah's nephew, John Church Hyde (Mary and Heman's son) and his grandson, Orange R. Church, each twice served as Reeve of Streetsville. Orange R. Church was owner and editor of the Streetsville Review, was a Trustee for the Churchville Cemetery Board and served as Warden of Peel County in 1924. 

Orange R. Church married Lena Matilda May Watson and had three daughters: Pearle, Lillian and Beatrice. Orange, Lena and Beatrice are all buried in the Churchville Cemetery. With no heirs to continue it, this appears to have marked the end of the Church family name in Peel County.