Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 25.
Kirk’s Ferry’s Union Mission Church and Other Shared Protestant Churches in Chelsea
Carol Martin
The business benefits of summer tourism to the Gatineau-area economy are probably better known than the spiritual stimulus which came with these visitors. Still, several summer churches served Protestant denominations in the municipality of Chelsea at the turn of the last century, and it was due to summer cottagers that the Union Mission Church was built at Kirk's Ferry.
On July 13, 1898, the subscribers to the “Church Building Fund” met in Kirk's Ferry, with H. W. Bowie in the chair and M. A. Anderson as Secretary. Henry W. Bowie was Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons, and Montague A. Anderson, manager of the Union Bank. Others present at this meeting included G. M. Bayly, architect and valuator, a Mrs. Hayes, and John A. Cooper, a local farmer who was providing the site for the proposed building. The group appointed a board of three trustees, Col. Bowie, G. M. Bayly and J. A. Cooper, and gave them power to increase their number to five if necessary.
The building must have proceeded quickly, as a framed notice in the church records that it was “opened for Divine Service on the first day of August 1898." Those present at the July meeting also passed a resolution governing conditions for use of the building by any Protestant denomination. which included provisions that the Minister or layman holding service should be in good standing with his own church, and allowed for sharing among different denominations. An Anglican synod report for the year 1899 notes:
union House of Worship has been built at Kirk's Ferry for the summer residents from Ottawa, and by special request dedicated or set apart by the Incumbent of Chelsea [Rev A. A. Allen] for purposes of a sacred nature.1
The church building was located on part of lot 14 in Range 12 (now under water, east of Selwyn Road), on a lot perhaps 60 by 60 feet. Bordered by the road and railroad tracks on one side, the Gatineau River flowed on the other side. In the river’s spring flood time, Dorothy Reid Craig recalled that the water would rise up under the church at the back. She remembered the original building as more substantial and a little larger than the present church, its exterior finished in white clapboard, with large windows. Inside, its walls and ceiling were finished in V-joint tongue-and-groove wood. The property also had a large shed for people to tie their horses, part of which was used for storing stove wood, and another part for an “outhouse,” the toilet of those times.
The church building was soon being used as a school during the week. Perhaps the earlier schoolhouse at Kirk's Ferry had burned or deteriorated, or the new church building was simply more desirable. In any event, Dorothy and her brothers were attending this school before World War I. Arthur Reid remembered his first day of school there on September 1, 1913 at the age of five, and learning to read the framed announcement outlining the founding and conditions for use of the church. The building was heated by a small box stove in the centre of the room, and on Friday afternoon the children pushed the desks to the back and set up the chairs in rows in readiness for church on Sunday. There was a small raised nave area at the front of the room which was carpeted and had folding doors. The organ and pulpit were on one side and a small room on the other side was a vestry for use by the ministers. During this time, the Anglican minister held services every second Sunday, sometimes in the afternoon and sometimes in the evening. Methodists or Presbyterians held services on the alternate weeks, and Dorothy remembered that Frederick Journeaux, a summer cottager who was active in Stewarton Presbyterian Church in Ottawa, made some of the arrangements for Presbyterian services at Kirk's Ferry. One of the original trustees, John Cooper, was also a Presbyterian according to 1901 census records, and he may also have assisted in making arrangements for those services. During this period some families attended all services, while others attended the service of their own denomination. Elizabeth Cooper, John's wife, reported her religious affiliation as Church of England (Anglican), so they in particular would have been pleased to have the alternation of services.
Within a few years of the church organization at Kirk's Ferry, other summer services were organized in Chelsea. In 1900, Kingsmere summer residents began attending Anglican services on alternate Sundays at the country home of Charles Bryson, presumably balanced by Presbyterian services on the other Sundays, as Bryson and his family were all Presbyterians. In 1902, Meech Lake was added as an “outstation” of St. Mary Magdalene, Chelsea’'s Anglican church. Year- round church services had been held on an occasional basis by Anglicans in Ironside, starting in 1886 in the schoolhouse (located near the corner of Freeman Road and Route 105); in 1900 these were reported as offered once a week. In 1906 Anglican synod reports include collection receipts from the “Ironside Mission Hall" and the “Kirk's Ferry Mission Hall," suggesting that both buildings were interdenominational Protestant facilities. In 1910, the Anglican Mission of Chelsea consisted of the church of St. Mary Magdalene, located in the village of Chelsea, and five outstations described as “house chapel, Ironside; Union Mission Hall, Kirk's Ferry; schoolhouse, Cascades; schoolhouse, Meach’s Lake and cottage, Kingsmere.” The previous year's report mentions that two of these (presumably Meech Lake and Kingsmere) were summer outstations, and that, except for Chelsea itself, services were held fortnightly. At about this time the Kirk's Ferry Anglican population was “35 souls,” compared with 22 in Chelsea, 12 in Ironside and 20 in Cascades. By 1915 the Meech Lake and Kingsmere sites were no longer being reported by the Anglicans.
Before summer tourism was well-established in the Gatineau, local schoolhouses and homes were being used for religious services. In 1868 the Methodist Circuit serviced by the Rev. Connolly included “Kirk's” and Cascades.2 The record does not tell whether Kirk's referred to this family's home or another building at Kirk's Ferry, but the Cascades schoolhouse which served as a church for the Protestant denominations may have been in existence as early as the 1860s. United Church and Anglican services were held in it up to 1919. It then ceased to be a school but remained as the Union Church until the 1950s when it was sold to be used as a private residence. In the 1920s, the Anglican service there followed immediately after the United, with the Anglican minister arriving at Cascades by train from Chelsea. On one occasion the Anglican Reverend E. G. May reportedly took issue with the length of the “other” service while he and his congregation waited outside the building for their turn, and finally opened its door and complained to his United Church counterpart, “You're encroaching on my time, Sir.”
In 1915 a brick church serving the various Protestant denominations was erected at Farm Point. Norma and Stuart Geggie wrote that “with quite a number of summer cottages in the area, the population increased as summer approached, and the proceeds from the annual garden party held on the grounds of the Farm Point Union Church helped in financing it.” The church was on the south side of the road and east of the rail line, and Reg Clarke recalled to Norma Geggie that it was attended mostly by “city people,” obviously summer visitors or cottagers.3 In the 1930s that building was taken down, as its steeple was a little too heavy for it and seemed hazardous.
The mid-1920s brought major changes to the villages and hamlets along the Gatineau River in Chelsea. Plans for a hydroelectric project on the Gatineau River involved dams at Chelsea, Farmer’s Rapids, and Low which would raise the level of the river and flood some of the land. The 1926 Anglican synod Journal noted the effect of the Gatineau valley power developments on local congregations, particularly on the old settlement at Kirk's Ferry which was blotted out by the flooding. Still, they “expected a strong summer settlement to continue there.” The Gatineau Power Company purchased the land which was to be flooded, and some of those who sold used the proceeds to move away. A new site for the Union Mission Church was found on part of lot 14 in the 11th Range on land belonging to A. Ferguson Brown, who was then one of its trustees. Evidently by this time the Board had increased to five members, and in 1928 the other trustees were: John A. Cooper (Chairman), James Scannell, Joseph Burnett and Charles H. Reid, while John W. Bearder acted as Secretary in that year. A fine replacement church of white clapboard, roofed with green shingles and crowned with a small steeple, had been promptly built by the Power Company. However, the church trustees were shocked to learn that the company proposed to turn over the building to the Anglican Church.
Meetings were held and correspondence flowed among trustees, the company, and Anglican Church officials. On August 26, 1928, Dr. Bearder wrote to Major Walter Blue of the Gatineau Power Company noting that the original Union Church at Kirk’s Ferry had been established in 1898, its constitution had never changed, and when the company had demolished the old Union Mission Church building and erected a new church building, the residents reasonably expected that it was intended to be a replacement for the previous church. In October the issue was still unresolved, and Bearder wrote further,
as a resident and property owner in Kirlc's Ferry for the past seven years I am free to say that I consider the action of your company, as it at present stands, seems morally unjust in that you have pulled down an Unsectarian Church and erected another which you propose to hand over to one particular Sect. I suppose I am one of the most prominent Anglicans amongst the Summer residents at Kirk’s Ferry but I most emphatically assert that I will not support in any way the institution of an Anglican mission at that place. ... I will not be a party to any dissensions which will be sure to arise if the course proposed by your Company is carried out.
By mid-October, a petition signed by 64 summer and permanent residents of the Kirk's Ferry district had been forwarded by Frederick M. Journeaux to Major Blue. On October 18" Blue responded to Journeaux that the company had now “considered the matter of the disposition of this Church very seriously” and concluded that it should be left as closely as possible to the original state. The company now had to try and mend fences with the Anglican establishment, and Blue wrote to the Lord Bishop of Montreal to “suggest” that ownership of the Church and land remain with Gatineau Power and that the Reverend May of Chelsea and A. Ferguson Brown be a committee of two in charge of church and grounds and make arrangements to carry on Protestant religious worship “as heretofore.” The trustees responded with names of a larger committee, noting their religious affiliation and residence status. These included Charles H. Reid (Anglican and resident living in the Ferry), John W. Bearder (Anglican, summer resident), and Jason Cross (United Church, of Kirk's Ferry). The trustees also noted that Mr. May had moved to Ottawa for the winter and that the committee would need to proceed with equipping the church with lights and so on in preparation for holding services. While the local people had now found a way to accept Blue’s proposal for combined church trusteeship, the Anglican establishment had decided by November to refuse it, and in December the Gatineau Power Company turned over the church keys, but not the property ownership, to Frederick Journeaux, Chairman of the Kirk's Ferry residents’ committee, The building was to be used as it was before, and the residents were responsible for its upkeep, maintenance and insurance. On December 10 Journeaux wrote to Blue that he would accept the keys and the task, and on behalf of the summer residents thanked him for the “splendid spirit in which you have met our request.”
Although the trustees invited Mr. May to hold the opening service in the new building, he declined, suggesting that the Anglicans who cared sufficiently could easily attend services at Chelsea. Oddly. no record remains to indicate who did conduct that first service, but as of 1929 the church resumed holding Sunday services. By 1933 Anglican records show that Kirk's Ferry had been added back as an outstation of Chelsea: evidently a reconciliation had taken place. The church trustees obtained title to the property from the Gatineau Power Company in 1934, and continued alternating Anglican and United Church services.
The Second World War years seemed to have been problematic in terms of finding ministers and scheduling services. For example, the Reverend F. W. Taylor (United Church) of Wakefield led four services in 1940; in 1945 the Venerable Archdeacon Snowdon (Anglican) conducted five. After this, the pattern returned to nine services in most years, held in the months of July and August. Disbursement records show that Ministers were paid $10 for each service, an amount raised in the 1960s to $15, except for one occasion in that year when Mr. Garvey was “late for the service” and received only $10. Organists included Mrs. Patterson, Mrs. Maud Brown and Massy Baker in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1958 Bob Martin arrived as a cottager and played the organ for services that summer, continuing through to the end of 1977, when his father-in-law Jim Craig took over as the Martins left for a posting in Geneva, Switzerland.
The church budget covered payments for Ministers, cleaning and maintenance, but also provided donations to causes and individuals. When a new St. Mary Magdalene Anglican Church was being built in Chelsea in 1956, the Union Mission Church donated $25 (from its annual operating budget of $176.20) to their building fund. It also gave money to the United Church in Wakefield, to Anglican missions, and the Gatineau Memorial Hospital. When Carl Engler retired after many years as chairman, the congregation presented him with a lawn mower. In a similarly practical vein, Bob and Carol Martin had received a toaster as a wedding present in 1958. Deaths of long-time members were also recalled with flowers or donations to charities.
Church records recall the August 3, 1952 baptism of Louise Ann Schwartz by Archdeacon Hepburn (Anglican), with arrangements made by her grandfather Harley Selwyn, and the August 26, 1967 marriage of Sally Spennato to David Chin. In 1974, Marion G. Rogers wrote in the Ottawa Journal of the voluntary work which included cleaning, grass cutting, and organ playing that kept the little church open for 10 services a summer. The connecting and minimum charges for electrical service were by then beyond the means of the congregation, but Bill Murray, an obliging next-door neighbour, had solved this by running an extension cord from his house to lights for the organist and preacher. The period before the 10:30 a.m. Sunday service was visit and “talk-time,” and a coffee party after the last service marked the end of the summer season.
Average attendance, which had been as high as 60 and was often in the 40s up to 1960, declined to congregations numbering in the 20s. Finally, in 1979, the last regular weekly summer services were held at Kirk's Ferry's Union Mission Church, and Harold and Margaret Reid convened the closing coffee party. On June 30, 1990, the Church was reopened to hold a memorial service for Dorothy Reid Craig.
Now the little church stands almost hidden by evergreens, facing onto Brown Road, with Route 105 at its back. For the Kirk's Ferry community it was a focus that brought together summer cottagers and visitors and year-round residents. During its century of activity, it offered not only an unsectarian place for worship, but for a quarter of that time served the early community as a school as well. Today it stands as a simple and picturesque reminder of that past, but it is an ageing seventy-year-old that needs further efforts to preserve and maintain it as one of Chelsea’s remaining historic buildings.
Footnote
- Proceedings of the fortieth session of synod of the Diocese of Montreal, Canada (Montreal, John Lovell & Son, 1899), 154.
- Norma and Stuart Geggie, Unto the Hills. (Old Chelsea: Historical Society of the Gatineau, 1976), pages 8, 35. Information in this paragraph about the Cascades church is also taken from this source.
- Norma Geggie, interview with Reg Clarke (Oct 22, 1998).