*Excerpt from Reuban Butchart's "The Disciples of Christ in Canada Since 1830", Part 2, "The Churches of Christ in NS"*
*This page needs additional information and history. If you would like to contribute information to this project, please email info@restorationhistory.ca*
We came here to a territory occupied by the Disciples very early but, according to habit in all provinces, they left few if any records save in their periodicals. Their work has long ceased, but its influence still lives in personalities far removed and unrelated.
The earliest writer to give an account of Cornwallis was W. W. Eaton in his journal, The Christian, in October, 1839, page 111. It is in review of a trip for preaching and discovery. He states that (about) 1837 Benjamin Howard, an American evangelist, visited these parts; that at that time there was but one church in Nova Scotia--at Halifax. He mentions churches that had been formed: Rawdon and Douglas (W. Gore) by Howard, also Newport and Falmouth--the latter "in this season's" effort; also another, Bill Town, in Upper Cornwallis. "All these churches met regularly to break bread and serve the Lord."
Then he goes on to say: "There is a church in Cornwallis of about thirty-five members which has erected a comfortable house of worship." (Note: he also states that another church had been formed by a group styling themselves "Christian Baptists" which observed the Lord's supper monthly, and it was led by Geo. McDonald, out of the Baptist body. This represents the fluid thinking and acting of the time.)
The founding of Cornwallis church may well have been by Howard, or John Doyle; and others may have helped. There appears always to have been complete uncertainty as to date until 1900 when, in an authoritative list published in The Christian, July, 1900, the following appears after the name Cornwallis: "Organized 1838; membership then thirty-five; re-organized in 1858, members eighty; membership now, one hundred and two. "One of these dates agrees with information furnished by Miss Clara A. Wood, living at Canning R. R. 2. She states that not only her grandfather, James A. Wood, but her father, Joseph N. Wood was an elder; also Cyrus Webster, of Sheffield Mills was an elder, and Mr. Blenus, father of the preacher T. H. Blenus.
In later days Donald Crawford, of P.E.I., during 1858 visited many parts of Nova Scotia and in Shubenacadie, Hants County formed a group of fifteen who continued to meet for worship. W. W. Eaton was himself a native of Cornwallis and in 1847 on one occasion preached there eleven times and reported always an attentive audience.
Miss Wood goes on to report that early preachers were W. F. Pattee, T. F. Dwyer and E. C. Ford; also at one time, during his attendance at Acadia College, John Lord preached. Their places of worship have been within three buildings, the first being at Upper Dyke village, the second on Church St., and lastly the Port Williams building. The cause was styled as "Cornwallis" until the building of the third church when the name was changed to Port Williams.
E. C. Ford is a name most favorably known in the Maritimes, and he began his eleven year's work at Cornwallis in the summer of 1887. He preached at Cornwallis, Coldbrook, Steam Mill Village, Sheffield Mills. Woodville was afterward added to his remarkable circuit. That a circuit was used is readily seen as practicable. During the following years to his retirement his work can be traced through The Christian. He was apparently either temporarily succeeded or lengthily assisted, by preachers to be named. In April, 1889, R. E. Stevens (a son of the congregation) was preaching.
In 1894 T. H. Blenus (another local son) was preaching. (In October, 1892, a young man named S. M. Leonard made his first sermon before the congregation as a visitor and was commended by the minister, E. C. Ford.) In The Christian, June, 1898, E. C. Ford relates the joy he had in hearing Donald Crawford preach twice. (Crawford was then aged and ill but giving to the last.) In December, 1896, it is apparent that the nationally-known evangelists, Crossley and Hunter, had visited the community. Contrary to some others Ford declared that such events helped his ministry; for whilst a deep interest was stirred up he could be on hand to give scriptural directions to enquirers. This view the writer agrees was both courageous and wise, and somewhat unknown in those days. In September, 1896, E. C. Ford retired and the membership was then about one hundred.
In January, 1899, the steadfast Howard Murray appears as doing some capable shepherding of the congregation. For this work he was fitted. From his reports it is learned that the church now is too distant from the scattered flock, revealing perhaps a population shift, common to any country. In November, 1899, R. E. Stevens apparently is pastor, preaching at all the outside points. The scene was to change and in 1901 there appears an effort to revive the work again, using the redoubtable J. A. L. Romig, whose success had been much in advance in the Canadian West ere that date. He was using a tent, costing $1,200.
Behind this effort was the well-known David Fullerton, of Pictou, N.S. (which see). The province responded to the stimulus of effective aid and "the whole country was stirred"--so The Christian reported. Evangelist Romig held a meeting for three weeks and there were seventy-two conversions, but somewhat fewer baptisms. The meeting was stopped, according to a report of the local board of health, because an outbreak of smallpox was feared; nevertheless, it was pointed out, that this chance was not allowed to affect the holding of a religious meeting by another group.
It was believed that had another ten days been given the meeting would have out-topped any held in the province. Though its numbers were slightly less than another recorded elsewhere, the quality of it, in matured persons, raised its standard of importance. The result of this was that a new meetinghouse was built at Port Williams; the one at Church St. was sold. In June 1903, it is recorded that the new house was dedicated on April 12, whilst R. E. Stevens was minister. A three weeks' meeting was held by evangelist J. W. Robbins, adding four. At this date it appears that a C.W.B.M. Society was active, and it remained so until long after preaching services were discontinued.
In 1908 appears the familiar name of Thos. H. Bates as pastor, well-known throughout Ontario for his character and work. In February, 1910, George Titus (Maritime son) was pastor and attendance was "over fifty", which reveals another change in either strength or impulse. In October, 1912, there was no preacher, nor is one on record since. The membership was reported as fifty-six active, but through the years it declined. Eventually preaching was discontinued; and a group of faithful women continued as a W.M.S. Their annual gifts ranged from over $70 to $100.
But Cornwallis-Port Williams church has contributed undeniably to the cause for which it was formed. It was a church in the earliest co-operation in Nova Scotia in 1839. It continued so. In 1857 the annual meeting was held at Cornwallis and elder James A. Wood collected funds for the Co-operation acknowledged as £2.1.3.
In 1831 and 1863, Cornwallis was again host. In 1878 it reported one hundred and nine members to the annual meeting at St. John. The church demonstrated its spirit by the fact that four ministers emerged from its ranks: T. H. Blenus, Robert E. Stevens, F. C. Ford and Robert S. Wilson. Of these the following memorable items, T. H. Blenus established the second journal amongst the Disciples in Canada, calling it The Disciple. Through the kindness of James W. Barnes, a bound volume of this is in the writer's hands, to be later placed (along with other similar gifts) in Victoria College, Toronto in a collection known as "The Writings of the Disciples of Christ".
The Disciple was published by Blenus where he successively preached at Newport (first issue, Feb. 1879), Rawdon, Halifax and River John, N.S. F. C. Ford was a son of E. C. Ford, who was born at [361] Milton, and a graduate of Acadia College at Wolfville. R. E. Stevens became a graduate of Lexington, Ky. College of the Bible, serving in Pictou, in New Brunswick and Island churches. He served also in U.S.A. churches. His death was on October 2, 1944. Robert S. Wilson, after college preparation became a missionary for the Foreign Christian Missionary Society, and served on the Congo mission. It was he who put the steamer "Oregon" together, and it was launched on July 29, 1910, its service transforming many things for the African mission. His wife, Bessie Kidston, was also a native of Cornwallis, and though then not a member, was friendly to the mission group, and afterwards became a member of the church in Massachusetts.
Missionary interest certainly caught hold seriously in Cornwallis. Miss Wood informs me that the organization of their group arose out of the attendance at St. John convention of Mrs. E. C. Ford in 1892, at the time of a visit to the Convention by Mary Graybiel, of the India mission. Her influence there was such that on her return home, Mrs. Ford organized a W.M.S. group--one of the first in the province--and it afterwards held the banner for both N.S. and N.B. Its officers were Mrs. Agnes Lockwood, president; Hattie Stevens, vice president; Lila Jackson, secretary; Clara Wood, treasurer. Miss Graybiel's visit acted as a stimulant and outlet to women in half a dozen other Maritime churches, among them Coburg St., St. John. (She also had brought organization of women for the cause of missions to the sisters of Ontario, at a convention held in Buffalo, N.Y.)
The fact that the Garsts and Smiths were our first missionaries to Japan is well-known. It is here made known that the wife of Geo. T. Smith, of Japan, was Josephine Wood, of Cornwallis church. She shared that missionary enterprise with her husband, and on March 23, 1885, she died and went to her reward. Of her, president A. McLean (in his History of the Foreign Christian Missionary Society) states that "she was a gracious and beautiful woman . . . her love for her Lord took her to Japan; her life and death made a profound impression upon the Japanese who knew her, and upon the church at home." Afterward a Josephine Smith Memorial chapel was built in her memory in Akita. It is reasonable to say that her zeal and service helped to create zeal of a like kind in Cornwallis church. Her passing also left a blank that had to be filled by another such life, and this was done when Mary Rioch, of Hamilton, Ontario, volunteered to go, and sailed to Japan in the fall of 1892.
Another point must not be overlooked and that is, that Josephine Wood Smith owed her parentage to the two families in Cornwallis (which Miss Wood says) she remembers as being longest in connection, even until the work ceased. There were three families of Jacksons and one family of Woods. Josephine Wood received her father's name and her mother was Jackson. Here we have the integrating of the life and purpose of the church and its mission within the life-chains of those who are the church's loyal supporters. The idea is here presented, that some struggling small church in over-churched Canada may actually increase its Christian efficiency, by sending abroad one of its members devoted to the "greater works which ye shall do", which the Saviour may have meant when he used those inspiring words.