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| St. Peter’s Church in Ayton Celebrates 125th Anniversary |
| This year (2001) St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church celebrates its 125th anniversary. The cornerstone of the church was laid in 1876 but the church was not opened and blessed until the following year. The parish has chosen a special date, July 1, to hold its anniversary celebration. Mass will be celebrated in the afternoon, at 2 p.m. at which time the bell will be blessed. A pot luck supper will follow. The bell at St. Peter’s - once considered the finest and sweetest toned bell in the Diocese - will once again ring in the good new of the parish. It was installed in 1901, but has not been in operation for a number of years. Repairs have been completed, and the bell has been re-installed. Family, friends and former members of the parish are invited to celebrate this special anniversary. History During the 1830s and 40s, the potato famine in Ireland brought entire communities of Catholics to Canada. They often emigrated as a group and settled in areas where they could continue farming as they had in Ireland. Once such community sprang up along Highway 6. In the early days, priests would visit from Guelph every 6 weeks, at first going to homes. In the 1840s, a log church was build in Normanby Township, at Orchard, and a cemetery purchased. (The first person buried in the cemetery was Edward McIntee, in 1840). The cemetery was used by the people in Durham, Ayton and Mount Forest. |
| Rev. William Laufhuber began the circuit in 1859 and purchased the site for a church in Neustadt where a frame church was built in 1860. In 1863 Ayton became a mission church of St. Mary’s in Mount Forest. In 1869, the wife of the reeve of Normanby, Henry A. McMahon, donated land for a church. The cornerstone was laid in 1875 and the church was blessed the next year by Bishop Crinnon of Hamilton. The architect was Connelly of Toronto. St. Peter’s of Ayton continued as a mission of Mount Forest until 1882 when the first resident Pastor, Rev. P.S. Owens was appointed. He purchased the site for St. Peter’s Cemetery, although many families continued to use the cemetery at Orchard. In the years that followed, the vestry and winter chapel were added, along with a parish hall on the second floor which was later used as a classroom. Stained glass windows were added, and a set of sheds would accommodate 54 teams of horses. With the death of Rev. T. Shoemaker in 1969, St. Peter’s once again became a mission church served by the resident pastors of Carlsruhe. The school was no longer used. Over the years, eight young men born in the parish went on to become priests - Rev. Joseph M. Farrell; Rev. James J. Culliton; Monsignor Walter Hawkins who became Vicar General of the Diocese of Hamilton; Rev. Art Young who became Father Superior at the Passionist Monastery in Dunkirk, New York; Rev. John Kenna; Bishop Thomas Lobsinger, appointed Bishop of the Yukon in 1988; Rev. James P. Scoles; and Rev. Joseph P. Horrigan of the Jesuit Fathers. Twelve young men became Brothers of the Christian Schools; 13 young women became Sisters in various religious orders (Sr. Theophane). Source: The Saugeen City News, Tuesday June 26, 2001. |
| There are indications a log church was built in Ayton in the 1850s, but it burned down. People from Ayton would travel up to 15 miles to attend mass at Orchard, Neustadt, Mount Forest, Carlshrue or Deemerton, or at a farm house, school or public hall. In the 1850s, Jesuits left Europe where they were being persecuted and came to Guelph. They began to look after the Catholics of the Ayton area. They would make six-week circuits of the township each time. |