|
THE FIRST QUARTER-CENTURY (1850-1875)
Born July 9, 1801 in Wilts, England, and educated at Oxford, James Beaven had been ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln in 1826, and had married Elizabeth Frowd a month later.
Subsequently continuing his studies, he became a Doctor of Divinity in 1842, and in the spring of the following year set out for Canada, arriving in time for the first classes in the new King's College to which he had been appointed. Himself one of a large family, he was the father of four sons and three daughters born in England, and was obliged to supplement his academic income first by directing a residence for the students, of the College, and later by mission activities in nearby centres. To the latter task, however, he undoubtedly gave far more in service than he ever received in payment, for at his death he was credited with the founding of no less than four pioneer churches: at Berkeley and Chester, east of Toronto, and at Oak Ridges and King to the north. Living first in Old Trinity College, then on Beverley Street, and finally for many years in a handsome three-storey brick house which may still be seen at 143 Bloor Street East (although the facade and back wing have been added to the house since Dr. Beaven lived in it), he drove off in his buggy every Sunday to one of his struggling little missions, in which the stern Professor's wealth of learning was in striking contrast to the simplicity of the villagers he served, some of whom could neither read nor write.
In the middle of the last century, Berkeley or Norway was such a mission, several miles east of the city limits (the Don River), and clustered about Kingston Road at the point where it was crossed by a boundary road separating township lots 5 and 6, the road now known as Woodbine Avenue. This point was the site of one of the tall-gates that provided revenue for the upkeep of Kingston Road; there was another toll-gate at what is now Kingston Road and Queen Street. The official population of the district was less than a hundred persons; its existence was evidenced only by a few buildings on the south side of Kingston Road, among them the Dambrough home on the south-west corner of Kenilworth Avenue, and an inn catering to the stage-coach passengers. There were as yet no buildings on either side of Woodbine Avenue, and Gerrard Street did not exist.
The bounds of the parish had not then been set, but it appears that the inhabitants met in an inn at the corner of what is now Main Street, and were ministered to by the staff of Upper Canada College, and then by Dr. Beaven, who took charge early in the eighteen-fifties. As yet there was no church-site, no church, and no Rector, for Dr. Beaven served only as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, from which he received a grant, presumably for the establishment of a parish, in 1853. Through the generosity of Mr. Charles Coxwell Small (1800-1864), who had a summer home on Kingston Road behind what was afterwards to be the site of the monument works of the late Mr. George Creber, three acres of land were deeded to the Lord Bishop of Toronto, the Rt. Rev. John Strachan, for the erection of a church and a churchyard, "to be denominated St. John's Church, Berkeley." The parcel of land was described as:
"part of Lot Number Six in the First Concession from the Bay commencing where a post has been planted at the distance of three chains and fifty-four links from the Kingston Road on the western limit of the Side Road between lots numbers five and six, thence South Seventy-four degrees West, five chains, thence North Sixteen degrees west four chains, then North Seventy-four degrees East five chains, thence South Sixteen degrees East four chains along the western limit of said side road to the place of beginning."
The original site did not include the corner lots on Kingston Road; the latter were acquired much later. It is hard to imagine that a hundred years ago the land on which the western portion of our cemetery is located was covered with dense forest stretching up to the "Don and Danforth Road," and the contour of the land was some forty feet above the present level. The deed for this first church site was registered in the Registry Office two years before the deed to form the right of way for the old Grand Trunk Railway
The next consideration was a church building. For this purpose a country school-house, originally built on a since forgotten road called Chapel Street, near where Corley Avenue now meets Glenmount Park Road, was dragged down Kingston Road by oxen. The moving was done by the Ashbridge brothers (whose farm was near Coxwell Avenue), and witnessed by a small boy who later became a Church-warden of St. John's, the late Mr. John Dambrough (1850-1937).
When mentioning the names Ashbridge and Dambrough, one cannot resist the temptation to note the names of a few of the other old families of St. John's. Reading through the yellowed pages of the Parish Register and Vestry Book for these first twenty-five years, one finds some names recorded there again and again: the three generations of Ashbridges then living; Charles Baker, whose name was also his trade; Ira Bates, who will appear again in the next chapter; the Beamishes; Joseph Beck, the innkeeper; Edward Bird, the butcher from nearby Leslieville; James Brickenden of Berkeley; the Callender family; the farmer James CoIwall; Terence Conway, an old pensioner who died at the age of 100 in 1863; Peter Dambrough, the wagon-maker, and father of John Dambrough; the Davidsons; Clement Dawes of Dawes' Corners; the English family; the Felsteads, Fosters and Francis'; Alfred Goldsmith, the book-keeper; the Greenwoods; Thomas Hibbard, the shoemaker; the Johnson family; George Lambert, the gardener; the Langs; a family variously called Litsch or Luedke; the Mays and Moffatts; Peter Paterson, a churchwarden who lived near what is now St. John's Industrial School; the Playter family, who gave the land for the mission church of St. Barnabas in 1858; Alexander Pontey, a nurseryman; the Purchases; Charles Rodgers, a Civil War veteran; John Russell and his daughters; the Sawdens; the Smiths, farmers and innkeepers; the Thombeck family; the Turners; the Wallaces, one of whom was St. John's first sexton; and the Weymouths. These are a few of the more than two hundred family names that appear before 1875. Many of these families came from far afield, there being then very few churches between Toronto and Kingston.
Indeed, there were many families who needed the ministrations of St. John's, but in the first few years there were only too few laymen to shoulder the burdens of a new parish. When their struggle to provide a church building had met with success, their next desire was to have their little church consecrated to God's use. The day of the consecration and dedication service was a proud one for the handful of parishioners who had founded St. John's. In preparation for the event Dr. Beaven had written out in a fair hand-a letter of his written when he was a schoolboy at Bath shows us a beautiful copperplate handwriting which he kept all his life-the following petition, of which the original is in the Provincial Archives:
"To the Honourable and Right Reverend John Strachan, Doctor of Laws and Divinity, Lord Bishop of Toronto.
The humble Petition of James Beaven, clerk, Doctor in Divinity, Minister of St. John's church, Berkeley, in the Township & County of York and your Lordship's Diocese of Toronto, and the several other persons whose names are subscribed.
Sheweth
That a building has lately been erected in the hamlet of Berkeley for the use of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, on part of a site duly conveyed by deed to your Lordship and your Successors by the liberality of Charles Coxwell Small Esquire, for the site of a church of the United Church of England and Ireland to be erected on the said parcel of ground and for a burial ground in connexion therewith, and for such other purposes appurtenant to the said Church as the Lord Bishop of the Diocese shall from time to time appoint.
That the said building is now furnished with all things needful for the due performance of divine service according to the use and custom of the said United Church and the provisions of the Book of Common Prayer.
That a portion of the said parcel of land surrounding the said building has been enclosed for a burial ground according to the intention of the said deed.
Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray your Lordship by your authority ordinary and Episcopal to consecrate the said Church & Church Yard, and to dedicate the said Church solemnly to the service of Almighty God by the name of the Church of St. John the Baptist at Berkeley; and the said Churchyard to be a place of Christian burial for the congregation of the said Church and their families; promising that we will ever hold the said Church as the House of God and the said Churchyard as holy ground & use them accordingly; & that we will from time to time, as need shall be, see this Church decently furnished, repaired & restored, & this Church yard fitly fenced, kept & maintained.
And your petitioners will ever pray James Beaven, D.D., Minister"
The Petition was also signed by the following laymen: Irwin Wallace - Churchwarden John Beamish - Churchwarden Stephen Sandow Matthew Chester Thomas Stevens Thomas Smith Smith Birkitt
Everything had to be ready for the occasion. On Sunday, June 16, 1855, a stone baptismal font was set up in the little church; the following week a church bell, donated by a Mr. Richard Edmonds, was installed, and its ringing called the congregation to worship for the first time on Sunday, June 24, the feast of St. John the Baptist. The same bell now tolls from the tower of the cemetery office for every funeral at St. John's. The next Sunday was the great day: on July 1, 1 855, Bishop Strachan came to the church for the consecration service, and St. John's Berkeley was launched on its official career.
But the work of the parish had already begun, even before there was a church. The earliest parish records we have are those of baptisms and burials: William, son of Irwin and Margaret Wallace, born in December 1850, was baptized by Dr. Beaven on February 16, 1851, two years before the church was erected. On Friday 13 of the following year, Dr. Beaven buried Margaret Healy, a widow, - but there was no church site, and no cemetery, so the interment took place in the private burial ground of the Ashbridge family, situated just east of Coxwell Avenue, and north of Queen Street. When St. John's own churchyard was dedicated in 1855, this body and those of several other persons were removed to the new cemetery.
Nor had Dr. Beaven neglected to instruct his flock. He had prepared his first confirmation class of eight members and had seen them confirmed by the Bishop on Advent Sunday back in 1852: their number included the sexton of St. John's, Irwin Wallace, and Dr. Beaven's own son, Robert (1836-1920), who in later years was to become Prime Minister of British Columbia.
Of the administrative and financial arrangements in these first few years we know very little, since for the first five years the minutes of the Vestry (annual meetings of the congregation), have been lost, if indeed they ever existed. Even those which we possess, from 1858 on, are not very informative when compared with the detailed reports, financial statements and minutes which are presented at a Vestry meeting in 1950. Here for example is the complete report of the meeting for 1858:
"Easter Sunday, 1858
At the meeting held this day the accounts of the churchwardens Mr. Peter Paterson and Mr. Richerd Thombeck were presented and approved: showing a balance of £5.8.1 due to the Churchwardens.
The same gentlemen were chosen Churchwardens 'or the ensuing year. The communicants present chose Mr. Peterson as their Representative to the Synod.
James Beaven, D.D.
Incumbent
The brevity of the minutes in these years probably explains the absence of any mention of the mission at Chester, established by Dr. Beaven about 1858 and destined to become the present Church of St. Barnabas.
After 1859, the funds are listed in the new dollars and cents, and the amounts involved begin to increase year by year. In 1 862, here was the balance sheet of St. John's:
"Receipts by offertory collections $91.77, which added to the balance from last year 6.56 ----------- Amounted to $98.33 Payments, to Church Society 15.39 to the Minister 27.93 to the Sexton, including fuel 28.00 for Insurance 3.50 Prizes for Sunday School 2.00 and Repairs 3.00 Leaving a balance of $18.50 (!) which was ordered to be paid to the Minister."
Dr. Beaven was happy on this occasion to be able to announce a gift to the parish of $40, donated by Mr. Charles Coxwell Small's daughter, the wife of Rev. W. H. Ripley of Holy Trinity Church, "for the enlargement of the Church." By the next year, St. John's remarkable growth appears to have been under way, because "the Churchwardens were authorized to procure six prayer books for the use of strangers"! In 1864 a second gift of land, two acres, given by Rev. C. L. Ingles, was acknowledged, and the expenditures for the same year included an item of $5 "for the survey of Rev. Mr. Ingles' lot."
In this same year 1864, the Churchwardens were instructed "to have the church whitewashed inside and outside and to do whatever they may think necessary towards improving the appearance of the Church & grounds." Apparently the church had a melodeon, for we find Mr. C. W. Paterson, himself later to enter the ministry, being thanked "for his regularity in playing" it.
By 1866 it was felt that a fixed scale of charges for the cemetery was necessary, and the following was decided upon:
"The ordinary fee to the Minister for attending at funerals was recommended to be fixed at $1. besides $1. to the Sexton for digging the grave etc.
The fee for a lot of 8 feet by 4 was recommended to be fixed at $5. including the ordinary fees for the first grave and burial.
The fee for the burial of persons who, or whose friends, have not been members of this congregation shall be one half additional to the ordinary fee".
Thus were laid down the first regulations for St. John's Cemetery, which now contains over 50,000 graves
Through these first fifteen years of St. John's history, Dr. Beaven ministered regularly to the little parish, receiving from it an annual stipend averaging about $40. At the same time he was lecturing at the University of Toronto on week-days, and was prominent in ecclesiastical affairs, serving four terms of office as Prolocutor of the Lower House of the Provincial Synod, and acting for many years as Chaplain of the St. George Society. In addition, he continued to publish scholarly works, and was active in the Synod Committee on Canons.
As was noted earlier, he had also devoted himself to other small parishes; we wonder how one man could have carried on so many duties. His life of service was almost over, however, when he left St. John's in the summer of 1868; he continued on the staff of the University until 1871, when the death of his wife struck him a blow from which he never recovered. He struggled to work on, serving a congregation at Port Whitby, but suffered a stroke which forced him to retire first to St. Catharines, and then to Niagara-on-the-Lake, where he died on November 8, 1875, and was buried in St. Mark's Churchyard. The Toronto "Globe" devoted a quarter-column on its front page to the obituary of this great scholar and missionary, not the least of whose many accomplishments was the founding of St. John's, Norway.
During the summer of 1868, services were conducted by a Rev. Mr. Franks, and in the fall, the Rev. Elam Rush Stimson (1825-1888) came to St. John's. He had been educated at Cobourg College before becoming a traveling missionary in the Talbot District, and in 1866-7 he had been in charge at Jordan, in the present Diocese of Niagara. He took up his duties at St. John's in the fall of 1868, and at the Vestry meeting the following spring it was voted to pledge him an annual stipend of $150, payable quarterly. For the first time, the Rector of St. John's was able to expect a fixed salary.
Efforts were being made each year to improve the furnishings and equipment of the church. New lecterns were installed, a harmonium took the place of the old melodeon, and carpet matting was laid on the floors. Unfortunately, the parish lacked regular leadership: the Rev. E. R. Stimson served throughout 1869 and the spring of 1870, but was replaced by Dr. S. S. Strong (1801-1880), former Chaplain of H. M. Forces in Quebec and Rector of Ottawa. Dr. Strong was apparently in charge of St. John's during the last half of 1870 and the first five months of 1871, until Rev. E. R. Stimson returned to the rectorship in June 1871. Rev. E. R. Stimson remained until April 1873, but again with gaps in his service, filled on several occasions by the Rev. W. Stewart Darling (1818-1886) of Holy Trinity Church, Toronto, whose home was the estate on the south side of Kingston Road between Lee Avenue and Main Street, known as "Glen Stewart".
The new Rector, who came to St. John's in May 1873, was to stay for a quarter of a century. He was the Rev. Charles Ruttan, son of the Sheriff of Cobourg, and a grandson of one of the original United Empire Loyalists, who landed at Adolphustown in 1784. Rev. Charles Ruttan's mother had been in charge of a Sunday School for forty years; she died a few weeks before her son came to St. John's. The family name was originally "Rotan", and could be traced back to the Protestant fortress of La Rochelle in sixteenth-century France. Born on March 21, 1823, the third of nine children, Charles Ruttan was educated at Upper Canada College and later studied for the ministry at the Divinity School at Cobourg. Ordained deacon in 1844, he was appointed assistant curate at Cobourg; the next year he was advanced to the priesthood and served briefly at Penetanguishine before becoming the first incumbent of St. George's, Toronto, in November 1845. In 1848 he moved to Paris and ministered there for seven years, and thence via Wellington, Hillier, Nottawasaga and Bradford to St. John's.
Under Rev. Charles Ruttan's leadership, the parish consolidated itself and began to expand. At the first Vestry meeting after his arrival it was moved "that in the opinion of this meeting it would be advisable to extend the present church known as St. John's Church Berkeley by the addition of twenty-two feet as proposed in the specifications now submitted, the cost being in all $400, including fittings." The fund-raising committee included two well-known names: those of Mr. Frank Boston, owner of a bakery and of a public hall in which many of St. John's social activities took place, and of Mr. James Lamond Smith (1822-1883), whose name is preserved in Benlamond Avenue, where Rev. Charles Ruttan lived. The first syllable of "Benlamond" is from the name of Mr. Benjamin Morton (1832-1902), who with Mr. J. Lamond Smith was one of the original subdividers of what was to become East Toronto.
With the completion of this extension to the old church building, about which we unfortunately know very little, St. John's first quarter-century comes to a close. From being a mission station in the part-time care of a divinity professor, St. John's had become an established church in an expanding parish, with its own Rector and lay officers, its own mission at Chester, its own cemetery, already several acres in extent, and a revenue of about $400 a year, a sizeable sum in those days.
|