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THE SECOND QUARTER-CENTURY (1875-1900)
Even with the passage of twenty-five years, the village of Norway, as it was becoming more commonly known, had not changed a great deal. More land had been subdivided along what were later to become Gerrard Street, Edgewood, Herbert, Elmer, Cassels and Burgess Avenues, and there were newcomers to the parish; there were still very few houses, however, even on Kingston Road itself, and no streets had yet been paved. Far off as those days may seem, they ore within the range of living memory, and for a handful of St. John's parishioners still living, this second quarter-century is recalled as the time of a remote but happy youth. One such member of St. John's, Miss Daisy Williams, has aided in the writing of this history by making available the treasures of a keen memory going back more than seventy years. Her sister played the organ in that little church in the 1870's; her brother Kew gave his name to the tract of land now known as Kew Beach Park, then owned by Miss Williams' father. Thus when we write of St. John's second quarter-century, we ore already in what is for some of our parishioners and friends a well-remembered past.
Several more of the familiar names of the parish begin to appear in the records of these years. Mr. Ira Bates (1834-1910), the owner of o hotel known as Norway House, on the south side of Kingston Rood, about the present site of Mr. Knowles' barber shop, became a church-warden and remained for many years an active lay worker. Mr. Walter Darling (1855-1892), son of Rev. W. S. Darling of Holy Trinity, was named People's Warden; and Messrs. Richard Needham and James Hewitt became St. John's first sidesmen in 1878.
The Vestry of 1878 was an important one for the development of St John's administrative organization, for in addition to the appointment of the first sidesmen, it also approved the introduction into the parish of the envelope system for church contributions, a system which thus dates back nearly seventy-five years.
Two years later the church property was extended by the purchase of a lot to the south of the Woodbine Avenue entrance to the church. This lot was the site of the home of Mr. Fitzgerald, father of Mr. Michael Fitzgerald whose farm began north of St. John's and ran up to the Grand Trunk tracks. The Churchwardens reported that they had secured the lot "far $250 (viz:) $50 already paid and $50 with 7% on the amount remaining due each succeeding October." At the same meeting it was suggested that the church bell be moved from over the chancel and placed over the porch door, but nothing was done, and the bell remained in its original location until the old church was demolished.
In 1882 a link with the past was broken when Mr. Irwin Wallace, one of the founding members of St. John's, resigned as sexton after more than thirty years of service. The Vestry moved that an honorarium of one-quarter of his annual salary be paid him as a small token of the esteem in which he was held. He was succeeded by Mr. James Seal, a gardener on the Darling estate, who lived in a cottage in the rear of the present No.520 Kingston Rood.
The following year another officer of long standing was lost to St. John's with the passing of Mr. J. Lamond Smith. One by one, the pioneers of the parish were dropping out of sight, but the seed they planted was already bearing fruit. In addition to carrying on the mission at Chester, the Rector was founding another station further south, St. Clement's, and the mother church was thriving. St. John's now felt itself sufficiently prosperous to increase Rev. Charles Ruttan's stipend "by one dollar per Sunday" - an indication both of the increase in revenues, and of the respect and affection felt for the Rector and for his wife, who had undertaken the musical duties of the church. No history of St. John's could fail to take account of the devoted service of Rev. Charles Ruttan's wife, Margaret Jean Cameron Ruttan (1826 1914), whose home on Benlamond Avenue was daily the scene of some parish activity, and whose unselfish contribution to the life of St. John's was recognized in a resolution of gratitude by the Vestry of 1895.
A well-known figure appears for the first time in the minutes for 1886: Mr. Nicholas Ferrar Davidson, a young lawyer who was for many years to act as solicitor for St John's, and to advise on several important questions in connection with the purchase of cemetery lands.
This same year 1886 saw the formation of another daughter parish of St. John's, that of All Saints, York, later to be called St. George's, and still later St. Saviour's, East Toronto. Those interested in independent status for the new parish held a meeting in April 1886 in the Town Hall, York, under Rev. Charles Ruffan's chairmanship, and the new church began its career on a site on Swanwick Avenue donated by Mrs. Benjamin Morton, although with the same Rector as St. John's. After St. Barnabas' in 1858, St. Clement's in 1883, and St. Saviour's in 1886, four other parishes were similarly to spring from St. John's.
A major improvement was effected in the churchyard in 1888 by the erection of a new fence, at a cost of $227, a sum greater than the Rector's yearly salary. Cemetery expenses were increasing in other respects, too, and a revision of the rates for digging graves was being considered.
In 1889 was held a memorable meeting at St. John's. On the 12th of November, a score of parishioners gathered to plan the long-awaited new brick church. Their names are worth recording, for it was in large part their labours which produced the church building we now know. Present were Messrs. Bates, Darling, Holness, Ashbridge, Williams, Keffer, Millar, Morrison, Boyd, Barton, Wybrew, Seal, S. Over, Nelson, Coleman, D. Williams, W. Over, Mrs. Over, and Miss Williams.
At this first meeting it was decided that a new church should be erected "providing the expense does not exceed $2,000 dollars." A building committee was named, and the meeting adjourned till the following Monday. On the latter occasion, plans for the new church were submitted by Messrs. Darling and Whitehead, and arrangements were made for Sunday School students to be organized as collectors.
During the winter some $300 was raised by the committee, but at the same time it was becoming evident that the costs would be much greater than originally assumed: at the Easter meeting in 1890 the maximum cost was set at $6,000 "the said building to be finished and furnished for that sum, and further that as soon as the Building Committee have the sum of two thousand dollars on hand or promised to pay before the 1st day of December next that they do commence building operations at once."
While St. John's was thus busy with its own building programme, its daughter church of St. Saviour's was attempting to raise a mortgage on the land conveyed to it by Mrs. Benjamin Morton: thus we find the Vestry of St. John's holding a special meeting in October 1890 to pass a resolution renouncing its claims to the mission site, which still lay within St. John's parish boundaries.
By the spring of 1891, over a thousand dollars had been raised in cash and almost another thousand pledged, so specifications and estimates were called for, to be reported on the following month. At this later meeting, a letter from Mr. Chas. J. Gibson, architect, was read, submitting the opinion that the new church should be erected to the east of the old one (i.e. closer to Woodbine Avenue), in order to avoid the necessity of removing graves or trees, and for the greater convenience of elderly worshippers. The costs were now estimated as: "Masonry and bricks $2,157.00 Carpentering 1,485.00 Painting 165.00 Heating 150.00 Seating 350.00 Glass 160.00 Total $4,467.00"
and these figures were accepted, with a motion that the Lord Bishop and the Synod Executive be asked to permit the mortgaging of the building and one acre of ground for $3,000.
The collecting of funds continued for another year, by which time the pre-arranged figure of $2,000 paid in or pledged had been exceeded, and it was time to begin work. A smaller building committee was named to replace the original committee now three years old, and application was made for a mortgage loan of $2,500. The years 1892-3 saw the actual construction in progress, at a final outlay of about $6,000.
The new brick building, accommodating 300 worshippers, was ready for use in June 1893. At 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, June 10, the church was the scene of a special opening service presided over by Rev. Charles Ruttan, with the assistance of Rev. T. W. Paterson and others. The Rev. Professor Clark preached and a number of guests came out from the city for the occasion. At the Sunday morning service next day, the Provost of Trinity College preached, and in the evening Rev. Charles Ruttan entered the pulpit on what was undoubtedly one of the happiest days of his life.
Long accounts of the inaugural services appeared in the Toronto newspapers, and St. John's began a new phase of its history. It was still, however, thought of as "a pleasant country church," despite the gradual development of the district. It was in July of this year 1893, for example, that the first suburban cars ran from Woodbine to Main and Gerrard, and thence east and south to Victoria Park. In those good old days one bought four tickets for ten cents in working hours, four for fifteen cents at other times. About the same period lamps were installed along Kingston Road, and a cinder path was laid on the south side for bicycle riders. Meantime the car service on Queen Street was extended east to Lee Avenue, and a summer resort sprang up along the beaches.
The Rev. Charles Ruttan was to serve St. John's in its new church until his death after a long illness on October 23, 1900. The burden laid upon him by a grave accident which befell Mrs. Ruttan in 1895, coupled with the growing responsibilities of the missions, made it necessary for him to depend increasingly on his assistants, and finally to give up the active duties of the parish.
One of these assistants was a parishioner of St. John's, Rev. G. L. Starr, who as a divinity student had lived with his mother and aunt at 122 Kingston Road, and who upon his ordination was appointed assistant to the Rector. A graduate of Trinity College, he put up a plate at the door of his home bearing the letters "M.A." after his name, which inspired a local wit to read the inscription as "Rev. G. L. Starr, Mother and Aunt". After barely three years at St. John's, during which time he also supplied the pulpit and attended to the parochial duties of the mission church at Chester, this talented young man was named Rector of the Cathedral at Kingston, and then Dean; still later he was to serve as Chaplain to a regiment in World War I.
The Rev. G. L. Starr was succeeded in 1898 as assistant by another gifted young man, who after two years under Rev. Charles Ruttan's leadership, succeeded the latter as the fourth Rector of St. John's, and was to dominate the third quarter-century of its history: Rev. W. L. Baynes-Reed. One of St. John's best-loved Rectors, he was born on September 4, 1871, of a U.E. (United Empire) Loyalist family in London, Ontario. After attending schools in London he studied at Trinity College, and was ordained in 1895. His first appointment that same year was as curate of Holy Trinity Church, Toronto; later he became incumbent of St. Mark's Church, Otonabee. When he came to St. John's in 1898, it was as assistant to Rev. Charles Ruttan, but in actual fact he was to have full charge of the parish, and a stipend of $400 per annum, which the church was obliged to make up if the amount from the Rectory Fund fell short of $200 a year.
Who could foresee in 1898 that the more than forty years of service which Rev. W. L. Baynes-Reed was to give to St. John's would cover the long period from the Boer War, in which the then Captain of the Boys' Brigade, Mr. Charles E. Jackson, gave his life, to World War II, in which so many hundreds of the young men of the parish were involved? So it is that there are today many thousands of parishioners and friends who recall "the Canon," as Rev. W. L. Baynes-Reed was known to all. There are also, however, more than a few who were members of St. John's over half a century ago when Rev. W. L. Baynes-Reed came to St. John's. Some of these, like Mr. Spencer Over, People's Warden in 1898, and now living in Rhode Island, are scattered far and wide; others like Messrs. W. Hobson and George E. Dodd, whose fathers carved and decorated the baptismal font in 1897, were then beginning as boys and young men lives which have ever since been devoted to their church and parish.
With the opening of the new century in 1900, St. John's entered upon one of its most flourishing periods. How gratifying it is to realize that some of those who began the new century with St. John's are still serving their church at the half-way mark.
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