East Ontario & West Quebec (a combined field)
See also Quebec

When did the workers first arrive? The first Workers arrived in Montreal, Quebec, in 1904 and traveled from there to Manitoba. They were Harry Oliver, Tom Craig, John Doak and George Buttimer.

Who were the first sister workers? The six Sister Workers who arrived in Quebec City and Montreal on August 10, 1905 were Martha Cooper (30), Dora Holland  (29), Ann Irwin (24), Martha "Mattie" McGivern (30), Mable Reid (22) and Ann Skerritt (misspelled Kerritt; 24).

Who was the first to profess? 

Who was the first native to go in the work?  

When & Where was the first meeting? 
When & Where was the first baptism?

When & Where was the first convention? The first Conventions were held in Toronto in 1906 and Holland Landing in 1908.
Where have subsequent conventions been held?
Where is the convention currently held? 

Who have the Overseers been?  Jack Jackson; Andrew Blair 1972–1973; Carson Cowan 1978–1997; George Poole 2003–2004; Carson Wallace 2009—.

What is the official language? English

1906–1907: First and Only 2x2 Church Building Erected. Alfred Magowan informed Jack Carroll about the construction of a church/meeting house in Gesto, Ontario, Canada, "At Gesto, Ontario, in the year 1906–1907 … I saw the church or meeting house put up by a grateful community after a spiritual 'moving of the waters' under the ministry of James Jardine and Willie Edwards … When William Irvine heard about it, he made that strange pronouncement: 'All public worship is an abomination to God.' " (April 6, 1954, Letter by A. Magowan). From that time on, no church buildings were constructed or used for Fellowship Meetings; portable halls continued to be used for Gospel Missions.

An early history account titled "Southern Quebec Gospel History 1908–1920" is posted on the website TellingTheTruth.info in History, Pioneering Missions, North America, Canada.

Additional or corrected information on this country will be very welcome. 

NOTE: Six UK Workers departed from Liverpool, England, aboard the SS Siberian and arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia (NS), Canada, on September 4, 1906.
They were Albert Quinn (29), Jimmie Patrick (33), Willie McAllister (25), Alex Gibson (24), Mary Cook (40) and Annie Dodds (22).

Begining of Preaching in Dufferin  & Melancthon, Ontario

In the Early Days, on February the 7th, 1913, Annie Dodds* and Kitty (Katherine) LcCarte came to inquire at my Father's home about getting our school to preach in. He was one of the trustees. My Father and I were at a sale, so they didn't see him. They had the other two trustees' consent, so they said for him to phone Thomas McClellands' that night as they would be there, and he could give his consent if he desired.

He phoned that night and the Girls were at McClellands' but Tom and Etta McClelland were at her mother's, the next lot north. Mrs. McClelland answered from her mother's and the girls listened in at McClellands', and my Father said they could have the school. They were to start on Sunday, February 10th, but bad weather delayed them to Monday.

A few boys were there Sunday night, but there was no meeting. Monday night, about 15 boys and young men were at the meeting. My brother Willie and I were there both nights. We boys went every night, but about Wednesday my Father and Fred Walker went along too. Thursday afternoon, the girls or preachers called to visit us. They invited the family to meeting that night, so we all went the next two nights. On Friday night Mother asked the girls to come and stay all night. They came, and there was no meeting Saturday night, so they stayed till Sunday evening.

They had six meetings a week in those days. They called at Mrs. Kidd's and stayed there some of the time, so they and our family went most of the nights, us boys always. They preached two weeks, until Sunday night February 24th when they tested the meeting. No person held up their hand, so they closed that night and went home with Mrs. Kidd.

The next day, Mr. Kidd was going up near Shrigley, so the girls went to see if they could get the school there. They couldn't get it, so came back to our place the following day. My Father phoned Bob Harrison to find out who were the trustees for Conover school, but before they left my Father said, "I think you could just do as much good to preach in our school." "Well," Annie said, "We will try Conover and if we don't get it, we will try you sinners again." He said, "Is that what you call us?" She said, "Are you saved?" He said, "No, but I would like to be." "Well," she said, "If we don't get Conover, we will try your school again."

They didn't get Conover, so they went into our school and told the teacher to announce a meeting to the school children for that night. They came back to our place and told us there was a meeting that night, so they started in again and most of the people for a mile each way from the school started back. They preached nearly for four weeks from when they had come back, and tested the meetings quite a number of times and more people coming all the time. Around 15 held up their hands the last meeting, on the 24th of March.

The next morning, I took the girls to Corbetton in the buggy, and they went to Priceville, to McDermotts'.  Saturday, the end of the week, they came to Corbetton on the train and walked out to our place. They arranged a meeting at Kidd's for Sunday night and had one about every other night amongst our neighbours.

Friday was Good Friday, and they arranged to go with Ben Murdy to Archie Ferris' to get their summer clothes. He was going out that way. It was a very windy day; the day of the Good Friday Wind Storm, nearly everybody had some damage. Murdys' two windmills were blown down. The girls arranged a Sunday morning meeting at Kidds' for those who had held up their hands.

It was on April the 7th. (I think it was April the 9th that Jesus was crucified, and the feast at Jerusalem). Everybody was asked to give their testimony who were willing for the Way; and some who held up their hands in school never came. On April 2nd, Annie Dodds' birthday, she was 28 years old and had been preaching 8 years.

That day, Ada Kidd drove the girls up to Badjeros to see about the school. One trustee wasn't at home, so about the next day I drove Annie up again and they got the school. They started to preach Sunday night. Nobody asked them to their home, so they went to one of the trustees' homes, and they charged them a dollar the next morning. That night again nobody asked them, so they walked back to Kidds' and decided to quit Badieros.

About two days later, I drove the preachers with team and buggy to my Grandfather's old place. His son William was married and lived there on twenty-five sideroad and the fourth line of Mulmur. We had dinner there, and after dinner the girls walked to Lisle and took the train to Lonsways'. It was Easter holiday time. They also went to Binghams' at Georgetown to get some clothes made. That was about April 12th.

I met them again around the 25th of April at Ruskview. Jack Coulter had brought them there; he and his wife were professing; but didn't stay in the Way very long. I brought them home, and on the 26th of April, Jack Jackson came on a bicycle from Corbetton station and stayed till the 29th. I had intended to give my testimony and make a start, but I didn't do it till Sunday morning April 28th, and Willie started that night. The next day, my Father took Jack to Corbetton with the horse and buggy, and the bicycle in the rear of the buggy.

Tom and Etta McClelland came to our meeting and their children: Ariel was 7, Murray 4 and Ken 1. Also Mrs. Kidd and Ada and Ida took part along with Father and Mother and Willie and myself. The preachers got an opening at McIntyre, 10 miles from our place, but the big boys around interrupted the meetings very badly. My uncle, James Rinn and his wife lived two miles from the school, but it was seeding time and hard to get out regularly.

One night my uncle was there, and a bullet was fired through the front window of the school, and it went out the other side. One young man that was there was killed in an accident in their own sawmill about six weeks later. His name was Potts. A worldly man once told a worker some distance away about the incident. He told us and I remembered it.

After the girls finished there, I took them over to see about the North Honeywood school. They didn't get it but went on to a school three or four miles farther and had meetings the rest of the week, and walked back to our place on Saturday. We took them to meeting on Sunday, but after the meeting, a trustee told them they could have no more meetings there, so they came home with us in the Democrat.

About two days later I took them to Archie Ferris' and they tried for a school but couldn't get it because the holiness workers had meetings around there a few years back. So they got a school on the Orangeville Road, lot 20. I had an aunt and uncle, both on Mother's side, not far from the school and they stayed with them considerable.

Mrs. Kidd and Mother were visiting with my aunt and uncle, and on the road home they called at William Flemings'. She was Rena Lonsway's father, his wife Phoebe was a niece of Mother's. She talked about the Lord's Way, and said if she only knew what to do. Mother said they would try to make a convenient way for her to decide. 

During the holidays Etta McCague came to visit us. She was a schoolteacher, and the workers had preached in her school a year before ours. She said she was glad when she heard we had made our choice. She too was going into the Lord's Way, and she would go to Convention with us and be baptized.  When Annie Dodds came around, we told her about Etta's choice. 

Well, Convention came; part of the last week in August and part of the first week in September. It was at exhibition time, and people could get cheap railway fares to Toronto. Then they had "standard certificates' we were to buy with our tickets, that reduced the fare from Toronto, if three hundred tickets were bought. That was the first year for them. But the workers thought they could get that many tickets and they did.

The Convention was for six days; started Friday morning and finished Wednesday evening. That was for all of Ontario and New York State from the other side of Niagara Falls to the east end of Lake Ontario and down near to Pennsylvania.

George Walker preached morning and afternoon and Jack Jackson took the meeting at night, with nearly half a dozen other workers. We had to divide families, each had to go for the half. On Sunday, there was a baptism and Mother, Mrs. McClelland, Etta, my brother William and I were baptized.

My Father and Tom McClelland were there for the last of it and were baptized. George Johnston did the baptizing. While my Father and Tom were there, William Irvine arrived and took the morning and afternoon meetings when he was there. He was never back to Conventions here again.

We came home and they sent Annie Dodds and Lizzie White back to Dufferin. They preached down near Leaders' and toward Orangeville, until the last of October. Then they came to our place and invited Wm. Flemings' up for meeting on Sunday, and they came. They asked them to preach in their school called Mono Dell. They got the school for a short time but were then put out of it.

Wm. Fleming stood up at the school and said if they would like to have meetings in their home, they were welcome. So they went to Flemings'. Annie Newton, Phoebe's sister, had just made a start too. The neighbours came out well, and a lot of Mother's relatives came too.

Finally, Bill Manning and his wife and Art Kirkpatrick made a start. They had a Sunday morning meeting in Bill's home for all who had made a start. Another man, called Lefler, professed but didn't go far; wasn't separated from the world. The next summer, Art Kirkpatrick's Mother and Dad and sisters Sarah and Susie decided. Leland their brother didn't start for some time later.

This was 1914. The beginning of 1915, Bill Manning was talking to an old neighbour who now lived in Shelburne. His name was John Hall or 'Honey Hall' he was called, because he was a bee man. They had meetings in his home for some time and his son John Henry and his wife, and also Honey's wife decided. Art Kirkpatrick had bought a farm near his father's farm and was getting married to Etta McCague the next June, so they had a meeting at Halls' and all the Kirkpatricks went there.

The workers had preached at Whittens', and Leaders' school; Whittens decided too, and went to Mannings, meeting. Edwin Whitten went to Garden Hill Convention that year, decided and was baptized. Tom Leader started to go to the meetings that fall and took part also. Then nearly all the Leaders made a start; Mr. & Mrs. Bill Leader, Bessie, Gussie and young William, also their daughter married to Watt McCluskey about four miles northwest of Orangeville, made a start. Young William got married to Susie Kirkpatrick, and the rest of the family went to Orangeville.

In 1914, the other McCague girls decided, and in 1915 their brother Herb made a start and continued to the end, when he passed on in March 1957. John (Honey) Hall was the first to pass from this life, in July 1920. About December 1925, Ariel McClelland passed on; and in 1926 Thomas Whitten, just at Special Meeting time. His wife lived till about 1932.

There are about 42 saints buried in the Shelburne Cemetery at present time (1979)

Notes by Harry Service
Shelburne, Ontario
May 9, 1979

~~~~

NOTE:  Annie Dodds was born April 2, 1913, in Scotland; died May 27, 1965, aged 81 and was buried in Colorado.
She labored in UK, Ontario, New York, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado.

TTT Editor's Note: In the absence of a written account, the above information has been compiled by the TTT Editor from various sources. Corrections or additions are most welcome; as well as other historical accounts for this country Email TTT