106 Community

hand, and it was through the efforts of the Roman Catholic brethren that the frame was erected.

A newspaper item from The Islander, April 24, 1863 reads: “The Protest- ants being presently engaged in building a church, the Managing Commit- tee resolved to get the people collectively to cut and haul the timber required—it being late in the season when this resolution was come to, there appeared great danger of the roads disappearing and of the timber remain- ing in the woods. So a few Roman Catholic neighbours determined on giving a day. Thirty-eight men with twenty-seven horses turned out when the balance of the stuff got to the place appointed...”

The Building Committee was Alexander Leslie (Chairman), Elisha Dingwell, John Knight, William Henderson, Thomas Smith, Caleb C. Carl- ton Sr., Philip Leslie, Richard Boswell. The building was plainly furnished inside with a pulpit at one end and gallery at the other. Alexander Leslie was one of the session and the Treasurer of the Presbyterian congregation.

The church flourished for awhile, but business was moving east. In 1873 the Methodists left the Union Church to build one of their own. A portion of land on Main Street fifty feet by one hundred feet was given to the church by John Knight, and a small portion was bought from James McLauchlan. The church was completed in July, 1873. It was approximately forty feet by twenty-six feet in size. The trustees of the new church included John Mac- gowan (Chairman), Uriah Matthew, John McLean, Dr. Ephraim B. Mut- tart, Caleb C. Carlton Sr., John Gregory and Rev. Aquilla Lucas.

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Photo by Morley S Arum Courtesy Picture. of the Paul by beard-

Interior Souris Methodist Church, 1873-1925 (c.1921) Note walls and ceiling panelled in painted tin.

In that same year, the Rev. John George Cameron was welcomed as the new minister of the Souris, Bay Fortune and Annandale congregations.