An acceptable sum of expenses for one missionary, his wife, four children, one horse, was $741.00 per year.
A FEW COMPARABLE PRICES
Stove 9.00 Tea Set 2.50 Fowl each .20 Boiled Lobster, each per pound .02 Beef per pound in the winter .03 Partridge, each .18 Osyters, per bushel .50
Hay and oats were usually gathered for the minister’s horse. Sometimes, a sleigh, buffalo robe and harness were provided, in addition, for a horse.
1870 Board for an assistant unmarried minister at $1.65 per week $ 86.00 per year Salary and the hire of a horse $120.00 per year Expenses for a superintending minister Salary, children’s allowances, transportation $600.00 per year 1872 Salary and the hire of a horse $ 750.00 per year Children’s allowances per child 35 40.00 per year
Regular giving for church expenses was a matter of education. The weekly envelope system introduced by the Rev. Joseph Sellers in 1876, was only a moderate success.
1905 Salary remained at $ 750.00 per year
1911 Salary increased to $1,000.00 per year
On October 3, 1980, Raymond Costain stated that the earliest ministers he could remember in the Miminegash Methodist Church received $40.00 in cash per year as their supplement towards the minister’s total salary.
During those early days, money was very scarce and physical survival in a wilderness area was an important problem. Where the Shore Road is now, there was
only one road through Miminegash, barely passable, which ended at the corner of the Palmer Road. In 1866, a bridge at George Farley’s Mill was built at a cost of
$32.00 and the road from Rix’s Gully to Horse Head was being built at an expense of $60.00. The road extending from Horse Head to Skinner’s Pond cost $48.00 more.
The Summerside Journal, May 24, 1866, reported further that the House of Assembly, appropriations for the Roads, Bridges, and Wharves, had granted $12.00
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