Presbyterianism in Summerside 1853-2003 
     
    
   
   
    
     Brehaut, Miss Frame, and Miss Susan Beairsto. 
     
    

    
     By the end of the 1860s the membership at 
     
     Summerside Presbyterian Church had increased 
     
     substantially. In 1871 the congregation became a 
     
     separate charge when a bill of incorporation, sponsored 
     
     by Hon. James Muirhead (1817-1903), passed in the 
     
     Legislature on March 17th. Muirhead had been first 
     
     elected to the Island Legislature to replace Hon. Joseph 
     
     Pope, and had settled at Summerside in 1860. He 
     
     remained a driving force in the economic, political, 
     
     educational and religious life of the rising new town of 
     
     Summerside. 
     
    

    
     The first Board of Trustees of the new Summerside 
     
     Presbyterian Church consisted of William Brehaut, 
     
     Robert Glover, Thomas B. Hall, William Henry Brown, 
     
     and David Montgomery. 
     
    

    
     The first resident minister of Summerside Pres- 
     
     byterian Charge, Rev. Dr. Neil MacKay, came from St. 
     
     David’s Church, Saint John, N. B. He was inducted in 
     
     1873. 
     
    

    
     Rev. Dr. MacKay’s predecessor in Summerside 
     
     Presbyterian Church, Rev. William R. Frame, had been 
     
     called to the church at Mount Stewart in 1872. Rev. Mr. 
     
     Frame would later alternate between preaching and 
     
     editorial work, becoming the first editor of the 
     
     Char/ottetoWn Guardian before his death in 1888. Dur— 
     
     ing his ministry in Summerside church membership had 
     
     grown appreciably. 
     
    

    
     At the time of Rev. Dr. MacKay’s induction the con— 
     
     gregation of Summerside Presbyterian Church consisted 
     
     of 120 families, representing 275 communicants. To 
     
     accommodate the growing church membership, due to 
     
    
   
   
    
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