Contents—The Quakers—Among the Settlers—From Penn.—Duchess County—First Meeting-house—David Sand—Elijah Hick—Visiting Canada—James Noxen—A first settler—Their mode of worship—In Sophiasburgh—The meeting-house—Joseph Leavens—Hicksites—Traveling—Death, aged 92—Extract, Picton Sun—The first preaching places—First English church—In private houses—At Sandwich—The Indian church at the bay—Ernesttown—First Methodist church—Preaching at Niagara—First church in Kingston—At Waterloo—At Niagara—Churches at Kingston, 1817—In Hollowell—Thurlow—Methodist meeting-houses, 1816—At Montreal—Building chapels in olden times—Occupying the frame—The old Methodist chapels—In Hollowell township—In the fifth town—St. Lawrence—First English Church, Belleville—Mr. Campbell—First time in the pulpit—How he got out—The old church superseded—Church, front of Sidney—Rev. John Cochrane—Rev. Mr. Grier—First Presbyterian Church in Belleville—Rev. Mr. Ketcham—First Methodist Church in Belleville—Healey, Puffer—The site of the church—A second one.
THE EARLY CLERGYMEN AND CHURCHES OF UPPER CANADA.—THE QUAKERS.—NOXEN, LEAVENS, HICKS, SAND.
Among the early settlers of the Bay were a goodly number of the Society of Friends. Some of them were natives of Pennsylvania; but the majority were from the Nine Partners, Duchess County, New York, where had existed an extensive community of the followers of Fox. The first meeting-house built by the Quakers in Canada was in Adolphustown upon the south shore of Hay Bay, toward the close of last century.
About 1790, two Quaker preachers of some note visited Canada, they were David Sand and Elijah Hick. By appointment they held service in Adolphustown; it is uncertain whether this was before or after the building of the meeting-house. The first and principal preacher among the Quakers was James Noxen, one of the first settlers of Adolphustown, under whom the Society was organized. He subsequently in 1814 removed to Sophiasburgh, where he died in 1842.
The worship of the Quakers consists in essentially spiritual meditation and earnest examination of the inmost soul, a quiet holding of the balance, to weigh the actions and motives of everyday life. To the proper discharge of these duties no place can be too quiet, too far removed from the busy haunts of men.
The sixth township, or Sophiasburg had among its settlers a good many of this sect, which at first had meetings at Jacob Cronk’s, until the year 1825, when they erected a meeting-house upon the northern front of the township.
Two miles below the village of Northport, is situated a Friends’ meeting-house. Here twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays, congregate few, or many of the adherents of this persuasion, to commune with their God. The meeting-house, reposing upon the very verge of the shore, and half shadowed by beautiful maples and evergreens, is a fit place in which to submit oneself to strict self-examination. There is nothing here to disturb the supreme quietude of the place, unless, the gentle ripples of the water, or the more restless murmuring of the wave.
Joseph Leavens “was an early settler of Canada, an emigrant from New York,” he was for many years an esteemed preacher of the Hicksite branch of Quakers, and was accustomed to travel from place to place, to talk to his co-religionists. He had a place for preaching in a loft of his brother’s store in Belleville. He was one of the first Quaker preachers in Canada and travelled through all the townships at the Bay, and to East Lake.
“Died in the township of Hallowell, about the 24th of May, 1844, the venerable Joseph Leavens, in the 92nd year of his age. He was amongst the early settlers of the Canadian forest, and emigrated from New York State, and probably was a native of Nine Partners District. He had long been a Preacher in the Religious Society of Friends, and though not possessed of more than one talent, yet it is believed that, as he occupied that to his Maker’s glory, his reward will be as certain as though he had received ten talents. He was a diligent reader in the sacred volume. He was much beloved both by his neighbours and friends, and it is desired that his gospel labours may be profitably remembered by them and his relatives.”—(Picton Sun.)
In speaking of the individual clergymen who first came to the Province we have referred to many of the first preaching places and churches: but there remains to be added some further remarks.