Gilberts: St. Thomas Anglican Church celebrating sesquicentennial

There is a small, picturesque church alongside Grande River Line, previously generally known as the River Highway, in Dover Township.

Revealed Oct 24, 2025 • Final up to date Oct 24, 2025 • 4 minute learn

The St. Thomas Anglican church in Dover Township is celebrating its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary Saturday with a particular service of hope. (Trevor Terfloth/ )

There’s a small, picturesque church about eight to 10 kilometres from Chatham alongside Grande River Line, previously generally known as the River Highway, in Dover Township.

That church, St. Thomas Anglican Church, is celebrating its sesquicentennial this 12 months. It’s holding its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary service Saturday, Oct. 25 at 11:15 a.m. The trustees of the church are calling it a “special service of hope,” and their focus is on the longer term in addition to the previous.

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The founding of St. Thomas is a tremendous story of braveness and survival.

It begins in late January, 1798, with the household of Thomas and Martha Smith, who acquired this lot just a few years earlier. The Smiths labored exhausting to ascertain their farm in very remoted circumstances. That January the Smith dad and mom requested their daughters, Mary and Ann, to enter the forest to carry residence the cows. It regarded like there is likely to be a storm and so they needed to guard their animals from it.

Sadly, the storm got here up extra shortly than anticipated, and never solely have been the cows caught out on this great tempest, however so have been the 2 Smith ladies. When searchers lastly have been capable of get out the subsequent day, they discovered the women behind a fallen tree the place that they had sought shelter. They have been locked in one another’s arms, with Mary mendacity over Ann. Mary was dead from publicity and Ann, whereas nonetheless alive, had each legs frozen.

It was very early within the improvement of the area and there have been no medical doctors or hospitals to which to take the lady. Their solely possibility was to take her to Hannah Dolsen, who lived along with her husband Matthew at Dolsen’s Settlement, just a few kilometres east . Hannah acted as an unofficial doctor for the individuals within the space.

Hannah realized Ann wouldn’t survive except they reduce off each her legs. In any other case gangrene would set in. There was nothing to do however to place Ann on the desk, give her some whiskey to uninteresting the ache and a bullet to chunk on, and reduce off the legs with a butcher knife.

Think about the scene. How terrible it should have been for everybody , particularly for 13-year-old Ann. However, not solely did she survive, she thrived and it was her who supplied for the institution of St. Thomas church 77 years later.

Martha died a little bit greater than a month later, and Thomas died in 1805. Like her dad and mom, Ann was deeply spiritual her entire life. She was capable of take care of this farm and switch it right into a thriving enterprise.

In 1819, when St. Paul’s Anglican grew to become the primary church throughout the confines of the later metropolis of Chatham, Ann’s identify was on the high of the listing of subscribers. She gave $10 towards its institution, a princely sum at the moment.

And, in 1847, when she started to consider her dying and what would occur to her property, with the graves of her dad and mom and her sister included, Ann determined to offer all 120 hectares to the Anglican church. Her will acknowledged the church was to be constructed over the graves, hers included, and it set two hectares apart for a church, a cemetery and every other buildings that is likely to be added. In time, a church corridor and a rectory have been constructed. The remaining 118 hectares was to be farmed, and the earnings from that used “for the purpose of keeping such church in repair and in making improvements . . . upon the parcel of five acres around such church.”

Ann lived till 1870, and it was 5 years later that people within the space have been capable of garner the funds to construct the church. The cornerstone was laid by native masons on Oct. 12, 1875, and the primary providers have been held the next Might. St. Thomas was linked with Holy Trinity Church in Chatham, and didn’t turn into a separate parish till 1902.

As has been the case with many different small, rural church buildings, St. Thomas remained viable till current years. Sadly, with the depopulation of the farming neighborhood, the church congregation dwindled till it was just lately closed. Nevertheless, the neighborhood continues to battle for its survival as a chapel of ease, and for the maintenance of the cemetery and corridor . That’s the reason they’re calling this anniversary service a service of hope.

Take into account becoming a member of the parents of St. Thomas Saturday. All of us have a stake within the survival of this church, no matter our affiliation with the Anglican religion. It’s a landmark, and the positioning of an early tragedy, overcome by a really brave and tenacious woman. It deserves to be round for one more 150 years.

The Gilberts are award-winning historians with a ardour for telling the tales of Chatham-Kent’s fascinating previous.

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