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Picture

Rush's Wesleyan Methodist Church, Crosshill

Located south of Crosshill on Hutchison Road (Regional Road 5), reportedly on the same site as the cemetery which is located on the east side of the road.

Begun: c.1851    
Closed: 1889

The church was located south of Crosshill on present-day Regional Road 5, on land donated in 1851 by the Elisha Rush family. The number of members served by ministers of this Wesleyan Methodist Circuit, which was based at Crosshill, was estimated at 280 in 1867. The Circuit at this time was in the Guelph District, London Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and may have included Wellesley Village. Rev. Thomas Feather was minister from 1869-1870; he was followed by Revs. James Woodsworth (1871-1872) and Joseph Deacon, and the same James Woodsworth in 1873. Union in 1874 of the Wesleyans and the New Connexion Methodists resulted in the Methodist Church in Canada. Joseph Deacon was minister in 1874 and Robert J. Husband served from 1875-1877; Crosshill was then in the Wellington District, London Conference.

The last meeting of the congregation was held on June 30, 1889. The property was used later solely for a cemetery (known as Rush's, or Rushes, Cemetery), which was also the cemetery for St. Mary's Anglican and Boyd Presbyterian churches in Crosshill. Reference was made at the 1892 Annual Meeting of the Galt District, Guelph Conference of the Methodist Church to Cross-Hill [sic] being part of the Wellesley Mission which also included the churches at Linwood, Hawkesville and Bethlehem [sic]. The 1895 Annual Meeting was informed that the Crosshill building and land had been sold (for $166.77) in November, 1894 because the church "property [was] no longer required by this [Wellesley] Mission" and had been "unoccupied for some time." The proceeds from the sale were to be spent on the Linwood church debt ($30), and on repairs to the Linwood Church ($20), the parsonage ($30), and the Hawkesville Church ($40) - the balance to go to the Church Fund of the Hamilton Conference.

Records:
Baptism dates: unknown*     Location of records: unknown
Marriage dates: unknown      Location of records: unknown
Burial dates: unknown           Location of records: unknown

*Wesleyan Methodist Baptisms for Waterloo County c.1830 - c.1874  are in an indexed card file at the Kitchener Public Library.

References: Dick & Longo 1984:10,12; Lamb, WHS 1982(70):116; Linwood W.I.; Maple Leaf 1983:91; Methodist Church; Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Information excerpted from:
Waterloo County Churches, A Research Guide to Churches established before 1900, by Rosemary Willard Ambrose ©Waterloo-Wellington Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1993. It is reproduced by permission.

For a complete list of resources mentioned above, please click
here.
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