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Picture

St. Mary's Anglican Church, Crosshill

The church was located on the "Gore lot" at the junction of Hutchison Road (Regional Road 5) and Lobsinger Line (Township Road 15), at the south end of the village, across the road from the present Crosshill Mennonite Church (formerly Boyd Presbyterian).

Begun: 1858
Closed: 1909

A stone church was built in 1861. According to J. Dick and M. Longo in their 1984 (rev. 1989) publication, 
Heritage Driving Tour of Wellesley Township, "St. Mary's had a tall stone tower which dominated the landscape, and which was inset with a beautiful, large rosetta window. The church was dismantled in the 1940's" (pg. 13).
 
The congregation was affiliated with Grace Anglican Church in Millbank. The size of the St. Mary's congregation slowly declined to about five or six families, with the result that the congregation was disbanded in 1909. The church was taken down in 1942.

Of interest: Rushes Cemetery, located south of Crosshill on Regional Road 5, served as the cemetery for St. Mary's  Anglican Church and Boyd Presbyterian Church as well as for Rush's Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Records:
Baptism dates: 1858-1925*    Location of records: Diocese of Huron Archives
Marriage dates: 1874-1925*   Location of records: Diocese of Huron Archives
Burial dates: 1868-1926*        Location of records: Diocese of Huron Archives

Confirmations for 1873-1926; families from 1870 are at the Diocese of Huron Archives (Huron College, London, ON N6G 1H3). *Records extend beyond the date of 1909 when the church was said to have been disbanded. This is explained by the fact that entries from Grace Church, Millbank are included with those of Crosshill.

References: Dick & Longo 1984:10,12-13; Linwood W.I.; Maple Leaf 1983:91; R. Taylor 1986.

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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