Nassagaweya Presbyterian

Nassagaweya Presbyterian Church & Cemetery

SW Lot 16, Concession 4, Nassagaweya Township.
3097 15th Sideroad, East of Guelph Line.
GPS 43.52794°N, –80.03406°W

History: The first Nassagaweya Presbyterian church, a frame building in Haltonville, was erected in 1839. The old records are missing, but a society was organized some years before that at Knowles School House on Hutcheon’s Hill in June 1836, when John Bell, John McAlpine and John McKinnon were appointed the first elders of the Presbyterian Church in Nassagaweya by the Rev. D. McMillan. They had no minister stationed here but were occasionally supplied by ministers from adjoining stations, amongst whom were the following: Meldrum, Wardrobe, Barrie, Ferguson and Rintoul, and also students from college.

The earliest record found is as follows: At Nassagaweya, the seventeenth day of May 1839, on which day the session of the Presbyterian Church met, after sermons in English and Gaelic by the Rev. Peter Ferguson and Rev. William Rintoul was constituted with prayer. Preparatory to the dispensation of the Lord’s Supper, the following persons were examined and admitted to church membership – Mary, wife of John King; Margaret, wife of Samuel Taylor; and Ann, wife of Archibald Campbell.

In 1861 a stone church was built to replace the frame one. Church membership in 1854 was 45 persons. This increased in numbers until 1869 when the congregation at Campbellville was organized, at which time 58 members left the Nassagaweya congregation and went to Campbellville. In 1889 the communion roll contained 204 names. [Abridged from “Early History of Nassagaweya” by J. Norrish, printed 16 Sep 1889]

Norrish also states about Haltonville: “This place is and always has been called Sodom. I suppose some person called it that at first for mischief, the residents call it the bigger name [Haltonville] but it don’t stick worth a straw.” The rival community of Moffat was called Gomorrah.

This stone church was recognized as a Heritage Building in 2004.

The cemetery was established in 1866. There are no known cemetery records.

Transcriptions of this cemetery are available on-line by credit card from the O.G.S. web site click here for price/order.