Showing 33 results

People and organizations
Albright (family)
Family · 1888-1960

The Albrights were a Methodist/United Church family in Beamsville, Ontario. Charles Raymond Albright was born 1888 March 26 in South Cayuga. His parents were Josiah D. Albright and Sarah Moyer. He grew up in Beamsville, Ontario. In June 1917, he was ordained into the ministry of the Methodist Church. He retired in June 1952 and returned to Beamsville. His wife was Jean Little Wright. Other family members were his brother F.S. Albright (Fred), killed at Passchaendale in 1917, his brother W.D. Albright (Don) and his sister Mrs. Roy Hobden (Margaret). Before his death in 1960, Rev. Albright gave to The United Church of Canada a piece of property in Beamsville. This property later became the location for Albright Gardens, a community for retired United Church personnel.

Bowslaugh (family)
Family

The Bowslaugh family was a Methodist family in Ontario. Peter Bowslaugh (1756-1848) was a lay preacher on the Ancaster Circuit.

Family · 1882-1978

Rev. Charles “Charlie” Alfred Bridgman (1882-1978) was a missionary in West China who served there for thirty-five years. He was born in Winona, Ontario on March 20, 1882. He graduated from Victoria College in 1910. In 1912, he was ordained by the Methodist church and was appointed as a missionary in West China. He arrived in West China in 1913 and thereafter specialized in rural work where he ministered and also introduced new types of fruits and vegetables to the region. On June 20, 1917, he married Margaret Jean Modeland, a missionary nurse who specialized in child welfare. They had three children: Christy Jean, Donald Charles, and Elizabeth Ruth. He retired from missionary work in 1948 and returned to his hometown of Winona.

Brown Family, 1900-
Brown Family · Family · 1900-

Jennifer S.H. Brown (1940-) is the great-granddaughter of The Rev. Egerton Ryerson Young and the daughter of Harcourt Brown. She is a published author and professor emeritus of history at the University of Winnipeg, where she worked from 1988-2011. In 1997 she became the Director of the Centre for Rupert's Land Studies, and in 2004 was the Canada Research Chair for Aboriginal Peoples and Histories. She has done extensive research on her ancestry and has published widely on Indigenous history in Canada and the United States; particularly the fur trade, Indigenous culture, women's history, and oral history.

Harcourt Brown (1900-1990) was the maternal grandson of The Rev. Egerton Ryerson Young and nephew to E. Ryerson Young (Egerton Ryerson Young Jr.) He was professor emeritus of Brown University, where he taught French language and literature from 1937-1969. He also conducted extensive research on his ancestry.

Burbidge (family)
Family

Wilfrid Arnold Burbidge and Pearl Anderson United Church missionaries to Korea. Wilfrid Arnold Burbidge was born in Nova Scotia in 1897. He was educated at Mount Allison and Victoria College (earning the degrees B.A. and B.D.), and ordained as a Methodist minister. He was sent to Korea by the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board of The United Church of Canada, where he was effective in religious as well as agricultural improvement. He was evacuated in 1941, and served the Scotland Pastoral Charge and Grace United Church, Hamilton. He retired to Toronto in 1967, and continued to serve, first as hospital chaplain at Riverdale Hospital, and then as the first minister of the Korean United Church. Wilfrid Arnold Burbidge died in 1978. Pearl Anderson was born at Westmeath, Ontario on January 13, 1900. She was educated at the Normal School in North Bay and the Presbyterian Deaconess Training School in Toronto. In 1923, Pearl Anderson was appointed to Korea by the Women's Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church. In 1926, she resigned to marry Rev. Wilfrid Arnold Burbidge. Mrs. Burbidge died in 1997.

Coates (family)
Family

Harper Havelock Coates (1865-1934) and Agnes Wintemute Coates (1864-1945) were missionaries to Japan in the late nineteenth and earlier twentieth century. Agnes Wintemute Coates was born near St. Thomas, Ontario, in 1864. She studied at Normal School and Alma College (Mistress of Arts). She was sent by the Women's Missionary Society (Methodist) to Japan in 1886. She taught school until 1893, when she married Harper H. Coates and resigned from the Women's Missionary Society. She raised a family, and continued to teach school. She also studied and taught nutrition. She had many Japanese friends, converted to Ba'hai, and remained in Japan after her husband's death. She died in 1945. Harper Havelock Coates was born near Prescott, Ontario, in 1865. He studied at Victoria University (M.A., D.D.), and was ordained in 1888. He went to Japan (ca. 1890) as part of Dr. Eby's "Self-Support Band" and taught English in government schools until 1892. He was a missionary at Central Tabernacle, Tokyo, until 1902, Professor of Theology at Aoyama College until ca. 1914, and an evangelist at Hamamatsu and Kanazawa until his death in 1934. He was an expert in Japanese language and customs. He had a special interest in Buddhism, and he co-authored a major study of Honen, a Buddhist reformer. He also wrote poetry and music

Ferguson (family)
Family · 1875-1960

James Young Ferguson and Harriet Ferguson were Presbyterian missionaries to Formosa. James Young Ferguson was born in 1875. He studied arts, theology and medicine at Queen's University. He was ordained in 1905, and sent to northern Formosa (Taiwan) by the Presbyterian Church. The founder and first superintendent of Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei, completed in 1912, he returned to Canada in 1919 due to poor health. He was chief of staff and chief surgeon at Toronto East General Hospital for eighteen years, after which he turned to private practice. He died in 1965. Harriet Ferguson was married to James Young Ferguson. She served as a teacher at the Formosa mission between 1905 and 1919. Harriet Ferguson died in 1960.

Glaves (family)
Family

Harry Glaves was born in 1908 and graduated from Smithville High School in 1928. He worked for Bell Canada for 35 years, retiring in 1968. Margery Glaves was born Margery Doris Hughes in 1908. She attended St. James Collegiate (Winnipeg), Sarnia Collegiate and Alma College, Sarnia. She worked as a clerk-typist and stenographer. In 1968, Harry and Margery Glaves went to Zambia as missionaries, where Harry Glaves worked as a hospital administrator until 1976

Gundy (family)
Family

The Gundy family was a New Connexion family from Ireland. The father, William Gundy (1795-1870), and four of the sons, James (1831-1897), John, Samuel Bradley (1833-1873) and Joseph R. (1838-1916) became ministers.

William Gundy (1831-1897) was a Methodist minister in Ontario. The son of Rev. William Gundy, James Gundy was born in Ireland. Received on trial in 1859 and ordained in 1863, he served in Ontario as a Methodist New Connexion, and later Methodist, minister until his retirement in 1894.

Hockin (family)
Family

The Hockin Family included Arthur Hockin, his son Arthur, Jr., his daughter-in-law Lily Hockin [nee Howie], and their daughter, Katharine. The three eldest served the Methodist Church of Canada, Arthur as a minister in Nova Scotia, his son and son's wife as missionaries in China (Arthur, 1910-1912, and Lily, 1910-1946). Katharine Hockin served as a missionary in China, and as an educator in Canada. Lily [Howie] Hockin was a daughter of the manse, her father Isaac was a Methodist minister in New Brunswick, and her sister, Jessie Howie, was a missionary in Japan with that church.

Homer Grant Brown (family)
Family

Homer Grant Brown (1882-1957) was born near St. Mary’s, Ontario where he attended St. Mary’s Collegiate Institute. Following that, he attended Victoria College at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1906 with a B.A. He taught for a year, then went to British Columbia for Home Mission work, spending a year at Trail. From there, on the recommendation of the YMCA he took a position as teacher of English in one of the government schools in Japan from 1908-1910. Following that, he returned to America where he spent some time in theological studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York, specializing in the Department of Religious Education while also working on his M.A. at Columbia University. Mr. Brown went to China in the fall, 1912 primarily for educational work. During his first term in China he re-organized and graded the Sunday School in Chengtu. Brown married Muriel Hockey, another missionary, in January 1915. During World War I, from 1917-1918 he secured a release from mission in order to go to France with the Chinese Labour Corps. Returning to Canada in 1918 he went to New York for further study and sailed to China to begin his second term of service in January, 1920. Upon return to China, he became General Secretary of the West China Christian Educational Union, a post he occupied until 1924. He then spent some time in charge of the Educational Department of West China Union University before being appointed to supervising evangelical work in Chengtu City and the Chengtu district for his last term there. He returned to Canada to take on ministry in 1944 and worked in Port Rowan, B.C. for a year before returning to his home town of St. Mary’s in 1946. Following that, he took a pastorate at Fairground in Haldimand-Norfolk presbytery which he served for six years.

Muriel Brown (nee Hockey) received a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria College. In 1912 she served as the Assistant Superintendent of the National Training School, Toronto. Then, having been specially trained for educational work, she went to China under the Woman’s Missionary Society in 1913. She carried on the work of the school for evangelists’ wives, and taught in the Canadian School for Missionaries’ Children, where for a time she acted as matron. She also worked for a time teaching English in the refugee University of Nanking in Chengtu. The Browns returned from China in 1942.

The Browns’ had three children, Isobel Joy, Julia and Gwendolyn Maud.

John and BJ Klassen
Family · 1929-

John and Betty Jean (BJ) (Neely) Klassen were a couple who were deeply involved in the United Church of Canada in various capacities.

John Klassen (1929-) was born in Saskatchewan. He graduated from United College at the University of Winnipeg with a B.A. (1951) and followed with a Diploma in Theology. Upon ordination by Manitoba Conference, he was settled at Sioux Lookout in Ontario from 1954-1958. Following that, he and his wife BJ both took a post-graduate year at Union Theological Seminary in New York (1959), then he returned to Wesley United Church in Welland from 1958-1964. While there, he held positions as Presbytery Chairman of Colleges and Students, Presbytery Christian Education Convenor, Chairman of the Vocations, and member of the National Board of Christian Education. These interests led to the acceptance of an appointment of Field Secretary for Christian Education for Manitoba Conference (1964-1968). He then returned to Kingston to work at St. Margaret’s Church from 1968-1977, where he was Chairman of the Bay of Quinte Conference Staff Committee, and a member of the Executive of the Conference and of the General Council Conference Staff Committee. He was Chairman of Kingston Presbytery and Chairman of the Committee on Candidates, and Professor/Director of Field Education at Queen’s Theological College. In 1986, he and his wife BJ became co-directors of Field Education at Emmanuel College.

Betty Jean (BJ) Neely (1929-2016) was born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. She attended elementary and high school in Fort Frances, then received a B.A. from United College, Winnipeg in 1954. Afterwards, she received a MRE degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York (1959), and a Master of Divinity from Queen’s Theological College in Kingston (1973). For a time, she was Bay of Quinte Conference staff with responsibility for Program and Leadership Development (1976-1985). In 1986 she and John became co-directors of Field Education at Emmanuel College. BJ was an ardent and dedicated volunteer with the church; taking part in The National Leadership Development Committee, The New Curriculum, The Task force on Sexuality and Morality, The Church and the World Commission, and The National Over-view Committee. She was also chair of the National Coordinating group for the United Church’s Study Program on Sexual Orientation, Lifestyles and Ministry. She was also deeply involved in her community and worked with the Ontario Welfare Council, Board of Directors of the Sunnyside Children’s Home in Kingston, was a member of the library board in Welland, and worked with unwed mothers, while being involved in CGIT, Student Christian Movement and Young People’s Movement. The Klassens had two children, Daphne and Gregory.

Jolliffe (family)
Family

Richard Orlando Jolliffe and his younger brother, Charles Julius Pasmore Jolliffe were, along with their families, Methodist and then United Church missionaries to China.

Jones (family)
Family

Gordon R. Jones (1885-1952) was born in Brantford, Ontario; volunteered for China at the Nashville Student Volunteer Convention in 1906; studied theology at Victoria College, 1907-1910; left for China in November 1910. In China, he served initially in Chengtu, Junghsien, Chungchow and Chungking. He married Clara E. German on August 30, 1914, at Karuizawa, Japan. He served with the Chinese Labour Corps in Europe during the First World War; and upon returning to China, continued to serve in Chungking, with a brief stay in Chengtu in the mid-1940s ; and returned to Canada in 1947. Clara E. (German) Jones (1887-1969) was born in Strathroy, Ontario. She graduated from the Methodist National Training School in 1913 and was appointed by the Woman's Missionary Society to Japan in 1913. She resigned in 1914 when she married Gordon R. Jones. Clara and Gordon Jones had two daughters, Eleanor and Barbara, and one son, Stephen.

Kaye (family)
Family

John Kaye was born in 1838 in Napanee, Ontario. In 1864, he married Eliza Gundy, daughter of Methodist New Connexion minister, William Gundy. John Kaye was ordained as a Methodist New Connexion minister in 1866. He served various circuits in Ontario and died in 1907. John Frederick Kaye was born in Waterdown, Ontario, in 1870. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1896. In 1901, he was married to Katharine Mennig. He served various churches in Ontario until his retirement in 1934. He died in 1941.

Large (family)
Family

Kathrina Vipond Roseveau Smith (Rena) was the daughter of Rev. John Vipond Smith. She received her B.A. from Victoria University in 1902 and her M.A. in 1908. From 1902 to 1906 she held a teaching position at Wesleyan High School, Grahamstown, South Africa. She married Rev. Richard Samuel Edgar Large, the brother of Rev. Thomas Alfred Large. Thomas Alfred Large was born in 1859. After his ordination, he became a missionary to Japan. He was murdered there in 1890 by burglars when he tried to defend the Toyo Eiwa Gakko girls' school in Tokyo. His wife, the former Eliza Spencer, was also injured in the incident, and she remained in Tokyo with their daughter Kate until 1895.

McRae (family)
Family

Duncan and Edith McRae were Presbyterian/United Church missionaries to Korea. Duncan Murdoch McRae was born in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, in 1868. He worked as a blacksmith, then studied at Dalhousie University and Presbyterian College (Pine Hill), Nova Scotia. He was ordained in 1898, and served as a missionary to Korea until his retirement in 1937. He died in 1949. Born in 1875, Edith F. Sutherland married Duncan Murdoch McRae in 1900. She founded a girl's primary school in Hamheung, Korea, and returned with her husband to Baddeck, Nova Scotia, in 1937. She died in 1956.

Family · 1909-

Rev. Frederick Merrill Ferguson (1909-1984) was a United Church missionary in Angola with his wife Verona Ferguson. M. Ferguson was born in Durham County, Ontario and from an early age was interested in church work. In 1925 he became a candidate for ministry and served as a student minister for the Board of Home Missions in Saskatchewan and Ontario during his summers off from university. During his studies, he worked as student minister in Scarborough, Ontario. He was ordained in 1933 alongside his brother Clarence, by the Bay of Quinte Conference. He subsequently worked for the Board of Home Missions in Cadomin-Mountain Park Pastoral Charge in Alberta. In 1934 he was appointed to the Angola Mission and also married Verona Ferguson (nee Clemence). In October 1934 he and V. Ferguson left for Angola where they both served as missionaries for the next twenty five years. In Angola they served at Chissamba, Camundongo and Dondi mission stations. Aside from his missionary work, M. Ferguson also organized boys’ work, taught village leaders, helped in the Portuguese church while studying Portuguese, served as president of the mission council and as a government liaison. In 1959 the Ferguson’s resigned from the mission for health and family reasons and returned to Canada. Upon his return, M. Ferguson served at the following charges until his retirement in 1979: Parkview United Church Stratford, Cosburn United Church Toronto East and Kings view United Church Oshawa.

Verona Irene Ferguson (1910-2005) was born in Stayner, Ontario. She was brought up in the Methodist Church. After high school she relocated to Toronto and studied to become a nurse. After graduation, she obtained a position in Northern Ontario with the Canadian Red Cross Society and spent over a year at Dryden. In 1934 she married M. Ferguson and for the next twenty five years served with him as a missionary in Angola. Upon the family’s return to Canada, V. Ferguson commuted to Toronto and did home visits with Portuguese speaking households. She passed away in 2005 at the age of ninety-four.

M. and V. Ferguson had four children. Their eldest daughter Helen Voutt (b. 1937) continued in their footsteps and worked with Angola Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Outerbridge (family)
Family

Leonard and Christena were United Church missionaries to China. Leonard Mallory Outerbridge was born in Warwick, Bermuda in 1900. He attended school in Bermuda, becoming a specialist in tropical agriculture and head of the Department of Agriculture. He obtained his B.A. from Wabash College, Indiana, his D.D. from Queen's University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago. He was ordained by the Bay of Quinte Conference in 1925. He went to China in 1925 for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and stayed for six years. In 1940, Leonard Outerbridge returned to Canada to serve as a minister in Saskatchewan. In 1949 he joined the Canadian Navy as chaplain. He died in 1960 as a result of a car accident. Christena Martyn was a high school teacher who attended Queen's University. She and Leonard Outerbridge were married in June 1925.

Pescott (family)
Family

Mabel Hardy and Walter Edwin Pescott were married in 1892. As Walter Pescott served as a Methodist and then a United Church minister, the couple served various charges in Ontario: Burlington Plains, Port Colborne, Hamilton, Simcoe, Galt, Toronto, Windsor, London, Kitchener and Orillia, as well as in Winnipeg and Vancouver. They had one daughter, Aleda, born in 1918.

Pottle (family)
Family

Herbert Lench Pottle (1907-2002) was born in Flatrock Newfoundland in 1907 and died in Ottawa September 21, 2002. He married Muriel Ethel Moran in 1937 and they had three children -two daughters surviving into adulthood.

H.L. Pottle received his B.A. from Mount Allison (1932) and his M.A. (1934) and Ph.D. (1937) in Psychology and Education from the University of Toronto. Dr. Pottle received an LL.D. from Mount Alison in 1992.
Dr. Pottle held many government positions in Newfoundland including Executive Officer, Department of Education, St. John's (1938-1944); Director of Child Welfare for Newfoundland and judge of the first juvenile court in St. John's (1944-1947); Commissioner for Home Affairs and Education (1947-1949). He was known as the last living father of Confederation having been one of the men who brought Newfoundland into Canada. He resigned from the Smallwood Cabinet in 1955 and became the Secretary of the Board of Information and Stewardship for the United Church of Canada (1955-1963). In 1961-62 he worked overseas for the U.N. and left in 1963 to work in the Deparment of National Health and Welfare in Ottawa until his retirement in 1972.

Muriel Ethel Pottle (nee Moran) was originally from Smithfield Ontario and married Dr. Herbert Lench Pottle in 1937.
Muriel was active in the UCW, serving on the M&O Conference Executive in 1969-1971. She also volunteered on the Board of Directors for the St. John's YWCA.

Muriel died April 21, 1990 in Ottawa.

Reed Family
Family · 1891-2016

Frederick John Reed and Annie. H. Reed (Hale) were involved in mission work in China for over 30 years with the Methodist, then United Church. Their children were deeply involved in United Church activities, and especially, the “Missionary Kids” community of children of missionaries.

Sanders (family)
Family

Minnie J. Sanders was born Mary Jane Mawhir in Belfast, Ireland, in 1855. She was a missionary of the American Congregational Church to Angola. She arrived in Benguela in 1882 and the same year she married William Henry Sanders. She died in 1891. William Henry Sanders was born in Tillypally, Jaffna, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1856, the son of a missionary. He was educated in Massachussetts, and ordained a Congregational minister in 1880. He embarked for missionary work in Angola later that year, where he served until 1930. He was married to Mary Jane Mawhir, and then Sarah Bell. Rev. Sanders died in 1947.

Seymour (family)
Family

James Seymour was born in Ireland and emigrated to Canada in 1858; he served Methodist New Connexion circuits in Ontario until retirement in 1864. From 1874 to 1882 he assisted his son, James Cooke Seymour, in his ministry in Ontario--the junior Seymour retired in 1894. James Cooke Seymour published several books, including Christ, the Apocalypse.

Simpson (family)
Family

Edward Kyle Simpson M.D. was a Missionary to West China for the Methodist Church from 1912-1926. While in China he met and married Alice Lessing Estabrook in Chengtu Feb 17, 1916. Dr. Simpson was ordained in London Conference and left for China in 1912. In 1919 he took charge of the hospital at Junghsien for two years, then moved to Fowchow for medical work. Alice L. Estabrook was appointed by the W.M.M to West China in 1910. Alice became first Principal of the Union Normal School until 1916 when she resigned to be married to Dr. E.K. Simpson.

Both E.K. and Alice left China in 1926, they had two children Alice Janet (born 1917) and Wilda Pauline (born 1923).

Stephenson (family)
Family

Frederick Clark Stephenson (1864-1941) was the secretary of young people's foreign missions groups in the Methodist and United Church. He was born near Bowmanton, Ontario. After studying at Albert College, Belleville and Trinity Medical College, Toronto, he applied to work in foreign missions. He began his work as organizer of the Student Missionary Campaign in 1894 and then became the first and only Secretary of the Young People's Forward Movement for Missions, 1906 to 1925, and of the Young People's Missionary Education Committee from 1925 to 1936.

Annie Devina Watson (1862-1939) worked in missions as editor, writer, teacher, and speaker. She married F.C. Stephenson in 1896 and worked in for the above mission organizations as well as the Woman's Missionary Society and the General Board of Missions until her death.

Stone (family)
Family

Jean and Alfred Stone were United Church missionaries to Japan. Jean Gillespie was born in Parry Sound in 1900. She attended Normal School and the Methodist National Training School. In 1925, she was appointed to Japan as a missionary and in 1931, resigned to be married to Alfred Stone. After being widowed in 1954, Jean Stone served as Secretary to St. Luke's United Church in Toronto. She died in 1987. Alfred Stone was born in Highgate, Ontario, in 1902. He attended Victoria University and was ordained in 1926. He served as a missionary in Japan. Rev. Stone died in Japan in 1954 as a result of a ferry boat accident

Taylor (family)
Family

John Thomson Taylor (1870-1955) was a Presbyterian/United Church missionary to India. He was born near Galt, Ontario. In 1899, he married Harriet Ellen Copeland and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. The same year, the Taylors went to India to work as missionaries. Rev. Taylor served as Principal of the Theological Seminary at Indore. He retired from the United Church in 1945.

Woodsworth (family)
Family

Dr. Harold F. Woodsworth was born in Portage la Prairie in 1883 and was a missionary in Japan for over 30 years. He received his B.A. from Victoria College in 1907. In the fall of 1908 he went to Japan as a missionary with the Y.M.C.A, teaching in the English department at a Japanese Government School in Nagasaki, then Kagoshima. In 1910 became a missionary under the Methodist Church, and returned to Canada for post-graduate work. In 1911, he married Miss Ada Frances Chown, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F.A. Chown of Kingston. They returned to Japan together, first to a language school in Tokyo, then to Kobe, where Mr. Woodsworth became a professor of English at Kwansei Gakuin University, later becoming Dean of the Literature Department, and Dean of Theology of the University for a number of years. He was ordained during a furlough in 1918, during which time he also took his M.A. at Columbia University, New York. In 1936 he was honoured with a Doctor of Divinity from Victoria College. He died in 1939. H.F. Woodsworth's brother was C.C.F. leader J.S. Woodsworth. Their father, James Woodsworth, was a former Superintendent of Home Missions for the Methodist Church of Canada.

Ava (Chown) Woodsworth (1885-1956) was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario. She was a graduate of Whitby Ladies College and Queen’s University (1909). Mrs. Woodsworth taught English and the Bible in Japan. She was active on the National Council of the YWCA and the Dominion Board of the United Church Women's Missionary Society.

The Woodsworths had two sons, Kenneth, and David, and two daughters, Mary and Sylvia.