George Affleck was born in Lanark, Ontario on March 7, 1912. He was educated at the University of Toronto, Emmanuel College, and St. Andrew's University in Scotland. He was ordained in the United Church in 1939 and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by Union College (Vancouver) in 1969. George Affleck and his wife, Fronia, served United Church congregations in British Columbia, including Skidegate, Kimberley, Vernon, Crescent Beach (Surrey), Powell River, Port Alberni, and Parksville. From 1972 to 1977, he was Presbytery Officer for the Vancouver Island Presbytery. George Affleck died July 15, 2000 at Nanaimo, B.C.

Mary Violet Deeprose was born in Stockdale, Ontario on February 11, 1903. She attended the United Church Training School in Toronto, 1938-1940, and was designated a deaconess by Alberta Conference, August 18, 1941. She was appointed by the Woman’s Missionary Society to the Crosby Girls’ Home in Lax Kw’alaams (then known as Port Simpson), 1940-1944. She left the work due to a family illness. From 1946-1949, she was employed as superintendent of the Mountview Social Service Home (Calgary). She taught in the public school system in Alberta from 1953 until her retirement in 1962. Violet Deeprose died at Drumheller, Alberta on February 22, 1991.

Barnabas Courtland Freeman was born in Frontenac County, Ontario, in July, 1869. He went to Saskatchewan as a missionary in 1891, was ordained by the Manitoba and Northwest Conference of the Methodist Church in 1892, and was married to Ida Lawson of Frontenac County the same year. In 1893, he travelled west to British Columbia, serving among the Indigenous peoples at Skidegate, Lax Kw’alaams (Port Simpson), Port Essington, and Cape Mudge. In 1910 he ventured south to serve pastorates in Cumberland, Revelstoke, Port Coquitlam, and Vancouver. He was elected President of B.C. Conference in 1920. Freeman died at Cape Mudge in 1935. Throughout most of his career, he wrote poetry, short stories and essays. His poetry was published in The New Outlook, The Christian Guardian, and other church periodicals.

Pierce Memorial United Church began as a Methodist mission in the early 1870s. During this period it was part of the Port Simpson circuit. A Methodist church was built in Port Essington in 1876. The congregation provided baptism, marriage, and burial services for the Indigenous, Japanese Canadian, and European Canadian residents of the town. Port Essington Methodist Church came into church union in 1925. On March 15, 1936 a new church building was dedicated at Port Essington, which was named Pierce Memorial, in honour of Rev. William Henry Pierce, the first Methodist minister in the area and an Indigenous (Metis) man who was ordained at the first meeting of the British Columbia Conference in 1887. According to the United Church yearbooks, Port Essington Pastoral Charge has had many different preaching points over the years such as Balmoral, Haysport, and Sunnyside. In the 1950s Prince Rupert Presbytery decided to close the congregation.

The Methodist congregation at Port Essington was originally part of the Port Simpson Circuit.