The Narrative of Gordon Sellar Who Emigrated to Canada in 1825Sellar, Gordon
History
The Narrative of Gordon Sellar Who Emigrated to Canada in 1825
Sellar, Gordon
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ontario; Sellar, Gordon
before his name) told
him he had drawn the money but there was no condition as to the time he
should start the work. In 1830 there set in an unprecedented influx of
immigrants, who wanted land. The honorable gentleman saw his opportunity
and sold every acre of the 1200. Those who bought had to cut out the
road, and making it passable for travel was hard work for years, on
account of the size of the stumps and of many parts having to be
corduroyed.
With the coming of these new neighbors, a school became necessary and in
it services were held on Sunday. The master sought the help of a
Presbyterian minister in Toronto. He came once; on finding how rude
everything was, he declined to return. A North of Ireland family was no
more successful with an Anglican minister. He had newly come out from a
cathedral city in the south of England and was shocked to find the log
school had not a robing-room. The end was that a Methodist circuit-rider
took in our settlement in his rounds, which resulted in a majority of
those who attended his services uniting with the Methodist church. The
ministers who came from the Old Country in those early days were
singularly unfit for new settlements. The Anglican on landing assumed he
was the only duly accredited clergyman, and was offended at his claim
being slighted, while his feelings were jarred by the lack of conditions
he considered essential to the proper conducting of worship. The
Presbyterian ministers were more amenable to the changes, yet their
ideals were of the parishes they had known in Scotland--a church, a
manse, a glebe, tiends, and a titled patron. The effects of State
established churches in the Old Land were thus felt in the backwoods,
which was shown more markedly in the strife to reproduce State churches
in Canada. I look back with distress to the bitter controversy which
went on from year to year over the possession of the revenue from the
clergy reserves. The cause of strife was not altogether the money, but
the proof of superiority the possession of the fund would give. With
many it was as much pride as covetousness. When we recall the energy
that characterized the agitation over the clergy reserves, I think of
what the same effort would have accomplished had it been directed to
evangelize the province.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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