Ontario 13 HELEN K
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Ontario 13 HELEN K. WARNER The early history of the Church in Ontario is peppered A NEW BEGINNING with the names of the leaders of the Restoration. Joseph After the main body of the Saints left Ontario and went Smith, Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, and a host of others west, few Church members remained. The 1861 Canadian came to announce that the gospel of Jesus Christ had been Census recorded just under 100 members in the province.2 restored and that prophets again walked on the earth. It is The few sporadic missionary visits to Ontario between 1857 estimated that up to 2,000 converts heeded their message and 1877 did not result in any converts. and joined the newly restored religion in Ontario (then With the establishment of the Eastern States Mission in called Upper Canada).1 Most of them left for the United 1893, missionaries again began to labour in Ontario inter- States, responding to the call to gather to Zion, and trav- mittently, but had a decidedly unfriendly reception. Even elled first to Kirtland, Ohio, or to Far West, Missouri, on to though the Church had announced the discontinuation of Nauvoo, Illinois, and finally to the Great Salt Lake Valley polygamy in 1890, the press continued to rail against Mor- in Utah. Many converts left Ontario in the face of fierce mons.3 Another impediment to missionary work was that persecution and alienated family members. No doubt, they the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints could not have even imagined a time when their descen- (RLDS) was already well established in Ontario by the time dants would return as missionaries and mission presidents Latter-day Saint missionaries renewed their proselytizing and see a thriving Church in Ontario with chapels, wards, efforts, and RLDS ministers were sometimes at the fore- stakes, and even a beautiful temple. How this came to pass front of organized opposition to the missionaries.4 is a story of faith, devotion, and sacrifice by hundreds of There is no record of any convert baptisms in Ontario stalwart members and missionaries struggling in small, after 1857 until the early 1900s. The first known Latter-day often isolated branches, sharing their testimonies, con- Saint converts in the twentieth century were Annie Miller stantly building the membership, and raising the profile of Kindy and her eighteen-year-old daughter, Clara, who were the Church. baptized in Toronto in 1904. These women continued faithful, ◀ Helen K. Warner graduated from the University of Waterloo, was a researcher and docent at the Church His- tory Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has served on the Board of Directors of the Layton Heritage Museum (Utah) and on the Brampton Ontario Heritage Board, where she also served as a researcher. The author of local and Church histories, she has published in Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History: Ohio and Upper Canada, and was a contributor to the Brampton Heritage Times. She has served as “mission mother” in California, as matron of the Toronto Ontario Temple and more recently as public affairs director for Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic Provinces. She has organized family history conferences in both California and Ontario and was involved with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s visits to Toronto in 2007 and 2011. She is the mother of four, grandmother of ten, and great-grandmother of three. (Helen Warner) CANADIAN MORMONS 361 362 CANADIAN MORMONS showing kindness and hospitality to many sincere investigators. By 1913, a branch ▶ On Monday, 4 August 1913, missionaries in the following years.5 Other was created.15 missionaries, members from converts joined them, and the new Church Missionaries laboured in other areas of the Toronto Branch of the members energetically supported mission- Ontario as well. Walter Hopcraft, a prom- Canadian Conference, and aries’ efforts by attending street meetings and inent businessman in Bracebridge, started their friends enjoyed a picnic sharing the gospel with others.6 A Sunday preaching the gospel to the townsfolk. at High Park on the Civic School was organized in Toronto, and a Missionaries from the New York Confer- Holiday. Liahona, the Elders’ conference was held in Toronto’s Labour ence travelled to Bracebridge to conduct Journal says there were eighty Temple in 1907,7 but by the end of that year, baptisms as early as 1911.16 Although the people in attendance includ- the Sunday School had been discontinued elders were threatened with mob violence, ing mission president Ben E. because so many of the local members had they continued their work in Bracebridge.17 Rich.20 (Liahona, the Elders’ moved to “Zion.”8 But missionary work in By 1918, both a Sunday School and a Relief Journal [hereafter Liahona]) Toronto continued unabated, with enthu- Society were functioning there.18 However, siastic missionary reports. Missionaries in by 1921 the group had been discontinued Ontario, who had been assigned to the New because so many families had moved away.19 York Conference in 1908, became part of a Hamilton also became a centre of new Canadian Conference in 1913.9 Church activity. Olivia Peterson, from Unbeknownst to the missionaries in Huntsville, Utah, “who at one time had Toronto, there were at least a few other mem- David O. McKay as a school teacher,”21 bers of the Church in northwestern Ontario. had married a travelling salesman from In June 1903, Guttorm Thorgrimsen Bjerke Brantford, Ontario, and they settled in Ham- and his wife, Maren Olava Olsen Arvesaet, ilton with their two children before the First who had been baptized in Norway and were World War.22 In 1913, missionaries in Ham- on their way to Utah, settled in Fort William ilton sought permission to hold street meet- when illness prevented them from continu- ings, but were denied. The following year, ing their journey.10 Why Fort William? It they were finally granted permission to hold was on the Canadian Pacific Railway route street meetings, but they were vigorously to the west. In addition, two brothers, John opposed by local ministers, who launched and Christian Olson, who had joined the a barrage of negative and untrue informa- Church in Sweden, came with their families tion about the Church in local newspapers. to Bergland, near Lake of the Woods, sev- In spite of this opposition, a Sunday School eral hundred kilometres northwest of Port was established in Hamilton in 1914.23 Arthur, in 1910, forming a small group that Meanwhile, Church members in remained isolated from Church contact for Toronto, who had been holding meetings over a decade.11 in a rented hall for some time, were unex- In 1912, cottage meetings were being pectedly “put out” of their hall in August held every night of the week in Toronto, 1914, when their landlord, under pressure with resulting baptisms. One local of “another religious organization,” discon- member, Harriet Westmancotte, was spe- tinued the rental arrangement. For several cifically mentioned as being helpful in mis- months, until Church members were able to sionary work.12 A sympathetic newspaper secure another suitable hall, they held cottage article on missionaries raised awareness meetings in the homes of local members.24 of the Church in Toronto and enabled In 1915, missionaries renewed their three Church members, who had recently work in Preston (now part of Cambridge) moved there from Europe, to connect with where a few converts had been made pre- the local congregation.13 A Sunday School viously.25 As well, missionaries from the was organized in 1912 with local leaders,14 Northern States Mission, working in Detroit, and in October 1912 attendance at meet- Michigan, began regular visits to Windsor, ings averaged fifty, including members and Ontario, just across the river, in 1915.26 ONTARIO 363 With the onset of World War I, missionaries reported Bracebridge had continuing success, with more baptisms, that their street meetings were less successful because the and, in 1916, Church members were already formulating people were so preoccupied with the war. A number of men plans to construct a meetinghouse.32 By 1918, over twenty from the Toronto congregation went overseas to serve in baptisms had been recorded in the town.33 In 1917, the Saints the Canadian military, including William Brown, super- in Brantford had secured a hall where they could hold regu- intendent of the Sunday School. Their departure seriously lar Church services, with twenty to thirty people attending.34 slowed the progress of the Church.27 In spite of the war- Opposition nonetheless continued in Ontario, not only time conditions, a Relief Society was organized in Toronto from other churches, but often from police and govern- in 1915, with Harriet Westmancotte as president, and the mental officials. Despite the challenges, scattered Church Young Men’s and Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement members became a nucleus of future Church growth in Association (MIA) also functioned in the Toronto Branch several places. When the Canadian Mission was established that year. A local member, John M. Burns, was appointed in 1919, there were already branches of the Church func- president of the Toronto Branch in April 1916.28 Relief tioning in Toronto, Hamilton, and Brantford,35 as well as a Society women contributed to the war effort by preparing vigorous Sunday School and Relief Society in Bracebridge packages for servicemen overseas, knitting socks for the and a Relief Society in Preston.36 Red Cross, and collecting food and clothing for the needy.29 Relief Society women gained increased respect and grati- THE CANADIAN MISSION tude from the community through caring for victims of the In 1919, Church President Heber J. Grant announced the devastating influenza epidemic of 1918.30 creation of the Canadian Mission, which would encompass In spite of the reported slowdown of missionary work, areas in Canada formerly covered by the Eastern States more areas of Ontario were opened during the war, includ- Mission and the Northern States Mission, and that Nephi ing Orangeville, St.