WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22,1988, PAGE 5 It is a red brick country church at a crossroads you won't see marked on any map made in this century. It is surrounded by ten acres of cemetery lawn, neater now in the late twentieth century, thanks n no small part to power grass trimmers. The surrounding farms have yielded up hefty harvests of hay. Some stands now in an adjacent field, bound in bundles looking forever like gigantic riounds of shredded wheat. It is Sunday, June 19, 1988. Father's Day. The 142th anniversary of a little country church. One of the church elders stands at the entrance to greet friend and stranger alike. A lifetime of farming has made his handshake firm. Inside, the pews have filled to capacity. One family of five, arriving just before the service is to begin, must sit in the very front row, with no barrier twixt them and the choir. Naked justice. It is not so full every Sunday; but every year the anniversary brings back native sons and daughters, those who were once children to tease and giggle thröugh long hot June Sundays. Now they return with their own children. One hundred and forty two years. The year: 1846. The congregation: mostly Scottsh and Irish settlers who fled (or were pushed) from their homelands to this new and forbidding country. Among them were my great-great-grandparents, late of Ireland, who had settled on a farm on the 14th concession, two miles away. When you think about what confronted those early settlers, and what emerged from their labor, one has only to wonder. They arrived in a country that was unbroken and unfenced' They cleared the land,, built their first log cabins --and their first log church. WITH OUJR FEET UP by Bill Swan ~rt Country church They bore children: many, many children. A reading of the early census of those days reveals families of. eight, ten, twelve children as common. As they prospered, they replaced rough temporary shelter with sturdier cabins or stone.d ouses. (The second log cabin on my great-great-grandfathers farm was still occupied as late as 1950.) The brick church building went up sometime in the 1850s. You cen get some idea of tbe scope of the prosperity by looking at the farm houses standing today. Most are solid red brick or stone houses, impressive stil1. These rural palaces were built usually between 1870 and 1900 --within the lifetime of the original settlers. In this ricb farmland of Oxford County anything then was possible. Many of the farms are still cultivated by descendà nts of the pioneers. Others have $1.2million renovation to Centennial building recommended By Mike Johnston The Centennial building on Centre St. S. will never be a money-maker for the Town of Whitby but if renovations don't soon begin the building will start to deteriorate, according to a study on the building by Jean Monteith and Associates. The results of the study, which was commissioned by the Town in July of 1986, were presented to Whitby's operations committee Monday night. Most of the recommendations call for improvements or renova- tions at an estimated cost of $1.2 million to the 130-year-old build- ing which Whitby began leasing from the City of Oshawa and Ontario County council in 1964. Major findings include: - the need to construct an elevator - redecorate the senior's room - relocate the archivist's office to make the foyer larger for the theatre - expand the theatre to include a changeroom and prop storage room - expand the washrooms - improve the access ramp - upgrade the heating and ventilation - pave the parking lot. One other recommendation also presented to committee received opposition from the Iurham Region YMCA which rents space in the building. The study recommended that the YMCA's children's nursery be relocated from the gold room to the main floor. But Janice Griffith, general manager of the YMCA, told committee there is no space on the main floor for the nursery. "If you adopt this, the school will have to close," said Griffith, who noted that the school has 115 children which attend at different times five days a week. She said Durham Region has one of the highest rates of child abuse and a nursery school "is high on the list of preventing child abuse." Regional councillor Tom Edwards, a member of the Children's Aid Society, said that he has not seen any figures which show Durham has a high rate of child abuse. Griffith was also upset that the YMCA has been informed by the Town's parks and recreation department that it must vacate part of the building by Sept. 15. Griffith said the space "sup- ports the nursery school." Parks and recreation director Larry Morrow said the YMCA was asked to vacate the space before the study was completed. Griffith, with some help from YMCA board member and former SEE PAGE 9 Member of Ontario Share & Deposit Insura7nce C7orporation AMCU CREDIT UNION INC. AMCU NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT We are rapidly growing in your area Help your money grow along with us • Full Banking Services• • New Computer System• •,Friendly & Knowledgeable Staff at 7 Branches* Only a phone cal away, or better still drop in today 400 Dundas St. West, Whitby, Ontaro 668-4500 . (Tor. Line) 686-3825 ~4744 ~44.4 ~ : ~ .. -. -J r cw cO $9n SPECIAL . JOHN BROUWER GARDEN AND LANDSCAPING CENTRE 650 Lakeridge Road South, Ajax, Ontario L1S 4S7 TELEPHONE: 686-1545 or 686-1680 passed into the hand s of strangers. Inside the church, cooled now by silent ceiling fans, I sit "through the service with my three-year-old daughter, my mother, a brother and one aunt. My daughter will not remember the occasion,. ,of course. But sometime in the future the memones will percolate through, and I hope she will feel some connection to her rots. For my mother,and her sister (now 80) this annual pilgrimage neither would miss. This was the church they attended 70 and more years ago; it is a step back in time. With them in the pew sit 142 years of family. Tey grew up in a log cabin; moved in their teens to their grandfather's old stone house. Each has lived through half of this little church's history. After the service, we stroll through the grounds. Erin jumps daringly from the lower tombstones. Mother limps across the rough ground, heaved in places from winter graves. My aunt points out how quickly the flowers have wilted on her husband's grave. We walk slowly through the cemetery grounds to salute brothers and fathers and friends. What stories are told in the tombstones: the son of the childless couple who died at the age of six years, five month and 13 days; the healthy, strong young farm lads lost to the miserie's of war; the ravages of disease on-families. Gone, but not forgotten. Five generations now share the 10 well-trimmed acres. A hot, dry wind blows across the countryside from the hay fields to the west. Father's Day, the 142th anniversary of the country church you won't see marked on any map made in this century. -