HomeMy WebLinkAbout362"Article copied from the News Advertiser, Sunday, May 31, 1992, page 4.
Illustration: The Quaker Meeting House, now the Masonic Hall, is 125 years old this year.
It's on the southwest corner of Hwy. 2 and Mill St., in Pickering Village.
This is the latest in a series of Living History articles being written by the Ajax Local Architectural
Conservation Advisory Committee.
AJAX - Located in Pickering Village at the southwest corner of Mill St. and Kingston Rd.,
this modest red brick building is our community's only surviving Quaker meeting house.
Timothy Rogers, a Quaker from Connecticut, arrived in Upper Canada in 1801 with his wife and
most of his 15 children. In fulfilling a contract with the government, be brought 40 Quaker families
with him and received land in exchange — thus the founding of Newmarket
With a vision of settling more of the Upper Canada wilderness and following what he felt was the
Lord's guidance, he moved his family to Pickering in 1807. He paid $2 for each of the 800 acres
he bought — virtually all the lands in Pickering Village from the south side of Kingston Rd.
to the lakeshore.
He immediately built the first saw mill on Duffins Creek at the foot of Mill St.
On his return from a Society of Friends meeting in the United States, Mr. Rogers brought 20
Quaker families to settle in the Ajax-Pickering area. Many more followed, adding to the
predominantly Quaker complexion of Pickering Village (then called the Village of Duffins Creek).
Early worship meetings were held in his home.
In an outbreak of cholera in 1810, Mr. Rogers lost his wife and seven of his children.
In 1814, he donated seven acres for the site of a Quaker meeting house and burial ground.
The Mill St. cemetery already held the remains of his lost loved ones, a frame meeting house was
erected in 1819 and replaced with another frame structure on the same site in 1833. Mr. Rogers
died in 1834 at the age of 78. His descendants went on to be successful businessmen and
prominent members of the community — Rogers Cable and Rogers Fuel Oil.
The frame meeting house was replaced with a brick building in 1867 at a cost of $6,000.
On June 28 of that year, the First Session of Canada Yearly Meeting (Orthodox) was held here,
drawing Quaker families from across Canada, the United States, England and Ireland.
The brick meeting house was struck by lightning and burned in 1908. All records were lost;
however, the roof was recreated and meetings resumed.
The Quaker population declined over the following years, partly as a result of the loss to fire of t
he Quaker school, Pickering College. The gymnasium, known later as the Hermitage, was all
that survived until it too was lost to fire only a few short years ago. The meeting house was put
for auction in 1942 and was purchased by the Masons, who still use it today.
The Ajax LACAC recently erected a plaque to commemorate the significance of this heritage
building and the burial place of many of our community's pioneers. The Canadian Friends
Historical Association graciously assisted in creating the wording for the plaque. It is important
to recognize how rare heritage buildings of this nature are and the important function this
meeting house served as the place of worship for the Quaker farmers and the predominantly
Quaker resi-
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