HomeMy WebLinkAbout798"Article taken from The Pickering Bay News, October 26, 1994, page 10,
written by Henry Gawman.
Samuel Jones was born in 1777 into a family which had farmed near Frome,
in Somersetshire, England, for more than 400 years. He became, like his father,
a yeoman farmer, and was estate agent for the Maquis of Bath.
A yeoman is one who farms his own, or leased, land. As Samuel Jones grew to maturity,
great events were shaping the world. The American War of Independence was
concluded, the French Revolution was quickly followed by the Napoleonic wars;
the battle of Waterloo was fought in 1815. It was an age of great writers and great
inventors— it was the age of steam. Samuel went about his quiet rural affairs during
the reign of three kings: George III, George IV and William IV. In 1830, being now farmer
of a large family, Samuel emigrated to Canada.
His need was for land for his male children as it was the custom of a father to share his
land with his sons. There was a limit to how many times the same land could be
partitioned. To solve the problem, the yeoman farmer came to Canada, where land
was available.
After spending two years in York (Toronto), the family moved to Salem in Pickering
township. He must have been dismayed by the stately forest that made farming
difficult. What roads existed were little better than dirt tracks through the forest.
He was 55 years old. Fortunately, he had his English wife, the former Susan Scammel,
with him, and probably five of his children. Together they shared the daunting task of
making a home in the wilderness.
That he succeeded is evident. The fieldstone house that he occupied in 1834 on
Salem Rd. yet stands, though with new owners. That the family prospered is also
evident: an 1877 map reveals ten properties in the Salem area, bearing the names of
various members of the Jones family. That he was also a God-fearing man was also a
matter of record.
Samuel Jones was a Methodist. Methodism is a Christian religious sect that formed
around John Wesley in the early 18th Century. Wesley was an ordained priest of the
Church of England who became an evangelist. His religious philosophy became
known as Methodism, and his followers as Methodists. The Methodist,
Congregational and Presbyterian churches joined, in 1925, to become the United
Church of Canada.
Mount Zion Methodist Church stands on the 8th Concession, near Salem Road.
This place of worship was built out of brick in 1893 to take the place of a frame
church which had become inadequate for a growing population. The population of
Pickering in 1809 was 108 people, 3,752 in 1841 and by 1850 there were 6,308
people. The first church was moved to the present larger site when Samuel Jones
traded one piece of land for another to relocate the church in 1873. The cost of the
brick church was ""two thousand, four hundred and ninety-six dollars."" The hitching
shed on the east side is as old as the original frame church.
Besides his farming skills and business sense, Samuel brought to Pickering his
greatest gifts—his wife and family. Two of his girls had already married.
And with the family came the faith.
Four of the trustees at the time of the rebuilding of the frame church on the new site
were John Jones, Joseph Jones, John Elijah Jones, and Uriah Jones. Two of the
stewards in the brick church were Elijah Jones and John C. Jones. Among the
organists over the years were Miss Priscilla Jones (later Mrs. M. L. Nutting),
Miss Jennie Wilson (later Mrs. Alonzo Jones), Mrs. Florence Jones and
Mrs. Cecil Jones. The household of John Albert Jones was responsible over more
than 45 years for the preparation of Holy Communion.
In the cemetery on Salem Road, below Highway 7, there are sixteen markers bearing
the Jones name; Samuel and his wife Susan lie side by side. He died in 1849 and
she in 1857.
Today the church on the 8th Concession seems lonely and almost out of place.
It may not have seemed so in pioneer days, when the forest sang its own hymns,
and the settlers were an isolated brethren who needed each other, and needed their
faith, in a harsh environment. Loyalty to each other and to the church is just as strong
today, but the broadening horizons of life are hard to resist, and cause a different
isolation. When this period ends, people may return to their roots, and the world grow
small once again.
*****
(With thanks to the archives of the United Church of Canada, to Mrs. Ruby Jones,
wife of the former George Ralph Jones, and, to, Encyclopedia Britannica for
information on Methodism.) This article is one. in a series, provided by the
Pickering Local Architectural Conservation Committee (LACAC).
From: Bay News
Oct. 26/94
p. 10"