The First of Many: Sawyerville Baptist Church
[Excerpt from This Dominion, His Dominion, by Leslie K. Tarr, 1968]
The eastern townships of Quebec (that triangular part lying in the southeast area of the province between the St. Lawrence River and the American border) were populated by English-speaking emigrants from the United States. Large numbers had settled in the rich farm lands in the latter years of the eighteenth century. Not until the first decade of the nineteenth century did the French-speaking settlers come in any number to alter the English-speaking complexion of the region.
The Woodstock Baptist Association of Vermont, in 1793, sent two missionaries across the Canadian border to the lower township settlement at Caldwell’s Manor. Evangelistic services were held, and as a result, a number of the settlers professed faith in Christ. No church organization was established during that first penetration.
The visit, however, seemed to have initiated a revival, with the result that the people of Caldwell’s Manor forwarded a request that the American brethren send a minister to baptize the converts. The minister, Rev. Elisha Andrews of Fairfax, Vermont, went north in the early winter months of 1794. He met with a number who desired baptism and conducted further Gospel preaching meetings.
The result? An outdoor baptism in the Canadian winter. The American Baptist pastor describes the event in the most matter-of-fact terms — “The next day we repaired to the Lake, cut a hole in the ice, and fifteen of those happy and devoted disciples were, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, immersed agreeably to the command of the divine Saviour.”
Some weeks later the church at Caldwell’s Manor was officially recognized as a Baptist church. The congregation, which, in a few years, relocated as a body to Sawyerville is one claimant for the honor of being the first Baptist church established in Ontario and Quebec. Whether it merits that honour or not, the Sawyerville church is the first Baptist church established in Lower Canada or Quebec and is one of the oldest churches in Canada.
The Sawyerville Baptist Church is today a member congregation in the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada, although the church is more than 150 years older than the Fellowship!
— For more information on the history and current ministry of the Sawyerville Baptist Church, visit the church’s website at: https://sawyervillebaptist.weebly.com/history.html