During the decade of the 1840s, Catholic settlers arrived in Waterdown in sufficient numbers that a small wooden church was erected in 1846.
Prior to this, priests from Dundas visited to service the needs of families and celebrate Mass in private homes.
In 1842, Rev. Macdonnell, who was at Oakville, reputedly came to the village to assess the size of the community.
The first church is recorded as being a simple wooden building, located at the end of a narrow strip of land off Dundas Street – it may even have been a barn, as the replacement building that was erected in 1852 was described as being “on the site of Mr. English’s farm” according to an article published in the Hamilton Spectator.
Thomas English, who donated part of his Waterdown property to the Toronto Diocese for the church and cemetery, was born and raised in Durham, England. He came to North America with his wife and children in 1818. He settled in New York State, before moving to Nelson Township, where he operated a successful mill building business, coming to Waterdown in the 1840s.
The first building, dedicated to St. Francis, was replaced by a small stone church after six years, the name being changed to the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle. On June 10, English transferred a part of his property for the new church and a cemetery to the Toronto Diocese. One of the earliest articles about the village of Waterdown to appear in the Hamilton Spectator records the opening event through a letter to the paper’s editor dated Oct. 27, 1852.
More than a decade later, on June 16, 1864, the church was officially blessed and dedicated. During the decades of the 1860s and 1870s the church continued to be served only by visiting priests as the Hamilton Diocese experienced great difficulties in recruiting young men to the priesthood, despite attempts by the Bishop of Hamilton to recruit from Ireland.
While the Waterdown brick church was erected several decades before a second Catholic Church in the Flamborough township s was opened in Freelton, the bishop elected to appoint the first resident pastor to the Freelton church because it served a greater concentration of families, namely those in the northern concessions of East and West Flamborough.
Sylvia Wray is the former archivist with the Flamborough Archives. She can be reached through the Archives at archives@flamboroughhistory.com.
This article was originally published in the Flamborough Review, 8 July 2016.
