The Citizen, 2015-04-16, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015.
Melville Church to celebrate 100th anniversary
Member critical of Trust vote
While the presbytery has been
around for more than 160 years in
Brussels, the building which
currently holds Melville
Presbyterian Church is turning 100
this year and a celebration is planned
at the century-old building this
weekend.
Originally one of two Presbyterian
charges in Brussels, the current
Melville Presbyterian church is the
third church erected and has been in
use since 1915.
The first building was on an acre
of land at the corner of Queen and
Turnberry Streets and was built in
the mid-to-late 1800s. The land was
purchased for $5. In 1872, the
church moved to its current site and
erected its second building.
After this, however, there is some
debate as to what precipitated the
need for the existing building.
While historical records state the
church was becoming too small,
some, including life-time church
member Jim Bowman, and his wife
Shirley, say a terrible wind storm
destroyed the old church.
“It was either a tornado or just
very high winds that took down the
spire, according to what I was told,”
Bowman said in a recent interview
with The Citizen.
Regardless of whether the new
building was built solely due to the
growing size of the church or the
growing size paired with the damage
of the wind storm, a cornerstone was
placed in May of 1914 and, less than
a year later, in April of 1915, a grand
opening was held to mark the
opening of the new church.
The new church, according to
history provided by members of
Melville Presbyterian, at the time
was a 64’ by 93’ structure including
an 18’ by 18’ tower that is 65’ high.
The church was heated by steam
and lit by electricity and featured
stained glass windows, circular
pews, a choir gallery and a slate roof.
Both Bowman and Jim Armstrong,
another life-long member of the
church, said they were surprised at
some of that information as most of
the village didn’t have electricity
until much later.
While a lot of the history of the
church is taken from old writings
and newspaper articles, last year,
some of it was unveiled first-hand.
Last May, a time capsule that was
buried as part of the corner-stone-
laying ceremony was uncovered,
100 years after it was buried.
“There were books, paperwork,
and some souvenirs,” Mary Douma,
another long-time member of the
church said, adding any other items
people may have from the church’s
history are more than welcome to be
added to the display of antiquities in
the church’s sanctuary.
Some of those surviving
documents will likely make their
way alongside some modern
artifacts into a new time capsule that
is set to be buried later this year
according to Douma.
While the building hasn’t changed
much in the past 100 years, with the
only major renovation Douma,
Armstrong and Bowman were able
to recall being the addition of an
elevator, completed in 1997, the
church as an organization has seen a
lot of very interesting events.
The first of which the group could
recall was the vote as to whether
Melville Presbyterian would join the
United Church in 1925.
On the same day that the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church in Canada voted for union of
the Methodist, Congregational and
Presbyterian Churches, June 10, a
vote was held at Melville to decide
whether it would participate.
Of the 397 voting members of the
church, only 60 were in favour of
amalgamation. Three-hundred and
thirty seven votes were cast to stay,
but some of those who did vote for
union decided to leave the church,
including then-minister Rev. J.P.
MacLeod.
“That was one-fifth of the
THE EDITOR,
I am the person responsible for
sending the minutes of the second
last Brussels Trust meeting to the
press. It is a public meeting dealing
with public funds within our village.
The Brussels Trust Fund was
founded after the sale of the former
Brussels Public Utilities
Commission (PUC). The funds were
invested with the intention to spend
only the annual interest earned on
capital projects within the village
that benefit the entire village. All
members must be 100 per cent in
agreement to use any principal
amounts, as this would diminish
future projects. It is a fine line
between Trust Fund and council
obligations.
A small committee of seven meets
a few times a year to review any
requests for funds. The meetings are
advertised on the Huron East
website, when possible. There are
written rules of procedure to follow
within this committee. Minutes,
motions, quorum and proper
agendas with advertising are to be
presented to committee members
seven days in advance of a scheduled
meeting by the recording secretary.
I refuse to sign the Brussels Trust
Fund declaration, a set of bylaws by
which the Trust must operate, as
presented, because of two items.
Those are better explained in person
from me to you. Others have already
signed it. The money needs to stay in
the former Village of Brussels, as it
was earned by the same. The best
people to administer that money are
residents/taxpayers of Brussels.
Keep in mind, the wish list is very
long for enhancement projects that
Huron East does not have the money
to complete. Provincial funding has
cut their budgets back to the bare
bones of services.
Huron East decided to purchase
and install new street lights in
combination with all our road
construction. Some people are not
happy and want more expensive
decorative lighting. A small request
had been voted in favour, March 18,
but that caused unrest and a new
meeting has taken place to get even
more money for more lights. An e-
mail motion was circulated shortly
after this, with no agenda to be
discussed at an upcoming meeting
on April 9. In my absence, a vote
was taken five to one to allocate for
money to lights. The recorded
motion was NOT raised from the
floor to be re-discussed. Proper
procedure was not followed.
There has been no fundraising
committee appointed by the Brussels
Trust to raise any further funds for
new decorative lights, to my
knowledge. I am hurt by some of the
street gossip surrounding the
committee and have acted upon it.
Do not let this sum of money
become the slush fund for Huron
East Heritage and Huron East
Economic Development to spend.
Street gossip says Logan’s Mill is
their next project. Ten years ago, an
engineer had already given me a
negative report on the mill owned by
Maitland Valley Conservation.
What’s next?
Do not hesitate to contact me at
519-887-9645 evenings.
Joe Seili (former Mayor of Huron
East).
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Letters to the Editor
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Church time capsule planned
THE EDITOR,
On Sunday April 19 at 2 p.m., the
Melville Presbyterian Church in
Brussels will celebrate the 100th
anniversary of the laying of the
cornerstone for the current building.
There will be a guest speaker,
special music and then a time
capsule containing the contents of
the original capsule as well as new
items, will be placed behind the
cornerstone.
The original capsule contained
items that included the church’s
annual report, copies of The Globe
and Brussels Post newspapers, a
history of the church, some coins
and a few other items. The new
capsule will probably contain
similar items. There will be two
important differences between the
new and old however. The new
capsule will be a carefully sealed
piece of plastic pipe, rather than the
original copper box which,
unfortunately, allowed some
moisture to enter and damage the
contents. The second difference is a
matter of record keeping – everyone
is promising to record exactly where
we put it this time.
This second difference perhaps
requires some explanation. When the
time capsule project was first
suggested the anniversary committee
looked at church histories and
determined that the original capsule
had been placed in a “fine granite
cornerstone”. Here-in lay the seeds
of the first error.
An assumption was made that a
cornerstone would be in a corner.
Perhaps the stone had been laid
according to the Masonic tradition
as several church members of the
time were prominent Masons.
However a search of the appropriate
corner revealed nothing.
One should keep in mind that at
the time everyone concerned knew
there was a cement stone bearing the
date 1915 located in the centre of the
building between the main
entrances. After some discussion,
the decision was made to assume
that if the cornerstone was not in a
corner it might be logical to also
assume that the term “fine granite”
was hyperbole and the cast cement
block was the capsule’s home.
Not willing to be fooled a second
time, it was decided that the phrase,
“in the cornerstone” was also poetic
licence and that the capsule would
obviously be located behind the
“cornerstone”. This conclusion was
supported by the fact that the block
in question was located at the base of
a decorative brick-work pillar and no
one involved wished to discover if it
actually was a structural support for
the pillar. Unfortunately this
conclusion was also wrong.
After much work with hammers,
chisels and assorted bricklayers'
weaponry the truth was revealed -
the capsule was “in” the
“cornerstone”. However the work
was not wasted as we now have a
fine cavity behind the cornerstone
for the new capsule.
Everyone is invited to come and
enjoy the celebrations around the
placing of the new time capsule on
April 19 and to help us remember
that the cornerstone is not in the
corner, that in our case granite is
cement, and that this time the
capsule is behind not in the stone.
David Blaney, Brussels.
Continued on page 20
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