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Blackstock’s St. John’s Anglican Church celebrates |75 years The celebration of a 175th anniversary is somewhat rare in Canada, even more rare in Scugog Township. Early in 1840, the Anglicans of Cartwright Township gathered in the homes of the faith- ful. By the fall of that year they felt that their congregation was large enough to justify the building of a church. They petitioned the Bishop to allow them to do so. Blackstock started out as a cluster of buildings called Tooley’s Corners, named after the hotelkeeper, John Tooley, a devout Anglican, who had his hotel at the south-west corner of the village where the War Memorial now stands. By 1860 the community had become known as Williamsburgh, but this name was changed again in 1887 to Blackstock. The first St. John’s Anglican Church was built in Cartwright in 1851. It was located halfway between Cadmus and today’s Blackstock, at the western side of the present St. John’s cemetery. This church burned down in 1875 and the congregation needed a larger, more substantial church. James Fluke who was also a devout Anglican, had become an extremely suc- cessful businessman in Cartwright. He owned a hotel at the south-east of the four corners of Wil- liamsburgh and a 100-acre tract of land on the north- east corner. Fluke donated two acres of his land for the new St. John’s Church at the James and Charlotte Fluke. eastern edge of the village of Williamsburgh. The church was built of local red brick. Robert Bryans was on the church building committee. His son Edward Bryans, also an Anglican, had just established a brickyard about two miles directly west of Williamsburgh. Here he used the clay from the Lake Scugog basin to feed his kilns. All traces of the brickyard vanished long ago, but not before the church and several homes had been built of Bryans brick. A huge gathering took place on July 23, 1876 to celebrate the dedication of the new church. In the census of 1851, over half of the citizens of Cartwright declared themselves to be Anglicans. By 1880 there were ten churches of various denomina- tions in Cartwright, three of them in Blackstock. Today there are only three surviving churches in the township, St. John’s being one. Local historian Paul Arculus has written a history of the church and the community. This book, en- titled Blessed Are They, is to be launched on Friday, May 15 as part of the 175th Anniversary celebra- St John’s Church in the 1920s. The steeple was re- moved in 1930 after it had been damaged by lightning. and at Books Galore here in Port Perry. It will also be available on line through Amazon and on e-books. Anumber of celebrations are planned for 175th anniversary of the founding of the An- glican congregation in Cartwright. By Paul Arculus Focus on Scugog tions. 7 ‘ . ss This rare photograph was taken shortly after the opening of St. The book will be available for sale at the church John’s Anglican Church, Blackstock in 1876. FOCUS - MAY 2015 43