IRON BRIDGE UNITED CHURCH Page I The little Church of Iron Bridge,standing on a hill,overlooking the mighty Mississauga River,did on May 23rd,1937,commemorate its forty-fifth anniversary of Christian work in this community. It stands on the opposite bank of the river to the village of Iron 3ridge from which it derives its name. The vicinity round about is made of light sandy plains,heavy clay flats and hardwood ridges and at the present time there are many traces of the hardship,labours,patience and faithful tale of its staunch and hardy pioneers. Up until IS79 little was known of the Iron Bridge area to the white man.It is true it was surveyed by. the white man in 1877 and one of the surveyors was the late Isaac Nicholson who came from Belgrave,Huron County, In 1879 the Taits and Tullcchs came from Lambton County and in the same year,two brothers William and John Warnock came from Grey County. The following year 1880 saw another influx of settlers,the Aliens and Forrests from near Procton,and this same year saw the return of Isaac Nicholson bringing with him his wife and three children. As months rolled by,other settlers sought the freedom of the north. Some of these were the Beemers,Gardiners,Bovilles, Arnills, Eakets, Rothwells,Carlyles,Littles,Barkers,Thompsons,Fergusons,Ryckman Can we in our imagination picture our fair homestead in the days of long ago with here and there a small clearing surrounding the home of some hopeful pioneer ? Many of these faithful souls have passed to their Sternal Homo,but their memory still lives fresh in the minds of many of us. what have they,who quietly rest in our little cemetery,done for the people of our day ? They held up in a quiet unassuming way ,the torch of Truth,teaching our lips to pray,our hearts to sing,our Sabbath Day to reverence and Our God to obey. How those faithful pilgrims treasured the Word of God,and it was this hunger for the study of God's Word which led them to gather together at some home to listen to an earnest zealous Minister of the Gospel, proclaim to them the good news of salvation. This religious longing uppermost in the hearts of all humanity,led more than all else to the building of our little church in 1892, but very unfortunately the building was burned. Two years before this however,in 1880,a Mr Nichol, a Congregational Missionary,to the Indians at the mouth of the Mississauga River,held religious services at Iron Bridge and the surrounding district. In 1882 a Mr Gilchrist,Presbyterian student attending Knox College ,was sent by the Student's Missionary Society of that institution to look after the religious welfare of the men in the construction camps on the C.P.R. near Algoma Mills and whilst there he took a trip up as far as Thomson and held a religious service in that Township. The next summer ho got them to send him up to Thompson and Iron Bridge as a Missionary in charge of the field,and he was the first Presbyterian to hold service in the Mississauga River area,About the same time a Mr MacLennan came in from Thessalon and preached at Iron Bridge and it is not quite certain whether he or Mr Gilchrist was the first to preach at this appointment.