Mrs. Fidler and St. James Church

[Pencil sketch of first St. James log church]

One of Anne’s stories is about the new minister’s wife at the Anglican Church.  She and her mother go to church and observe that Mrs. Fidler is wearing a bonnet that is wreathed with a tiny wreath of little white roses around it.  Her mother’s comment about it is “Well Anne, you look more like the parson’s wife.”  So obviously they felt that Mrs. Fidler was far too dressed up, or far too frivolous to be a parson’s wife.

Many of the comments about the church are of course about how to get to it.  Whether the roads are good enough to travel on or whether the sleighs in the winter time; whether the weather is good enough for them to get to church.    It is interesting that our church in Fenelon Falls is St. James Anglican Church and of course the one she eventually ends up in Toronto, is also St. James Anglican Church, on King Street.

The church, I think, was a very important project for Anne, because before the church, they would have the church services in their house at Blythe and people would come.  She said once the church was built, it was one particular Christmas when they couldn’t get to church, because of the weather, and she said that Christmas day was totally different because usually everyone would come to their home, on Christmas day, for Christmas service and she really missed that.

[Photo of model of first St. James log church]