MINERS’ BAY BAPTIST CHURCH c. 1910

This early photograph of the Miners’ Bay Baptist Church dates to around 1910. It is unusual, in that the image measures 2 ¼ “ x 3”, and is mounted on cardboard backing  with an embossed “frame”.

The Deed for the property of the church was registered on August 31, 1906. It conveyed the property from David J. Galloway to the Trustees of the “Miners’ Bay Regular Baptist Church. The sale price was $25.00 for one eighth of an acre. The Trustees were William Williams, Joseph Valentine and Duncan Prentice.

Williams had a farm on Miners’ Bay, was Post Master from October 25, 1910 – June 2, 1911, and appears to have had some involvement with the Galloway family. Valentine and Prentice were local stone masons. They built the Miners’ Bay church, as well as the stone School building on Green Gables Road at Moore Falls.

In order to delineate the church property, and to deter free ranging cows, a wire fence was erected. The location was fairly stark, as there were no trees on, or close to the lot. The large rock in the foreground is a “glacial drop”, left by the retreating glaciers ten thousand years ago.

If you look closely, it appears that there is a young girl beside the fence at the right of the picture.

Russ Wunker

April, 2020