Knox
Church, The Early Years
by Dr. Wiliam Fitch
The following
article was adapted by Vickie Wood from Dr. William Fitch's book,
"Knox Church Toronto; Avant-Garde, Evangelical, Advancing"
© 1971 William Fitch
In 1820, when Knox Presbyterian Church
was founded, Canada was still almost half a century away from becoming a
confederation of provinces. Toronto (then called York) was a town of 1200
inhabitants, less than half the size of Kingston. The war with the United
States had ended just five years before. And our first prime minister,
John A. MacDonald, was a small child newly arrived here with his family
from Scotland.
The Town of York in Upper Canada, stretched from Lake Ontario up to Queen
Street and spread west to St. George Street and east all the way to
Berkeley Street (a little west of what is now Parliament Street).
One businessman who saw the potential for growth in York was
Jesse Ketchum. A
native of Buffalo, Ketchum built a profitable empire by buying land next
to the newly carved military trail named Yonge Street. He used much of
this land to grow vegetables, which he sold to nearby Fort York.
Jesse Ketchum and his wife were well-known not only for their business
success, but also for their strong Christian witness. Mrs. Ketchum was
generous with both food and spiritual nourishment to those in need. And
Mr. Ketchum, who abstained from both tobacco and alcohol, insisted that
everyone in their household, including employees, observe the Sabbath.
Twice each day, the family would come together for devotions. It was
through the Ketchums' love of God and willingness to share the riches God
had provided them with, that our church was founded.
From his arrival in Canada in 1803, Jesse Ketchum had attended services at
St. James, which stood then, as it does now, at King and Church Streets.
When the Methodists built their church in 1818, Ketchum attended there and
taught in the town's first Sunday School. Mrs. Ketchum, however, was a
"Presbyterian at heart". She has been credited with swaying her husband
towards the Presbyterian Church by welcoming all visiting pastors of the
denomination into the Ketchum home when they visited Canada. Soon their
home became a gathering place for other Presbyterians, for whom there was
no place of worship in "Muddy York".
The first congregation of what was to become Knox Church met for two years
in a potato barn, led by Rev. James Harris, a missionary sent by the
Presbyterian Society of Ireland.
September 1823 saw the opening of "The
Presbyterian Church of York, Upper Canada". The congregation numbered
twenty-eight. Ketchum had donated one of his potato fields located just
off Yonge Street, between Queen and Richmond Streets, for the building of
the church. He had also provided most of the funding for the building
project. He even landscaped the property with his own hands. Rev. Harris
married Ketchum's daughter Fidelia and a manse was built for them next to
the church. For another four years, it was the only Presbyterian Church in
the area.
In a generous and visionary act, Jesse Ketchum deeded this plot of land,
bounded by Richmond, Queen, Bay and Yonge Streets, to the Presbyterian
Church of York.
In 1827, the Church of St. Andrew's, linked directly with the Church of
Scotland, was founded. York church under James Harris was strongly
evangelical. During this period, the Presbyterian Church in Scotland was
experiencing a period of strong spiritual blessing under gifted
evangelical leaders. Many were won to the faith; however, there developed
a split in the denomination between the moderates and the evangelicals. In
1843, during a time known as the Disruption, some congregations decided to
break their links with the Church of Scotland to form "protesting"
evangelical churches. In 1844, as news of the disruption reached Canada,
some members of St. Andrew's Church voted to separate and form a new
evangelical church under the new (or protesting) Presbyterian Church of
Canada. When they heard of this, a delegation from the York congregation
led by Rev. Harris, approached the protesters and offered to join with
them to form an evangelical Presbyterian Church in York. Rev. Harris
offered to resign to make way for a pastor mutually agreed on by the
combined membership. They would call the new church Knox Presbyterian
Church.
Dr. Robert Burns of Paisley, Scotland, was the first minister of the
church called Knox. With Dr. Burns, the strong commitment to missions was
born in Knox. His ministry was interrupted several times when he felt
called to go and preach the word in Atlantic Canada and in the northwest.
He was also one of the first missionaries to the French-speaking
inhabitants of Lower Canada.
Dr. Burns was away on a mission when, in 1847, fire destroyed Knox Church.
The congregation, in planning to rebuild, voted unanimously
to use all the
resources God had provided them to build a church that would be to His
Glory. The much larger, new Knox Church
opened on September 3, 1848. The
impressive building, located at the heart of what was now the City of
Toronto, immediately attracted more members. The church on Queen Street
featured a pulpit, with an oak and walnut canopy, which was reached by a
winding staircase. There were seats for 661 downstairs, and another 476 in
the gallery. In 1849, the congregation paid for an enormous bell to be
installed. Sitting in this place of worship was described,
by a Toronto
newspaper writer as "almost a luxury". Membership reached 300 and more
during these years. Alexander Topp was inducted in 1858. Under his
leadership, a Sunday School room was built, and the church strengthened
its community outreach by establishing the Duchess Street mission nearby.
Prayer meetings, Bible studies and benevolent funds were incorporated into
the life of the church. Dr. Topp was also instrumental in the 1875 union
of all the Presbyterian Churches in Canada. He also presided over three
years during which the membership of about 600 was divided almost evenly
between those who felt that an organ should be introduced to accompany
worship, and those to whom the very thought was evil. Eventually, the
Casavant became a fixture of the sanctuary.
Dr. Topp died unexpectedly in 1879. His successor, Henry M. Parsons of
Buffalo, served as pastor for 20 years. His contacts with Hudson Taylor,
when he came to Canada, served to extend Knox's strong support of
missions, particularly to China. It was Dr. Parsons who commissioned
Jonathan Goforth to his first mission in China. Although in the first few
years of his leadership membership rose to more than 800, in the 1880's,
the people of Toronto started to move far from the corner of Queen and Yonge Streets to escape the sprawl of business, government and mercantile
buildings that sprang up in the city.
One night in March, 1895, the famous "Simpson's fire", which started in
Robert Simpson's store next door, spread to destroy the church steeple.
Although the building was soon back in use, the spire, which had been a
city landmark, was never restored. Within a couple of years, the
congregation had decided that in order to keep up a strong testimony to
the people of Toronto, the church should move closer to where the people
were now located.
Several years passed between the time when the decision was made and when
the ground was broken at the corner of Spadina and Harbord. The Board of
Trustees met many times in that period with the Simpson Company, refusing
to part with the church property for less than they felt it was worth. In
1900, Dr. Parsons retired and Rev. Alexander Winchester accepted a call to
Knox.
Knox Church at Harbord and Spadina in
the process of being built, 1908.
On January 26, 1907, the
cornerstone of the new Knox Church on Spadina
Avenue was laid, and the next day, Sunday services were held for the
first time in the "New School House" on the site, which housed the
congregation until the opening of the present Knox Church in 1909.
At that time, Harbord and Spadina was in the middle of suburban Toronto.
The surrounding neighbourhood was predominantly Anglo-Saxon, but there was
a sizable Chinese population in the area as well, with whom close and
friendly ties were made. The decision to move to Harbord and Spadina
proved to have been God's will for Knox Church. In 1907, the year the
church moved, membership stood at 370. Within seven years, the number had
almost doubled.
