The Arnprior Wesleyan Church Story
[transcribed from publication]
Wesleyan Church
It was about 1875 that the Zion Evangelical congregation purchased the former frame-constructed, white-painted church on Harrington Street which had been the local Methodist Church. The purchase occurred when the Methodist congregation build a new brick edifice on John Street, presently Grace-St. Andrew’s Christian Education Centre.
About 1909, during the Pastorate of Rev. Orlando G. Hallman, the frame church was demolished and the present brick structure was built. A devout member of the church, Mrs. Frank Boese, at age 91, the oldest living member, likes to reminisce on the early days of the church. The beginnings of the then Zion Evangelical Church go back to the 1870’s when many German people left their homeland to settle in Canada. Mrs. Boese’ parents, Mr. and Mrs. August Albert Heise, emigrated from Germany in 1887. A brother of Mrs. Boese became an Evangelical minister
The original Zion Evangelical Church of the 1870’s has undergone several name revisions since that era. In the early 1900’s it became the Evangelical United Brethren Church and still later it became the Wesleyan Methodist Church. It is now the Wesleyan Church and a new minister in the person of Rev. Robert Joseph Hooper has recently been appointed Pastor. The Wesleyan Women’s Missionary Society is quite prominent in the activities of the church.
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