Glencoe Archives – Amy, great great granddaughter of Mrs. John “Alberta” McFarlane of R.R. #4, Appin, arrived Tuesday with her great grandmother, Caroline Gough, and grandmother, Betty Ann Gough, to deliver the Bertie Fonds. Here is Amy, a fourth year Western student headed into Library and Archive Science, descibing the significance of these scrapbooks.
This generous donation reminds us how essential it is to care for our family archives. These homegrown collections deserve professional preservation, cataloguing, and digitization so that families, genealogists, and historians alike can continue to piece together the stories that define who we are.
L-R Back – Gerry Cross, Norm McGll, Ken Beecroft, Amy, Harold Carruthers, Marilyn McCallum. L-R Front: Caroline Gough, Betty Ann Carr. Read more →
Brantford; On April 13, 2026, David Nelms and Mary Simpson travelled to Brantford, Ontario, to visit the Woodland Cultural Centre, located on the grounds of the former Mohawk Institute Residential School.
In their care was a small metal penny bank—simple in form, worn with age, and carrying with it the memory of a life.
The bank belonged to Jemima “Ina” Simpson Nelms, who passed away in the summer of 2025 at just over 100 years old. As a child growing up in rural Southwestern Ontario, Ina attended St. John’s Anglican Church in Glencoe. She received the penny tin through her Sunday School program known as “The Little Helpers.” She would save her pennies and drop them into the slot, believing—as she had been taught—that the money would help “the little Indian children.”
Printed on the surface are images of children from around the world, as they were depicted at the time, along with a short prayer: “God bless all the missionaries all over the world, and all the little helpers, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.” Strangely, the handsome North American Indigenous boy is standing aloof from the group. Jesus has his back to him and the child is not part of the group – he’s just watching.
The Little Helpers of the Sunday School. Penny bank sponsored by the Woman’s Auxiliary of the Anglican Church of Canada. The Indian child stands apart from the group of children talking to Jesus. Read more →
In part 1 of this series, I described the altar window in St John’s Anglican Church, Glencoe. There is another fine stained glass window in St John’s, which is found at the rear of the church to the left of the main door:
The image is titled “Christ Knocking on the door”.
“…The Light of the World is an allegorical painting by the English Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) representing the figure of Jesus preparing to knock on an overgrown and long-unopened door, illustrating Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me”….. The door in the painting has no handle, and can therefore be opened only from the inside, representing “the obstinately shut mind”.
This particular version does not show Christ holding a lamp but instead a staff.
The artist and the manufacturer are unknown to me. The style and colors of the picture suggest one of the major stained glass makers – Hobbs or McCausley.
The inscription reads:
In Memory of Thomas Strong who died 1st January 1927 aged 79 years.
He that liveth and believeth in me will never die.
Thomas Strong
From the census of 1891, Thomas Strong was a local farmer. He was married to Sarah Jane Strong. They had a son Frederick born 1881 but there is no local record for him after the 1901 census.
Thomas Strong had emigrated with Sarah from England. From below we can suppose that they both originate in the or near to Southwick, a small town in Sussex next to Brighton.
For Sarah Strong we have several peices of information from the Glencoe Transcript (thanks to Ken Willis for these):
Info from Glencoe Transcript – Wardsville News items. September 20, 1904 – Mr. and Mrs. Middlekrauff of San Francisco visited her sister Mrs. T. Strong.
September 21, 1906 – Mrs. T. Strong, who has been visiting relatives in Wiltshire England and niece Eva Frances, returned on the steamer “Empress of Britain” Sunday evening.
March 1, 1907 – Death of Sarah Jane Strong, age 57. Born in Southwick, England. Died at her home on Main Street, after a two day illness. Service at St James church by Rev. H.A. Thomas with burial in Wardsville cemetery. Cause of death : diabetes.
Info from Wardsville death records: 1 March 1907, Sarah Jane Strong, age 57 years, 3 months and 23 days, housewife. Residence – Longwoods road, Wardsville. (Main Street and Longwoods Road were one and the same). Cause of death was listed as diabetes.
Thomas became a noted benefactor of the church, loaning it $1000 to purchase the rectory building, and requiring only for interest to be paid, and the loan to be discharged at this death. In his will, he specified the stained glass window to be installed.
It is interesting therefore to speculate how his wife Sarah came to be buried in Wardsville after a funeral service at St James Church in Wardsville. There is also the disappearance of their son Frederick from all public records after 1901.
All over the world, churches are repositories of local history as well as places of worship, and Glencoe is no different. St John’s Anglican has its share of memorials and markers of personal and public history. This is the first of a series of posts about these. As a recent newcomer to Glencoe, I am likely to be unaware of facts and details about this church, window and Anna Moss which are otherwise common knowledge. Please let me know these so I can add them to this record. – Bill Simpson
There has been a St John’s Anglican Church at the corner of Main Street and Concession Drive since 1869. This building was replaced in 1893 with the current structure, depicted in the postcard shown below, with a current view beside it.
Yoshio Shimuzu: “You have to remember that we had been driven from our homes by racial prejudice in British Columbia, reviled and despised by the bulk of the population, and here in the farmlands of southwestern Ontario, we were welcomed as equals and saviours by the farming population.” Read more →
