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“The story lives on in builders’ descendants”
by Susan Wilson
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The land on which the church stands (Monmouth Lot 19, Concession XIV) was part of a 100-acre parcel originally deeded to a Jacob Steibel as a free grant from the Crown in April 1888. In November of that year, he sold the land to Arthur E. Whatham, the first minister of Christ Church, for $300. In October 1889, Whatham sold the part on which the church, rectory, and Sunday school stood to the Incorporated Synod of the Diocese of Toronto for $1.
Two brothers from Wilberforce, Thomas and William Graham, were engaged as carpenters to build the church; some of their descendents named Clark, still live in the area. John James Noble, born in 1865 and one of the earliest settlers, was one of the men who helped with the construction. He and his bride, Elizabeth McCausland, were the first couple married in the new church which opened sometime in 1888. Noble became Church Warden and served in that capacity until after his wife’s death in 1950. At his own death in 1965, at the age of 100, he was buried in the Christ Church cemetery beside his wife and nine-year-old daughter Jane.
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