In 1894 the Springbank Union Church, a small log structure, was built on this site, really a nondenominational church, but serving Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists and Anglicans. A cemetery was begun at the site around the same time. By 1910 the church was outgrown by the congregation and a new Methodist church was built two miles north of the Spring Bank Union Church. The two churches coexisted for many years, alternating services between them. In 1925, with Church Union in Canada, both became United Churches and in 1951 the original, South Church, was sold and moved from this cemetery site. The cemetery is being preserved as a historical site.
Just inside the gate on the south side of the site is a stone cairn bearing two bronze plaques. The cairn was constructed of cut stones mortared in place ins the form of a truncated obelisk. The upper plaque makes note of the existence of the old South Church on the site, that it was built in 1895, became a United Church in 1925 and was removed in 1951. The lower plaque lists the known burials in the cemetery, 24 in all, the earliest in 1900, the latest in 1971. Of the 24, 11 were children or infants.
Only two headstones remain visible. One is for Jessie Isabell and Francis Joseph, infant children of John & Jessie Bateman. The other is that of Arthur Young, who died June 23rd, 1913 at the age of 32 or 33. This last headstone is slowly sinking into the ground. This could explain the dearth of headstones in the cemetery, as the ground is low lying, with standing water much of the year and soft soil.
The cemetery continued in use until 1974, when it was closed and further burials took place in the cemetery at the North Church.
Following is some of the history of the two churches.
Springbank United Church
1894 – Springbank Union Church
In 1894, a log church named the Springbank Union Church was built, in much the same way as the school, by the combined efforts of the settlers. “
Then came the building of the church, and if anyone has ever helped to establish one in a small community he will know something of the stir it has caused. Mrs. Young, the prime mover in this enterprise was a much talked of person. From the day the church was started until it was finished, it was the one never-failing topic of conversation. I had no idea that amongst so few people such a difference of opinion could exist. One wanted this, another wanted that. One woman even went so far as to say that the devil’s money helped to build it. Strange to say, Wheeler Mickle, who was not at all a church going man, was the one who put in the most time and work on it, and I think he thoroughly enjoyed it. However, the church went on in spite of all the controversy and strange to say, it was the people who never contributed a cent or lent a helping hand who had the most to say about it.”
From the memoirs of Helen Hutchison
Laypeople and ministers conducted services in the church. One Sunday was set-aside for the Anglicans.
1910 – Springbank Methodist Church
By 1900 the church was already too small and an addition was built to house the Sunday School and a kitchen. From these tiny beginnings came the fowl supper, a tradition that continues today with the Harvest Supper. The women of the congregation, first the Ladies Aid and then the U.C.W, always worked hard and gave that little extra.
As denominational divisions grew in Calgary, it was inevitable they would invade the ecumenism and joint services in Springbank. In 1909 the Canadian Methodist Church organized an Official Board for Springbank Methodist Church and a new building was built two miles north of the Spring Bank Union Church. It was dedicated on June 10, 1910 and Rev Wm Hollingsworth, became the first minister.
It was neither spiritually nor economically viable that a community the size of Springbank maintain two churches for long. Nor was it in harmony with the historic unity of the people.
In the early 1900s, a donation of $5.00 a year was considered a sizeable gift and total church offerings on a Sunday sometimes fell as low as 50 cents. The minutes of the annual meetings reveal deficit financing and a struggle to pay the minister’s salary. Several ministers voluntarily cancelled the amount owing to them. The result of these pressures was that on March 16, 1916, the Board of Deacons of the Presbyterian Church passed the following resolution: “that it is in the best interest of the Kingdom of God and the advancement of the cause of Jesus Christ and, also in the best interest of all the people of the community, morally, socially and spiritually that the two congregations of Springbank unite into one body, having one congregation, one church building, one minister, and that we most cordially invite, and in Christian love urge our friends of the Methodist body to immediately take such steps as are necessary to consummate such a union”.
On March 24, the Annual Congregational Meeting of the Methodist Church accepted the principle of Union. It took two years to work out the details but on June 14 1918 Mr. Longeway and Mrs. J.D. McLaurin moved that “ we hold services and Sunday school in the two churches on alternate Sundays, for one year, always providing that there shall be an English Church Service in the Union Church (the original church) on the first Sunday of each month”. This was years before the official United Church Union in 1925.
Closing the Union Church
Keeping up two churches took its toll on the congregation. The south church was cold, and, in 1944, they very reluctantly decided to worship in the North Church for the winter. It was the beginning of the end for the first historic church building in the community. One last effort was made in 1947 “to fix the South Church so that it may be a suitable memorial to those stalwart pioneers who worshipped that and have now passed on. To enlarge the North Church by the addition of a part of the South Church; to modernize the parsonage; to remove the old shed and build a garage and to repaint the North Church and parsonage.” The monies could not be raised and the South Church was put up for tender, the piano moved to the home of Fred Young, and the pulpit donated to the Balzac church. The Young family purchased the church and a Cairn was erected on the site of the South Church.
Our History: Springbank United Church