A History of Carlisle United Church
The First Pioneers
The first people of European descent to settle in Carlisle were John
and Catherine Eaton. John Eaton was born 16 March 1773 in the American
colonies. He was a direct descendant of Francis Eaton who came to America
on the Mayflower in 1620. John's father, also John, fought with the British
during the American Revolutionary War and afterwards, with his wife Martha
and family, emigrated to Canada and settled in Nova Scotia. Following
her husband's death, Martha, with her sons John, Daniel and Elam, moved
to the Niagara area.
On coming to Upper Canada with his first wife in 1796, John Eaton settled
on his Crown Grant in Burford Township near Brantford. He then moved to
Saltfleet Township where his wife became ill and died. On 7 March 1803,
he married Catherine, daughter of Lavinus Van Duzen, and in 1809 they
settled on Lot 32, concession 1 in Saltfleet and lived there until several
years after the War of 1812. Catherine' s family was United Empire Loyalist.
Her first cousin was Laura Secord, heroine of the War of 1812. During
that war, John enlisted, probably with the 5th Lincoln Regiment. He worked
as a guide for a contingent from Toronto and took part in the battle of
Stoney Creek and other local skirmishes. His home, near the intersection
of Burlington Beach and the head of Lake Ontario, was converted into headquarters
for the British troops, his oxen and horses were used for transporting
supplies and like many others along the lake shore, he suffered losses
to property and land for which he submitted a claim of L17 5s.
Within a decade of the 1812 War ending, John Eaton and his family had
moved from Saltfleet. They may have lived in Hamilton for a few years
as they participated in building the first Methodist Church in Hamilton
(1823) and are listed among the first members there.
In 1826 the family arrived in East Flamborough and settled on 400 acres
of land in what is now the village of Carlisle.
John and Catherine had a large family of eleven children and their original
frame home, which is no longer standing, had thirteen rooms to accommodate
all the members.
According to the Land Registry Records in Hamilton, John Eaton purchased
Lots 8 and 9 of the Eighth Concession for L300 each. A "lot"
consisted of 200 acres and the Eaton lots were situated between the Eighth
Concession Road and the Ninth Concession Road (now called Carlisle Road)
on the west side of Centre Road. These 400 acres, along with 800 more,
had originally been awarded by the Crown, on 10 March 1797, to George
Law Jr... He is believed to have been a member of Butler's Rangers, a
regiment of U.E.L. cavalry who carried on guerrilla warfare against the
revolutionary party of the United States. By the end of the eighteenth
century the British Army in Canada was virtually bankrupt and began awarding
large pieces of land to its loyal soldiers in lieu of military pay. George
Law Jr..., the "Crown Patentee" did not settle on his property,
but decided to return to England. He then sold these 400 acres in 1800
to James Butler who sold them to John Eaton. The date of the sale and
the registry is 17 April 1828 but we believe John Eaton actually began
to settle on these lots in 1826.
The early settlers seemed to feel an almost characteristic need to establish
a place of worship. There was a strong feeling of thankfulness to God
for His bringing them safely to a new land where they could build and
own their own homes, however humble. Thus as other settlers moved in around
them, the Eatons opened their home to the first regular Sunday Services
of worship. John and Catherine Eaton, then, were not only pioneers in
the community but also the ones who initiated and sponsored Christian
worship and fellowship, which is the real beginning of any church. According
to local knowledge handed down verbally, by around 1830 there were four
families worshipping at the Eaton home and a "lean-to" was built
against the house to accommodate them.
The Christian faith that the Eatons followed was in the Methodist tradition
and the little congregation that gathered in their home became a preaching
point on a Methodist "circuit" and was known as "Eaton"
Eatons, Eatonville At this time it belonged to the Dundas circuit which
had separated from the Niagara circuit in 1823.
The Methodist "circuit riders" were ministers of a special
breed. With only a horse as transportation, they travelled into the farthest
settlements, enduring severe privations and risking their very lives to
bring the gospel of Christ to the settlers.
Since it could take several weeks for a minister to cover his circuit,
it was necessary for lay spiritual leaders to lead the service of worship
in the time between his visits. Lay preachers helped out on Sundays but
it was the "class leaders" who were responsible for the instruction
of members in the faith and the pastoral oversight and care of the members
in their "class". (These were not Sunday School classes but
a way of grouping all members into small "flocks" of up to about
forty people.)
The early Methodists did not even call themselves a church but rather
a "society", defining themselves as " a company of men
having the form and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to
pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, (strong advice) and
to watch over one another in love, [ that they may ] help each other to
work out their salvation"
John Eaton was both a class leader and a local preacher. He died in
1837 at the age of 64, but Mrs. Eaton lived until 1874 her eighty ninth
year.
There are still Eaton descendants living in the Carlisle area and the
Seniors Apartment Building was named "Eaton Place" to honour
John and Catherine Eaton and to keep the Eaton name in the community.
On July 17, 1926, hundreds of John's and Catherine's descendants gathered
in Carlisle to celebrate the centennial of the date when the Eatons had
first settled there, "to honour their memories and praise God for
His providence" by erecting a monument in the cemetery which tells
us much of this early history.
It: is difficult for us living in Carlisle today to imagine how wild
it was here when the Eatons first settled. John Glasgow, a Scottish immigrant,
who purchased land on the Fifth Concession described later what this area
of East Flamborough was like in the early 1830's:
"... it was a wilderness at that time, not one tree having been
chopped down... Our settlement was three miles from the nearest road...
our nearest neighbour had one small field cleared, that being the only
land clearance on the east side of the centre road." ( The centre
road was a width of one "chain", i.e. 66 feet, running between
Lots 7 and 8 through East Flamborough.) "Three small Places were
cleared on the west side... There was no other settlement until Carlisle
was reached, where a few acres were cleared. The next settlement was Guelph,
where a few half pay military officers had settled."
From: A History of the Carlisle United Church: From Its Beginnings to
1991
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