The Catholic families who settled in West Flamborough Township were first served by travelling missionaries from Kingston, Toronto and Niagara. It is believed that one of the first priests to reside in the area was Father James Campion, who began ministering at the Head-of-the-Lake in 1827. He was attached to the military garrison at Niagara, but spent part of the year in Dundas. He travelled an area that stretched from St. Catharines to Hamilton and northwards to Guelph, occasionally stopping in Freelton and Puslinch where Mass was celebrated in private homes.
During the 1830s and in the decade following the great potato famine in Ireland, the northern part of the township and the southern part of Puslinch Township received a large influx of Irish Roman Catholic immigrants. They settled in the Freelton area and along the Brock Road and the Sixth Concession – the many families settling there, resulted in the area being known as “Little Ireland”, with names such as Doyle, McMann, McGowan, Kelley, O’Riley, Higgins and Kennedy appearing frequently on property transactions.
With no church or resident priest, the settlers in both areas tried to ensure their children received a catholic education by building their own schools. In the early years, the children travelled to the corner of the Eleventh Concession and Centre Road in East Flamborough, where there was another large concentration of Irish families. Here there was a small Roman Catholic Academy run by a Miss Freel as early as 1855. A decade later, another one-room school was opened on the Brock Road. Funds were solicited for materials and voluntary labour erected a frame building on the south-east corner of the property owned by innkeeper Michael Browne. His daughter, Bridget, became the first teacher and the school continued to operate until the end of the nineteenth century.
In 1856, a mission church, Sacred Heart of Jesus, was constructed in Morriston under the direction of Rev. George Laufhuver, a Jesuit from Berlin, Waterloo County, and regular visits to Freelton began a year later. On 26 July 1865, the site for the first Catholic church in West Flamborough Township was purchased from Freelton resident, Patrick Freel for $500. A small stone building was erected adjacent to a burying ground in the village that had probably been established a decade earlier, as several monuments date from the 1850s.
During the early years there was no resident clergy in the village and the small congregation was served by priests from Guelph, Dundas, Berlin (present day Kitchener) and Oakville, but it appears that the most popular was Father Thomas Dowling of Paris, who “ministered to the distant small congregation, endearing himself by his piety, zeal and eloquence.”
The first resident clergy, Rev. William Lillis, was appointed 27 August 1877. With the installation of a pastor, the older parish of St. Thomas in the village of Waterdown was attached to Freelton as a mission, since it had a smaller congregation and “a poor church”. A report concerning the activities of the Freelton parish written in August 1880 contains several interesting comments – “there are three churches in the district, sixty families are attached to the church at Freelton, about twenty-eight to Waterdown and three or four to Morriston.” Besides the three churches, the author, presumably Rev. Lillis, mentions that there were ‘stations’ associated with the Freelton church, “I go to each place once a year during Easter time, to celebrate the Eucharist and administer the sacraments.”
In 1889, during the pastorate of the next incumbent, Father John O’Leary, the small church was destroyed by a fire, reputedly caused by an overheated furnace pipe. Rebuilt almost immediately by stone mason James Davidson, the Gothic-style church with its magnificent tower and spire can be seen for miles. On 15 May 1892, Rev. Thomas Dowling returned to Freelton as the recently appointed Bishop of the Hamilton Diocese to dedicate the new Freelton church.
According to the following day’s report in The Hamilton Times, “His Lordship, accompanied by Rev. McEvay was met about five miles from Freelton by a concourse of parishioners in carriages who had come to bid them a hearty welcome.” The opening ceremonies began with the blessing of the new church by the Bishop. High Mass was celebrated by Father O’Leary with the choir of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Hamilton and a small orchestra of local musicians performing Gounod’s ‘Messe Solenelle’ and Lambilotte’s ‘Alleluia’. Immediately after the Mass, the gentlemen of the congregation presented the Bishop with an address, expressing their thanks for his pastoral care and visit. Signing the address on behalf of the congregation were Thomas Organ, Maurice Donnan, John Flynn, William Cronin, Michael O’Connor, James O’Donnell, Andrew Foley and Edward Carroll.
Mass was celebrated every Sunday morning in Freelton before the priest departed for Waterdown. After conducting that service, he would visit the home of a parishioner each week and have dinner with the family before returning by horse and buggy to Freelton. During the tenure of Father William Becker (1909-1924), he reputedly picked up the Baptist Minister in Freelton and took him to his church at Flamborough Centre, as he also ministered to two congregations.
During the late 1940s, the village of Waterdown began to experience steady residential growth and as a result, Bishop Joseph F. Ryan saw fit to establish it as a separate parish in 1950, leaving Freelton as a single congregation.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2004, 2024.
