From Almonte Gazette, July 30, 1970

Reverend John McMorine, Pioneer Pastor, and His Family

(BY EDNA G. ROSS)

    Reverend John McMorine was an early pastor of the Auld Kirk, Ramsay. He was born in 1799 or 1800 of Scottish parentage, son of Mr. McMorine, a farmer of Sanquhar, Dumphrieshire and his wife, Margaret Kerr. John McMorine was granted a degree in theology from the University of Edinburgh in 1836 and for a year he tutored children. It is presumed he had been a teacher before graduation.

    His first appointment in Canada was as Master at the High School in Quebec City . He was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1839 and became pastor at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church at Upper Melbourne in the Eastern Township of Quebec where he remained until 1845. His brother, Robert McMorine, had settled on a farm near by at Flodden and McMorine relatives still live there. John McMorine had married Sophia Airth of Elgin , Morayshire and to them were born at the manse, two children: John Kerr on August 28, 1842 and Margaret on December 26, 1844 . Following his ministry there, Mr. McMorine was in Montreal for a time and there in a chance meeting at a hotel, he met Mr. William Wylie of Almonte who told him of a vacancy in the Church of Scotland at Ramsay. After negotiations with the congregation he agreed to take the charge and in January 1846 settled his family in the manse across the side road from the church. A second son, Samuel was born there on September 16, 1847 . The area around the church was a strictly rural setting, for even in 1863 according to Walling's map of that date, the little crossroads contained only the various churches and their ministers’ residences, a tannery, a town hall, a school, a harness shop, a store and a few residences. The road between the church and the manse led into Wolf Grove where the children played. Young John Kerr was even then, interested in Natural History and made various collections of plants, leaves, insects and butterflies.       

    The three children attended part time at the school on the Eighth Concession, then situated near the north fence of the cemetery. The father, Reverend John McMorine taught them such subjects as "English, Letters, Geography, Latin and Greek" according to a letter to a relative. A message written by John Kerr as he was approaching the age of  nine to his uncle, Robert McMorine of Flodden , has also been preserved. It mentions something  of  the system of education and of the livestock in the manse stable.   The letter reads:                                                                                                                         

“Ramsay Manse,                                                                                                                     21st May , 1851.

My Dear Uncle,           

I hope you can come to see us when Papa comes home and he can tell you all about Scotland . We have three cows, a calf, a sheep and at present 1 horse, 2 pigs, a cock and a hen but I am afraid the cock will die as it was fighting with another one.   I go to school a whole day when Papa is away and half a day when he is at home as he teaches me Latin.       

Mama tells me I am a great romp, she is afraid I will break my neck with climbing. I have entirely forgotten Melbourne , but I hope I will see it some day.                        

Mag and Sam  join me in love to my aunt and cousins.                                                               

I remain your affectly,                                                                         

J. K. McMorine.”       

    Another reference to the early school days in the Eighth Line school is found in a story in the Almonte Gazette. The writer, Mrs. Gilmour, the former Margaret Templeton, recounts that when she was seven years old and attending the school, the teacher threatened to put her in the cupboard. Her cries aroused the chivalrous spirit of a boy, Jack McMorine, son of the Presbyterian minister. The lad crept up behind the master, seized her by the hand and took her out and home before the teacher was aware of his intentions. Since Margaret Templeton's father was a trustee and the Reverend John McMorine was inspector of schools for the area, the action of the teacher was investigated.   

   Minutes of session of this church era have been preserved. A photograph of the minister also survives and hangs today in the Auld Kirk. The village of Almonte was growing with mills and shops and it was thought expedient to move the church to the people. Accordingly when a new Presbyterian Church was completed an Elgin Street in 1863, the McMorine family went to live in the thriving textile community.    

    Church records speak of the Reverend John McMorine as highly respected and an article in the Almonte Gazette calls him "a man of ripe scholarship." He was a trustee of Queen' s College, Kingston , in 1858-59 and he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from there in 1865. The Almonte Church was his last charge. He died on May 22nd, 1867, in the large frame house at the corner of Union and Princess Streets and was buried in the Auld Kirk Cemetery. The headstone may be seen in "The Minister's Row" near the north west corner of the church. Mrs. McMorine and Margaret went to live with Reverend Samuel McMorine at near the manse at Pittsburg, near Kingston. Mrs. McMorine died there on November 24, 1870 and was buried beside her husband.        

    The elder McMorine son, John Kerr, went off to Queen's College, Kingston, in 1857 at the age of fourteen. He graduated in Arts and later in Theology, as well as taking a Master's degree. He was licensed to preach in September, 1863 and on January 3rd, 1864 he was appointed by the Presbytery of Renfrew to preach at Douglas and Bromley. In June of that year he was ordained. It may be assumed that he preached in homes along the Barr Line as the church was not completed until after he left the community. This area was fruitful for his botanical activities. He was one of several missionaries who assisted at the mission of Traymore about Round Lake in Wilberforce Township.           

    The minutes of the Presbytery for January 8, 1867, state: "The Reverend John Kerr McMorine, M.A., Minister of Douglas, demitted his charge on the ground of a change of his views in regard to the Scriptural authority of Presbyterianism, and his purpose to join The Episcopal Church." This change was noted in news items in the Almonte Gazette and the Carp Review. In a letter dated in February 1867, John McMorine Senior told his brother of John Kerr's desire to change to the Anglican ministry. He mentioned that he and his wife were hurt by this decision but that they would not stand in his way for "he is a good and serious boy." In the letter he mentioned his own failing health and his fear that he might have to retire. While taking further studies in the winters at Queen's, John Kerr served the parish of Lanark and Innisville during the remainder of the year until 1869. From 1870-1877 he served very acceptably at St. Paul’s, Almonte parish. A new church had been completed in 1864 and this church with an enlargement still serves the people.

   The Almonte that Mr. McMorine knew as a booming town. The railway had come through in the 1860 linking the Front with the Upper Ottawa. By the late 1870's Almonte had thirty stores and other establishments such as millinery shops, bakers, butchers, tailors, shoemakers and tinsmith shops. It had become a manufacturing town with grist and flour mills, two large foundries and machine shops, one pump factory, two cabinet factories, two planning, sash and door factories, three sawmills, a shingle mill, four wagon and carriage shops, four blacksmith shops, four carpenter shops, a boat-building establishment and a dog-powered churn factory. Most important of all it had shoddy mill and three large woollen factories, among them Rosamonds.           

    Apparently Almonte was too civilized for Mr. McMorine. His was a pioneer spirit and  he had long had a desire to serve in a mission field. In 1877 he went off with his wife and five children to the mission of Thunder Bay with preaching places at Prince Arthur’s Landing (later Port Arthur ) Oliver and Silver Islet. Three more children were born there, one of whom did not survive infancy.    

    On Whit Sunday, 1885, he preached his first sermon at his new parish of St. James, Kingston , adjoining the University grounds where he became friend and confident of the students. In 1890 his oldest John, a brilliant student at Trinity College , Port Hope, died as the result of injuries he received in a fall from a tree when he was a child at the rectory in Almonte.           

    During his Kingston ministry he was appointed Rural Dean of Frontenac, Canon of St. George’s Cathedral and Archdeacon of Ontario. He was granted the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1903 from Queen’s university. He was described as a “man of endeavor, and a graphic and poetic preacher” and was possessed of  “a dry wit so that as a raconteur and conversationalist he was delightful.” He retired from active work in 1909 and spent winters in the south. He died on November 24th, 1912 in Augusta , Georgia where his daughter, sister and niece had accompanied him. He was buried at Cataraqui Cemetery . Both of  Mr. McMorine surviving sons as well as two of his grandsons became clergymen.           

    As well as carrying on his clerical work, John Kerr McMorine was for forty years an ardent botanist. Some twelve hundred of his collected plants are preserved at Queen’s university and at the department of Agriculture, Ottawa . He gleaned these from seventeen townships of the Ottawa Valley , from central Ontario , Southern Manitoba , Eastern Quebec , and Northern and central States. His name was widely known in scientific circles and he was associated with such prominent botanists of Eastern Ontario as, Dr. John Lawson, John Macoun, Braddish Billings and John and Robert Bell.        

    The second child of the Ramsay manse family, Margaret, married a Presbyterian clergyman, Reverend Frederick Percy Sym who served several congregations in Ontario , among them, Perth . Their only child, a daughter, died at Wiarton in 1969.    

    Samuel, the youngest child of Reverend John McMorine of Ramsay and Almonte, also became a minister. After preaching at Pittsburg , he became an Anglican also and served the parishes of Bells’ Corners, Carp and Huntley, Pakenham and Antrim and Portage La Prairie, Manitoba . He had a family of five daughters.          

    Reverend John McMorine and his wife gave worthy service to the early church and community life of Almonte and Ramsay. Several of their great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren are living in Ontario , Quebec and Manitoba .The information in the above article was secured through research by the author for the booklet published in 1969, entitled: “John Kerr McMorine, Clergyman and Botanist.”