St. Thomas Church

During our St. Thomas adventures we passed a sign in front of the St. Thomas Church that read, "Free Tours 9-5". We decided to stop in, and got a tour from Aiden, our knowledgeable guide.

My favorite story was about the balcony pews. The local prisoners were marched into church, climbed a ladder, then the steps into the balcony box. Once the prisoners were seated, the bottom ladder was taken away. 

Allison loved trying out to the organ and "pulling out all the stops" to get different sounds.

When Queen Victoria visited London, Ontario during her reign, she because friends with a St. Thomas painter who attended the church. He asked if he could paint her coat of arms to hang in the church. She approved it and it still hangs in the church.

The divided pews were owned by individual families. The pews at the front/center were more expensive. The back balcony was for the choir and poor people who couldn't afford a pew.

After we toured the church (and Allison rang the church bell), Aiden asked if we'd like a tour of the graveyard. We said we'd love one!

This grave is hollow and has name plates that could be unscrewed. This was handy during prohibition because you could hide your liquor in the headstone and no one would think it was odd to visit the grave of a loved one often.

This is known as the witches grave because it suddenly turned black on summer. It was caused by a reaction of the stone, but people assumed the woman who was buried here (the former pastor's wife), was a witch. It was also rumored that she cursed her husband, who died during his sermon on his first Sunday as pastor of the church. Rumor is that the stone was struck by lighting and turned from white to black.

The founder of St. Thomas buried his sons on the property because he believed it was the best property he owned, then he donated the land to the church so that his sons would always be on holy grounds.

My favorite grave is the Chisholm grave(s). A rescue boat captain was called out to sea to rescue sailors of an capsized boat. During the rescue, a young man who worked on the boat was knocked overboard and drowned. The young man's mother, known as an Irish witch, cursed the captain with her pain. He would only know her pain by having 7 loved ones die in 7 years. These are the graves of the seven people who died in those 7 years (including the captain).  

A family member who had moved to California (and struck gold) before the curse bought this stone in honor of his lost family members when he returned back in St. Thomas to visit. It cost $5000 when it was erected in 1850.