By John Rhodes
Special to The Chatham Voice
Back 150 years ago there were two Presbyterian churches in near proximity to the core area of Chatham, with one being located at the northeast junction of Adelaide Street South and Wellington Street East and the other being on the south side of Wellington Street West, to the immediate east of where the CPR crosses that thoroughfare.
In the early 1890s the two congregations converged and built a substantial new facility at the northwest corner of Wellington and Fifth streets and this building still functions.
What to do with the old churches ?
The church on Wellington West, at the CPR, became a repair shop employed by the Wm. Gray and Sons Carriage Company for a number of years but over time it sat largely unused until it became a portion of the extensive M.J. Smith agriculture related complex which was situated on the south side of the CPR tracks and extended all the way from Wellington Street West to Centre Street.
Mylie J. Smith (often referenced as Mylo ) was born in 1882 and is first listed in the local directories in 1914 as being from a farming background and living at 29 McKeough Ave.
In 1918, Mr. Smith is recorded as having a produce business at 200 King St. W.; this would be on the south side of the street, third door west of Fourth Street. He later moved his business to the west side of the Market Square, locating in the old Chatham Tribune building (#48) which was Chatham’s first daily newspaper, albeit short-lived. This store eventually became the M.J. Smith Farm & Garden Centre.
In the mid 1920s Mr. Smith was elected to town council and served as mayor in 1928 and again in 1929.
He made many wise business decisions and built his company to a sizeable influence. He died at Chatham in 1958 and reposes in Maple Leaf Cemetery
The M.J. Smith firm survived for three generations but eventually ceased operations and its buildings were removed including the ancient Presbyterian church which dated, I think, from 1844 and was one of the early building projects of the Oldershaw contractors. There is now a retail store parking lot on the site of the church.
In a future article I will tell you about the other Presbyterian church, at Adelaide and Wellington East, which became an automobile factory.
