The cost of building the two-storey manse, which Mrs. Aitken helped design, and the adjacent barn for the housing of a horse and a cow, came to a sum of $4,845. As well, it was estimated that approximately $1,000 in labour and material was contributed, making a final cost of nearly $6,000.12

REFLECTION Mervin Inman

Charlie Ramsay from Summerside built the manse. Like most country homes of the time it was cold for there was no insulation used. They put in a hot water furnace and the rods in the parlour under the big double windows, facing the Central road; they would freeze up, for it was that cold. Arch MacGregor and a bunch of men insulated the attic to see yr a difference could be made.

We got wood for the Rev. Mr. Aitken over in MacGregor’s woods in Northam. They brought big hardwood logs to the manse. Then, a bunch of us would go and saw them up in the fall of the year. Chum and Wilfred Hutchinson, Dad, and mysey‘ were some of the people that went to do the job.

Rev. Aitken pretty near lived in the

fireplace that was in the manse. He would get it burning good and it would heat the

house.

The congregation faced paying the $3,000 loan during the Great Depression. By April of 1936, they still owed $900 on the mortgage. It was decided to put forth a chal- lenge to the congregation to have the loan paid by year end. And on October 11, 1936, Mr. H. V. Carr and Mr. Seymour Thompson, chairman and treasurer respectively of the Manse Committee, partici- pated in a ceremony to celebrate the cancellation of the manse debt. The note was burned at a special worship service.

The young people of the com- munity played a major role in pay- ing the manse debt. They formed a play company, under the direction of the Aitken’s, and travelled the Island performing.

The manse served as a Christian Education Centre as the church and many meetings of ses- sion, women’s groups, and Young Peoples were held in the parlour. Music lessons were given at the manse and a number of community couples exchanged their marriage

vows in the parlour. The Aiktens, the Woodsides, and the Johnstons all had children born at the Lot 16 manse.

When Rev. Alexander MacKay, a retired minister, served the congregation from 1957 to 1959, the manse was rented, as he maintained his home in Kensington. Rev. Johnston again

74 LOT 16 UNITED CHURCH AND ITS PEOPLE