The Anglican Indian Mission for Chapleau District included the Biscotasing, Flying Post, Brunswick House, Mattawakumma, Chapleau, and Abitibi First Nations. Flying Post and Mattawakumma no longer exist. Brunswick House community has moved two or three times and is now situated just outside Chapleau on highway 101. Biscotasing is halfway between Sudbury and Chapleau on the CP rail line and there is still a church building here. The Abitibi First Nations were located north of highway 11. As well, each of these places were Anglican due to the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company which was a predominantly English company. Before the Canadian Pacific Railway was built, the only way to minister to this extensive area north and east of what is now Chapleau was by water (canoe).
In 1860, Rev. John Horden - who went on to become founder and first bishop of the Diocese of Moosonee - journeyed from Moose Factory to Missanabie and found a young man named John Sanders (an Ojibway) in Flying Post whom he took to be schooled with Sanders' father's permission. Sanders came to be ordained a deacon in 1876 and was priested in 1879. Bishop Horden sent Sanders in 1876 to Mattagami to become the Indian missionary. In this role he travelled to Flying Post, Missanabie, Michipicoten, Chapleau, Brunswick House, Biscotasing, and others. It should also be noted that Rev. Horden was the one to divide the Diocese of Moosonee into five districts; one of the five being Moose Factory which contained Abitibi, Mattawakumma, Flying Post, Brunswick House, and others which are not being considered here.
Rev. Sanders conducted the first Anglican worship service in Chapleau at Mulligan's Bay in 1882 in Ojibway - which is where St. John's Anglican Church later was built.* This is how the work of the Church of England in Chapleau and area began before the CPR was built. Once the CPR was built Rev. Sanders changed his headquarters to Biscotasing to more easily reach the places in Chapleau District. Rev. Sanders was actually responsible for the construction of the church at Biscotasing (which survived the fire of summer 1913). He was also responsible for the building of the church at Missanabie which became a base for further missionary activity in places like Flying Post and Brunswick House.
Since Chapleau was passed back and forth between the Diocese of Moosonee and the Diocese of Algoma so many times (based on the easiest travel route to get there at any given time), it is hard to track incumbents. The scattered nature of this district also made it difficult to minister to. As well, places within Chapleau District, namely Biscotasing, could fall under different Deaneries or Diocese's and had differing incumbents. Some of the Indigenous groups listed aboves may have also attended churches in different missions, such as those from Brunswick House attending services in White River Mission. With these complicating factors, a list of incumbents will not be included here.
*St. John's Church is where the Chapleau Cree had their gatherings and services. It is also noteworthy to mention that there was a residential school in Chapleau by the name of St. John's as well - the Chapleau Cree have since restored the cemetery here.
Sources:
- "St. John's Church: Chapleau, Ontario," The Algoma Missionary News 72, no. 3 (1946): 46-47. Algoma University Archives, 2009-081_002_005_1946JulAug.
- "Mississauga Deanery," 1961, Journal of Proceedings of the Twentieth Session of the Synod, Algoma University Archives, 2009-078_002_018.
- "Honor Memory John Sanders Founder Missanabie Church," The Algoma Anglican 12, no. 5 (1968): 1A and 4A. Algoma University Archives, 2013-086_001_004_1968May.
- "Missanabie - 90 Years of Faith - 1888-1978," The Algoma Anglican 23, no. 6 (1979): 3A. Algoma University Archives, 2013-086_001_012_1979Sept.
- "Horden Memorandum," 1875, P032 - Diocese of Moosonee Synod Office Fonds, Laurentian University Archives.
- Information also gathered from: Rev. Tom Corston (Church of the Epiphany, Sudbury), Harry Huskins (Diocesan Historian), Irene Barbeau (CSAA Elder and Survivor), and Mike Cachagee (Survivor).
