The Webbwood Mission was first part of the mission in Cooke's Mills, which was a small settlement in what is now Welland Ontario. The Webbwood Mission separated from Cooke's Mills in 1896 and included stations at the following locations: Whitefish Falls, Nairn Centre, Webbwood, Massey, Sagamok First Nation (Spanish River Reserve), and Walford.
The first clergyman was Rev. S.H. Morgan, a student, who made regular visits to these six stations within the mission. He conducted the first service on January 3, 1896. At Webbwood, they used a schoolhouse for services until December 1896, when they began using a local Methodist church. This arrangement was short lived and the Anglican church was built between November and December with their first service in the new building on December 25, 1896. The church was dedicated St. John's by the Bishop of Algoma on April 2, 1897. A parsonage was built almost ten years later in 1906, when the Webbwood Mission was divided and Massey, Walford, and Sagamok First Nation (Spanish River) formed the new Massey Mission.
Meanwhile the Anglican presence at Whitefish Falls had been on the decline since 1890 when the trade companies withdrew, and when the mission was re-activated around 1916, it was administered to by the rector at Holy Trinity Anglican Church (Little Current, Ont.) rather than Webbwood. This would leave the church at Nairn Centre, which was also built around 1896, and Webbwood as making up the Webbwood Mission in 1916.
This mission ended in 1924 when the Rainbow Country Anglican Parish was established with St. George the Martyr Anglican Church (Espanola, Ont.) at its centre.
Sources:
- "Short History of Webbwood", in Service Register, 1896-1903, Webbwood Mission fonds, Algoma University Archives, 2009-145/001(001).
- "Webbwood Mission", The Algoma Missionary News 11, no. 8 (1899): 8. Algoma University Archives, 2009-081_001_005_1899Aug.
- "Notes", The Algoma Missionary News 3, no. 6 (1906): 6. Algoma University Archives, 2009-081_001_007_1906June.
- "From the Parish Register of St. John's Parish, Webbwood", (1907), Diocesan Heritage Centre History files collection, Algoma University Archives, 2013-078/010(002).
- "Whitefish Mission", The Algoma Missionary News 12, no. 11 (1916): 6. Algoma University Archives, 2009-081_001_009_1916Nov.
- "A New Parish", The Algoma Missionary News 20, no. 2 (1924): 14. Algoma University Archives, 2009-081_001_013_1924Feb.
