Stoney Hill (Lockhartville) United Baptist Church

Stoney Hill (Lockhartville) United Baptist Church

Stoney Hill (Lockhartville) United Baptist Church

Eastern Valley Association

Nova Scotia

Kings County

13019 Highway 1, Lockhartville, NS

Active

Built 1842

As long ago as 1840, perhaps even earlier, meetings were held in the schoolhouse at Brooklyn through the outreach of the Baptist church at Falmouth. So it was that the Baptist church at Lockhartville had its beginning, for the community then known as Brooklyn was later called Stoney Hill and, more recently, Lockhartville. The congregation soon realized the desirability of having a meeting house and so, in 1842, erected the church which, with some changes, continues to serve to this day. In that year, also, Levi Lockhart, Joseph Brown and Frederick Nusin were appointed deacons of the fellowship.

Although they had a church of their own, the Baptists of Brooklyn, like those in Hantsport, continued to be members of the Falmouth Church. A separate body was not organized until June 22, 1876, when the Central Baptist Association met with the congregation and instituted the Brooklyn Baptist Church, which then had 102 members. The first recorded baptism was solemnized in January 1890, when Mrs. Adolphus West and Mrs. Charles Harvey received that ordinance of the church. The baptistry was a brook that ran near the meeting house and the ice had to be cut away to make the water accessible. One of the earliest renovations made on the church was in 1890 when, according to the minutes, “It was moved and passed that the panels of the middle row of pews be taken out and that the inside of the building be ceiled.” Lic. Frank A. Starratt, whose ministry was characterized by successful revivals, was then the pastor.

Further structural improvements were made in 1913 during the pastorate of Rev. G. D. Hudson. The present steeple is not the original but was added in the early 1960’s, its predecessor having been removed some years before. In August 1904, the name was changed to Lockhartville Baptist Church and the former Brooklyn designation was dropped. The church clerk noted that the “deed of declaration” was registered, stating change of name and function of trustees.

The church’s cemetery is distinguished by the fact that there was buried William Hall. Born in 1827 at Horton Bluff, Nova Scotia, Hall served with the Royal Navy and was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the Relief of Lucknow on November 16, 1857. Believed to have

been the first African Canadian to win the coveted honor, Hall’s remains subsequently were reinterred at Hantsport where a suitable memorial has been erected.

This church was at one point associated with Avonport in the support of a minister, the congregational minutes recall that this arrangement was formally initiated on June 11, 1910, when a motion was adopted constituting the Avonport and Lockhartville United Baptist Church. For many years, the people looked to students from Acadia University for pastoral oversight, a situation which was changed with the settlement of Lic. Nelson Metcalfe in 1962. Ordained in 1964, Mr. Metcalfe in that same year gave the leadership which saw a parsonage erected in Avonport and which ushered in a new period of progress and enthusiasm in the life of the churches at Avonport and Lockhartville. In the opening years of the second decade of the twenty-first century Lockhartville folk found themselves having to seek the services of a pastor of their own; and by September 2015 they welcomed Rev. Debra Mosher as their pastor.

Information and photos courtesy of “Churches By The Sea” by M. Allen Gibson and Hantsport and area Historical Society.