Temperance at the White Chapel

The White Chapel

Janet Kellough

By Janet Kellough
I’ll be the special guest speaker this coming Sunday (June 2nd) at the annual White Chapel Service. The White Chapel is an outstanding example of an early Methodist Meeting House that dates from the early 1800s, now administered by Picton United Church. Even if you aren’t interested in hearing me (although I find that hard to believe), it’s worth turning out just to see this fascinating building!

In a slight departure from the normal sort of topics which generally have something to do with church history, I’ll be telling the folks about Letitia Youmans, a 19th century woman who bucked the prevailing good old boys network in the cause of Temperance. Not a currently fashionable topic, I know, but drunkenness was a huge problem in the Province of Canada back then, and the people who bore the direst consequences of it were usually women and children. The extent of the problem makes our current experience with illicit drug use look pretty minor in comparison.

A highly-educated woman with an ironic sense of humour, Youmans eventually rose to become the Canadian President of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, a figure of national stature and a popular speaker on the international stage. But the story that I’ll be telling is of her early years and the events that allowed her to find the courage to stand up and do something.

And just so you don’t think the topic is totally unrelated to the venue – she was a member of the Methodist community and lived in Picton!

The White Chapel is located about 2 km. north of Picton, just off Highway #49 on White Chapel Road (where else?) The service is at 3 p.m.

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Playwright, novelist, amateur folklorist, journalist and performance storyteller, Kellough has dedicated the better part of two decades to chronicling, capturing and telling tales of life in Prince Edward County.

Visit Janet Kellough’s blog  for delightful and fascinating stories from the County’s long maritime traditions, historical buildings and places, riotous affairs in the early days of settlement.

She received an excellent review in the Globe and Mail last week calling “Sowing Poison”, her second book in the Thaddeus Lewis Mystery series published by Dundurn Press, “a great creepy little ghost mystery set in 1844 Wellington”.  Reviewer Margaret Cannon praised the “thoroughly well-done historical mystery.”

Sowing Poison followed the book “On the Head of a Pin”. The newest of the series,  “47 Sorrows” is to available July 27 from Dundurn Press. In this new novel, Thaddeus Lewis and his son Luke follow a tale of vengeance that spans two continents.
More at www.janetkellough.com