Related by Category
Puslinch Mennonite Church/United Brethren Church - Digital Archive
The Digital Archive and complementary Interactive Heritage Register Map are initiatives to provide historical information regarding properties included on the Township’s Heritage Register. The Digital Archive only includes properties which have consented to include their heritage property on this archive.
We recognize that when the first Euro‐Canadian settlers arrived in what is now Puslinch Township, the Anishinaabe ancestors of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation had long established hunt camps in the area. Through written and verbal accounts we understand that the Anishinaabe interacted with the settlers in a friendly and cooperative manner. It is acknowledged that the development of the Township encroached upon their traditional way of life resulting in their displacement.
Puslinch Mennonite Church/United Brethren Church
Biographical Info
The United Brethren Church, also known as the “Cross Roads Church,” was built in 1874. The red brick schoolhouse-style structure was built on land which originally belonged to John Cober. The front-gabled church is representative of a nineteenth-century rural church, and has been used for many religious denominations over the years. The adjoined cemetery, called “Cross Roads Cemetery,” has its first recorded burial in 1867; however, it is unknown when the cemetery was first opened, as many different denominations have used the site for burials. Today, a few headstones remain to the west of the main church building.
The property is historically associated with Mennonite and Baptist settlement, the Penn-German dialect, and various religious practice in Puslinch. Today, the building is known as “Cross Roads Be in Christ Church,” under the denomination, “Be in Christ Church of Canada.”
Categories: Decade Built – 1870s, Decade Plaqued – 2000s, Historical Association – German/Germany, Materials – Brick, One-storey, Schoolhouse Style