Dictionary of Glengarry Biography

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====== Gourlay, John James Lowry ====== 
(25 March 1864-13 June 1945), clergyman. (John J.L. Gourlay, J.J.L. Gourlay) Born at Carp, Ont. Parents: Hugh Cameron Gourlay (1827-1920) and his wife Maria Rose Lochead. John J.L. Gourlay, who studied at McGill University, was ordained a Presbyterian minister 1895. Before coming to GC, he was minister at Dauphin, Man., Lloydminster, Alta., and elsewhere in the Canadian West, also at places in Ont. and Que. including Lunenburg in Stormont County. In GC, he was minister of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, South Lancaster, from June 1913 till Oct. 1925, St. Andrew’s being part of a three-point charge. In this charge, Gourlay was responsible also as minister for the Presbyterian congregations in the Second Concession Church (2nd Concession of Lancaster) and at Curry Hill. He supported the formation of the United Church in 1925, but the members of his congregations were divided on the subject of Church Union. In an arbitration, the South Lancaster Church building remained with the continuing Presbyterians, while the other two church buildings were awarded to the United Church.

<tab>It was also a part of the troubled outcome of the Church Union controversy among the members of his charges that Gourlay resigned his pastorate and left GC. Afterwards, he was a United Church minister at Hilton Beach on St. Joseph’s Island, Algoma, and at Sault Ste. Marie, and finally at Trout Creek near North Bay. He died at Sault Ste. Marie. He was married in 1896 to Janet Maude Young. Their daughter Rose Gourlay Gosse has included vivid recollections of her father’s pastorate in GC and of the Lancaster scenes of her childhood in her books //I Remember Glengarry// (1978) and //Papa Was a Preacher// (1990). She has also written about the history of the Gourlay family in //Those Grey Stone Walls// (1982). These works contain several poems by the Rev. John J.L. Gourlay. (See also Arpad Govan) Rose Gourlay Gosse writes, “All of us loved Glengarry, its traditions, its colour, and the fellowship of its fine people.” She must be considered mistaken in her statement that Rev. Charles W. Gordon (Ralph Connor) used to attend her father’s church socials at Lancaster. Since the person she was remembering brought greetings from St. Elmo and Maxville, he may have been the Rev. G. Watt Smith.

<tab>The Rev. John J.L. Gourlay was the nephew of the Rev. J.L. Gourlay (1821-1904), who was the author of a work still well known, //The History of the Ottawa Valley// (1896).


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<fs small>Rose Gourlay Gosse as cited (vols. have portrait, illustr) (QF) * MacMillan, //Kirk//, 80-83 * //An Historical Sketch of St. Andrews Presbyterian Congregation Lancaster, Ontario// (1957?) * Ella May Smith, //The Story of the Old Stone Church// [St. Andrew’s, South Lancaster] (1980?) * //Centennial of the ‘Present’ St. Andrew’s Church Bainsville// (1986?) * Ross, //Lancaster//, 410 * information from Archives of the Presbyterian Church in Canada * Gourlay’s poem “Farewell to Glengarry,” and poem by X. N. Trick, Bainsville, “Farewell to Rev. Mr. Gourlay,” //Cornwall Freeholder// 5 & 19 Nov. 1925 * obituary of his father Hugh Gourlay, //Cornwall Standard //16 Dec. 1920 * J.L. Gourlay: //MDict// (but not //Dictionary of Canadian Biography//) * //Glengarry News// 28 Aug. 1925, Rose Gourlay wins Queen’s University scholarship
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