In a remote corner of north east Edmonton, bounded by Clareview Road and 129th Avenue, is a small unmarked parcel of land commanding a dramatic view of the North Saskatchewan River valley. Only faint ground depressions and a small interpretive marker betray the fact that this is the location of Canon William Newton’s Hermitage and the birthplace of the Anglican Church in what would become the Province of Alberta.
William Newton was born in 1828 at Halstead, Essex, England into a family of weavers. Having obtained an education through the help of wealthy benefactors, he trained for the Unitarian Church, served as a Congregationalist minister and published two books of sermons. In 1870 he immigrated to Canada and was ordained into the Anglican Church by Bishop A.N. Bethune of Toronto. He spent four years at Rosseau and Howard Township in Ontario before being accepted by Bishop John McLean of Saskatchewan as a missionary with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at Fort Edmonton.
Leaving behind his wife, Sarah Ann Jeggo, and nine boys in Ontario, Rev. Newton arrived as the first Anglican missionary at Edmonton in 1875 and took up quarters in a house rented from Chief Factor Trader Richard Hardisty. The upper floor of the house was fitted out and served as a chapel until Newton was forced to vacate the property at short notice. Unable to afford accommodations at Edmonton in 1876, Newton settled on the North Saskatchewan River, some 10 km east across from Clover Bar.
The area in which Newton took up residence contains over a dozen prehistoric sites. Material remains dating from thousands of years ago indicate that Indigenous peoples gathered in the area to hunt and process provisions. During the summer of 1876 he cleared his land and was erecting a small log house which he named the “Hermitage” during the onset of winter.
[The Hermitage] would in most countries be considered a pleasant locality. Around it are hills and valleys, trees and water. From it for twenty years missionary journeys have been made to settlements, and Indian tents, over a space of two hundred miles, and it has been the centre of all the work which one solitary missionary has been able to accomplish.” -William Newton Twenty Years on the Saskatchewan, N.W. Canada
Rev. Robert Connell who had occasion to visit Newton later in the development of the Hermitage recalled that the cluster of buildings there “was almost a little village.” A cook house contained a home-made bed with a full bookshelf overhead. Upstairs was a dining room, its walls and ceiling papered with illustrated pages from religious journals. Outside of the building was a bell imported from England. Adjoining was a cabin for accommodating visitors from the countryside as well as a second cabin that served as a rudimentary chapel. It contained a small Holy Table decked with red cloth in front of a wall similarly adorned. The largest building was a two-storey house encircled by some of “the finest lilacs” Connell had ever seen, beyond which lay a green lawn and gay flower beds, “for the Canon was an enthusiastic gardener.” The ground floor housed Newton’s “remarkable” library while the second floor included bedrooms where special guests “looked out across the river’s wooded valley to the fertile lands towards Clover Bar.”
For a short period Newton embarked on itinerant missionary journeys to visit Anglicans at the Victoria and Lobstick Settlements as well as First Nation communities at Whitefish Lake and Saddle Lake, but this role was removed in favour of focusing on the immediate Edmonton area. Newton was involved with the establishment of the All Saints congregation which later became the Cathedral of the Edmonton Diocese as well as the Christ Church cemetery and parish at Poplar Lake, north of Edmonton.
In 1886 Newton’s sister Eliza joined him at the Hermitage. A trained medical nurse who had practiced in several London hospitals, she established the first rudimentary medical treatment facility in the Edmonton area. In 1899, Newton announced his retirement and sold the Hermitage the following year. In the spring of 1901 he delivered his farewell sermon at All Saints Church and departed for Victoria, British Columbia. Having lost his first wife that same year, Newton remarried at Victoria in 1903 and had a tenth son with his new wife. Upon his death in 1910 the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton funded the installment of a memorial plaque on his grave in the church yard of St. Luke’s, Cedar Hill.
In Edmonton, Newton’s role in local history is commemorated through the large river valley park named after his Hermitage, the Canon Ridge, Hermitage and Newton neighborhoods, the Edmonton Public School Board’s Newton School, Newton Park, as well as the Newton Community League and associated Hall, Club House and Rink. A historic cairn and plaque were unveiled by the City of Edmonton Archives and Landmarks Committee at the Hermitage in 1951 and later replaced with a simple interpretive marker.
The most striking reminders of Newton’s time at the Hermitage are the brilliant stands of lavender and white lilacs which continue to bloom every spring, marking in a most fragrant way his place in Edmonton’s historic landscape.
POSTSCRIPT:
The Hermitage site is adjacent to the City of Edmonton’s Hermitage Park off leash Dog Park.
Written By: Peter Melnycky, Historian
SOURCES
Aubrey, Merrily et al. Naming Edmonton from Ada to Zoie, Edmonton: The University of Alberta Press, 2005.
Connell, Robert. “Forty Years Ago: Recollections of Canon William Newton,” Church Messenger, Diocese of Edmonton, Vol. IV, No. 65, September, 1935.
Flewell, Victoria S. http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/f/l/e/Victoria-S-Flewell/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0019.html
Newton, William. Twenty Years on the Saskatchewan, N.W. Canada, London: Elliot Stock, 1897.
Peake, Frank A. “The Beginning of the Diocese of Edmonton, 1875-1913”, A dissertation submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, University of Alberta, Faculty of Arts, 1952.
Peake, Frank A. “William Newton” http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/william-newton/
RETROactive 
Great blog. Our family’s connections with these places are that my sister was the last Principal of Newton school and I was hired as a section lead to sing for a Christmas season at All Saints Anglican Church. Sang solos at a wedding there also and my former piano teacher Carol Otto was organist for many years at All Saints Anglican Church.
Thank you for visiting the blog and for sharing your story.
Interesting! I should like to visit this spot sometime.
Jenn – It is a beautiful spot at any time of the year but especially so when the lilacs are in bloom. Thanks for visiting our blog.
Lovely blog. Thank you for the great summary of his impact in Edmonton. He is our go-to ancestor for stories, since he liked to write!
He actually had 10 sons with Sarah Jeggo, not 9. I haven’t figured out exactly what happened to one of them, but they were present on the 1871 census, so they must have lived for at least a brief period of time.
Gina – Thank you for the comment and the information on William and Sarah’s 10th son. Which son are you descended from and do you know if William had any children with his second wife?
How do i find this spot? Where is it located? I go to the dog park almost daily.
Jennifer – Thanks for visiting the blog. The Hermitage site is located at the corner of Clareview Rd. and 129th Ave. If you are trying to access the site from the dog park you need to walk out of the River Valley up the trail at the south-west corner of the lake that is inside the off-leash area. The Hermitage site is at the top of the trail. You will see the lilacs and an interpretive sign installed by the City of Edmonton. I hope this helps.
I think it is not a bad idea, and if it does not create any problem, it can be implemented. I am sure that this will brings positive results later in the future for the end-users. They are not done more often.
Hi great reading yyour blog