1

Christian Reformed Church, the old Quaker mtg house.
1950
Bloomfield, Ontario

2

The Christian Reformed Church sent missionaries to areas where there was a concentration of Dutch immigrants to assist the immigrants and start congregations. Reverend Andre came to Eastern Ontario and gathered the scattered Dutch immigrants from Trenton, Carrying Place and Picton for the occasional church service. With the influx of immigrants in the spring of 1948 they started having regular church services, at first in Benson Hall in Picton and then in the Quaker Meeting House in Bloomfield. Reverend Andre and his family settled in Picton in July 1948 to be the Home Mission Pastor for the growing congregation.

3

The interior of the Christian Reformed Church, the old Quaker meeting house.
1950
Bloomfield, Ontario

4

Christian Reformed Church balcony
1950
Bloomfield, Ontario

5

The balcony is remembered as a good place to sit and check out the boys sitting on the other side.

6

Rev. Andre and family
1950
Prince Edward County, Ontario

7

As John Huizenga explained he "was not only our minister, but he was also our taxi, car salesman, interpreter and mediator between employer and employee." As new families arrived he would visit, invite them to church, arrange transportation and link them to other Dutch families. Bob Carter who worked in the post office helped him find where the new arrivals were living. He had served in Holland at the end of the war and learned to speak the language quite well. His wife was a Dutch war bride.

The Andre family

8

Gathering the Congregation
31 January 2006
Prince Edward County, Ontario

9

Gathering at Church
1950
Bloomfield, Ontario

10

In the early years the Christian Reformed Church offered a focal point for the Dutch community which was as much social as it was religious. "The service would last for an hour … the social afterwards, the talking would last an hour and a half…They stood inside and outside that old Quaker church down there and the talking and talking"

11

Socializing at Church
31 January 2006
Trenton, Ontario

12

Allan deVries providing transport to church
1950
Prince Edward County, Ontario

13

Those with cars picked up other families on the way and some of the young men made extra trips after their own families had been delivered to church. Here Allen deVries is picking up another couple with the family car.

14

Immigrants from Aalten
1952
Bloomfield, Ontario