Solid stone. Slate roof from Scotland. Should last forever.
St. Andrews Presbyterian in Spencerville stands proudly on the main street ready to take on all comers.
The church has served many purposes over the years: weddings, christenings, burials. The cemetery behind it is where the Hendersons from Groveton are buried.
In my days of going to church, it was the social gathering for many of my family. It is where I saw my uncles and aunts and cousins on a regular basis.
Everyone would come to church early so they could chat with friends and relatives alike, standing in small groups around the front. They would troupe inside when the bells called them and sit in their own pews. There were no formally reserved pews in the church, but everyone always sat in the same one.
When the Methodists and the Presbyterians joined to start a new church called the United Church, many people left, but, ironically, many people stayed within the Presbyterian Church, and so it continued to exist.
I recall only a small congregation of mostly grey haired seniors, with very few children my own age. When I went to high school and met more of the young people ho lived in the area, I decided that all the good looking girls went to the United Church. That was a revelation.
Mother loved to go to church. She would find me where I was hiding and get me dressed. We were without a car at some times and Mr. Gray would pick us up in his Model T much to my delight.
My father went most of the time, but occasionally he would abstain for some reason. He was a very social person and he loved to talk, so I am sure he loved that aspect of church.
Cemetery in Spencerville
The Cemetery behind St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Spencerville is the Canadian resting place of the Groveton Henderson lineage, starting with Thomas George Henderson and his wife, Janette (born Storey).
A picture of the gravestone of our grandfather, Adam Henderson and his wife Rebecca (born McQuade) is shown here not far from the gravestone of our father William Grover Henderson and our mother Margaret Blanche (born) Cummings.
George Henderson, son of William and Margaret, was buried in the family plot on May 1, 2010. George died at 93 and was cremated. The funeral was held in Knowlton in the Eastern Townships of Quebec in February, and the interment took place after a short ceremony in the church in Spencerville, attended by George and Barbara's children and George's remaining sisters, Madeline and Enid, and brother Clare.
The line of the Groveton Hendersons for four generations is buried close together in the same cemetery behind the church that they all attended.
