COLPITTS, WILLIAM WESLEY (1835-1914)

COLPITTS, WILLIAM WESLEY, Methodist minister, Boiestown mission, 1876-79; b. c1835, s/o Lazarus Colpitts, a native of Coverdale parish, Westmorland Co., N.B., and Jane Colpitts, a native of Sussex parish, Kings Co., N.B.; m. Nellie Colpitts; d. Point Grey, B.C., 29 Dec 1914.

William W. Colpitts was ordained in 1866 and spent the next seventeen years in the Methodist ministry in the three Maritime provinces. He was stationed on the Nashwaak River before being assigned to the Boiestown mission in 1876. In 1877-78 he was assisted by the probationer John F. Estey. When his three-year term expired in 1879 he went to Pownal, P.E.I. In 1883 he departed for Manitoba, where he served until his retirement in 1896. Soon afterwards, he settled in Toronto, but he relocated in Kerrisdale, B.C., in 1902. He died twelve years later, at age seventy-nine.

Colpitts was the first ordained Methodist minister to serve the church at Boiestown, and he was given much credit for the new meeting house which was erected there in 1877.