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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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STRONG, JOHN BASS (1789-1870)

STRONG, JOHN BASS, visiting Methodist minister; b. Bingham, Nottinghamshire, England, 1789; m. Elizabeth Gambec, of Three Rivers, Que.; d. Summerside, P.E.I., 16 May 1870.

John B. Strong was sent to Quebec City in 1813 by the British Wesleyan Conference as the first Wesleyan minister in that part of the New World. Three years later he and his wife sailed from Quebec by fishing vessel to Prince Edward Island, where he took the pastorate of the Charlottetown Methodist circuit. After preaching for a number of years on the Island he transferred to New Brunswick and was stationed at Fredericton in the late 1820s.

In August 1828 Strong set out from Fredericton on horseback to visit the Methodist settlers on the Miramichi. A day in the saddle, "over roads filled with water and the roots and stumps of trees," brought him to Boiestown. He rested overnight and then followed the Southwest downstream to Newcastle, Chatham, and Williamstown, where most of the Methodists, and local leaders such as Robert Morrow, Joseph Spratt, and Robert Tweedy were settled. He spent several days with them, conducting services and encouraging them to organize committees and raise funds to build churches. His visit was an early highlight in the history of Methodism on the river and contributed to the formation, two years later, of the Miramichi Methodist circuit and the appointment of the Rev. Michael Pickles as the first resident minister.

Strong later served in Saint John and elsewhere in New Brunswick, and it was through his preaching at Sackville in 1836 that Charles Frederick Allison, the founder of the Wesleyan Academy, was converted to Methodism. He subsequently returned to Prince Edward Island and retired there around 1850. His death occurred twenty years later in Summerside, where his son Charles W. Strong was a co-owner of the Summerside Journal and later collector of customs. Another son, William G. Strong, was a legislative councillor on the Island.

Sources

[b] Huestis [d] Advocate 26 May 1870 / Can. Album (under Charles W. Strong); Can. Parl. Comp., 1877 (under William G. Strong); Cornish; DCB (re. Charles Frederick Allison); Hoddinott; Smith

Notes

Strong's wife's surname appears in different sources as "Gambec," "Gambee," and "Gamble." "Gambec" is the spelling used in the Canadian Parliamentary Companion for the middle name of her son William Gambec Strong.


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