Nova Scotia #10 on April 13, 1861, cover from Halifax to Chester, Nova Scotia addressed to Mr. Charles Church, Chester, County of Lunenburg. There is no indication of who the sender is. There is a manuscript “paid” inscribed in ink to the left of the barred oval cancelled stamp. Two backstamps, one a Halifax oval dated AP 13 1861 and a second illegible one.
Charles Edward Church (January 3, 1835 – January 3, 1906) was a teacher, merchant, and Canadian politician.
Born on Tancook Island, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, the son of Charles Lott Anthony Church and Sarah Hiltz, Church was educated in Chester and Truro, Nova Scotia.
He was a schoolteacher for over ten years and then started in business as a merchant.
Church was 25 years old and living in Chester when this letter was posted to him (or possibly to his father, a storekeeper, who was also named Charles.) In the 1871 census, 35-year-old Charles Church was a schoolteacher in Richey’s Cove. In 1884, Church married Henrietta A. Pugsley. He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1872 for Lunenburg. A Liberal, he was re-elected in 1874 and then was defeated in 1878. From 1874 to 1878, he was Liberal Whip in the House of Commons for the Maritime Provinces.
He was elected in 1882 to the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia and sat there until 1902 when he was called to the Senate. Church was Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia for two years in the William Thomas Pipes administration, and Commissioner of Public Works and Mines for 15 years, in the William Stevens Fielding and George Henry Murray administrations. He was called to the Senate on February 8, 1902, on the advice of Wilfrid Laurier representing the senatorial division of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. He served until his death on his 71st birthday in 1906. He is buried in Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax.
Charles Church was the fourth of that name in Nova Scotia. His great-grandfather, Charles Church was born in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1740. Church aligned himself with the Tories during the Revolution which resulted in his properties being confiscated. He is reputed to have appealed to General Washington claiming unjust treatment "to a man who has not fired a shot against the Americans." "On which side would you have fought if you had been there?" Washington is supposed to have asked. "I am British to the backbone and would have fought for my king," Church answered. His losses in consequence of his loyalty were estimated at 250 pounds. In 1783, Church set out from New York with a family of 11 and 3 servants for Shelburne, Nova Scotia where he received a grant from the Crown. Sometime later he moved to Dover, Nova Scotia and carried on a fishing business. He died there and was buried on an island which is still called Church's Island.
Charles's grandfather, Charles Lott Church was a boy of 6 when his family left the United States. He moved from Dover to Chester, Nova Scotia where his son, and Senator Church's father, Charles Lott Anthony Church, was a storekeeper.
The Charles E. Church Park in Chester, Nova Scotia is named in honor of Senator Church. By the terms of his will any residue in his estate after the passing of his widow was to be used for the purchase and creation of a park for the Village of Chester. The property was purchased in 1928 and construction of tennis courts, a club house and baseball field were completed in the fall of 1932.
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