Joseph Horatio Chant

  General Notes:

Obit in Toronto Star in the June 9th issue indicates death was early morning of June 9, at age 91.
"On Saturday June 9, at North Bay. Rev. Joseph H. Chant, in his 91st year. Funeral at Newburgh Ont., Monday afternoon."

Parents came to Canada in 1840 and settled in Niagara-on-the-Lake where he
took his early schooling. Attended Victoria College when it was in Cobourg.
Ordained to the Methodist ministry in 1864. Mr. Chant was a poet of "more than
ordinary merit" and published "Gleams of Sunshine" in 1915. Uncle of Professor
Chant of University of Toronto.

The United Church magazine "The New Outlook" of December 26, 1928
carried the following remembrance of the Reverend Joseph Chant.

" On June 8, 1928, one of our very estimable ministers passed
away in the person of Rev. Joseph Horatio Chant at the ripe age
of 90 years & 9 months. He was born August 1837 in Somerset,
England. His parents came to Brockville, Upper Canada, when he
was 3 years old. He spent some of his early years in Virgil in
the Niagara Peninsula, and some in Unionville where he was
converted in revival services; and he spent two years in
Cathcart, Burford township teaching school; after considerable
preparation he entered the ministry and was ordained in 1868
under the Rev. Wm. Morley Punshon, the celebrated preacher and
lecturer. After labouring on a number of fields, he was
superannuated in 1896 and settled in Newburgh, Ontario till the
death of his wife in 1914. He spent the last 13 years of his life
with his daughter, Mrs. W.S. Wagar of North Bay.

" He was a man of deep piety, of a refined and sympathetic nature
and of the artistic temperment, and his influence on his
congregation was altogether good. The world is richer for the
fact that he has lived and laboured in it. His wife was Miss
Matilda McKim of Cataraqui and she was a helpmate indeed. He
leaves behind a daughter and two sons, Arthur of Toronto and
Stanley of Hampton, Ontario, to mourn his loss."
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Philip Chant has the small Holy Bible with the inscription:
Presented to the Rev. Joseph H. Chant at his Ordination to the Christiam Ministry in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada.
Kingston, Ont.
June 7, 1868
Signed Wm Morley Punschon, M.A., President

  Birth Notes:

Birth Surety:2

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation. A search of the United Church archives reveals the following
record of Rev. Chant's charges:

1864 Bayfield
1865 Elma
1866 Waterloo, Kitchener
1867 Smith's Falls
1868 Bathurst
1869-71 Osgoode
1872-73 Moira
1874-76 Bloomfield and Cherry Valley
1877-78 Centreville
1879-81 Edwardsburg
1882-83 Elginburg
1884 Collin's Bay
1885-87 Thurso
1888-89 Tupperville
1890 Maidstone
1891-92 Vienna
1893-94 Grand Bend
1895 Thedford
1896-15 Newburg, Superannuated
1916-25 North Bay, Superannuated

Joseph married Mary Matilda McKim, daughter of Peter Switzer McKim and Charlotte M. Guess, on 9 Jun 1868. (Mary Matilda McKim was born on 22 May 1843 in Waterloo, Kingston, Ontario,¹ died on 17 Jul 1914 in Newburgh, Ontario and was buried in Newburgh, Ontario.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Marriage Notice. Newspaper clipping found in Rev. Chant's Holy Bible:
MARRIAGE. By the Rev. George Case, on the 9th June, at the residence of the bride's father, Rev. Joseph Horatio Chant, to Mary Matilda McKim, second daughter of Peter McKim, Esq., Waterloo, Kingston.