Bruce-Grey County Genealogy

30-Sep-1920 (Orangeville Banner) Page 4, Column 4
ABANDON UNIQUE BRUCE CO. CHURCH
Sand is Now too Deep for Farmers' Autos to Approach Chapel.
    Close to the wide, sandy beach of Lake Huron, nine miles south of Kincardine, stands a little Anglican chapel built by pioneers of the district over half a century ago and now about to be abandoned, says a writer in the Toronto Star Weekly.  Once the centre of the thriving lakeside village of Alma, it has long been the only building in the neighborhood, except for the houses atop the hill, where fertile farm lands stretch for miles.  It is many decades since the last of the mills and shops of Alma were demolished, and only the fine, rippled sand, in dues which extend half a mile back from the lake, remains.  And now the little church is being reluctantly left behind.  The deep sand and the high hill are most inconvenient for the motor cars of the farmers and a new church home is to be established a short distance back from the brow of the bank.  But it will be many a long day before the little church among the sand dunes is forgotten, and there will be many pilgrimages by older members of the congregation to the building erected with the loving hands by their fathers.
    No where else, probably in Ontario, can be found a church with architecture quite the same or with surroundings quite so desolate.  It was built in the late fifties of timber from the virgin trees of the lake shore.  It is a sturdy little building with high-pitched roof, exterior buttresses, high pew ends, and "naked rafters" of stained oak stretching from wall to wall.  Outside and in the church is reminiscent of the English abbey or chapel, and bears evidence of the desire of the builder to make it resemble the edifices of his native country.
    A stone's throw from the lake, near the site of the now-forgotten schoolhouse, may still be seen a few indications that there was once a settlement nearby.  It was here that the first cemetery stood.  Only one headstone was ever erected in this cemetery -- that of Joshua Lindsay.  This was in 1854, Lindsay, one of the earliest settlers, was killed by a falling tree.  His widow sold the patents for a 200-acre tract of timber land for $200, and with part of the proceeds purchased a marble slab, which now lies prostrate in the sand, warn by the fine white sand, but still legible, bearing the warning epitaph:
"Remember, friend, as you pass by, As you are now, so once was I, As I am now, so you will be; Prepare for death and follow me."

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