page_title: Turner Chapel (Oakville)
section_title: Oakville Heritage Society plaque
hierarchical_section_title: Turner Chapel (Oakville) / Oakville Heritage Society plaque
caption_attribution_description: English: Exterior of Turner Chapel
context_page_description: Turner Chapel was an African Methodist Episcopalian Church located at 37 Lakeshore Road West in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1890. An earlier structure, built on the east side of Sixteen Mile Creek, had burned down. The west side of the river, where artisans lived, was a more welcoming environment for Oakville's "Black Church". It is telling that the church was named after Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, as he was an advocate of the back-to-Africa movement, and the first black chaplain, appointed by Abraham Lincoln, during the American Civil War.
  The escaped slaves were seeking to escape the penalties of the fugitive slave laws which were passed in the United States in the early nineteenth century. Many of the escapees were skilled tradesmen and one of their number developed the technology that made "stoneboating" possible. Stoneboating was a system where ships could grapple for slabs of sedimentary rock which could then be cut and prepared for building materials. The stratification of the rock, a natural process over eons of time, made for regularly shaped "brick-like" material which had the virtue of being easy to form and consistent in shape.
context_section_description: Outside the present day building there is a sign erected by the Oakville Historic Society. It reads:
  African Americans had arrived in the Oakville Bronte area as early as the 1830s. With the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act 1850 a significant increase was noted in the number of former slaves leaving the northern states and following the North Star into Canada West (Ontario). Among the arriving fugitives was James Wesley Hill who later would be responsible as an agent of the underground railroad for assisting many former slaves into Canada and giving them temporary employment on his farm to help them get established.
  About 1860, Samuel Adams and his brother-in-law, Rev. William Butler (ordained in the A.M.E. church) set about organizing an estimated three or four hundred fugitives in the vicinity. After many set-backs, suitable land was acquired on the present site for a church. The corner-stone for the building was placed in 1891. On January 1, 1892, the doors of Turner Chapel A.M.E. church were flung open for service under the leadership of Rev. William Roberts. A salute was tendered to Bishop Henry McNeal Turner the first black chaplain in Armed Forces of the U.S.A, and a dedicated community worker, when his name was applied to this sanctuary.
caption: Oakville Heritage Signage.
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