Creating Vermilions First Church

Back when Vermilion was first founded, one of the early tasks of residents was to build a church that people could worship in.

It was in September 1905 when a letter reached Archdeacon Lloyd in Lloydminster, for whom the community is named, asking if a church could be opened in the new village of Vermilion. The person who sent the letter was Robert Pilkie.

A reply came on Oct. 15, 1905, giving permission to create this church. A week later, Archdeacon Lloyd came to the community to conduct the first service of the Church of England. He had arrived in the community on a construction train. At the time, there was no station and no platform. There were piles of lumber everywhere and many half-built homes and stores.

Nearby to where the train stopped was the Canadian Northern Restaurant. This was simply a canvas tent and a rough board shack. There, he enjoyed a beefsteak but didn’t have any utensils to eat the steak. He also enjoyed some pasty cakes and potatoes.

Lloyd was then escorted to the home of the Pilkies, which was little more than a shack. Inside were the Pilkie Brothers who had come from Lindsay, Ontario. A cot had been set up for him in the small home.

The next day, Robert Pilkie went around telling anyone he came across that Lloyd was going to do a service at 2 p.m. that afternoon. At that time, people came from every corner of the prairies. There were 57 men attending with seven women. That may not seem like a lot, but it was every woman from the surrounding area as most settlers at the time were single men.

From this simple beginning, the first church in Vermilion’s history began, leading to many more as the town started to grow in those early years.

As for Pilkie, he not only saw that first church built, but four more built in the growing community over the next two decades.

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