A Glance at the Past
By John-Paul Stewart
The names John and Eliza Gunton may not mean much to most readers. A few will know them, but everyone should. The Gunton family has a very long and distinguished history at First Baptist that continues to this day. It started sometime in the 1870s when John Gunton and his wife Eliza began attending Simcoe First Baptist, having previously worshipped at Vittoria Baptist.
The stained glass window in the southeast corner is dedicated to the memory of John & Eliza Gunton and was donated by their children
The stained glass windows at the back of the sanctuary (under the balcony) on the south side (facing Young Street) are dedicated to their memory. The memorial windows were paid for by their children, who had been raised in the church.
One of their sons, David D. Gunton who was born in 1881, is particularly noteworthy. As an adult he was in charge of the construction of the previous Sunday School building in 1914. (It was torn down in the late 1980s to make way for the current Sunday School and office space.) A few years later he was also responsible for building the sanctuary which was dedicated in 1922 and is still in use today.
David Gunton's daughter, Mary, married into the Hoover family. Her son, Jay Hoover, spent decades as the church's resident handyman and fixer, proudly maintaining what his grandfather had built. He's part of the fourth generation of the Gunton/Hoover lineage to be members of First Baptist. Jay's own children and grandchildren have been involved in church life in many ways over the years, too.
The board signed by D. D. Gunton and his crew in 1914 was discovered by his grandson, Jay Hoover, after more than 70 years in the church wall
One particular highlight of the Gunton family's involvement is a piece of lumber from the old Sunday School hall. David Gunton and his crew signed the board when they put up the building, documenting who worked on it and that the carpenters' wages were 30 cents per hour in 1914. When the facility was being torn down, that board hidden in the wall was discovered by Jay Hoover himself. Isn't it a remarkable coincidence that it was concealed for more than 70 years with nobody knowing it existed, only to be discovered by the grandson of the builder who put it there?
Other members of the Gunton family held key roles in the church, too. As mentioned in an earlier column, David's brother Robert E. Gunton was the inaugural president of the local Baptist Young People's Union (youth group) chapter in 1892. He held many other positions in the church over his lifetime. At different times both David's and Robert's wives were presidents of Mission Circles. Many family members have sung in the choir. These are only some of the ways their involvement has been documented.
Nearly every aspect of church life has been impacted by contributions from the Gunton family over the years. It's a legacy that stretches back 150 years and at least six generations. Few families can claim to have so much history in one church.
