1883-11-27us

“Some fifteen or twenty members of the Salvation Army, including all the Hamilton officers, went out to Dundas on Saturday evening, with the intention of storming that stronghold of Satan.”

Hamilton Times.   November 27, 1883.

Just six days after the Dundas Mayor and Chief of Police Fitzgerald had decided to put an end to street preaching, members of the Hamilton Salvation Army, just coincidently perhaps, made a move to expand operations into the Valley Town.

Two street preachers had been arrested in Dundas during the Sunday afternoon of November 18, 1883. Both street preachers had been brought before Mayor Wardell, acting as Chief Magistrate, to face their charges. The decision had been to suspend sentencing if the street preachers agreed to stop the practice.

That incident may have been a challenge to the members of Hamilton Salvation Army who, for many weeks, had been turning the practice of street preaching into a major spectacle in Hamilton.

The Hamilton Times account of the incident follows:

“The ranks of the detachment were strengthened by several Dundas supporters, and the little procession marched from the H. & D. Railway train to the Sons of Temperance Hall, where the first shots were fired. On the way to the hall, an elderly vendor of milk, Samuel Kelso by name, who have been indulging in beverages somewhat more stimulating than the mild fluid that he vends, made himself conspicuous by forcing his company on the Salvationists. Some say that he was attacking them, others that he was only a little too demonstrative in his attentions to the hallelujah lasses; but whatever his motives were, his conduct was such as to move Chief Fitzgerald to take charge of him. Samuel was arrested and put into limbo. But this was not accomplished without a good deal of difficulty, as the arrest was unpopular with the unwashed of Dundas. Chief Fitzgerald got his prisoner safely in the lock-up, but in the operation his brilliant uniform was torn almost off his back.

“This was the only exciting episode that signalized the first visit of the Salvationists to Dundas. The hall was crowded, and a rousing meeting was held. The army held the crowded territory; in other words, they remained in the town all night, and held meetings there yesterday.”¹

¹ “Dundas Stormed and Taken : Triumphal Entry of the Salvation Army Into the Valley City”

Hamilton Times.   November  27, 1883.