Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID # |
2011.022.005 |
Object Name |
Paten |
Title |
Communion Plate |
Lexicon category |
8: Communication Artifact |
Date |
Late 19th-century |
Made |
Unknown |
Place of Origin |
Unknown |
Description |
Very plain Communion bread plate (paten). The metal does not appear to be silver, nor pewter. No maker's identification observed. |
Makers mark |
None |
Provenance |
Manufacturer unknown. Likely a 19th-century item, as the lack of a maker's mark suggests that it pre-dates the 1891 McKinley tariff act. It belonged to and was used by the Evangelical Church in Williamsford, Grey County. It later belonged to the Krause family. The great-grandparents of Violet Toms (née Krause) were Karl and Augusta Krause, who came from Prussia. Her grandparents were Albert and Katherine Krause, and her parents were Ephraim and Sophia Krause. This item belonged to Albert Krause, who served as lay minister when the regular Elmwood minister was not in attendance. It was inherited by Vera Krause, and was last owned by her sister, Violet Toms. She was born in 1912, and was the church organist from fourteen to eighteen years of age. She later married Cecil Toms. She told museum staff that she remembered the Communion set in use when the church was Methodist, when she was a teenager. The pieces were set on a plain table at the front, and the congregation drank from the chalices. The church had three components to its Sundays: a morning service, an afternoon Sunday School, and an evening service. The bell in the tower was rung to summon people to church, or when someone had died. The services were conducted in German up until the First World War, when they changed to English. The church's charge was connected to the Elmwood charge, which had a manse as well as a church. The Krause family donated the land on which the church was built. They lived in a stone house in the village of Williamsford, where they owned the lumber mill. |
Collection |
Religious Collection |
Material |
Metal |
Found |
Owen Sound, Grey County |
People |
Toms, Violet |
Subjects |
Churches Williamsford, Ontario Communion |
Search Terms |
Williamsford Evangelical Methodist Church Williamsford |
Function |
A Communion set in a church usually had a flagon for pouring out sacramental wine for the congregation to sip from a chalice, and a couple round plates to serve bread or wafers. |