Cherry Church History
In the year 1900, as a result of prolonged discussion, the various denominations, which owed much to the movement begun by John Wesley so many years earlier, amalgamated and called themselves Methodists. So, the Willunga Wesleyan Circuit became the Willunga Methodist Circuit, and the Cherry Gardens Wesleyan Church became the Cherry Gardens Methodist Church. In 1911, the October Methodist Conference ordered that the Clarendon Methodist Circuit be formed of Clarendon, Cherry Gardens, Kangarilla and Meadows.
Marriage Notice Advertiser 16 January 1900
LLOYD – SCROOP On the 21st December 1899 at the Wesleyan Church, Cherry Gardens, by the Rev. G. Hall, Herbert, fourth son of Thomas and L.C.M. Lloyd, Blumberg, to Blanche Adelaide, fourth daughter of Mr, John Scroop, Cherry Gardens. James Phillip Paddick married Thurza Jane Dix on 5th June 1902 at Cherry Gardens.
The Advertiser Wednesday 10 January 1900.
Pictured, Lucy Boothey
GOLDEN WEDDING. BOOTHEY—MIDDLETON. — “On Christmas Day, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Boothey celebrated their Golden Wedding. Mr. Boothey arrived in the Diadem in 1840. Mrs. Boothey (then Lucy Middleton) arrived in the Buffalo in December 1838. They were married at Cherry Gardens on Christmas Day, 1849, by the Rev. Daniel. J. Draper, Wesleyan minister. They have 11 children, 37 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren living.” As a four-year-old, Lucy gave a posy of flowers to Governor Hindmarsh at a ceremony under the old gum tree at Glenelg North in December 1836. (Source, Ian Hutchinson, descendant of Lucy’s sister.) That tradition is still carried out each year by girl descendants of the Middleton family.
The Chronicle Newspaper reported on 1 April 1905 — “Anniversary services in connection with the Cherry Gardens Methodist Church were held on March 28. The Rev. Alfred. P. Burgess preached three times to crowded gatherings. The usual tea meeting was held yesterday in the Rechabite Hall and was followed by the public meeting in the evening. Mr. George Summers, of Coromandel valley, was in the chair, and the other speakers were Mr. J. Spencer and the Rev. A. P. Burgess. The choir, under the leadership of Mr. Phelps, rendered several anthems on Sunday and Monday, and Mrs. C. Ricks presided at the organ.”
The Chronicle April 1909
Pictured, Mr Jacobs in 1900.
The Chronicle also reported in April 1909 that a Mr Kayser had transferred to the Cherry Gardens School from the school at Paddy’s Bridge.
The year 1920 marked an organisational change for Churches in the area. Coromandel Valley and Blackwood separated from the Clarendon Circuit.
Henry Jacobs reminisced to the Observer Newspaper in 1905. “Except for several years spent at Wandearah, in the north, at which place Mr. Jacobs conducted a dairy farm, he has spent the whole of his life within a radius of 10 miles of Cherry Gardens, his place of residence having been, besides Cherry Gardens, Clarendon and Happy Valley, at each of which, places he lived several years.
Mr. Jacobs' father Isaac, who arrived in the John Renwick in February, 1837, was one of the pioneer settlers in Cherry Gardens, and there Mr. Henry Jacobs passed the first 21 years of his life. Beginning work at the age of seven, driving one of his father's bullock teams, he had few opportunities of attending school, and the only education he received was at a night school conducted by a Mr. Numan in an old pise building which occupied the site on which the Government State school, a substantial stone building, now stands.
He also for several months attended, a night school held in the old Baptist Church at Coromandel Valley.”