St. John 150th Anniversary commemorative booklet

Leading Catholics in Osgoode petitioned Bishop Guigues for a resident priest, chiefly because they feared for the future of their youth. Thomas McEvoy and colleagues pleaded with the bishop by saying that many of the Catholics in this parish were young and in need of all the instructions they could get.

The bishop solemnly blessed the church.

The land for the church was donated by two families: one acre, part of Lot 19, Con. 3 by Patrick McEvoy and his wife Cecelia Doyle, and three acres, part of Lot 20, Con. 3 by John McEvoy and his wife Anastasia Powers.

Monsignor Guigues, then Bishop of Ottawa, came in person to choose a site on which to build churches in the communities of St. John's and St. Brigid's.