Our Story

Our story began in the summer of 1871 as Edward C. Foster made his way from his home in Berwick, Nova Scotia to Boston on business. While there, he had an opportunity to attend a Methodist Church encampment in Hamilton, Massachusetts. He returned home “an ardent advocate of this type of evangelism”., and won over others on the Board of the Berwick Methodist Church. In March 1872 a committee was selected, and plans got underway for the first Berwick Camp. Members of that committee were A.N. Bent, E. C. Foster, Robert Collins, H. E. Jefferson, Enoch Collins, Benjamin Morris, and Lewis Morris. Twenty three acres of land were offered by Deacon WO Webster. The first Berwick camp opened on July 5, 1872 at 2pm and ran until the following Thursday. It was a huge success and the beginning of a wonderful community of connection to be carried on for generations.

A lot of work preceded that first camp. A “Camp Meeting Manual”, obtained from similar encampments in the US, laid out plans for constructing tents to house six or eight persons as well as larger “society tents”. “Society tents” were erected to house prayer meetings for each of the individual circuits for prayer meetings to be lead by their own pastors. Stakes were put into the ground and 9,000 feet of planks were laid across for seats. These were just 9” wide, and had no back, so were not terribly comfortable! While they had no experience in catering, Foster, Jefferson and Enoch Collins and their wives took on the task of setting up a tent as a kitchen to cater to the crowds. Food was also made available for the horses. A special train was put on from Halifax to Berwick on Saturday, returning Monday morning. It was estimated that there were 3,000 people in the congregation on that first Sunday afternoon.