With thanks to the Hastings Historical Society; photo courtesy of Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County
Stirling 1923
It was vigilante justice to be sure, and the story behind it was tawdry. In the fall of 1923, the Reverend Elijah Bundock was minister of the Apostolic Church in the town of Stirling, although his congregation had dwindled to just seven souls. Bundock, who also referred to himself as a “faith healer,” was a boarder at the Stewart home on Henry Street – living with 74-year-old Hugh Stewart, an invalid, Stewart’s 66-year-old wife Jane and their unmarried daughter, Tryphena, 38. The Reverend’s wife is said to have been residing elsewhere in Stirling.
According to local papers, the Reverend had an arrangement with the aging Stewarts that had gone sour: “… a financial agreement with the parents by which they deeded their farm over to him on condition that he keep them while they lived … Bundock apparently had not been keeping his share of the bargain as there were quarrels in the Stewart household and the old lady had left Friday last.”
Six local lads took the matter into their own hands. They decided to run Bundock out of town. The Stirling News-Argus described their vigilante act as such:
“Rev. Bundock … was tendered a warm, though not unexpected reception on Tuesday evening when several citizens of the town and vicinity … treated him to a drive in the country landing finally at Anderson’s Island, where they showed still further generosity by making a slight addition to his toilette in the way of tar and feathers …”
The event didn’t go unpunished. The lads were charged and eventually convicted in front of a Belleville courthouse packed with onlookers. Unlike the original Stirling News-Argus report, which had treated the tar and feathering lightly, the Intelligencer reflected the court’s disapproval: “His Worship was convinced not only that ‘the laws of the country had been contravened but that a menacing spirit of Bolshevism had been exhibited.”’
The men were given six-month suspended sentences and jointly fined $100 to compensate Reverend Bundock for “the ruin of his suit.”
And what of the Reverend? He headed west of Thunder Bay to the town of Nolalu with “his sister” Tryphena Stewart, where he eventually died at the age of 75. He never divorced, but his death certificate notes that he was separated.
