Eloquent minister turned out to be scam artist

The following is a re-print of a past column by former Advertiser columnist Stephen Thorning, who passed away on Feb. 23, 2015.

Some text has been updated to reflect changes since the original publication and any images used may not be the same as those that accompanied the original publication.

Clergymen who have fallen from grace are subjects of widespread fascination and curiosity.

In the 19th century, when religion was much more of a presence in everyday life than it is now, a minister exposed as a bigamist, embezzler or moral fraud would find his improprieties the subject of lengthy newspaper stories, and the leading item of street-corner gossip.

Over the years, this column has documented the careers of several disgraced clergymen. Methodists seem to predominate but the reasons are not clear. Perhaps it was the sheer number of Methodists, and the fact that many were itinerant, with no ties to any particular locale. Possibly, the differences between their pronouncements and actions were so far apart that their careers stand out more than others in the historical record.

The most intriguing of this group of disgraced ministers was not a Methodist, but a Congregationalist. That denomination was never a large one in Canada, and it was largely absorbed by the United Church in 1925, when the Methodists and about two-thirds of Canada’s Presbyterians combined.

As the name implies, Congregationalists believed that all power in the church should come from the local congregation. They disapproved of central offices and control or any kind. There were several ruptures in the church in the latter part of the 19th century, when the church expanded its national office to supervise and fund overseas missionary efforts.

Fergus had a Congregational Church for a few years, and Guelph had a thriving Congregational Church from the 1840s onward. Nevertheless, the Congregational Church was never a large denomination in Canada or the United States. 

Adherents in the small village of Alton, to the east of Erin and south of Orangeville, built a new Congregational Church in the late 1870s, and in 1879 hired a new minister, Rev. J.T. Breese. He was a superb preacher and speaker, but rather vague about his background and qualifications as a minister. 

But no one doubted his skill at the job. Alton was situated on the newly-constructed Credit Valley Railway (CVR), and local boosters had believed the line would bring great prosperity and growth.

The first thing Rev. Breese had to deal with was the debt on the new church, built for a much larger population than Alton had, or ever would possess. The situation had become critical. The congregation could not afford to meet even the interest payments. J.T. Breese claimed he was an author, and that his book, Pen Sketches of Eminent Men, had gone through several printings. The book, he hinted, demonstrated his wide erudition, and qualified him to speak on subjects beyond the ecclesiastical. If he did write and publish such a book, it is certainly rare. I have been unable to find reference to a copy of it anywhere.

On Feb. 15, 1880, Rev. Breese occupied the pulpit at the old Melville Church in Fergus. He had been invited to deliver the anniversary sermon. That night, he preached the anniversary sermon at the Fergus Methodist Church. During the following week he gave several lectures in the Fergus area, on subjects such as “Christianity and Ritualism.” The proceeds of those lectures, he said, would go to the building fund of his home church in Alton.

Late that week, some unsavory stories about the minister reached Fergus. According to the rumours, Rev. Breese had spoken in several places on behalf of the building fund and other charities, but nothing trickled back to the church’s treasurer. As well, there were stories that he hade made inappropriate approaches to several women in Alton and elsewhere, some married and some single.

Apparently, there was some uncertainty as to whether he still held the pulpit at Alton. Until Breese cleared up the various stories and rumours, the Fergus Methodist Church withdrew his use of their edifice for a lecture he had scheduled for Feb. 24, on the subject of “Irish Genius and Character.” Proceeds would go, he claimed, to an Irish relief fund.

That week, several newspapers began using quotation marks around “Rev.” wherever his name was printed. No one could find out exactly what his qualifications were as a minister.

Elora, for a time at least, seemed a little more charitable to Breese. On Feb. 22 he preached two sermons in the village. The next day he began his defensive strategy in Fergus. He had posters printed stating that his Feb. 24 lecture would be postponed until he had documentary proof available proving his qualifications as a minister of the gospel.

J.T. Breese failed to realize that the telegraph and rapid rail service had changed the playing of the game. A Dr. Freeman of Georgetown stepped off the evening CVR train at the Fergus station on Feb. 23, with a warrant for the arrest of Breese. The charge was one of obtaining money under false pretenses. 

A few weeks earlier, he had given a couple of lectures in the Georgetown area on behalf of the survivors of the wrecked steamship Waubano, which had gone down in Lake Huron in the fall of 1879. He told people he was an authorized agent collector for that fund. Someone checked at Collingwood, the ship’s home port, and the charity had never heard of J.T. Breese.

Within an hour of Dr. Freeman’s arrival in Fergus, Breese was arrested. He spent the night in the cramped and cold Fergus lock-up. The next morning, Dr. Freeman and the Fergus constable escorted him to the railway station, for a one-way trip to Georgetown. Breese loudly proclaimed his innocence. 

He claimed that he had only kept amounts sufficient to meet his expenses and printing bills. He even had what he claimed was a receipt signed by the treasurer of the Waubano Relief Committee for money sent to the charity at Collingwood. That evidence, whether genuine or not, combined with his silver tongue, were sufficient to convince the Georgetown magistrates that the charges and his arrest were both unfortunate mistakes. On the evening of Feb. 26, Breese was back in Fergus.

The Georgetown acquittal did not clear his name in Fergus. Rev. John Duff, associated with the Fergus Congregational Church, became Breese’s most vocal critic. He spoke publicly and in print of the Alton minister’s “mental and moral derangement,” and said those characteristics, rather than any criminal intent, offered “the most charitable view to take of his career.” Breese had claimed at least a dozen ministers had written letters of support for him to the Alton Church. Duff said those letters existed only in the imagination of J.T. Breese.

By then there were other troubling questions about the honesty of Breese. Early in 1880 he had preached and given lectures in the Hamilton area on behalf of several charities. None, it appeared, ever received a penny from the proceeds.

Though he kept promising documentary proof to back up his legitimacy and honesty, J.T. Breese believed in a strong offense. He went on the attack in early March, and submitted a letter to the Fergus News Record on March 4. Much of it was a polemic against Duff, rather than a defence and explanation of his own character and activities. 

The opening paragraph shows well Breese’s skill at confusing the issues with words: “My greatest difficulty in answering Mr. Duff’s letter will be in doing so and not pain him or his friends. However, God has incorporated suffering with sin, and if suffering results in removing sin it will be well endured. His age is another protection to him; and in view of his venerable grey hairs I will remember to treat him with becoming dignity ...” 

Breese could and did grind out that sort of verbiage by the column, and in speaking to a crowd he could be even more impressive. By the time he was finished, it took some time for his audience to realize that he had not really addressed the questions at issue.

A further complication was another rift within the Congregational Church as a whole. The Congregational Union, a new national body in the church, had proposed that ministers in the Congregational Church be certified by the national office, effective in June 1880. Duff claimed that Breese had no hope of making the list.

Breese did finally admit he was not on good terms with the leaders of the Alton church, but insisted he was still the minister there. His difficulties he laid largely at the feet of Duff, who he claimed had written letters to poison the members of the Alton congregation against him.

The real issue, of course, was the honesty of J.T. Breese in raising money for the Alton Church building fund and various other charities. Apart from the brief session before the magistrates in Georgetown, those matters had not been investigated thoroughly. Soon,the heat in Alton and Fergus would be too much for even J.T. Breese to handle.

Next week: Greener pastures for J.T. Breese.

*This column was originally published in the Advertiser on June 10, 2005.