Reverend Edwy Ryerson

Reverend Edwy M. Ryerson was born in 1807, in Norfolk County, the son of Woodhouse Township pioneers Colonel Joseph and Mehetable (Stickney) Ryerson UEL, and brother of the Reverends George, Egerton, John and William. Edwy was the youngest of the Ryerson brothers to join the Methodist ministry.

He began his career in 1831 at the Credit Indian Missionary school, and became a circuit rider the next year, serving in many localities with over a quarter century of service in the ministry. His charges included St. Catharines, Belleville, Cobourg, Kingston, London, Brantford, Drummondville, Simcoe and Port Dover, where he retired in the mid-1850's.

He was married twice and fathered eleven children; with only four surviving to adulthood. Edwy died in Port Dover in 1858 and was buried in the family plot in Old Woodhouse Cemetery, south of Simcoe.

This picture provided by family historian Thomas Ryerson is a copy of the original in the United Church Archives in Toronto. He estimates Edwy's age to be in the forty's which would date this portrait during the very early years of photography.