Arnstein Gospel Hall, ON

Arnstein Gospel Hall was started in 1905, comprised of German, Italian and English immigrants working for the local sawmill, and continues to this day.

Walter Foreshew (b. 1933), present correspondent at Alder Street Gospel Hall in Sudbury, was raised at this assembly with his parents and siblings, and remembers his parents walking nine miles to the assembly as a child from their farmhouse near Loring, Ontario, except when they would catch a ride from Charlie Culin, who also lived nearby. Charlie started a Sunday School in his home which operated for forty years, and was influential in Walter's eventual salvation in 1946 when he was thirteen years of age. Walter's parents, Ernie Edward Foreshew and his wife Marjorie Louise (Vanmeer) Foreshew also hosted Gospel meetings and prayer meetings in their home as well.

Walter also remembers Gospel meetings held at a dance hall in Port Loring, preachers would include Ernest B. Dellandrea (1914-2005) and his brother Aubrey Celesty Dellandrea (1917-2007), children of Frank Joseph Dellandrea (1890-1982) and his wife Gertrude Clara (Haufe) Dellandrea (1889-1968). Walter also recalls Wallace Dexter Cudmore (1907-1996) as another preacher.

There was also a Marco & Mary Sommacal family that had emigrated from Italy, the children included Moses, Louisa, Samuel, Daniel, Joseph, John, Susana and Adaline. It is unknown whether the entire family was involved in the assembly, but of the children, Walter remembers Samuel Frederick Sommacal (1889-1967) who the Lord led to Toronto to engage in chiropractic work, as well as John Sommacal, who briefly engaged in evangelistic work in Alberta. There was a John Mark Sommacal that was born 1894 or 1895 that was a brother of Samuel, as well as another John, 1903-1965, who was a son of Samuel’s brother Joseph. In the 1970s and 1980s, Sam lived in the Leaside area of Toronto in a home with his two single sisters Susanna and Aadline. They attended Leaside Bible Chapel after Central Hall closed. John Sommacal also lived in the area and did a small amount of itinerant preaching and evangelism.

Sources

• Walter Foreshew 11-16-2019
• Ancestry.com
• Findagrave.com
• Personal recollections of RPS