at no expense other than volunteer labour. Other materials had to be purchased and shipped to the area, including sandstone from Guelph quarries. The shell of the new church, completed in 1880, was constructed over the original wooden church. The old wooden building remained in use until the new roof was completed, after which it was dismantled and removed. Construction continued for a few more years, with the new church being consecrated on September 13, 1885. The total expenditure on church, not including free labour and materials, was $28,000. It is estimated that after exchange, the 3000 Thalers received from Ludwig (used partly for the older wooden church and partly for the new stone church) amounted to about $2000. The story of the church construction is used as a fictional backdrop in the Jane Urquhart novel The Stone Carvers. Formosa Spring Brewery The early German settlers quickly established a brewery in Formosa, in 1870. Over the years, the brewery has changed ownership and names many times, and the plant itself changed with renovations, expansions, and reconstructions. In 1922, the brewery's Buffalo-based owners closed the plant, due to prohibition. In 1924, it reopened as the Formosa Spring Brewery and a program of modernization was undertaken. Beer began to be produced again in 1927, and the brewery operated continually in Formosa from then on to the closure of the plant at the end of 1971. The summers of 1958 and 1968 were of special note in the history of the brewery; strikes by unionized beer workers shut down beer sales everywhere else in Ontario. Crowds of thirsty Ontario beer drinkers flocked to Formosa, where rationing of one case per customer had to be instituted at times. In the late 1960s, the plant had reached bottling capacity, and the Formosa site was deemed infeasible for expansion. The owners built a new plant in Barrie, Ontario, and moved operations there, still under the 'Formosa Spring Brewery' name. In 1974, Molson's purchased the Barrie-based Formosa Spring Brewery, renaming it Molson's Brewery. The Formosa plant was sold and used for a number of years for other industries such as water bottling and fish farming. With the rise of microbreweries in Ontario in the 1980s and 1990s, the Formosa plant was once again put to use brewing beer. The Algonquin Brewing Company purchased the plant in 1988, and restarted brewing operations in Formosa. They put out a