Thanks for responding DL--I never thought about a dovetail fastening, that sure would have been something to have seen, ands it all falls into place because the cross ties could be let in after the frame was erected--
My, My-- I sure wish now that I had gone back sooner, what a pity
You asked about the ethnic makeup of the pioneering peoples of that area--well I know that the German speaking UEL's that arrived settled in an area a fair distance to the west of this church's position, actually in Dundas county where I live,this area contained the earliest German lutheran church in Upper Canada (St John's), now situated in Riverside east of Morrisburg founded in 1784--this area contains 3 other lutheran churches St Peter's in Williamsburg (1865), St Paul's (1875) in Morrisburg and St Luke's (1874)in Dunbar.
As far as I know the area (Stormont Ontario) that the church in question was in, was settled by Presbyterian UEL's, and I knows for a fact that no other Lutheran Churches are in this area
The next area (Glengarry) was settled by Scottish UEL's
So this leaves us with a little dilema about the framing type being of German technical extaction
One thing that I did notice about the hewn timber was the roughness of the surfaces of all timbers except the principal ones which were nicely done
Before I leave though one thought-- would a dovetail in the plate weaken it somewhat it appears to be adjacent to the vertical post which probably had a mortise and tenant attachment at this very same spot?-just a thought--maybe you could comment--