The Presbyterian Magazine of July 1859 reports:
“On Sabbath, 12th June, the churches were thronged with worshippers. In the first and third congregations many were smitten down during divine service. A great and glorious work is also going on in the second congregation, though with less outward manifestation. It was a Sabbath never to be forgotten in Cookstown.”
One of the ministers of the town, Rev. J. P. Wilson, states:
“If we take a district four miles round Cookstown, hundreds have been added to the communion of the Church. Family worship has been established where it was never observed before; people come out to the house of God in greater numbers, and listen with more marked attention; district prayer meetings are multiplied; drunkards have been reformed, and neighbour-hoods have totally changed their character. Drunkenness and blasphemy have greatly diminished; though, as the larger part of the population is Roman Catholic, and therefore disposed to mock at the revival, we need not be surprised to find cases of drunkenness before our magistrates, or to hear the awful oath from some as they return from market.”