Truth Search - Watchmen History

The Watchmen Quartet began in 1968 as the result of a talent contest being held at Emmanuel Bible College in Kitchener. Keith Elliott, Dave Jantzi, Dave Yake and Tim Harden had been friends for some time through Bethany Missionary Church and they decided to try out for the contest. They learned however that if you were over 18 you were not allowed to be in the contest, so they had Danny Dyer fill in for Dave Yake to sing in the contest. Their rendition of “Heaven Came Down,” netted them first prize, with Lois Ward (nee Sherk) playing the piano.

They began to take some bookings and very quickly found that a gospel quartet can get very busy. After a year together, Keith Elliott felt called to prepare for Missions work and the quartet didn’t fit in his future plans. At the same time Tim had spoken to a life long friend Rob Gowing who was a wonderful pianist and singer. He joined the group late in 1969 and they recorded their first record album, “Of Him I’ll Sing.” The title track was written by Rob. It was the summer of 1970 when Doug Jones was advised by Alf Harden, Tim’s dad, that the Watchmen might be looking for a lead singer. He made contact with the group and shortly thereafter he joined the Watchmen replacing Rob as the lead singer, and Brian Winger joined the group at the same time replacing Rob as pianist.

The next four years were incredibly busy with 3 to 4 bookings per week and booking as much as three years ahead. There was a new recording almost every year during this period. Tim was the first to get married in 1972 and in 1974 he decided with the busy schedule the group was maintaining to step back from the group. Dave Jantzi also had decided to go to seminary in the USA and so, Ted Ramsey replaced Tim as the tenor and David Chapman replaced Dave Jantzi as baritone.

The group continued to be very busy but one by one the fellows got married and began to realize that they needed to slow down a little. Working full time and traveling every weekend was not kind to marriages, and so they cut back to once or twice a month.

Over the years the group recorded over twenty projects if you include all the solo projects of Dave Chapman, Doug Jones and Brian Winger. They also have one video project and one DVD they are a part of. Through the years for one reason or another there were continuing personal changes. Norm Sonnenburg sang tenor for 11 years with the group. Paul Elliott sang baritone for a number of years and was followed by David Hallman. Mark Hawkins took a turn at singing lead and for a short time Sandy McGregor sang tenor. Arvin Hill sang tenor for a few dates as well.

In 2004, Dave Roth joined the group as our audio technician. He had been an employee of Yake Engineered Systems for many years, and very proficient and running a sound system. In 2006, Nick Succi became aWatchmen, with his excellent help on bass guitar.

Today the Watchmen take about one booking per month on average and as they celebrate 40 years of God’s faithfulness with the “Truth Search 08” event they have so very much to grateful for. Their new Cd. “Hallelujah” should be out in time for Truth Search and you can also order it directly through this website.