History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 54

Author: Downer, Harry E
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1042

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HOLY FAMILY.

This is one of the later established churches of the city. The parish was started in 1897. At first a school building was erected and finished in 1898, where services were held until 1899. In May, of the latter year, the basement of the church, which had been finished, was used for religious services. The organi- zation started out with twenty families, but now has approximately 100 families and is prosperous. Father L. J. Enright was the first pastor and is also the pres- ent one.

ST. ALPHONSUS.

St. Alphonsus church and parish were organized in 1907 by Fathers of the Redemptorist Order. The parochial territory is situated in the southwest sec- tion of the city, and was formerly part of St. Mary's and St. Joseph's parishes. This territory having developed into a great manufacturing district, it was deemed necessary to provide for the growing Catholic population there. The church edifice is a brick building of imposing appearance. Rev. A. Guendling is the pastor and has for his assistant Rev. O'Neal Byrne.

ST. PAUL'S.

St. Paul's parish was organized in February, 1909, from fragments of terri- tory taken from the Sacred Heart and St. Anthony's parishes. The cornerstone of St. Paul's church edifice was laid with appropriate ceremonies July 4, 1909, and the first services were held in the building December 12, 1909. No exact date for the dedication of the church has been definitely decided upon, but it will probably take place some time in the summer of 1910. The parish is a flourish- ing one and though in its infancy numbers eighty families, with eighty-five chil- dren in the Sunday school, who are presided over by the Sisters of Mercy. Rev. C. J. Donohoe, a native of Iowa county, Iowa, and a graduate of St. Ambrose college, Davenport, is the pastor.

OUR LADY OF LOURDES.

The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes was organized about nine years ago at Bettendorf, and services are held there by the Redemptorist Fathers of St. Al- phonsus church, of Davenport.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

THE DIOCESE OF IOWA.

The first services of the Episcopal church in Iowa were held in 1836, when occasional ministrations were held in Dubuque by the Rev. Richard F. Cadle, and later by the Rev. E. G. Gear and the Rev. J. Batchelder. The first services in Scott county were held by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Philander Chase, bishop of Illi- nois, who officiated in the hotel at Rockingham in the fall of 1837. Thirty or forty people were present, among them Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Van Tuyl. In 1841 the domestic committee of the board of missions of the Protestant Episcopal church in the United States appointed the Rev. Zachariah Goldsmith as missionary to Davenport, and on the 14th of October of the same year Trinity church was organized. The first wardens were Ira Cook and J. W. Parker. H. S. Finley was the first secretary and Ebenezer Cook the first treasurer. W. W. Dodge was also a member of the first vestry. After the organization of the parish, the con- gregation worshiped in a building on Main street near where the Commercial club now stands. In 1853 a new church was built upon the corner of Fifth and Rock Island streets. This was the first church built of stone in the state of Iowa.

In the meantime work had been developing in the more important towns, and in July, 1853, the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, D.D., the venerable missionary bishop of the northwest, issued an invitation to the clergy and representatives of all or- ganized congregations in the state of Iowa to meet at Muscatine on Wednesday, August 17th, at 6 o'clock. In accordance with this invitation the clergy and laity met in the chapel of Trinity church, Muscatine. The bishop being absent, the Rev. Alfred Louderback, rector of Trinity church, Davenport, was elected chair- man. A constitution and canons for the church in Iowa were adopted and the election of a bishop for Iowa determined upon. On May 31. 1854. the first con- vention of the diocese of Iowa was held in Trinity church. Davenport, being called to order by Bishop Kemper. At this convention, the Rev. Henry Washing- ton Lee, D.D., was elected the first bishop of Iowa. Dr. Lee was at the time the rector of St. Luke's church, Rochester, N. Y. He was consecrated in his parish church October 18, 1854. Bishop Lee preached in his diocese for the first time October 29th, in St. John's church, Dubuque. Bishop Lee was an earnest, large- minded and large-hearted man. He gave himself to his work with unsparing devotion and with great foresightedness undertook the creation of a fund which should adequately endow the diocese. Through the liberality, chiefly. of eastern churchmen, he obtained means for the purchase of some 6,500 acres of land in Iowa, which land was held until, through increase in value, sales were made which paid for the erection of the Episcopal residence, Brady and Eleventh streets, Davenport, at a cost of $21,000, and netted an endowment of $53.000 for the diocese.

On the Ist day of August, 1856, Bishop Lee purchased for $36,000 the prop- erty in Davenport known as "Iowa College," situated between Brady and Harri- son streets and Eleventh and Twelfth streets. In this building on the 12th of December, he opened the preparatory department of Griswold college. Subse- quently the college itself was founded and for many years gave promise of a useful future. The bishop's plans were wise, his labors indefatigable, his courage was great, but no one could have foreseen the changes which were coming in

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educational work. After nearly twenty years of useful activity the college had to be closed. Bishop Lee, however, had passed away many years before.

When Bishop Lee came to Davenport he found that several families had left Trinity church and were anxious to start work in the new residence district on the hill. He gave consent to the formation of a new parish to be known as St. Luke's. The congregation worshiped for a time in the old Baptist church on Brady be- tween Third and Fourth streets. The first rector was the Rev. George W. Wat- son, D.D., who was followed by the Rev. Horatio N. Powers, D.D. During Dr. Powers' rectorship a new church was built at the northwest corner of Seventh and Brady streets. There were financial difficulties and the church was even- tually sold to tlie Presbyterians. It is now the Academy of Sciences. A chapel was built on the college property, at the southwest corner of Main and Twelfth streets, where the congregation worshiped until June 18, 1873, when it became Grace Cathedral parish, but was known as "The Bishop's Church," and took pos- session of the beautiful and expensive building which had been erected, near the bishop's house, on the block between Brady and Main streets.

Trinity had in the meantime moved up to Brady and Seventh streets. Here Mrs. Clarissa C. Cook had erected a fine stone building in memory of her hus- band, the Hon. Ebenezer Cook, who for thirty years was a vestryman of Trinity parish and its most devoted and unwearied friend.

On the 26th of September, 1874, Bishop Lee passed to his rest. He had worked hard and had seen the diocese make substantial growth in resources, numbers and in influence. On May 30, 1876, in St. Paul's, Des Moines, the Rev. William Stevens Perry, D.D., of Geneva, N. Y., was elected bishop of Iowa. Bishop Perry, already widely known through the important positions held in the church's general councils and in pastoral and collegiate relations, received a most hearty welcome throughout the entire diocese. He labored faithfully until his death, May 13, 1898. During his episcopate the diocese doubled in the num- ber of its communicants, St. Katharine's school was founded, and St. Luke's hospital undertaken. The diocese was most materially benefited by the bequests of a faithful communicant, who was one of the most efficient church workers in Iowa from the early days until her death-Mrs. Clarissa C. Cook, widow of the Hon. Ebenezer Cook, of Davenport. Besides liberal gifts for the building and equipment of a public library and a home for the aged in Davenport, she gave to the Episcopal church in Iowa for various objects upward of $75,000. These funds have been carefully invested and the income still helps the work of the church which she so greatly loved and for which she labored so unselfishly.

During the episcopate of Bishop Perry the work of the Davenport parishes went on faithfully and successfully.

On the 22d of February, 1899, the Rev. Theodore Nevin Morrison, D.D., rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Chicago, was consecrated the third Bishop of Iowa. During his Episcopate it became apparent to every one that the best interests and the future growth of the Episcopal church in Davenport would be served by a union of Trinity and Grace Cathedral parishes. In December, 1909, a movement was made looking to such a union, and it at once received the hearty support of all the members of both parishes. The members of Grace Cathedral

TRINITY CATHEDRAL

FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

parish connected themselves with Trinity parish. The service on Christmas day was held in Trinity church and on Sunday, Dec. 26th, the united congrega- tion worshiped in the cathedral. The corporation of Trinity parish was thus perpetuated and the cathedral is now known as Trinity cathedral. Thus at last Bishop Lee's original purpose has been carried out, for in his annual address to the Diocesan convention of 1873, he said: "My own desire had been to have a united parish, under some acceptable arrangement as a Diocesan or Cathedral church, and to give to the building the name of Trinity, as that of the original church." The rectors of Trinity church have been :

The Rev. Zachariah Goldsmith, 1841; the Rev. Alfred Louderback, 1849; the Rev. F. Emerson Judd, 1861 ; the Rev. A. H. Stubbs, 1865; the Rev. F. W. Boyd, D. D., 1869; the Rev. Willis H. Barris, 1870, minister in charge; the Rev. J. E. Goodhue, 1871 ; the Rev. Willis H. Barris, 1877, minister in charge ; the Rev. Philo W. Sprague, 1878, canon in charge; the Rev. D. C. Garrett, 1884; the Rev. Myron A. Johnson, D. D., 1891 ; the Rev. Clinton H. Weaver, S. T. D., 1894; the Rev. A. E. Montgomery, 1901; the Rev. Gasherie DeWitt Dowling, 1904.

The rectors of St. Luke's were : the Rev. Horatio N. Powers, D. D., 1857-1865.

The rectors of the Bishop's church were: The Rt. Rev. Henry W. Lee, D. D., ex-officio; the Rev. Horatio N. Powers, D. D., assistant in charge, 1865-1869; the Rev. Hale Townsend, assistant in charge, 1865-1872; the Rev. R. D. Brooke, assistant in charge, 1869-1873 ; the Rev. Edward Lounsbery, assistant in charge, 1870-1874; the Rev. Joseph S. Jenckes, assistant in charge, 1875-1877.

On April 1, 1877, the "Bishop's Church" gave way to a cathedral organization, and the Rev. W. H. Barris, D. D., became dean. The canon in charge was the Rev. W. W. Silvester. In 1882, the Rev. Harry Thompson was appointed canon in charge. In 1884 the Rev. Charles H. Kellogg was appointed canon in charge. The Rev. Charles R. Hale became dean in 1886; the Rev. Charles H. Seymour being canen in 1886. In 1893, the Rev. William C. Rogers was appointed canon. The Rev. Hamilton Schuyler became dean in 1896.

In September, 1899, the cathedral organization was allowed to lapse and the congregation organized as Grace Cathedral parish. The vestry called the Rev. Nassau S. Stephens, who took charge Oct. 1, 1899. In 1905, the Rev. W. W. Love became the rector. The Rev. Marmaduke Hare, M. D., accepted a call to the rectorship and entered on his duties Jan. 1, 1908. The bishop has conferred upon Dr. Hare the honorary title of dean.

Beside the Cathedral parish there is Christ church at the corner of Third and Pine streets. Christ church is ministered to by the chaplain of St. Katharine's school. There is a small frame church building and a substantial rectory.

St. Katharine's school has been for some years under the care of the sisters of St. Mary. It is in a most prosperous condition and has within the past few years added to its property the handsome house and five acres of ground known as "the Renwick property" which adjoined the school, giving an increased capa- city and providing room for growth. The school has a high reputation for scholarship and sends graduates yearly to the women's colleges of the east. The home life has always been a feature of the school and year by year the number of pupils increases and come from a greater distance.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

BISHOP HENRY W. LEE.

Henry W. Lee, the first Episcopal bishop of Iowa, was born in Hamden, Connecticut, on the 29th of July, 1815. A few months later his father removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, where the son spent his youthful days and re- ceived his education. In October, 1839, he was ordained to the ministry of the Episcopal church by Bishop Griswold. He was called to be rector of Christ church at Springfield in April, 1840, where he remained three years. He then accepted a call to St. Luke's church, at Rochester, New York, where he re- mained eleven years. The degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by Hobart college in 1850 and by the University of Rochester in 1852. In 1867 the degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by the University of Cambridge, England. On the Ist of June, 1854, Dr. Henry W. Lee was elected bishop of the diocese of Iowa and on the 18th of October was consecrated at Rochester in the presence of the bishops of New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan and Illinois, Bishop Eastman of Vermont presiding. Bishop Lee made a visit to the principal churches of Iowa in the fall of that year and in January, 1855, removed to Daven- port. He immediately entered upon the work of raising a permanent fund for the diocese which was wisely invested in more than six thousand acres of land which, as the years went by, became valuable yielding a large income. He was instrumental in founding Griswold college at Davenport, which was opened in 1860. In 1867 he made a visit to the principal countries of Europe, preaching in some of the largest churches of England, France and Ireland. After an arduous service of twenty years as bishop of Iowa, Henry W. Lee died at his home on the 26th of September, 1874. The last great work he gave to the diocese was the erection of Trinity cathedral at Davenport.

ST. JOHN'S METHODIST EPISCOPAL.

The first arrival of the Methodist church in Scott county to minister to things spiritual was in 1835. The first messenger sent was the Rev. E. C. Gavit, of the Ohio conference, who in the year 1835 was requested by the bishop to go west and labor among the Sac and Fox Indians. He was also to visit all the white settlements to provide the scattered inhabitants with the means of grace. He was expected to bear his own expenses in reaching the country and to trust God and the good will of the few white settlers for his support. Father Gavit and Captain Sholes in the year 1835 built a frame house, which was the second erected in that vicinity, and in which he preached his first sermon and organized the first Sunday school in what is now the city of Davenport. His missionary labors, however, were not confined to this locality. He traveled from the Missouri state line to St. Anthony's falls, preaching in all the towns and hunting up all the white settlers along the west side of the Mississippi as far back as he could learn of any white inhabitants. In the year 1837 Father Gavit left this field of labor and returned to Ohio. In 1887, after more than fifty years of marvelous

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

growth, which has made the little hamlet a prosperous city, the venerable man of God returned, to find all changed, his dusky auditors gone, and a large, intelli- gent audience ready and delighted to listen as he recalled the past and thrilled them with the "Old, old story."

In order to give intelligently the history of the Methodist Episcopal church in Davenport in its beginning, it is necessary to note the development of the same in connection with the work of Methodism in Rock Island and in Rockingham, Iowa, under the auspices of the Illinois conference. In order to obtain this retro- spect it is necessary to rely mainly on the information kindly furnished by two of the members of the first Methodist society formed in Davenport, W. L. Cook and Israel Hall.

In the minutes of the Illinois conference held at Union Grove, Illinois, Sep- tember, 1833, Rock Island is named as a mission of the Quincy district, with Peter Cartwright presiding elder and Asa McMurtry preacher for Rock Island. The latter preached a few times in Rockingham, Iowa. In the conference min- utes of 1834 D. C. James is the preacher named for the Rock Island mission. He preached quite often at Rockingham. In August, 1836, the Methodist society was organized at Rockingham and a class formed, consisting of about seven or eight members. A. H. Davenport was appointed elder. This society was then a mission of the Illinois conference. At a meeting of that conference held at Springfield, October, 1836, the Rockingham circuit was formed, believed to be the third circuit organized in Iowa, and Chauncey Hobart, who died in Red Wing, Minnesota, within a year or two ago, at the advanced age of ninety years, was sent to take charge of the work. This was a circuit of about two hundred miles, extending from the mouth of the Iowa river on the south to the Wapsi- pinicon on the north, and as far into the interior as any white settlers would be found. A society was to be formed wherever a sufficient number could be found willing to so unite.

Chauncey Hobart had been a soldier in the Black Hawk war and was well fitted by experience to endure all the hardships of such a field of labor. He traveled a country whose roadways were illy defined, its streams unbridged, and its inhabitants widely scattered. Rockingham was the only town of any impor- tance within the bounds of the circuit, and during the first winter there were but two other regular appointments, one at a little town called Black Hawk, near the mouth of the Iowa river, and one at the home of Roswell H. Spencer, in Pleasant Valley. About sixty members were gathered into the church and the next year the number of appointments was increased. But the society at Rockingham re- mained the center and probably contained more members than all the others to- gether. In the year 1838 Chauncey Hobart was succeeded by his brother, Norris Hobart. In 1839 H. J. Brace was placed in charge, assisted by B. H. Cartwright, brother of the well known Peter Cartwright, and with this year began the his- tory proper of the Methodist Episcopal church in Davenport.

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Near the middle of August, 1839, the presiding elder, Rev. B. Weed, thought there was sufficient encouragement and members enough to form a church organ- ization in this place. Accordingly he authorized William L. Cook to sever his connection with the church in Rockingham, and if he could succeed in finding enough members, to form a class in Davenport. His search among the Protestant settlers resulted in finding five persons beside himself and wife who had been members of the Methodist Episcopal church. A meeting was called at the home of Timothy Dillon, grandfather of Hon. John F. Dillon, situated on what is now Third street near Washington square. There were present at this meeting Wil- liam L. Cook and wife, Timothy Dillon and wife, Israel Hall and W. J. Ruby and wife. All of these brought their church letters and responded with glad service to the call to unite in the wilderness and build for themselves and their children a new church home. William L. Cook was chosen leader of this class and for more than forty years thereafter filled the office of class leader and steward of the Methodist church. From time to time others added their names to the class roll until in 1840, when Rev. Chester Campbell was preacher, there were about twenty members. Among the first of these was Rachel Hall, who did not reach here until some days after her husband; William Moran, Susan Morgan, Mar- garet A. Bowling, now Mrs. Paden, and David Miller and wife. A little later came Father Woodward and family. Sister Woodward was spoken of as a mother in Israel. Two families by the name of Morgan, descendants of Quakers, were prompt and faithful in attending church. The society met regularly each Sabbath, generally at the house of Timothy Dillon, until the number had grown too large for private houses, when other rooms as they could be procured were rented for service. Having only occasional preaching in 1840, they sent a request to conference for a stationary preacher. Francis H. Chenowith was sent and Davenport became a regular station. In the year of 1841 it was determined to build a church. The society was small in number and not rich save in faith. Nevertheless they purchased a lot on the west side of Perry street, between Fourth and Fifth streets, which was then considered out of town, and prepared to build a brick chapel thirty by forty feet. That may seem today a small under- taking, but relatively it was a great one. It is said that at that time all of the members were poor. The most of them could put all their worldly goods in a wagon and inove out west. The Rev. Chenowith was granted a vacation and commissioned to go to Ohio where many of the members had formerly lived, and solicit aid for the enterprise. Money, or what was convertible into money, was gratefully received and about two hundred dollars was realized by this effort. This was the last year of Rev. Chenowith's stay in Davenport. While here he married the daughter of Andrew Logan, editor and proprietor of the Iowa Sun, the first paper published in Davenport. The preacher sent by the Illinois confer- ence, which met in Rock Island, August 24, 1842, was David Worthington who was a man greatly beloved by all. This minister, being a carpenter by trade, like Paul, labored, working with his own hands. The church walls were up and the preacher with a few others went to work and succeeded in putting the roof on, the floor laid and the windows in in time for the first quarterly meeting, which was held December 24, 1825, Rev. B. Weed, presiding elder. This quarterly meeting was protracted five or six weeks and about fifty members were added

CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH

ST. JOHN'S M. E. CHURCH

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

to the church. At the conference of 1844 Joseph S. Lewis, of Cincinnati, was sent here. Unlike his predecessors, while through no fault of his own, he could not adapt himself to pioneer life. Well educated, a good preacher he was, but one not fitted to bring himself into sympathy with the community in which he labored. At this time the only church property which the Methodist Episcopal church had in Davenport was this small brick building on Perry street, below Fifth, about opposite where the Kimball House stands-a church with no par- sonage, no fence, no carpet, no pulpit except a sort of big pine box used for that purpose, and with seats made of slabs, flat side up, supported by legs inserted into two-inch auger holes. There was a mortgage of $150 on the lot- a bigger load then than $15,000 would be today. In 1845 Rev. Harrison was sent. He did not finish the conference year, his place being filled by Joseph Brook, an able and popular man.

In 1846 Davenport station was discontinued and the appointment was at- tached to Fairport circuit and Cedar mission. The preachers were William Simpson and William Burris. It is recorded of the former that in every posi- tion he was the same noble-hearted man. William Burris preached one year and then left the ministry and settled in Davenport. In 1847 Joel B. Taylor and Asbury Collier were the circuit preachers. In 1848 Davenport station again appeared in the minutes, Joel B. Taylor being the station preacher. He was in the ministry for thirty-eight years, and the societies at Epworth, Camanche and Clinton were founded by him. He died in 1881. In 1849 John L. Kelley, who entered the itinerary in 1836, was the preacher. In 1850 Landon Taylor was sent. In 1851 Rev. James Gilruth and wife became members of the church at Davenport. He afterward preached here and was well liked by all. In the number embracing the religion at this time (1851) was Miss Mary Price, who later became the wife of Dr. Robert L. Collier, then stationed at Davenport. The station preacher in 1852 was A. J. Kynette, the last preacher to occupy the pulpit in the little old church. In 1854 Sanford Haines was sent, and in 1855 I. P. Lindeman. During the latter's administration, through no fault of his, there was a schism in the church. About fifty members organized a society and built a house which they called Asbury chapel, which was situated on the east of Perry, between Third and Fourth streets. Rev. Lindeman went with the new society and stayed with them the remainder of that year and the fol- lowing. His place at the Fifth Street church was filled by the Rev. William Cone. The new society was next served by Samuel Pancoast, followed by Richard Wertz. This society held together for a short time afterward, but eventually the chapel was burned and the society disbanded, some of the mem- bers going back to the parent church, some to other churches, and others living without any church home.

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History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 54

Author: Downer, Harry E Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1042

Author: Downer, Harry E
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1042