USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Rockford > Golden anniversary exercises, historical record and manual of the Second Congregational church, Rockford, Illinois. November 7, 1849. November 7, 1899 > Part 11
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Hist. Rec. 15.
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HISTORICAL RECORD AND MANUAL
In 1868 W. A. Talcott was elected superintendent, occupying that position for five years. These were years of great progress, both for the church and the school.
In May, 1870, after a season of protracted effort led by the Rev. M. P. Kinney, pastor, labors and prayers were blessed and answered by the gathering in to the church on the first day of May, 1870, of forty-six mem- bers of the school. The average attendance of the school for 1870 was 212, a number which has hardly been exceeded since.
PROGRAM.
.
TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY.
SECOND CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL.
ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 9, 1870.
OPENING HYMN-" Blessed are the People." Fresh Laurels, Page 100 SCRIPTURE LESSON, 145th Psalnı -
PRAYER BY REV. CHESTER FITCH.
CHANT, The Lord's Prayer SECRETARY'S AND TREASURER'S REPORT FOR THE YEAR.
SINGING -- " Love for Jesus,"
Fresh Laurels, Page 23
ANNIVERSARY REPORT-A Review of Twenty Years, 1
By the Superintendent, W. A. TALCOTT.
SINGING-" Remembered, Quartette ADDRESSES-
By J. G. MANLOVE, G. A. SANFORD.
SINGING-"Jewels,"
Fresh Laurels, Page 65 ADDRESS-
By REV. FRANK P. WOODBURY:
ANNIVERSARY SONG.
BENEDICTION.
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ANNIVERSARY SONO. TUNE-"John Brown."
The Congregation is invited to join in singing.
I.
We bring the sheaves of twenty years this anniversary day, With songs and autumn flowers ; and grateful thanks we lay Before our God whose kindness hath guided all the way, While we've been marching on.
CHORUS - Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, While we've been marching on.
IT.
He hath blessed us at the altar of a thousand Sabbath prayers ; Ile hath blessed us by the fireside, 'gainst unnumbered weary cares ; He hath blessed us in deliverance from earth's countless tempting snares, While we were marching on.
CHORUS.
III.
Some dear ones once were gathered here, now called afar to rove; And some are gone to glory in the heavenly home above; But all alike, afar or near, they share our dear Lord's love, And still go marching on. CHORUS. IV.
We have read the gospel story so thrilling and so sweet; We have heard our Master's trumpet that shall never call retreat; And we pledge Him loyal service that shall never know defeat, While we go marching on. CHORUS.
Then gladly join we heart and hand in battle with all wrong; And we seek our Father's blessing, while with voices clear and strong, Once more we chant the chorus of our anniversary song, While we go marching on.
CHORUS.
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The Anniversary Song of thirty years ago is the same we use to-day with the substitution of fifty years in place of twenty years; and this same song was used also at the Fortieth Anniversary.
In the published catalogue of the school of the date 1870, we find it officered as follows : Wm. A. Talcott, superintendent ; John E. Humphry, assistant superintendent ; Evans Blake, secretary and treasurer ; D. L. Emerson, chorister ; G. A. Sanford, librarian ; Warren Woodruff, Henry D. Little and L. A. Manlove, assistant librarians, with the following teach- ers: H. W. Taylor, Rev. A. Paine, W. A. Dickerman, James G. Man- love, J. H. Blodgett, Thomas D. Robertson, Mrs. Harriet Sanford, John E. Humphry, D. L. Emerson, Miss Julia O. Kinney, Mrs. E. M. Starr, Mrs. M. P. Kinney, Miss Anna Preston, Mrs. L. E. Herrick, Miss Neenah G. Stockton, William A. Knowlton, Benjamin Blakeman, Calvin L. Robin- son, Mrs. A. Paine, Miss A. E. Parker, Miss Alice Fisher, Miss L. E. Hart, Miss M. C. Lathrop, Miss L. C. Jacoby, Mrs. W. A. Talcott, Miss Mary E. Preston, James B. Agard, Mrs. H. Kingsbury, L. D. Upson, Mrs. R. Emerson, Mrs. C. L. Robinson, Miss Mary Brown, Miss C. E. Prentice, E. L Woodruff, Mrs. D. Kimball, Miss Anna Blakeman, Mrs. Chester Fitch, M. B. Gerould, Mrs. Wait Talcott, Miss Clara Goodall. Some of the classes were quite large, for instance, H. W. Taylor was responsible for the good behavior of forty-one; W. A. Dickerman was looked up to by eighteen young men ; while Mr. Manlove was happy in the society of twenty- five young ladies ; Mrs. Wait Talcott had a mixed class of twenty-six, and Miss Clara Goodall one of twenty-seven.
At the time of the celebration of the Twentieth Anniversary, Mr. Tal- cott had served as superintendent for two years, and was elected and served for three successive terms thereafter. In 1875 the Pastor, Rev. Frank P. Woodbury, took charge of the school as superintendent, serving in such capacity from October to February, when finding that he had neither time nor strength to perform the double duty of pastor and superintendent, Mr. W. A. Talcott came to the rescue, serving as superintendent for the bal- ance of the term, when he was re-elected and served another two years, making in all nearly eight years of faithful, efficient work as superintendent, bringing to the discharge of his official duties the characteristic qualities which mark the man. The records show that the school was very prosper- ous during all the years of his superintendency, showing a decided increase both in attendance and collections.
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There have been nineteen superintendents of this school, as follows : Thomas D. Robertson 1849 to 1852
James H. Rogers 1852 to 1854
James G. Manlove 1854 to 1855
Dexter G. Clark 1855 to 1861
Henry Plant . 1861 to 1862
Horace W. Taylor 1862 to 1863
Thomas D. Robertson 1863 to 1867
Luther P. Fitch 1867 to 1868
William A. Talcott 1868 to 1873
James B. Agard 1873 to 1874
Evans Blake 1874 to 1875
Frank P. Woodbury 1875 to 1876
William A. Talcott 1876 to 1878
William A. Knowlton 1878 to 1880
Asa E. Cutler 1880 to 1885
Mart A. Beal 1885 to 1887
J. Fremont Agard 1887 to 1888
Philip R. Wood 1888 to 1890
M. S. Parmele 1890 to 1897
S. J. Caswell 1897 to 1899
B. D. Parker 1899 to
During the first twenty years of the existence of this school the benev- olent contributions amounted to $1,923.87. From the year 1870 to 1882 the financial records are missing. For the eighteen years from 1882. to 1899 inclusive, they were $5,062.62. Making a fair estimate of the twelve in which the records are missing as compared with the five years preced- ing and the five years following, the average would be $234.40 per year, or $2,812.80 for the twelve years, making a grand total of benevolent col- lections of $9,799.29.
The Second Congregational Church has taken good care of its Sunday School, paying all of the expenses of the school out of the society funds. thus leaving the entire contributions of the school to go as benevolent offer- ings. The school determines by vote how this shall be distributed. In 1882 the school voted to appropriate $200.00 per year toward the support of Jeremiah Kimball, missionary of the American Sunday School Union. Mr. John P. Manny, who at that time was a teacher and an earnest worker
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in our school, became responsible for $600.00, the balance of Mr. Kimball's salary, the church taking up an annual collection for this purpose which averaged about $100.00 per year. This arrangement continued for seven years. Since then the benevolent contributions of the school have been divided principally among our denominational societies. Rockford Hospi- tal has been on its list ever since its establishment.
It is worthy of note that what is now known all over the world and among Christians of all denominations as Childrens' Day, had its origin in our Sun- day School, the Rev. Frank P. Woodbury being its originator, and was - celebrated in our church in June. 1871. And this beautiful custom of set- ting apart a Sabbath day in the month of roses and flowers, when we bring into the Lord's house the Itttle precious ones of our homes to give them a Christian name in baptism, has become universal.
Prior to the year 1885, there had been no separate room for the Pri- mary department, although for years in all of the reports made it had been regularly alluded to as a necessity. Mr. Talcott, in one of his reports said : " There is not a teacher, officer or scholar who does not feel in his work the hindrances which arise from the incommodious arrangements to which the school is subjected in its present place of meeting, especially during the winter months, when the infant classes are obliged to meet in the gallery." On Childrens' Day in June, 1885, Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Talcott formally presented to the church a large commodious room, erected by them as an addition to the church building, completely furnished, including a fine piano, designating it as " Memorial Room," in memory of their daughter Fanny, who in the preceding January had been transferred from the home on earth to the heavenly home, forever to be with Him who said, " Suffer little children to come unto me." One of the most interesting features of our Sunday School at present is the Primary department. With officers and teachers in love with the work, and with all of the new and improved facili- ties and methods, it is a popular resort for parents and visitors. A novel feature of this department is a recognition of the birthdays, the one who is thus honored being allowed to officiate in the taking up of the collection, and has the privilege of giving as many pennies as he or she is years old.
A new department is soon to be formed, called the " Cradle Roll," which will include children under three years of age. The present facili- ties of the school are ample and unexcelled by any. Its officers are earnest and faithful, and we sincerely believe that good seed is being put into good soil, which must surely spring up and bring a many fold blessing.
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INTERIOR.
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We are very thankful that our first superintendent, Mr. Thomas D. Robertson, who during almost the whole of a half century has been active and efficient as an officer and teacher, is permitted to be with us to-day. Mrs. W. A. Dickerman has also been a faithful, active member of the school from its beginning. We had fondly hoped and prayed that Brother W. A. Dickerman, whom we had all come to look upon as a " Father in Israel," would be allowed to be with us on this occasion to which he had looked forward with so much of hope and desire. But our heavenly Father wanted him to His home above, into which he entered July 19, 1899.
In trying to sum up the real history and work of half a century, how little of it can be spoken by the tongue or written with the pen. The great- est and best work that has been accomplished here is that which cannot be written, and will only be fully revealed when time shall be no more. Still we have a visible fruitage of which we may justly be proud.
Graduates of our school may be found in all parts of the world, earnest Christian men and women, among whom are missionaries in our own and foreign lands, ministers of the gospel, teachers, professors and presidents of colleges, many of whom we believe had the bias of their lives formed in our Sunday School, the result of faithful, earnest, Christian labor on the part of untiring, consecrated teachers.
And while we rejoice in what has been accomplished in the past, let us thank God and take courage and remember that we are responsible now for the present and future prosperity of our school and church, and may we be found as faithful as those who preceded us and have now gone to their reward.
YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK IN OUR CHURCH.
WRITTEN FOR THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION BY MISS KATHARINE E. DICKERMAN.
O NE day in early spring a little party went violet hunting. They found not only violets but other spring treasures. At first they gathered anemones, but soon they came to places where the violets made the ground so blue that they filled their hands with them. When they were ready to go home, the little one of the party said, " I have nothing but violets, for 1 laid my anemones down and now I cannot find them."
The child's words describe my case exactly, for I have little but vio- lets of guessing and theory while the anemones of real truth and fact are laid down and covered too deeply to find. Ten years in our modern life is a long enough time for records to be buried and for no one to even know the place of burial. Our world moves so fast that it does not seem possi- ble that the acts of to-day will interest anyone to-morrow. Nevertheless, violets are better than no bouquet, and some of mine are very blue.
1.
As far as I am able to discover, there was, aside from the Sunday School work, nothing in the church which was intended especially for the young people and appealed directly to them until the year 1882, when Dr. Woodbury realized that the time had come for a forward movement, and he, the originator and promoter of so many helpful institutions in the church, led in organizing a society known as the Young People's Union, the organ- . ization beginning its work January 16, 1883. This society held a devo- tional meeting each Sunday evening for an hour before the preaching ser- vice, and a meeting every alternate Tuesday evening, the character of which was determined by the executive committee. We find that in addi- tion to the usual officers, there were four committees, a religious, a social, a musical and a literary committee. The object of the Union as stated in its Constitution was first, the moral, intellectual and social culture of its members ; and second, such usefulness in this community as it may secure. In March, 1884, we find that there were nearly one hundred members, and
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it is interesting to note that the subject under discussion that year was a series of fifteen conversational studies in moral science, with topical out- lines prepared by Dr. Woodbury. Among the subjects considered were The Right or Virtue ; Wrong or Sin; The Conscience ; Divine Govern- ment ; The various Duties of Piety ; Philanthrophy, Patriotism, Self-Cul- ture, Self-Control, Usefulness, Fidelity and Truthfulness.
One channel of usefulness entered by the Union was the establishment of a Mission Sunday School which was held on Sunday afternoons in the old lecture room in Masonic Block. This work was continued for about two years, 1886-1887, the latter part of the time under the auspices of the Endeavor Society, but it was found that most of the children who came were at the same time attending our own or other Sunday Schools. and the work was therefore dropped.
The year 1884 saw the organization of a Young Ladies' Missionary Society. Invitations were issued to the young ladies of the church to meet at Mrs. G. A. Sanford's house, where, after listening to a stirring mission- ary talk by Mrs. Magoun, wife of the President of Iowa College, it was de- cided to form a society, and our giving thus began in time to have a part in building that noble institution, Marash College, in Turkey. For several years the society prospered, holding monthly afternoon meetings and rais- ing from fifty to one hundred dollars a year, and sometimes more by means of entertainments of various sorts. It was finally concluded that the young men of the church ought not to be deprived of its privileges, and the name was therefore changed to the Young People's Home and Foreign Mission- ary Society, the meetings thereafter being held on the first Friday evening of each month.
As no masculine names appear on the topic cards issued under the latter name for the year 1889, it may be inferred that they took no active part in the meetings, though I believe some of them did contribute finan- cially.
In the fall of 1884 one of the members of the Young People's Union left home for Harvard College, one who in his first months there nailed his colors to the masthead of his college ship by hanging in his room certifi- cates of merbership in the " Harvard Total Abstinence Society " and the " Society of Christian Brethren." His course was assured through storm and sunshine because the Captain of his craft was Christ believed, Christ acknowledged, Christ followed.
In the First Church in Cambridge was a Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor in which this young man became so interested that Hist. Rec. 16,
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when, two years after, he was obliged to give up study and come home, he thought it was just what our church needed. Interest was lagging some- what in the Young People's Union, and it seemed that the time had come to make a change. After frequent conversations with his pastor, Dr. Woodbury, he called the young people together, and within six weeks the pledge was taken and the society was in active working order, with this young man of twenty, Ralph Emerson, Jr., its first president. That position he held for about two years, until business called him away from home, proving continually his trustworthiness. In his death in August, 1889, the society and church lost a true leader, one whose life influence still lingers in many hearts.
The Christian Endeavor Society was largely composed of the mem- bers of the Young People's Union which was disbanded to reorganize un- der the new name and with the motto, "For Christ and the Church." Broader fields were opened to the society, and its work did not stop with the home church. One line of work is the Missionary Work which had its place here from the first. In February, 1891, we find that the Young People's Home and Foreign Missionary Society agreed to disband and accept the invitation of the Endeavor Society to join in missionary work with them. The missionary committee of the latter recommended that the Endeavor. Society come into communication with six of the regular channels of missionary work in Congregational churches; that the third meeting of each alternate month be a missionary meeting, and that at the following consecration meeting an offering be made by each Endeavorer for this work. A few months later the society voted to take two five dollar shares in the public kindergarten work in the city. About the same time a Junior Society was organized with twenty-nine charter members (August 28, 1891).
Our pastor said not long ago that " enthusiasm is the one element without which nothing can be done as it ought to be done," and when that dies out work lags. It had died out in the Missionary Society and the in- terest in the Endeavor Society also diminished until it was finally disbanded during the past summer, and as the fall work was taken up a new Endeavor Society was formed of generally younger and presumably more enthusiastic material. We believe in this new society which has already over fifty members, and we expect great things from it if the members only stand close by the pledge.
During the year 1890 as the plans for the new church were worked out, a society was organized called the Young People's Association, whose
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main object was to raise money for the organ which would soon be needed. At first the association held regular meetings of a combined business and social nature but these were gradually discontinued. Lectures, concerts. etc., together with monthly dues from each member had brought about $7,000 into the treasury, when the fire came and left us longing for the sweet tones whose charm had been all the greater to us because of our share in obtaining the organ.
" The Yesterdays are lost in the Past," but I wish I could answer the question that comes to me, " Why did the enthusiasm and the interest in these societies die out ?" Perhaps Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney gives us a clew in her remark that something always has to be crowded out, and when love of ease and pleasure crowd in, love of Christ and His work is crowded out. We always have time for the thing that we really want to do. I be- lieve there never was a time when there was so much room for young peo- ple's work in the church as at the present, and there are surely enough young people if they only take hold of church work as they do of other work and pleasures.
Did you ever lift a basket with some one else ? What hard work it was if the person on the other side did not hold up his end. There is one burden as large as the world, so that the people who carry it are out of sight of each other, and so, occasionally, the people at one end forget and drop it, which makes those at the other end "eat bitterness " as the Chinese say. Only as those at each end lend a hand does it move triumph- antly on. It isn't so hard for a little while, but would there were more who possessed the one talent of steady pull.
Just a word as to ways in which the young people can help along the work of the church : First, by being glad to go to it as was the Psalmist of old. Second, by being present at the various services on week days as well as on Sundays habitually. Third, by helping to keep the church compact and strong in its finances, its benevolences and its business methods ; and Fourth, by praying daily for the peace and prosperity of the church.
The time for the older ones to respond to the call for work in the church is rapidly passing, that of the children has hardly come ; now is the time for the young people to think prayerfully on the motto written on the old Grecian temple, " Know thy opportunity."
" Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid," but " let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon."
WOMAN'S WORK IN OUR CHURCH.
WRITTEN FOR THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION BY MRS. JULIA E. CLEMENS.
W OMAN is in the church to-day, numerously, actively and usefully. What shall she do in it and for it? Some would limit her church activity to sitting in the pews and paying for the priv- ilege, singing hyms, teaching in the Sunday School, and filling missionary boxes. In secular life the open doors of woman's work have multipled ten times within a generation .- yes, twenty times, up to many hundred possi- ble occupations. It would be strange if the women of the church were to find only three or four paths of usefulness open to them to-day, the very same which their grandmothers and great-grandmothers meekly and loyally trod. This must not be considered a criticism, scarcely a suggestion,-it is simply the query if woman's work in the church is keeping step with her work elsewhere.
The New Testament gives her a goodly record of manifold work for the Master. Dorcas served him with the needle; Lydia with courage and an open mind ; Phœbe with money and probable service as deaconess ; Damaris with educated powers ; Mary of Ephesus did much labor of many kinds, and Junia is called an Apostle ; Tryphena and Tryphosa labored faith- fully in the Lord, a very comprehensive statement, Persis, the beloved, had labored long and well when the apostle sent his salutation to her ; Pris- cilla toiled with Paul at tent making, is usually named before her good hus- band, and with him, gave the eloquent Apollos his final preparation for his successful career. Timothy's mother and grandmother trained him up from infancy to be Paul's missionary comrade. Phillip's four daughters prophesied, or as we should say, preached. Mrs. Poyser tartly remarked of Dinah Morris, that she " had a maggot in her brain " because she did likewise. There were doubtless Mrs. Poysers in the first century, but Paul never forbade Christian women to prophesy, if only they were capable of doing so to edification and wore a modest head covering in that ribald age.
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Whatever may be thought of woman in the pulpit, it was a great loss to the church, according to one of the ablest of American preachers, when it lost the public prayers of its godly women. Slowly it is regaining this source of power with God and man. A church in New England was torn with inward dissensions and on the point of being rent asunder. In a con- gregational meeting, called to settle their difficulties, the strife became so sharp that the case seemed hopeless, when a saintly woman fell upon her knees and poured out her heart to God in such earnest and loving petition that all hearts were melted, the breach was healed and a strong church saved.
The pioneer churches of our country owe an incomputable debt to the pioneer Christian women of America. What have they not done by their prayers and their piety, their hospitality and downright drudgery to make straight the way of the Lord in the American wilderness !
Horace Bushnell's grand parents moved to Vermont in its early days. There was neither church nor minister. within reach. But the faithful woman from whom that religious genius drew both lineage and inspiration, had brought with her an ardent love for the Master and a few good books. She invited the scattered neighbors to their log cabin, put a volume of sermons into the hand of a young man, and thus had weekly religious service. As one result of her fidelity to Christian principle, that young sermon reader became a Christian, and afterwards one of the best and most grandly executive bishops of the Methodist Church in the United States.
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