USA > Kentucky > Jefferson County > Louisville > An historical sketch of St. Paul's church, Louisville, Ky > Part 4
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Richard H. Robinson.
Richard A. Robinson, a son of Lyles Robert Robinson, of Spring Hill, Frederick County, Va., was born on the 23d of October, 1817. He was educated at the Winchester Academy in Virginia, where he received an excellent English education suited to the business life' which he made up his mind at an early day to pursue. At the age of fourteen he was placed in the store of a leading merchant of the town, where he was fortunate enough to acquire a practical busi- ness education. While thus employed his father died, and he saw his younger brothers and sisters taken from the pa- ternal roof to be brought up among relatives. The one wish
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of his young heart now fixed itself upon him, to gather these younger brothers and sisters together again. To this end he sought a broader field of action than the little store in Shep- herdstown afforded, and looked to the great West for hopes of fortune. He selected Louisville for his future home, and arrived here in 1837. For his first four years in Louisville he found employment as clerk in different stores, and then in 1841 embarked in the retail dry goods business for himself. In 1842 he retired from the dry goods business and began the retail drug business. In 1846 he began the wholesale drug business on Main Street, and pursued it until the great firm of R. A. Robinson & Co. was established in 1855. He is still a member of this firm, which, after a successful exist- ence of thirty-four years, is yet one of the largest establish- ments of the kind in the country. Years ago he realized the ruling hope of his young manhood in seeing all his brothers and sisters (except one sister married and located elsewhere) united with him in Louisville, and had the satisfaction, more- over, of seeing them prospering with the growing city.
Another bright vision which no doubt also flitted across his young mind, to make a fortune in the expanding West, has also become a reality. He can now count his houses and lots and stocks to the value of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and has reached that stage in which his large estate is of itself making other fortunes by its own increment. While he has thus been making his own success in life, he has been one of the most charitable and public-spirited of our citizens. In starting his sons in business he was the
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ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, LOUISVILLE.
projector of the great wholesale hardware establishment of Robinson Bros. & Co., and to him more than to any other is due the successful inception and progress of the Louisville (Kentucky) Woolen Mills. His success in all his under- takings has been due to his great industry, his sound judg- ment, his varied business capacity, and his spotless integrity.
He has been a member of St. Paul's Church from the first communion, October 27, 1839, and during all these fifty years has been a consistent, charitable, and enlightened Christian. In June, 1842, he was united in marriage with Miss Eliza D. Pettet, a daughter of William F. Pettet, one of the pioneer merchants of the city, who is yet the exemplary wife of his accumulated years as she was of his young manhood. Should the kindly Fates grant to this venerable couple another three years of wedded life, and permit them to celebrate their golden wedding, they will have another proof of how much they are loved and honored by the numbers that will pay their respects on that occasion.
Mrs. Sarah A. Fitch.
Mrs. Sarah A. Fitch, whose maiden name was Dumesnil, and who is a sister of Henry A. Dumesnil of this city, was born in Lexington, Ky., in 1816, and came to Louisville in 1833. In 1836 she was married to Thomas B. Fitch, a mer- chant of Louisville, who was born in England and came to Louisville in 1822. In 1844 they removed to Louisiana, and then to Owensboro, Ky., where they resided until the death
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of Mr. Fitch in 1850. She is of French origin, as her maiden name indicates, and her ancestors were among the pioneers of France in this country. She is the mother of Henry D. Fitch, of this city, and now resides with her daughter, the wife of Gen. D. W. Lindsay, of Frankfort, Ky.
Miss Mary F. G. Brown.
Miss Mary F. G. Brown, who appears on the register as Miss Mary Brown, is a daughter of Judge William Brown, of Williamsburg, Va. She was born in Williamsburg in 1814, and came to Louisville in 1832. She has always been an educator, and during long years of teaching has preferred children to pupils of more advanced years. She laid the foundation of the learning which now distinguishes many of our citizens, and is still engaged in the good work of educating the young. With a warm and generous heart, devoted to the church and the school, she has passed an enviable life, and yet lingers among us to teach our children and be thanked by their parents.
Mrs. Sarah A. Leight.
Mrs. Sarah A. Leight, a daughter of John P. Bull, one of the pioneer supporters of the Episcopal Church in Ken- tucky, was born in Lexington, Ky., in 1813. In 1821 she came with her father to Louisville, where, in 1832, she was united in marriage to Daniel B. Leight. Mr. Leight, a native
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of Maryland, had a common ancestry with the Daniel Leight who in 1791, with Capt. William Hubbell, made one of the most gallant fights with the Indians that ever occurred on the western waters. He came to Louisville in 1828, and died in 1866, at the head of the great dry goods house of D. B. Leight & Co. At his death he was senior warden of St. Paul's, of whose vestry he had long been a member. Mrs. Leight has been a member of St. Paul's ever since the 27th of October, 1839, when she first partook of the communion there. Her six and seventy years rest lightly upon her, and she is yet an attendant of the church before whose altar she communed half a century ago. Always loved for her wom- anly virtues and Christian graces, she yet holds a firm place in the warm heart of the church, and is greatly respected by the community at large.
Mrs. Amelia N. Donne.
Mrs. Amelia N. Donne, a daughter of William Noble, was born in Henderson, Ky., in 1811. Her parents moved to Cincinnati in 1813, where she remained until her inter- marriage with Dr. William H. Donne, of Louisville, in 1834. She then came to Louisville with her husband, and has re- mained here ever since. Dr. Donne was a popular physician here until his death in 1862. He was a grandson of Capt. John Donne, who came to the Falls of the Ohio in 1778, and was one of the favorite officers under the command of Gen. George Rogers Clark. Capt. Donne was in the cele-
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brated campaign of Gen. Clark in the conquest of the Illi- nois country in 1778-89, and when Fort Jefferson was built in 1780, on the bank of the Mississippi below the mouth of the Ohio, Capt. Donne was prominent under Gen. Clark in erecting the fort and defending it after it was built. Mrs. Donne, now bearing her seventy-eight years, is hale and hearty, and bids fair for other years which her many friends wish her. She has a brother, James F. Noble, now living in Cincinnati, who has been for years connected with the man- agement of the great Longworth estate. Her father, William Noble, was a distinguished merchant and boat-builder, and when he died, in 1827, a monument was erected to his mem- ory by the merchants and steamboat men of Cincinnati.
S. K. Grant.
When the church - building was finished and the cross placed upon the summit of the spire, there was one of the early vestrymen and liberal contributors to St. Paul's who drew poetic inspiration from the view. This was S. K. Grant, father of Mrs. Howard M. Griswold of this city. He was born in Maysville, Ky., in 1812, and came to Louisville in 1830. He first engaged in the salt business here, but after- ward became a book merchant. He was one of the victims of the cholera which visited our city in 1851, and died at the early age of thirty-nine. He was a poet of no mean order, and has left some manuscript verses of more than ordinary merit. The following verses, written by Mr. Grant on first
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ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, LOUISVILLE.
seeing the cross on the summit of St. Paul's, are not given as a specimen of his poetry but as being appropriate to the occasion. They are as follows :
Lift up the Cross, lift up the Cross! Let it surmount each loftiest spire, And beam, the beacon of the world, To warn it from eternal fire. Lift up the Cross, lift up the Cross !
Let every eye the token see, And look through it to Him whose blood Streamed for them from th' atoning tree.
Lift up the Cross! Rome shall not have Our birthright in that blessed sign;
We still will bear it on the brow, We still will rear it on the shrine. So that be ours, and we be His- All other things we count " but loss; " Our single hope, The Crucified, And all our glory in the Cross.
We have now gone over the history of St. Paul's from the beginning to the first rector and his congregation in the church edifice and at work. The lot on which the church- building stands, the church edifice itself, the promoters of the church, and some of the early members have been sketched. There were other members no less worthy of notice on this occasion, but where there are so many it would not be possible to do more than merely mention names, and this has been done. Neither would it be pos- sible, within reasonable limits, to go so much into detail in the subsequent history of the church. All that can be done is to present the different rectors, and group around
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THE NEWBERPY LIBRARY
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them the leading facts of the progress of the parish dur- ing the fifty years that followed the consecration of the church. This I now propose to do.
Rev. William Jackson.
The first rector of St. Paul's, as has been before stated, was Rev. William Jackson, a native of England, where he was born in 1793. In 1817 he came to America, and the following year began studying for the ministry under Rev. John P. K. Henshaw, then rector of St. Peter's Church, Baltimore. In 1820 he was admitted to deacon's orders, and soon after took charge of St. George's Parish, at Havre de Grace, Md. Here he remained until 1822, when he was ordained priest and became rector of St. Paul's at Chester- town, Md. In 1827 he became rector of St. Paul's, Alexan- dria, Va., where he remained until 1832, when he was called to the rectorship of St. Stephen's, New York. Here he remained until 1836, when he made a visit to England. On his return from his native land, in 1837, he was invited to the rectorship of Christ Church, Louisville, which he accepted, and of which he took charge in July of that year. He remained with Christ Church until the conse- cration of St. Paul's, and on the 27th of October, 1839, he and ninety-one of its members celebrated the first com- munion in St. Paul's, he having been made rector of St. Paul's September 9, 1839, as previously stated. He died on the 23d of February, 1844, after four years and four
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REV. WILLIAM JACKSON, First Rector of St. Paul's, 1839.
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months' faithful, hard, and exemplary work that yielded good results in his new parish. He was an earnest, at- tractive, and efficient speaker, and had one of those mag- netic natures which attracted and held the affections of those who came within its sphere. Death came to him in the midst of his usefulness, and at an unexpected hour. While sitting in his study, on Friday, February 16, 1844, pre- paring his sermon for the coming Sunday, he had reached the following words: "By eternity then, by an eternity of hap- piness, we demand your attention to your own salvation. It is Solomon's last great argument, and it shall be ours. With this we shall take our leave of this precious portion of God's word." When these words had been written, he was stricken with paralysis and never spoke again. He lingered until the 23d, when, as the morning of that day dawned, his spirit took its flight to the better world, for which he had spent his life in preparing others to go. He lies buried beneath the chan- cel of St. Paul's, and a marble tablet on the wall ever reminds those who enter the church of the moral and Christian worth of one of the best of men. His wife, Mary A. Jackson, who wrote a life of him, published in New York, in 1861, lies buried by his side, and thus they rest in death beneath the chancel in a sepulchral mound reared upon this spot by pri- mordial man at a period so remote as to have transmitted neither a history, a tradition, nor a name. During his rector- ship there were in St. Paul's 140 baptisms, 68 confirmations, and 88 communicants added to the original 91. At his death there were III communicants in the church.
The
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Bishop Smith.
From the death of Mr. Jackson to near the close of the year 1844 Bishop Smith was rector pro tem. of St. Paul's. Rt. Rev. Benjamin Bosworth Smith was a native of Rhode Island, where he was born at Bristol in 1794. He was edu- cated at Brown University, Providence, R. I., where he grad- uated in 1816. He was ordained deacon in St. Michael's, Bristol, R. I., in 1816, and priest in 1818 by Bishop Gris- wold. In 1820 he was rector of St George's, Accomac County, Va., and in 1822 of Zion at Charlestown. In 1823 he moved to Vermont, and took charge of St. Stephen's, at Middleburg, and in 1828 had charge of Grace Church Mission in Phila- delphia. In 1830 he came to Kentucky and became rector of Christ Church, Lexington, where he continued until 1837, although he was made Bishop of Kentucky in 1832. He died in New York in 1884, at the advanced age of ninety. His early work in the new Diocese of Kentucky was hard, but he never neglected it, and in addition to his duties as Bishop he rendered good service as Superintendent of Pub- lic Instruction, and as a contributor to the press.
Rev. John B. Gallagher.
Rev. John B. Gallagher, a native of Georgia, where he was born in 1812, came here from Savannah toward the close of the year 1844 to take charge of St. Paul's as its second rector. Equal to Mr. Jackson in intellect, learning, and the
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gifts of the speaker and reader, he surpassed him in gentle- ness and refinement of disposition. His pulpit oratory and reading were fascinating, and his intercourse with the fami- lies of the church such as to endear him to all Christians. In manner he had the gentleness of a woman; in opinions reached by conviction, he had the firmness of a Stoic. During his administration St. John's, on Jefferson between Tenth and Eleventh streets, was organized. An ample lot was purchased and a suitable brick building erected in 1847, and when it was ready for occupancy, in 1848, a colony of members from St. Paul's went there and formed the nucleus of a new congregation. St. John's, now a flourishing church, may be called the first off-shoot from St. Paul's, and the be- ginning of that expansion which has since extended the in- fluence of the parent church so far and wide. Mr. Gallagher died in February, 1849, after an illness which had ensued upon the death of his wife the previous year. He sought relief in the more genial climate of his native South, but to no effect. He never recovered his health, but continued to sink until the final end was reached. He lies buried in the old city graveyard, on Jefferson between Sixteenth and Eight- eenth streets, among the pioneers of the city, and a marble tablet on the walls of the church recalls his memory, as a similar one does that of Mr. Jackson. During his adminis- tration there were in St. Paul's 204 baptisms, 110 confirma- tions, and 146 communicants added to the original II I left by Mr. Jackson. At his death there were 176 communicants in the church.
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St. John's Parish.
As the prime movement in behalf of St. John's has been claimed for Rt. Rev. J. C. Talbot, late Bishop of Indiana, it is due to the memory of Mr. Gallagher to state here that while he was rector of St. Paul's, and Mr. Talbot was offici- ating as his assistant in deacon's orders, the church of St. John was inaugurated as a mission of St. Paul's. At the diocesan convention which assembled in Christ Church, Louisville, in May, 1847, Mr. Gallagher reported St. John's organized as a mission of St. Paul's, and this was its first appearance in the records of the diocese. In this connection the following letter from Simon S. Bucklin to the present rector of St. Paul's will be read with interest. Mr. Bucklin, now residing in Providence, R. I., was once a prominent cit- izen of Louisville, and is a son of the first mayor of Louis- ville. His letter is as follows:
Simon S. Bueklin's Account of St. John s.
REV. E. T. PERKINS, D. D., Rector St. Paul's Church, Louisville, Ky.
Reverend and Dear Sir: The building of St. John's P. E. Church, situ- ated on Jefferson Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth streets, originated with the Rev. J. B. Gallagher, rector of St. Paul's Church, in about the year 1846. Mr. J. C. Talbot, late Bishop of Indiana, a member of its communion, had been a student under its auspices, and was ordained dea- con September 25, 1846.
It was thought St. John's would be a good field for his ministry when advanced to the priesthood.
I was a member of St. Paul's vestry, and superintendent of the Sunday- school, and, under instruction of the rector, undertook to procure a suitable
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building lot. I succeeded in obtaining that on which the church is built by subscriptions, principally from our communion, the lot-owner giving liber- ally. It was then resolved to build a church, the cost of which should not exceed $3,000, and that no contract should be made without money in hand to pay for it.
Subscriptions were then got, and meetings held at St. Paul's; when some- thing over $2,000 had been subscribed a building committee was formed, of which I was a member; then a meeting was held in Christ Church, at which a small sum was collected. Mr. William Cornwall, of that church, was then added to the building committee. Bishop Smith submitted a plan obtained from the East of a plain church, which met general approval. It was a source of satisfaction that I was enabled to maintain the resolution to build only for cash, hence no debt was entailed on St. John's. I remained on the committee long enough for this purpose. There should be evidence at St. John's in proof of these facts; but though obligingly furnished by the pres- ent rector, Rev. S. E. Barnwell, with what there was in his possession, I found only one old book of record, not the original, when Mr. Talbot took charge, and in it this explanation. "St. John's Parish, Louisville, Ky. The first item of interest in the parish we quote from a private letter of its well-beloved first rector. the present Rt. Rev. Bishop of Indiana."
Extract : " Ordained deacon in St. Paul's Church, September 25, 1846, and assisting for a time in that parish, in 1847 I started with a colony of sixteen persons, by request of the Bishop, to found a new church in Louis- ville; St. John's is the result. We worshiped one year in the old Tenth Street public school-house, never having over twenty-five persons present. Early in 1848, I think, we went into the church, where we had from the start good congregations. I was ordained priest in St. John's Church, Sep- tember 6, 1848."
In the same book appears the following memorandum: ," In transcrib- ing the names of communicants from the 'old register,' I have thought it unnecessary to show all the changes in the communion prior to this date, and have therefore copied only the names of the present communicants of the parish. J. C. T., October 20, 1852." The "'old register" should be recovered if possible.
When Rev. J. C. Talbot, at the request of the Bishop, started out with a colony of sixteen persons, the church lot had been bought, the money sub- scribed for the church, and the building fairly under way. As trustee of the public schools I was offered, by the principal of the Tenth Street school, a Sunday-school of about fifty scholars. This offer I accepted, and carried on
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the school for about a month. Mr. Gallagher was in New York at the time of this transaction, and I had quite a correspondence with him, requesting that he should instruct Mr. Talbot to assume charge of the Sunday-school, about which he appeared reluctant or dilatory. This was done because the rector of St. Paul's had supreme control of the mission. This school be- came the nucleus of St. John's Sunday-school.
You requested of me a recital of facts in regard to this mission of St. Paul's Church, and I have stated nothing that is not within my personal knowledge (except the memorandum and letter from Rev. Mr. Talbot) and true beyond controversy. Very truly yours,
LOUISVILLE, May 10, 1886.
SIMON S. BUCKLIN.
Rev. W. Y. Rooker.
Rev. W. Y. Rooker, an Englishman by birth, succeeded Mr. Gallagher as rector of St. Paul's, and began his minis- terial duties in May, 1849. Mr. Rooker was a striking figure in the pulpit, and was possessed of rare gifts of eloquence. He seemed, like Mirabeau, the great French orator, to have studied striking words and sentences, of which he had a good store, and which sometimes came like thunderbolts upon his hearers. Compared with Mr. Gallagher Mr. Rooker was an ax of the stone age which went trashing to the place de- signed, while Mr. Gallagher was a polished blade incising its way unfelt to the objective point. His captivating oratory soon filled the pews in St. Paul's with the young and gay in search of entertainment, but they mostly went away as they had come, carrying no lasting religious impressions. He could fire the imagination and arouse the passions, but when he sought the response of religious warmth from the hearts of his hearers there often came a sepulchral coldness. Under
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his administration discords for the first time arose in the church, and took the place of that harmony which Mr. Jack- son had brought with his colony from Christ Church, and which had continued and grown under him and his successor until it became a characteristic of the new parish. The church grew under Mr. Rooker, for the impetus it had re- ceived under Mr. Jackson and Mr. Gallagher would have carried it forward by its own weight had Mr. Rooker been even a less eloquent and able pastor. There was, during his rectorship, a lot purchased in Portland which gave rise to the present parish of St. Peter's, the second off-shoot or colony from St. Paul's. In March, 1853, Mr. Rooker resigned and returned to England. His reports to the diocesan conven- tions are so imperfect that it is not possible to give reliable statistics of his administration. He made no report for the years 1852 and 1853, and only partial ones for 1849, 1850, and I851. His successor reported, in 1854, that Mr. Rooker left the church with 155 communicants. His partial reports show that there were, during his rectorship, 66 baptisms, 23 confirmations, and 45 communicants added to the church.
Rev. Henry M. Denison.
Rev. Henry M. Denison, a native of Virginia, was elected rector to succeed Mr. Rooker, and came here from Williams- burg in November, 1853, to enter upon the duties of his office. He was a man of brilliant talents, extensive learning, and of the highest moral and religious character. He was a
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fine reader and an eloquent speaker. He soon began to bring back to harmony the discords his predecessor had made, and, had his health permitted him to have remained long in the parish, his good works would have been manifest in its growth and character. The loss of his estimable wife, however, added to bodily afflictions, and in May, 1857, he resigned to accept the rectorship of St. Peter's, in Charles- ton, S. C., where he hoped his health would be benefited by a change of climate. Here, disdaining to flee from the yellow fever which was then raging in the city, and prefer- ring to remain where he could administer the consolations of religion to the dying, he was himself attacked by the de- stroyer, and died in October, 1858. During his administra- tion, and by his noble exertions in the year 1856, the parish of St. Andrew's was organized and started by a colony from St. Paul's, and thus became the third off-shoot from the mother church. While he was rector there were 104 bap- tisms, 81 confirmations, and 123 communicants added to the church. When he resigned there were 233 communicants in the church.
Rev. Francis MeNeece Whittle.
In 1857 Rev. Francis McNeece Whittle, a native Virgin- ian, then rector of Grace Church, Berryville, Va., was elected in the place of Mr. Denison, and came to Louisville to begin his work in October of that year. Mr. Whittle was born in Mecklenburg, County, Va., in 1823, and received his theolog- ical education at the Alexandria Seminary. He was made
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