USA > Louisiana > The Diocese of Louisiana, some of its history, 1838-1888; also some of the history of its parishes and missions, 1805-1888 > Part 12
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139
HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE OF LOUISIANA.
A parish was organized May 4. 1850. The incorporators were Maunsel White, J. B. Wilkinson. Howard Osgood. George W. Johnson, Isaac Osgood, J. B. Wilkinson, Jr., R. A. Wilkinson, Stephen Mccutcheon, John L. White and Seth Trufant.
Application was made at the next Convention for admission to the Diocesan union, but owing to failure to comply with some of the provisions of the civil law relative to corporations, it was reluctantly denied. Mr. George Trufant was present to represent the parish, and was admitted to an honorary seat. This parish was called " Emmanuel."
Mr. Ranney was still at Balize, and reported nine communi- cants there. He resigned, however, in that year.
On the 23d April, 1851. the Bishop consecrated Emmanuel Church. He was assisted by the Rev. Messrs. Goodrich, Preston, Crane and Russell. The building was of wood, of ample dimen- sions, and tastefully constructed in the Gothic style.
The parish was admitted to union with the Convention June 12. 1851, and was represented by John L. White.
In 1852, an opening was presented for a second congregation, lower down the river. and on the opposite bank. Regular ser- vices were established. The colored children were regularly catechized by " white people and others." to whom the duty was assigned.
In 1853, the servants on six plantations were ministered unto. Services were discontinued at the mission. In that year, with a feeling of devout thankfulness for the uninterrupted health of the parish, the ladies organized a benevolent society, "to be of per- petual existence." and the first year contributed $300 to the sup- port of orphans left destitute in New Orleans.
On the 5th November, 1854, the Rev. R. H. Bourne relieved Mr. Russell of a part of his cares by taking charge of the work at Magnolia plantation, at which place a plain but suitable church edifice was built in 1855, and opened for service May 20. 1855.
On the 1st July, 1855, Mr. Russell resumed the charge of the chapel at the Magnolia place, Mr. Bourne taking work on the east bank, from Pointe-a-la-Hache to Grand Prairie. For the latter work a school house was put up, which was also used as a place of worship, services being held there and at the house of a neighboring planter, alternately. A plain, but very strong, sub-
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stantial ehnreh building was commenced. At what precise places these constructions were cannot now be ascertained.
In 1856. a rectory was built for Emmanuel Church, at a cost of $1.700. Services continued at the church, and on the planta- tions for the colored people. On the Johnson place the children were instructed by a colored communicant who could read.
On the 10th August, 1856, Mr. Bourne's eure was seriously affected by a disastrous hurricane and overflow. There was ex- pended on the new church $270.
In 1858, the school of the Rev. Mr. Russell was, on account of removals, closed. The servants on the Magnolia place were withdrawn from the ministrations of the Church, and services were commenced at the Haarlem place, on the east bank.
Mr. Russell resigned January 1, 1859. In March, Mr. Bourne assmed charge of all the Church work in the parish.
Mr. Bourne resigned in 1860.
When the Bishop visited the parish in 1888, he found the church in ruins.
On the 22d Angust, 1869, the Rev. Edward Fontaine became rector. He resigned April 2, 1871.
In 1874, no effort having been made to rehabilitate the parish, it was, with others, dropped from the roll of parishes. When the parish was subsequently re-established. it is presumed the Council would have replaced the name on its roster, but the parish, for some unexplained reason, has never sought its place in the ranks.
On the 19th February. 1876. the Bishop visited the parish again. He found it resuscitated. A neat building. "with all the appliances for divine worship," organ and church furniture, had become the property of the congregation. "A beautiful testi- mony." said the Bishop. "to the wisdom, activity and devotion of a few ladies of the parish * Faith and patience had accomplished the work."
Christmas-tide of 1875. the Rev. George R. Upton spent in the parish, and the Rev. T. R. B. Trader made a visit of several weeks in April, 1876.
On the 15th October, 1876, the Rev. B. T. H. Maycock be- came rector. He resigned, however, after a brief term. The Rev. A. J. Yeater had charge of the parish in Christmas-tide of 1877. The Rev. Otis Hackett breame rector May 5, 1878. He faithfully fulfilled his every duty until. amidst the dying and the
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dead of a most malignant plague. he breathed the fatal breath and died October 25. 1878. very deeply lamented.
On the 16th February. 1879. the Rev. E. J. Hall became ree- tor. He resigned February 11. 1880. The Rev. Dr. Fontaine made the parish a visit in April. 1882. On 19th November. 1883. the Rev. L. Y. Jessup became rector. He resigned April 6th. 1885. and was succeeded. November 24. 1885. by the Rev. S. M. Wiggins, of New Orleans, who continues the faithful missionary.
In November, 1885, a mission at Union Settlement was estab- lished, under the name of the Church of the Good Shepherd. and in 1886. a church was built.
The parish has been represented in the Convention of the Dio- cese by John L. White. seven times: C. B. Penrose, five times : R. A. Wilkinson, Bradish Johnson, five times: J. B. Wilkinson. Dr. David R. Fox and Theodore S. Wilkinson.
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HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE OF LOUISIANA.
CHRIST CHURCH, COVINGTON.
IN 1846. the Rev. Wiley Peck organized a parish in Coving- ton. Work on the church was at once commeneed. There were but few who were interested. and they were in " moderate circum- stances." But with willing hearts they found the means to build God's House, with "little or no assistance " beyond the local con- tributions. In less than a twelvemonth a neat church was com- pleted and presented for consecration April. 11. 1847.
The parish was admitted into union with the Convention April 14. 1847.
In that year, also, the rectory was built. While devoting himself to the sick, poor and dying of the parish, Mr. Peck fell a victim of the deadly malady-yellow fever-then epidemic. He was of a warm and affectionate disposition, and his devotion to anty enshrined his memory in the hearts of his people.
The Rev. W. J. Lynd became rector January 15, 1848. He resigned in 1849. In 1850, the Rev. Ambrose Smith had tempo- rary charge of the parish.
In 1853, the Rev. J. Lloyd Johnston became rector. He re- signed in 1854. In December, 1854, the Rev. Robert F. Clute became rector.
In 1855, the church was repainted. Mr. Clute resigned March 20. 1857. On the 1st August. 1859, the Rev. George Rot- fenstein took charge of the parish, although he did not become the rector until the 15th November. He resigned in 1860.
On the Ist November, 1865, the Rev. Mr. CInte resumed the rectorate. "
In 1867, the chancel and rectory were repaired. In 1869. there were seventy-six communicants.
Mr. Clute resigned June 1, 1869. The Rev. Herman C. Dun- can, of New Orleans, took charge of the parish March 4, 1873. The church building was found very much out of repair, the walls decaying, roof broken, and ceiling fallen. The parish had suffered also from a wasting drain of emigration. There were but fourteen communicants at Covington and eleven others at Madi- sonville, Mandeville and Simaloosa.
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HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE OF LOUISIANA.
The church was re-roofed. Mr. Duncan resigned August 17. 1873.
In 1886, the Rev. E. W. Hunter, of New Orleans. took charge of the parish, relinquishing it in 1888, to the Rev. H. A. Grantham.
The parish has been represented in the Councils of the Dio- cese by George T. Gilbert, J. St. A. Bossiere, Thomas Gilbert. twice; Henry V. Ogden, four times; E. Walford Briggs. Jesse Norton and Jesse H. Jones.
MADISONVILLE .- The Bishop preached here March 20. 1848. In 1849, Mr. Lynd reported several services held. In 1855. a lay reader was appointed. The mission was called "St. Luke's." There were ten communicants.
Subsequent to the Civil War, sickness and poverty prevented the rector from holding services. In 1873, there were three com- municants.
In July, 1888, the Bishop made a visitation and confirmed several persons.
SIMALOOSA. - This mission station. under the name of "Grace," was established in 1855. with Mr. Thomas Fitzgerald as lay reader. It was visited by the Rev. Mr. Duncan. April 1, 1873. There were then five communicants.
MANDEVILLE .- The rector at Covington reported, in 1866, the organization of a new parish. under the name of ". All Souls," at Mandeville. and that $300 was needed to complete the church. The congregations were reported as large and interested. The fate of this building is unknown. Mandeville was visited in June and July, 1873, by the Rev. Mr. Duncan. There were then three communicants.
LEWISBURG. - There was a Sunday school at Lewisburg, in 1867, of eighteen pupils.
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HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE OF LOUISIANA ..
GRACE CHURCH, LAKE PROVIDENCE.
Ix 1846, the Rev. Alexander McLeod went to Lake Provi- dence, and established the services of the Church. Twice during the year Bishop Otey. at the request of the Diocesan, visited the mission, confirming two persons. Mr. McLeod resigned in 1847.
In 1857, the Rev. C. George Currie took up the work, after it had lain fallow for ten years. Under him it took the name of Grace Church. Mr. Currie resigned in 1859. During the sum- mer of that year. the Rev. George N. Munroe officiated for the mission.
There was then another long drouth, and not until April 11. 1869, was there a clergyman in Lake Providence. At that date. the Bishop officiated in the Masonic Hall, when he "organized the parish," and appointed the Rev. Richard Johnson to the cure. Ile resigned in 1870.
The Bishop was again in Lake Providence October 31. 1870, when he found a new church in process of erection. On New River, he visited a district of country never traversed before by a clergyman of the Church. and occupied by several families at- tached to her communion.
In 1873. January 224, the Bishop found a skeleton of a church, "a striking testimony to the spirit of the people : their zeal to make it a finished and beautiful church ; their inability to strug- gle with the difficulties in the way of completion."
On the 27th July, 1873. the Rev. William D. Christian be- came rector, and his report. made in 1874. was the first ever made to the Bishop for this parish. None of the aets of his predeces- sors had gone into the account of the work of the Diocese.
The parish was admitted into union with the Council April 17, 1874.
About this time missions were established at Bunch's Bend and Transylvania.
The Rev. Mr. Christian resigned April 1, 1876. In 1876, the Rev. F. A. Juny. S. T. D., became rector. During his ineum- beney he taught a private school. He resigned in 1878.
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HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE OF LOUISIANA.
On the 1st January, 1881, the Rev. James Philson became rector. He resigned March 31, 1884.
The Rev. W. T. Douglas took charge of the parish April 9. 1884, and resigned April 18. 1886. He was succeeded by the Rev. Oliver Wilson in 1886. He resigned April 10, 1887.
In 1888, a rectory was built.
In July. 1888. the Rev. F. J. Vincent became the rector.
The parish has been represented in the Councils of the Dio- cese by Dr. John Seay, JJ. P. Williams, Dr. Robert W. Seay and W. H. Benjamin.
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HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE OF LOUISIANA.
ST. PETER'S CHURCH, NEW ORLEANS.
The City Missionary Society having advised the formation of an auxiliary, for the purpose of carrying on Church work among the seamen of the port of New Orleans, such society was accord- ingly organized, and, on the 1st November, 1846, the Young Men's Seamen's Missionary Society leased a house on Esplanade street, and fitted up the lower story as a place of worship. It was opened for service November 15th. A small organ was pur- chased ; the Bishop presented a "Bethel flag;" and Captain Charles C. Berry, a splendid " communion service;" the Rev. Mr. Dillon, of Brooklyn, New York, an altar ; Mr. Greenleaf, a library of a hundred volumes, and Captain Berry a smaller one for the Sunday school. A license was procured for Mr. C. W. Whithall to act as lay reader. Upon Mr. Whithall's ordination he became chaplain of "St. Peter's Chapel," as it was called. Services were held three times a day on each Lord's day.
It having repeatedly happened that the chapel, with a seat- ing capacity of two hundred and fifty, could not contain those seeking admission, the ground on which the house stood was purchased, with the lot adjoining. The intention was to erect the chapel on the vacant ground, and convert the house into a sailor's boarding house, with reading room and library.
In November, 1847, the Young Men's Society incorporated themselves under the name of " St. Peter's Church, " and applied for admission to the Convention of 1848. The application was denied, for the reason that it was felt that the Vestry were not sufficiently bound to the perpetuation of the free church system for the chapel. and its maintenance as a Bethel for seamen.
In October, 1848, the reading room was opened. On the 6th April, 1849, the foundation of the new church was laid. It was occupied July 1. 1849, and was consecrated December 9, 1849. It could contain four hundred persons. The cost of the property, lots, house and chapel, was $16,000.
On the 1st December. 1854. Mr. Whithall resigned, and, December 17th following, the Rev. David Kerr became the mis- sionary. He resigned in the spring of 1855, and in June of that year. the Rev. N. C. Pridham succeeded him.
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HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE OF LOUISIANA.
In 1856, the Sunday school was reported as efficiently super- intended by John Francis Girault, afterwards rector of the parish.
Mr. Pridham resigned about April, 1857. Mr. Girault was made a deacon May 10, 1857, and took charge of the congrega- tion. Subsequently, he became the assistant minister. On the 1st December, 1857. the Rev. A. D. McCoy became rector.
Shortly after this, a parish organization was again made. The Missionary Society consented to the use of the chapel as a parish church, with the proviso for the reservation of seventy sittings for the use of seamen.
On the 6th May, 1858. the parish was admitted into union with the Convention, being represented by A. Guion and C. F. Osborne.
The assistant minister was absent with the army in the field during the Civil War, 1861 to 1865. and the rector was ejected by military power June 4, 1863. The church was then placed under a military Board of Trustees, "created by the commanding gen- eral." The Rev. Anthony Vallas accepted an invitation from this board to take charge of the parish, "in order to keep that outpost of the Church. as far as possible. under regular ministra- tions."
In September, 1864, Mr. Vallas re-formed the Vestry. The assistant minister, Rev. John F. Girault, resumed his duties July 5. 1865. Mr. Vallas relinquished his charge to the rector, Rev. A. D. McCoy, November 1. 1865. Mr. McCoy resigned in the summer of 1866, and was succeeded. December 1st of that year, by the Rev. W. F. Adams. now Bishop of Easton. He resigned July 1. 1867. The Rev. John F. Girault at once took charge of the parish, and on his advancement to the priesthood, December 1, 1867, became the rector.
In May. 1868. the Ladies' Benevolent Society was organized.
On the 24th October, 1869. the last service was held in St. Peter's Church. and about that time the corporation was dissolved.
During the existence of the mission and parish, very many Bibles and prayer books and thousands of tracts were distributed to the sailors of the world. and thus seed was very widely distributed. The fruitage God only knows-but a fraction could find record in the parish register. The efforts of the clergy were directed primarily to the benefit of the seamen, but the resi-
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dent population were, as a matter of course, welcomed, and thus soon a congregation of a somewhat permanent type was estab- lished.
When it was closed there were found recorded in the parish register 1,723 baptisms, three hundred and fifty-four had been confirmed, and there had been 1,200 marriages and 1.541 burials. This showed an average of baptisms of nearly two for every week.
Many saintly characters were moulded there. Of but one of these, as a type of others, record has been made, Mrs. Catherine Carlisle Read. She was, indeed, a Mother in Israel. Possessed of every quality to endear her to her friends, though bound by the weight of fourscore and fifteen years. she was ever foremost in every work of charity and benevolence. Faithful, kind, patient. consecrated to God, her living sacrifice of herself was perfect. complete, wanting nothing. And being dead, she yet speaketh, and her example stands a model to be studied and imitated.
When the church and rectory were sold, the proceeds were invested in two lots of ground on Esplanade street, between Marais and Villeré streets, and presented to the new St. Anna's parish.
The parish was represented in the Conventions of the Diocese by A. Guion, three times ; Charles F. Osborne, twice ; Howard Milspaugh. twice ; R. W. Foster, James Butler and Wm. F. A. Parker.
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HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE OF LOUISIANA.
TRINITY CHURCH, NEW ORLEANS.
IN March, 1847, the Rev. R. H. Ranney, a city missionary, began to hold services in a small room, corner of Washington and Laurel streets, in the city of Lafayette. That city was occupied at the time by the Presbyterians and Romanists alone. The ground between Magazine street and the river was very sparsely ocenpied ; that nearest the river, chiefly by German Romanists. None of the present five brick churches of the Roman obedienee had then been commenced. The Presbyterians had a church near the river and another at the corner of Prytania and Josephine streets.
The congregation that Mr. Ranney gathered-there were six communicants-was so small that he said he could not ask a con- tribution from them.
A Sunday school was established March 28, 1847, with eighteen pupils.
Mr. Ranney resigned soon after the work was commenced, and it was taken up by Mr. Charles P. Clarke, who was licensed as a lay reader June 25, 1847. Mr. Clarke had previously been a Methodist minister, and had preached to a small body of French Protestants in a private residenee on Chartres street, near Espla- nade avenue.
He began active work in the mission, by soliciting subscrip- tions for the purchase of ground for a church edifiee. On the 1st July, he purchased three lots of ground, at the corner of Second and Live Oak streets, making the first payment of $400.
The parish was incorporated July 10, 1847, under the name of the " Church of the Holy Trinity, Lafayette." The first Vestry was: William M. Goodrich, senior warden ; Ferdinand Rodewald, junior warden ; Charles P. Clarke, Augustus S. Phelps, Washing- ton W. Vaught, John F. Thorpe and Daniel S. Dewees. Vestry- men. Uniting with these gentlemen as incorporators were : James W. McNamar. James G. Fanning, Thomas Cook, Ezra Heistand, James P. Kay, M. Greiner and Andrew J. Williams. A portion of the incorporators. notably the wardens, were prominently con- nected with other parishes in New Orleans. Mr. Daniel S.
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Dewees, now aged eighty-one years, is the sole survivor of the corporators.
On the 5th November, a contract was signed for the building of a chapel. It was a neat and substantial building, twenty-five by fifty-five feet, with a vestry room in the rear, twelve feet square, and a gallery for the choir. The grounds were also im- proved, feneed and ornamented with shade trees and shrubbery.
Mr. Clarke was made a deacon January 2d, and priest, April 23, 1848, when he became rector of the parish. At the last named date, it being Easter Day, the Holy Eucharist was celebrated. for the first time in Lafayette, according to the American rite.
The report for the parish, in 1848, stated that $3,200 had been raised, and for which the congregation was largely indebted to friends in New Orleans. This amount covered the cost of the building, and all but $600 of that of the cost of the grounds. There were then eleven communicants, sixty pupils in the Sunday school, and about thirty families connected with the parish.
The parish was admitted into union with the Convention May 3. 184S.
In 1850. the parish was reported as having suffered greatly by removals, not less than twenty families having been lost in that way in two years. The parish was too feeble to support the rector. and he resigned May 6. 1850. In his letter of notification of the resignation of the rector. the secretary, Daniel Vanght, mentioned that but sixteen pews of the thirty were rented, but added that there were "enough Episcopal families living near the church to fill it were it twice as large, if they could be induced to attend."
An unsuccessful attempt was made to rent the building for the term of thirty-three months for school purposes, in order to raise money to cancel the debt.
The Rev. Alexander F. Dobb visited the parish November 28, 1850, and was invited to take charge of it. After becoming acquainted with the people and with the difficulties of the situa- tion, he accepted the rectorship January 6, 1851. The real life of the parish then began. The rector was wonderfully magnetic. Of abounding faith, he took no thought how his wants were to be supplied, but literally looked to God for his daily bread. More than once he arose in the morning, with neither money nor bread to supply the wants of his family. On one such occasion a dray load of provisions arrived at his gate, and he told the drayman
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HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE OF LOUISIANA.
not to leave it, at it certainly was not his. The drayman asked his name, and then remarked, that he had made no mistake, and that his orders were to leave his load there and answer no questions.
Gentle as a woman, but courageous as a lion ; indomitable in energy; highly gifted intellectually ; an orator by nature. he taxed every talent to the uttermost in the Master's service.
His labors were soon rewarded with fruit. He especially attracted and attached men to him-men who had never darkened the door of churches, walked long distances to hear him. and when there was no room in the little chapel. stood attentively around the windows and doors. Profound jurists said of him, that he was unanswerable as a logician, and that he set forth the truths of Christianity in such a manner that no one could hear and not believe.
Encouraged by his earnestness, the congregation undertook the construction of the present church edifice.
In 1851, ground was purchased at the corner of Jackson and Plaquemines, now Coliseum, streets. and a brick church was com- menced. The church. as then constructed, was one hundred and ten by sixty-three feet in the nave, together with chancel. The ground cost 85,500, and the church completed. $35.000. There were one hundred and twenty two pews. The architect and builder was George Purvis. At completion, there was a mortgage debt of $17.000. and a floating debt of nearly 82.000 additional.
In 1852, Lafayette was incorporated with New Orleans, and April 27, 1853, the name of the church corporation was changed to "Trinity Church, New Orleans."
As soon as the new church was roofed in, the congregation commenced to worship in the basement, and here the first service was held April 3, 1853.
The faithful pastor did not live to see the completion of the church. During the few months that he was permitted to min- ister in the basement, the congregation increased so rapidly that the room was filled to its utmost capacity. In the summer of 1853. New Orleans was visited by the most desolating epidemic of yellow fever that has ever visited the United States. The heroic Dobb remained at his post, ministering to the sick and dying. He soon breathed the fatal miasma, and August 18th. he died in the begin- ning of his prime. His patient, Christian wife was soon reunited
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to him. Loving hands placed them side by side in the yard, near the church they loved so well, and there they rest. Of those who tread the aisles of Trinity to-day. there are but few who listened once to the words that fell from his lips, and who remember the love which his great heart bore for her. A beautiful mural tablet testifies to the love that his people gave him.
The chapel on Second street was sold in December, 1853, to George Purvis, for $3,600, and was subsequently converted into dwelling tenements.
The Rev. Edward O. Flagg had temporary charge of the parish from December 1, 1853, to June 1, 1854, and the Rev. Henry N. Pierce, D. D., now Bishop of Arkansas, from June 1. 1854. to December 1, 1854.
The Rt. Rev. Leonidas Polk, S. T. D .. assumed charge of the parish Jannary 1, 1855, and remained its rector until March, 1860. Owing to the lamented death of the Rev. Mr. Dobb, and the ravages of the yellow fever, the parish was, at that time, much depressed, numerically and financially. Under Bishop Polk's able and devoted direction, the waste places were repaired. and the congregation became once more strong and flourishing.
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