USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Watertown > History of St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church in Watertown, 1836-1936 > Part 6
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In 1906, Rev. Mr. Holden happily was able to watch a further reduction in the church mortgage debt. Besides the generous sub- scriptions from the church members in 1905, new subscriptions came in as follows: Mrs. Greenhalge, $1,000; Mrs. Cynthia Whitney, $1,000; Charles Whitney, $1,000; and Frederick Whitney, $2,000. These were subscribed on the condition that other church members and organizations somehow pay off the remaining debt ($5,000) by January, 1907. Of course this was not able to be accomplished by that date, but no one of the above kept back their generous con- tributions on that account, after all, and Mr. Frederick Whitney actually enlarged his gift to $5,000 before 1907.
The record of this progressive decade will be ended by a tran- script of the benevolent gifts of 1907, quite representative of all the years, and by lists of the Stewards, and of the Trustees.
Benevolent Collections: Missions (from the Church) $82, Mis- sions (from Sunday School) $50, Education $14, Freedman's Aid $12, Sunday School Union $2, Tracts $2, American Bible Society $4, Church Aid $21, Sustentation $12, Church Extension $8, Confer- ence Claimants $60, City Missions (Church) $51, City Missions (from League) $4, Deaconess work $45, Woman's Foreign Mis- sionary Society $109, Woman's Home Missionary Society $35, and Poor Fund $20. Total $631.
Stewards: Curtis W. Bixby, Cyrus H. Campbell, Henry Chase, Freeman W. Cobb, Jason G. Davis, George R. Emerson, Willis Hamlin, Harrison Hartford, Nathan Hartford, Mrs. Carrie Savage, Wallace A. Shipton, John A. Starr, and Harrison Rackham.
The Board of Trustees: Chester Sprague, president; Bartlett M. Shaw, secretary; Wilbur F. Learned, treasurer; Frank J. Berry, L. Sidney Cleveland, W. W. Corson, Richard H. Paine, Edward F. Porter, and Wallace W. Savage.
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CHAPTER IX THE DECADE 1907-1917
THE credit for the progress in the first half of this next decade goes for a great part to the well-beloved pastor, Dr. Charles W. Holden, who had come to the Church in 1904. In the summer of 1907, union services were held for the first time with the Phillips Congregational Church, meetings being given in the Congrega- tional Church on August 4 and II, and in the Methodist on August 18 and 25. Feeling between all the churches was uniformly cordial.
The Sunday School continued to prosper and grow in its new location under a series of competent superintendents and teachers. The Rally Day exercises of October, 1907, were attended by 233 pupils. Mr. Cornelius Hodges felt compelled to resign in 1908, and was succeeded in the office of superintendent by S. Cyrus Wells, who was also a local Elder, or preacher. The St. John's Young Woman's Guild, enjoying great prosperity, was at this time taught by Miss Sara Emerson; and a special class for young men between 18 and 22 was taught by Mr. Charles Wesley Walter (principal of the Marshall Spring School). The same year the Junior League, meeting on Sunday afternoons, was taken over by the Misses Florence and Nellie Turkington, who speedily made it into a grow- ing organization of fifty-five, having lessons on Methodist History for their first winter's subject (with special topics on Temperance and Missions), and making local charity their principal aim.
Gifts for the year 1908 were several: Mr. F. J. Berry gave a baptistry which was installed in the platform of the chapel, and it was frequently used for many years thereafter by persons desiring baptism by immersion. Mr. Frederick Whitney had a heavy glass front erected on the outside of the Whitney memorial window, which added to its beauty and safety, and also had a handsome marble platform put under the Whitney font. Mr. Murdough com- pletely repointed the stonework of the Church, sending the Trustees a receipted bill for $400. Mr. Holden estimated that these improve-
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ments would all come to $1,000 easily, had they all to be borne by the church members.
Mrs. Mary Priest, after eight years' continuous service, posi- tively declined to be president of the Ladies' Aid again, and was succeeded by Mrs. Elvira Sprague, who had long been familiar with the society's work in her capacity as treasurer. In 1908 the Ladies' Aid paid off the last of their $500 subscription of 1906 on the church debt, besides paying $3.00 a Sunday to church current expenses and contributing to various charities as usual. Mrs. Nellie Stanton became president in 1909, and Mrs. John Starr in 1911.
From this period on, both the Home and the Foreign Mission- ary Societies did so much work and had such a wide membership that it seems best to put all their activities in a special section at the back of this book, where the names of their officers and principal charities are enumerated.
The Church was saddened in February of 1908 by the death of Mr. Frank J. Berry, long an influential member of St. John's. On Sunday, March 22, a very impressive memorial service was held in his honor, with Father Edward Porter speaking for the Trustees, Mr. Willis J. Hamlin for the Stewards, Mr. Curtis Bixby for the Committee on Temperance, Mr. Cyrus Wells for the Sunday School, and the pastor for the church people as a whole. In the spring, Mr. Curtis W. Bixby was elected to fill the vacancy on the Board of Trustees caused by Mr. Berry's death.
In April the people sent Mr. Holden to the New England Conference and also to the General Conference for ten days. When he returned, the faithful congregation presented their minister with a testimonial reception and gift of $200.
Additions to the Church in 1909 included a fine memorial tablet placed by the Whitney font; a new marble tablet in the vestibule in honor of the Founders; and new hymn books purchased for the Sunday School. When it came time for the annual New England Conference in April, the Quarterly Conference here did everything it could to insure the return of Mr. Holden as pastor. The vote of March, 1904, was repealed - the vote which had limited the term of all St. John's future pastors to five years - and the District Superintendent was instructed to use all his influence for the return of the Holdens. The pastor came back, and every- body rejoiced.
With the death of Mr. Cyrus Wells, the duties of Sunday
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School Superintendent were assumed by Mr. Curtis Bixby. The fine exercises commemorating Lincoln's Birthday which Mr. Bixby planned in 1909 particularly should be mentioned: First, Father Porter gave personal reminiscences of Lincoln, having had per- sonal interviews with him before and during the Civil War, and having attended the huge funeral at the White House in 1865 as a delegate from Boston. Second, the principal address was by Mr. James Morgan, a resident of Watertown, who had written "Lincoln, the Boy and the Man," and who gave readings from its famous "Victory" chapter. Attendance at this time averaged 203 in the school. The staff for that year and the following was: Superintendent, Curtis W. Bixby; First Assistant Superintendent, Harrison Rackham; Second Assistant, Wallace A. Shipton; Secre- tary and Treasurer, A. Lester Shipton; Assistant Secretary, Edward Maxwell; Librarian, Eliot Shaw; Junior Department Superin- tendent, Eva M. Latham; Primary Department Superintendent, Mrs. Eva B. Davis; Kindergarten Superintendent, Miss Marion A. Pollock; Home Department, Mrs. Paul Bushman. Besides this regular group were the leaders of organized classes, such as the Misses Florence and Nellie Turkington for the Junior League, and Mr. C. C. Hodges of the "Knights of St. John." This was a new boys' work started by Mr. Hodges, for boys from 10 to 16 years of age, the order partaking somewhat of the features of the King Arthur Circle and of the Boy Scouts. Thirty boys were enrolled the first year. All-round knowledge, especially of outdoor life, was taught, and virtue and honor emphasized. The second year the whole Church was interested in the boys. The Ladies' Aid gave them a party in May, a man, who wished to remain anonymous, gave them all an "ocean trip" in July, and Sergeant Bluste of the United States Arsenal drilled them a few times to show them what army manoeuvers and discipline were like. Likewise, the Trustees built them a locker room in the church basement.
In September of 1909, Mr. Frederick Whitney sent the deed of the "School House lot" and other papers pertaining to it, to Mr. Edward F. Porter, the eldest of the Trustees. The land was worth $5,000. Of course the Church had been benefiting from the beautifully landscaped plot ever since 1897 when Mr. Whitney had purchased it, but now the land was definitely registered in the name of St. John's at the Middlesex County Registry (September 20, 1909). The donor placed one restriction in the deed: that only an
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addition to the Church itself could be built on the land, and that it must be of stone to conform with the style of the main edifice. This same restriction he afterwards placed on the next two lots of land which he purchased for St. John's, the Church now owning all the land from the building itself through to Summer Street. On these two lots the houses were left standing, but when they should become too old to be useful, they must be torn down, to be replaced only by a well-landscaped lawn (stated in the bequest). St. John's now surely has one of the finest situations of any church in Boston and its suburbs; we may say, perhaps, in Massachusetts.
Mr. Charles Holden was returned to the Church in 1910, once more, to the great satisfaction of his people. His return was sad- dened, however, when Father Edward F. Porter, a Trustee, died in April after almost a century's life in the Methodist Church. Mr. Porter was ninety years old, but kept until the end a most modern vision and progressive spirit. The Church also lost in death the influential Mr. Chester Sprague, president of the Trustees, in May. His unfailing optimism and his expert knowledge of real estate and building had long been invaluable to the Church in his long serv- ice to it. At a quarterly conference meeting held some time later, Mr. Willis C. Hamlin and Mr. George H. Maxwell were elected Trustees, upon their nomination by the pastor, to fill the vacancies. In July a delightful surprise came to Mr. Holden, when, in a letter from Mr. Frederick A. Whitney, he found enclosed a check for $2,000 to close the church debt. Naturally everyone rejoiced, and plans were made for a great jubilee on October 9 (1910) when the mortgage note should be burned.
During the summer it was felt that a great deal of work should be done on the church roof, which, because of the type of its archi- tectural plans - steep slopes and deep valleys - leaked almost every winter. An estimate by W. A. Murtfeldt Company of Boston was for $1,000, with many really necessary changes not included. For the year 1910, therefore, only temporary repairs were attempted. During the following summer, 1911, the firm of Jones & Carine were awarded a contract for the work as per specification for the sum of $1,575, excepting carpentry, for which Mr. A. L. Hutchins was employed. The committee also wanted to have the interior of the Church renovated, floors, ceilings, and frescoed walls, but in view of the high cost of the roof repairs, they had to content themselves with only necessary improvements. The exterior woodwork of the
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building was given double coats of paint, and the chapel entrance and the pastor's study varnished, and walls and ceilings washed and redecorated, for about $200. Except for the refinishing of the floors, chapel and auditorium renovation was postponed to a year when less expense had mounted on the Trustees' books.
In the effort to complete the story on roof repairs, the history of the jubilee celebration in the fall of 1910 was dropped. To con- tinue: In June, 1910, it became known that the Train house, situ- ated next to the Church on the easterly side, was for sale. On the advice of Mr. George H. Maxwell, Mr. Holden wrote to Mr. Worth, secretary to Mr. Frederick Whitney, informing him of the fact, and asking him to tell Mr. Whitney, if he considered the matter urgent. Evidently Mr. Worth believed it was, for on July 11 a letter from our benefactor was received from Europe, saying: "Thank you for your letter concerning the Wheeler property .... I am negotiating for the property and shall hope to obtain it before long. I shall be glad to let you know when the matter is all settled." It was in this same letter that he enclosed the check for $2,000, mentioned before, which practically cleared up the church debt!
Under the spur of this generosity, the remaining $460 was quickly subscribed by church people, the Ladies Aid taking the last $50. A committee was immediately put in charge of planning a suitable celebration, and Sunday, October 9, was set as the day, and L. S. Cleveland, W. W. Savage, and B. M. Shaw were appointed the committee. It was very fitting that Mr. Cleveland also accepted the office of president of the Trustees for this jubilee year (upon the death of Mr. Sprague), since he had long been so active and so generous in all that had to do with the growth of the Methodist Church.
October 9 was a fine day, and a former pastor, Dr. L. T. Town- send, preached nobly on "The Significance of Time." There was a large congregation which appreciated the excellent address and the fine music. In the evening, exercises were held in charge of the pastor. Mr. G. Fred Robinson represented the honorable Board of Selectmen, Dr. Rice (for many years the beloved District Superin- tendent, or Elder), the Cambridge District, and Rev. E. C. Camp, the Federated Churches of the town. Mr. L. S. Cleveland gave a splendid address full of personal reminiscences and valuable history. Mr. Curtis W. Bixby, secretary of the committee on the raising of the debt, gave his final report, and was discharged with the hearty
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thanks of the Trustees. All the latter Board sat on the platform, and when the mortgage note was burned placed matches on the pyre. At this point, Mr. Walter Worth, representing Mr. Frederick Whitney, handed the chairman a letter which was the fulfillment of the promise of July 11 - deed and insurance policies of the Wheeler property, now presented to the Trustees for the new parsonage of St. John's. After this, all the congregation joined heartily in the Doxology, and a cablegram of thanks was sent to Mr. Whitney, who was in Lisbon, Portugal.
The celebration was continued on the following Wednesday evening when a banquet was given, with former pastors as special guests. Mr. B. M. Shaw gave an historic sketch of the new Church, and Mrs. Frank J. Berry gracefully represented the part the ladies had taken from the first in helping to pay the bills. Mr. Shaw ended the evening saying: "This magnificent property, now free from debt, stands as a monument to the labors and sacrifices of a devoted people - the gifts both large and small representing the best that each could do. The sacrifices made, the burdens car- ried have produced more loyal members and better citizens than would have been possible if the work had not been undertaken."
The address given by Mr. L. Sidney Cleveland, who repre- sented the Trustees at the Sunday Jubilee exercises, also held the very essence of the good feeling, high spirit, and justified pride each member must have had on that occasion.
During the rest of the autumn, repairs were rushed in the new parsonage, and Mr. and Mrs. Holden moved on November 15, 1910, to the first parsonage the Methodist Episcopal Church in Watertown had ever owned.
Mr. Holden returned to the Church again in 1911, to the very evident satisfaction of his congregation, who increased his salary $200, to $1,700 and parsonage. The church membership at this time was 210, with 20 Probationers. In the spring of this year, Mrs. Mary E. Bostwick died, and generously left St. John's a bequest of $500 known as "The Bostwick Memorial Insurance Fund." The very first year the Trustees had to use $400 of this to pay for insur- ance premiums due, but the fund later on was built back to its original figure (as it always has been, whenever reduced).
Rev. C. W. Holden was welcomed back in April, 1912, for his ninth year! The spirit of cooperation and well-being had never been stronger in the Church than it had been during Mr. Holden's
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pastorate, for there was no suspicion of hard feeling between church groups, no overbearing debt to worry them, and there was a fine new Church to enjoy. But from the records of the Third Quarterly Conference of that year we learn that Mr. Holden's health had broken down during the autumn and that the Church was (Decem- ber 1) being served by Rev. R. S. Tuttle as acting pastor. All mem- bers felt keenly the loss of Mr. Holden's kind services, and an appreciative testimonial was adopted, sent to the Holdens, and published in several papers.
The people liked Mr. Tuttle, the "acting pastor," and Mrs. Tuttle, and valued their hard work in the emergency situation. The young people's work particularly benefited from their stay, and a vote in the Quarterly Conference of March, 1913, requested the New England Conference for their return. Changes in special church officers during the past few years had been: Mr. Robert Robeson had succeeded Mr. Curtis Bixby as Sunday School super- intendent; Mrs. Abbie Starr had become president of the Ladies' Aid, and Miss Ethel Hall, president of the Epworth League.
The New England Conference appointed the Rev. Webster H. Powell to St. John's Church in 1913, and the members loyally wel- comed him in April to the parsonage. His salary was the same as Mr. Holden's had been, $1,700 and house rent. The church finances were in good condition, four dollars more per Sunday being sub- scribed over the previous year for current expenses. Mrs. Hannah Bixby (Mrs. Curtis W. Bixby) was church collector at this time, and also president of the Ladies' Aid, and Mr. A. Alonzo Huse had become superintendent of the Sunday School. The pastor and some of the men of the Church formed a new "Methodist Club" at this time, and Mr. Carlos P. Tute served as its first president. Mr. Powell returned to St. John's for a second year in 1914. Innovations in the various church departments included a picnic successfully held on June 17 at the Cutler farm by the Sunday School, and a Ladies' Night Banquet celebrated by the Men's Club in May (reported by Curtis Bixby, president). The second year of his pastorate, Mr. Powell received one hundred dollars more salary. New church officers were Albion R. Davis, Epworth League presi- dent; Mrs. H. L. Paine, Ladies Aid; Miss Helen Howard, Junior League; Mr. Curtis Bixby was working with the Boys' Club which Brother Hodges had started a few years before, assisted by Mr. Small who conducted the Scout work for the group at two dollars
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per night, and by Carl Huckins. The Ladies' Aid gave a new carpet for the church aisles in 1915. Since 1912 the former "Benevolent Collections" had for the most part been supplanted by the "pink envelopes" for benevolences, through which members really sub- scribed to all benevolences of the Church. The pastor and a mis- sionary committee apportioned the total amount received each year, and it seemed to be a fairer method, as bad weather had some- times cut in half the collection a deserving charity would otherwise have received.
The largest single gift during Mr. Powell's pastorate was the "Hanaford Bequest" of 1913, left by Mrs. Abbie A. Hanaford for the purchase of a suitable memorial window for the church edifice. This was to be in memory of Mrs. Hanaford's father, Samuel Learned, of her mother, Mrs. Ruth Ann Learned, and of her brother, Hiram W. Learned. This window was installed the next year in the central window space on the west side of the chapel, adding greatly to the attractiveness of the otherwise rather bare room.
It was during Mr. Powell's pastorate that the system of pew rentals finally disappeared from the Trustees' books. The number of pews actually rented had become less and less and the money received by the Trustees consequently had dwindled yearly from 1897 to 1912. In April, 1913, therefore, this Board adopted the report of their committee of investigation, and the free pew system was inaugurated, all but two former pew holders adding the amount then paid for pew rent to their weekly offering subscriptions.
Mr. Powell was succeeded in April, 1915, by Dr. Joseph M. Shepler. The first Quarterly Conference of this year was conducted on recommendation of Dr. Bronson, presiding elder, by Dr. William G. Richardson, a former pastor. The people of St. John's were delighted to find that Dr. Richardson and his family had come to make their permanent home in Watertown, and a later confer- ence sent greetings and words of welcome to the family which had first become so well beloved in their pastorate of 1887-92 in the Main Street church. Watertown was increasing in population most rapidly in these years, and it was the problem of Dr. Shepler and, indeed, of each member of the Church, to see that as many as pos- sible of these newly resident families be contacted and invited to join the church roll. Before Christmas, 1916, the pastor had com- pleted a calling list of twelve hundred persons, but reported that
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he must have help to keep in touch with this ever-increasing church family. It would necessarily be almost a year before he would be able to visit all these homes again, to say nothing of searching out new arrivals. A new plan was therefore evolved, with the help of the pastor, whereby each society from Sunday School to Ladies' Aid and from the Missionary Societies to the Men's Club, would try to call on families who had expressed interest in their particular branches of church service.
This plan worked out well, and the Church enjoyed five years of growth with Dr. and Mrs. Shepler. The minister's family con- sisted of Rex and Dwight Shepler, two young sons, both of whom have since become very well known in their own right. Mr. Rex Shepler studied for the ministry and is now the popular young minister in East Hampton and Northampton, Massachusetts. Dwight Shepler, inheriting a great love of the artistic and the beautiful from his mother, attended the Museum Art School, spe- cializing in portraiture. For several years now, besides his private portrait studio, he has conducted a series of portrait etchings, printed each Sunday in the Boston Herald, of famous contemporary men and women of New England, with an accompanying article.
Meanwhile the church departments grew and prospered. The Sunday School Superintendent, Mr. A. Alonzo Huse, reported in 1916 a total enrollment of 528, plus a Home Department of 100 and a cradle roll of 87. As these two latter groups have been counted in as part of the Sunday School in reports of earlier years, it is correct to add them onto the 528 persons, making a total Sunday School Department of 715. The largest attendance was 324, average 278. The picnic, tried out so successfully in 1915, then became an annual affair and a favorite occasion with all families of St. John's until many years later, when the prevailing family automobile took the novelty away from excursions into the country.
The Ladies' Aid in 1916 had Miss Sara Emerson for an acting president, followed in 1917 by Mrs. Curtis Bixby. The membership of this society was ninety, and its church subscription $88 a year to current expenses. The ladies chose their own benevolences, as had been the custom for a long time, earning their money for the budget by the same means that they do at present - food sales, the Annual Fair, and the monthly suppers. Of course, the gradual replacement of parsonage furniture, as well as kitchen and dining room supplies in the Church, was always a call upon this treasury too.
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In 1916, the Men's Club filed an annual report, one of their first. In 1915 the membership had been 100, and Richard M. Hatch, president. In 1916, Mr. Clifford S. Lovell was president and could report 125 members, and an average attendance of 55. In Decem- ber the men repaired, cleaned, painted, and varnished the church dining room, making it second to none in the town in fine appear- ance. The Ladies' Aid cooperated by adding new window shades and draperies, a total value of improvements listed at $200. The club also assisted the Ladies' Aid by conducting an old-fashioned "Country Store" at the Annual Fair, with proceeds of $68.
Coinciding with the enthusiasm raised in Boston by the evangelical services conducted by Rev. William "Billy" Sunday, the Church experienced a spiritual awakening and increase of mem- bers during 1917. The men of the Church formed a large men's chorus to sing Tabernacle Hymns at the brief and attractive Sunday evening services, and special speakers were invited from other churches to address the meetings. The pastor was naturally very much gratified to be able to welcome 56 persons into the Church on probation on one Sunday, February 4, 1917. Prayer meetings, too, were well attended under Dr. Shepler, the number present even on stormy nights never falling below 76, and 110 being a good average. The Official Board naturally appreciated Dr. Shepler's strict and courteous application of himself to his pastoral duties, and when in the spring, the men learned that he had been asked to be District Superintendent of the Worcester District (which he refused), and then again to be District Superintendent of the Boston District, they appointed a committee of five to attend Conference that year. The committee consisted of Brothers Shaw, Bixby, Paine, Huse and Robinson, and they were to see that "the pastoral relations of this church are not to be disturbed at the coming annual Conference." The committee was successful, and Dr. Shepler came back to his Watertown pastorate for the 1917-18 conference year.
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