USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > The biography of a church; a brief history of Christ Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts > Part 6
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JAMES FIELD SPALDING
As he could not, because of his family, become a Roman Catholic priest, he devoted himself to teaching in Boston College and in other Roman institutions, living in Cam- bridge for the rest of his life. That his family had the hearty sympathy of the parish, and that Dr. Spalding himself was borne no ill-will by the parish, is indicated by the presentation of a gold vase to him and Mrs. Spald- ing on the occasion of their golden wedding anniversary on April 28, 1914. Dr. Spalding died in 1921 at the age of 82.
CHAPTER VIII
WILLIAM BENJAMIN BASIL KING 1892-1900 THE DECADE OF THE NINETIES
DURING THE DECADE of the nineties, Frederick Caesar deSumichrast, Professor of French at Harvard, is said to have been one of the most popular teachers in the University. As soon as Dr. Spalding resigned, Professor deSumichrast decided that the man who should be rector of Christ Church was his good friend, the youthful Dean of St. Luke's Pro-Cathedral at Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Reverend William Benjamin Basil King, and the zealous professor set to work to persuade the parish to call him. Although Professor deSumichrast was not at the time himself a member of the parish, he came to the parish meeting and spoke so eloquently on Mr. King's behalf that he was elected rector on March 9, 1892. Parenthetically, it is interesting to note that the per- suasive professor joined the parish and a year later was elected to the vestry. During the rectorship of his friend, he was one of the most active and dominant influences in the parish.
Consequently, into the pulpit of Christ Church stepped this thirty-three-year-old Canadian clergyman. He was six feet tall and impressed everyone because of his large and robust physique. He charmed his hearers with his beautifully modulated English voice to such an extent that Miss Josephine Bumstead remarked: "So beautiful
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHURCH
was his rendition of the service that one scarcely needed a sermon." Nevertheless, he was an eloquent and per- suasive preacher and possessed such a fine command of the English language that his sermons contained a distinctive literary quality. Mrs. King reports that he would com- pose his sermons while taking a walk Saturday after- noons, and that he entered the pulpit without a manu- script, preaching entirely from memory. This is evidently the reason why no copies of any of his sermons are to be found in the parish archives. Dr. Arthur N. Peaslee, who was one of his assistants, writes, "He was really eloquent in a formal, old-fashioned way. The ideas on which his sermons were based, however, were for the most part de- rived from conservative high church theology of a type even then disappearing." The Reverend Gibson Bell, rector of All Saints' Church, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, at that time growing up in the family of the Junior Warden, recalls his sermons as "grand, short, scholarly, and to the point"; he also adds that "he was such an immense person physically that he overawed the rest of us." The older generation were especially pleased by his social charm.
His personality was a far greater asset than his preach- ing. All who knew him testified to his great and extra- ordinary kindliness and his unfailing courtesy, as well as to his absolute sincerity and his deep convictions. He possessed a penetrating spiritual insight, which was con- tinually deepened through almost constant suffering. For, while he looked physically strong, his health was undermined by a painful disease of the thyroid gland. Owing to his illness he lost his eyelashes and eyebrows, his face became more and more drawn, and he had to wear ever thicker glasses, which destroyed the robust and handsome appearance he possessed when he came to the parish. Four years after he came as rector he was
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compelled to ask for the first of what was to be a series of leaves of absence. These were necessary in order that he might go abroad to receive special treatment in the hope of discovering a cure for his illness which was ac- companied by steadily failing eyesight. The "cures" were of little avail and in 1900, after only eight years at Christ Church, he resigned, leaving the active ministry and devoting the rest of his life to writing.
One event in Basil King's life which caused a great flurry in the parish was his marriage a year after he came to the parish to Mrs. Esther Foote, the wealthy widow of Mr. George Luther Foote, who for many years had been an active member of the parish. Miss Bumstead wrote, "After the excitement was over, Mrs. King with her merry laugh, sense of humor, and her kindly interest in every parishioner, won all our hearts."
After retiring from the active ministry, Mr. King wrote some twenty novels and eight serious books. One of the former, The Inner Shrine, was a best seller in 1909. Of the serious books, two were devoted to one of his favorite topics, the sanctity of marriage; another, The Abolishing of Death, to spiritualism, and the best known, The Con- quest of Fear, was in large measure an account of his own arduous and courageous struggle in the face of his illness, with its accompanying mental and spiritual as well as its physical suffering. Mr. King lived at No. 1 Berkeley Street until his death in 1928. In his memory, the large silver communion chalices which are used every Sunday were given to the parish.
The Heart of the Parish
Even though Basil King was rector for less than nine years, and in spite of the fact that during all those years he was handicapped by illness, nevertheless the sterling quality of his personality and his able preaching drew
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back into the fold many of the sheep who had gone astray during the upsetting rectorship of Dr. Spalding. The decade of the nineties was a period when social conven- tions, such as church attendance, were taken for granted. Families normally attended together and regularly. As Harvard and Radcliffe had not then expanded over the area near Christ Church at the expense of many dwelling houses, the parish was happily situated in the midst of a thriving community of homes. Consequently, after all the parish families and individuals had been assigned sittings, only fifty-seven remained available for visitors. I do not mean to infer that there was a hundred percent church attendance, but a parishioner entering the church in the nineties would have seen the loyal mem- bers worshipping Sunday after Sunday in the same pews, an observation that is not possible today in the midst of our rapidly changing congregation.
Among the devoted workers in that day were Mr. and Mrs. Francis Foster (senior warden), Mr. Benjamin Dyer Washburn (junior warden until 1898), Mr. and Mrs. A. D. S. Bell (junior warden after 1898), Mr. and Mrs. Hastings Doyle Wright, Mr. and Mrs. H. Stan- hope Hill (treasurer), Mr. and Mrs. Huntington Saville (clerk), Mr. Sturgis Thorndike, and his mother, Mrs. S. Lothrop Thorndike, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Batchelder, his mother, sister, and daughter, Mary; Mrs. Freeman J. Bumstead and two of her three daughters (daughter Ethel went to St. Peter's): Miss Mary Edgecombe Blatchford, whose name is memorialized on a small brass plate at the end of the second pew in the church; Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Newton Cook, Prof. and Mrs. Frederick Caesar deSumichrast (Mr. deS. being particularly conspicuous for his square jet-black beard and his piercing black eyes), Mrs. George Dexter and her two daughters, Miss Mary Foote, Mr. George O. Gibbs, Prof. and Mrs. James J.
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Greenough, Mr. and Mrs. George W. S. Greenough, Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Whipple Huntington, Mr. Thomas A. Jagger, Prof. and Mrs. Christopher Columbus Langdell, Prof. and Mrs. Morris H. Morgan, Mr. and Mrs. George W. C. Noble, the Rev. and Mrs. Mason G. Parker, Mrs. William E. Stone, Mr. William E. Wall, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Webster. This is not an exhaustive list but a partial one of that small nucleus of hard and loyal workers that kept the heart of the parish steadily beating.
The Rector's Substitutes
As the new young rector reinvigorated the life of the parish by his personality and preaching, the feeling of parish unity became ever stronger, and a number of new parish organizations came into being. Largely because the rector's continuing illness required his absence for months at a time from the parish and partly because the work of shepherding both people and organizations was steadily more demanding, Mr. King himself arranged for substitute ministers. Among the. substitute ministers who rendered considerable service to the parish were the Rev. Edward E. Atkinson and the Rev. Maximilian Kellner, the latter being a member of the Episcopal Theo- logical School Faculty. This arrangement was obviously an extremely difficult one for the parish, leaving it in continual uncertainty as to how much authority should be assumed by the vestry and how much should be as- sumed by the locum tenens, or the "rector pro tem.," as he was sometimes called. Thus it was that in the fall of 1897 Professor deSumichrast by cable advised the rector, who was at that time in Europe, that the parish should have a permanent assistant minister paid by the parish. (Previously Mr. King had engaged and paid his sub- stitute.) As the vestry had difficulty in finding a clergy- man willing to serve in this capacity, it was not until 1900,
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when the eventual resignation of the rector plus the dif- ficulty of being left without anyone to carry on the services was foreseen, that the Rev. Arthur N. Peaslee became the first assistant minister in the parish. This was a position that amounted to that of acting rector, and he con- tinued to hold it until shortly after the arrival of Dr. Prescott Evarts, who came to the parish as rector in December, 1900.
The Parish Activities
Also, the illness of the rector, obviously thrusting greater responsibility not only upon the vestry but upon the whole congregation, resulted in the fact that there was probably no time in the history of the parish when so much of its work was carried on by the laity. This increased lay participation and responsibility, as is always true in such instances, greatly helped to strengthen the life and work of the parish.
A printed yearbook for the year 1899 which reports eight organizations in addition to the vestry gives us a bird's-eye picture of the parish in the last year of Dr. King's rectorship. The Sunday services were: Holy Communion at 7:30, Morning Prayer, Litany and Sermon at 10:30, with a celebration of the Holy Communion following at 11:30 on the first and third Sundays of each month. Church school met at three o'clock in the after- noon and a service of Evening Prayer at five o'clock on Fridays, with many additional services in Lent and on holy days.
Sunday services were led by a paid choir of men and boys comprising fourteen sopranos, four altos, four tenors, and six basses; however, Mr. B. Franklin Young, the organist, notes that one of the tenors and three of the basses kindly volunteered their services. During the summer, six boys were retained to lead in the congrega-
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tional singing. The organist evidently experienced dif- ficulty even in those days in securing adequate talent, for he reports, "In the course of the summer I found it ex- pedient to advertise for tenors and basses upon whom I could rely for efficient support in our coming season's work. I obtained the singers I desired, after awhile."
The report of the Woman's Auxiliary records, "Nine meetings attended by an average of twenty women, an increase of two over last year." In addition, there was a Junior Auxiliary consisting of sixteen girls between "the ages of fifteen and twenty who have a serious purpose to devote a little time each week to the study of the Church and its missionary aspect."
The Girls' Friendly Society, which had been founded by the previous rector, the Reverend Mr. Spalding, in 1887, was the most flourishing organization because of the enthusiastic and efficient leadership of Mrs. Henry M. Saville. It comprised fifty members, twelve pro- bationers, and eight working associates, in addition to which there was a separate class for candidates and twenty-eight honorary associates.
A boys' club, called the Apthorp Club in honor of East Apthorp (evidently a forerunner of our Boy Scout Troops), whose purpose was "to foster the spirit of manliness, courtesy, friendliness and loyalty to the Church," flour- ished, although it was restricted to ten boys thirteen years of age or over. The boys were particularly in- terested in drill. The report, after acclaiming their good fortune at having Mr. Henry N. Hudson as drill- master, declares in a note characteristic of the decade that the following rules are strictly enforced :
1. Punctuality
2. Cleanliness of clothes and shoes
3. Cleanliness of face and hands
4. Neatness of hair
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHURCH
The existence of the club was evidently due to the en- thusiasm of its leader, Gibson Bell, son of the Junior Warden and student at Harvard College, for after his graduation the club dissolved. Mr. Bell is now rector of All Saints Church, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.
The Altar Guild was under the able and intrepid leader- ship of Miss Josephine F. Bumstead, who was to serve in that capacity until 1946! The first characteristic words of her report are of interest: "The record of the Altar Guild this last year is very similar to the seven previous years of its existence. The work has gone on quietly and steadily. Two members have resigned. One member has been admitted, leaving our total number six."
The strongest organization in the parish and quite evidently the center of parish life was the Parish House Guild, which apparently corresponds to what is now the Church Service League. Its report boasts of sixty mem- bers and further states, "The great desire of the Society has always been to count every woman in the congrega- tion a member." The annual fee was 15 cents, and Mrs. Anna Lamb Thorndike, in closing her report, says, "The work to be done by those who are able to give time and strength besides a small fee, is so varied as to give each member an opportunity to exercise her special talent or skill, and it promotes that general personal acquaintance with each other which is so valuable in a congregation. The work is quite unselfish. It aims to promote the com- fort of every parishioner - man, woman or child -- and above all to make possible in our beloved Christ Church such active participation in all good works, as is a sure manifestation of the true Church of the Spirit." The Guild was chiefly concerned with the building of a new parish house, of which we shall speak further later on.
Only this single sentence mentions the church school in the yearbook, "In the Sunday School there are five
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teachers, three librarians, and one hundred forty chil- dren."
The vestry report shows a budget for the year 1899 of $7315.28 and a missionary offering raised by the Woman's Auxiliary of $924.00, making a total of $8,239.
Various and Sundry
It is of interest to note that the Episcopal student group at Harvard University, called the St. Paul's So- ciety, was very active during this decade, and during Lent held an annual course of sermons at the Sunday morning services. On certain Sundays during Lent the offering was given to the Society. Eight pews were still set aside for Harvard students, and President Eliot, on his own volition, raised the contribution for the same from one hundred and twenty-eight dollars to two hundred and fifty-six dollars. The parish petitioned the city to put in a brick sidewalk in front of the church, and the city also put in the historic stone marker. In 1900, after careful consideration, the vestry declined an offer to re- place the communion rail with an iron and brass rail be- cause they felt it "their duty to preserve for posterity the chancel rail that has served for so many years." Owing to both the rector's popularity and to the growth of the community, seating of the congregations on Sundays presented increased difficulty. It was decided that the system of completely free pews was not working well. Following long study and a vote by mail by the whole parish, a new plan was put into effect which was a con- servative compromise between the usual rented and the less usual free pew system. Seats were assigned to anyone pledging to the church an amount decided by themselves and indicated confidentially to the treasurer, with the latter also given authority to make assignments to people unable to pledge.
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A New Parish House
The outstanding event of Basil King's rectorship, and indeed of this decade, was the building of a new parish house. Mr. King had not been in the parish a year be- fore he realized that the old Sunday School room, as it was called, which had been given by Samuel Batchelder in 1868, was totally inadequate for the growing needs of the parish. Hence, on January 23, 1893, a day made memorable because everyone had been shocked that morning by the news of the death of Phillips Brooks, he called a meeting of the women of the parish to devise means of raising a fund to build a new parish house "as would meet present wants and make larger and more efficient work possible." A committee was appointed to arrange for a fair. Its members were Mrs. S. Lothrop Thorndike, Miss J. F. Houghton, and Miss Mary Batch- elder, and it became the first "Parish House Guild." The fair was held in Brattle Hall on April 18th the same year. Miss Bumstead recalls the heated controversy that winter over the question of whether it was proper for the church to sponsor a fair. The report says, "It was a large undertaking, including a dance in the evening and a printing of a really clever newspaper containing contributions from distinguished people within and without the parish."
Early the following year it was learned that a tract of land adjoining the church could be bought for fifty cents a square foot. The fund of $1250 which the women had raised was immediately given to the vestry toward this purpose, and the land was bought for $1743. The Parish House Guild held a sale each year shortly before Christ- mas, and all the organizations continued to raise money for the new parish house by means of entertainment and sales. Finally, in the spring of 1897, four years after
ENTRANCE TO THE PARISH HOUSE ERECTED IN 1897
THE YARD IN WHICH THE VESTRY ROOM NOW STANDS AT THE END OF FARWELL PLACE
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHURCH
the first meeting, it was decided to proceed at once with the erection of the new building. This was accomplished in the summer of 1897 at a cost of $5559.
The first meeting in the new parish house was a house- warming held on October 14, 1897. How continuously the new building was used is indicated by the fact that from September through June, in 1899, four hundred and eleven meetings were held in it. Mrs. Thorndike's report says, "The house is going to be more and more used in an informal way for all sorts of purposes connected with the parish work. Especially, before and after services, little gatherings are apt to take place in the various rooms, three or four sometimes being in progress at once. . . . One great satisfaction connected with the enlarged house is the opportunity it gives us to be hospitable to our neighbors. ... No one connected with our own parish work can fail to notice the fresh impetus it has already given to activity in many directions. Well warmed, well lighted, and much improved in ventilation, it has changed what used to be drudgery into a pleasant task."
The Fur Flies
The achievement of a new parish house produced the only dissension within the parish during Dr. King's rectorship, and the severity of it, like that of many parish rows, was out of all proportion to the significance of the subject which caused it. It might well be passed over save that it is so characteristic of the period that our picture of the parish in the decade of the nineties would hardly be complete without it. It was obvious that with the new building so near the center of the Harvard Square area, there would be a great demand by organizations both within and without the parish for the use of it. Therefore, Professor deSumichrast was made chairman
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of a committee of the vestry to draw up rules for the use of the parish house. Evidently Mr. deSumichrast's puri- tanical religious views were well known, and with his appointment as chairman, fear filled the parish that only pious religious meetings would be allowed in the new building.
During the winter of 1897 the rector was abroad for his health. Mr. deSumichrast's committee was ready to report in December, but the vestry, fearing to face the repercussions in the parish of what had already mani- fested itself as an extremely hot potato, postponed for several meetings consideration of Mr. deSumichrast's rules. Finally, in February, owing to a petition from the associates of the Girls' Friendly, it became necessary to deal with the matter.
The vestry, with little disagreement, voted that the use of the parish house might be granted to parishioners on the occasion of church weddings, marriages, and funerals, "provided that the rooms be not used for social purposes, such as receptions in connection therewith," and further that no organizations outside of the Episcopal Church should be allowed to use the parish house without authorization by the vestry. But the fur flew when Mr. deSumichrast moved that "dancing in any form shall not be permitted in the Parish House." The vestry first took an informal vote on the motion and divided four to four. The senior warden, Mr. Francis Foster, who was in the chair, then voted in the negative and the motion was lost. A heated discussion followed during which letters from absent vestrymen were read, as well as a petition of seven of the eight associates of the Girls' Friendly "praying the vestry not to make too stringent prohibition of amusements in the Parish House and calling attention to the fact that these amusements of games, dancing in- formally among themselves, and simple theatrical per-
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CHURCH
formances, have been especially sanctioned by Mr. King and approved by the other rectors." After prolonged discussion a motion permitting dancing when it was confined to women and girls was passed by a vote of five to three, with the chair not voting; whereupon Mr. deSumichrast offered his resignation from the vestry. Being unable to persuade Mr. deSumichrast to reconsider, the vestry accepted his resignation. The vestry felt his loss to the parish to be so great, however, that six days later the vestry met and passed the following motion: "That the vestry thinks it wise not to make any per- manent rules for the use of the Parish House during the absence of the Rector," and Mr. deSumichrast was re- instated.
As one might well imagine, the rector did not share Mr. deSumichrast's views on the wickedness of dancing, and when Mr. King returned the following October he evidently was able to persuade his devoted friend to change his mind. The vestry then voted, "that the committee on the management of the Parish House be and hereby is instructed that the Vestry is in favor of permitting the Christ Church branch of the Girls' Friendly Society to have dancing in the restricted form adopted by the directing associates as heretofore, but the com- mittee is not to sanction dancing in any form if other per- sons than members and associates of the Girls' Friendly Society and the Rector are present at the meetings of the branch." No wonder the rector was popular! He was the only male with whom the vestry would allow the girls to dance! Since we noted Professor deSumichrast's influence in bringing Mr. King to the parish, at this point we should add that Mr. deSumichrast transferred to an- other parish after Mr. King's retirement.
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Christian Nobility
So far as the recorded knowledge of the parish during the decade of the nineties is concerned, nothing appears to have transpired of either an outstanding or unusual nature. The parish life was no doubt typical of the era. As one reads the meagre records which exist, one realizes that the fact which made life in Christ Church different from that in other parishes was the inspiration of the magnificent spirit of Basil King, who at the age of thirty- five began to fight what seemed a losing battle against a disease which was not only incurable and painful, but thrust over his head a Damoclean sword of threatened total blindness. His parishioners could not forget as they watched him going to and fro in the parish or listened to him preach that he was bearing a cross the weight of which might at any moment cause his collapse.
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