USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The story of the Second Church in Boston, the original Old North; including the Old North Church mystery > Part 7
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The writer has sought a charitable explanation for the grave and untrue charge that triangulation proved no one in Charlestown could see a light displayed anywhere in the Second Church be- cause of Copp's Hill. It may be that the surveyor took a line from the point where Paul Revere's ride began in present-day City Square, Charlestown, up toward North Square in Boston, assum- ing, as many people do, that he stood there with his horse await- ing the signals. But Paul Revere, himself, never saw the lan- terns. The horseman's account states simply: "They landed me on the Charlestown side. When I got into town, I met Colonel Conant and several others; they said they had seen our signals." We are not informed where his associates were situated to watch for them.
There were several possible vantage points close to City Square, Charlestown, from which the lanterns in the Second Church steeple could have been clearly visible. The patriots could have strolled a few hundred feet westward from the ferry landing, along the river bank. From there a good view toward North Square was possible with less obstruction from the downward sloping shoulder of Copp's Hill. Town Hill lay only 200 paces back from City Square and the river's edge, in a direct line between City Square and Boston's North Square, about 1400 yards away. The Town Hill elevation is about 34 feet today; it was undoubtedly higher
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in 1775. Houses atop this original settlement area of Charlestown enabled one to gain increased elevation. Or the patriots could have climbed the heights of 62-foot Breed's Hill, only 500 paces from the spot where history says that Revere began his ride. Both Town Hill and Breed's Hill possessed broad, flat tops offering many possible angles or positions for sighting purposes. The North Church in North Square, was only about 300 yards farther from City Square in Charlestown than Christ Church, in Salem Street, so that the whale oil lamps of Revolutionary days would have been almost equally visible from either point at night.
The steeple of Second Church reportedly rose about 73 feet into the air. The knoll on which it stood in North Square is today 33 feet in elevation. Like most hills in this section it was proba- bly higher in 1775 before earth was scraped away to fill in the nearby shoreline. After Copp's Hill itself, it has always been one of the highest points in the North End. The steeple windows were forty to fifty feet above the ground, judging from engravings, so that they opened out at least 73 to 83 feet above the river waters, and probably much more. The published height of Copp's Hill in 1775, at its maximum point near the southwest corner of the Burial Ground, was 58 to 65 feet above the Charles River. The height is only an academic matter, in this discussion, be- cause the main bulk of the hill has always stood to the eastward of a direct line of sight from City Square or Town Hill in Charles- town to North Square. The eyes follow a course just eastward of the easy upward slope of Prince Street connecting the water- front to the Square.
An engineer, Clyde W. Hubbard, and the writer have carefully gone over all this ground. Mr. Hubbard has plotted a profile of the lines of sight, crossing the Snow Hill shoulder, correlating a 1956 U.S. Geological Survey Map for the area with the contour levels given in work map No. 92P, dated January 10, 1923, in the office of the Boston City Planning Board in City Hall. After making allowance for the ten or more feet greater height of Copp's Hill in 1775 than today, and not helping the Second Church's case for visibility by including an estimate for the additional height that the North Square knoll and Town Hill must also have
Profile on Line from North Square, Boston to Town Hill, Charlestown
(APPROXIMATE NORTH)
A SIGNAL LANTERN
B SHOULDER OF COPP'S HILL
C PRESENT CITY SQUARE
D TOP OF TOWN HILL
E HOUSE ON TOWN HILL
- - - 1775 GRADE POSSIBLY 10 FEET ABOVE PRESENT WIRD PRESENT GROUND
110
OLD NORTH CHURCH IN NORTH SQUARE
100
1
NORTH END IN BOSTON
90
A)
80
PRESENT SNOW HILL ROAD
70
60
19 FT,
16 FT
42 FT
1
Į6FTĪÁ
40
B
30
20
C
10
CHARLES RIVER
0 0
1
O
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
HORIZONTAL DISTANCE IN FEET
OCTOBER, 1959 C. W. HUBBARD
Elevation profile: Charlestown to Second Church
CHARLESTOWN
ELEVATION IN FEET
E
50
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THE OLD NORTH CHURCH MYSTERY
then possessed, Mr. Hubbard proved that it was a physical possi- bility for the signal lanterns in the North Square Church to have been readily seen by observers near City Square in Charlestown. The profile for lines of sight from two different points on Breed's Hill disclosed an extraordinary clearance of Copp's Hill. Printed in this appendix is the profile for the much lower Town Hill, just behind City Square, for the reader to examine. A patriot could have sat comfortably at a lower or upper window of his home on Town Hill in the center of Charlestown and received the secret signals without any danger of being observed himself. The tower in Boston could easily be picked out. It rose another 30 feet above the upper window openings.
The belief that the Second Church steeple windows could not have been seen across the river in Charlestown is said to have been the chief consideration influencing the Boston commission's decision favoring Christ Church. Even if careless analysis of the night's event, inaccurate triangulation, or ignorance of the true contours of Copp's Hill deceived members of the citizens' commission, history books should have cautioned their acceptance as fact, if not corrected them.
Lady Agnes, the widow of Sir Harry Frankland, lived on Garden Court Street across the road from the side windows of the Second Church, facing Breed's Hill in the distance. In his book Invitation to Boston (M. Barrows and Co., Inc., 1947), A. C. Lyons writes on page 78: "She (Lady Agnes) watched the battle of Bunker Hill from the windows of the old mansion and helped bind up the wounded." Her Colonial home was neither high enough nor so situated as to block a similar view over the river from the belfry windows across the street. Reference to a plan map by S. C. Ellis of the buildings and homes in the North Square and vicinity, in Revolutionary times, hanging in the Lathrop Room of the pres- ent-day Second Church in Boston, discloses that no buildings, including Lady Agnes's next-door home, cut off a direct line of sight from the Old North Church itself to Charlestown. Therefore, if she could see Breed's Hill clearly, lanterns in the taller church steeple would have been even easier to glimpse from across the river. Price's beautiful 1743 painting of Boston shows buildings
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in reasonably proportionate scale. The tower and windows of the Second Church, in North Square, are clearly depicted as rising above the surrounding structures that comprise the small eigh- teenth century Colonial town.
It is regrettable that the Boston commission was carried away by a line of argument faulty in its conception and therefore in- correct in its conclusions. Although the truth is now coming out, the case of the Second Church was critically hurt in 1876-78 by unjust arguments like these.
-- III -
On what basis did Christ Church become seriously considered as the site of the lantern episode? After the Second Church in North Square was torn down and interest in the Paul Revere ride developed, years later, it was almost natural that the only North End Church that might lay some claim to being called North Church, still visible and standing with its dramatically tall spire, should become the focus of stories. This was Christ Church. People would not stop to evaluate carefully whether or not it was the true North Church of the two. If there is seemingly a choice of two sites where an interesting event once happened, it is natu- ral for persons in the neighborhood to favor the building they can see rather than bother with the one that has long since been de- stroyed and gone. Second Church slipped from common view as the lantern locale after the British troops destroyed it.
Traditions and folk stories arising from events clothed in secrecy and danger are bound to develop local rumors and fabrica- tions that, upon continual repetition, finally seem to be unas- sailable truth. Some families, knowing that their claims could not be doublechecked, would make efforts to associate them- selves, if possible, with historic events. So it is with the folk tales that grew up in the North End concerning "who hung the lanterns in which church." As evidence they are usually inter- esting, sometimes revealing, but never conclusive.
So much romanticized reconstruction has taken place concern- ing the mysterious lantern carrier, even to describing his every activity that night, that considerable fiction is now repeated as fact. For many years one legend was widely believed that named
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John Pulling, a Christ Church vestryman, as the patriot who climbed into the tower with the lanterns. The November, 1876 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, contains a lengthy, almost categorical, exposition of reasons why John Pulling was assuredly the man. It was written by the Rev. Dr. John Lee Watson, formerly on the clergy staff of Trinity Church, Boston, but then serving a parish in Orange, New Jersey. His assertions were bolstered by a Baptist minister named Henry F. Lane, son of John Pulling's granddaughter, who wrote elsewhere: "When I was a lad I distinctly remember hearing my mother's grandmother, who died in Abington about 1846 in her 99th year, say that her husband hung the lights from the steeple of the 'Old North Church.'"
From the dates given in Mr. Lane's statement (whether or not the deed is correctly attributed) we cannot help but conclude that the elderly lady must have been referring to the church in North Square and not Christ Church. And yet no part of Dr. Watson's or Mr. Lane's declarations are of definitive value to a discriminating historian including their dogmatic contradiction of Christ Church's claim in behalf of its own sexton. This is but another of many hearsay stories available to both sides in the controversy.
Paul Revere's personal account says vaguely: "I left Dr. Warren, called upon a friend, and desired him to make the sig- nals." Longfellow's statement that the "friend" was a sexton is no more dependable, historically speaking, than many other parts of this otherwise magnificent poem. It grew out of legends said to be circulating in the North End and the unconfirmed claim put forward years after the event by the son of Robert Newman, Christ Church sexton of 1775. It simply seemed logical to invite the sexton to carry out this task. He would have the church keys and know how to climb the tower. But was it necessarily logical in view of the critical, secret nature of the mission?
Many persons have accepted the legend that proposes Robert Newman, rather than John Pulling, as Paul Revere's "friend" who showed the signal lights. Hearsay operates again using circumstantial evidence that is not too convincing. Rendering this legend unstable is the fact that Newman was, we would say
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today, a bad security risk, although after the Revolution he wrote letters that would suggest he had always been a loyal patriot. Like most of the Colonists his family originally came from Eng- land. His eldest brother Thomas was studying and living in Eng- land at the time of the Colonial troubles. British officers chose his mother's home for a billet, and he himself was living there with her at this critical period. Surely the patriots would not have endangered their enterprise with such a man for he would have had to sneak away from his home full of British soldiers at a suspiciously late night hour.
Perhaps it is even stretching a point to call the twenty-three- year-old Robert Newman, who needed money and was of unproven character, a "friend" of the forty-year-old Paul Revere, even though the latter was once a classmate of Newman's older brother. With all the trusted friends at Revere's disposal, it hardly seems possible that such a delicate nocturnal mission would be so lightly delegated.
There is no primary proof whatsoever, anywhere, that Robert Newman was ever involved, questioned or arrested by the British, or that Christ Church was searched that night, on account of the lanterns incident. It seems certain that the British did not know for some time afterward that the signals had been flashed in the North End. Stedman, the English historian, and Newell, in his Diary, make no allusions to it. If Christ Church was actually searched, the soldiers evidently concluded that the steeple had not been used for signaling. The building was not damned or damaged. But we know without equivocation that a sober, con- demnatory judgment was made upon the Second Church eight months afterward. The British tore it down.
This usage for signals, discovered months later, probably is what cost the Second Church its building. On December 14, 1775, General Howe gave orders for its destruction, the only house of worship in all of Boston to suffer this fate. Ostensibly some invalided troops required it for firewood. But the Rev. John Lathrop explodes this idea when he writes that " ... there were then large quantities of coal and wood in the town." Records show that the enemy army, during the siege of Boston, had de-
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THE OLD NORTH CHURCH MYSTERY
stroyed the tower of the Rev. Jonathon Mayhew's West Church because signals from it conveyed intelligence to the provincial army .* How much more serious was the gleam of those lanterns that preceded the midnight ride of Paul Revere? Those dim lights cost many British soldiers their lives, almost wrecked an import- ant military mission and began the Revolutionary War. The Brit- ish must have associated the church with some particularly hate- ful usage, apart from its being a "nest of traitors", for them to pull down so historic a religious edifice.
Whether John Pulling, Robert Newman or someone else was responsible for the lanterns, the arguments are too conflicting, flaw-ridden and rumor-laden to advance seriously Christ Church's case. Actually they hurt it. Two groups have been completely positive about two different men whom they said showed the sig- nals. Obviously one claim was wrong. Both may well have been incorrect. There has never been any assurance that these people's certainty that Christ Church was the lantern church was any more accurate than their confusion over the signaler. Those who were so categorical about the legitimacy of the Christ Church claim and about the identity of the lantern carrier believed equally strongly the many erroneous statements they made about Second Church. They possessed no more authority for their opinion about Christ Church than they did for the mistaken judgments that they circulated against the Second Church edifice. They accepted idle assumptions at their face value.
A minor legend circulating in the North End once asserted that Paul Revere chose the Christ Church because he knew its steeple well, having been a bell ringer there. Actually he was only fif- teen years old when he and some other lads had rung the eight lovely English bells, 25 years earlier. Christ Church's right to display a "Revere Pew" today arises only from the fact that one son, Joseph Warren, purchased a pew there, many years later, in 1808. Paul Revere was enthusiastically associated with the New Brick Church on Hanover Street, which became the new home of Old North Church a little later. He was christened there as a
A plaque on that church's site today erroneously states that the tower was taken down lest signals be sent from it. On that basis many others, including Christ Church, would have been toppled.
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baby, served on the Standing Committee as an adult, and was buried from it at death. He knew the New Brick Church and North Church buildings as well or better than Christ Church.
- IV -
The one undeniably true fact about Christ Church is that it possessed a high tower clearly visible all over Charlestown. Yet paradoxically the most damaging reason why the patriots would almost certainly avoid using it for signal lanterns was this very factor. It was so obvious and conspicuous a signal point. Too obvious, too conspicuous. Like a giant arrow it rose high in the air, dominating the North End, a brilliant landmark up and down the river. No hostile eyes could miss it. The king-sized New Brick Church, with its great steeple and clock, was equally visi- ble everywhere. Paul Revere knew this latter church particularly well because it was his own. Yet he rejected it. Why? Probably because it, too, stood out too prominently.
Boston supported officially the cost of a town clock in the Christ Church steeple. That clock was an especial liability. In an age of few pocket watches, British soldiers on the streets that moonlit night might glance up at any moment to note the time. Authorities disagree as to whether, in the occasional shifting of troops, the only company of British soldiers reportedly quartered in the North End were on Copp's Hill that evening, just a few score yards from the Christ Church tower. There were none sta- tioned in North Square, contrary to the statements of various Christ Church supporters. Even Mr. Wheildon's publishers correct him on this. British officers were definitely billeted in the New- man home directly across the street from the Episcopal church. The British warship Somerset lay at anchor in the river just off Copp's Hill, the Christ Church steeple looming directly above its lookouts. They had orders, that April evening, to watch for secret signals between patriots and for citizens trying to leave Boston by rowing across the river. This last order was the reason Paul Revere arranged the signals: he was not sure he could cross the river safely. All of these enemy soldiers and sailors, then, were stationed watchfully (and dangerously) almost in the shadow of Christ Church, while the Old North Church in North Square stood
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THE OLD NORTH CHURCH MYSTERY
safe and unattended on the other side of Copp's Hill, away from the enemy military points. Under such circumstances would a man be asked to stand in the Christ Church steeple windows, holding two lighted lanterns steady and long enough to make absolutely sure that they were seen and understood by patriots across the river?
Paul Revere was a shrewd planner. Prominent steeple posi- tion, instead of being an advantage would be, he knew, a danger- ous handicap. It is reasonable to assume that he would reject Christ Church, as he had passed over the New Brick Church, with their public clocks and openly visible towers, for the lower, clockless and relatively isolated North Church. The less con- spicuous steeple would be the superior means of conveying se- cret signals. It was a better message point, being accessible and suitable, and its lower height, although it made it seem less appropriate, would therefore make it less suspicious to the enemy.
Paul Revere would have had many other reasons for selecting almost naturally the belfry of the Second Church in North Square. He knew the building, its minister and members quite well. His own home in which he lived with his wife, mother and numerous children, was located just a few yards below the edifice, and he had been married to his second wife, Rachel Walker, on October 11, 1773, by its former pastor, Dr. Samuel Mather. To see him near the church, day or night, would arouse no suspicion. His own account of the night's events indicate that when he went home to prepare for the ride, he was not stopped by sentries or soldiers in the vicinity. The steeple was not near or in plain view of an enemy warship, billeted officers, and perhaps even a company of soldiers, like Christ Church. A perfect situation for a dangerous mission in the church belfry.
Belonging to the Second Church were men with whom Revere was conspiring. It was not a Tory stronghold. Confidences would be kept in that company. It would be easy for a "friend" to climb into the steeple, away from all danger points and the troop move- ments that were starting that night, and flash the signals. Christ Church, on the other hand, was, generally speaking, a Tory in- stitution - a potentially dangerous place in an occupied town for
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STORY OF THE SECOND CHURCH
patriots to select for betrayal lanterns. Its pastor, Dr. Mather Byles, as a Tory chose to leave for Halifax on March 17, 1776, when the British evacuated Boston. Services were suspended in this Church of England building for three years, 1775-1778, be- cause not enough patriot members were left in the North End to warrant resuming them. General Gage worshiped there, and from its tower he watched the Battle of Bunker Hill. Major Pitcairn, of the British forces, upon his death in the Bunker Hill conflict was carried there and buried. British soldiers protected the build- ing in every way from depradation, even after Paul Revere's ride, though other churches were used for stables, living quarters and other purposes.
All these serious disadvantages of Christ Church as an unsafe place from which to send vital intelligence on a night tense with military preparations would occur to beleaguered Revolutionaries, though they might not be so readily apparent to persons looking backward from a place of safety, a century later. They would critically guide the choice of the steeple from which to warn patriots in Charlestown of the impending movement of British troops.
This investigation has left me fully convinced that the signal lanterns of April 18, 1775, heralding the birth of this great na- tion, were displayed in the steeple of the Second Church in Bos- ton. It is true to say that unless some presently unknown facts are brought to light that incontestably pinpoint the evidence, no one can ever be completely and conclusively positive about the location. But we do know that the ticklish mission to be ac- complished and the military situation prevailing that evening made Christ Church almost a ridiculous gamble for secret signals. The North Church steeple near Paul Revere's home was over-
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THE OLD NORTH CHURCH MYSTERY
whelmingly the one that careful patriots would choose. Almost all credible assumptions favor that institution.
Let us remember that the 1876-78 decision against the Second Church resulted largely from accepting unreliable hearsay and conflicting folk stories, overlooking unbelievable omissions and mis-statements of readily ascertainable facts, and, crucially, upon believing a question of lantern visibility that was utterly without foundation. The Boston citizens' commission was told that the Second Church had no steeple, no upper windows, and an impossible position for lantern signals. The claim was put forward that it stood opposite enemy troops barracks and was known to all at the time as a meeting house and not a church. It was intimated that Paul Revere selected Christ Church because he knew its steeple better than the others. Efforts were even made by some to deny that the Second Church was known as the North Church. Every one of these arguments was either mislead- ing or untrue. And yet they were believed. Throughout the entire two years of the commission's life the Second Church was formally almost an undefended orphan. Christ Church, through its rector and friends, was vigorously represented. Little wonder the ver- dict went as it did.
The profusion of facts favorable to the Second Church in Bos- ton are finally supported by the unequivocal statements of Paul Revere and Richard Devens that the lanterns were displayed in the steeple of the North Church. If they had meant Christ Church they would have said so. The true North Church or Old North Church of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the North End of Boston was incontrovertibly the Second Church, in North Square. These designations appear in the authoritative documents of the time and were in general public circulation because it was easily the oldest, most famous church, the North Church, of the North End. I can only conclude that it was the church of Paul Revere lantern fame. It remains for the public to weigh the evi- dence and decide whether or not a generally accepted historical identification has, for a long time, actually constituted an un- fortunate error.
I have felt an understandable reluctance to introduce even a
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friendly issue vis-a-vis another church on this type of concern. But I am sure that Christ Church advocated its claim in good faith, as I now do ours, and that we both are very much interested in ascertaining what is historically true. It is in this spirit and for this purpose that this research has been undertaken.
I take this opportunity to salute Christ Church, still standing magnificently in its original location. Though the North End neighborhood has changed and that church is no longer a true parish institution, it perpetuates for all to see and appreciate a beautiful structure, rich in historical associations, where many notables have worshiped. To visit the quiet sanctuary is a memor- able experience. The Second Church in Boston has lived on as a busy parish church by moving away. Christ Church has survived as a priceless historical and cultural shrine by remaining stationary. Each church continues to serve our country in its own special manner.
Appendix B MASTERPIECES OF COMMUNION PLATE
Art lovers are invited to examine the church's rare and centu- ries-old silver communion plate, most of which is stored or ex- hibited in a special case in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It includes seven two-handled cups, three tankards, four flagons, a baptismal basin, three dishes, two teaspoons, and a butter knife, all of fine silver. The collection contains silver from the New Brick Church which merged in 1779 with the Second Church in Boston.
Some of the gift pieces were presented during the pastorates of Increase Mather and Cotton Mather. Here one can see the work of Edward Winslow, John Potwine, John Burt, Peter Oliver, Jacob Hurd, and Joseph Goldthwaite. Because these silversmiths were. among the most skillful in early America, the value of the collec- tion is in six figures. Most of the silverware is irreplacible and constitutes one of the finest colonial church sets in the country.
The church has acceded to official requests to borrow pieces from its collection for the MASTERPIECES OF AMERICAN SILVER exhibition in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, January 14 to February 14, 1960, and for the first major exhibition of early American silver ever to be shown in the United Kingdom, in the Central Hall at Christie's, London, in August and September, 1960.
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Appendix C CHURCH LEADERS OF TODAY
In this 310th year of the church's life the following persons comprise the official leadership of the congregation and its ac- tivities.
Senior Minister, Dr. John Nicholls Booth; Minister of Education, Harold W. Garman; Minister to College Students, Garvey F. MacLean; Organist-Choirmaster, Dr. James Edward Anliker; Sec- retary, Mrs. Phillis Holloway; Sexton, Edmund S. Lane; Parish Clerk, Mrs. Florence Remington; Church Treasurer, Dr. W. Douglas Richmond; Assistant Treasurer, Miss Evelyn Brooks.
Standing Committee. Chairman, Clyde W. Hubbard; Honorary Member, Charles A. Newhall; Harold F. Adams, Miss LaVerne Snyder, William G. Wilkinson, Miss Morna Crawford, Sterling W. Powell, Miss Evelyn Brooks, Garde W. Burgess, Cecil W. Miller. The chairmen of the various church committees:
Religious Education, Mrs. Kingdon Grant; Investment Fund, Walter L. Hobbs; Special Funds, A. Lawrence Eastman; Finance, Garde W. Burgess; Board of Charity, Henry J. Clark; Deacons and Deaconesses, Albert Robertson; Hospitality, Phillip Guptill; Ushers, Robert F. Smiley; Building and Grounds, Harvey Burgess; Housekeeping, Mrs. Sterling W. Powell; Music, Miss Morna Craw- ford; Youth, Philip G. Curtis; Flowers, Mrs. A. Stanley Gibson; Fair, Mrs. Kingdon Grant and Mrs. Frank Powell; Parsonage, Charles A. Newhall; Unitarian Service Committee, Mrs. Frank Powell; Interfaith, Mrs. Norman W. Strickland; United Unitarian Appeal, Gardner Murphy; Church Historian, Frederick P. Pond; Delegates to Boston Council of Churches, Mrs. Sterling W. Powell; Delegates to the Benevolent Fraternity, Miss Virginia Haley; School of Religion Treasurer, George Kelley.
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Appendix D SKETCH OF THE MINISTER
JOHN NICHOLLS BOOTH, twenty-first senior minister of The Second Church in Boston. Born August 7, 1912, Meadville, Penn- sylvania. B.A. degree, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, 1934; B.D. degree, Meadville Theological School, Chicago, Illi- nois, 1942; honorary Doctor of Letters degree, Calvin Coolidge College and Portia Law School, Boston, Massachusetts, 1950.
Minister, Unitarian Church of Evanston, Illinois, 1942-48. First clergyman in world to have own regularly scheduled tele- vision program, Looking At Life, twenty-two months, WBKB, Chicago; President, Evanston Ministerial Association, 1947-48; Member, Program Committee, American Unitarian Association, 1947-49.
Minister, First Church in Belmont, Massachusetts, 1949-57. Panel Member, Massachusetts Council of Churches radio program, CHURCHMEN WEIGH THE NEWS, 1950-52; President, South Middlesex Conference of Unitarian Churches, 1950-52; Chairman, A.U.A. Fellowship Groups Committee, and member Board of Di- rectors of Church of the Larger Fellowship, 1949-54.
Called to Second Church in Boston; commenced August 1, 1958.
Covered Olympic Games for Canadian Press, 1932. Walked across Mexico, Popocatepetl ascent, 1933. Circumnavigated South America, 1939. Eight months circling the world westward, 1948- 49, between pastorates. Co-founded Japan Free Religious As- sociation (See Christian Register, September, 1948). Interviewed prime ministers of Japan, China, Siam and India, and other Asiatic figures including members of the Japanese Imperial family and the Gandhi family. Expedition across Himalayas into Tibet. Special Correspondent for Chicago Sun-Times on this journey.
Toured Yugoslavia and nations of Middle East, 1952. Inter- viewed President Tito, Premier Mossadegh, Ex-president Inonu, and visited Surchi Kurds with Sir Hubert Wilkins.
Four months in Africa, 1954, Cape Town to Casablanca. Climb on Kilimanjaro. Week at Dr. Albert Schweitzer's hospital. Lived in Timbuctoo. Decorated by King of Morocco: Officer in the Cherifien Order of Ouissam Alaouite.
Circled world eastward in nine months, 1957, between pastor- ates, emphasizing Himalayan Kingdoms, Indonesian Islands and
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STORY OF THE SECOND CHURCH
New Zealand. Accompanied on march British expedition in Nepal making first ascent of Machapuchare. Lived in longhouses of former headhunting Dayaks, in Borneo jungle. Wrote feature arti- cles for Boston Globe on Middle Eastern, African and 1957 world journeys.
Lectures nationally with motion pictures taken during his studies of cultures in remote areas. Author of The Quest For Preaching Power (1943), alternate choice of Religious Book Club; Fabulous Destinations (1950), selection of Travel Book-of-the- Month Club, and four volumes on conjuring. Pamphlets written for the American Unitarian Association: The ABC's Of Unitarian Faith, The Ministry As A Career, and Introducing Unitarianism. This last document now 375,000 copies in print, most widely distributed pamphlet in Unitarian history.
Dr. Booth is Ministerial Advisor to Unitarian students at Mass- achusetts Institute of Technology, member of Ministry Committee of American Unitarian Association, member of Books Selection Committee for General Theological Library, and president of the Back Bay Ministers' Association, Boston.
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