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Gc 977.402 An71c 1706878
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
To S 3 1833 01052 4624 with much appreciation of all that he is doing for St Andrews Chunch .
Jenny Lewis, RecTos. Left 1948,
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ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH AND CHAPEL
A history of
St. Andrew's Church
Ann Arbor, Michigan
BY
ARTHUR LYON CROSS, PH.D. Assistant Professor of History in the University of Michigan
ANN ARBOR GEORGE WAHR 1906
PRESS OF THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY, LANCASTER, PA.
1706878
PREFATORY NOTE.
When the eve of St. Andrew's Day, 1903, was chosen to commemorate the seventy- fifth anniversary of the founding of St. Andrew's Church, Ann Arbor, the present writer was asked to read a paper on the origin and subsequent history of the parish. The following account grew out of what was prepared for that occasion. The Right Reverend George D. Gillespie, bishop of western Michigan, had already prepared the way. On 7 November 1869, at the last service in the old church building pre- vious to moving into the present edifice, Bishop Gillespie, then rector of the parish, delivered a historical sermon in which he presented, with considerable fulness of de- tail, all that he could gather relating to the subject. His address was subsequently printed in the Reports of the Pioneer and Historical Society of the State of Mich- igan, volume IX, pp. 141-155. Aside
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St. Andrew's Church
from the printed and manuscript material still extant, he had the advantage of per- sonal interviews with men and women, no longer living, who had been identified with the history of the parish from its first foun- dation. General Edward Clark, particu- larly, was of incalculable assistance to the bishop. Although General Clark and many others have passed away, some still survive whose memory reaches back almost to the earliest years. Mrs. Chapin, for in- stance, General Clark's niece, and the oldest baptized member of the congregation, has contributed much, both from her own rec- ollections and by the generous proffer of the papers of the Clark, Kingsley, and Chapin families, to throw light on obscure points. The parish should congratulate itself that for some years Miss Corselius, one of its members, has been laboring with great industry and skill to collect and pre- serve information that otherwise would, in the course of time, have been lost beyond recovery. A portion of this she has already presented in a paper read at a monthly
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Ann Arbor, Michigan.
sociable in Harris Hall, which was printed in the Ann Arbor Argus in the issues of 17, 19, 20 June, 1899.
Aside from the studies of Bishop Gil- lespie, Miss Corselius, and the reminiscences of some of the older parishioners, the chief sources of information are the parish reg- isters, the reports of the various rectors to the annual diocesan convention, and, above all, the Vestry Books. Unfortunately, the two former do not reach back further than 1834, and no trace can be found of any vestry records earlier than 1843. The Manual and Annals of the Diocese of Mich- igan, compiled by Bishop Gillespie while secretary to the convention, and published in 1868, contains a history of the diocese by the Reverend Benjamin H. Paddock, afterward bishop of Massachusetts, and a list of the rectors of St. Andrew's, together with a brief chronology of events by the Reverend Professor George P. Williams. A series of delightful reminiscences by the Honorable C. C. Trowbridge, containing much valuable information on the begin-
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St. Andrew's Church
nings and early history of the diocese, was published in the reports of the Michigan Pioneer Society, Vol. III, pp. 213-222, under the title of "The Episcopal Church in Michigan." For recent events the scrap book of Hobart Guild has proved useful.
Deeming it impracticable to cite specific references for every statement in the fol- lowing work, the author takes this occasion to state that he has been dependent, in vary- ing degrees, on each and all of the author- ities mentioned. For the earlier part he has been obliged to draw very freely at times on Bishop Gillespie, and if in places he seems to repeat what has already been so well done, his excuse is that it seemed necessary in the interests of completeness and unity, and desirable from the fact that the bishop's paper is published in a form not generally accessible to the members of the parish. The author, moreover, real- izes that his account will appear bare, im- personal, and lacking in local color. But this is inevitable in the case of one who is comparatively a newcomer in the commu-
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Ann Arbor, Michigan.
nity, deprived of all the advantages of an- cestral connections and ancestral traditions in the field which he has been prevailed upon to enter. But as his work loses thus in vividness, he trusts that it may gain somewhat in impartiality and sense of per- spective ; and, at least, the local records, so far as they are extant, have been faith- fully studied.
The fact that some of them have per- ished should be an urgent reminder of the necessity of seeking to preserve memorials of the past, which increase in value with each passing year. Local history in Eng- land and on the continent has long been studied by trained and learned investiga- tors with steadily growing interest, and much matter of vast genealogical and insti- tutional importance has been in this way brought to light. Our country is rela- tively so new and its local centers are so widely distributed and so infinitely great in number, that rarely will a single one, by itself alone, compare in significance with any in the old world. Nevertheless, each
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St. Andrew's Church
plays a part, if only a minor one, in the great drama of American history ; and, therefore, the importance of preserving local records and putting together local annals cannot be too much insisted upon. It is to be hoped that the present study, humble as it is, may be an incitement to some parishes, hitherto negligent in their duty, to repair the fault before it is too late.
In conclusion the author wishes to state his obligations to the many old residents of Ann Arbor and parishioners of St. An- drew's who have so generously assisted him ; to Miss Corselius for many suggestions and additions, notably for the complete list of wardens, vestrymen, secretaries, and treasurers in Appendix II ; to Colonel Dean and Professor George W. Patterson, for their kindness in reading proof ; and, most particularly, to the Rector, by whose ener- getic and efficient cooperation his task has been immeasurably lightened. 1 ARTHUR LYON CROSS.
ANN ARBOR,
April, 1906.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER J.
PAGE.
The Beginnings of the Parish and the Building
of the First Church 1
CHAPTER II.
The Middle Period, 1838-1861
29
CHAPTER III.
The Advent of Dr. Gillespie and the New Church, 1861-1875 70
CHAPTER IV.
Later Years, the Chapel, the New Rectory, and
Harris Hall, 1875-1903
94
APPENDICES.
I. Rectors of St. Andrew's Church, 1830- 1903 136
II. Wardens and Vestrymen of St. An-
drew's Church
137
III. An Act to Incorporate the Wardens and Vestrymen of St. Andrew's Church of Ann Arbor 147
IV. By-Laws of St. Andrew's Church of Ann Arbor 149
V. List of Subscribers to the Building of the present St. Andrew's Church .... 160
VI. Memorials in St. Andrew's Church .... 166 VII. Endowment Funds of St. Andrew's Church 168
VIII. Lectures Delivered on the Baldwin and
Slocum Foundations
169
Index
172
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
St. Andrew's Church and Chapel ..... Frontispiece.
Rev. John P. Bausman 11
Rev. Samuel Marks 14
Rev. Francis H. Cuming 17
The Old St. Andrew's Church 24
Rev. Charles C. Taylor 41
Rev. George P. Williams 49
Rev. David F. Lumsden 53
Rev. George D. Gillespie 70
Rev. Wyllys Hall 94
St. Andrew's Church and Rectory 100
Rev. Samuel Earp 106
Harris Hall
124
Interior of St. Andrew's Church 132
X1
A HISTORY OF ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN.
CHAPTER I.
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE PARISH AND THE BUILDING OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
A LTHOUGH its origin reaches back only five years beyond the three score and ten allotted to man, the church of St. Andrew stands as a venerable figure in the midst of its surroundings. Next to St. Paul's, Detroit, the oldest Episcopal Society in Michigan, it antedates the or- ganization of the diocese by five years and the admission of the State by nearly ten. Strictly speaking, we are not concerned, in the present inquiry, with the shadowy be- ginnings of church life in this region during the colonial period, or even later, when it formed a part of the Northwest Territory of the United States, The Hon. C. C.
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St. Andrew's Church
Trowbridge, "next to his bishop, . gratefully recognized as the father of his diocese," has touched somewhat on the early period in his genial History of the Church in Michigan, and the Reverend Dr. Rufus W. Clark, who has been investigat- ing the subject for some years, has recently published the results of his findings in his Annals of St. Paul's Church, Detroit. A few facts, however, may be of interest in the present connection.
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent the earliest missionaries into the field. In 1786 and 1787, the Rev. Philip Toosey and the Rev. George Mitchel came to Detroit and, as Dr. Clark tells us, " formed the first organization of Christian people worshipping in English west of the Ohio." But nearly forty years had yet to elapse before a permanent church was established under a settled min- ister. During the interval there are traces of the occasional presence of a chaplain at the garrison at Detroit, while the Rev. Richard Pollard, missionary for the So-
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Ann Arbor, Michigan.
ciety at Sandwich, on the Canadian side of the Detroit river, sometimes crossed to the American side in order to hold services and to perform other spiritual functions. As a rule, however, the offices of baptism, mar- riage and burial were perforce undertaken by the garrison commander.
For a time, before the outbreak of the War of 1812, some earnest church people in Detroit seem to have provided for church services under a lay reader, and, in 1817, they joined with the Methodists and Pres- byterians in a corporation formed under the name of " The First Protestant Society of the City of Detroit," an organization that became strong enough by 1819 to build a small wooden church. The Epis- copalians, who remained in this society till July, 1824, employed a preacher of their own in 1821, the Rev. Alanson Welton. But this young man, a pupil of Bishop Hobart, from western New York, lived only three months after assuming his new charge, and it was not till three years after that a permanent pastor was secured. In
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St. Andrew's Church
July, 1824, mainly through the efforts of Bishop Hobart, the Home and Foreign Missionary Society sent the Reverend Rich- ard F. Cadle to take up the work. In No- vember of this same year he organized St. Paul's, Detroit, the oldest Episcopal parish in the present State of Michigan.
It was to this indefatigable missionary that St. Andrew's, Ann Arbor, owes its origin. He is said to have visited the little village as early as 1825 or 1826; but it was not till 1827 or 1828 that the mission church was founded. Unfortunately, the precise date is a matter of uncertainty. Bishop Gillespie, on the authority of Gen- eral Clark, fixes it in the spring of 1828, while the Washtenaw County History and the Reverend George P. Williams place it as early as the autumn of 1827. A mo- tion of Mr. Jewett, entered in the Vestry Book, 19 August, 1843, establishes the fact that the by-laws were adopted 19 April, 1828, so that the formal organization of the parish must have been at least as early as this date. The name selected for the
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Ann Arbor, Michigan.
church might indicate that some prelimi- nary form of meeting may have been held on St. Andrew's Day of the previous au- tumn. Among those present and taking part in the organization, whatever the date may have been, were: Elisha Belcher, Ed- ward Clark, Andrew Cornish, Samuel Denton, Marcus Lane and Henry Rumsey. Legend has it that the name St. Andrew's was suggested by General Clark from the Christian name of Mr. Cornish; but the likelihood is at least questionable.
In 1829, a plan seems to have been on foot to establish as missionary in this newly organized field a person selected by the members of the church as soon as he should be ordained. Bishop Gillespie has sug- gested that the person they had in mind was one Merchant Huxton, generally de- scribed as a candidate for orders, who read the service for some months in the early days. At length Miss Corselius has been able to throw some light on this rather shadowy personage. His name was Hux- ford. He was a Harvard graduate, who
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St. Andrew's Church
came out here in 1832 to visit his brother- in-law, Captain Goodrich. Becoming much interested in the church, he frequently read service in the Goodrich tavern. However, he never took clerical orders, and after- wards became a physician.
Apparently the project of getting a regular clergyman came to nothing for the moment, since Miss Lucy Ann Clark, though the service was read by a lay reader, had to be married by a justice of the peace, while Miss Corselius's father and mother were married by Mr. Gregory, a clergyman who happened to be visiting his brother at Dexter. In 1830, the Reverend Mr. Bury, who succeeded Mr. Cadle at Detroit, re- ports visiting Ann Arbor and preaching to a congregation of fifty in a brick building which he calls the "Academy." This same year the first regular services began to be held by the Reverend Silas W. Freeman, missionary to Ann Arbor, Dexter and Ypsi- lanti. He labored in the neighborhood for about three years, and appears to have de- voted himself to the work with much zeal.
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Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The names of the members of the con- gregation in these early years may not be without interest. So far as it has been pos- sible to collect them they are : Mrs. Hannah Clark, her son Edward Clark, Mrs. James Kingsley, Dr. Philip Brigham, William A. Fletcher, Henry Rumsey, Edward Munday, Matthew F. Gregory, George W. Jewett, George Miles, Robert S. Wilson, Andrew Cornish, W. G. Tuttle, Gideon Wilcoxson, Zenas Nash, Charles Tull, William G. Brown, Olney Hawkins, David Cleveland, Samuel Denton, E. Platt, A. Platt, Elisha Belcher, Marcus Lane, Nathaniel Noble. It is only from 1834, when the earliest ex- tant parish records begin, that the list of communicants is complete and reliable. On the 20th April, 1833, five years after the organization of the parish, the legislative council of the territory of Michigan passed an " Act to incorporate the Wardens and Vestrymen of St. Andrew's Church, Ann Arbor." The act, printed in full in Ap- pendix III., names Henry Rumsey and William G. Tuttle as wardens, and James
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St. Andrew's Church
Kingsley, A. Bennet, Philip Brigham, Am- brose Bunnell," with their associates, as vestrymen.
Meantime, the diocese of Michigan had been organized. The beginnings were slow and uncertain. Mr. Cadle, who came to Detroit in 1824, was, it would seem, for five years the only Episcopal clergyman in the peninsula. But the church in this region was fortunate in arousing the interest of Bishop Hobart, who undertook the long and arduous journey from New York to Detroit, in 1827, to lay the cornerstone of St. Paul's, and, in August of the follow- ing year, was zealous and courageous enough to come again to consecrate the edifice. By 1832, after three or four more parishes had been founded, a sufficient num- ber of clergy were brought together to hold a convention. This body drew up a diocesan constitution at St. Paul's, Detroit, 10th September: in the following month, on application to the General Convention, the organization was recognized, and Mich- igan was added to the dioceses of the Prot-
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Ann Arbor, Michigan.
estant Episcopal Church in the United States.
On 9 April, 1833, the Standing Com- mittee held its first meeting. After setting its house in order by taking measures "to clear the church from a prevailing charge of collusion with the heresy of Universal- ism," it proceeded to put the diocese under the charge of Bishop McIlvaine of Ohio. At the first annual diocesan convention, held at Monroe, 3 May, 1834, the Bishop pre- sented a graphic account of the only visi- tation he ever made. Arriving in Detroit on the nineteenth of April, he started on his rounds two days later; but the expo- sure of the journey, culminating in the overturning of his carriage on his return from Troy, brought on an attack of fever and ague which forced him to go back to Ohio without even visiting Dexter, Ypsi- lanti, or Ann Arbor.
The records of the Monroe convention furnish a striking illustration of the small beginnings of the church in Michigan. Beside the bishop in charge, only three
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St. Andrew's Church
clergymen were present: the Reverend Ad- dison Searle, of St. Paul's, Detroit, who had been instituted by Bishop McIlvaine on the twentieth of the preceding April; the Reverend W. N. Lyster, of St. Peter's, Tecumseh ; and the Reverend John O'Brien, of Trinity Church, Monroe. The Rev- erend Richard F. Cadle, of the Episcopal mission at Green Bay, and the Reverend Silas W. Freeman, late of St. James' (now named St. Luke's), Ypsilanti, were called but did not answer to their names. Reverend John O'Brien notes in his re- port that he has spent some Sundays in Ann Arbor, and the Reverend Mr. Lyster states that since May, 1833, he has visited the village four times, baptized six infants and one adult, and also administered the Holy Communion. The lay delegates from Ann Arbor at this convention were : George W. Jewett, Henry Rumsey and Charles W. Tull, with William J. Brown and Philip Brigham as alternates. Apparently the first two gentlemen named were present.
The next annual convention met at
REV. JOHN P. BAUSMAN
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Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Tecumseh, 13 June, 1835, and, this time, Ann Arbor was represented by its own rector, the Reverend John P. Bausman, who had assumed the charge in August of the previous year. His report, the first and only one he ever made from this parish, pictures the situation with a combination of pious and pessimistic eloquence that is almost unique. He states that, on his ar- rival here in August last, he found the church in a weak and languishing condi- tion. "Few came to her solemn feasts ; her gates were desolate, and she was in bitter- ness." To be instrumental in effecting a change he has endeavored, "in season and out of season, both publicly and from house to house, to teach and preach Jesus Christ"; and, although unable to state any imme- diate fruit of his labors, he humbly trusts they have not been "in vain in the Lord." Laboring under great disadvantages in re- gard to a convenient place of worship, he has urged the people of his charge to erect a church as early as practicable. To ac- complish this very desirable object, about
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St. Andrew's Church
$1500 has been subscribed, and the delight- ful hope was entertained that before this period the work would have been consider- ably advanced. This hope has not been realized, and "when the headstone shall be brought forth with shoutings, Grace, grace unto it, is altogether uncertain." A Sun- day school has been established; but owing to a variety of circumstances is not flourish- ing. The number of communicants at his arrival in August was fifteen, since then he has added five, making a total of twenty. In addition he has celebrated three bap- tisms, three marriages, and conducted seven funerals.
The great business of this convention of 1835 was to choose a bishop. The four clergymen present, together with the lay delegates from the six parishes, at first fixed upon the Reverend Henry J. White- house of Rochester, New York, who was duly elected. He having declined in a letter dated 29 July, a special convention met on the twenty-fifth of November at St. Paul's, Detroit. Owing to one removal
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Ann Arbor, Michigan.
since the last meeting, there was no longer a sufficient number of clergymen qualified to vote. Thereupon, in accordance with a canon passed at a late session of the General Convention, they applied to the House of Bishops to elect for them. This time the choice fell on the Reverend Samuel A. Mc- Coskry, of St. Paul's, Philadelphia. On the seventh of July, 1836, he was conse- crated in his own church by the Rt. Rev. H. W. Onderdonk, bishop of Pennsylvania, the Rt. Rev. G. W. Doane, bishop of New Jersey, and the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, missionary bishop of Missouri and Indiana. Bishop McCoskry continued in his Episco- pal charge of Michigan till 1879, holding the rectorship of St. Paul's, Detroit, as well, till 1863. In 1875 he was relieved of a portion of his duties by the creation of the see of western Michigan under Bishop Gil- lespie.
When Bishop McCoskry visited Ann Arbor for the first time, 2 October, 1836, he found a new church already in process of erection, and in his annual address com-
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St. Andrew's Church
mends the parish for its zeal in under- taking to construct a "neat and commo- dious " church edifice, which he states will be ready in the spring for consecration. As a matter of fact, however, this desir- able event did not take place for more than two years. The bishop held his services in the Sunday school room in the basement, and, although he notes that the parish has suffered for want of a settled pastor, he had a reasonably large congregation, especially in the afternoon. Things were beginning to look up owing to the assiduity of the new rector, Rev. Samuel Marks, who, ac- companying the bishop from Philadelphia, had entered upon his duties early in Sep- tember. According to a letter from which Bishop Gillespie cites, Mr. Marks found, on his arrival, that the church was but just enclosed, and " the basement was filled with shavings and boards, and brickbats "; but " these were cleared away, and a floor laid, and you would have smiled at the primitive- ness of my pulpit." Extracts from his two reports should be quoted for the light
REV. SAMUEL MARKS
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Ann Arbor, Michigan.
they throw on the conditions of the time and the character of the man. In that of October, 1836, he says : " At Ann Arbor I found sixteen communicants ; five have been added since I came. I cannot close my re- port without the remark that I have reason to bless God for having led me by his Prov- idence into this new and rapidly increasing diocese. Too often the minister of the Gospel is left to grapple with poverty, and to groan under the care of an increasing family. Here, to the praise of our parish- ioners be it spoken, these fears are removed, and those complaints silenced. Nothing has been left undone by the people of my parish and others to raise my spirits and to spur me on to the faithful performance of my duty. These remarks are not made with a view to flatter, but to encourage the laborer to sow in hope and the laity to con- tinue in well-doing."
In his report for the following year he says: "Until we could procure the base- ment story of the church, we were subjected to much inconvenience, and somewhat re-
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St. Andrew's Church
tarded in our progress. I found but few attached to the church from enlightened belief that the ministry, doctrine and dis- cipline were according to the Scriptures and apostolic times. In fact, my prospect was dim and my congregation few in num- ber. My head hung down and my heart was discouraged. Honor to the sacred name of God, the prospects of my parish have brightened, the house is full, and my person is well sustained. I can truly say that the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. It was expected that our church would be consecrated at this convention, but owing to adverse circumstances it must be delayed to the middle of November next. The room of our edifice will accommodate about three hundred, and for neatness we think will not be exceeded by any in our vil- lage. It gives me great pleasure to say that between the members of our own church and other societies there exists the kindest of feeling. It is with pleasure I add that, connected with the church is a Sunday schoool well indoctrinated. Com-
REV. FRANCIS H. CUMING
Ann Arbor, Michigan. 17
municants, twenty-six ; marriages, six ; fu- nerals, eleven." In 1838 this patient and hopeful pastor resigned. Going from Ann Arbor to Clinton, he removed three or four years later to Huron, Ohio, to assume the rectorate of Christ Church, where on the humble salary of $420 a year he served for over a quarter of a century. He was one of the most welcome visitors at the conse- cration of the present church edifice in 1869.
Mr. Marks was succeeded by the Rev- erend Francis H. Cuming. Arriving in October, he was instituted, 18 November, 1838, by Bishop McCoskry on the same day that the new church was consecrated. From Mr. Cuming's report to the board which commissioned him, Bishop Gillespie has reprinted the following extracts, which sketch a vivid picture of the new rector's first impressions : "The congregation is a highly respectable one. As to size, it bears a fair proportion to others in villages of the same class with that in which this would be ranked. Myself and family have been treated with much kindness by the inhabi-
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