USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > A collection of historical records of the State Street Presbyterian Church of Albany, New York : compiled in connection with the semi-centennial celebration 1861-1911 > Part 5
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Superintendent, David Murray.
Secretary, W. G. Rogers. Treasurer, W. J. White. Librarian, R. L. Johnson.
Assistant Librarian, Wm. H. McClure.
In the first chapter of this history, appears a list of those who were teachers in the School at its organization.
During the first year of its existence, the School, on February 23, 1862, moved into its present " commodious and elegant quar- tears," and four days later enjoyed its first festival, when the time-honored custom was inaugurated of giving ice cream and cake to each scholar, with "a paper bag containing an apple, an orange, cake and candy " to take home.
At the first anniversary of the School, which took place on the second Sunday of April, 1862, the superintendent reported
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The State Street Presbyterian Church
that the School had during the year acquired a membership of about 356, of whom 308 were pupils and 48 teachers.
It is interesting to note, however, that during the brief period of its sessions in the lecture room of the German Lutheran Church, many of the children of that congregation had become interested in its work, so that, after the removal to its own quarters across the street, the German Lutheran Church organ- ized an English-speaking school of its own, to which one teacher and about forty scholars were dismissed with God-speed. This left the actual membership of the School at the end of its first year about 316. The event is typical of the whole history of the Sunday School of the State Street Church, which has always stirred up other schools to good works.
Thus the School was fairly launched upon the half century of useful and honorable activity of which this chapter is a brief and inadequate review. It is impossible, in the small space at our disposal to mention all the faithful officers and teachers, all the self-sacrificing labor, all the notable results of these fifty years. We can merely attempt to give an outline sketch of some of the main features of the long period.
These fifty years of the life of the School have been spanned by the administrations of fourteen superintendents, whose names, with the years when they presided over the affairs of the School, will be found in the statistical survey with which this chapter closes. But there are many other names which should be mentioned with equal honor. It is difficult to select any of them, without recording them all, since in the sight of God we know that some of the faithful teachers who during many years labored with their classes, but whose work does not appear in the written records of the School deserve as great praise as those who appear to have been more prominent. The following, however, must not be forgotten if we are fitly to com- memorate our history :
Miss Emma Wygant, Miss Elizabeth Strong (Mrs. A. Mc- Clure, Jr.), Miss Carrie Bush, Miss Kate M. Mather, Miss Clara B. Bancroft, Miss Isabella Wilson, Miss Louise Burdick, Miss Mary L. Richman, Mrs. Robert Flemming, and, at the present time, Miss Josephine Mahon, who have presided over the Primary or as it was originally called the Infant Depart- ment, have rendered loyal and devoted service. In 1898 a
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The Sunday School
Kindergarten Department was added to the School, Miss Mar- garet E. Smith being the first superintendent. She has been succeeded in turn by Miss Grace MeHarg, Miss Margaret Deutschbein, Miss Josephine Dodds and Miss Sara Palmatier.
The Sunday School Missionaries also, though salaried officers, gave of the devotion of their hearts far beyond the worth of their slender stipends. They were Mrs. W. B. Church, who labored without compensation during the years from 1865 to 1868, and as the regular missionary of the Church until 1872; Mrs. Benjamin B. Vanderlip, from 1872 to 1877; Miss Maggie Mckenzie, from 1877 to 1890, and Mrs. Wm. K. Templeton, from 1893 to 1896. Since that time there has been no regular Sunday School city missionary, but the needed labors have been performed without compensation by the faithful teachers.
The School has supported several missionaries. Its first ser- vant on the field was Mr. Otis Patten, who became connected with the School in 1864, and who was engaged in Home Mis- ionary work in Southern Indiana and in Kentucky. His place was taken by the Rev. J. C. Buchanan, who was connected with the School until 1868. In 1869, the School assumed the sup- port of a native Chinese preacher, Tsiang Vong Kweng by name, and continued to contribute to his salary until 1875. At this time, Rev. Lu Cing Veng, at the suggestion of his prede- cessor, who resigned his connection with the School for a larger work, took his place, and remained as the missionary of the School until 1888. From this time until 1906, though the School had no missionary of its own, it contributed largely through the Boards of the Church, but in that year one of its own mem- bers, Miss Jean E. James, who is now representing the School in India, became its missionary.
With more or less varying success, the School has maintained an adult Bible Class, though the existence of such a Class in the School has not been continuous. The teachers who have led the Bible Class are Prof. C. II. Anthony, Edward P. Durant, Daniel J. Pratt, Prof. E. W. Wetmore. In addition to the so-called adult Bible Class, there have been at various periods of the history of the School, Bible classes for young men and young women, for older men and older women, which have been valued additions to its work.
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The State Street Presbyterian Church
A Sabbath School Prayer Meeting, to which the officers and teachers and adult members of the School were invited, was inaugurated in 1863, being held each Sunday afternoon after the close of the School session. This prayer meeting, although at one period we find it a matter of discussion in the annual meeting of the School, was maintained practically without a break until 1891 and is spoken of by the various superintendents as a source of great help and strength in the work. Meetings of the teach- . ers and officers were held from time to time for the transaction of business, and in 1878 the first teachers' meeting for the study of the lesson and the first "Teachers' Sociable " were held. The annual festival for the scholars of the School, inaugurated, as we have seen, on the occasion of the first occupancy of the present room, has been provided every year since that time. Until recent years, this festival was held in the latter part of February or the first of March, and sometimes, owing to the size of the School, occupied two days. For a few years it became the custom to hold it at the Christmas season, but this year we again returned to the old custom and enjoyed our festival in March.
In 1876 a " Teachers' Association " was formed and a con- stitution adopted. Since that time the provisions of this con- stitution have been somewhat modified, but, on the whole, its plan has been followed.
As to its material equipment, the years have not brought much change in the condition of the School. The " commodious and elegant " quarters into which the School moved in 1862 shelter it still. In 1881, however, we find in the report of the superintendent that by that time the Sunday School rooms had become "quite uninviting from long use." The officers of the School petitioned the Trustees for improvements, which, with the co-operation of the School itself, were made during the summer, including a new floor, new carpets, new gas fixtures, painting, kalsomining, new chairs and new pictures. In 1891 it again became necessary to provide for improvements, and a considerable sum of money having been raised by private sub- scription, new hymn books, and Bibles, a new carpet, a new piano, and books for the library, were secured. Again, in 1904 extensive improvements were made, including electric lights,
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The Sunday School
new heaters, painting, etc., and two years later, by the liberality of a member of the congregation, the room was provided with a complete equipment of new chairs.
In 1909, through the liberality of several members of the congregation, the room in the northwest corner was completely remodeled, transforming it into a kitchen and a cloakroom for ladies, while the space formerly used as a kitchen was turned into a coatroom for gentlemen, with adequate toilet accommoda- tions. In the same year a new piano was provided for the School.
A general review of the development of the School reveals that it attained its largest size during the decade between 1870 and 1880, the largest enrollment being in 1874, when there were 1,084 names on the roll. The same year shows the largest average attendance, which was 617. Beginning with the year 1880, however, the School steadily decreased in numbers. This came about through causes for which the School was not re- sponsible. For instance, in 1887, the Presbyterian Mission Sab- bath School on Madison avenue was formed, Mr. Louis W. Pratt, with seven other teachers and officers of this School being instrumental in its formation; and the superintendent, in his annual report, while bidding the new school God speed, remarks upon the number of scholars who left his own school to attend the new one. During this period, also, several churches of other denominations moved into the vicinity and the growth of the city in the Pine Hills district took place. It is quite to be ex- pected, therefore, that we should discover this decrease in mem- bership to be constant and regular until 1907. At this time, when the Home Department of the School was organized, we notice a decided increase in the reported membership while the average attendance of the School at the regular sessions remains about the same.
When, therefore, we read in the report of the superintendent for 1872 the complaint that nothing but the restricted quarters of the School prevented it from increasing its membership any- where from fifty to one hundred per cent., basing his statement upon the fact that in the section of the city immediately sur- rounding the church there were estimated to be not less than a thousand nominally Protestant children of school age not at-
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The State Street Presbyterian Church
tending any Sunday School, who might be gathered into the School if there were room to receive them, we realize that in forty years the conditions have materially altered. It is prob- able, at the present time, that there are not two score Protestant children in the same area not attending some Sunday School
A radical change in the habits of the School was effected in 1900, when the hour of meeting was changed from two o'clock in the afternoon, which had been the hour of meeting since the foundation of the School, to twelve o'clock. In the same year the first summer vacation was taken, to obviate the discouraging and nearly useless struggles to keep the School in some semblance of activity during the heated period, which every superintendent for the last twenty years had remarked. At the present time it is our custom to close the School during July and August.
A perusal of the records of the School during the period of fifty years reveals many matters of interest which can hardly be included in this brief sketch, but which have been of great interest to the author of it. For instance, the sad echoes of the Civil War which sound in the records of the first few years, when officers, teachers and scholars are sent to the front with gifts of "Bibles and India rubber blankets,"-when the girls of the School made "little housewives " for the soldiers,-when Bibles and hymn books were presented to the Tenth Regiment,-and later, when the School mourned the death of three of its soldier- scholars-E. Lindsay, C. Gomph and John Brown-with two of its former teachers-Lieut. James Williamson and Lient. Richard H. Strong. It is interesting to note that in 1864 the superin- tendent inaugurated a system of regular pledged offerings from the School to " ensure a certain and reliable revenue on which to base our calculations for future needs, and to engender in the scholars the habit of charity." This plan was supported with much the same arguments and had much the same satis- factory result as our own present plan of Church support through the envelope system, and indeed, except in the one item of the use of envelopes, was much the same in principle.
In the records of the School we find formal memorials to the blessed memory of many who, at the time of their death, were officers or teachers in the school. Among them are John N. Heron, Archibald McClure (1872), Joseph L. Snow, Miss Jeanie
wanta
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Young People's Organizations
Dalton James, Mrs. B. B. Vanderlip, Archibald McClure ( ISS9), John Templeton, William K. Templeton, Edward P. Durant, William H. McClure. In addition to these names mentioned, we find each year the names of scholars who during the year passed were taken from the school, which are too numerous here to be recorded.
This brief sketch, supplemented by the statistical table which is appended to this chapter, and to which the reader is referred, must suffice to indicate to the imagination what these fifty years have meant for the Kingdom of God. Who can recount the lives that have been moulded and influenced, the wide wanderings of workers whom this School has trained, the unchronicled de- votion of the multitude who have contributed to its success? These matters can only be known when eternity reveals the hidden secrets of the heart. The days of large numbers are probably gone, never to return ; but we believe that in the quality of the work accomplished and in the devotion of the workers. the Sunday School of the State Street Church does not need to look at the past with regret, but can look forward to the future with great confidence and hope. C. G. S.
YOUNG PEOPLE'S ORGANIZATIONS
The history of the young people of the Church has always been so closely interwoven with that of the Church itself that it is difficult to read the latter without learning the former. Statistics and details may be instructive, but certainly are not interesting. The data and tables, prepared with great care and labor for the Church History, should satisfy the most exacting statistician, and we may be pardoned for giving but a birdseye view of the organization and execution of Church work by the young people.
As the Church, immediately upon its organization in 1861, realized the wisdom and necessity of a Sabbath School, so only a few years later both Church and School saw the advantage of giving the young people a more ample opportunity for service in the formation of societies and bands which, while closely associated with and under the general supervision of the Church, were to a very large extent independent. Almost from the be-
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ginning, the Church had established a prayer meeting on Monday evening for the younger members of the congregation.
On December 13, 1869, at a meeting of the Session, it was proposed to organize a YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY for the pur- pose of maintaining the Monday evening prayer meeting and interesting the young people in the missionary work of the Church and creating a more cordial and intimate acquaintance among them. A draft of a constitution was accordingly pre- pared and submitted to the "youth of the congregation." Early in 1870 the Society was organized with Mr. B. B. Merchant as president, Messrs. Charles E. Rancour, John A. Richardson and Russell Lyman, vice-presidents ; Mr. George D. Fcarey, recording secretary ; Mr. Josialı H. Gilbert, corresponding secretary, and Mr. Samuel L. Munson, treasurer. The membership was di- vided into regular (25c.) and sustaining (50c.), and committees were appointed as follows: canvassing, visiting, entertainment, temperance, tract and devotional. Thereafter the Society was intrusted with the conduct of the Young People's Prayer Meet- ing and maintained it with great success during its entire existence.
On July 28, 1872, the Society employed Mr. Alvah Phelps as an evangelical missionary, and a complete census was taken_ of that portion of the city which was the Church's field of activity, and so successful was this work during the ensuing year that the report thereof as submitted was directed by the Session, on September 24, 1873, to be published in the local newspapers.
In the year 1873, as the services of the missionary were no longer available, the Society organized district prayer meetings, and the Church delegated a member of the Session to each district to assist. During this year the constitution was amended and the pastor of the Church was made permanent president to more effectively direct and promote the work of the Society, the other officers remaining elective.
In 1874 the Society broadened so that it engaged in missionary activity, both at home and abroad.
The Society, which at this time consisted of 193 members, held . monthly business meetings at which it is amusing to note the members were limited by a provision of the constitution to five
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Young People's Organizations
minutes in their remarks. Quarterly entertainments were held at which no limit was placed on conversation and these meetings were quite a feature of the life of this Society.
A manual published in July, 1876, on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the Church contains an annual report of the Society from which it appears that the Monday evening meeting had grown to be more of a teachers' prayer meeting due to the weekly consideration of the Sunday School lesson for the ensuing Sabbath and it was suggested that the Society return to its original idea and thereafter other provision was made for the devout social study of the Sunday School lessons and the Monday meeting was continued strictly as a young people's meeting. It also appears that during this year " The Young People's Society Record " was established as a manuscript quar- terly periodical to which contributions of short articles were solicited from the members and which was read at the quarterly- meetings. The list of officers for this year contain many familiar names. Rev. John James, D. D., was president ex-officio,
Messrs. Horatio N. Snow and James S. Webster, vice-presi- dents; Mr. Homer E. Vilas, secretary ; Mr. Edward J. James, treasurer, and Messrs. Daniel J. Pratt, Fred W. Munson, Charles C. Mackay, Archibald McClure, Clarence Valentine, John E. Pladwell and Charles A. Holbrook, managing committee.
It is impossible within the space and time allotted to make mention of the various officers of the Society or refer in detail to the great work done not only in the Church but also in the various mission fields at home and abroad. During all its history though the constitution was frequently amended, the business meetings were maintained and officers elected annually, the Society early reverting to the original plan of electing its presi- dent as well as other officers from its own membership. The quarterly entertainments were regularly given and largely at- tended. The crowning glory of the Society, however, was its Young People's Prayer Meeting. During the year 1896-1897 the average attendance from January I to July I was over 100 and at times was upwards of 140 and during these six months each Monday evening meeting was presided over by one of the young men of the congregation, no one being called upon to preside more than once.
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Shortly after this time a desire was manifested on the part of some of the members to change the form of the Society into that of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor and an active campaign to accomplish this result was carried on until on February 5, 1900, with the consent of the Session the name of the Society was changed. The time of the prayer meeting was changed to Sunday evening prior to the Church service, but the purposes of the Society remained the same.
The Young People's Society did not, however, afford suf- ficient scope for the zeal for service on the part of the younger members of the Church and from time to time other bands and circles and societies were formed. Many of these had some special interest which led to their formation and ofttimes when the desired result was accomplished or the special labor ended, they disbanded, to be re-formed either under the same or a different name for the accomplishment of some other work.
Most prominent among these societies in results accomplished and length of service are the Band of Earnest Workers and The Helpers Circle of King's Daughters, both of which are still active.
On April 8, 1881, Miss Estelle Haight's class in the Sunday School organized into a missionary band known as the " EARNEST WORKERS " and during the first year by accessions from other. classes grew to a membership of 38. Meetings of the band were held in the church and at members' houses. Its aims were for assisting the work of the Church in the foreign field ex- clusively and during the first winter of its existence the Band raised and applied $120.88 to the mission work in Syria dis- bursing $60 for the education of two boys and the balance for school helps for the church missionary, Miss Bird. The work thus commenced has been maintained ever since and the con- tributions of this band toward the support of the mission work of the Church have averaged upwards of $150 for each year of its history.
Its membership has necessarily been limited but in 1888 it was deemed wise to encourage the formation of a BAND OF YOUNG EARNEST WORKERS whose members would later become mem- bers of the senior band and this junior society continued for many years. The mission work was subdivided ; the senior band contributing to foreign missions and the junior band to domestic
1
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Young People's Organizations
missions. Later it was deemed advisable to consolidate the two bands and as united they are continuing their labors, ap- portioning the gifts between the foreign and domestic missions of the Church.
On October 21, 1888 the HELPERS CIRCLE OF THE KING'S DAUGHTERS was organized by members of class eight in the Sunday School with their teacher, Miss Mary J. Matthews as leader, Miss Emma Breakenridge, secretary, and Miss Tillie Branion, treasurer. On October 7, 1890, Miss Matthews as leader organized the Golden Rule Circle, with Miss Alice Feath- erly, secretary, and Miss Sadie Capron, treasurer. In 1897 the two circles united under the name of the United Circle of King's Daughters, but some years after it was decided to return to the original name. During the first nineteen years of its history the circle maintained three scholarships in the Home Industrial School in Asheville, N. C., and during the past three years in the Normal Collegiate School. It has also assisted in the work in China and Persia and among the mountain whites and the miners. For four years it supported one of the Indian orphans under the Rev. Robert Henderson of the Irish Presbyterian Church in Borsad, India and it has contributed toward work in our own city. The circle's contribution to the work of the Church at home and abroad during its existence has averaged upwards of $225 a year.
In 1888 under the direction of Miss Wilson, superintendent of the Primary Department of the Sunday School, the children were organized into a band of "LITTLE VOLUNTEERS" and a banner was presented to them bearing this name in golden letters. During this first year they gave Soo for the Hainan mission and a similar contribution was made by the band each year for some special missionary object. During the last ten years of its life the band maintained a scholarship for an Indian boy in the Manual School at Albuquerque, New Mexico. During the reorganization of the Sunday School in 1907, however, the band was merged in the Primary Department and lost its individuality.
Many other bands appear to have been organized for mission work and study from time to time such as the "LITTLE BUILD- ERS " formed in 1883; the "HELPING HANDS" in 1888; the " GIRLS' HOME MISSION BAND" in 1890; the "HOME TEN OF
2
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The State Street Presbyterian Church
KING'S DAUGHTERS " formed in 1891 for home visiting ; and the " TEMPLE BUILDERS " which was organized in 1900, was dis- banded in 1905, and reorganized by Miss J. Annette Gilbert in 1906 and later merged into the Band of Earnest Workers; the JUNIOR CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETY organized in 1901, by Miss Aurelia Hyde among the very small children for Bible and mission study whose average membership was 25, and yearly contribution $50 given by the members and in addition to which money was raised by entertainment and donated by the society to the Sunday School for the picture "Christ in the Temple" and the bulletin for attendance ; the KNIGHTS OF KING ARTHUR, a band established in 1908, to arouse enthusiasm among the boys in the work of the Church.
From the foregoing brief resume of the various societies among the young people of the Church it will readily appear that while some have kept alive these organizations and have held their title yet most of them have changed from time to time. 'Tis but the great law of nature again made manifest- change-ever the desire appears to accomplish some new object in some new manner and when the goal is reached we seek new achievements and new roads to attain them. Yet the purpose is one; the results are identical. 'Tis the great work of the Church in the persons of its younger element. The mighty course of the Church itself is plainly marked as its rivers run to the sea, but the fresh water rivulets and brooks and streams of its young children and youths must wander here and there with winding course and varying eddy seeking some happy way to exert their energy but nevertheless they run at last into the greater stream of the Church's activity. The joy of service leads them here and there. The zeal for service forces them ever onward. So at last do young and old meet in the river of life and flow onward to the sea carrying forward God's word and God's work. C. I. O.
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