USA > New York > New York City > The history of the Broadway tabernacle church, from its organization in 1840 to the close of 1900, including factors influencing its formation > Part 18
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HISTORY OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH
Messrs. Charles Stewart Smith and Caleb B. Knevals, who were ready to guarantee the rent, and signed a lease for three months. The school moved to this hall in November, 1869, when scholars crowded in so rapidly that the average attendance in 1870 was three hundred and eleven. The Taber- nacle Church appropriated $2,300 for the work in 1870, and $4,000 was raised for it the next year.
Soon after moving into the hall an evening preaching service was established and the two theological students, with still another, Robert Loring, took turns in conducting it. The hall was light and airy, in the midst of a populous neighbor- hood; the officers of the school devoted much time to it, they consulted together when the session had closed on Sunday afternoons, took their tea together in the building, and re- mained for the evening service, besides devoting to the work a good share of their evenings through the week. A strong corps of faithful teachers, men and women, joined them and all worked harmoniously together. The average attendance of the school for the first ten years in its new quarters ranged from 352 to 669. It reached its highest number in 1894, namely 916.
On first occupying the hall a rough element forced its way in, and some attempts were made to disturb the gatherings assembled for recreation, school, or worship; but the young men who had matters in charge were muscular Christians and soon put a stop to lawlessness, although one of the student preachers was once stabbed with a pocket-knife by a reckless youth, while enforcing order.
The first mission pastor was Rev. Rufus Underwood, ap- pointed in 1872. Mr. Frederick Link, who had been con- verted in London under Dr. Finney's preaching and had been a member of the Tabernacle Church for seventeen years, was made superintendent the same year. By that time the Beth- any work was under the Departments of Missions and Chari- ties, and the five managers of the departments, together with the school superintendent and church treasurer, constituted a board for the management of the mission. The expenses of
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the work for 1873 were estimated at over $6,000. Two visi- tors and a Bible reader were employed. A Thursday evening prayer-meeting was well attended, a young people's Bible class and prayer-meeting held on Monday evenings; a Bethany Christian Association organized, whose officers were Messrs. H. W. Carey, C. W. Miner, and S. A. Bacon.
Converts of the Bethany Mission united with the Taber- nacle Church; but by 1872 its Bethany members were de- sirous of having the communion service administered in their own place of worship; so, in that year, two seasons of com- munion were observed at Bethany.
Rev. William Plested became the pastor May I, 1874, at which time there was an attendance of from fifty to sixty at morning service and from sixty to ninety in the evening. There were special evening meetings held by the pastor for some months during the next year, and thirty-two were ad- mitted to church membership; and in 1876 twenty-four came into the Tabernacle Church from Bethany. On February 28, 1873, a plan was at last adopted for the proposed organiza- tion of Bethany Church, and when it was constituted, April 13th, ninety members from the Tabernacle formed the new church. Mr. Robert L. Hall was elected deacon; Mr. H. S. Gordon, clerk; Mr. Augustus C. Ohle, treasurer; Dr. Lu- cien C. Warner and Mr. Frederick Link, members of the church committee. Mr. Willard Scott became pastor, April, 1878, and Rev. C. H. Burr, February 1, 1880. Mr. Burr also took charge of the Sunday-school, which was under the super- intendence of Dr. E. P. Hoyt when he came. After the sub- scription of $30,000, taken on Dr. Taylor's tenth anniversary, March 12, 1882, work was begun on Bethany's house of worship on Tenth Avenue between Thirty-fifth and Thirty- sixth Streets. The Bethany Sunday-school had been saving toward this object and contributed $2,549.94. The whole cost was about $60,000. This church was dedicated March II, 1883. In 1886 the Departments of Missions and Charities being done away with by the Tabernacle Church, the Bethany Church and Sunday-school and other work connected with
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HISTORY OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH
Bethany were put in charge of a committee of three, known as the Board of Missions. Messrs. J. Howard Sweetser, Charles L. Mead, and Hamilton S. Gordon constituted the first Board of Missions, and, with the exception of Mr. Ed- ward L. Browning, no one else served on the committee until 1895, when the Bethany Board of five was substituted for the committee, with one member elected by Bethany Church. Mr. Gordon has served on this board to the present, and so has kept up an unbroken official connection with the Bethany work since its beginning.
During the eight years of Mr. Burr's pastorate the church membership more than doubled. He was followed by Rev. S. H. Bray in 1888, Rev. F. B. Richards, June, 1894, with whom was associated Rev. N. Miller Pratt, 1896 and 1897. Mr. Pratt was sole pastor in 1898, and resigned May, 1901. When Rev. C. H. Burr left, in 1888, Mr. Silas H. Paine be- came superintendent of the school and held the position until 1897, when Rev. Mr. Richards took it in charge. Since 1898 the school has been in the joint care of Rev. N. Miller Pratt and Messrs. Harris H. Hayden and Thomas A. Fair.
The various plans that have been put in operation to help Bethany have been legion. As early as 1872 there were the devotional, entertainment, and charity committees, and much work has been accomplished along these lines; the latter, known later as the Department of Charities and Visitation, was constantly aided by the kindly doctors of the Tab- ernacle, and reported yearly to the manager who had the " Visitation of Poor and Sick" department. The cemetery association, " cottage " prayer-meetings, secular library opened in 1880, through the efforts of Dr. E. P. Hoyt; boys' reading- room, Christian Endeavor Society, singing classes, Girls' Club, Boys' Brigade, organized in 1894 and drilled by Colonel William G. Bates; kitchen garden; fresh-air benefactions, in- cluding Oneita Cottage provided by Mr. and Mrs. Paine; Young Men's Institute, Lafayette Club, Young Women's Club, are but a portion of these.
But three important enterprises, carried on by women
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of the Tabernacle, demand special notice; the Bethany Sew- ing School, the Helping Hand, and the Kindergarten.
THE BETHANY SEWING SCHOOL,
or Industrial School, as it was first called, was organized about 1869 by Mrs. A. K. Thompson and Mrs. Charles Whit- temore, and held on Saturday afternoons. In the winter of . 1870-71, Mrs. Whittemore, Mrs. Cornelius N. Bliss, and Miss Mary S. Janes were appointed a committee to take charge of the school. As late as 1875 the annual report of the school was signed by the three ladies. The following year it was called the Bethany Sewing School and its officers were Miss Mary S. Janes, superintendent; Mrs. Charles Whittemore, Mrs. Wright Gillies, assistant superintendents ; Miss E. J. Kimball, secretary. In 1879 Mrs. Bliss was treas- urer. At that date the average attendance of scholars was over two hundred and of teachers was thirty-one. There were more than thirty girls only five or six years old, while the old- est was seventeen. The school was held Saturday mornings in the Northwestern Hall, which was light, cheerful, and com- modious. The girls were taught sewing upon garments which were carefully inspected, and those whose work was com- mendable were placed upon a Roll of Honor, to receive some special reward at the close of the term. A dressmaking class was added later. Housekeeping lessons were recited in con- cert from a little manual, a sort of domestic catechism. Bible verses were learned by heart from cards containing topical selections for the year. These were given the pupils for home study. The recitation of these verses was an important feature of the yearly closing exercises of the school. Dr. Taylor took much interest in these occasions. Once when detained by a wedding he sent word, to the delight of the chil- dren, that they must not recite their Bible verses until he came. During the sewing hour skilled musicians from the Taber- nacle sometimes cheered by their musical gifts the workers who used to speak of their " matinées at Bethany." Occa- sional evening gatherings were held for the girls and their
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mothers. Mrs. Van Nest's little " Helping Hand " was re- ported in 1881 ; and a coal fund was established later through which, as the records show, one mother with a large family purchased in the course of years fifty-eight tons of coal.
The high grade of the teachers and officers, their faithful attendance and the generous gifts they secured for the school, were quite remarkable. Many of them were women of ex- perience, mothers of families. Miss Janes for twenty-two years, until 1893, superintended the school. One teacher had a class for nineteen years, another was present every Satur- day of the session for twenty-one years. In 1884, when the number of teachers enrolled was fifty, the average attendance was forty-one; and with three hundred and forty-one pupils the average attendance was two hundred and ninety-eight. Many of the officers gave up their whole day, remaining through the afternoon to advise with one another, and to at- tend to details of the work. Miss Janes's report of the earlier years includes the names of officers of the society, " ideal asso- ciates in benevolent work," and she adds :
" It seems like the chiming of bells to sound some of the names: Miss Tietjen, Mrs. Lucy Todd Bigelow, Mrs. William Taylor (Eleventh Street), Miss Macfarlane, Miss Wright, Mrs. Cilley, Mrs. Van Nest, Mrs. Houghton, Miss Paul. These have gone where they may have heard such words as these: 'I know thy works, thy labor and thy patience.' "
The scholars were encouraged to assist others. They made some garments for those needier than themselves, and helped to educate the Indian ward of the school who was a pupil at Fort Berthold. A daintily dressed wax doll, known as " Bethany Bertha," was sent as visitor to the sick children in need of cheer, and was carefully tended and returned.
In the winter of 1892-93 modern methods of teaching sewing were introduced with Mrs. Harlan Page Smith and Miss Eliza Inslee as superintendents. In 1895, at the request of the Tabernacle Church, the school with the Helping Hand and Kindergarten was put in care of the Society for Women's
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Work which now carries on the department. Miss Inslee con- tinued to superintend the school until 1899-1900, when Mrs. C. Smith and Mrs. I. A. Mckinstry were appointed to direct it.
Among the former pupils of the school may be counted graduates of the Normal College, now teaching; dressmakers ; a music teacher; a trained nurse and many mothers of fami- lies who testify that the benefits they received from the Bethany Sewing School were incalculable.
BETHANY HELPING HAND.
The work of the Helping Hand was begun in 1882 under the guidance of Mrs. L. M. Bates, first directress; Mrs. Clark Bell, second directress; Mrs. Mary N. Wright, secretary ; Mrs. Joel E. Fisher, treasurer. Weekly meetings were held the first year at the Tabernacle. The society removed to Beth- any Church in 1883. Funds were raised for the care of fifty women, and the next year sixty were regularly cared for. The society employs a missionary visitor who acquaints herself with the needs of families in the Bethany district, and furnishes the officers with a list of sixty or eighty deserving women who need aid and encouragement. Postal cards are sent inviting them to become members of the society. They meet one afternoon in the week, work is given out and the women are paid at the rate of ten cents an hour for their work, the pay being in garments made. Instruction is given, while work is going on, in practical matters that concern their home life, and religious instruction is not omitted. Many of the women have become attendants upon the Bethany services, some members of the church. Care of the sick has been sup- plied, also, at times, Christmas dinners and clothing. During Mr. Burr's pastorate he came to the meetings and gave religious teaching. In 1889 Mrs. Bates was obliged to relinquish the work, and the following year it was put in care of Mrs. Hamilton S. Gordon. It then received support through the Board of Missions. A Penny Provident Fund was estab- lished in 1891, which had one hundred and twenty depositors that year. In 1896 the care of Bethany Helping Hand was
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HISTORY OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH
transferred to the Society for Women's Work of the Tabernacle Church, under whose management it has since remained.
At a session of the Helping Hand, in 1897, the Bethany Foreign Missionary Auxiliary of the Woman's Board was or- ganized, Mrs. S. Bourne, president, and Miss Mary S. Janes, secretary and treasurer ; a Cradle Roll was also formed. In 1898 Mrs. Cephas Brainerd, Jr., was put in charge, and cook- ing classes were held in the homes of members. In 1900 Mrs. Brainerd was directress ; Mrs. J. K. Farwell, buyer and cutter ; Miss S. M. Miles, secretary ; Miss S. M. Warren, treasurer.
BETHANY KINDERGARTEN.
The Bethany Kindergarten sprang out of Mr. Richards's strongly expressed desire for it in February, 1895, Dr. Stim- son's immediate earnest appeal for it, and the generous re- sponse of Tabernacle givers. Enough money was contributed to carry on the school during a term. A committee, of which Mrs. F. L. Underwood was chairman, was formed to organize the work and secure a teacher. Miss Cowles, a successful teacher and worker in charities, was engaged as principal with an assistant. The Kindergarten was opened, March 18th, with a limited enrolment of fifty children and an average of thirty-five after the first month. During that and the follow- ing year this school was largely indebted to Dr. and Mrs. Stimson's efforts for the encouragement and support it re- ceived. The children were taxed one penny a day, from which fund the small monthly expenses were met, the balance going to the general fund.
In all, there have been under Miss Cowles's care more than three hundred and seventy-five children. At first they were received at four years of age and remained until seven, but latterly they have been received at three. Miss Cowles's work has been done through the Kindergarten, through home visits, and the Mothers' Club, organized January, 1898. She has been able to place several children in hospitals where they could receive special treatment. The Mothers' Club reported in
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1899 a membership of eighty, with an average attendance of fifty at its six monthly meetings.
For four years the Kindergarten was poorly housed at Bethany Chapel. In 1898 Miss Grace H. Dodge proposed that Bethany children should have the privilege of the Irene Club Home, then recently transferred to Thirty-fourth Street; but the Kindergarten Committee did not feel justified in increasing the expense of the school $270, for a year's rent. The following year the Society for Women's Work, to whose care the Kindergarten had been entrusted in 1896, voted to make a special effort to raise the money, and if possible to accept the offer. A contribution, from a generous friend of the work, of the full amount of the rent for the balance of the year, together with the encouraging help of Miss Dodge, made the change possible. Miss Cowles's salary had been in- creased, and that extra amount, with the expense of rent, brought up the yearly cost of the school from $810 to $1,125, but of this amount $200 was assumed by Miss Dodge. Be- sides substantial assistance from the Society for Women's Work, the Kindergarten has received frequent encouragement and gifts from individual members of the church, from the Tab- ernacle Bible School, and the Bethany Sewing School. The Bethany Kindergarten Committee in 1900 consisted of Mrs. Joseph D. Bryant, chairman ; Mrs. Thomas A. Fair, secretary ; Mrs. George W. Kemp, treasurer.
CHINESE BIBLE SCHOOL.
The Chinese Bible School was organized February 1, 1885, by Sidney L. Gulick, with one pupil. The second Sunday there were twenty-seven. From 1887 to 1890, when Mr. Guy Maine was missionary and interpreter, the school numbered fifty pupils with twenty-three teachers. When Mr. Maine left, many of the pupils followed him, and for some years after- ward the average attendance was only thirteen. Since 1895, when Mr. Pang became missionary and interpreter, the school has grown steadily in numbers and strength. In 1900 the average attendance was thirty-seven pupils and sixteen teach-
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HISTORY OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH
ers. Progress has been made in grading so that now three or four study together. Mr. Gulick was the first superin- tendent of the school. Messrs. Henry W. Sackett and Rufus Adams were on the committee of three that had the school in charge, with Mr. Gulick. In 1889 Deacon Henry W. Hub- bard succeeded Mr. Adams. He still remains an active mem- ber of the committee. Mr. Reuben B. Poole, Dr. William L. Stowell, and Dr. Charles E. Bruce have labored for the school, the last having been for some years its superintendent. From 1887 till 1895 a secular school was held on Monday. There are now fourteen Chinese names on the Tabernacle roll of membership, eight of whom have united with the church since Mr. Pang came to the school. A prayer-meeting is held for half an hour before school opens, conducted by the Chris- tian Chinese. The school contributes regularly to various missionary causes, especially to work in China and California. The committee at present is Dr. Edward W. Peet, superin- tendent; Henry W. Hubbard, Thomas S. Hope Simpson.
SOCIETY FOR WOMEN'S WORK.
It was in 1893 that the two societies which held the women of the Tabernacle to home and foreign missionary work were consolidated. When the first annual report was given, Mrs. Henry A. Stimson was president; Mrs. Lucien C. Warner, vice-president; Miss Underwood, clerk; Mrs. Robert A. Sands, treasurer. It was divided into four general depart- ments : Home Missions, Foreign Missions, Local Charities, Church Aid. Seven business meetings are held yearly ; eighteen meetings are devoted to institutional, home, and foreign work. Since 1896 Mrs. Hamilton S. Gordon has presided over the society.
THE HOME MISSIONARY DEPARTMENT
subdivides its work among five committees who have care, re- spectively, of purchasing material and goods, cutting work, distributing it, packing and putting valuation upon trunks (for
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missionaries ), and receiving donations other than money. The chairman of the department, by the last year-book, was Mrs. Lefferts Strebeigh. This, as also the foreign missionary de- partment, has its own secretary and treasurer.
No definite reports of the early home missionary efforts of the women of this church have been found. The " Sunday- school Missionary Association " was doubtless a home mis- sionary organization, as was the woman's society that sup- ported missionaries in "The Western Country," in 1845. " The ladies have gone forward with the various societies or- ganized by them," says the report of 1846. One of these must have been a home missionary society, but no records have come to light. The society that now reports as the "Home Missionary Department " was formed in the autumn of 1869. The women of the church had met together during the war to work in aid of the Sanitary Commission and other loyal societies ; afterward, there were many city benevolences that absorbed their attention until Dr. Thompson expressed a wish to his Bible class that ladies of the Tabernacle should unite in work for some definite common object. Mrs. Thompson wrote notes to some, not in the Bible class, and with the assist- ance of the sisters, Mrs. Leavitt and Mrs. Hopkins, the Home Missionary Society was started with about fifteen members. Mrs. Thompson was made first directress of the society; Mrs. Leavitt, secretary ; Mrs. L. M. Bates, treasurer. Money was raised by voluntary contributions, and quite a sum was col- lected outside the church. They sent trunks of clothing to home missionaries, as has been the custom ever since. The first printed report of the society was in its third year for the season of 1871-72. Dr. Taylor, like Dr. Thompson, in- terested himself personally in the society, and, as he had done, came to the meetings Tuesday morning, and closed them with Bible reading, a word of application and prayer. In the spring the season's work closed with a " tea-party," a social gathering where cakes and flowers were sold, and this money, with the entrance fees, was used for starting work the following year.
The men of the church gave much aid. Mr. L. M. Bates
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gave all the trunks in which clothing was sent and attended to their shipment; Mr. J. H. Sweetser and Mr. W. D. Harper contributed new shawls; Mr. R. A. Dorman, chests of tea ; one, a sewing-machine, others, whole pieces of cotton cloth, and flannel; Mr. Armstrong, copies of Dr. Thompson's " Home Worship."
Gifts of money were received from the Tabernacle and Beth- any Sunday-schools, from a Bible class, from the Kinder Sin- fonie Society, also a small legacy; and Mr. Matthew C. D. Borden for not less than sixteen years has collected yearly from benevolent men of the church, for the purchase of pulpit suits for home missionaries, amounts ranging from $250 to $750.
The year 1887-88 showed the largest membership, includ- ing one hundred and seven ladies, sixty being present at some of the meetings, while the average attendance was forty-four. Twenty trunks were sent out, the aggregate value of which was $4,429.13. The highest valuation ever reached was in the season of 1890-91, when the twenty trunks sent were val- ued at $4,435.15. For the twenty-eight years from 1873-1900, inclusive, the average value of the missionary supplies of cloth- ing, bedding, table-linen, books, toys, and money sent in trunks each year was a little more than $3,000.
Other special gifts, sent through the society, were subscrip- tions to newspapers, communion sets sent at various times, two services being for two newly organized churches from Messrs. Washburn and Warner; a cabinet organ and a home- missionary horse. The book-fund, under the particular super- vision of Dr. Taylor, enclosed in each trunk a collection of twenty-two volumes of his selection, to which he always added a copy of his " Paul the Missionary." When the society was federated it became an auxiliary of the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Union of New York State.
" Of the gracious and graceful presidents of the Society and its founders, Mrs. Joseph P. Thompson, Mrs. Charles Abernethy, Mrs. John H. Washburn, Mrs. Matthew C. D. Borden, who gave to it much of their time and interest, of Mrs. Levi M. Bates, its faithful and effi- cient treasurer for twenty years, of Mrs. Henry C. Houghton, its sec-
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PARLORS OF PRESENT TABERNACLE
CHURCH ACTIVITIES
retary, Mrs. Thomas W. Whittemore, Mrs. Nathaniel P. Fisher, Mrs. Lucius E. Chittenden, Miss Paul,"
and of their faithful co-workers, the historical report of the secretary, read at the sixtieth anniversary of the church, speaks with grateful recognition. Together they make a company of honorable women not a few.
FOREIGN MISSIONARY DEPARTMENT.
In 1873 three young girls, members of Mrs. Austin Ab- bott's Sunday-school class, formed themselves into a society for foreign missionary work. This little band was the nucleus of the Young Ladies' Foreign Missionary Society. Gradually the number increased to ten, and they then agreed to work regularly in Mrs. Abbott's parlor, to draw up a constitution, to call themselves the " Mission Band of Cheerful Workers," and to undertake the support of some foreign missionary. Naturally they assumed the support of Miss Carrie E. Bush, who had gone out as missionary to Turkey from the Broad- way Tabernacle Church, and whose father was an attendant upon its services and district secretary of the American Board.
But interest was not confined to these young people. Substantial help was given by their elders in the church, who attended the sales and fairs and became honorary members. In 1886 subscriptions were asked for, and the elder ladies gave them with unfailing regularity. For two years Mrs. Ab- bott was president of the band; then, until 1880, Mrs. Thomas W. Whittemore served, the meetings being held in the par- lors of these ladies, with Miss E. R. Fisher as Vice-President. At the meetings the young people followed Miss Bush's foot- steps faithfully, and by means of the letters she wrote them they became interested in all her work. They not only paid her salary, but supplied her with a horse and many personal comforts. As the society increased to over thirty and then to a membership limited to fifty, it moved its place of meeting to the church parlors and chose officers from its own mem- bership.
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