USA > Ohio > Mahoning County > Youngstown > History of St. John's Episcopal Church, Youngstown, Ohio : with part of the history of St. James Church, Boardman, the pioneer parish of Ohio > Part 1
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
EN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02280 0624
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/historyofstjohns00unse
... History of ...
St. John's Gpiscopal Church
Youngstown, Ohio.
With part of the History of St. James' Church, Boardman. The Pioneer Parish of (hio.
Including a Brief Outline History of the Origin of the Anglican Church and its branch, The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Xtunited States of North America.
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1964010
Table of Contents.
THE CHURCH IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA Introduction
THE BEGINNING AT BOARDMAN 11
ST. JOHN'S PARISH, YOUNGSTOWN 20
GIFTS AND MEMORIALS 45 ..
BAPTISMS, MARRIAGES, ETC. 48
· LETTER OF REV. C. S. ABBOTT 49
SERMON OF REV. A. L. FRAZER, EASTER, 1898 52
DEDICATION ADDRESS OF BISHOP LEONARD 61
ADDRESS OF REV. F. B. AVERY 74
ADDRESS OF REV. R. R. CLAIBORNE 81
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
.
84
.
CHURCH DIRECTORY.
Preface.
T seemed desirable that a permanent record should be made of many facts pertaining to the history of the Parish, which, from their nature, are not among the written records; also, to present to the friends of St. John's Church, in a convenient form, copies of archives that are not accessible to the average individual. Some of these records are now very fragile, and may, by the further rar- ages of time, soon become unavailable, if not entirely destroyed. This little work was prepared in accordance with the above, and for the further purposes of giving to the people a full account of their stew'- ardship, and to make them familiar with every important event in the history of St. John's Parish since its organization.
The compiler has secured, through conversations with older mem- bers, and from other sources, much valuable and interesting informa- tion; some facts not generally known being now published for the first time. He has also drawn largely from information gathered by the late Mr. John M. Edwards, and is under obligations to the former Rectors of the Parish, as well as to the Rev. Mr. Frazer, the present Rector, for their kind assistance. We are now entering into a new epoch, under very different conditions than those that obtained at the organization of the Parish. We are enjoying our beautiful new Church, have a goodly congregation, and live in a wide awake city of nearly fifty thousand people; as compared to the early days of the Parish, when the people were glad to have a neighboring clergyman come once in two weeks and address them in a dingy hall, in what was then a very insignificant country village of a few hundred inhabit- ants. We are hoping for further success, but let us not forget the earnest endeavors of the little handful of noble men and women who assembled, nearly forty years ago, to organize the Parish. They stood by it through the uncertain days of the Civil War, through financial panies and other adversities, until it became fully established and a self-sustaining institution. We honor them for their fidelity and real, get we know they would say in their hearts, when surveying the sur- cessful result of their labors, as we do in ours today :- "Non nobis Domine! non nobis, sed Nomini tuo da Gloriam!"
St. John's Episcopal Church,
Wick Avenue, Youngstown, O.
Dedicated May 22, 1898.
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Chronology.
A. D.
1575 First Church services in North America.
1607 First Thanksgiving services August 9, by Church of England people.
1799 First settlers from Connecticut to Western Reserve (were Epis- copalians).
1807 Lay Reading commenced at Boardman.
1809 Church organized at Boardman.
1818
Diocese of Ohio organized at Columbus, January 5.
1819 Rev. Philander Chase consecrated first Bishop of Ohio.
1832
Rev. Charles P. McIlvaine consecrated second Bishop of Ohio.
1859 Rev. Gregory T. Bedell consecrated third Bishop of Ohio. St. John's Church, Youngstown, organized, December 9.
1861 Cornerstone of the Church on Wood street laid, May 27. Rev. Wyllys Hall elected first Rector, December 15.
1863 Church consecrated by Bishop Bedell, October 21.
1866 Rev. Samuel Maxwell entered upon his duties as Rector, May. 1.
1883 Rev. F. B. Avery entered upon his duties as Rector, April 8.
1884 St. James' Chapel opened, February 24.
1887 St. Mary's Chapel built.
1889 Rev. William A. Leonard consecrated fourth Bishop of Ohio, October 12.
Rev. Robert Claiborne entered upon his duties as Rector, Octo- ber 13.
1892 Rev. A. L. Frazer, Jr., entered upon his duties as Rector, No- vember 1.
1896 Work commenced on new Church, Wick avenue, October 21.
1897 Cornerstone of new Church laid, May 27. Old Church decon- secrated.
1898 First services in new Church held in basement, March 12. Church formally opened by Bishop Leonard, May 22.
The Clergy Who Have Served in St. John's Parish.
Temporarily in Charge- 1859 to 1861.
REV. A. T. MOMURPHY, Rector St. James, Boardman, Ohio. REV. C. S. ABBOTT, Rector Christ Church, Warren, Ohio.
Rectors.
REV. WYLLYS HALL
1861-1865
REV. SAMUEL MAXWELL .
1866-1883
REV. FREDERICK BURT AVERY 1883-1889
REV. ROBERT R. CLAIBORNE
1889-1892
REV. ABNER L. FRAZER, JR.
1892-
Assistant Ministers.
REV. H. L. GAMBLE To REV. F. B. AVERY
REV. C. W. HOLLISTER To REV. F. B. AVERY
REV. DOUGLASS I. HOBBS To REV. F. B. AVERY
REV. EDWIN S. HOFFMAN To REV. F. B. AVERY .
REV. HENRY J. BEAGEN . To REV. R. R. CLAIBORNE
REV. HERBERT C. GAYLORD · To REV. A. L. FRAZER, JR.
Rev. Wyllys Hall.
Rev. Samuel Maxwell.
Rev. F. B. Avery.
Rev. R. R. Claiborne.
Former Rectors of St. John's Church.
Introductory.
B EFORE proceeding with our Parish History it is but proper that we should give a short sketch of the origin of our Church and its continuance in America.
The origin of the Anglican Church is three-fold, and is so called in contradistinction with the Romish Church as designating those Churches which embrace the principles of the English Refor- mation. It claims the term Catholic because it is united in origin, doctrine and form of government with the Universal Church as it has existed with various differences of rites and ceremonies since the time of the Apostles.
The three-fold succession of the English Church is :- First, from St. James, first Bishop of Jerusalem, to David of Wales; second, from the Church at Ephesus through St. John and Polycarp to Etherius of Lyons; and, third, from St. Paul and St. Peter of Rome through Linus 'to Pope Gregory.
There was an established Church in Britain as early as the sec- ond century, probably of Gallic origin; the heathen Saxons, however, abolished it wherever they could, so that when St. Augustine came in 596, Christianity had been driven into the mountainous districts of Wales, where were found one Archbishop and seven Bishops, the rest of the land being in a state of heathenism.
St. Augustine, who derived his succession through the Ephesian Church, was sent by Gregory to England in 596 and worked sepa- rately from the British Bishops already mentioned. His successors continued the work up to 668. The Saxons having asked Vitalian of Rome to aid them in selecting an Archbishop, he selected Theo- dorus, a Greek of Tarsus, consecrated him, and sent him to England in 668, at which point the Roman succession enters into the English line, which traced first to Saints John and James.
Under Theodorus the ancient British Church became united with that established by Augustine. Britain had become by this
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time converted entirely to Christianity, which was due as much to the labors of the Scottish Bishop, St. Aidan, and Chad, the Saxon Saint, as to the Romish Bishops in the South.
What is now known as the ANGLICAN CHURCH embraces the "Church of England," the " Protestant Episcopal Church in Ireland," "The Episcopal Church in Scotland," "The Church in the English Colonies," and "The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of North America."
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, our mother Church, has always had a national character. "In medieval Acts of Parliament it was called by the same name as at present, and was never identical with the Church of Rome, which was usually described as the Court of Rome." It is Protestant, as sympathizing with the protest made in Germany against the errors of Rome, for which she was anathematised at the Council of Trent, as were all who would not receive the articles of the Roman Church; the separation became final, and the position of the two Churches to each other has since been extremely hostile. The descent of her Bishops is traced con- tinuously to the present time, as the separation from the See of Rome, caused no break in the succession.
THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA derives its succession through the Church of England, with which it is united in doctrine and disci- pline, and is in legally authorized communion.
The first record of Church services in North America is made by the historian Hackluit, who relates that in Frobisher's third voyage, as early as 1575, they were held and the Holy Communion administered. It is also related that in 1587, at Roanoke, Virginia, Maneto, an Indian, the first convert among the natives, was bap- tized according to the Church ritual, by its Missionaries, and on the Sunday following, Virginia Dare, born in Virginia, August 18, 1587, the first white child of English parentage born in America, was baptized according to the same ritual. The first Thanksgiving service was held by Church of England men, Popham colonists, who on August 9, 1607, landed upon an island, near the Kennebeck, and under the shadow of a high cross, listened to a sermon by Chap- lain Seymour, also, "gyving God thanks for our happy metinge and saffe aryval into the contry."
The first permanent settlement in America was effected under a charter of 1606, at Jamestown, Virginia; the Rev. Robert Hunt accompanied the expedition and celebrated Holy Communion in May, 1607, under an awning hung between the trees. The celebrated Captain John Smith in his journal says :- " This was our Church till we built a homely thing like a barne, set upon cratchets, covered with rafts, sedge and earth. Wee had daily common prayer morning and evening, every Sunday two sermons, and every three
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months the Holy Communion, till our minister died; but our prayers daily, with an homily on Sunday, wee continued two or three years after till more preachers came."
The arrival of a new governor at the critical period called the "starving time" was celebrated by a service in the Church, "which was neatly trimmed with the wild flowers of the country."
In 1611 a second and more substantial Church, built of brick, was consecrated at Henrico, on the river just above Jamestown. In this Church, according to documentary evidence, Pocahontas, the Indian princess, was baptised in 1613, and afterwards married to John Rolfe by Rev. Alexander Whittaker, who is called the Apostle of Virginia.
The establishment of these Churches, at Jamestown, Rev. R. Hunt, Rector, and at Henrico, Rev. A. Whittaker, Rector, preceded, the first by thirteen years and the second by nine years, the land- ing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. The Protestant Episcopal Church, or, as otherwise designated, the Anglican Church, has been in continued existence in North America for two hundred and ninety-one years, and is the oldest Protestant Church, and, we believe, the oldest Church within its borders.
First American Bishops.
For the long period of about two hundred years, since the ser- vices were first held in this country, to the close of the Revolu- tionary War, the Protestant Episcopal Church had no Bishops residing in North America. Soon after peace had been established, in March, 1783, the clergy of Connecticut met in convention and elected Rev. Dr. Samuel Seabury, of Staten Island, N. Y., to be their Bishop. He sailed for England to obtain consecration there, before the British troops had evacuated . New York. He made application for consecration to the Archbishop of York, the See of Canterbury being then vacant. But the Archbishop could not con- secrate a Bishop of the United States withont a special Act of Parliament. Hence Rev. Dr. Seabury had recourse to the Scotch Bishops who were not connected with the State, and who could, therefore, if they were so disposed, consecrate a Bishop for the United States. The application of Dr. Seabury was readily granted and he was consecrated in a little upper room at Aberdeen on November 14, 1784, by Bishops, Dr. Robert Kilgour, of Aberdeen; Dr. Arthur Petrie, of Ross and Moray, and Dr. John Skinner, Bishop Coadjutor of Aberdeen.
First General Convention.
The first General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States was assembled in Philadelphia on September
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27, 1785. A committee was appointed to correspond with the Arch- bishops and Bishops of the Church of England, with a view to obtain an Episcopate. The convention adjourned to meet in Phila- delphia on June 20, 1786. The address of the committee to the English Prelates was forwarded to John Adams, American Minister to Great Britain, with a request to present it to the Archbishop of Canterbury. In the Spring of 1786 the committee received an answer, signed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and eighteen of the twenty Bishops of England. It was courteous in tone and expressed a desire to comply with the request, but delayed compliance until they could be advised of the alterations to be made in the Prayer Book.
Bishops Consecrated at Lambeth.
The General Convention in June, 1786, and one subsequently at Wilmington, Delaware, in October, made such satisfactory represen- tations to the English Bishops that all obstacles to the consecration of the American Bishops were removed. Accordingly, Rev. Dr. William White, of Pennsylvania, and Rev. Samuel Provoost, of New York, who had been elected by the Convention, sailed to England and were consecrated on Sunday, February 4, 1787, by the two Arch- bishops, Dr. John Moore, of Canterbury, and Dr. William Markham, of York, and Bishops, Dr. Charles Moss, of Bath and Wells, and Dr. John Hinchcliffe, of Peterborough, in the Chapel of Lambeth Palace, near London, where the Bishops of England had been conse- crated for centuries. The Rev. James Madison, President of Willian and Mary College, was chosen first Bishop of Virginia and conse- crated at Lambeth Palace, September 19, 1790, by Dr. John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by Dr. Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, and Dr. John Thomas, Bishop of Rochester. In 1792 the Convention assembled in New York with the three Bishops of the English line, and Seabury, of the Scottish succession. They now felt authorized to perform consecrations, and at this Convention con- secrated the Rev. Thomas James Claggett, of Maryland, to the Epis- copate, all four uniting in the ceremony.
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First Church. Corner Wood and Champion Streets. Consecrated October 21, 1863.
History of St. John's Parish.
PREPARED BY J. M. BUTLER, JUNIOR WARDEN.
T' HE first public services, according to the Prayer Book of the Episcopal Church, held on the Western Reserve, were held in our neighboring township of Boardman. And there was formed one of the first Church organizations in Ohio. The mem- bers of the organization were citizens of that and neighboring townships, pioneers from the older States, Episcopalians who brought their prayer books, as well as their bibles, with them. Among them were-from Connecticut-Joseph Platt and his son, Eli, from New Milford; Ethel Starr, from Danbury ; Mrs. George Tod, from New Haven ; Judson Canfield, from Salisbury ; and Judge Tur- hand Kirtland, from Wallingford. Preaching, or public religious worship of any kind, was only occasional in those early days of the Reserve. The first Episcopal services, of which we have informa- tion, were held, as above stated, in Boardman, and in 1807, by Joseph Platt, as Lay-reader, and they were attended by the sparse population. On the records of the Parish of Boardman we find a memorandum, made by Henry M. Boardman, an early resident of that township and a highly esteemed citizen, which we copy : - "Lay Reading was commenced in Boardman in the year 1807, and had alternately in Boardman and Canfield, by Mr. Joseph Platt, then recently from Connecticut, a Layman, and the reading
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so continued until the summer of 1817, when the Parish was regu- larly organized, and called St. James' Parish, By Rev. R. Searle, from Plymouth, Connecticut."
First Organization.
A meeting was held June 20, 1809, to consider the organiza- tion of a Church. At this meeting the following petition was presented, which we have copied verbatim from the old records: -
"BOARDMAN, June 20th, 1809.
"We the subscribers, Inhabitants of the Towns of Boardman, Canfield and Poland, in the County of Trumbull and State of Ohio, being desirous to promote the worship of God after the order of the protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, having for some time past met and attended divine service accord- ing to the established forms of that Church & finding ourselves under great inconveniences for the want of Prayer Books & Ser- mons, to remedy which and endeavor to procure the assistance of a worthy teacher, judge it best to form ourselves into a regular Episcopal Society, investing the same with the proper officers, there- by putting ourselves in a proper situation to petition the Rt. Revd. the Bishop of the State of New York, praying him to incorporate us and grant us such relief as in his wisdom he may deem meet and consistent.
"We appoint Saturday the 12th day of August next to meet at the Town of Boardman for the above purpose.
Subscribers Names. Subscribers Names.
TURHAND KIRTLAND,
ZIBA LOVELAND,
ENSIGN CHURCH,
ARAD WAY,
CHAS. CHITTENDEN,
ELEAZOR GILSON,
JOSIAH WETMORE,
ELEAZOR C. FAIRCHILD,
SAMUEL BLOCKER,
RUSSELL F. STARR,
JOSEPH PLATT,
EM PLATT,
ETHEL STARR,
JOHN LOVELAND,
FRANCIS DOWLER,
LEWIS HOYT,
JOHN LIDDLE,
JOSEPH LIDDLE,
JOHN DOWLER,
JARED KIRTLAND."
ELEAZOR FAIRCHILD,
" Saturday 12th, August, 1809.
"Met and adjourned to the 4th of Sept., Turhand Kirtland, Esqr., appointed Moderator & Ethel Starr, Clk., when the following
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persons were duly appointed as officers (to wit) Joseph Platt, War- deen, Turhand Kirtland, Ethel Starr & Lewis Hoyt, Vestry.
ETHEL STARR, Society Clerk."
" BOARDMAN, Sept. 4th, 1809.
"At a meeting of the professors of the protestant Episcopal Church in America, inhabitants of Boardman, Canfield & Poland in the County of Trumbull & State of Ohio, holden at the School house near the center of Boardman by appointment aforesaid for the purpose of forming themselves into a regular Episcopal Society & investing the same with proper society officers, voted at this meeting unanimously. Turband Kirtland, Moderator, Ethel Starr, Clerk, Joseph Platt, Warden, Turhand Kirtland, Ethel Starr & Lewis Hoyt, Vestry."
At a meeting held Aug. 27, 1810, it was "on motion voted that a committee be appointed to draw a subscription for the obtaining - and supporting a respectable Clergyman from the States of Con- necticut or New York to come to this place and visit us, and tarry as long as the Society and himself can agree. . Voted, that we will associate with any persons in the town of Young's Town who will associate with us and that they share with us all the benefits of said society."
First Clergyman.
The first clergyman of this Church who officiated in Board- man or on the Western Reserve, so far as is known, was Rev. Jackson Kemper, afterwards widely known as Missionary Bishop of the Northwest, and subsequently as Bishop of Wisconsin. Mr. Kemper, in the Fall of 1814, was on a Missionary tour in Western Pennsylvania, under the auspices of " The Society of the Protes- tant Episcopal Church for the Advancement of Christianity in Pennsylvania," which he had aided in forming. He visited Pitts- burgh, and there Rev. Mr. Taylor, Rector of Trinity Church, informed him of the Episcopal Church in Boardman, and that Joseph Platt, during a business visit to that city the previous Summer, had requested that, if possible, some clergyman of the Church might be sent to them. Mr. Kemper cordially accepted the invitation, went to Boardman, and spent some weeks in preach- ing there and in Canfield, Poland, and probably Youngstown, though we have -no authentic information as to his preaching in
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the latter place. During this time, in September, 1814, he bap- tized twenty-nine persons, among whom were Hon. Sheldon New- ton and Billius Kirtland. Two years later, from September 19 to 22, 1816, Rev. Jacob Morgan Douglas, in the employ of the same society, visited Boardman and neighboring townships. He bap- tized fifteen persons.
A More Perfect Organization.
On March 23, 1817, Rev. Roger Searle, who had come from Plymouth, Connecticut, to Ohio, as a Missionary, officiated in Boardman. He called a meeting of the Vestry, and then a new formula was adopted and subscribed, in which was incorporated the name of the Parish, Saint James, and a declaration of sub- mission to the constitutional Canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.
We copy from the old records the account of this organization :
"At a meeting of the Wardens, Vestry and others of the Epis- copal Parish held in Boardman, March 23rd, 1817.
"Revd. Roger Scarle, Rector of St. Peters Church Plymouth, Connecticut, present and in the chair and Russell Starr Clerk.
"On motion the following resolution was moved and adopted (viz): 'We the subscribers do hereby declare that we are attacht and belong to the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America and do hereby unite ourselves into a congregation by the name of St. Jameses Church Boardman, Ohio, for the worship of Almighty God according to the forms -the Liturgy and Consti- tution of the said Church.
JOSEPH PLATT, COMFORT STARR,
TRYAL TANNER, JARED KIRTLAND,
TURHAND KIRTLAND, GEORGE STILSON,
ETHEL STARR, JOHN NORTHROP,
FRANCIS DOWLER, BENAJAN TICKNOR,
ISAAC NEWTON, LUTHER STILSON,
PETER STILSON, SHANNON D. BUCK.
RUSSELL STARR,
"On motion the Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, was adopted."
It is curious to note the titles of officers as shown by these old records. They started off with a "Moderator," then a
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" Warden," who seemed to be next in authority, then an "Assistant Warden," and in 1814 they elected a "Junior Warden." After 1815 the term "Moderator " was not used, but instead the old- est Warden in the Parish acted as chairman of their meetings when no Rector was present. In 1824 they elected three War- dens, two Vestrymen, a Collector, a Treasurer, and a Recorder.
Hon. Elijah Boardman, the proprietor by deed from the Con- necticut Land Company of the township, was an Episcopalian, and was liberal in his encouragement and donation to its new Church. He had married Miss Mary Anna Whiting, of Great Bar- rington, Massachusetts. Her father was an active member of the St. James' ( Episcopal) Church in that place, in which Church she had been baptized, confirmed and married, and, it is said, in con- formity with her wishes, this pioneer Church in the then almost wilderness, though not named at its first organization, was now named St. James.
Rev. Searle visited various places in Ohio and Kentucky, per- forming missionary work, returned to Connecticut, and in the Fall removed with his family to Canfield. He preached, for a time, in Boardman and Canfield, and other places in Ohio, also organizing parishes, and then removed to Medina, Ohio, but visited his old parishes of Boardman and Canfield occasionally. He died Septem- ber 6, 1826. Says one who knew him well: - " He will ever be regarded as the chief pioneer missionary of the Western Reserve, so far as this ( Episcopal) Church is concerned. During the nine years and over of his labors in this field he organized thirteen parishes in Ohio and four in Kentucky."
First Bishop of Ohio.
The Diocese of Ohio was organized at a convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, held at Columbus on January 5, 1818, Rev. Philander Chase, a Missionary. from New York, being its president. An adjourned meeting of the convention was held
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at Worthington, Ohio, on June 3, 1818, where, on June 21, Mr. Chase was unanimously elected Bishop of Ohio. He was conse- (rated in St. James' Church, in Philadelphia, on February 11, 1819, by Rt. Rev. William White, one of the American Bishops conse- crated in Lambeth Chapel, England, assisted by Bishops Hobart of New York, Kemp of Maryland, and Croes of New Jersey. His journey from Ohio to Philadelphia and return was made on horseback.
He made his first Episcopal visitation . to Canfield October 6, 1819, where sixteen persons were confirmed, and preached in Board- man on the 7th in the evening, with confirmation and communion. The next year he visited Canfield ( August 29), and at Boardman (August 30) he preached to a large audience, with baptism, con- firmation and communion. He also visited Youngstown, passing through, but for want of time did not preach there. He again visited the parishes of Boardman and Canfield in August, 1823, and baptized and confirmed several persons. He visited Youngs- town in 1825 and preached there.
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