USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > A centennial history of Christ Church, Cincinnati, 1817-1917 > Part 2
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FOUNDING OF CHRIST CHURCH
ual condition of Christ Church, Cincinnati, might be improved by the employment of another min- ister in the place of Rev. Samuel Johnston.
"Resolved, that it is expedient to suggest the fact in the foregoing resolution to the Rev. Sam- uel Johnston, to the end that, if he think proper, the same may be submitted to the consideration of the congregation."
The rector immediately made the following explicit reply :
Cincinnati, Aug. 1, 1827.
"Gentlemen :
"A copy of the resolutions submitted at a spe- cial meeting of the Wardens and Vestry of Christ Church, Cincinnati, has been received and the contents noted.
"Having the interests of my Redeemer's King- dom at heart and also the spiritual welfare and increase of the congregation for whom I have long labored with unwearied assiduity, and pre- suming from the tenor of the Resolutions that my labors are not satisfactory to the people of my charge; I have determined with the advice of my friends to tender to you my resignation : you will therefore no longer consider me as the min- ister of Christ Church, Cincinnati. With senti- ments of affectionate regard for the Congrega- tion for whom I have officiated, and with prayers for their future growth in grace,
I am, Gentlemen, Your obedient Servant, Samuel Johnston."
Fairly investigated, in the light shed by the testimony of the manuscript records of Christ
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THE HISTORY OF CHRIST CHURCH
Church and of other available documents bearing upon the subject, the causes of the rupture just described are sufficiently explained by the fact that the nature of man is human, and that men differ in disposition and opinion. In response to the rector's letter, the Vestry, on August 8, 1827, unanimously resolved :
"That this Parish appreciate in the most sensible manner, the unwearied assiduity with which the Rev'd Mr. Johnston has ever discharged his du- ties in the promotion of the spiritual and tem- poral concern of this Church, and that in taking his final leave of the solemn and interesting re- lation which for many years he has sustained to this Church and Congregation, he will carry with him their sincerest esteem for his virtues; their warmest acknowledgment for the zeal with which he has so uniformly administered the du- ties of his station, and their most devout wishes for his present and future usefulness and well- being."
Nine days after this complimentary resolution was adopted, there appeared in the newspapers the announcement that: "Hereafter the Rev. Samuel Johnston will perform Divine Service in College Chapel, commencing next Sunday, at the usual hour." The Vestry and Wardens at the next meeting, resolved "That to prevent any mis- understanding of the facts and circumstances con- nected with the separation of the Rev. Samuel Johnston from Christ Church, it is expedient to publish, in pamphlet form, the proceedings of this board and Christ Church Parish, on the subject, together with the correspondence in relation thereto, between the Rev. Samuel Johnston and
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FOUNDING OF CHRIST CHURCH
Charles Hammond, Esq." Charles Hammond, Secretary for Christ Church during this period of stress, a very able, industrious, and learned man, was editor-in-chief of the Cincinnati Gazette. An intimate friend and adviser of Clay, he was pro- nounced by Webster, "the greatest genius that ever wielded the political pen." The pamphlet suggested by the Vestry was not issued. The excitement occasioned by earnest discussion both within the Church and without, continued for months. As late as November 3, 1827, a petition was presented to the board, signed by a number of pew-owners and renters, and others, requesting the Wardens and Vestry to recall the Rev. Sam- uel Johnston, but the request was not complied with. Meanwhile the popular ex-pastor of the mother Church continued his Sabbath services at College Chapel, and a Methodist Episcopal clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Bishop, officiated for a time, performing very acceptably a suitable Sun- day service for the congregation which assembled in Christ Church. Not until many months after Mr. Johnston tendered his resignation was the vacancy filled by a successor, the Rev. Benjamin P. Aydelott who resigned his charge as Rector of Grace Church, Philadelphia, to become head of Christ Church, Cincinnati, at a salary of eight hundred dollars per annum. Dr. Aydelott began his ministration early in May, 1828. Through much of the troublous period preceding the se- cession of Mr. Johnston and his adherents, and in the first years of Dr. Aydelott's rectorate, Mr. John Jolley was Senior Warden. He was fol- lowed in that office by Henry Gassaway, who was Senior Warden for the year 1830.
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Rev. Samuel Johnston's energetic labors re- sulted in the establishment of a new Episcopal Parish, the St. Paul's, organized in 1828. Fifty- five communicants followed their former pastor into his new church, while only thirty-two wel- comed Mr. Aydelott when he first entered upon his pastoral duties in Cincinnati. St. Paul's Church continued to thrive under the assiduous care of Mr. Johnston, who remained its rector un- til the date of his death, May 22, 1833. His people erected a stone building on Fourth Street, south side, between Walnut and Vine, which in the year 1882 was sold for $87,000, and was torn down, giving place to a business block, a union having been made of the St. Paul's Parish with St. John's Parish, the two merging into one under the name of St. Paul's, and occupying the church on the corner of Seventh Street and Plum. In the chancel of this distinguished edifice, now the Cathedral of the Diocese, with which so many names of great and good men are associated, the visitor interested in the history of the Episcopal Church may see a memorial tablet appropriately dedicated to the Rev. Samuel Johnston, first rector of St. Paul's Parish, Cincinnati, Ohio. It is pleas- ant to recall, in this connection, that Mrs. Mar- garetta Elizabeth Johnston, wife of the clergy- man, daughter of a Presbyterian minister of Nor- folk, Virginia, was much loved and respected by the parishioners of Christ Church, and in her widowhood many substantial courtesies were ex- tended to her by the Vestry. She lived to the ripe age of eighty-four, dying in October, 1873.
Writing more than fifty years after the occur- rence of the events which created a "serious
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schism," in the congregation of Christ Church, Rev. Dr. Stanger, who became rector in 1876, says : "But though the old Church had been weak- ened numerically, she seems to have put on new strength. The new pastor began laboring in season and out of season. Besides the regularly appointed services of the Church, weekly prayer meetings were held from house to house. Pre- vious to the reception of the Lord's Supper the communicants were gathered together to a service especially preparatory to the holy ordinance. Thus, by frequent services for prayer, and by as- siduous pastoral work, new and deeper life sprang up in the old field. Vestry meetings decreased in number and increased in interest. Larger annual expenses seemed to be met with less effort." On February 7, 1829, a committee appointed to ob- tain subscriptions for means to enlarge the Church edifice, reported that they had secured collections to the amount of $1,445. A week later, the Ex- ecutive officers voted that a committee consisting of Mr. Foote and Mr. Gassaway be authorized to make purchase of a lot for a site for a church edifice if they succeed in obtaining the funds for that purpose. Desired alterations were made in the Sixth Street house of worship, after the com- pletion of which the thanks of the board were for- mally presented to the Trustees of the "Reformed Associated Methodist Society," for the use of their church building during the time Christ Church was undergoing repairs. Following the new line of progress Dr. Aydelott, July 3, 1830, announced that he would preach a discourse on the subject of the "American Colonization So- ciety," and that a collection would be taken to
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THE HISTORY OF CHRIST CHURCH
aid the same, a course of proceeding which, four years before, had been condemned as inexpedient.
Bishop Chase, in his annual "Address to the Episcopal Convention," on September 8, 1830, makes interesting mention of a visit he had re- cently paid to Cincinnati, where, thirteen years be- fore, he had organized the first Episcopal Parish in the "Great West." He says: "From Ports- mouth I passed in a steamboat to Cincinnati. Here I officiated frequently, and confirmed in the Parish of Christ Church ten persons, and in St. Paul's thirty-five. The Vestry of the former Church had, much to their praise, enlarged their Church; but I am sorry to state they did not see fit to request its consecration. A solemn service, so evidently tending to pious efforts, ought not to be laid aside but for reasons of necessity. "
Many evidences of prosperity signalized the progress, financial and spiritual, of Christ Church in the red-letter year, 1833. Dr. Aydelott was voted a considerable increase of salary. The Vestry ascertained that a lot situated on the north side of Fourth Street, between Sycamore and Broadway, one hundred feet in front and one hun- dred and thirty-three in depth, could be obtained as a building site for a new edifice at the price of ninety dollars per front foot. Stimulated and en- couraged, the Vestry declared June 30, that through their committee they had not been able to learn what amount of money could be procured by private subscription but that they believed no seri- ous difficulty existed to the erection of a new Church. "At this moment," to use their exact words, "every consideration of duty and regard for the venerable system of worship in which as
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Episcopalians and Christians we profess to unite, seems to urge upon the members of our congrega- tion to be up and doing-and with suitable effort the good work will doubtless be accomplished."
Opportunely a proposition was received from the German Lutheran Society offering to purchase of the corporation of Christ Church, the Church edifice on Sixth Street for the sum of seven thou- sand dollars. This offer was accepted and the property was disposed of on the terms stated. Subscriptions to the fund for building a new church were sufficient to warrant the undertaking of the great enterprise, and the eligible lot on Fourth Street was duly purchased from Messrs. Vanhorn and Whitcomb, according to the condi- tion of their proposition, for $9,000. A com- mittee consisting of Messrs. Phelps, Cope, Car- neal, Wm. R. Foster, and John P. Foote, were chosen to have in charge the erection of a suitable new building and were instructed to proceed im- mediately to obtain plans and estimates which they should submit to the consideration of the board at as early a period as was practicable. On August 24, 1833, the Building Committee reported that according to such estimates as they were able to obtain, the cost of the new church would be about $20,000. They submitted an architectural design modeled on the plan of the English Church at Stepney, London. Stepney, the locality, was one of the so-called Tower Ham- lets of historic note, and the old church was sit- uated about two miles east of St. Paul's Cathe- dral.
During the period required for the erection of the new building the congregation held their serv-
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THE HISTORY OF CHRIST CHURCH
ices in Mechanics' Institute Hall which was en- gaged at one dollar and fifty cents per Sunday.
On the first of February, 1834, an agent of the Vestry negotiated with Messrs. Corrie & Habig of Philadelphia to construct a new organ to cor- respond with the general style of the new church edifice and to cost $1,675.
As the time drew near when the anticipated completion of the new building must be con- sidered, the rector addressed a formal letter to the "Gentlemen of the Vestry, suggesting the de- sirability of providing an assistant to aid him in his increasing labors and cares of the Parish," and urging that "We ought to go into the new Church full of the spirit of Christian enterprise, and prepared not only for more vigorous but more extended exertions." The Vestry responding de- clares that, whereas the state of Dr. Aydelott's health is such that he can not with safety to him- self fully perform the service of the Church in the morning and afternoon of Sunday without assistance, that if a desirable individual could be found he should forthwith come to Cincinnati with the express understanding that if Dr. Aydelott, the congregation and himself, were mutually sat- isfied, he should at once receive the appointment of assistant minister, and that he should be al- lowed a salary of $1,000.
Efforts to obtain a satisfactoy assistant having failed, Dr. Aydelott recommended the appoint- ment of an associate rector and nominated Rev- erend John T. Brooke of Georgetown, D. C., for the position. However, after considering the pro- posal, Mr. Brooke declined the appointment of Associate Rector, whereupon Dr. Aydelott, in
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FOUNDING OF CHRIST CHURCH
a letter dated March 7, 1835, tendered his resig- nation, which was accepted and a call was ex- tended to Mr. Brooke.
The Wardens and Vestry of Christ Church, in taking official leave of Dr. Aydelott who had faithfully served the parish for seven years, from March 14, 1828, to March 7, 1835, expressed their esteem of him in the resolution: "That this Board tender to their late pastor their deep con- viction, that under God his labors in the cause of the Gospel have been greatly blessed; and their sincere prayer that his health may be restored and that wherever duty may call him his efforts in the great work of the ministry may be crowned with success."
The new church was opened for Divine service, March 22, 1835.
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II The Rectorate of Rev. J. T. Brooke
R EV. JOHN THOMPSON BROOKE was born February 4, 1800, at Frederick, Mary- land. From an excellent sketch of his life, contributed to a Cyclopedia of Biography, we learn that "He was educated in a good classical school in Frederick, and having studied law in the office of Hon. Roger B. Taney, late chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, he was ad- mitted to the Bar and practiced law for two or three years, when he determined to abandon that profession and prepare himself for the ministry instead. For the purpose he entered the theolog- ical seminary at Alexandria, Virginia, and was or- dained an Episcopal minister, by Bishop Moore, in 1826. After a ministry of three years at Mar- tinsburg, Virginia, he accepted a call to George- town, District of Columbia, where he preached for six years-leaving that place in 1835, to take charge of Christ Church, at Cincinnati, Ohio. Here he preached with much success for twelve years, building up the wealthiest Episcopal Parish in the West-at the same time always taking a prominent part in the councils of the Church, and especially in the general conventions, where he was recognized as a strong Western champion of conservative churchmanship."
When Mr. Brooke entered upon his responsi- ble duties as rector of Christ Church he was in
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the prime of life, having completed his thirty- fifth year, and he came to Cincinnati, disciplined by the experience of nine years of parochial work. According to the terms of his engagement he was to receive a salary of fifteen hundred dollars per annum, and begin his services formally on Easter Monday, April 20. This was a month later than the ceremonies which signalized the opening of the new church and in which Dr. Aydelott probably took the leading part. It was a good omen that before the elegant and expensive edifice on Fourth Street was occupied for the manifold uses to which it was dedicated, the Vestry officially resolved that a meeting of the parish be called for the purpose of making arrangements to extinguish the debt of the church and that the Secretary be requested to give notice of the same in the pub- lic papers.
From the start of his long and active career as rector, Mr. Brooke freely took the initiative, with admirable tact and amiability, as an adviser and guide, in all vital doings concerning the affairs of the parish. In the spring of 1836, after con- sultation with the rector, a committee representing the Vestry proffered to the Society of St. Paul's Parish, which as yet had not completed the church edifice they were building, the use of Christ Church on Sunday afternoons. They also ten- dered the use of the "Lecture Room" for a place of worship temporarily. The graceful amenity was appreciated and the offer of the use of the church for Sunday afternoons was cheerfully ac- ceded to, "though that of the room on Friday evenings was declined for the reason that the St. Paul's congregation preferred assembling with the
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members of Christ Church, who on Wednesday evenings held their regular meetings for prayer and exhortation."
Christ Church was consecrated October 30, 1835, by the Rt. Rev. Bishop McIlvaine. On June 4, 1836, on motion of the rector, it was voted by the Wardens and Vestrymen in council, that the Rev. Thomas Horrel be made assistant min- ister for one year, providing that the salary shall not exceed three hundred dollars a year. Mr. Horrel accepted the position and served the church for three months, then resigned, leaving the city. The next year, "in deference to a letter from the rector," the Rev. A. T. Bledsoe was elected to the same station at a salary of $600, but he also, after a few months, retired, January 27, 1838. At the same period the sum of $500 was added to the salary of the rector, which now amounted to $2,000.
The movement so promptly inaugurated to extinguish the church debt led to a thorough in- vestigation and auditing which produced a some- what discouraging effect upon the benefactors of the parish. A committee selected to determine the best and most equitable plan of providing for the discharge of the claims pressing for payment, re- ported that the entire cost of the building lot and the church edifice had been estimated at $37,270, and the price of the pews was fixed to produce in the aggregate that amount. Since that appraise- ment, the mechanics and others employed in the building had rendered their bills, and instead of $37,270 being the entire cost agreeable to their estimates, the committee found, to their "surprise and mortification, that it exceeded $50,000." The
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mode they proposed for the payment of this large sum was by voluntary contributions pro rata, upon the value of the pews, as assessed, by all the pew- owners. In order, therefore, to meet the obliga- tion which a complete investigation of the finan- cial facts imposed upon those who were re- sponsible, it was necessary to assess twenty-five per cent upon the value of the pews.
Bishop McIlvaine, who, in 1832, had been promoted to the Episcopacy of Ohio, succeeding Bishop Chase, and who resided at Gambier as head of Kenyon College, was solicited urgently by Dr. Aydelott and others connected with Christ Church, in the year 1834, to make his official home in Cincinnati. The desirability of urging these appeals to the Bishop was even more strongly felt in 1836. Dr. Brooke during a late visit to the Convention at Cleveland had some conversation with the Bishop upon the subject of his removal to Cincinnati, and as the Bishop's connection with the college at Gambier was about being dissolved, the time seemed opportune for a united effort to induce him to make the Queen City of the West his headquarters. At the in- stance of Mr. Brooke, a consultation held at Christ Church resulted in the unanimous agree- ment that if anything was done toward influencing Bishop McIlvaine's action it should be done "in perfect harmony with the Church of this city," to which end a committee of three was appointed to confer with a committee of St. Paul's Church, represented by its minister, Mr. Haight, and others. As Bishop McIlvaine was finally pre- vailed upon to remove to Cincinnati, we may fairly infer that he felt the force of the per-
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suasions of his many devoted friends in the congre- gation ministered to by Rev. Mr. Brooke and Rev. Mr. Haight.
Naturally accepting the leadership which, by virtue of its historical precedence and its promi- nence, was assigned to it by younger parishes in the State of Ohio, Christ Church, especially dur- ing the first decades of the planting and growth of Protestant Episcopal institutions in the West, exercised a potent influence in those councils which determined the organic relations and adjustments of the several churches to the diocese. It. was re- solved by the Vestry of Christ Church, in August, 1839, that the delegates elected to represent them in the next Convention be instructed to vote that the salary of the Bishop be fixed at two thousand dollars per annum, and that such sum be assessed upon their own church for their portion, as these delegates deem just and proper. The next an- nual Convention was to be held at Steubenville, Ohio, and the Cincinnati members chosen to at- tend it were D. K. Este and Bellamy Storer, de- voted and efficient men, both of whom, for many years, rendered the most valuable service to the Church of their choice. They were partners in law from 1817 to 1821, and each gained great distinction before the Bar and subsequently rose to the dignity of a seat upon the Bench of a su- perior Court. Judge Este was elected Senior Warden of Christ Church in 1832, and he labored in that capacity for nineteen years. Hon. Bellamy Storer discharged with indefatigable care, suc- cessively, the duties of Secretary, Vestryman, Junior Warden, and Senior Warden. Under the wise and judicious guidance of officers like these,
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and inspired by the eloquent preaching and the Christian example of Mr. Brooke, the Church prospered spiritually as well as in its material interests. 1199538
When the announcement reached Cincinnati, his old home, that William Henry Harrison, Pres- ident of the United States, had died, in Washing- ton, April 4, 1841, the deplorable tidings were received by his former fellow vestrymen and numerous other friends in Christ Church, with profound grief. At the board meeting of April 12, the universal and sincere feeling of the congre- gation and of the community was expressed in the words of the following preamble and resolution :
"Whereas, it has pleased Almighty God in His wise providence to take out of the world our hon- ored Chief Magistrate, William Henry Harrison, who was during his residence in our vicinity an attendant upon the worship of this Church and within the parochial cure of the same :
"And Whereas, the deceased did on occasion of the delivery of his Inaugural Address, solemnly and distinctly own his profound reverence for the Christian religion :
"And Whereas, while others are celebrating his civic virtues and military achievements, we deem it becoming in Christian societies and eccle- siastical corporations, to honor the memory of a high public functionary, who has honored the Gospel by regular attendance on its instituted worship and by publicly and solemnly avowing his profound reverence for it, as a revelation from God: it is therefore
"Resolved, That, as a testimony of our respect, the pulpit and chancel of this church, and the pew
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heretofore occupied by the deceased, be hung with mourning until the Sunday preceding the fourth day of July next :
"Resolved, That we tender our sympathies to the bereaved widow and family of our late Chief Magistrate and pray that they may be sustained by the consolations of the Gospel."
Progress in the march of scientific improve- ment, near the middle of the nineteenth century, was marked by the interesting fact that in No- vember, 1843, the pastor of Christ Church was requested to bring the subject of lighting the church with gas before the congregation, with such explanatory remarks as he might deem ap- propriate in regard to the proposed innovation. In the following month, the committee on lighting was authorized to employ Mr. John Critchell to light the church, and soon thereafter gas fix- tures were supplied and the committee was further instructed to contract with the Gas Company to supply gas by the year. The first bills for the new luxury, amounting to $23.72, were presented April 1, 1844.
Near the close of the year 1845, the Vestry re- ported that while lamenting the prudential deten- tion of the rector from his pastoral duties they most heartily concurred in such measures as he and his medical advisers deemed expedient for the restoration of his health. Extracts from a letter addressed by Dr. Brooke to the Wardens and Vestry on March 7, 1846, are here repro- duced in order to explain the cause of his tempo- rary withdrawal from the onerous labors which he had discharged so faithfully for eleven years. These were his frank and affectionate words :
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