USA > Ohio > Lorain County > Lorain > History of the First Methodist Church, 1856-1956 > Part 4
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for an hour or two by her husband's side on deck near the bow of the boat." The danger involved was that they were approaching the Soo locks in a narrow, heavily travelled sea lane in the heavy fog, with two hours to pass before they reached the more open waters of Whitefish Bay.
The Osborne proceeded carefully, whistling regu- larly, when suddenly they crossed whistles with an approaching up-bound boat, the Alberta, bound for Duluth. (In lake traffic the downbound boat had the right of way. One whistle meant "Go to the star- board" and two meant "Go to the port." Whichever the first boat whistles the second answers, and if the first whistles one and the second two, they are said to "cross whistles". It always meant trouble. Suddenly the Alberta itself loomed out of the fog all lit up, as Mrs. Bartenfeld described it, "like a great, big factory." Mrs. Wilford cried, "Tom! That boat's going right through us!" Very quietly Capt. Wilford answered, "I know it," and almost as he spoke the Alberta struck the Osborne square in the side, slightly aft, bursting through her steel hull into the engine room and filling the Osborne with escap- ing steam.
"Keep your nose in the gap!" Capt. Wilford shouted to the Alberta, and the Alberta did. Had she withdrawn, the Osborne would have sunk instantly, but as it was there were six or seven precious minutes for rescue. Capt. Wilford lifted his wife up to the Alberta then ran along the deck through the steam and was lowered by a rope to get to the cabin where his daughters had been. Both of them had run on to the deck in their night clothes thinking the ship had run aground. When they saw what had happened, Cora wanted to go back and get dressed but a deckhand told her there wasn't time and lifted her up into the rigging. The steward, Mr. Austin, rescued Addie and rushed with her through the scalding steam holding his arm across his face and keeping the little girl's face close to him. He handed her up to the deck of the Alberta then went back through the steam for the mangled and scalded sailors below. Capt. Wilford, seeing his daughters and guest were safe, had himself lowered on a rope again to the Osborne, and a few minutes later was pulled up to the deck of the Alberta with the ship's papers in his hand as the Osborne sank beneath him. She went down with a terrible suction, carrying many trapped sailors with her. Again,
quoting the Herald "The steward Austin. . . . seized a stanchion and with his arm around it was carried under water, but with the suction of the water the stanchion was broken, and with the cabin arose to the surface, bringing Austin with it. How deeply he was submerged, he knew not, but happily found himself on the surface, and was picked up by a boat lowered from the Alberta.'
On board the Alberta the survivors were desperate. All of them were burned and scalded-although Mrs. Bartenfeld carried no permanent scars her skin was extremely sensitive to heat and cold all the rest of her life-and the engineer, Martin Burns, peeled the skin off his arm and hand just like a glove. They had only their night clothes, so a drummer on his way to Duluth opened his truks and helped them out. He had heavy flannel shirts, thick woolen stockings, sweaters, and a general assortment of lumberjack clothing intended for the lumbermen in the North Woods. None of them fitted the refugees but they wore them anyhow. The survivors were transferred to the first downbound boat they met, which happened to be the steambarge Hecla.
Word of the disaster had reached Lorain quickly, but not with the richness of detail that later appeared in the Lorain Herald. When the Wilfords arrived home the next Sunday morning, the people were all in church praying for them and not yet knowing who had survived or how badly injured they were. The Wilfords lived right across the street from the church so they went right on over and walked in in their heavy lumberjack clothing-perhaps the most stu- pendous answer to prayer our church has ever known. There was not a dry eye in the place. Everyone wept unrestrainedly and it broke up the service completely.
Yes, the early lake history is full of tragedy as well as romance and adventure. Accustomed as the towns- people became to it they were never inured, and each new one brought with it the same agony of worry and suspense, no less keen because familiar.
Perhaps more prayers have ascended from our church over danger and tragedy on the lakes than for any other reason. Now such tragedies occur more rarely, thanks to a more efficient coast guard, radar, and especially to our Herman Hageman and the ship- to-shore telephone.
-Catherine Gregg, 1956
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Church Buildings
Building Number One
. "IN THE HOLLOW by the Foundry. "Under the Hill."
Both interesting phrases telling the "where" of the first little old building used as a church.
The "Hollow" was indeed a low spot on Lake St. (1st St.) between Elyria Rd. (N. Bdwy.) and Wash- ington Ave. about where our City Parking lot is now (1956).
The "Hill" was really a high spot on the corner of Elyria Rd. (N. Bdwy.) and Lake St. (1st St.). The two streets met at right angles. Now the corner has been rounded off to make way for more B. & O. tracks. The building referred to was said to be the first frame building erected in the village. It was only 16x24 feet which seems pretty small. The owners were Daniel T. Baldwin and Sophia Reid Baldwin and the building was occupied by Jacob Vetter and his family as a residence and shoe-making shop. We are still searching to find out more about Jacob Vetter to see what he thought about giving up his place of busi- ness for a church organization -- not his. We do know that he and his wife were in the group that founded our neighbor church, Emanuel Evangelical in 1853, in the home of Widow Brown (Braun?) corner of Hamilton and 4th St.
This small frame building was moved from "the Hollow" to Lot 108 on west side of Washington Ave. near Main St. (W. Erie) which was owned by the Baldwins. What a wrenching it must have had. Ac- cording to the testimony in Court, (when ownership was in question) it needed much repairing. Parts of the floor and underpinning, belfry, windows length- ened - made higher to look more churchy and a gen- eral straightening needed attention.
" "Tis said" that Capt. James Day engineered the repairs with the help of his family, Capt. J. W. Ran- dall and out-of-town friends. The Days and the Ran- dalls lived southeast and east of the village. When completed, this building was to be used as a Presby- terian Church. The story of how it came into the possession of the Methodists is brought out in the Court action, mentioned before .*
If you would like to follow the many movings to which this plain old building was subjected, read on.
After the Methodists had used this structure a few years they had growing pains and decided that they needed a more substantial brick church. Accordingly this outgrown, out moded building was again put on skids and moved to Lot 205 - corner of Duane St. (4th St.) and Washington Ave. which was designated on the original town plat as reserved for a "Meeting House".
The moving was described by Mr. Quartus Gillmore Jr., one of the township trustees. Among other things he said when they got the building as far as *Edmund Gillmore's house, along the West side of the Town Square (Washington Park) that they bogged down in the mud and left the building where it was until the road became passable. I wonder what the families along that row - top residential - were saying! Court records again show a difference of opinion as to whether the Methodists used that building after it
was placed on Lot 205. People's memories do not show up at their best in Court. They appear as movable and moved as many times as the small wooden church.
At any rate, when the Methodists no longer needed the traveling church, it was used by the newly formed Congregational Church Society until its membership seemed to warrant a new, larger structure.
The next move was to Lot 206 (?) and it was used as a school.
Then Mr. Joseph Moysey, an eccentric Englishman, who knew how to live on little and save much, bought or was given the building, and he had it moved south on Washington Ave. and set it up on a lot he owned between 1st and 2nd Ave. (8th and 9th St.) with the long side facing the street. He divided it with parti- tions, making it into a two-family house. The writer can remember that house looking as though it had served its time. But five moves had done something to a rather unimportant looking building. It looked cold around the edges, but there must have been some warm feelings generated inside.
Building Number Two
The little brick church built on Lot 109 and, I'm afraid, partly on Lot 108 (Court Records) - North Washington St. The accompanying picture reveals its outward appearance. The "drive-in" and sheds for the horses and carriages are not seen.
A recorded description of the inside is as follows:
The little brick church had a seating capacity of 250 on the floor and 25 in the little balcony which extended across the entire East end (over the entrance) of the church. The balcony had sliding glass windows and could be shut off from the larger room. The primary group of the Sabbath School occupied the balcony. The pews were arranged with double rows in the center and single rows on the sides next to the walls.
The rostrum extended about two thirds of the way across the front or West end of the building with a railing about a foot high which had an opening at the North where the minister entered the rostrum. There was also an opening abreast of the left hand aisle where the choir entered the South corner of the ros- trum, which was their station. A marble topped table stood on the rostrum back of the pulpit. On the wall above the table hung a picture of a cross with the words, "Simply to Thy Cross I Cling." This picture was placed in the Sunday School department of the new church on Sixth St. and was destroyed at the time of the Lorain tornado (1928) as was also the Bible from the little church. I wonder what happened to the old reed organ that was used in the old brick church?
The rostrum and aisles were carpeted with ingrain carpet (probably never seen now-1956).
The windows were just clear glass with shades, and the room was lighted with a chandelier suspended from the ceiling in the center of the church. There were also side lights - all of which were kerosene lamps.
The pews were not cushioned (unless you brought your own).
The building was heated with a coal furnace placed below the auditorium in somewhat of a basement
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but was little more than a dug out.
Grandpa Standen, a long time faithful member of the Church always occupied an arm chair (rocker?) on the platform (rostrum) just at the right of the pulpit, as he was quite deaf. He was as much of a church fixture as the pastor himself.
Building Number Three
Quoting the Christian Advocate of Oct. 4, 1941:
"When the physical structure of the church in a community is neglected or in other ways fails to reflect the prosperity that God has showered upon us, that church falls short of its greatest potential capacity to reveal the glory of God.
When the brick church on the corner of Bank St. (6th) and Reid Ave. was being planned, the architect gave us his idea of a building that would "reflect the prosperity, etc." Today, in looking at the picture of it, we know that it really would not satisfy us now and "we have been led to want something different in architecture because we have responded to the cultiva- tion of an understanding of the significance of worship." (This last quotation also from Advocate.)
This brick church, number three in our series of building, was typically Methodist as you will see fur- ther on. It stood very close to Reid Ave. on the west side and on the east side of the church property stood the parsonage-close by, as if to keep warm.
The following is a description of the inside of the church, written in 1952, at the request of Dr. John Green.
This will indeed be a flying visit to the physical structure of the old first church building, without letting you know about the spirit that went into the building of it nor acquainting you with the good accomplished by the company of saints and lesser personalities who raised their monument to God.
There was no enchanting mystery or majesty of architecture here. The building was widely open and all inclusive from the auditorium-sanctuary, we say now- through the large Sunday School section.
The church was built at a time when the develop- ment of the Sunday School was uppermost in church- men's minds. It was termed the "Akron plan" because a prominent layman, Mr. Miller, of Akron, was for- warding this idea in working with our Methodist Bishop Vincent on the Chautauqua idea, entertainment. This open-style church lent itself to the holding of lectures, concerts, etc., for community pleasure.
This splended picture of the outward appearance of the building will make it unnecessary for me to comment on it except to say, I could not recall whether or not there was a bell in the tower. Asked Miss Vorwerk this morning. She said, "No bell."
If you come with me through either one of the Bank St. (now 6th St.) entrances you will see con- tinuing stairways and platforms going up into the tower structures, leading to the back of the choir and organ loft and on up to the balconies, also a stairway down to a small room under the organ and choir.
These Bank St. entrances were not too popular, for in going on into the sanctuary you found yourself facing the audience. Someone suggested that perhaps this had a tendency to make people sit in the oft- lonesome front pews.
There were three sections of seats, set in semi- circular fashion to follow the line of the communion
rail and pulpit or rostrum. There were four aisles. One on each side of the church between the pews and the outer walls of the church and two radial aisles from the altar rail. These radial aisles made the middle section of seats with shorter length pews in front, graduating to much longer ones in the rear. The last few seats being again divided by a short aisle from the back. The reverse graduation or graduation of seats was true of the two outer sections of seats.
Back of the main auditorium was the Sunday School assembly room, surrounded by class rooms on two levels. The separation of the two auditoriums was by movable partition. It could be lifted into the upper regions by rope mechanism. Sometimes the ropes did not retain their heavenly uplift.
The balconies, beforementioned, extended into the Sunday School section. The two auditoriums with the balconies made an impressive seating arrangement. These balconies were also connected again in front, with the choir loft and rostrum or pulpit.
Now that we are at the front of the church let's look at the pulpit and choir loft. The pulpit itself was rather narrow and the intervening space between it and the altar rail was often covered with properly fitted platform sections to give added space for group programs. Immediately back of the pulpit on a slightly higher elevation, was the choir (sometimes called the War Dept.). In the days of gay apparel and hats worn by the choir, before the wearing of robes, this setting was quite disturbing. Too often the pastor had to struggle for attention from his congregation. Can® you see the choir wiggle and giggle if they saw some- thing out of the ordinary going on in the audience?
The organ, with its impressive array of pipes, was also very prominent, as was the young boy, or some- times boys, who lent their strong right arms to the pumping of the organ. Later, when water power was installed, we were still disturbed by strange noises.
The Reid St. entrance was the one most used. It was reached by stone steps from the street. These stone steps proved to be very treacherous in winter because ice formed quickly on them. An enclosure was finally built over them. The Reid St. entrance opened into a good sized vestibule from which there were entrances to the back of the sanctuary, Sunday School auditorium, stairs up to the top tier of class rooms and down to the basement dining room and kitchen. The present Elyria Methodist Church has a Sunday School section like the one we had. That gallery was a wonderful place.
At first our dining room and kitchen in the lower floor (basement) were confined to the space imme- diately below the Sunday School section. It was given over to the Primary Dept. and little red chairs on Sunday.
Later, excavations were made under the entire church building making added dining and class room space. A far cry from the first little old church on Washington Ave., when the church pews had be re- moved in order to have a "sociable."
The church windows were of the type largely used in the 1890 era, and right for the architecture of the day. Window styles, too, have changed over the years. The artist who designs them has a rare faculty. We wish we might recreate the design of one of our 1892 church windows for you. When you observe the
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outward look of the building notice the windows and think that on the inside you would have been able to observe the names of some of our early church mem- bers memorialized by those windows of beautifully colored glass. Picture windows, not of the kind we have today. Somewhere there is a list of donors for those windows.
Building Number Four
Plans for the new M. E. Church building were furnished by Nicklas and Roderich, Cleveland archi- tects. The general style of the building is English Gothic of the Perpendicular period. The exterior walls are faced with rough sawed Indiana limestone in variated harmonious tints of warm grays to a rusty buff in tone.
The trimmings, including the beautiful tracery windows of the auditorium, are of selected gray Indiana limestone. The roof is of varying sizes of mottled green and purple slate. With few exceptions the windows of the social part of the building are of the best type of steel casement sash.
As it should be, the dominating part of the building is the auditorium. This is cruciform in shape and including the channel is about 40 by 80 feet in size exclusive of the transepts.
The seating capacity, including that of the balcony over the narthex or foyer is 800. The choir which extends across the back of the pulpit platform is of oak in beautiful tracery design. The ceiling is formed by a major arch over the main part with secondary arches or groins over the windows and the arcade separating transepts from the main part, this giving the room a lofty and impressively interesting and beautful form.
Above the choir and at the back of the chancel are three beautiful lancet windows set with English antique glass in the richest of colors. The central panel con- tains the figure of The Christ. The other tracery windows are set with a combination domestic and
imported antique leaded stained glass in interesting and appropriate designs.
The main entrance is through a vaulted narthex entered from 6th St., and with secondary entrances opening on a wide corridor leading to Reid Ave. at one end and to a private walk on the east side.
Opening on the west transcept and forming an extension of it when opened up is the general church parlor, a fine large room with open fireplace and stone mantel. This parlor is separated from the auditorium by means of a sound proof lifting partition decorated same as the other wall surfaces.
When occasions arise that there is need for a larger seating capacity than the auditorium provides, 200 additional sittings are available by using this parlor.
The church school and recreation part of the build- ing is at the back of the auditorium, the main floor being on the same level. This floor contains the primary and beginners department, a large parlor for mid-week meetings, the church office, study, etc., and on the floor above, the junior and intermediate depart- ment with their separate assembly rooms and adjoin- ing private class rooms, the ladies' parlor, an excep- tionally beautiful room with a connecting kitchen.
The ground floor beneath the auditorium part, the dining and social room with stage at one end, and picture machine booth at other end, a large kitchen to the east and large parlor on the west. Beneath the school part is the recreation room, 40 by 70, separate shower and locker room for both sexes, and beneath the locker rooms, a heating and ventilating plant.
The building is planned and erected in full accord- ance with the state code. All stairways and corridors are of fireproof construction and floor and roofs sup- ported by steel beams and trusses.
The heating plant is of the best and most modern low pressure steam type, with smokeless type boilers, automatic temperature regulation, and separate ven- tilating fans for the three principal sections of the building.
Church Dedication
The magnificent new First Methodist Episcopal church building, constructed at a cost of nearly a quarter of a million dollars at Reid Ave and 6th St., on the site of another house of worship which was destroyed by the 1924 tornado, was formally added to the city's religious and cultural wealth Sunday.
One of the most beautiful structures of its kind in the entire state, it was dedicated by Bishop Theodore S. Henderson, of Cincinnati, at the first of 11 days of dedicatory exercises which will mark the latest splendid contribution to Lorain's reputation as "the city of beautiful churches."
Two services, at which the auditorium of the new religious edifice was crowded to its seating capacity of 1,200 people, marked the first day's program.
"This has been the proudest day of my life!" the Rev. Charles Hess, pastor of the church, declared, as the last of the crowd which attended the second service had filed out, leaving him alone with Bishop Henderson, the head of his church in Ohio.
"You should be-you are to be congratulated!" was the church leader's reply as he grasped the minister's hand and then hurried away to make railroad connec- tions for Cincinnati, where he is scheduled to appear in his official capacity Monday.
And the Rev. Mr. Hess was highly deserving of those congratulatory words from his bishop, as he had worked unceasingly ever since the tornado of more than two years ago which swept away what had been the original First M. E. church building, to make the present new edifice possible, it was voiced by the hundreds of his flock who participated in the day's exercises and inspected the church building. The city was officially represented at the evening service by Mayor William F. Grall, Safety Director Mrs. Flor- ence Grall and Judge J. F. Strenick.
It was during the evening services that the dedica- tory exercises were held. Bishop Henderson also spoke at the morning service.
The bishop's appeals for funds, at both services, to
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be used toward paying off the church's indebtedness, resulted in contributions totaling more than $26,000. Of this amount $10,000 was pledged by the Ladies' Aid Society of the church. The $26,000 pledged Sunday was in addition to those made in the drive conducted for the building of the church, more than a year ago.
The preliminary dedicatory exercises in the morn- ing were preceded by a parade of members from the high school auditorium, where they have held services since the tornado robbed them of their religious home, to the new church building.
Bishop Henderson gave a short address at the pre- liminary service and in his plea for funds referred to Simon of Cyrene who lifted the cross as it was being bourne by Jesus Christ, and urged that in their re- sponse all be "lifters, not leaners." This plea resulted in pledges totaling more than $10,000.
In his evening address, which resulted in more than $16,000 being pledged, the famous bishop made an appeal to the "Burning Heart."
"Real Christians are the products of a burning heart," he told his audience. "Jesus Christ had a burning heart-He gave everything so that we might have the wonderful blessings He is daily bestowing upon us.
"We must take our religion seriously-take it to hcart-a burning heart-just as Jesus Christ did.
"No one can be a Christian of the head-he must be a Christian of the heart if he is a real Christian."
He also contended that there is too little "conversa- tion about Christ."
"To be real Christians of the burning heart wc must not only talk with Him in our prayers but we should converse with others about Him. Ninety-fivc
per cent of our young people are growing up without hearing a word of conversation in their homes about or with God.
"We should think of this seriously with Christmas only a few days away. Remember that the greatest Christmas present the world ever received was the gift of God in Jesus Christ."
On this same subject the bishop referred to Queen Marie's recent visit to the United States.
"If any one of you women in Lorain had been in- vited to accompany the queen on her special train on which there was so much concentrated domestic diffi- culties; I'll wager that enough derricks couldn't be found in the United States to keep the tongues of the other Lorain women on their swivels," he declared, adding a bit of humor to his address. "Yet how much have you discussed religion in the last few weeks."
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