USA > Ohio > Lorain County > Lorain > History of the First Methodist Church, 1856-1956 > Part 8
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"Methodist Men"
"Methodist Men" is the official name for organized men's work in Methodist churches. Six guiding prin- ciples are listed as a standard for this group: 1. To inspire laymen to live daily Christ's way of life. 2. To cooperate with our leaders in promoting the church program. 3. To study and become familiar with the Methodist Church, its organization and doctrines. 4. To promote personal evangelism especially among men and boys. 5. To develop Christian fellowship in the church. 6. To cooperate with other units of Meth- odist Men in the promotion of general church projects.
"The Methodist Layman"
This little monthly magazine is published by the Board of Lay Activities at $1.50 per year.
Sabbath School
THE WORD "SABBATH" has a pleasing sound. Let your mind dwell on it.
It's figurative meaning is "time of rest". How fit. ting that on the day of rest from our physical labors, we should gather together to talk over, learn more and teach one another about the Bible and its endless overwhelming significance for the way of life. It should be a help for each week ahead of us.
Early records speak of "Sabbath School". We have gone on from that to the label "Sunday School". We now speak of "Church School" or the "Department of Christian Education". There is much to be said concerning the origin and meaning of the words Sab- bath and Sunday. Our leaders urge us to appear to keep up to the minute in the matter of our labels as well as our work, so we "evolute" from one name to another, from miscellaneous teachings, arising from our inspirations, to graded lessons prepared for gen- eral use throughout Methodism. We even work on "projects", very modern, and "do-it-yourself" learning.
Sabbath schools were probably in operation before the actual forming of a church organization
In early Lorain, homes were opened to gatherings for the purpose of teaching the Word before a dedi- cated church structure was available. Some one had a concern.
After the forming of a Methodist Society in 1856 and the acquiring of a building for use in holding services, the program of activities showed the Morn- ing Worship service at 10:30 A. M. as first for the day and Sabbath school immediately following at 12 o'clock.
One record keeper wrote that the preacher of the morning had, of necessity, to close his service on time or be prepared to "over shout" the noise of the child- ren coming into the vestibule ready to attend the school session. Having to use the one room - (could we dignify it by calling it the Sanctuary?) for all meetings, must have led to confusion at times.
Just fancy in your mind the gathering of even four
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or five age groups in the one room and each teacher endeavoring to captivate the attention of his or her own particular group! Those must have been "stirring" sessions in more ways than one.
I see a transportation problem for those who came in from the farms. The children would of necessity have had to come with parents who wished to attend the Morning Worship service and Sabbath School. One horse, one buggy or wagon, you know. The child- ren may have been the kind that slept through the service. Perhaps not. At 10:30 A. M. a child is wide awake and busy. Being suppressed by firm hands dur- ing church service, they were ready to start or help with anything that looked like fun or mischief, so Sabbath School held a disciplinary problem as well as a "Listen, Johnny" appeal. What a spirit of bravery and devotion to the cause all Sabbath School teachers have exhibited through the years. Early some Sunday morning when the burden appeared heavy, there was no convenience of telephoning the Supt. and asking to be excused for that day. The teacher went to her teaching task or else the Supt. had to ask some one of the assembled faithful to volunteer to take a class. With what persuasive powers any Supt. must have been endowed! So - God bless all Sabbath School superintendents and teachers.
A closer look at some of the S. S. superintendents is very revealing and shows the kind of "stuff" that was in them.
Mr. John J. Nichols, who lived 21/2 miles west of the village, was one of the faithful. He and his wife are described as living examples of praying Christians.
Mr. Nichols was always at his post in Church and S. School in all kinds of weather. The snow may have been too deep or crusty to expect the family horse to plow through, but Mr. Nichols and some of his child- ren walked (?) the 21/2 miles and carried on for Christ and His cause.
Because Mr. Nichols came through a heavy rain storm one Sunday and became thoroughly drenched, then stayed through the services, he became ill with pneumonia and died.
Mr. J. B. Nichols - "Bert", one of Mr. John Nichols' sons, has written of some of his experiences in those strenuous days. These stories appear elsewhere in the History.
Mr. Truman Harry Jones - 1845-1891 - was born in Wales and came to Cleveland, when a boy, with his parents. He fought in the Civil War for two years and nine months, enlisting in Ohio Volun- teer Infantry (O.V.I.), 124th regiment. He served in the battles of Chicamauqua, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Wilderness, and Atlanta.
The women folks, as usual, knitted socks for the soldiers. Mr. Jones received a pair with the name of the knitter attached. The knitter was Augusta Lamp- man, Lorain, Ohio, and after the war Mr. Jones came to Lorain to see Miss Augusta, and liked her. I can see why. They were married here and lived in Lorain during their life together.
As a Sabbath School superintendent, Mr. Harry Jones made himself popular by promoting many "so- ciables", picnics, taffy pulls, entertainments. He was very able in leading out and putting everyone and his talents to work. Miss Anna Vorwerk recalls that Mr. Jones always illustrated the Sabbath School lesson with
a "chalk talk" at the end of the day's session.
His early death was attributed to an illness brought on from the War.
A daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jones, Augusta Jones Johnson, has made her home in California for some time.
Two of the Jones grandchildren, T. Harry Jones and Esther Jones Van Arman, children of Mark Jones, have been much interested to give me the account of their grandfather's life.
When the first railroad (Tuscarawas Valley) came to Lorain in 1872, it brought two men who, with their families, became valuable additions to the little Meth- odist Church in the village.
These men were Samuel Showalter and Gorham Ives Baldwin, both engineers. Looking back on the set time of their "runs" from Lorain to Wheeling and return, it seems something out of the ordinary for them to pledge themselves to give their time as Sab- bath School superintendents.
Mr. Showalter's family consisted of his wife, Sarah Ann Martin Showalter, and nine children, some of them born here. One of the daughters lives here now (1956) and is a member of our church. She is Mrs. Blanche Showalter GeMeiner (Mrs. Fred) and has given of her time and talent in the woman's organiza- tions of the church. She also served the Delaware Ave. Church, from the time of its organization, for sixteen years.
Mrs. GeMeiner tells me that her father had been raised a Dunkard and that his father had been a preacher of that faith.
The family came to Lorain from Doylestown, Ohio. We think of the Dunkards as being serious-minded, somberly-dressed people, but Mrs. GeMeiner says her father loved his jokes and loved to sing and enjoy social life.
Mr. Showalter was seriously injured in a wreck on the railroad and died Dec. 15, 1888. When his funeral was held here, his sisters came to the service dressed in the mode of the Dunkards, black bonnets and long black capes. Mrs. Showalter and the older children were fearful lest the Methodists would not understand the Dunkard ways.
All of the five sons of the Showalter family and the husbands of two of the girls followed railroad life too, beginning as telegraph operators and making their several ways to top positions. Two of them were with railroads in the Northwestern states and some of them with the Nickel Plate and C. L. & W. roads.
Mrs. GeMeiner described an elaborate Christmas entertainment of her early Sabbath School days. In- stead of a tree, someone had made a ship with masts and sails as symbolic of Lorain and its leading industry. The ship was put on the platform and laden with gifts for the children. The gifts had been brought by the parents of the children. Mrs. GeMeiner also tells of Miss Rowena Moore (Mrs. Mark Jones) as being her very much loved Sabbath School teacher.
The Gorham Ives Baldwin family came to Lorain from Cleveland at the same time as the Showalter family and for the same reason. The men were as- signed as engineers on the same new railroad coming into Lorain, the Tuscarawas Valley - now the B. & O.
The Baldwins at that time had one son, James.
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Two more children were born here, Nellie and Wil- liam.
Mr. "Gorie" Baldwin was Supt. of our Sabbath School from 1875 to 1880, serving in the old brick church on Washington Ave. Both he and Mrs. Bald- win served also in the musical life of the church.
In 1880 the family was transferred to Canal Dover, Ohio. The next year Mr. Baldwin met his death on the railroad.
In later years, Mrs. Baldwin - now Mrs. Harvey, having re-married, came back to Lorain to live and she and her children were workers in Grace M. E. Church at S. Lorain. A daughter, Myra Harvey (Mrs. Walter Mahla) had been added to the family. Nellie Baldwin Albaugh owned and operated an Art Shop in Lorain for quite some time. Dr. Wm. S. Baldwin practiced medicine here and was school physician for many years. He made a specialty of children's diseases. He served two years in the Near East during World War I.
After the Grace Church members joined First Church Mrs. Albaugh gave her time to the Sunday School, working with the small children, and now her daughter, Virginia Albaugh Hageman, is one of our faithful teachers. Virginia's son, Herman, is now keep- ing the family's record alive by serving with youth groups in the church. The story of four generations in one church is remarkable. "Gorie" Baldwin and his wife sowed the good seed.
Mr. George Wickens Sr. had the opportunity to serve as our S. S. Supt. longer than his predecessors. He served in that capacity for 15 years.
Mr. Wickens was born in England in 1852. In 1871 he left home for Canada and in the early Spring of 1873 he came to Lorain. His fiery red hair, long red mustache, bushy brows and infectious grin indicated that things had to move fast when he took charge. He had a way of enthusing people and making them believe they too had what it took to get things done. Perhaps the older, more staid sisters and brothers of the church blinked their eyes a bit at this different approach.
In 1875 he married Celia A. Chapman, daughter of an early Lorain family. She died in 1876, leaving a son, George B., six days of age.
In 1877 Mr. Wickens returned to England and was married to Miss M. A. Colley. They came to Lorain in 1881 and Mr. Wickens engaged in the building and contracting business.
In 1883 he opened a furniture and undertaking establishment, progressing continuously. He had many "firsts" to his credit through the years, among them a span of beautiful Arabian horses to pull the funeral hearse. They didn't appear to pull, however. They stepped proudly with heads held high. Another first was Parkside Chapel - a fine funeral home. It is now the Christian Science Church and Reading Room.
Mr. Wickens had long been interested in religious and temperance work. While he was in England the second time - in 1878 - he had been granted a local preacher's license by the London District of Wes- leyan Church. This added to his efficiency as a church worker and he was one of those men of our church who gave time and energy to organize Simpson Chapel, later 20th St. Church. This was during the pastorate (1st Church) of Rev. J. P. Mills.
Mr. Wickens' family from his second marriage, Wm., Elizabeth and Edward Mark (s) were all mem- bers of the church. At present we are happy to num- ber Mrs. Grace Huyck Wickens (Mrs. Wm.), Mrs. Maud Briggs Wickens (Mrs. E. M.) and grandson Wm. Wickens Jr. with his family, as working mem- bers of First Church.
Mr. George Wickens Sr. married a third time, his wife being Elizabeth Wallace Wickens who served all of her life in our church and Sunday School.
There does not seem to be a complete list of Sunday School Superintendents but the following have served:
Prof. F. D. Ward, 1898; Samuel Wire, S. A. Kurtz, George Creamer, Frank Ayres, Fred Johnson, E. M. McCaskey, Harley Nearhood, Mrs. C. J. W. Luttrell, Frank Proctor, Ed Peter, Wayne Weitzman.
Someone has facetiously remarked that the initials S.S. now (1956) mean Social Security and not Sabbath School. However that may be it seems as though a complete account of our "Sabbath Security" could never be finished. Give a thought to all the fine peo- ple who have made it their concern that we carry on the work, begun back in the days when there was no organized church society in Lorain.
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The Church Is Destroyed and Rebuilt
LORAIN HAS HAD a number of destructive storms in its history but the tornado of Saturday, June 28, 1924, which destroyed our church building is the worst on record. Our church was not the only one to suffer. The Congregational, Emmanuel Evangelical, Christian, and St. Mary's Catholic churches were also completely destroyed and had to be rebuilt, while St. John's Evangelical and Reformed, the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, and the 7th St. African Methodist Churches were also severely damaged.
A number of our church families lost loved ones. Mrs. Askew lost her older sister, Blanche Berg; Rich- ard Mills lost his first wife, Gertrude, and Margaret Brown and Mrs. James Grills lost a little sister of 11, Evelyn Brown. Sixteen-year-old Willis Plunkett was one of our Sunday School boys who died a hero, he escaped from the State Theater but went back inside and rescued several smaller children before the roof fell and killed him.
Perhaps the worst tragedy among our church people, if one can be called worse than another, took place in the Van Deusen home. Mrs. Van Deusen's brother's family were visiting, and of the ten people present in their home, five were kille2d, including the Van Deusen baby, Wilbur. Among the more seriously injured of our people were Mrs. T. R. Bowen, Mrs. Harry Naylor, Dick Van Deusen and Clyde Tippet. Many others lost their homes, and only the kind gifts of many outsiders prevent financial ruin for some of them.
The last person in our church building before it was destroyed was the organist, Mrs. A. S. Gregg, who had played on the foundations of the church as a little girl while it was being built. She has left us an account of these last moments in her own words.
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MY TORNADO EXPERIENCE By Celia Bowen Gregg
One the afternoon that the tornado struck Lorain, I was practicing at the organ for the Sunday services at the First M. E. Church. I had chosen numbers that I thought would not need much practice for my daugh- ter was ill at home and I was anxious to return to her, but I kept making mistakes and consequently stayed longer than I wished. When the electricity went off, although I thought it would soon come back, I jumped down from the console very quickly and closed the manual saying that I would risk it.
I reached the vestibule and opened the door (with difficulty because of the wind) but the rain was so heavy and so opaque that I could not see across the street. I closed the door and then heard a bang in the church which I thought was a door closing caught by the wind from the door I had opened. Another bang followed and soon I heard bricks falling and glass breaking. I thought, "This is not a very safe place to be. I might as well be outside in the storm." That is the last I remember.
When I regained consciousness, I was in bed with my face bleeding and a wet rag in my hand. I remem- ber thinking, "If they had given me a dry rag, it would have stopped the bleeding quicker," but no wonder as to where I was or what had happened
entered my mind. Finally a man came up the stairs with a lamp in his hand and asked me who I was. (He said later that he was afraid I would lose con- sciousness before I could tell him.) My answer was, "I am Mrs. Gregg, organist of the First Methodist Church. Who are you?" He said he was Frank Pierce, and I said, "Oh! You ought to know me. I used to be Celia Bowen." He said, "I will go at once and let your people know where you are."
Very soon Doctor Dager was there and, while someone held the lamp, he sewed up my lip and the other cut. He did a most excellent job, too. Then Albert came and I felt safe and secure.
The next day toward noon, Mr. Gregg chopped away branches of fallen trees and managed to get the car up to the Pierce home. He and a Cleveland police- man helped me downstairs, into the car, and brought me home and put me in my own bed where I re- mained for the next three weeks as everything turned black for me when I lifted my head.
It was some time before I knew what had happened during the four hours I was unconscious. As nearly as I can tell, Jimmie Lyons was on his way over to the Moore home where he knew his fiancee, Elinor, was alone, when he found me lying on the ground out by the lamp post. He thought I was a foreign woman. At the time Mrs. Herkner came over and told him not to bring me over there as the wires were down. Whether she helped him get me into the Pierce house or he carried me, I do not know. But I was put where it was dry and then she went back to her children and he went over to Moore's where he found the back of the house blown off and naturally forgot about this strange (?) woman.
"Monk" Pierce and his wife, knowing their father and his wife were away came over to see what shape the house was in. They heard me groaning inside. Mrs. Pierce took me upstairs and put me in the only dry bed in the house. She thought I was the Pierce maid. Later Mr. Frank Pierce and his wife came down from Elyria to see how his people were, and when his brother told them of this woman at his father's house, they thought I should have care and so came to see how I was.
In the meantime, Mr. Gregg had searched the church from top to basement and had pulled away bricks till he came to the organ pedals and knew that I was not there. He called at all the houses around the church and was entering the Pierce home when someone told him that the Pierces were away and that I would not be there. He had been at the High School building and looked over the dead bodies there. He went home to tell the children that he was going to the hospital to see if I had been taken there. On his way to the hospital, he was met by Mr. Pierce who told him where I was.
I had always thought of Albert with a great deal of sympathy for those anxious hours, but had never thought much about the children until Catherine came home from school sometime the next year and said that the teacher wanted the pupils to write a theme about their tornado experiences. She said, "I don't want to write about my tornado experiences. It was
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bad enough to live through them without having to put them on paper and going over them again." * * *
Those who lived through the tornado in Lorain will realize how much of the picture is missing in many of the written accounts. The rain, which continued almost all night, the fallen trees which rendered the streets impassable and walking difficult, the devasted buildings on every side-all were a part of it. The first church service after the building was destroyed was held the next morning outdoors in Washington Park. It was a beautiful, sunny day. People had barely had time to assess the damage, and over in the Van Deusen home the dead and injured were still being dug out of the ruins. Rev. Hess, the minister,
looked at his congregation standing among the up- rooted trees and said, "We have lost much, and there is much work to be done. It will take money, so we may as well start now and take a collection." Over fifty dollars was given in the first collection outdoors in the park.
The Official Board held its first meeting after the tornado outdoors on the steps of St. Mary's new parochial school which had survived the tornado. They decided to draw up plans for a new building and had their pictures taken there on the school steps. It re- quired two and a half years to bring these plans to fruition but when the new building was dedicated, Rev. C. B. Hess was still the minister, and Mrs. Gregg played the new organ for the dedication services.
Relaying of First Cornerstone
By JOSEPH J. HROMODA The Lorain Journal-1925
FOR THE SECOND time in their lives, six persons Monday viewed the laying of the same cornerstone.
Thirty three years ago, Samuel Butler, Thomas R. Bowen, Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Whitehouse, Edward Smith, and James Dutton, were present when the cornerstone of the First M. E. Church was placed in what they thought would be its last resting place. For thirty two years the building and cornerstone were undisturbed. Then the tornado of June 28 laid low the church.
The present congregation, undaunted, scrapped the remains of the old church, and started to rebuild. The 500 pounds of sandstone comprising the corner- stone was laid aside.
On Monday the cornerpiece was broken and its entombed contents were brought to light. A tin box, the vault in which the reminiscences had been placed, fell apart as it was lifted, disclosing the con- tents.
Intact, but yellowed copies of the Lorain Times for June 15, 1892; The New York Christian Advocate; Methodist Watchman, a former local publication and The Lorain Daily News for June 11. 1892 were found. A history of the church, a hymnal, a copy of the new testament, a list of Garden Ave. school students, some church documents and a one-cent
piece were also discovered.
Rev. C. B. Hess considered that it would be an appropriate honor to have the various articles put in a box plus some tornado pictures and to have the cornerstone placed in an honorary part of the new building. So on Monday at 2:30 p. m. workmen placed the cornerstone in the northwestern part of the church that is being constructed while the six veterans of the congregation stood by. The sand- stone will serve as a commemoration to the older members.
Following is a list of the persons who have been members of the congregation for thirty five years or more: Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Butler, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas R. Bowen, Mr. and Mrs. W. W. White- house, Mrs. Fannie Wilford, Mrs. Elizabeth Purcell, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Smith, Mr. and Mrs. James Dutton, Mrs. J. M. Jaycox, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Goodell, Mrs. Elizabeth Wickens, Mrs. L. W. McElfresh, Mrs. A. W. Sanford, Mrs. Frank Noxon, Captain and Mrs. R. J. Lyons, Mrs. Sarah Showalter, Mr. and Mrs. B. G. Nichols, Judge and Mrs. W. B. Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Pistel and Miss Edith Watkins.
The first M. E. congregation was started back in 1856, in 1875 their membership had reached 95, and has been growing ever since.
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Onward and Upward In Choir Loft
THE EARLY PIONEERS were great singers and while not too much is known about the formal music in the early church it is on record that when the new classes were formed early in 1857 they were careful to distribute the best singers and musicians equitably among them. Who the singers so distribut- ed might have been is unknown, but we do know that once in each generation both the Gillmore and Osgood families have produced a fine singing voice or two and have long served as the backbone of both the Methodist and the Congregational choirs. But in those days, everybody sang lustily, good voice or no, and many of the pioneer women had sufficient musical training to accompany hymns on the piano or parlor organ. The first person to hold the official title of church organist was Roland Osgood, which meant he played the old reed organ for the preach- ing services, and probably led the choir.
It is impossible to mention all the musicians who have contributed so much to the church over a cen- tury by name within the compass of one short article, and the most we can hope to do is cover the high spots. The organist most oldsters remember in the first brick church was Helen Fox. That organ was pumped by hand, a traditional function of small boys, and many an oldster's memory of that little church is of Helen Fox at the organ, Captain Cowley's head standing out above the others in the choir, and the head of the small boy going regularly up and down with the pump handle in the back.
The choir loft in the first little brick church was on the ground floor, and from thence the choir has moved ever upward in a physical sense although its progress in a musical sense has been somewhat more erratic. One of it's lowest points, musically, came following the organization of the Congregational church, for at that time the choir lost all of the Osgood and most of the Gillmore voices. It was not until these were replaced by Whitehouse voices a decade later that the choir revived and entered one of its more vigorous periods. In the summertime through the '80's it was a small affair composed of women's voices, but in the fall when the men came home off the lakes and the bass and tenor were added the effect was inspiring and the entire congregation sang gloriously. The singers of that period included Capt. and Mrs. Cowley, Capt. and Mrs. Wilford, Mrs. T. R. Bowen, Mr. and Mrs. Walter White- house, Gorham Baldwin and Mr. and Mrs. Edward Smith among others.
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