USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Official report of the centennial celebration of the founding of the city of Cleveland and the settlement of the Western Reserve > Part 30
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The church was dedicated to " Our Lady of the Lake." but by popular usage the pame was soon changed to St. Mary's on the " flats, " that part of the city being so called. The church served as a house of God for all the Catholics of Cleveland till the2, and as the first cathedral of Bishop Rapp from October, 1517, till November, 1852, when the present cathedral on Erie street was opened for divine service.
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The second church ( St. Procop's ) for the Catholic Bohemians was built in 1875, on Burton street. Another English speaking parish was organized in 1880 in the ex- treme west end of the city. Its church, known as St. Colman's, is located on Gordon avenue. During the same year the Catholic Germans east of Willson avenue built a church for themselves under the title of Holy Trinity. In 1883 the Catholic Bohe- mians established two parishes-St. Adelbert's, on Lincoln avenue, and Our Lady of Lourdes, on Randolph street. The latter parish built its second, present and much larger church in 1892. During the same year St. Michael's congregation was organ- ized, although attended as a "mission " since 1881. Their first church was a small wooden structure. They grew so rapidly in numbers that they were obliged to build a second and much larger edifice. It was finished in 189t, and is admitted by all who have seen it to be the finest church in Ohio, if not in the United States.
In 1887 the old Turner Hall on Central avenue was bought by Bishop Gilmour and fitted up as a church for the Italians of the city, and still serves them as such. During the same year a new parish of Germans was established in the East End. Their church is dedicated to St. Francis, and is located at the corner of Superior street and Becker avenue.
In 1888 the Catholic Slovaks of Cleveland were organized into a congregation and built a frame church on lots purchased on Corwin avenue, placing it under the pa- tronage of St. Ladislas. Two years later the Catholic Poles organized a second parish in Newburg, and built a frame church, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The building is located on Marceline street. Their countrymen living in the northeastern part of the city built a brick church in 1891, and had it dedicated to St. Casimir in the following year.
The Germans living west of the river were formed in November, 1854, as a con- gregation under the title of St. Mary's of the Assumption, and were given the use of the church on the flats till the dedication of their present church, corner of Carroll and Jersey streets, in 1865. The Rev. Messrs. J. J. Kramer, F. X. Obermueller and J. Hamene had successively charge of St. Mary's congregation till last mentioned year. From 1865 to 1879. old St. Mary's was the cradle of the following congregations: St. Malachy's, 1865; St. Wenceslas' (Bohemian), 1867; Annunciation (French), 1870. The Catholic Poles of Cleveland were the last to occupy the venerable proto-church of Cleveland, viz., from 1872 to 1879, when they organized as St. Stanislas' congregation. In 1879 the old church was practically abandoned, as the Catholics residing in its neighborhood were not sufficient in number to warrant the organization or mainte- nance of a congregation.
At present there are thirty-three Catholic parishes in this city, classified by lan- guages as follows: English, 10; German, 7; Bohemian, 4: Polish, 3; Slovaks, 2; Ital- ian, 2; Lithuanian, 1; Krainer, 1; Greek, 1; French, 1; Hungarian, I.
According to the last diocesan census, taken at the end of the year 1895, there are nearly 100,000 Catholics in Cleveland. Of these, the vast majority belong to the laboring class, who cheerfully and generously support the cause of religion, as the many large, fine and even splendid church edifices attest. At least eight of the churches rank in size and beauty with the best in the country - in large measure the result of the laborer's pittance and the widow's mite. Catholic charity has not been idle in Cleveland. Under its auspices there are now three hospitals, with accommo- dations for about 200 patients; two orphan asylums with over 400 orphans; one found- ling asylum, one maternity home, one home for fallen women, one home for the aged poor, with nearly 200 inmates, and a home for young women.
With the exception of a home for wayward boys, which will also be established as soon as the means can be secured, Cleveland's Catholics have provided for every form of human misery.
The audience was next entertained with a selection by the Arion Quartette, after which Rev. J. G. Fraser gave the history of the Congre- gational Church. His paper was also an extended one, the principal points being as follows:
The early occasional missionaries who visited Cleveland from Iso1 to ISio were of that band of devoted pioneers in the wilderness whom the Connecticut Missionary Society sent out, beginning in 1800, to carry the Gospel to the sons and daughters of Connecticut in New Connecticut, and most if not all of these men were Congregation- alists. The earlier Presbyterian churches of Cleveland were founded by these Con. gregational missionaries of a Congregational society, and the Connecticut Missionary
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Society before 1825, and the American Home Missionary Society after that year aided in their support.
Joseph Badger, born in Wilbraham, Mass., February 28, 1757; soldier of the Revo- lutionary Army, 1775-1778; graduate of Yale, 1785; pastor of Blandford, Mass., 1787 to Isoo, was the first missionary of the Connecticut Missionary Society to the Western Reserve, making his horseback journey from New England in winter, and preaching his first sermon on the Reserve at Youngstown, December 26, 1800. In the course of his missionary journeys he several times visited Cleveland. In July, 1801, he writes (Badger's "Memoir," p. 27): "On Monday I returned to Aurora, from which I took the only road from the south to the lake. Got very wet in a thunder shower. Ar- rived at Newburgh before dark. In this place were five families. Preached here on the Sabbath; on Monday visited Cleveland, in which were only two families. There I fell in company with Judge Kirtland. We rode from here to Painesville; found on the way in Euclid one family, and in Chagrin one; in Mentor, four, and in Painesville two families. Next day rode to Burton, preached on the Sabbath and visited the families in this place. From this I found my way to Austinburg. In this place are ten families, and about the same number in Harpersfield. Visited all the families in these settlements and preached to them three Sabbaths. Thus were visited and the Gospel preached to all the families on the Reserve."
Just at the end of this first period of slow and toilsome seed-sowing in the forest comes the organization of what is now oldest of our sisterhood of churches, though it was not within the boundaries of the city until 1894. I reproduce the " quaint precis- ion" of the first entry in its little yellow record book.
FORMATION OF THE CHURCH.
BROOKLYN, July 23, 1819.
Agreeably to previous appointment, the Rev. Messrs. Thomas Barr and William Hanford met a number of persons at the meeting house to consider the propriety of organizing a church in this place. A sermon was delivered by Mr. Barr, after which the following persons presented letters testifying to their good standing in the churches to which they belonged and recommending them to sister churches, and expressed their desire to be formed into a church, viz., Amos Brainard, Isaac Hinckley and Sally, his wife; James Smith and Elizabeth, his wife, and Rebecca Brainard. The Confes- sion of Faith and Covenant prepared by the President of Portage for churches under their care were read, of which all expressed their approbation. After some conversa- tion, the meeting was adjourned until to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock, and closed with prayer. Saturday morning, July 24th, the above-named individuals assembled.
Atter prayer they were examined as to their religious sentiments and evidences of piety, and approved as persons suitable to be formed into a church. It was concluded by the ministers present to organize the church to-morrow morning and to adminis- ter the Lord's Supper. Suitable remarks were made and the exercises closed with prayer.
Sabbath morning, July 25th, a sermon was preached, the church was organized, charged to walk worthy of their high vocation and recommended to God in prayer. The members with some brethren from sister churches took their seats at the table of the Lord. THOMAS BARR, WILLIAM HANFORD, S Missionaries.
The church was organized as a Presbyterian church. Thomas Barr was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Euclid (now East Cleveland) from 1810 to 1820. William Hanford, a missionary of the Connecticut Missionary Society, was pastor at Hudson from 1815 to 1831. This church seems to have been the first of any denomination on what is now the territory included within the city of Cleveland, except Trinity Epis- copal, which was organized November 9, 1816, and possibly a Methodist Church at Newburgh, in 1818. The Old Stone - First Presbyterian-Church followed, July Is, IS20, a year later than Brooklyn, and on this occasion also Mr. Hanford was present.
At the end of our first quarter century, July, r$21, the half dozen members of Brooklyn have increased to fifteen. By the change of the church to the Congrega- tional fellowship, forty-five years later, and by the annexation of Brooklyn to the city, seventy-three years later, they come to represent all that appears of Congregationalism at the end of the first quarter of the century history.
Second on our present list in Cleveland is the First Church, organized 1834. Until this date the people on the West Side had worshipped with the First Presbyterian Church in this city, of which at this time Rev. John Keep was stated supply ( 1533- 1835). Of the preliminary plans for the West Side organization no record remains.
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Third on our list to-day is the Euclid Avenue Church, at its organization outside the city on the east, as Brooklyn was on the south, and the First Church on the west ; and like them in its beginnings, Presbyterian. It is only the opening of its great his- tory which falls within the limits of this second quarter-century.
This church is the outgrowth of a Sunday-school started in IS41, in an old stone school house on Euclid road, between what are now Doan and Republic streets. Horace Ford, who was one of the organizers of that school, has been connected with it to this day. On November 30, 1843, a Presbyterian church of nineteen members was formed, eighteen of whom were Congregationalists by birth and training.
Fourth on our present roll of churches is Plymouth. Like its predecessors all, it was born Presbyterian, but, as Dr. Haydn says of one of its predecessors, "it did not stick."
Plymouth Church originated in the Old Stone (First Presbyterian) Church, March 25. 1850. At that time Rev. Edwin H. Nevin was conducting revival meetings in the Old Stone Church. He was a reformer and a pronounced Abolitionist. Certain of his converts enlisted members of the church of like convictions on the subject of slavery to go out and found a new church, with Mr. Nevin as pastor. The church was called the Free Presbyterian Church, and later, the Third Presbyterian Church. As a Pres- byterian church it was independent, with principles and a statement of faith of its own drafting.
Fifth of our churches is Irving Street, originally of the Bible Christian denomina- tion, and affiliated with a conference in Canada. The denomination, which is English, while substantially Methodist in doctrine, is distinctively liberal in policy, and grants equal rights to the laity. The "Orange Street Society"-later " Ebenezer Bible Chris- tian Church"-was organized in October, 1852, with ten members, and occupied first a frame structure and then the present brick, at the corner of Orange and Irving streets.
Sixth, we name the Jones Avenue Church, often spoken of as the Welsh Church of Newburgh, but naming itself from the year of erection of its present house of wor- ship, Centennial Congregational Church. As before noted, this is the first of our list of churches now within the city of Cleveland which was organized as a Congrega- tional church.
Welsh people began coming to Newburgh early in the fifties, and two of the num- ber started what has now become the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company. As more came, a Sunday-school was started, cottage prayer-meetings were held, and at length, in the fall of 1858, a church was organized with fifteen members. A house was built and occupied in June, 1860; this was enlarged in 1866, and in 1876 the new and larger house of worship was erected. The church is the leading religious and social force among the Welsh people, not only of Newburgh, but of the city. The Welsh are religious, passionately devoted to their mother tongue, and loyal to the church.
Seventh, comes what is now Pilgrim Church, known at first as University Heights, and later as Jennings Avenue. Like many another, this church began in a Sunday- school, out of which, in quiet and ideal development grew the church. About the year 1854, in the old University Building, on what was then known as University Heights a Sunday-school was started as a mission school to the little brick school house on the site of the present Tremont School, and in 1856 it became independent as the "University Heights Union Sabbath School."
Eighth is Mount Zion Church. It is, as already stated, the first of our churches organized as a Congregational church, which at its organization was within the limits of the city. Christy's "Cleveland Congregationalists " says, "Five Christian friends met at a private house, June 8, 1864, to take into consideration the organization of a new church. Having previously studied and given the subject prayerful thought, they decided that Congregationalism would best meet their wants and necessities. From this time a regular weekly prayer-meeting was held, and as often as possible preach- ing on the Sabbath. On September 11, 1864, the Mount Zion Congregational Church was formally organized in Plymouth Church, then on Prospect street, between Sheriff and Erie, when nineteen Christian men and women took upon themselves the solemn covenant of the church.
The Vinth name on the Cleveland list, as it stands in the Year Book, is the West Side Welsh Church. This church was organized October 9, 1870, with thirty-two mem- bers, and had at its beginning the aid of the Home Missionary Society. For a number of years it worshipped in halls in the central part of the city, having never had a house of its own. Its membership during the twenty-five years of its life has fluctu- ated from forty to eighty, and is now fifteen.
l'enth in order is the Madison Avenue Church, organized July 3, 1875, and reach-
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ing with the city's one hundredth, its twenty-first birthday. This is the worthy first- born of the healthy and vigorous family of the Euclid Avenue Church. It began in a prayer-meeting on Lincoln avenue, became a little later a mission, opened a chapel and began a Sunday-school January 2, 1875, and six months later was organized as a church with twenty-two members and Rev. Oren D. Fisher as pastor. Under Rev. Herbert M. Tenney, in 1889, the house was rebuilt. Rev. William L. Tenney and Rev. William A. Knight followed. The present pastor, Rev. D. Theodore Thomas, began in November, 1892, and has seen steady growth in membership, which now reaches nearly four hundred.
Eleventh, Franklin Avenue. As already indicated, this is a child of the First Church. Yet its roots ran back to a Union Sunday-school organized in 1857, but which in 1866 became the charge of the First Church. A building was erected on De- troit street opposite St. Paul street. The school, in 1876, bought the present site, Franklin avenue, corner of Waverly street, and moved its building. Rev. Samuel B. Shipman, called by the First Church to take charge of its two missions, brought about organization November 22, 1876, with thirty members, and became the first pastor. "From the day of its organization, this church has been characterized by a marked unity of spirit and an untiring zeal in the Master's work." Under Dr. Shipman, in ISSO, began the erection of their new house. July 19th of that year this beloved and consecrated pastor died almost without warning. October 1, 1889, Rev. Herbert (). Allen became pastor, and carried forward the work of the church with distinguished success until his resignation, in 1896.
After five years without new organizations, our Twelfth, Grace Church, was added to the list, December 7, 1881, with nineteen members, though this has a life dating a dozen years farther back in a Sunday-school.
The Thirteenth church of Cleveland bears the significant name of Union, and came after another five years, October 13, 1886. It is on Union street, close by Wood- land Hills avenue. Beginning as an undenominational neighborhood church, it found need of fellowship, and so organized as above.
Number Fourteen is Bethlehem, and its name suggests the story of the Bethle- hem Mission Board of Cleveland, which logically and chronologically precedes and leads up to the history of the church.
In 1884 a lot was bought on Broadway, and Bethlehem Church was built, at a cost of $8,000, and dedicated January 1, 1895. The work done at Bethlehem from the first has been largely what is now called institutional; Sunday-school, Boys' Band, Girls' Club, Sewing School, Saturday Morning School, with all the usual services and appli- ances of a Christian church. After five and a half years' of work, Bethlehem Church was organized March 8, 1888, with seventy-three members. Dr. Schauffler has been its pastor and Sunday-school superintendent from the first, with generally an English and a Bohemian assistant pastor.
We have already spoken of two Welsh churches, a church composed of colored people, one made entirely of men and women of English birth or direct descent, and a Bohemian church with annexes Polish and German; now the Fifteenth on the list is the Swedish Church. This began in Olivet Chapel, in 1889, under the care of Rev. August W. Franklin, with nine members, and was recognized by a council held in Plymouth Church, September 25, 1890. After worshipping for some time in a hall on Case avenue, near Payne, a lot was secured on Lexington avenue, near Willson, and a very neat and attractive house erected, the entire property being worth $7,000.
Sixteenth on the lengthening roll is. Park Church, second of the daughters of Euclid Avenue. A union Sunday-school at the corner of Doan street and Crawford road, organized July 4, 1886, led to a Union Chapel the same summer, the only church in two square miles. A transfer of the work and property was made in ISSs to the Euclid Avenue Church, of which it became the "North Branch." After some months of service from lay preachers of the home church, Rev. Irving W. Metcalf took charge of this work with that at Hough Avenue, July 1, 1889. In March, 1890, Rev. Martin L. Berger, D. D., became pastor, and on October 2, 1890, the church was formally or- ganized as Park Congregational Church, later changing its location to the corner of Crawford road and Cullison street.
Number Seventeen is also of the same good stock. The Hough Avenue Church, though formally organized as an independent church March 18, 1891, began in a Sun- day-school gathered October 28, 1888, in the Republican Wigwam, through a house to house canvass made by Secretary W. F. McMillen, of the Congregational Sunday- school and Publishing Society, and Dr. Berger, under the auspices of the Euclid Avenue Church, and with James W. Moore of that church as superintendent.
As Bethlehem suggested the Bohemian Board, so does our Eighteenth name,
DU.
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Lakewood, suggest the Congregational City Missionary Society of Cleveland. This became, November 8, 1893, the Lakewood Congregational Church, with twenty-seven members, and Rev. Howard A. N. Richards as pastor.
With our Nineteenth name, Trinity, a new and stirring religious force comes into our denominational and city life. Over one hundred members of the Bolton avenue branch of the First Presbyterian Church met in a private house March 21, 1894, and organized as a Congregational Church, the name later chosen by the ladies being Trinity. Being disappointed in their arrangements for a place of worship for their first Sunday, the erection of a building was commenced Friday noon, and by Saturday night it was completed, furnished with gas and steam heat, decorated and ready for worship. On this Sabbath, Easter, March 25th, 1894, Rev. Robert A. George, who had been called to the pastorate, was present and preached. April 22, the people, now increased to one hundred and sixty-three, entered into covenant as charter mem- bers, Rev. R. A. George accepting their call; and on the next day a council recognized the church and installed the pastor. This temporary place of worship, corner of East Prospect street and Bolton avenue, was used through the summer, and the adjacent business block until October 6, 1895, when the congregation worshipped in the Sun- day-school room of the new building, Cedar avenue opposite Bertram street. The house was dedicated, March 8, 1896, at a cost of $40,000, well equipped for institutional work, and a monument to the splendid courage of pastor and people. The church has now nearly three hundred and fifty members.
Olivet is Twentieth on the list. It was organized April 6, 1894. After worship- ping in dark, inaccessible and inconvenient quarters for a year and a half, one year of which it also had no regular pastor, the church, November 3, 1895, with the pastor, Rev. William S. Taylor, who had come to them the previous June, entered their neat and attractive house of worship on Wade Park avenue, near Giddings, which lot had cost about $3,000.
Twenty-first and last, to date, is Lake View, youngest child of Euclid Avenue. In the summer of 1887 an outdoor Sunday-school, in the general neighborhood of Lake View Cemetery, interested the Italian children. Later the enterprise gathered Ger- man and English, while the Italians gradually withdrew. From the first it was under the care of the Euclid Avenue Church and Dr. Ladd. In January, 1889, the school was reorganized, and a move was made for a house. John D. Rockefeller kindly gave the lease of the lot on the north side of Euclid avenue, a little east of the ceme- tery entrance. Dr. Ladd drew the plans, and on Easter Sunday, 1890, Lake View Chapel, bright and commodious, with audience room, two large class rooms and library, was opened, at a total cost for the building and furnishings of $2, 500.
Twenty of our twenty-one churches have houses of worship. When we add Cyril and Mispah, Missions of the Bohemian Board, and Lorain street. a mission of the City Missionary Society, there are twenty-two houses of worship in the city, twenty-four places where preaching service is held regularly, and twenty-six Sunday-schools. Twenty-eight men and one woman are in service as pastors and assistant pastors. The membership July 5th, 1896, was close to six thousand, and the value of church property, if that of the City Missionary Society be included, is nearly six hundred thousand dollars.
Rt. Rev. Bishop Leonard, who was to have given the history of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was absent. The following account has been furnished, however, for this report:
This Centennial year of the city of Cleveland is certainly a time to revive old mem- ories of all those events contributing to its history in the past which have helped, we hope, to lay the sure foundations for its continual prosperity in the future. Certain- ly first among these memories should be the record of the churches, the houses of God in the land.
Among the very first of these stands the history of old Trinity parish. Organized in ISr6 by a few churchmen from the East, not satisfied to be deprived of the privi- leges by which their hearts had been nurtured in their youth, with its Book of Com- mon Prayer and the Word of God, the church in Cleveland began its existence in 1816 on the ninth day of November, its organization being effected at the home of Phineas Shepherd, and for eight succeeding years its services were maintamed by lay-readers.
At this period the church was almost unknown west of the Allegheny Mountains. There was no diocesan organization or even missionary society connected with the Episcopal Church within the limits of the State of Ohio.
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In March, 1817, Rev. Roger Searle, from Connecticut, visited the parish, report- ing thirteen families and eleven communicants. The next year he came again, bap- tizing and celebrating the Holy Communion.
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