USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The Old stone church; the story of a hundred years, 1820-1920 > Part 15
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The Stone Church thus surmounted perhaps the greatest crisis in its history, and continued with
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scarcely a break in the pastoral leadership to pros- ecute its great mission, as a down-town congrega- tion destined to remain upon the Public Square at least to this centennial celebration, and in all prob- ability for years to come.
Dr. Arthur Mitchell departed with the love and best wishes of the congregation which he had so effectively served, although for a comparatively short period of time. As secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions he was permitted for nearly eight years to stand between the field mission- aries and the home churches, encouraging the one and pleading for the prayerful sympathy and financial support of the other. Three years before his death a tour was made of the mission fields of the east. Never had this zealous minister learned to measure aright his powers of endurance.
At Nanking, China, blindness suddenly overcame him to such an extent that he was unable to follow his manuscript in the delivery of a sermon, but the remainder of the discourse was extemporized. Later at Bangkok, while discussing missionary matters with a member of that field, there was the recurrence of the attack of blindness. He continued, however, addressing an auditor whom he could see no longer, until he sank to the floor not only blind, but also speechless and with one side of the face paralyzed.
Weak and unfit for service he returned to this country, to be granted three months' leave of absence, but normal strength never returned. When opportu- nities came to accept less strenuous labor, he dared
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not turn from the great mission of his life. After another respite of three months in the spring of 1892, it became evident that the illness would soon prove fatal.
Perhaps the most eloquent and inspiring moment of Dr. Mitchell's secretarial career was that of a speech over an hour before the Synod of New York in session at Albany. John G. Paton of the New Hebrides, who was present, declared that it had been the most remarkable missionary appeal to which he had ever listened. It shook the Synod like a tempest, but alas, it also shook the frail body of the speaker. He wrote from Florida to a friend that he had never been the same man since that night. It was a worthy farewell plea before the church and Christian world to remember the nations that have waited so many centuries for the higher truth.
Dr. Mitchell passed away April 24, 1893, at Sara- toga, N. Y. The widow is still living, making her home at 537 West One Hundred Twenty-first Street, New York City. The eldest daughter, Mrs. Rollo Ogden, went with her husband to Mexico, but on account of serious illness was compelled to return from that missionary field to this country. The second daughter, Miss Alice Mitchell, went as a medical missionary to India and was stationed at the foothills of the Himalayas. She died in 1916. Miss Julia Post Mitchell, the third daughter, graduated from Smith College in 1901; was instructor in English at Vassar College, and lecturer on Shakespeare at Columbia College. She was appointed as a member of the
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faculty of the Christian College, Canton, China, and departed to that field in 1913. In 1916 she was mar- ried to the Reverend John S. Kunkle, a missionary in Canton, China. There are two other daughters, Har- riet and Margaret, and a son named after his father, Professor Arthur Mitchell, of the University of Kansas.
At the time of the death of the Reverend Arthur Mitchell, D.D., the Reverend F. F. Ellinwood, D.D., one of the secretaries of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, wrote:
Much might be said of the relations which Dr. Mitchell bore to his colleagues as a secretary. He enjoyed the perfect confidence and love of all. Never was there a truer man, seldom a more faithful servant of Christ.
All who knew Dr. Mitchell during his four pas- torates, and in his secretarial service to the church, can readily place him among those of whom it was said, "He being dead yet speaketh." Even after the flight of twenty-seven years since he entered into glory, there comes the clarion call of this earnest servant of Christ:
Proclaim to every people, tongue, and nation
That God, in whom they live and move, is Love; Tell how He stooped to save His lost creation, And died on earth that man might live above.
Give of thy sons to bear the message glorious; Give of thy wealth to speed them on their way; Pour out thy soul for them in prayer victorious: And all thou spendest Jesus will repay.
IX. THE SECOND PASTORATE OF THE REVEREND HIRAM COLLINS HAYDN
1884 - 1902
For eleven months after the second disastrous fire, the smoke-begrimed walls of the Old Stone Church hid from public gaze the inner transformation that the edifice was steadily undergoing. On Sunday morning, October 19, 1884, the bell in the steeple sounded forth sonorous yet joyful peals again sum- moning people to worship. The heavy iron-hinged doors were thrown open, and all who thronged the service were dazzled by a scene of magnificence far exceeding their highest expectations.
The transformation had been complete. The only thing that seemed to mar the splendor of the reno- vated sanctuary was really prophetic of greater beauty. Heavy canvas covered the triple window fronting the Public Square; also one of the windows on the Ontario Street side. The former was to be occupied by a memorial window, the gift of the Amasa Stone estate, and the other space was to be filled by one in memory of the late Samuel Williamson. Two polished blocks of brown granite set in the north wall gleamed with brass tablets, in memory of two de- ceased pastors, the Reverend Samuel C. Aiken, D.D., and the Reverend William H. Goodrich, D.D.
In such a rich temple of worship did the joyous
1
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congregation gather that Sunday morning to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper administered by two pastors-elect, the Reverend Hiram C. Haydn, D.D., and the Reverend Wilton Merle Smith. Before the holy communion was celebrated, the senior pastor delivered a sermon touching the past, present, and future of the Stone Church as a power for spiritual good.
On Sunday evening members of all the Cleveland Presbyterian churches crowded the renovated audi- torium to overflowing. The pulpit platform was occupied by representatives of Cleveland Presbytery, to whom had been delegated the pleasant duty of installing a minister who for eight years had been pastor of the church, and with him a younger clergy- man as an associate pastor.
The order of this double installation service has been given in a previous chapter, but the outline of President Sylvester F. Scovel's sermon is interesting. This president of Wooster University, much beloved by everyone who knew him, was noted for thorough treatment of the texts of his discourses, but notwith- standing the length of the sermon necessary to permit comprehensive analysis, his auditors were always perplexed to know just which portions they would have had eliminated for the sake of greater brevity. President Scovel's theme was, "St. Paul as a model for a minister." The numerous sermonic divisions were St. Paul's intellectual energy, his impetuosity, his indomitable will, his cultivated mind trained by books and nature, his devotion to his ungrateful
HIRAM C. HAYDN
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people, his broad-mindedness shown in spreading the gospel message among all nations, the practice of his own doctrine, his enthusiasm in the cause of human- ity, contempt for his own life, and his exalted ideas of Christ's church.
The same Sunday that the Stone Church members rejoiced in the reopened house of worship those of the Grace Episcopal Church, then located on Huron Road, corner of Erie Street [East Ninth Street], also re-entered a renovated sanctuary. Not only had there been general repair, but also a transformed chancel increased ten feet in dimensions and dedi- cated to the memory of the Reverend A. H. Wash- burn, D.D., who met an untimely death in the Ash- tabula disaster.
Under such auspicious circumstances Dr. Haydn's second pastorate in the Stone Church commenced. The association of the Reverend Wilton Merle Smith brought special hope to the senior pastor, who natur- ally rejoiced in the possibilities of the younger minister's service both at Calvary Mission and the down-town church.
In a paper read by the late Mrs. Samuel Mather at the celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary the growing activity of the women was thus por- trayed :
It is as curious to note the omissions in the minutes of all these years as it is to trace the changes the years bring. The comings and goings of the pastors are never chronicled, and the one allusion to the burning of the church is found, when at a meeting in February, 1884, it is decided to take up fancy-work at the Goodrich
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Society meetings, that "the sales may aid us in doing our part in the refitting of the church." Later the society agreed to take as its share the refitting of the pulpit platform with all its appropriate belongings. In Novem- ber there was a sale of articles and later the treasurer reported that the proceeds would pay for our building pledges and leave two hundred dollars in the treasury. Does anyone remember that there is a tablet at the back of the pulpit stating that it and all that pertains to the chancel was the gift of this society, placed there in memory of Dr. Goodrich? The baptismal font was to have been included in our gift, but the minutes record that Mrs. Tyler made that her personal offering, as well as the beautiful communion linen which the new table made necessary. In November of 1885 the society ap- pointed a committee to select a wedding gift to be sent to the bride of our associate pastor, the Reverend Wilton Merle Smith. In 1885 the society pledged one thousand dollars towards the building of the new North Presby- terian Church, and for two years every little that could be spared from the treasury was turned to that fund. In January of 1887 the society voted to assume the expenses of our own Sunday School. Hitherto this had been the charge of the Ladies' Society, and now they were left to take up other work. In February of 1888 the Goodrich Society laid plans to aid in the rebuilding of our chapel. The minutes of 1889 speak of the little share our society had on the pleasant occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the marriage of Dr. and Mrs. Haydn, and a copy of Dr. Haydn's appreciative letter to the women's societies of the church is inscribed on our records. Is there anything further to say? Whatever has happened since seems too recent to be chronicled, and may be left to the historian of our hundredth anniversary. But no record of work in the Stone Church would be complete that failed to make mention of one whose life, whose
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very face, was always an inspiration - faithful Miss Fitch! who than she ever more fully exemplified that word of wide meaning? As president of the Ladies' Society she was often in our meetings for a word of conference or suggestion, and when the secretary tells, in March of 1892, that the "Ladies' Societies of the three collegiate branches of the First Presbyterian Church convened for their last annual union meeting" in the newly built chapel with Miss Fitch presiding, she records one of the last public duties that filled that useful and noble life.
Miss Sarah E. Fitch, whose name appears fre- quently in the annals of the Stone Church, was the daughter of Gurdon Fitch, one of the incorporators of the First Presbyterian Church Society. When forty years of age he and his wife, with their five children, came in 1826 to Cleveland, and resided at the corner of Water and St. Clair Streets, where Mr. Fitch kept a tavern. He became a valuable member of the community, a justice of the peace, and was active in organizing Cleveland as a city in 1836. Miss Sarah E. Fitch was born in 1819 and died in 1893. From 1840 to 1856 she taught a private school in the Huron Street Academy, where her sincere, loving character made a life-long impression upon the pupils. In the days of more mature womanhood she devoted herself to ministrations among the poor, and it was mainly through her efforts that The Retreat, an in- stitution for erring women, was established. She assisted in the formation of the Woman's Christian Association; was its first president, and continued in that office until the time of her death. For some time previous to passing away, she was almost as valuable
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to the pastor of the Stone Church as a regularly em- ployed assistant might have been.
The Ladies' Society continued to exert great in- fluence, not only in caring for the interests of the mother church, but also for those of the new church enterprises which began to flourish extensively during Dr. Haydn's second pastorate. From 1885 until the seventy-fifth anniversary celebration in 1895, the Ladies' Society expended nine thousand three hun- dred thirty-six dollars, and continued to be what Dr. Aiken had termed it, "his helping hand."
At the time of the commencement of Dr. Haydn's second pastorate the session was composed of Elders John A. Foot, George H. Ely, Reuben F. Smith, Edwin C. Higbee, Sereno P. Fenn, Joseph E. Upson, Seymour F. Adams, R. J. Fuller, L. W. Bingham, and Henry M. Raymond, the last named serving as clerk. The board of trustees consisted of Messrs. J. L. Woods, Samuel E. Williamson, J. H. McBride, Rich- ard C. Parsons, W. S. Tyler, G. E. Herrick, and Samuel A. Raymond, clerk.
Thus the Stone Church, having recovered from the calamity of the second fire, found itself facing a most progressive, fruitful decade, with Calvary Mission in close affiliation. The Reverend Wilton Merle Smith was a stirring, magnetic preacher, with very effective social and pastoral gifts, ably seconded by a wife equal to her husband in winsome qualities of heart and mind. This young associate was soon sought by strong churches, and after a little less than five years' service in Cleveland he became pastor of the
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Central Presbyterian Church in New York City, where he remained until July 1, 1920, a period of thirty-one years.
In the spring of 1884 Calvary Chapel had two hun- dred communicants, with four hundred five pupils in the Sunday School, and the previous year over four thousand dollars had been raised. During the church year 1884-1885 the collegiate organization reported eight hundred eighty-nine members, with eight hun- dred sixty-five pupils in the Sunday Schools. During 1886 one hundred twenty members were added, making a total membership of nine hundred fifty. The associated pastors alternated in serving the col- legiate organizations. The need of a lady city mis- sionary, suggested in 1886, prompted the securing of Miss Spencer.
The Reverend Wilton Merle-Smith proposed a mis- sion for the territory bounded by North Perry Street on the east, Water Street on the west, Superior Street on the south, with the lake on the north. A canvass of this district revealed fourteen hundred Americans, five hundred Germans, and one hundred of other nationalities. The total membership of the collegiate organizations increased in 1887 to one thousand twenty-four, with a total Sunday School enrollment of eight hundred twenty-five.
During Dr. Haydn's second pastorate Cleveland hastened rapidly toward her metropolitan estate, with an increasing prophecy of one million inhabitants. The census of 1880 had credited the city with one hundred sixty thousand people; that of 1890 with
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two hundred sixty-one thousand; while the enumera- tion of 1900 gave three hundred seventy-one thou- sand, or a gain of two hundred ten thousand inhabit- ants in twenty years.
When Dr. William H. Goodrich came to Cleveland in 1858 the streets were open to any capitalists willing to build a street railway. At the beginning of Dr. Haydn's second pastorate the traction privileges were becoming valuable prizes, the leading issue of munic- ipal elections.
As early as 1875 the East Cleveland Street Railway Company experimented with electric power. The underground system on Garden and Quincy Streets proved unsatisfactory, but it had the merit of having been the first trial of its kind in the United States. Ten years later the Superior and Payne Avenue lines were transformed at an enormous expense into cable roads. In 1879 Tom L. Johnson came to Cleveland and bought some bankrupt car-lines, and his aggress- ive tactics stirred the other traction companies. The overhead electric system was at length applied to all lines, which first were merged into the Big and Little Consolidated Companies, and finally into the Cleve- land Electric Railway Company.
This development of rapid transit facilities changed radically the city's residential sections. Citizens who had lived two miles from the business center, and who had been accustomed to spend half an hour riding to their work on the horse-cars, could now reside four miles from the Public Square and spend only the same time going to and from their business. "Payne's
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Pastures," which had remained unallotted near the down-town district in order to be sold ultimately at enhanced valuation for residence purposes, were de- prived by rapid transit of that disposition and a generation passed before the property was demanded for factory sites. The revolution in rapid transit greatly expanded the population.
Gordon and Wade Parks were then given to the city, leading to other benefactions in the line of park and boulevard development. The long Central Via- duct dedicated in 1888 brought the hitherto isolated South Side, or "Heights," into closer relation with the business center. Wealthy citizens began in 1889 to make large bequests for the advancement of art, such as those of John Huntington, Horace Kelley, and H. B. Hurlbut. The Art Museum in Wade Park was slow in materializing, but the city now delights in its possession.
Municipal affairs during this second pastorate of Dr. Haydn were under the guidance of Mayors John Farley, George W. Gardner, Robert Blee, William G. Rose, and Robert McKisson. With the exception of the last named these mayors were retired business men, but the election in 1895 of Robert McKisson placed in the mayor's chair a young aggressive law- yer. Mayor George W. Gardner, who served two terms, had spent his youth in the Stone Church, to which his family belonged. His parents had come to Cleveland in 1837, and the father was a member of the Vincent and Gardner Furniture Company. Mayor Gardner's brother, the Reverend Theodore Y. Gard-
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ner, graduated from Western Reserve College and Union Seminary and served both Presbyterian and Congregational Churches. He possessed artistic ability and to him is due the faithful picture of the original Stone Church, sketched from memory. He also fashioned the medallion heads of Dr. Aiken and Dr. Goodrich which have long hung on the north chapel wall. There were two other Gardner brothers, James P., who served in the Civil War and became a newspaper writer, and Samuel S., whose widow is a member of the committee on centennial celebration, serving as secretary. Mrs. S. S. Gardner has long been an efficient worker in many departments of the Stone Church.
During Dr. Haydn's second pastorate Cleveland took swift commercial strides, under the inspiration of the Board of Trade, in time the more potent Cham- ber of Commerce. The population extended eastward toward Euclid Creek and westward in the direction of Rocky River, a stretch of twenty miles along the shore of Lake Erie, but the movement of population southward had been checked by unbridged valleys. These natural chasms, however, are being overcome and a southward extension of population is assured.
During this remarkable expansion of municipal bounds, the Stone Church under the leadership of Dr. Haydn caught the spirit of religious upbuilding and entered upon an era of extraordinary activity. Toward the close of 1887 in addition to his regular duties Dr. Haydn assumed the presidency of Western Reserve University, when that institution was beset
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with many difficulties. This extra educational serv- ice was only designed to prepare the way for the calling of an educator of national reputation and was temporary in Dr. Haydn's estimation. This educa- tional service will be treated in a later chapter, but the laborious work assumed at the very beginning of Dr. Haydn's second pastorate should be borne in mind while following his ministerial labors.
Cleveland Presbyterians had long refrained from locating a church on the West Side, a hesitancy due to the Plan of Union spirit of cooperation between Congregationalists and Presbyterians. Throughout the Western Reserve these denominations are not to be found in one place, unless the population warrants their coexistence. Where the two are found in a small city, it is generally due to the fact that a Pres- byterian quarrel prompted the formation of a Con- gregational church. On account of its independency in polity that denomination has inherited polemic colonies from various religious bodies. This has been true a number of times in Cleveland, not only in the case of Trinity Congregational Church, formed from the Bolton Avenue Presbyterian Church, but also the United Congregational Church, organized by seceding members of the Shafer Memorial M. E. Church.
So long as the West Side constituted a small city its Congregational churches protested against every Presbyterian movement in that direction. In 1870, however, an effort was made to establish a Presby- terian mission west of the Cuyahoga River, but it failed. The Presbyterian Union in 1873 took steps
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to repeat the experiment, but the panic of 1873 de- feated the effort. After two more vain attempts had been made, the fifth trial proved successful. Through the efforts of Mr. Charles Fay of the Stone Church forty children were gathered the first Sunday in January, 1888, in the Ohio Business College on Pearl [West Twenty-fifth] Street.
Mr. Fay acted under the direction of the Reverend Wilton Merle Smith. Previous to the organization of this mission the Stone Church junior pastor had conferred with various West Side ministers, to whom it was declared that there was no immediate inten- tion of forming a church, but merely of meeting the needs of a neglected class of children and to furnish opportunity for Christian service to West Side Pres- byterians, mainly members of the Stone Church.
The project received the endorsement of the West Side pastors, and within six months the mission en- rolled four hundred pupils. At the time this school was inaugurated the Reverend Giles H. Dunning was called to assist in the Stone Church, while Dr. Haydn was giving considerable time to college duties. After frequent requests had come for preaching services, the officers of the Stone Church asked the Reverend Giles H. Dunning to canvass the West Side field. Having become convinced that the time had arrived for a Presbyterian congregation west of the river, Bethany Presbyterian Church was organized on July 2, 1889, in the rooms of the Ohio Business College, where the mission had started eighteen months be- fore. Of the sixty-one charter members twenty-two
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came from the Stone Church. The Reverend Giles H. Dunning left the mother congregation to become pas- tor of Bethany Church, over which he was installed August 1, 1889. For five years the new enterprise worshiped in the Wieber Block, but on April 1, 1894, a site was purchased at a cost of four thousand dol- lars at the corner of Gordon Avenue and West Clinton Street, and on June 2, 1895, a ten thousand dollar chapel was dedicated. The Reverend Giles H. Dun- ning was succeeded by the Reverend Wilber C. Mickey, D.D., who is in his eighteenth year of service.
When the Reverend Wilton Merle-Smith resigned on April 1, 1889, to go to New York City, the mem- bership of the two collegiate churches was eleven hun- dred seventy-three. Within four months the Rev- erend Joseph H. Selden was called from Erie, Pa., and installed on June 28, 1887. The Reverend Edward G. Selden, brother of the pastor-elect, of Springfield, Mass., delivered the sermon; the Reverend Samuel P. Sprecher, D.D., of the Euclid Avenue Church, gave both charges to pastor and people; while the Rev- erend Drs. Hiram C. Haydn, Chas. S. Pomeroy, Ebenezer Bushnell, and Paul F. Sutphen participated in the exercises.
Having launched the West Side church, attention was at once turned to the strengthening of the col- legiate type of church life by erecting for Calvary Chapel a permanent house of worship. The stone chapel dedicated in 1883 had furnished ample facili- ties for Sunday worship, the original wooden building facing Euclid Avenue having been used for the pri-
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