USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The Old stone church; the story of a hundred years, 1820-1920 > Part 16
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mary Sunday School department, until at a cost of five thousand dollars the stone chapel facing East Seventy-ninth Street was enlarged. The wooden relic of earlier days then gave way to the elegant edifice now known as Calvary Presbyterian Church. Commenced in the fall of 1887 it was first used on January 5, 1890, and its cost was eighty thousand dollars.
From the beginning of this mission in 1880 the mother church had, besides sharing its ministry, in- vested in the enterprise over forty thousand dollars. Local church expenses, however, had been largely met by Calvary's constituency.
Before the Calvary Mission's edifice had been suc- cessfully completed, Dr. Haydn, while still bearing educational burdens, led his people to greater church extension. The trustees met April 7, 1890, and accepted a warranty deed for a lot at the northwest corner of Cedar and Bolton Avenues [the latter now East Eighty-ninth Street]. Elders J. E. Upson, James W. Stewart, and L. W. Bingham were appointed to build a chapel on this site, provided no debt was incurred.
The trustees also resolved that the pastoral care of the new chapel should not rest entirely upon Dr. Haydn or his assistant. Thus on April 14, 1890, the trustees sanctioned the calling of an assistant pastor at a salary not to exceed two thousand dollars, to be supported equally by the Old Stone and Calvary congregations, but on condition that he reside west of Huntington Street [East Eighteenth Street] and
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devote all his time, with the exception of preaching, to the down-town parish.
The trustees received on September 15, 1890, a recommendation from the session that the Reverend Burt Estes Howard, of Bay City, Mich., be called as an assistant, at a salary of twenty-five hundred dol- lars. During the fall of 1890, through the leadership of Dr. Haydn, a chapel had been erected on the Bolton Avenue site. The fifteen thousand dollars expense for both site and building was borne by the Old Stone and Calvary congregations, and so three collegiate constituencies, the Stone Church, Calvary, and Bolton Chapels, were created. The Reverend Burt Estes Howard was installed on De- cember 12, 1890, according to the following exercises :
To preside, Rev. E. P. Cleaveland, moderator; to preach the sermon, Rev. Wilton Merle-Smith of New York Pres- bytery; to charge the pastor, Rev. Hiram C. Haydn, D.D .; to charge the people, Rev. Chas. S. Pomeroy, D.D.
The total membership of the three collegiate churches increased in 1891 to eleven hundred ninety-five, and the next year to thirteen hundred thirty-eight com- municants, with eleven hundred seventy pupils in the Sunday Schools.
No sooner had the Bolton Avenue Chapel been finished than the Stone Church improved her own Sunday School facilities. The trustees appointed on April 27, 1891, Messrs. Martyn Bonnell, D. R. Tay- lor, and C. O. Scott a committee to erect at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars a new chapel north of the church auditorium. A year later the sum of seventeen hundred dollars more was raised to finish the chapel.
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The collegiate existence of three congregations proved to have been at best a temporary policy de- signed to give the two natural outgrowths of the mother church as good a start as possible. The rapid growth of Calvary Chapel soon prompted her mem- bers to seek independence. At a union meeting of the sessions and boards of trustees of the three con- gregations, held on March 21, 1892, the collegiate system was thoroughly discussed, and finally Elder George H. Ely made the motion :
Resolved, that the triplicate relation now existing between the three churches be dissolved.
After long discussion the following, presented by Judge Samuel E. Williamson, was adopted :
Resolved, that in the opinion of this meeting the present collegiate relation of the congregations of this church be dissolved; that three churches and societies be formed with pastors for each; that the Stone Church congrega- tion should have Dr. Haydn as its pastor, with an assist- ant, and that the Stone and Calvary congregations should give Bolton Chapel needed assistance, until it also is able to be self-sustaining.
Articles of Incorporation signed by J. H. McBride, L. W. Bingham, J. H. Danforth, and J. E. Upson, were obtained on May 3, 1892, and Sunday afternoon, May 22, 1892, commissioners of Cleveland Presbytery organized Calvary Presbyterian Church, with three hundred eight members from the Stone Church, two from Woodland Avenue, and one from the Case Ave- nue Church, a total of three hundred eleven charter communicants. This was a propitious beginning sel-
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dom enjoyed by a new church. The Reverend David O. Mears, D.D., the first pastor, was installed on April 23, 1893, and during his brief service of a little over two years three hundred members were added, two hundred forty-three having been received by letter, showing how prolific the community was with church members who having moved to a new locality were ready to find a new church home. In this cen- tennial year the Reverend Adelbert P. Higley, D.D., is pastor of the flourishing Calvary Presbyterian Church.
The Reverend Joseph H. Selden, who had been associate pastor for five years, resigned on June 6, 1892, in order to accept a call to the Congregational Church, Elgin, Ill., and to allow Calvary Church at the time of its formal organization to select a new pastor.
When the Reverend Joseph H. Selden presented his resignation, that of the Reverend Burt Estes Howard was also offered, and on June 10, 1892, it was accepted, he having received a call to the First Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles, Cal. Before either of these pastoral relations had been dissolved, steps had been taken to secure two new assistants, one to aid Dr. Haydn in the Stone Church and the other to care for Bolton Avenue Chapel. The Rev- erend Robert A. George, pastor of the First United Presbyterian Church of Cleveland, was invited to take charge of the Bolton Avenue Chapel, but he was not installed. The Reverend William A. Knight, how- ever, was called from the Madison Avenue Congre-
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gational Church of Cleveland and installed as assis- tant in the Stone Church. The Reverend Paul F. Sutphen, D.D., preached the sermon; the Reverend Hiram C. Haydn, D.D., charged the pastor, and the Reverend James D. Williamson, D.D., the people.
At a meeting of the trustees held on May 16, 1892 Dr. Haydn read a characteristic communication re- garding the necessity of improving financial condi- tions at the Stone Church. He said :
They need to be improved for we do not make ends meet. The reason is incident to our location as a down-town church. The situation can be improved in two ways. First by a partial endowment, say of fifty to seventy-five thousand dollars, that is already begun in the Mygatt fund, and individual gifts amounting to about ten thou- sand dollars. This should be increased by gifts of the living and by bequests until if possible seventy-five thou- sand dollars is reached. The service can then be main- tained at its best for a hundred years or more. It may also be said that it is desirable that so far as the owners may be willing, property rights in the pews be quit- ยท claimed to the trustees, the present holders to retain their right to occupy them so long as they elect. Nobody nowadays builds churches to be owned this way. Of course this must be voluntary if at all. Secondly the present system of assessment should be abandoned, and subscriptions of so much a week solicited to keep this old church open at its best.
In the light of this recommendation adopted by the trustees, Dr. Haydn was not anticipating the aban- donment of the ancient church site for centuries to come.
A year later at the time of building the Chamber of
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Commerce edifice, a movement arose to supplant the Stone Church. This prompted Cleveland Presbytery to pass this minute:
The Presbytery unanimously adopted a paper earnestly protesting its hope that the trustees and congregation of the Old Stone Church will refuse to sell the property to the Chamber of Commerce, as now desired, since we believe it is needed now, and has a mission no less than in the years gone by.
The narrative of events during the second pastorate of Dr. Haydn presents him as an ever-moving, pro- pelling force, continuing the best possible service in the down-town church, bearing the transitional bur- dens of a new university, and at the same time exhort- ing members of the Stone Church to give themselves and their money for church extension, if perchance the latter might keep pace with the swiftly growing city.
After the dissolution of the collegiate type of church organization, the Stone and Calvary Churches gave their special fostering care to the Bolton Avenue Chapel. The road, however, to the independence of the Bolton Avenue Church proved rough and some- what disastrous. The congregation and Sunday School grew until in addition to the chapel accom- modations a church auditorium had become impera- tive. During the church year 1893-1894 a church edifice was constructed at a cost of twenty-five thou- sand dollars and dedicated on November 8, 1894, but in the spring of that year the congregation was rent in twain, when more than half the members and the greater portion of the Sunday School withdrew, with
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the Reverend Robert A. George, to form the Trinity Congregational Church. The immediate cause of the division was an attempt of the Stone Church officers to close the supply service of the Reverend R. A. George, in hope of securing a permanent pastor in whom the parish might be fully united, by the time the new church was completed.
The disruption was somewhat spectacular. The seceders built within a week a long shed-like building upon a Bolton Avenue lot just north of their former place of worship, and there services were held until permanent quarters could be constructed on Cedar Avenue, west of the Bolton Avenue Church. As long as the participants in this division remained in the congregation there was considerable strength, but after their removal and the coming of radical changes in the community the church became so weak that in recent years it has been difficult to support a pas- tor. The polemic Congregational church, further- more, was organized on the border of the Euclid Avenue Congregational parish to the north and east, and almost on the territory of another Congregational church to the southwest. Recent attempts have been made to unite the Bolton Avenue Presbyterian and the Trinity Congregational Churches, but the efforts thus far have proven futile.
In June of 1894 the Bolton Avenue Presbyterian Church extended a call to the Reverend John Sheri- dan Zelie, of the Congregational Church, Plymouth, Conn., and around him the numerically weakened congregation rallied. It became an independent
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church on May 3, 1896, when one hundred seventy- one members were received from the mother church, and on the same day the Reverend John Sheridan Zelie was installed pastor. This service of installation differed a little from the usual formal exercises. Instead of a sermon and charges to the pastor and people, addresses were delivered by the Reverend Ebenezer Bushnell, D.D., stated clerk of Presbytery; by the Reverend Robert G. Hutchins, D.D., pastor of the Woodland Avenue Presbyterian Church, and by Elder Harry A. Garfield, of the Euclid Avenue Presbyterian Church, now president of Williams Col- lege. In this centennial year of the mother church the Reverend Elliot Field, D.D., is pastor of the Bolton Avenue Presbyterian Church.
While the Stone Church pastor and officers were fostering Calvary and Bolton Avenue Chapels, other new enterprises were attracting their attention. The North Church, formed by a colony from the Stone Church, still received aid, although an independent congregation. The South Presbyterian Church on Scranton Road, corner of Prame Avenue, grew from a mission Sunday School started in the latter part of 1890 by the Reverend William Gaston, D.D., of the North Church. The Presbyterian Union assumed direct control of the enterprise and employed the Reverend James D. Corwin to take charge of the mission, in connection with a similar enterprise of the North Church in the northeastern part of the city. The South Church was organized on January 21, 1892, and today has a substantial church edifice, con-
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structed during the pastorate of the Reverend George A. Mackintosh, D.D. The present pastor is the Rev- erend Harry H. Bergen.
The other mission in which Dr. William Gaston and his people had become interested was a Sunday School organized on January 6, 1890, on Becker Avenue. After the Reverend James D. Corwin had accepted a call to become the first pastor of the South Church, the Reverend Charles L. Chalfant came from Pitts- burgh to take charge of the Becker Avenue Mission, under the direction of the North Church session. This was organized into the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church on September 14, 1892, with ninety charter members, sixty-four of whom came from the North Church.
While the personal workers in the new enterprise were members of the North Church, financial support came mainly from the Stone and Calvary churches. Through the instrumentality of Dr. Haydn over nine thousand dollars was raised in these two congrega- tions for the new enterprise. The Madison Avenue Church afterwards became the Westminster Presby- terian Church, which occupies a completed church edifice located on Wade Park Avenue, corner of Addi- son Road. The Reverend Basil R. King is the present pastor.
In the fall of 1892, through the farseeing action of Dr. Haydn, another religious enterprise was launched. Having noticed the drift of population toward East Cleveland, or what had been known as Collamer, Dr. Haydn purchased a lot at the southeast corner
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of Euclid Avenue and Windermere Street, repeating what he had done in starting the Bolton Avenue Church. The property was transferred to the Pres- byterian Union, which constructed a chapel at once. This was opened for worship on May 6, 1894, and cost almost eight thousand dollars.
This new field was united with another whose in- ception came early in 1893. Dr. William Gaston, of the North Church, having members residing in the Glenville section, fostered a cottage prayer-meeting in the home of Dr. Irwin C. Carlisle on Doan, near St. Clair Street. A Sunday School was organized in a schoolhouse on June 25, 1893. Later Sunday after- noon sessions were held in the Disciple Church, and these were followed by preaching services by various city pastors. At the suggestion of Dr. Haydn the Glen- ville Presbyterian Church was organized on June 10, 1894, and the Reverend Charles L. Zorbaugh was called to assume charge of the Windermere and Glen- ville congregations. The Glenville Church entered its fine stone chapel at the corner of Doan and Helena Streets on May 15, 1895. This edifice was financed largely by leading members of the Stone Church and by the late Elder Louis H. Severance, of the Wood- land Avenue Church. The original chapel has been greatly enlarged, and the Reverend Arthur H. Limouze is the present pastor.
The Reverend Charles L. Zorbaugh then devoted all his time to the Windermere Chapel, the Reverend T. Y. Gardner having been elected pastor of the Glenville Church. For some time the Windermere
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enterprise had to await the coming of a surrounding population, but many families soon settled in the locality and on January 5, 1896, the Windermere Presbyterian Church was formed with thirty charter members. The Reverend Charles L. Zorbaugh was installed on February 10, 1896, as the first pastor and remained fifteen years in charge of the parish. The original chapel is now a small part of the fine church edifice and Sunday School building. Of the flourish- ing congregation the Reverend Louis F. Ruf is now pastor.
In the work of strengthening older churches Dr. Haydn was as alert as he was in founding new ones. The Beckwith Memorial Church constructed in 1891 its main building at a cost of twenty-six thousand dollars. At the dedication on May 15, 1892, the Reverend Charles S. Pomeroy, D.D., pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of which Mr. T. S. Beck- with was for many years an elder, delivered the ser- mon in the afternoon and Dr. Haydn occupied the pulpit in the evening. While Second Presbyterian Church members furnished the greater financial assistance, thanks were publicly expressed to "the pastors and members of the Second and Old Stone Churches."
To the senior pastor of the Stone Church the East Cleveland Presbyterian Church likewise looked for financial inspiration, when after eighty-eight years of existence that congregation undertook to construct the fine stone edifice which was dedicated on Nov- ber 3, 1895. This modern church building supplanted
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the one of New England meeting-house type con- structed in 1820, the year that witnessed the birth of the Stone Church.
During all this era of vigorous expansion Dr. Haydn rejoiced in the improvements made in the mother church. Early in 1893 thanks were expressed by the trustees to Mr. W. S. Tyler for his "presentation of a screen of oak and stained glass to provide better protection of the congregation from the draught en- tering the front doors."
A South Water Street lot deeded to the church by the George Mygatt estate was sold in 1887 for five thousand dollars and the amount applied to the general endowment fund. At the same time mention was made of the Eliza Giddings legacy, and the trustees sold a lot on Aaron Street, the former site of the North Church, for three thousand five hundred dollars, showing that the land had never been trans- ferred to the North Church society. At a session meeting held on March 19, 1894, Dr. Haydn an- nounced that Mrs. Eliza A. Clark had left the Stone Church seventy-five thousand dollars.
A letter from Mrs. S. V. Harkness was read by Dr. Haydn in October of 1895, offering a six thousand dollar organ in memory of her daughter, Mrs. Flor- ence Harkness Severance. Grateful acknowledgment of the memorial gift was made by the trustees, who authorized Dr. Haydn to dispose of the old organ in any way that he might see fit, and to use the proceeds for the benefit of the Bolton Avenue Chapel. In addi- tion to the systematic support of every benevolent
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board of the Presbyterian Church and of the Pres- byterian Union of Cleveland the Stone Church min- utes frequently record special gifts to churches, such as South New Lyme, Parma, Akron Central, Beth- any, and North congregations.
The only record of a home missionary opportunity that escaped Dr. Haydn was the offer of Patrick Cal- houn, made in the early part of 1897. This was a lot said to be valued at ten thousand dollars and five thousand dollars in cash, providing the Stone Church would back an enterprise on Euclid Heights with a like amount. This offer was referred by the trustees to the extension committee of the Presbyterian Union, but was never accepted.
The zeal of Dr. Haydn for foreign missions, as seen in his first settlement in the Stone Church and in the service which he rendered the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, came to a natural climax during the second pastorate. The origin of that enthusiasm for religious work abroad came very early in his life, according to these words:
I was always in for foreign missions, and well do I re- member how in the winter of 1850 a little handful of people waited upon God around the stove in one corner of a big meeting-house, and prayed that the last half of the century might be signalized by a marvellous spread of the gospel; that doors might be opened and a highway thrown up for the coming King among all peoples. How little was then really known of Asia and Africa seems scarcely credible in the light of the present, with Africa parcelled out among European powers, and traversed from center to circumference.
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In view of Dr. Haydn's love of foreign missionary endeavor and his ceaseless activity in behalf of home missions, no one could parry the force of his foreign missionary appeals with the retort that he first "sweep before his own door."
The Stone Church trustees received from Dr. Haydn, March 24, 1894, a communication containing these lines :
This is my tenth year of the second term of service. I am fagged out and need a rest. I therefore ask that I be allowed to run at large the last three months of the year that ends in September. I do not wish the society to incur any extra expense, and therefore I will stand the charge over and above the vacation to which I am entitled.
This request was granted, but no lessening of the salary was permitted. At the same meeting the trustees expressed the gratitude of the church to Mrs. Amasa Stone for her generous gift of fifteen thousand dollars to the endowment fund. Part of the formal expression of thanks was:
The society is under renewed obligations to Mrs. Stone for the ability to maintain a house of worship upon the old site and to continue there the work which becomes constantly more important with the growth of the city and the gradual change in the location of churches and homes, and which is rendered sacred by its association with the names of so many who have found the Stone Church a blessing to themselves and have made it a blessing to the world.
On the eve of his three months' leave of absence in Europe, Dr. Haydn delivered a tenth anniversary
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sermon on June 10, 1894. Extracts from this sum- mary are interesting:
We are face to face this morning with a ten years' pas- torate - my second in this place. When I thought by your gracious suffrages to return my friends in New York shook their heads - "a second pastorate is a riskful thing to undertake." One of the best and wisest friends asked if I thought I could "be happy in Cleveland having lived in New York?" My answer was that I thought I could be happy where my work was. So I came back in ardent hopefulness. The story of these years is not that of a single congregation nor an individual pastorate, but one in association with young men in the ministry of a church with one branch, and then two and in close affiliation with the North Church, our child. We have had in the fellowship of this ministry good men and true who have gone into other fields, in some cases of conspicuous usefulness. We have seen Calvary housed and made independent and prosperous, and the Bolton Avenue congregation will soon be rejoicing in their new church and independent existence. We have not been exclusively caring for our own things, but broadly look- ing at the work of the kingdom in our city and the world. This has called for a willingness to surrender our mem- bers, and to invest our money, in the interest of a wider reach of influence for good. We have dismissed our mem- bership not only singly, but in bodies of twenty-two, one hundred and thirty and three hundred to constitute other churches. In all nine hundred and twenty-eight have gone out from us by letter. Naturally our attention is turned to the changes in our ranks. These have been both many and serious. There have been removed by death one hundred and two. Of these seven had been elders and six in active service during a part of this period - Messrs. Mygatt, Vail, Coe, Fuller, Foot, Sack- rider, Ely; two had served as trustees, Messrs. Harvey
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and Ely; two as treasurer of the society, Messrs. Charles and William Whitaker, father and son; one, Arthur Cutter, was clerk of session. Of laymen there were Messrs. John Proudfoot, Col. Chas. Whittlesey, Lyman Strong, George Freeman, Dr. E. Cushing; nor should we fail to mention those worthy and useful men, Messrs. Austin, Burt, and John L. Woods, two of them trustees. And of honorable women, Mesdames Weddell, Foot, Sarah and "Aunt Abby" Fitch, Andrews, Whitelaw, Whittlesey, Strong, Kidder, Smyth, Thome, Woods, Merrill, Neil, Van Ness, Clark, Starkweather, Herrick. The ages of a considerable portion of these ranged from seventy-five to ninety-nine years. Many were octogenarians whose connection with the church ranged back to the days of small but mighty things, and to the village estate of our city. The mention of these names - how it turns the leaves of memory, and the dear images of our departed rise up before us to receive our salutation and to bid us be of good cheer. And there is a little circle of young women who seemed to have been cut off in an untimely way - Lillie Wick Crowell, Allie G. White, Flora Tennis, Kittie Worley, Elsie McKay, Emma Welch, Daisy Brown Eddy. Oh, the tears and the triumphs that are strewn along the pathway of a decade of years! We have received into our fellowship by confession of faith five hundred and ninety-one, and by letter six hundred and twenty-five, a total of twelve hundred and sixteen. There have been under instruction in Sunday Schools, yearly, from six hundred and ninety-seven to one thousand three hundred and twenty-six. We have disbursed one million, two hundred and twenty thousand, five hundred and forty dollars, largely to the work of higher education and to church building within the city. Just a word in conclu- sion. The providence of God still gives to this church a loyal constituency. Loyal souls have nobly stood behind to make our exchequer equal to our real needs.
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