USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > History of the Parish of the Holy Apostles, Philadelphia : 1868-1918 > Part 2
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"So write me word that you will come. Let this be our token that no episcopate can break the friend- ship of so many years, and show the world that we belong together even if they have made their efforts to tear us from one another. I claim your presence as my right.
"I do not know that I feel right about it all; only it seems to me to be a new and broader opportunity to serve the Master whom we have been loving and serv- ing all this long ministry, and with the opportunity I believe that He will give me strength; that's all, and I am very happy. . God bless you, dear Cooper,
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and make us faithful, and give us the great joy at last."
For eight years Dr. Cooper was Rector Emeritus, gladly preaching as opportunity of- fered, and entered into rest October 11, 1902, in his eighty-ninth year. At the Memorial Service of November 2, 1902, Dr. Reese F. Alsop said: "His theology was of the old-fashioned evangeli- cal kind; we may perhaps call it the theology of the 'Pilgrim's Progress.'"
The vacancy in the rectorship caused con- siderable interest in the possible consolidation of the parish with Grace Church, the Church of the Epiphany and the Church of the Messiah. But nothing came of these suggestions, and on De- cember 29, 1894, the Rev. Henry S. Getz was elected rector. Coming to assist Dr. Cooper in January, 1884, he had entire supervision of the parish from the time of Dr. Cooper's resigna- tion, and the importance of the work may be understood from the fact that the communicant list contained nearly 1000 names, while the Sun- day-school numbered 1500, and that at the chapel numbered 600.
Mr. Getz's first rectorship had been at Christ Church, Media, Pa., and immediately be- fore coming to Philadelphia he had charge of Trinity Memorial Church, Warren, Pa. Mr. Getz was a native of Reading, Pa.
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1
REV. HENRY S. GETZ
REV. WILLIAM S. NEILL
On June 21, 1894, the Rev. John S. Bunting was elected as assistant minister. He had been an assistant minister at Holy Trinity Church, and remained with the Church of the Holy Apos- tles until June 7, 1899, when he resigned to accept the rectorship at Christiana Hundred, Del., having labored loyally for the parish while with it, and leaving behind many friends whom he had made by his spiritual zeal.
The same year that saw the church expand- ing and the starting of the Chapel of the Holy Communion saw the beginning of the expansion of the church property into the splendidly equipped parish buildings of today. It was on December 15, 1886, that Mr. George C. Thomas announced that he had caused a door to be cut through the wall of the Sunday-school Building into the property which he owned on Montrose Street. This subsequently developed into the Phillips Brooks Memorial Guild House, com- pleted and given by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas on March 3, 1893.
The second member of the Sunday-school to enter the ministry was the Rev. William S. Neill. He had been a member of the vestry and secre- tary of it for some years, and on September 6, 1896, resigned to become the rector's assistant, having been appointed by the rector as lay assistant in April, 1893. He was engaged at
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first to do parochial work as lay reader, giving part of his time to the work of the P. E. City Mission. His ordination on July 13, 1896, as a deacon, was the first ordination held in the church, and long, faithful, devoted service has made him appear as a part of the very fabric of the church.
The house, 2038 Christian Street, was pre- sented to the parish on December 14, 1898, by Mr. and Mrs. George C. Thomas, and was subse- quently altered and used as an administration building.
The Rev. Henry S. Getz tendered his resig- nation on April 12, 1899, and asked that it be ac- cepted at once. In acceding to this request the vestry "Resolved :- That it cannot accept this resignation without placing upon record its sense of devotion to the interests of the parish which the Rev. Henry S. Getz has shown during the entire period of his connection with it."
In May, 1899, Mr. George C. Thomas gave $6000 to the endowment fund of the church, and on September 12th of the same year gave $5000 more to that fund and $5000 to the chapel endowment fund.
As early as February, 1895, the vestry ex- pressed its desire to procure a rectory and $400 was raised for that purpose. Interest lapsed, however, but was revived after the successor of
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Mr. Getz came to the church, and on December 22, 1899, Mr. George C. Thomas reported that he had purchased the house 332 South Twenty- first Street for a rectory for $17,000, giving a generous amount towards it at the time, and while the parish was supposed to pay off the bal- ance, it, like so many other improvements, was quietly and unostentatiously paid for by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas.
The Rev. Nathaniel S. Thomas was nomi- nated as rector on August 29, 1899; he was then rector of St. Matthew's Church, Wheeling, W. Va. His father was the late Bishop Elisha S. Thomas, of Kansas. Mr. Thomas was born in 1867, in Faribault, Minn., educated in the public schools of St. Paul, and later graduated as a B. A. from the University of Minnesota; Pro- fessor of English Literature at St. John's Mili- tary Academy, Salina, Kansas; subsequently he studied three years at Cambridge University, England; then spent three years at a theological School at Ottawa; was Professor of New Testa- ment Exegesis in Kansas Theological School; in 1894 he was made rector of St. Paul's, Leaven- worth, Kansas, and in 1897 rector of St. Matthew's, Wheeling, W. Va.
In the summer and fall of 1901, Mr. George C. Thomas built the Cooper Battalion Hall and Gymnasium, for the use of the men and boys of
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the parish, with provision for the hall to be used for entertainments and other purposes.
And once more the opportunity came for missionary work in the southwestern section of the city, when the Convocation asked that the parish take the Chapel of St. Simon the Cyrenian under its care. This was done in October, 1902, and since then a parish and church building have been erected, for the use of the colored people in the neighborhood of Twenty-second and Reed Streets, and a vicarage purchased.
On December 11, 1901, the Rev. Charles Rowland Hill was nominated assistant minister. He had been Archdeacon of Kansas, and while with Holy Apostles made a host of friends. He was an acceptable preacher, with a remarkable memory and fondness for poetry. After two years with this parish he was called to the Church of St. Matthias, Nineteenth and Wallace Streets, January 30, 1904.
The buildings of the parish continued to grow rapidly under the munificence of Mr. George C. Thomas. On June 17, 1902, he pre- sented the properties 2030-32-34-36 Christian Street to the church and deposited his check for $50,000, from which payments could be paid as necessary in the construction of the new Sun- day-school and parish building, of which Messrs. Duhring, Okie & Ziegler were the architects.
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RT. REV. NATHANIEL S. THOMAS, D.D.
The building was called the Richard Newton Memorial Building, in honor of Mr. Thomas's old rector at St. Paul's. The total cost of this and the remodeling of the old Sunday-school building, the main room of which was converted into a gymnasium for girls, was over $100,000, and to this Mr. Thomas added an endowment of $30,000, thus completing and endowing as per- fect a plant for its purpose as can be found.
The endowment funds were further aug- mented by Mr. Thomas on September 10, 1902, when he gave $8000 to the church and $5000 to the Chapel of the Holy Communion, bringing those funds up to $35,000 and $16,000, respec- tively, and in 1903, when he added $14,000 to the Chapel of the Holy Communion endowment, raising that up to $30,000.
To help bring the men of the parish closer together the "Annual Dinner" was planned, and although got up in the short time of eleven days, one hundred and seventy-five men sat down to- gether on the evening of November 2, 1902, and the institution has been successful to a much greater degree every year since.
On February 20, 1904, the Rev. Robert Long, of the Protestant Episcopal City Mission staff, was elected as assistant to the rector, and did a quiet, efficient work until the spring of 1909. His readiness to serve on all occasions, and the ear-
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nest, conscientious discharge of his duties made for him a host of warm friends.
At the suggestion of the rector, a deaconess was attached to the staff, entering upon her duties in November, 1907. Miss Harriet Rear- don, "a woman of education, culture and rare tact," as the rector said, was much beloved and remained with the church until her health failed, leaving for the west in January, 1911.
The rector also asked that the envelope sys- tem of offerings be introduced, and these were first used on May 1, 1907, and in the year this system was used $2061.64 was added to the rev- enue of the church.
In the latter part of May, 1906, overtures were made from the Church of the Mediator, Nineteenth and Lombard Streets, looking to a consolidation with the parish of the Holy Apos- tles. These were most happily concluded, and resulted, by the consolidation of the Church of the Mediator and the Church of the Reconcilia- tion, at Fifty-first and Spruce Streets, in the present Chapel of the Mediator. At the time the Chapel of the Mediator became a part of the parish there were two hundred and sixteen com- municants of the Church of the Holy Apostles resident within its parochial limits. But the history of that part of the parish belongs more
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properly to the story of the Chapel of the Medi- ator, which is presented in another place.
In submitting the annual report for the year 1907, the Church Warden, Mr. George C. Thomas, noted that he had been accounting warden from the formation of the parish, and during those forty years one and one-half mil- lions of dollars had passed through his hands, without counting what had been handled for the Sunday-school. In this connection it is well to point out the element of loyalty which has al- ways been a conspicuous characteristic of the history of the parish. From the Wardens down through the communicant list there has ever been a desire to stay with the parish under the most inconvenient conditions. There have been only two accounting wardens in almost fifty years; Mr. George W. Jacobs succeeding Mr. Thomas. There have been only two rector's Wardens; Mr. Lewis H. Redner, being succeeded many years ago by Mr. William R. Chapman, who is still with the church.
The rector writes about the two present wardens of the parish as follows :-
MR. WILLIAM R. CHAPMAN, THE RECTOR'S WARDEN
No one has witnessed more intimately than the second and present rector's warden the
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growth of the parish from the time of its little beginnings. No one has been more faithful and loyal to it than he. In heat and cold, in fat times and lean, he has always been in his place helping to share the burdens and to participate in the joys of the service of his Lord. Sincere in his faith, stalwart in his discipleship, he has been a bulwark of strength to the parish.
MR. GEORGE W. JACOBS, THE ACCOUNTING WARDEN
When Mr. George C. Thomas was called to his reward the parish laid the heavy burden of the accounting wardenship upon the shoulders of Mr. George W. Jacobs. It has been a heavy burden, almost one man's work in itself, but somehow he has spared the time and strength out of his busy life to give to this task. How, no one knows, for it has meant hours and days beyond count. And always it has been a labor of love, for few things are so dear to him as his church.
Known widely and far as a Church publish- er, he is known more intimately to us as a sin- gularly devoted and zealous member of the parish. Always has he been a vitally interested and stimulating companion in the household of faith. To the rectors he has been loyalty itself,
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-
MR. WILLIAM R. CHAPMAN
MR. GEORGE W. JACOBS
and to the members of the parish a loved and trusted companion and guide.
Teachers and officers of the Sunday-school have grown gray in harness, and have lived to see their grandchildren following in their foot- steps, and members residing in adjoining States still claim membership.
For the second time since coming to the Church of the Holy Apostles, the Rector, the Rev. Nathaniel S. Thomas, was elected by the House of Bishops to a Missionary Bishopric. In 1902 he declined the election to the missionary district of Salina, but when the second call came he informed the vestry, on February 26, 1909, that he felt constrained to accept the election.
At the consecration of Bishop Thomas, which occurred in the church, on Thursday, May 6, 1909, at 11 A. M., there was a ceremony, such as in many respects occurred there only once be- fore, and that was at the dedication of the tower. There were about one hundred and seventy-five vested clergy in the procession, besides the ten Bishops. The Presiding Bishop, Daniel S. Tut- tle, S. T. D., was the consecrator. Unvested clergy and lay people crowded the church.
The clergy of the diocese presented Bishop Thomas with a complete filing system; the ladies of the parish gave him his episcopal robes, and
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the officers and teachers of the Sunday-school presented him with a ring.
This began the series of events which seemed to threaten the parish with disruption ; but the work was the Master's, and the founda- tions were sure.
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Mr. George C. Thomas
.
1
MR. GEORGE C. THOMAS
MRS. GEORGE C. THOMAS
MR. GEORGE C. THOMAS
There has been one outstanding figure in the life of the Church of the Holy Apostles. No his- tory of the parish would be complete without considerable space devoted to him. With pro- phetic insight did Phillips Brooks choose him to be a vestryman and the superintendent of the Sunday-school of the new parish.
God must surely have directed him in the choice of Mr. George C. Thomas. With un- bounded generosity in the expenditure of his time, his strength and his means, he entered into the new work. Without previous experience as a superintendent of a Sunday-school (except a brief experience as head of the Boys' Depart- ment of St. Paul's) he set a new standard for all superintendencies, and his school became a model in efficiency and self-sacrifice in the spread of the kingdom to the whole Church.
His punctiliousness in attention to all the details incumbent upon a vestryman was a con- stant marvel to all who were associated with him in that capacity. This was the more re- markable because he carried other heavy bur- dens as one of the country's foremost bankers and member of almost innumerable boards and
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committees, both secular and ecclesiastical. To his generosity the parish in large part owes its almost unequaled group of buildings, housing its many activities, and the extension of its work into its three chapels. His work and enthusiasm for missions at the Church of the Holy Apostles became known, and brought him into even wider contact with the missionary agencies of the Church, until it became the logical thing for him to be appointed Treasurer of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. Then the whole church caught on fire from his enthusiasm, and there began the latter-day development of mis- sionary enterprise, of which the Church had not dreamed itself capable. No worthy cause ever appealed to him in vain. No missionary went to his task in his far-off field without a personal good-bye and a gift of money from the Treas- urer of the Board. To the poor, he was a gen- erous benefactor, to the hard-pressed an ever ready help, and to the discouraged he brought the stimulus of a boundless optimism and cheer- ing faith.
In 1904 Mr. Thomas was stricken with a sickness which forced him to withdraw from all work and ultimately retire from business. A long vacation in Europe followed, and on his re- turn he took up his place in life with a clear and vigorous mind until the end, with only a few
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days of complete helplessness, before he entered into rest, in his seventieth year, on April 21, 1909.
The out-poured expressions of praise and grief at his death, coming as they did from such widely different and scattered sources, were most exceptional. They tell the story of his life, and attest the place he occupied in the heart of his Church and city better than could be ex- pressed in any other way, for they come from those who companied with and observed him in his life.
For that purpose they are recorded here.
AN APPRECIATION OF MR. GEORGE C. THOMAS BY REV. NATHANIEL S. THOMAS
To write of George C. Thomas in connection with his work at the Church of the Holy Apos- tles, would be to write in detail the history of that remarkable parish. This, however, would carry me too far afield, though it must be borne in mind by the reader of these pages, that in every phase of parochial activity connected with the parish, in matters large and small, in counsel and in work, Mr. Thomas has been consciously the inspiring and unconsciously the determining force.
Paradoxically speaking, his interest in the parish began before it was born. I have heard him tell of the little group of kindred spirits who
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used to gather in the study of Phillips Brooks when that extraordinary man was the Rector of Holy Trinity parish. At one of these gatherings the talk turned to the need of evangelistic work in the southern section of the city. The sugges- tion came from Mr. Brooks. The credit of put- ting the suggestion into effective operation be- longs to Mr. Thomas. To his own, the lion's share, in the remarkable foundation, no one ever heard him refer. On the contrary, he never lost the opportunity of declaring Phillips Brooks, to- gether with the Rev. Samuel E. Appleton, were the clerical founders of the parish. Let us not quarrel over words. As a matter of fact, Mr. Thomas and a few laymen immediately took steps to organize evangelistic work on a perma- nent basis, somewhere in the locality indicated.
The first service was held in the lecture room of the Tabor Presbyterian Church, on Sunday evening, January 26, 1868, on which occasion the Rev. Phillips Brooks preached the sermon. Preparation had been made, however, for this service. In the same place, and on the same day, Mr. Thomas and a few others whom he had interested, had gathered previously from the neighborhood thirty-seven scholars as the foundation for a Sunday-school. To this work, and particularly to this Sunday-school, Mr. Thomas consecrated his life, though at the
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time he intended but to institute the work, look- ing forward to returning to the activities of his home parish as soon as a suitable person ap- peared to take his place.
Under his careful training, many a man well fitted to superintend a Sunday-school appeared, but the time never came when Mr. Thomas felt called to lay down the work at the Holy Apostles which he had begun, and was carrying on with such signal success. Here he steadfastly re- mained, for which not only the members of this parish, but the whole Church as well, may thank God, and take courage for the rarity of his example.
This example has been phenomenal. During the entire forty-one years of his superintend- ency, he was regularly in his place whenever by any possibility he could be there. Occasionally he was absent from the city on a Sunday, but never when it could be avoided, and the personal in- convenience and self-sacrifice to which he was subjected to accomplish this, has never been told. His vacations, when taken, were reduced to a minimum, and all engagements requiring absence from the city were so arranged that he could return to his Sunday duties. But the teachers knew it, and the scholars knew it, and in the knowledge, had so caught the spirit of their leader, that in 1904, when under the provi-
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dence of God, Mr. Thomas was stricken down with a sickness so severe that it forced him to withdraw from all work for a year, and ulti- mately to retire from business, the attendance and interest of the School was in no wise affected thereby, a fact the more remarkable, when, as is well known, the life of the School has ever centered in his personality and leadership.
It has never been my fortune to meet a man so fully imbued with a realization of setting a right and proper example in all things, nor one who so illustrates in his own life its power.
I have frequently heard him say in answer to the question, "How do you manage to sustain such interest among your scholars?" "It is largely due to the fidelity and example of our teachers." It was a sufficient answer, no doubt, but the question must of necessity have further questioning. "Whence comes the fidelity and ex- ample of the teachers but from the leader who was ever in his place, both in the School and in the Friday evening Teachers' Lesson Study classes, which he taught without break or hin- drance for forty-one years?"
Nor was his concern for personal example confined to his relations to the Sunday-school. It asserted itself, and controlled him in every- thing he did. He was punctilious in attending every service of the church. Whether on Sunday
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morning or evening, or at the Celebration of the Holy Communion on feast days, or at the Wednesday evening services, he was always in his pew. He never missed a committee meeting, however unimportant, when he could possibly be present; and when absent, he never forgot to send his regrets with adequate explanation. In addition to this, it was his wont to telegraph or cable some affectionate greeting of remem- brance, which he carefully timed to reach the committee at its sitting.
A conspicuous illustration of the sincerity with which he pursued the even tenor of his way, compelled by this ruling determination to let his light shine before men through the consistency of his example, comes to my mind as I write, though the instance is but one of many which I might mention.
A well-known gentleman of Philadelphia in- vited a select circle of distinguished men to dine, and view some famous pictures which he had re- cently added to his gallery. It was a most un- usual occasion. Unique preparation had been made, and the event promised to be one of the most brilliant affairs ever given in Philadelphia. Mr. Thomas's partner, Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, with a small coterie of friends, was coming over in a special train, and the event promised to be not only most brilliant, but one, by reason
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of the guests, most naturally attractive to Mr. Thomas. It was, however, on a Wednesday evening; an evening habitually consecrated by him to the worship of Almighty God. No en- gagement, outside of a conflicting duty could take precedence of an engagement, as he con- ceived it, with his Heavenly Father, so, though one of the most conspicuous of the invited guests, Wednesday evening found him as usual in his accustomed place.
I have said that Mr. Thomas made it a rule to attend every meeting of which he was a mem- ber, however unimportant. I doubt not but that Mr. Thomas would take exception to this expres- sion, for, with him, nothing was unimportant. Nothing was too minute to escape his observa- tion or to enlist his personal attention.
For many years he was organist both of the Church and Sunday-school, and during that pe- riod, and afterward as Chairman of the Musical Committee, he selected the hymns to be sung, with the utmost care, so that they should har- monize with the thought of the day. To the Sun- day-school session he gave the same personal at- tention. The sentences beginning the services, the Psalms, and other passages of Scripture, the Canticles and Hymns to be used, were all care- fully selected beforehand, to conform to the thought he wished to convey.
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I have heard him dwell most lovingly upon our Lord's constant care of, what most people call, little things, and the pains which he took with individuals, e. g., with the woman at the well, with Martha or Nicodemus. He was fond of referring to the fact that St. Luke wrote his Gospel and the Acts for the edification of one friend, and that in doing so he set us an example of the importance of doing thoroughly whatever we undertake.
And so in the footsteps of his Master, we find him ever delighting in the details of per- sonal ministration. Mr. Thomas knew all his scholars by name, and visited the sick and suf- fering in their homes. I shall never forget a re- mark he made to me as we were sitting together on his porch at Chestnut Hill, after my nomina- tion, but before my acceptance of the call to be- come Rector of this parish. We were speaking of personal service. In a most humble way, and with a face aglow with emotion, he said, "Do you know I believe there are few homes in our entire parish in which, within the past thirty years, I have not said prayers with some sick person?" He might have added, what I have since learned, that it was his wont to cheer every sick room, not only with his presence, but with some token of regard, usually a large bouquet of roses or carnations.
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