USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > Oxford > Two discourses relating to the early history of Trinity Church, Oxford, Philadelphia : with a compend of its history between September, 1854, and October, 1882, with an appendix > Part 4
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getting to Whitemarsh, as well as Oxford, and had probably likewise officiated in Germantown. When he was at Germantown, he says he "lay partly mid- way between the two Churches, five miles from Ox- ford, six miles from Whitemarsh." "The place," he states, "stands upon a rising ground, and contains one hundred fair houses, and is in length two miles." In 1762, Mr Neill reported the professed members of the Church of England to be about one hundred and fifty; and the communicants in both Churches, (the great majority of whom, however, were in Ox- ford,) to be about thirty. A year or two after this, Mr. Neill reported his communicants as thirty-four, and that he had baptized in less than a year, thirty- six children and seven adults.
From Dr. Smith's communications, who suc- ceeded Mr. Neill about 1766, as a frequent, but not a very regular supply, and who continued to offi- ciate frequently for them till 1777, I shall make but a single extract. In May, 1771, he wrote to the Secretary as follows: "I have great pleasure in go- ing to preach among them, and in summer partic- ularly. My country house, where my family resides, is nearer Oxford Church than to Philadelphia, be- ing about two miles from where Mr. Neill, the last Missionary, resided. The congregation increases much since we got rid of one or two quarrelsome people. All the Swedish families that were in that
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neighborhood, and were forming a separate congre- gation under the Swedish Missionary, have joined Oxford Church, and many of them are communi- cants. We are this summer about erecting a new Church for the better accommodation of a part of the mission, and after preaching in the forenoon at Oxford, I go once a month in the afternoon to that place, and the Swedish Missionary from Philadel- phia also goes once a month" (452). The place re- ferred to in the latter part of this extract, was the neighborhood in which All Saints Church now stands, and that was the Church alluded to as about to be built, and which was built in that and the following year, and on ground given for the pur- pose by a Swede. In that neighborhood principally, lived the Swedes alluded to by Dr. Smith.
In the two Churches of Oxford and All Saints, Dr. Smith continued to officiate till the year 1777, when, in consequence, it is supposed, of a sermon which he had preached two years before in refer- ence to the difficulties then existing between the colonies and the mother country, he was relieved of the Mission by the Society in England. He was a learned, able and eloquent man; though not with- out numerous enemies as well as friends. He was the founder of the college of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania, and its first Provost. He was also a member of several of the first Gen-
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eral Conventions, including those in which the Prayer Book was revised, and the Constitution of the General Church adopted; and in each Conven- tion he was a prominent and leading member. It was by him that the admirable preface to the Prayer Book, as we now have it, was composed. But he was not the only one of the former minis- ters of this Church whose privilege it was to take part in the important measures referred to. Dr. Pilmore, one of his successors (viz .: from 1786 to 1791) enjoyed the same distinguished privilege; being a member of the same Conventions, and while the incumbent here. It hence follows, that this Parish, through these two persons; the one its Rector at the time, the other who had been its min- ister some years before, and who occasionally offici- ated for it afterwards, bears a peculiar relation, and one that it is pleasant to think of, with the import- ant measures of the reorganization of the Church in this country, and the adoption of the Prayer Book as used in it.
But now, with a very few remarks suggested by what you have heard, I must close.
To all of you I trust it has appeared plain, that, from the beginning God has been with this Parish; not merely preserving it in existence, through many generations, but causing it, at least at times, (as under the ministry of Mr. Weyman and that of
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Mr. Howie,) to grow and flourish, the number of communicants, even at that early time, and in a neighborhood then sparsely settled, being about fifty. Very evident then, it is, there was cause not merely for inscribing on the walls of this ancient Church, the devout acknowledgment we did, but for doing so with heart-felt gratitude. As often, my brethren, as you look upon it, let it remind you of the gracious way in which God dealt with your fathers at a time when they were "few and strangers in the land." And let it incite you to the cherishing of such feelings of gratitude, as will prompt you to imitate them in their love for the Church, and their devotion to the interests of the Parish of which they were members. And let it further in- cite you to the doing of your full duty in reference to the missionary operations of the Church. Of all parishes in the land, those surely should be most anxious to do their duty in this respect, which were themselves at one time missionary stations, and es- pecially those which were indebted to brethren in a distant land for their "first foundation, and for a long continuance of nursing care and protection." May we all, the members of a parish, eminently of this description, be ever found ready and anxious to do for others, that which has been done by others for us.
In regard to the future of this Parish, is there
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not ground to hope, from the manifestations of the Divine favor already received, that it will still con- tinue to be favored from above; that the good Lord will still continue to be our Refuge and Strength, as He was those of our fathers. He most assuredly will, if we, as members of it, are only faithful, and are willing to do for it, with our prayers, our worldly means, and our personal exertions, all we should do. In this case, it is not unsafe to predict for it a larger growth and more substantial prosperity than it has yet known. The time is coming, when it will be surrounded with a much denser population than is here now; when it will have all around it villages and towns. May it then, with courts much more spacious than these, be filled with devout worshippers; with worshippers, who, in their daily lives, will show forth the praises of Him whom they pro- fess to serve. Lastly, my brethren, let us not fail as individuals, to take the Lord for our Refuge and Strength. Then shall we have made the best pre- paration possible for meeting and enduring the calamities of this mortal state, and we shall have secured for ourselves a place in those heavenly mansions, where we shall be no more liable to trou- ble, and where we shall be forever with the Lord.
PHOTOTYPE
F. GUTEKUNST
PHILAD'A.
A BRIEF COMPEND
OF THE
HISTORY OF THE PARISH FROM OCTOBER 1, 1854, TO OCTOBER 1, 1882.
A FEW months after the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Sheets, Edward Y. Buchanan, then in charge of two churches in Lancaster County, was invited by the Vestry to become rector of the Par- ish; and having accepted the invitation he took charge of it on October 1, 1854; not officiating, however, as such, (in the church) until Sunday, October 8th. At that date, the congregation, exclu- sive of summer residents, seemed to consist of about thirty families; from among whom there were fif- teen, or possibly, eighteen communicants. The members of the Vestry then were, William Overing- ton, Edmund Green, Harvey Rowland, Benjamin Rowland, John Cuckle and James McMurtrie.
One of the first things done by the new rector was the opening (in the then Church tower) on May 6th, 1855, of a Sunday School; there having been no such school in the Parish, for a number of years.
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The school at once became respectably large for a strictly rural Parish, and continued in operation, with varying numbers, until the rector's with- drawal from the Parish, when it was very much larger than it had been at the beginning. It con- tinues, as he is glad to learn, to grow and flourish. In the year 1862, a second Sunday School was started in the Parish, (at Crescentville,) which, on account of its being in a village, soon exceeded the school at the church in numbers. It also proved to be a most useful school; it, with the chapel after- wards built there, greatly improving the morals and spiritual condition of the place.
In the summer of the year '55, were commenced those afternoon services in the small Lyceum build- ing at Jenkintown, which resulted, two years after, in the organization of a parish there, and, a little later, in the erection, by Mr. Wm. H. Newbold and one of his daughters, of a handsome stone church; in memory of a special great mercy vouch- safed to them not long before .* A few months previous to the commencement of the services just referred to, the church at Oxford had received from Mr. Lloyd W. Bickley, the gift of an appropriate Episcopal chair for the chancel; this being likewise a thank-offering for a special mercy.
* Above the entrance to the church, are to be seen the appropriate words, "God is the Lord by whom we escape death."
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In the autumn of the year 1855, on September 23d, a collection was taken in the church which was the largest that had ever then been made in it; and which occasioned not a little surprise; the amount being very nearly $300, and the object, the relief of the sufferers from yellow fever in Nor- folk and Portsmouth, Virginia. This amount was, some years after, very largely exceeded on several occasions. The collection for Missions on Sunday, July 4th, 1880, amounted to $3,585.45.
In the year 1856 was built the substantial con- venient and comfortable parsonage-house on the Second Street road, near the church. This house became, in October of that year, the residence of the rector, and continued to be such, all the remain- ing time of his ministry in the Parish. In thẻ same year, there was added to the landed property of the Parish, (in good part through the liberality of the late John Cooke, Esq.) the lot of nearly two acres of ground adjoining the church property on the west, and extending to the Second Street road. Of Mr. Cooke, it may with propriety here be said, that from the time he was chosen a Vestryman (which was in the year 1856) he proved to be a most efficient and valuable one. He was for some years prior to the rector's resignation, and until the time of his own removal from the Parish, its faith- ful Secretary. He was also the person who super-
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intended all the improvements made from time to time in the church property, and who had almost entire charge of the erection of the chapel at Cres- centville, and afterwards of the enlargement of it.
In 1858, the Parish lost by death the services of another gentleman, who had long been a member of the Vestry, and a most active and useful one, Mr. Edmund Green. For many years he had been the junior, or Rector's, Warden.
During all the years since the autumn of 1854, the attendance on the public services, particularly during eight months of each year, had been encour- agingly large; and more pews being wanted than could be supplied, the Vestry and congregation at length, (in the year 1860) came to the conclusion, that it was expedient to enlarge the church. Ac- cordingly, plans for this purpose were procured from an architect. Those plans contemplated the conversion of the vestry-room into a recess chancel; another vestry-room to be provided in a tower at the south side of the chancel. They also contem- plated the building of larger transepts, instead of those then, and still, existing. All this, it was as- certained, could be accomplished at an expense of $4,500. But when, subsequently, subscriptions for nearly the whole of this amount had been obtained, the project fell through, in consequence of the un- easiness and alarm which began to be felt about
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the affairs of the country; the lamentable war, which in the next year actually broke out, even then being apparently almost inevitable. Since then no attempt has been made to carry out the plan, except that, in the year 1875, through the liberality of Mrs. Mary P. Lardner, the relict of Mr. John Lardner, who had long been a most val- uable member of the Vestry, (as his father before him, of the same name, had been), a tower was erec- ted in the place contemplated for it in the plan, and was furnished with a fine-toned bell weighing 1500 pounds. To this same lady, the Parish had previously, (in 1870,) been indebted for the light and beautiful granite-post and galvanized iron fence, which stands at the western end of the church-yard. In grateful commemoration of her kindness and liberality in connection with the first named of these benefactions, a handsome mural tablet was placed in the new tower with the following inscrip- tion, "This tablet commemorates the liberality of Mrs. Mary P. Lardner, to whom the Parish is in- debted for this tower and the bell it contains. A.D. 1875." This good friend of the Parish and estimable lady, died in the year 1876. Her death was followed in April, 1881, by that of her sole surviving son, Perot Lardner, who, it was found, had inserted in his will a bequest to the church of $2000; thus evincing in this venerable Parish, an
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interest, similar to that which his lamented mother had felt and so repeatedly manifested .*
For a time the attendance at the church was somewhat affected by the occurrence of the war, and by the erection, about that time, of two or three other churches in the neighborhood; but these causes gradually ceased to have much effect, and the congregation became again, in a great measure, what it had been. The number of communicants in May, 1861, continued about the same, that it had been a year or two before; and in almost every succeeding year there was an increase; so that, at the end of the first ten years of the rector's minis- try in the Parish: viz., on October 1st, 1864, they numbered sixty-nine. The whole number of per- sons that had been added to the communion in that decade, was 102; of whom fifty-two were entirely new communicants. The total amount of contribu- tions, independently of pew-rents in that period, was $11,700. In the last year of the ten, the con- tributions amounted to $2140.30; of which about $1300 were for putting a new roof, (covered with slate) on the church, and otherwise repairing the building; and also for extinguishing a small indebt-
* Between the years 1854 and 1882 the Parish had received two other bequests; viz., one of a $1000 R. R. bond, from the estate of Mr. Robert Whitaker; a second, that of a 6 per cent. $1000 ground-rent, from the estate of Mr. Joseph Swift.
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edness on the Parish. An additional portion of it was towards the erection of a chapel at Crescentville.
Of the desirableness of having a chapel at that place, the rector had been for some time fully con- vinced; and he had actually commenced soliciting subscriptions for the purpose. But it was not until the spring of 1870, that a beginning was made in the erection of one. Until about that time it had been imposible to obtain a suitable lot, in an eligible location, on which to build. Such a lot, however, was at last secured, through the thoughtful kind- ness and liberality of the Misses Fisher, who pre- sented a lot adjoining their property. Sufficient funds for the purpose having been obtained, (the same ladies being large contributors,) preparations were made early in the year just mentioned to com- mence the proposed building. Hence, on Saturday, May 7th, the corner-stone of the long contemplated chapel was laid by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Stevens, he and others, making appropriate addresses on the occasion; and on Sunday, the 20th of the following November, the building, having been entirely finished, furnished, and paid for, was by him con- secrated; and ever since then has been in constant use for sacred purposes. Not long after its erection there was presented by the same family who had already done so much for it, a handsome Commu-
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nion set; consisting of a paten and two cups, all of silver.
In the second year after, (that of 1872,) a very great improvement was made in the Parish church building by the painting of the walls, and by sun- dry other changes and repairs; and on the first Sunday after the completion of the improvements made, a sermon was delivered by the rector, which, on account of its being largely historical, has been printed in full, in connection with this Supple- mentary Sketch.
From another discourse delivered by him on Sun- day, October 4th, 1874, (the Twentieth Anniver- sary of his ministry in the Parish) it appears, that the communicants at that date, notwithstanding numerous losses by removals, deaths, and other causes in the decennial period then just ended, was eighty-eight. During that period there had been ninety-eight additions to the communion, more than three-fourths of them being entirely new communi- cants. The contributions in the period for various purposes, including some two or three quite large ones to the fund for erecting an additional wing to the Episcopal Hospital, amounted to about $52,000.
The summer of the next year, (1875,) was, that in which the various additions and improvements to the church building already mentioned, and pro- vided for by Mrs. Mary Lardner, were made. And
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in the same year, a very sweet-toned pipe organ was placed in the chapel by members of another family.
The next most important event in the history of the Parish, was the thorough repair, in 1877, of such of the church yard wall as was then standing, and the erection on the side where there had been only a wooden fence, of a substantial and handsome stone wall.
In the next year took place the enlargement of the chapel at Crescentville. The original dimen- sions of that chapel were 25 by 50 feet. Those dimensions, it was soon discovered, were too lim- ited for the accommodation of the persons who, at least frequently, attended the services. It was hence eventually concluded, to enlarge it by build- ing a recess chancel at the east end of it. By this improvement, not only would considerable addi- tional room be obtained for pews in the nave of the chapel, but two good-sized rooms for Sunday- School and other purposes, under the new chancel, would likewise be secured. Accordingly, early in the summer of 1878, the work of enlarging was commenced, and in a very few weeks was com- pleted. Two pleasant circumstances in connexion with this improvement, as was stated in the rector's report to the Convention of the next year, were, "that all the expenses incurred were at once fully met, and that the chapel, in its enlarged form, was
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usually as full of worshippers, as it had been before the enlargement." The communicants more im- mediately connected with this chapel constituted about one-third of the whole number in the Parish, at the withdrawal of the rector.
A remarkable occurrence in connexion with the chapel took place two years after its enlargement. On Sunday, July 11th, 1880, at about half past three o'clock P.M., during a thunder storm, the east end of the building was struck by lightning; and although, at the time the Sunday School and Bible classes were all in session, in their respective rooms in the basement, (into one of which rooms the electric fluid made its way down, leaving its mark in the plastering on the wall, and on some of the wood-work) and although a large class of the younger children of the Sunday-School were also seated in the church, quite near the track of the lightning, yet no one, in any of the classes sustained any serious injury.
In the autumn of the year 1872, the rector, with part of his family, went to Europe, where he re- mained until the end of June of 1873. During his absence, the Parish was specially in charge of the Rev. F. S. Harraden, then Head Master of Mrs. Crawford's school for boys, at Ury; which school, for a number of years formed part of the congrega- tion at the church. From Mr. Harraden moreover,
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the rector, after his return, received for a time oc- casional assistance in his work; and subsequently, in periods of a few weeks at a time, he had the help of the Revs. F. W. Bartlett, Geo. F. Nelson, W. B. Erben, and J. J. Creigh. From the spring of 1879, until that of 1881, he had the Rev. C. E. Butler as a regular constant assistant; and from June of 1881, until his ceasing to be rector, he had the Rev. R. Bowden Shepherd as such. The cost of the services of these gentlemen was freely de- frayed by the Vestry and congregation.
In the spring of the year 1882, the rector, after a ministry in the Parish of nearly twenty-eight years, and with health and sight somewhat seriously impaired, came to the conclusion that it was expe- dient for him to give place to a younger and stronger man, who could, without assistance, carry on the work of the Parish, as he had himself done for many of the earlier years of his ministry in it. Accordingly on Easter Monday of that year, he sent to the Vestry his resignation of the Parish, to take effect on the last day of the ensuing Sep- tember; and hence, his resignation having been accepted, though with gratifying expressions of regret on the part of both the Vestry and congre- gation, he preached for the last time in the church on Sunday, September 24th. On the following Sun- day, October 1st, the Rev. R. Bowden Shepherd
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(who had been his assistant for seventeen months, and had been chosen his successor,) preached; the retiring rector only making a brief address, giving the statistics of the Parish during his ministry in it, and administering the Holy Communion. In the afternoon, at the chapel, he baptized six per- sons-two of them adults-and made a short ad- dress. On the following Saturday afternoon (the 7th) he presented to the Bishop in the church for confirmation, nine persons. In the morning of the next day, (the 8th) he presented to the Bishop in the Church, the Rev. R. B. Shepherd for ordination as a Priest; on which occasion there was present in the Church, the largest congregation, with per- haps one exception, that had ever been seen in it. The number of persons that communed was about 90. At the chapel in the afternoon he presented to the Bishop five candidates for confirmation. On the following Sunday (the 15th) he officiated for the last time in the chapel, preaching from Jude 20: 21, and administering the communion to sixty- five or seventy persons.
On the eve of the rector's resignation, a subscrip- tion was started for the erection, on the church- grounds, of a building which had been for some time very much needed; viz., for the accommoda- tion of the Sunday School and Bible classes, and for other kindred purposes. The necessary funds
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for such a building having been procured, it was at once commenced; and it was the rector's privi- lege to see it partly up, before he finally left the Parish. It was completed in the Spring of 1883, and dedicated by Bishop Stevens, on Monday, April 23d, of that year; the Bishop, Mr. Shep- herd, then the rector, and his immediate prede- cessor as such, making addresses. Over the prin- cipal door of this building is a marble slab bear- ing the entirely unanticipated, but very gratify- ing, inscription, "Commemorative of the Rector- ship of the Rev. Edward Y. Buchanan D.D. in this Parish 1854-1882." In justice to the congregation it ought also to be placed on record, that on Satur- day, July 8th, of the year 1882, the rector had the unexpected, but very great, pleasure, of receiving from his parishioners (including those of the chapel) a very handsome testimonial of their re- gard and affection. It consisted of a beautifully embossed silver pitcher and two silver trays, like- wise embossed; each piece of the three, bearing the following inscription: "Presented by the con- gregation of Trinity Church, Oxford, Philadelphia, to the Rev. Edward Y. Buchanan, D.D., on the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination,-8th July, 1882."
At the time of the resignation of the rector, the Vestry was composed of the following named gen-
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tlemen: William Overington, Harvey Rowland, John Cooke, Harry Ingersoll, Rush Rowland, George W. Rhawn, and Thomas Graham. Of these persons, the two first named were in the Vestry at the time of Mr. Buchanan's election as rector, and are now the sole survivors of the Vestry of 1854. Mr. Overington has now, (in 1885,) been a Vestry- man over sixty-four years, and has been most of that long time, the Senior Warden and careful Treas- urer of the Parish. Mr. Rowland became the Junior, or Rector's, Warden in 1858, on the death of Mr. Green, and continued to be such until the Spring of 1884, when he resigned from the Vestry. Between the years 1854 and 1882 four other gen- tlemen, besides those already mentioned in the course of this little sketch, had been, for a time, members of the vestry, viz., Richard P. Lardner, Thomas Drake, William Unruh, and William Whit- aker. Mr. Lardner was for a short time Secretary of the Vestry, as he had been for many years, dur- ing Mr. Sheets' rectorship.
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