USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > A history of Grace Church in Providence, Rhode Island, 1829-1929 > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
The Vestry report of Easter, 1883, speaks of "our large con- gregations and the constantly increasing interest which is mani- fested in all Church affairs." Bishop Slattery says of this period of the early eighties that "Grace Church was crowded with college men and young women, who felt that Mr. Greer understood by his own experience what they were thinking. They trusted him as a guide to the deeper knowledge."
In this connection it should be noted that the records from 1882 to 1888 bear witness to a constant succession of young men of Grace Church whom the Vestry certified as fit persons to be candidates for holy orders: Otis O. Wright, Henry Bassett, James P. Ware, William Sheafe Chase, Hamilton M. Bartlett, George R. Spink, John B. Diman, and John Matteson. After 1882, more- over, there are frequent references to calls to the Rector to under- take work elsewhere. Evidently the fame of the effective work of this young preacher was becoming widespread.
In March, 1884, the Rector of Grace Church reached the age of forty and in the same month exceeded the eleven and a half years of Bishop Clark's rectorship and the term of any other rector before or since. He had become in a way an institution in the Church and in the city, where he was widely honored and trusted with ever greater responsibilities. Bishop Slattery speaks especially of his membership in two organizations of notable character ;- one, the Friday Evening Club, of twelve Rhode Island leaders, including Bishop Clark, Chief-Justice Charles S. Bradley, Professors Chace, Lincoln, and Diman, Mr. Augustus Hoppin, and others of like distinction; the other, the Boston Clericus, with Bishop Clark, Phillips Brooks, Leighton Parks,
1 DAVID HUMMELL GREER by Charles Lewis Slattery, p. 52, New York, 1921.
108
A History of Grace Church
William R. Huntington, and William Lawrence among its mem- bers. Association and friendly rivalry with these men in papers and discussions must have been a most stimulating part of Mr. Greer's life here in Rhode Island and a most significant prepara- tion for his later work in New York at St. Bartholomew's and as Bishop.
These growing responsibilities from within and without the Church made the help of an assistant now inevitable. Mr. Greer raised the question before the Vestry in June, 1883, and soon thereafter the Rev. Hamilton M. Bartlett, then in deacon's orders, was engaged at a salary of one thousand dollars a year. Mr. Bartlett continued as assistant until October, 1890, and was the first assistant minister of Grace Church to hold office for any considerable number of years. His report of his activities for the year 1884 shows the usefulness of his position.
"It is impossible to give a complete summary of the assistant's work during the year. He has made more than two thousand calls, preached twenty-seven sermons, held sixty religious services at the St. Elizabeth Home and other places in the city, officiated at twenty-five funerals, eight weddings, and baptized three children; has found forty new members for the St. Elizabeth Society, and seventeen women needing work from the Employment Bureau, beside doing other miscellaneous work."
It may also be recorded that on Easter Even twenty persons were baptized and fifty-four were confirmed the next day. All this additional work took money, however, and at Easter, 1885, the tax was increased from seventeen to eighteen percent.
The influence and administrative ability of Mr. Greer and, we may hope, the generous support of persons in Grace Church made it desirable at this time for certain missions, some recently estab- lished and all rather struggling, to come under the oversight of the Rector of Grace Church. Quite likely an additional motive was to relieve the strain on Bishop Clark, then seventy-three years of age and sorely depressed by the recent death of his wife. The year book of 1885-86 gives Mr. Bartlett as in charge of Trin- ity Chapel Mission, Pawtuxet, and St. Bartholomew's Mission, Cranston.1 A third mission, St. Mary's Church, East Provi- dence,2 is recorded as under the charge of "Rev. George R. Spink,
1 The Rev. Samuel H. Webb organized the mission in Pawtuxet in 1883. Ser- vices had been held in Cranston from 1847 to 1881 and a parish had been main- tained there for many years. This mission, a revival of the old work, was largely due to the Rev. Thomas H. Cocroft of the Church of the Messiah.
2 This Church became a parish in 1887, but continued for some years to be under the Rector of Grace Church.
109
Kellogg-Currie-Greer
Assistant Minister of Grace Church," and it is announced that Dr. Greer will preach there on the fourth Sunday evening of each month. It does not appear that the Vestry took any responsi- bility for the salary of Mr. Spink, who continued as an assistant at Grace Church in charge of St. Mary's Church until his death in 1893. In the year book of 1887-88 the Church of the Ascension, Auburn, recorded as "self-supporting," is added to the churches under the oversight of Dr. Greer, with a candidate for orders, John Matteson, in charge.1 Here, too, appears for the first time mention of "the Swedish Episcopal Mission, Grace Church Chapel. Mr. Gottfried Hammerskold,2 Lay Reader, in charge." In view of the significance of Mr. Hammerskold's splendid work for the Swedes here and in New York and the importance of St. Ansgarius Church, which grew out of this, apparently the pioneer Swedish Mission in this part of the country, the note from the year-book of 1887-88 seems of interest.
"During the past few months about one hundred Swedes have been received into the membership of Grace Church, and a mission has been started which promises to be in time a strong and success- ful parish. Services in the Swedish language are held in the Chapel every Sunday morning and evening, and also on Thurs- day evening. These services are very largely attended, and a great deal of interest has been manifested in the movement. There are a good many Swedes in Providence, and they are beginning to find out that the Episcopal Church, rather than any other form of ecclesiastical organization, is where they naturally belong. They have come to this country bringing with them certificates of confirmation from the Church of Sweden, but until recently there has been no service in the Episcopal Church con- ducted in their own language, and therefore they have drifted into other religious bodies. Now, however, that a Swedish Episcopal Mission has been started, and they can have a liturgical service in their mother tongue, it is believed that many of them will come into the Episcopal Church."
For the growing work of Grace Church its plant of a splendid church and comfortable little chapel was now inadequate. In
1 In the year-book of '92-'93 the Churches at Pawtuxet and Auburn are given as in charge of "Rev. Charles E. Preston, Assistant Minister of Grace Church." He lived in Auburn, however, and is often spoken of as Rector of both these Churches.
2 Mr. Hammerskold was ordained deacon in 1888 and removed to New York in 1889. This mission was organized as "St. Ansgarius Parish" in 1890, but con- tinued to worship in the chapel for more than a year longer, until its own church was ready. This edifice was built "by the Christian liberality of a communicant in Grace."
IIO
A History of Grace Church
1884-85 we find that "a room outside," at 24912 Westminster Street directly opposite the church was hired for parochial work. In 1887 the record reads "rooms," (Nos. II and 12 Conrad Build- ing) and the year book shows that many of the societies were holding their meetings there.
Mr. Greer was a strong believer in concerted effort and was particularly successful in organizing philanthropic and religious activities in sound and enduring fashion. Besides the numerous societies within the church, he devoted time and thought to several more or less outside. Of these the most permanently significant, perhaps, is St. Elizabeth Home, now an important diocesan institution, of which Mr. Greer was in large measure the founder. One of the effective societies for women in Grace Church, then called the St. Elizabeth's Society, had for its official motto, "Sick and ye visited me." This society in 1882 had its attention drawn by Mrs. John A. Gardner1 to a home for incurables in New York City as suggesting a worthy object for its activities. It is said that the women began at once to work for such an institution here and that Mr. Greer on hearing of it immediately saw its possibilities, himself made a considerable gift to their treasury, and set about interesting others in the cause, especially Mrs. Moses B. Ives and Mr. and Mrs. Peleg W. Lippitt.
Through the support of Mrs. Ives a house on Vinton Street was leased and occupied in April, 1882. In the fall of 1883, it was reported that there were nine inmates and the home soon moved to larger quarters on Atlantic Avenue. Among the most devoted promoters of this work, which has grown so steadily in importance, was Miss Nancy A. Greene, who having been at the outset the Secretary and Treasurer of the St. Elizabeth's Society soon became Treasurer of the Home and continued in that office for over a quarter of a century. Miss Nancy Greene, the daughter of a vestryman, William H. Greene, was unwearying in good works, and her name appears in many connections in the Year Books of the 80's and 90's.
Late in 1884 Mr. Greer, who all through his ministry at Grace Church was especially keen in his interest in children and their welfare, announced the opening of a Day Nursery in Olneyville at 28 Delaine Street, the beginning of a very important work in this city.
1 We know that Mrs. Gardner was President in 1883 and for several years thereafter. It is not unlikely that she was President in 1882.
REV. DAVID H. GREER, D.D.
III
Kellogg-Currie-Greer
A building called "Grace Memorial Home for Little Children" was erected on Delaine Street in 1885-86. As the building was not needed as a nursery in the evening, it offered opportunities for classes and other useful meetings. In 1887 a society called the "Girls' Friendly Society" with 130 members was meeting there every Tuesday evening under the leadership of Mrs. Byron Smith. This society and the one started in 1888 had no connection with the national society and changed their names when the branch of the national society was formed in 1889.
Another Day Nursery was started on Ship Street in 1887. There, too, in January, 1888, a "Girls' Friendly Society" was formed for that neglected district. Provision was also made there for the entertainment and betterment of the newsboys on the streets. The next year, January, 1889, the "St. Margaret Branch of the Girls' Friendly Society" held its first meeting at Grace Church, with Miss Mary B. Anthony, daughter of the Senior Warden, as leader, assisted by associates from St. Margaret Society of Grace Church, in honor of which the Grace Church branch took its name.
With Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Spink as assistants, Mr. Greer determined to try again his cherished plan of daily services in Grace Church. These were maintained from Advent to May first, at 4.30 or 5.00 in the afternoon, from 1885-87, and then given up until Mr. Tomkins' rectorship. After 1886 a musical evening service was held every Sunday from Advent to Easter, at first in addition to the afternoon service at half past three.
A very important forward step in the support of good works, for which Grace Church was already noted, was the introduction in 1885 of the envelope system for the Sunday offerings. As a result of the interest the Rector aroused in this means of systematic giving these offerings more than trebled that year and became of inestimable benefit to many worthy causes. The rector reported that about $30,000 in all was raised by Grace Church in 1885-86.
The old organ had for many years been pronounced almost beyond repair. At the annual meeting of 1885 the need of a new one was recognized as imperative and a subscription of ten thousand dollars for the purpose authorized. Not until early in 1886, how- ever, when nine thousand had been subscribed and the rest guaranteed, was the contract placed with George S. Hutchins of Boston for the installation of the present gallery organ in July and August, 1886. It was soon discovered that the gallery loft was not strong enough nor quite large enough for the organ desired. Event- ually Mr. R. M. Upjohn, of the New York firm that designed the
II2
A History of Grace Church
church, was employed to supervise the changes. He brought the front of the organ screen forward over one pew, as it is today. Mr. Upjohn at this time also designed the movable pulpit already described.
In the ten years since 1877 when the rectory was built, the character of Fountain and Greene Streets and their neighborhood had changed with surprising rapidity. Mr. Greer in June, 1887, reported to the Vestry that he had long desired to move and that the location was now undesirable for residence. Speedily the property was sold for $25,000 and a rectory fund established. The handsome house at 10 Brown Street, now the Bishop's Resi- dence, was offered by Mrs. Henry Russell at a moderate rental and taken with alacrity. Thus, as the home of the future bishop of New York and his family, the episcopal tradition started in that fine old mansion. On December 12, 1887, it is recorded that the Vestry met at "the Rector's residence, No. 10 Brown Street."
But one move, alas, only paved the way for another and more serious one. About the middle of February Dr. Greer received news of a call to St. Bartholomew's in New York, and it was soon evident that the Rector must give this more serious consideration than he had given previous calls. The Vestry met on the 13th1 and in vigorous resolutions put the claims of Grace Church before their Rector as strongly as they could. Preceded by words of the highest praise, one paragraph of the resolutions reads: "We believe that the church work of this Diocese as well as in our own Church and the work of many Charities with which he has been identified during his residence among us would falter and weaken in the event of the withdrawal of our Rector."
The inevitable resignation was presented to the Vestry on February 29th in a letter marked throughout by affection and by a stern sense of duty :- "It is my duty to accept this call which will tear me away. It is always right to follow duty, and in the end best. But it is often very hard."
In the course of their letter of acceptance of the resignation the Vestry said, after many expressions of appreciation and praise, "We acknowledge the absolute purity of your motives, and, putting aside all personal feeling, unhesitatingly accept and con- cur in the judgment at which you have arrived."
In accordance with the assurance of the Vestry that they should be "grateful for every added day," Dr. Greer continued as rector
1 There was a call to St. Thomas's on Fifth Avenue at almost the same time, and it may have been that call that brought about this meeting.
II3
Kellogg-Currie-Greer
until June, preaching his farewell sermon on Trinity Sunday, May 27, 1888, on a text very characteristic of his preaching and his personal theology. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen."
Dr. Greer left Grace Church far stronger than he found it. The offering of Easter had practically paid off the remaining debt of $6,000. The people were giving far more generously than ever before to purposes outside of the support of their own church. The number of communicants had grown from 550 in 1873 to 1130 in 1888, and the confirmation classes were largely increased over those of his predecessors, all pews were rented and the church was frequently filled to overflowing. But perhaps more significant still were the external relationships and the place of prominence in the city that Grace Church was recognized as occupying.
It had been somewhat the same under Bishop Clark, but then the Church had to share the prestige with the Diocese. Now, notwithstanding Bishop Clark's strong personality and great fame, the Diocese borrowed a bit of renown from the brilliant and beloved Rector of Grace Church.
Mr. Greer during the years of his greatest power in Providence in the 80's displayed a most effective combination of qualities. Intellectual brilliancy and eloquent speech joined with a rapidly developing administrative power; and beneath all were a lovable simplicity, an earnest humility, and an intense love of his fellow- men that gave him rare charm and winsomeness. The stories of his removing the ladder from the chancel during the service; of his whimsical depreciation of his own preaching when he said in regard to the story of an escaped monkey in the pulpit, "It wasn't the first time either;" and when he remarked in response to praise of his making himself heard, "Don't you know that when men shout the loudest they have the least to say;"-all such stories are most characteristic of his lowliness of heart. Another story given by Bishop Slattery from Dr. Richards of St. John's shows to what an intense strain he submitted himself in his zeal for his work.
"On going down of a Monday morning, at five o'clock, to catch a train he found his neighbor, Mr. Greer, wandering through the market square. 'Why,' said Dr. Richards, 'what are you doing here?' 'Oh,' said Mr. Greer, 'after preaching I can't sleep. So I just got up and took a walk'."1
1 DAVID HUMMELL GREER, by Charles Lewis Slattery, p. 87, New York, 1921.
II4
A History of Grace Church
It was Dr. Richards who gave the following discriminating criticism of Greer's preaching in the Providence days :-
"You may hear Greer preach three or four times and wonder why all the people are there to hear him; and then the fourth or fifth time you will hear him and wonder why the whole world isn't there."1
Such a man as this, exercising his rich talents and rare per- sonality in Grace Church for more than half the thirty years allotted to a generation, inevitably made an indelible impression upon the church and the community, and especially influenced hundreds of young people growing up under his care.
From Mr. Greer's time, too, it would seem, date the peculiar sympathy with contemporary intellectual movements and the ready response to the progressive thought of the time, which have come to be regarded as generally characteristic of Grace Church.
No better final evidence of the characteristic qualities of this servant of Christ can be given than his own words in Advent, 1887, prefacing his last Year Book for Grace Church.
"Not until every member of the congregation is doing all he can to establish in this world the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, will the trust that has been committed to us be fully met and discharged. . Let us be active in commending the Christian religion to men by the fruit which it bears in our lives. This, and this alone, is the evidence which, in a sceptical age, will silence and overcome doubt and prove beyond all question the reality of the Christian faith. Not only for our own sake therefore, but for the sake of others, for the sake of the world at large, let us follow closely and earnestly in the steps of Jesus Christ and 'try his works to do'."
1 DAVID HUMMELL GREER, by Charles Lewis Slattery, p. 87-88, New York, 1921.
CHAPTER V THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
BABCOCK-TOMKINS-ROUSMANIERE
1888-1909
The situation created by the resignation of a Rector of nearly sixteen years' standing, especially when that Rector was a man like Dr. Greer, was not one to be dealt with hurriedly or lightly. Neither pastor nor people seemed to feel that the occasion called for haste. Though the letter of resignation was dated February 29th, Dr. Greer continued in office until the summer and preached his farewell sermon on Trinity Sunday, May 27, 1888. Grace Church was especially fortunate in having in Mr. Bartlett an assistant-minister of energy and experience, who had been the right-hand man of the rector for the past five years and knew the parish thoroughly. With his aid a few months of interreg- num would be more a continuation of the old days than a mark- ing time for the new. There is no record of any formal action until late in July when the Vestry authorized the invitation of the Rev. Percy Stickney Grant of St. Mark's Church, Fall River. Mr. Grant had preached one Sunday before Dr. Greer left and had evidently been prominently in the minds of Grace Church people as Dr. Greer's successor. Mr. Grant replied on August 10th that after most serious consideration he felt that justice to St. Mark's Church made it imperative that he stay there for some time to come. In view of Mr. Grant's stirring and sensational career in New York City in later years it is tempting to conjecture what would have been the result of his coming to Providence.
Among the many preachers invited to preach from the pulpit of Grace Church in the summer and fall was Dr. Charles Henry Babcock of Columbus, Ohio, who preached for two Sundays in October to the great satisfaction of the congregation. Accordingly on October 23, 1888, the Vestry elected him Rector at a salary of five thousand dollars. Dr. Babcock wrote from Columbus, on November 14th, modestly deprecating any expectation that he entirely fill the place of his "eminently successful predecessor, Dr. Greer" and accepting the Rectorship from December first.
II6
A History of Grace Church
It is interesting to note that having gone well to the South for three rectors the Vestry now turned to the middle West, as it was at that time, and secured Dr. Babcock from Columbus and Mr. Tomkins from Chicago. Both these men, however, were of Eastern birth and breeding, Dr. Babcock being, like Mr. Fuller and Bishop Henshaw, a son of Connecticut, having been born in New Haven in 1845 and educated by private tutors.
Dr. Babcock was the only rector of Grace Church, other than the two bishops, who came to the office with the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and aside from Bishop Henshaw and Mr. Tomkins was the oldest-or more accurately the least youthful-to become rector, being in his forty-fourth year.
As Mrs. Babcock was a woman of considerable means and there was a large family of children and step-children, the Rector evi- dently thought it fitting to supplement himself the allowance of one thousand dollars from the Rectory Fund and select for his residence a house of especial comfort and convenience of location. The family was first established at 219 Benefit Street on the corner of Waterman Street, the present University Club, and later at 43 Waterman Street. In the last years of his rectorship, at a rental of $1,800, he hired 54 College Street, now the well known Chapter House of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.
Dr. Babcock was already distinguished for his intellectual ability, the thoughtfulness and weight of his sermons, and his imposing bearing. Mr. Anthony quotes with approval the praise accorded by Benjamin F. Thurston, who often remarked "that the sermons of Dr. Babcock were scholarly and finished pro- ductions." His bent seems clearly to have been that of a preacher rather than that of pastor or even organizer. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that, with so experienced and trustworthy a man as Mr. Bartlett as his assistant for the first two years, Dr. Babcock deemed it well to continue parish work very much along the existing lines, especially as the organizations were increasing in numbers and activity. The only immediate change-ap- parently effective before Dr. Babcock came in December-was in the position of organist, Mr. Nathan B. Sprague taking the place held for many years by Mr. Stanley. Mr. Jules Jordan, however, continued as director until 1891, when Mr. Sprague assumed both positions.
The second winter, that of 1889-90, seems to have been rather depressing in certain respects. In his preface to the Year Book of Advent, 1890, Dr. Babcock writes, "As we look back on our church
II7
Babcock-Tomkins-Rousmaniere
work of the past year we see it through a mist of almost ceaseless rain and recollect that it was done under the discouragement of an epidemic of illness. La grippe and Le Deluge were, so to speak, the two opponents we had to hold at bay."
In October, 1890, the faithful Mr. Bartlett resigned as assistant to accept the rectorship of Christ Church, Montchaunin, Delaware. His place was filled for a year or more by a loyal son of Rhode Island, the Rev. Samuel G. Babcock,1 who, after many years as an indefatigable church-worker, had just taken priest's orders. Mr. Babcock's well-known energy must have been fully taxed, as for a time he ministered not only to Mr. Bartlett's two charges of Trinity, Pawtuxet and St. Bartholomew's at Cranston Print Works, but also had the oversight of the Church of the Ascension in Auburn.
The list of five churches which, though largely or wholly self- supporting, had for years been under the general care of the Rector of Grace Church was broken in 1891 by the establishment of the Swedish Mission as an independent parish, known as St. Ansgarius' Church, when it took possession of a house of worship built especially for it by Mr. Harold Brown. The other four missions, however, continued their connection throughout Dr. Babcock's rectorship; though after February, 1892, when the Rev. Charles E. Preston became the "resident rector" of the Church of the Ascension, while also "assistant minister of Grace Church," the tie between these two parishes was practically dissolved. Trinity, Pawtuxet, under Mr. Preston, and St. Bartholomew's, Cranston, under Mr. Williams, still looked to the Rector of Grace Church for leadership, as did St. Mary's, East Providence.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.