USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > A history of Grace Church in Providence, Rhode Island, 1829-1929 > Part 13
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As such action as this, if taken as a precedent, might deprive the Corporation of a considerable income, the Vestry not un- naturally for some time hesitated to accept this offer.
In all the church activities Mr. Tomkins was ably seconded by his various assistants. The Rev. Francis G. Williams, who had been an assistant to Dr. Babcock and in particular charge of St. Bartholomew's in Cranston, left on January 1, 1895, to become the Rector of All Saints Church, Pontiac, R. I. The Rev. Lucian W. Rogers had already, as deacon, joined the staff in the fall of 1894. In one of the two-minute speeches-the time alloted to former assistants-at the seventy-fifth anniversary, Mr. Rogers gives an amusing account of how he came to occupy this position.
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"A few days after Dr. Tomkins1 had come to Providence as Rector, I was talking with him in Grace Church, and he suggested the possibility of my being his Assistant. He said, 'Well, come on home with me and have some dinner, and we will talk about it.' We walked rapidly across Market Square, toward College Hill. Now, I know about College Hill, and I have often wondered why those old Providence families who have been climbing over it fifty or sixty years have not been changed by evolution into speeders with the legs of a mountain goat. I notice that when- ever a Providence man comes to the foot of that hill, he scorns to slacken his speed, but goes right on without any difference, as though it were level ground. And I notice that whenever a stranger to Providence arrives at the foot of the hill, he slows up, gives a heavy sigh or two, and then proceeds, in the language of the working world, 'to make a job of it.' As Dr. Tomkins and I crossed Market Square, I said to myself, 'Now, if he doesn't slow up when he comes to that hill, it will go to show that he is all right, and mountains beneath his stride become reduced to mole-hills, and he means business. If he doesn't slow up, it goes to show that he can lick me into shape and put me through my apprenticeship in half the usual time and with twice the usual experience. If he doesn't slow up when he comes to that hill, I will accept any proposition that he may offer.' He didn't slow up! When he got within ten yards of that hill, he began to run! And that is how I came to Grace Church, and so successful and efficient did I become, in my own eyes, that when one year later I left Grace Church as junior curate, I felt quite certain that the steeple would soon fall, and the parish would run out to nothing. But I have since learned that through the Grace of God no man is absolutely necessary, not even the best."
Mr. Rogers remained, after his ordination to the priesthood, until the end of October, 1895, when he left to accept the rector- ship of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Clinton, Mass. Thirty years later Grace Church retaliated by taking the rector of that church, the Rev. Robert R. Carmichael, for his highly valued work here.
The Rev. Lorenzo G. Stevens came as Assistant on April 1, 1895, and continued in that position until late in March, 1897.
Mr. Tomkins announced in the Sunday leaflet in February, 1896, "Rev. Isaac Newton Phelps of Newport, having determined to
1 The first of Dr. Tomkins' many honorary degrees was conferred by the University of Pennsylvania some years after he went to Philadelphia.
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enter the ministry of the Episcopal Church, will pass his canonical six months of service in Grace Church." Mr. Phelps was a former Baptist minister. The work of Mr. Stevens was taken over in March, 1897, by the Rev. Jacob A. Eckstorm, who continued with Grace Church into Mr. Rousmaniere's rectorship until his early death in December, 1899, cut short a career of great usefulness and promise. During the three months leave of absence granted to Mr. Tomkins in the summer of 1897 Mr. Eckstorm was minister- in-charge and carried on the arduous work of the parish with marked energy and devotion.
At a service in Grace Church on November 2, 1896, Bishop Clark admitted to the order of Deaconess Miss Sarah D. Postlethwaite, who had been working in Grace Church since 1894, at first un- officially, and then from March, 1895, as parish visitor, although often called deaconess long before she was formally set apart for that office. Miss Postlethwaite was the first person to be admitted formally as deaconess in Rhode Island. She continued at Grace Church until October, 1897.
In addition to the work directly connected with Grace Church Mr. Tomkins sponsored a mission in the new and rapidly growing northeast section of the city. This work seems to have been begun on March 3, 1895 with a series of evening services at the house of Mr. Estes at 247 Waterman Street. Mr. Tomkins announced that this service was intended to reach those who went nowhere to church on Sunday night. "We believe it will meet a real want, and those living near are asked to help make it a suc- cess." This work increased rapidly. A small house was rented on Orchard Avenue the next fall and services were held there both Sunday morning and afternoon. For a time these were con- ducted by Mr. William C. Langdon as licensed lay-reader. In the spring of 1896 Mr. Tomkins stated that active steps were being taken to erect a chapel on Orchard Avenue. "A lot has been selected and subscriptions are asked toward $4,500 needed to purchase it." The item, "Calvary Church is above ground! That is, the frame of the new building can be seen," appears in the calendar for February 20, 1898. After the end of March the services "at the Calvary Church" are no longer noted on the Grace Church leaflet. From these humble but determined efforts sprang what is now the splendid church of St. Martin's.
The present Altar Guild of Grace Church had its formal begin- ning in this rectorship. On April 28, 1895, the Rector notes that "twelve young ladies of the parish have been organized into a Chancel Committee." Two of these were assigned to the work
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for two months each year under the direction of Miss Postle- thwaite and Miss Nancy A. Greene. The Altar Committee formerly appointed each year by the Vestry from among the ladies of the parish was discontinued.
Mr. Tomkins was especially zealous to increase the oppor- tunities for worship in Grace Church, providing services of great variety and richness and at hours that would suit the convenience of all sorts and conditions of men. The Communion Service was held every Sunday at 10 o'clock, with a devotional service for com- municants on the Saturday evening before the first Sunday of the month. From the beginning of his rectorship he held a Watch Night Service on New Year's Eve. On his first Good Friday he held what seems to have been the initial Three Hours Service in Grace Church. In announcing this service in the leaflet he wrote, "Don't buy and sell and go about during the hours made forever sacred by your Savior as he hung on the Cross."
A notable feature of the Church's worship at this time was the music which, until early in 1898, was under the direction of Mr. Nathan B. Sprague. A mixed chorus with excellent quartette1 rendered most acceptably not only the music incidental to the various services but many oratorios and special musical pro- grams. These and Mr. Sprague's organ recitals on Sunday even- ings were considered very effective in attracting many to the church who might otherwise not have come within its reach. In the inter- est of making the Sunday evening services more stimulating, early in the year 1896, the choir was vested and put into the chancel, for the evening services only. After Nathan B. Sprague's departure in 1898, Dr. W. Louis Chapman was in charge of the music for several months, and was succeeded in the late fall by Ralph Kinder of Bristol, an Associate of the Royal College of Organists, London.
The Sunday School during Mr. Tomkin's rectorship was in a flourishing condition. John W. Angell was still superintendent, and Archie H. Harden began his long term of service as secretary. An excellent library was maintained and much used by the scholars. Among the librarians of this period were William H. Cady and Albert L. Miller, both of whom continued their activities in Grace Church for many years. Mr. Angell was succeeded as superin- tendent by William A. Viall.
A valid and thorough estimate of the results of five years' work in any Church is impossible. Much bread is always cast upon the
1 This quartette consisted of Miss Gertrude H. Blake, Miss Maud Rees, Mr. F. W. Knights and Mr. Fred L. Martin.
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waters, and no man knoweth the result thereof. From the statistics given in the Year Books, however, some idea can be formed of the progress of the parish. In June, 1894, the number of communicants reported was 1183, but as the list had not been properly revised for some years, this number was undoubtedly far in excess of the facts at that time. The following year, by a careful checking up of the active communicants, the number was reduced to 661; and by June, 1898, this number had been in- creased to 936. The total number of recorded baptisms from June, 1894, to June, 1898, was infants, 126, and adults, 78, and of confirmations, 197. The Sunday School had grown from a staff of fifty and school of 400 in 1894 to a staff of seventy and a school of 575 in 1898, including the East Side classes, the largest number known to have been enrolled in any one year.
On the election of Dr. William N. McVickar as Bishop Coad- jutor the Vestry offered the use of Grace Church for the service of Consecration. Dr. McVickar, however, decided to have the ser- vice in Holy Trinity Church, Philadelphia, of which he had been for many years Rector. On his arrival in Rhode Island he was accorded a welcome to the diocese at a Communion service held in Grace Church on Thursday, February 17, 1898. Little did the people of Grace Church realize then that the coming of Dr. McVickar to Rhode Island would mean for them the loss of their beloved Rector. Word came, however, in January, 1899, that Holy Trinity Church had called Mr. Tomkins as Dr. Mc- Vickar's successor and on the 23rd of that month Mr. Tomkins sent in his letter of resignation which began as follows:
"It is with deep sorrow that I send to you my resignation of the Rectorship of Grace Church. My association with you for the past five happy years and the growth and prosperity of the Parish work have been such as to create a love which is past expression-such a love as only a Minister can know or under- stand. My work as Rector of Grace Church will always be remembered by me as the dearest and best of human experiences.
"But God, Whom I serve, has called me to a much larger field, and I must obey; being convinced after long study and prayer, that it is His will for me to go."
The Vestry, though grieved at the thought of his leaving Grace Church, recognized the importance of the work to which he was called and accepted his resignation to take effect on March 1, 1899.
The resolution quoted below was drawn up by the Vestry at this time. It expresses the feelings of twelve leading members of the "morning congregation" and the same words would doubtless
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have been echoed by every member of all the congregations, by no one less fervently, and by many perhaps with even greater enthusiasm.
"We desire to express our deep sense of gratitude for all that under God he has accomplished for this parish. His labors have been unremitting, and his zeal and devotion have never abated. He has brought within the influence of Grace Church and into its membership hundreds of persons to whom it has not before ministered; he has preached and taught to them the word of God and the way of life. He has gathered around him a body of Christian workers, men as well as women, such as few parishes can show, and such as this parish never before had. He has deepened the spiritual life of the parish. He has won the love of its mem- bers. His influence here will never cease to be felt."
When Mr. Tomkins sent his letter of resignation to the Vestry on January 23, 1899, he gave strong expression to his earnest desire that his successor be chosen at once-a view which must already have found utterance in the vigorous language of which Mr. Tom- kins was fond. Accordingly before the adjournment of the vestry meeting two days later, called to take action on the resignation, a call was extended by a unanimous vote to the Rev. Edmund Swett Rousmaniere at a salary of $4,500 a year-Mr. Knight and Mr. J. H. Campbell being absent. Mr. Rousmaniere, who was at that time Rector of Grace Church, New Bedford, had been formerly Rector of All Saints Church, Pontiac, R. I., and had married the daughter of Mr. Knight. Thus he was already well known to the people of Grace Church as one who was in full sympathy with its work and thoroughly familiar with its oppor- tunities. This call Mr. Rousmaniere accepted on February 11th and entered upon his duties as Rector on Easter Day, April 2, 1899.
In accordance with an arrangement made at the time Mr. Rousmaniere accepted the call, leave of absence was granted him from June Ist to October Ist in order that he might go abroad. Unfortunately, hardly had he reached Europe when Mrs. Rous- maniere fell seriously ill of typhoid fever. The strain of this ill- ness so affected her husband's health that although he came back in September and attempted to resume work through October, he was forced to desist on November Ist and did not return to direct the affairs of the parish until the middle of February. Soon after Mr. Rousmaniere's arrival in April the Vestry had con- sented to an arrangement to assume general oversight of the Church of the Saviour with an Assistant of Grace Church in active
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charge as Vicar, two-thirds of the salary being guaranteed by the Church of the Saviour. To this work the Rev. Francis Lee Whitte- more, the new second assistant, was assigned and began his duties on September first, shortly before the Rector's return. This addition to the staff was particularly fortunate for Grace Church under the circumstances, for, when the critical con- dition of Mr. Rousmaniere's health became evident, the faith- ful and beloved Mr. Eckstorm was, as it proved, mortally ill. Of course the major part of Mr. Whittemore's time was pledged to the Church of the Saviour, whose work he had taken up with enthusiasm and vigor some weeks earlier. But he could fill many of the gaps and supervise the younger assistant, the Rev. Fred- erick F. Flewelling, a young missionary from Alaska, who served from some time in November until the 15th of February when he went to St. Thomas's. When Mr. Eckstorm died on December 23d the parish was so distinctly unshepherded that two members of the Vestry were sent to Washington to confer with Mr. Rous- maniere. With his approval and on the recommendation of Dr. Greer and Dr. Wm. R. Huntington of New York, the Rev. G. A. Carstensen of Indianapolis was invited to come to Grace Church until Easter, 1900, to act as minister-in-charge until the return of the Rector, at a date then somewhat indefinite. Mr. Carstensen discharged his difficult duties very acceptably. In spite of this very fragmentary initial year's ministry in Grace Church, Mr. Rousmaniere's popularity seems not to have been in any way impaired nor the prosperity of the parish appreciably diminished. In the annual report at Easter, 1900, Mr. Charles Morris Smith, who as Junior Warden wrote the report, said of the new Rector, "He has endeared himself to his people by his earnest, heartfelt preaching, and by his gentle and loving ministrations to the sick and afflicted."
Very early in his rectorship, Mr. Rousmaniere interested him- self actively in the music of the church. In March, 1900, at the resignation of the Music Committee, he undertook full charge of the music and throughout his rectorship he was annually elected as Music Committee. Shortly after this, Dr. W. Louis Chapman was again acting as organist, and in the fall the Rev. Everett M. Waterhouse, then in deacon's orders, became Precentor. Mr. Waterhouse was ordained to the priesthood in 1902 and con- tinued at Grace Church until the end of April, 1904, when he resigned to take up work in New York. In March, 1901, Mr. Arthur H. Ryder became organist and added the duties of choir-
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master when Mr. Waterhouse left. In June, 1902, the Vestry authorized changing the position of the choir from the organ-loft to the front of the church, a change which the singers themselves wished as well as many of the congregation. Certain changes in the chancel were, of course, required before this could be ac- complished, but these alterations were soon made, the expense amounting to about $3,000 defrayed by subscription and chiefly by the generosity of Mr. Knight. In reporting these changes to the Corporation, the Vestry put itself on record as considering them entirely satisfactory, the appearance of the church having been improved, and the worship of the church made more "real and enthusiastic."
The choir had been singing in the chancel only a very short time when the obvious difficulty of having the organist in the organ-loft at the back of the church widely separated from the choir presented itself, and in 1903 the possibility of putting an organ into the chancel was considered, but nothing was definitely decided. Early in 1904, however, the organ keyboard was brought into the chancel at a cost of $3,800 provided by private subscription, and this change made it possible for the organist, Mr. Ryder, who was then also choirmaster, to do more effective work.
In this same spring the Vestry authorized the substitution of a boy choir for the mixed choir then serving, with the under- standing that the new choir would begin its regular duties the following autumn. This new choir, however, made one appear- ance in the spring of that same year on the occasion of the seventy- fifth anniversary, when it took part in the Sunday School festival celebration of that event. The boy choir proved itself a great success from the point of view of the service which it rendered to the congregation, and was recognized, in more than one annual report, as a potential field for missionary work, since many of the boys were drawn from families outside the church. In the annual report of 1905 Mr. Charles Morris Smith, one of the most con- servative members of the Vestry, writes-perhaps as the view of the Vestry rather than especially his own-"a boys' choir has been organized and drilled and now sings the musical part of the services. The change seems to be approved by the congregation which joins in the singing more heartily than before the change was made."
These innovations resulting in a surpliced boy choir, singing in the chancel, in place of a quartette and chorus in the organ-loft,
CHANCEL AND CHOIR, CIRCA 1903
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were probably the most marked outward and visible signs of change in Mr. Rousmaniere's rectorship.
Early in the year 1904 plans were made for the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary on Saturday and Sunday, May 14th and 15th. On Saturday evening there was a large reception at the Trocadero on Mathewson Street at which there were many speeches and much good fellowship. Mr. Anthony read a most interesting and delightful paper, "Reminiscences of Fifty Years in Grace Church." Bishop McVickar spoke in a congratulatory vein. All the living former rectors except Dr. Currie were present and mingled reminiscences with good wishes for the future of the parish. A very cordial and happily expressed letter of greeting, written by Dr. Currie in Paris, was read by Mr. Gardner, as well as a most kindly one from Dr. Richards, the aged rector-emeritus of St. John's, the mother church.
The former assistants present were then called on for "two minute speeches"-a limit to which they all approximated with mingled feelings of amusement and chagrin. Samuel G. Babcock, Dr. James DeW. Perry, John Matteson, Francis Lee Whittemore, and Lucian W. Rogers responded in this part of the program.
The services on Sunday began at 9.45 with a celebration of the Holy Communion by the Rector, assisted by Rev. Frederick W. Smith, at which eighty persons communicated. At 10.45, with a crowded congregation, came the chief service of the day. The opening prayers and Psalm 145 were read by Rev. John Matteson, followed by Dr. Charles Babcock's reading of the lessons. Arch- deacon Samuel Babcock read the closing part of Morning Prayer. Dr. Greer then celebrated Holy Communion, as he had at the opening service of the Jubilee Celebration twenty-five years before. He was assisted by Dr. Perry, who read the Epistle, and the Rector, reading the Gospel. Dr. Greer preached the anniversary sermon on the text, characteristic of the emphasis of his preaching, "Grace be unto you and peace from Him which is and which was and which is to come." As to the message he brought he said: "Standing on his vantage ground and looking before and after he [St. John] sees that great and sovereign love creating, pervading, and consummating the whole world's scheme, and finds it in Jesus Christ embodied and enthroned. That, my friends of Grace Church, is the message which I bring to you, the word with which I greet you on this your Anniversary Day."
This service was followed by an elaborate festival anniversary service for the Sunday Schools, at which the classes marched into
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the church preceded by the boy choir in their cassocks and cottas. On Sunday evening there was a musical service. In the pro- cession were: Allen Greene, lay reader, Rev. Messrs. Waterhouse, Matteson, Babcock, and Whittemore, followed by Dr. Babcock, Rev. F. W. Smith, Dr. James G. Vose of the Beneficent Con- gregational Church, President Faunce, Dr. Bradner of St. John's, the Rector, and Bishop Greer. The addresses of the evening were from Dr. Bradner, Dr. Vose and President Faunce.
On Monday morning there was a fine service of commemoration of the Women's Missionary Society, which was organized in the same year as the parish. Mrs. Clara W. Nichols read an historical sketch and speeches were made by Dr. Babcock, Dr. Perry, Arch- deacon Babcock, and the Rector.
A sad blow, most widely felt and so deep in its significance that it marked the end of an era in the corporate organization of Grace Church, came on the 7th of December, 1904, in the death of the Senior Warden, John Brayton Anthony, in his seventy-sixth year. Mr. Anthony's connection with Grace Church was a most remark- able one. He had been one of the leading spirits in all the activities of the Church since he became Junior Warden forty-seven years before, and he had been the unquestioned leader for the greater part of that time, even before he became Senior Warden in 1877. He had been personally active, in the Sunday School and many other good works of the parish, as a right-hand man of seven out of the fourteen rectors of Grace Church. With the exception of his friend and "team-mate," as it were, James Lewis Peirce, who served either as Vestryman or Treasurer or both for fifty-four years, and of Mr. H. Nelson Campbell, who is in his fifty-fourth year as Vestryman, he had longer service as an officer of Grace Church than any other. At his funeral the entire Vestry acted as pall-bearers.
On the second Sunday after Mr. Anthony's death Mr. Rous- maniere preached a most appropriate and significant sermon on the text, "And to godliness add brotherly kindness."1 Mr. Rous- maniere, taking these two qualities as pre-eminent in the character of Mr. Anthony, drew a vivid picture of him and his career, as of the ideal Christian layman. Among a score of quotable passages are the following: "There has been but one voice in the parish, seen and unseen, as to the selection of the man who should be its chief representative, for no member of the parish has surpassed
1 By good fortune this eloquent tribute is preserved in Volume III of the Grace Church Monthly.
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him in devotion to its well-being or in eager zeal to foster its de- velopment." . "The spirit of loyalty is ever contagious. When the recognized leader of a parish is loyal in heart and soul, the people cannot but follow." "Because he was so deeply a religious man he was to a remarkable degree a brotherly man." It was this latter quality which led Mr. Smith to say of Mr. Anthony in the next annual report, "Every member of Grace Church felt his death to be a personal loss."
The true history of a Church is in the lives of its people, and no more revealing interpretation of what Grace Church stood for in the last forty years of the nineteenth century can be found than this memorial sermon. A handsome tablet to the memory of John B. Anthony was soon placed by the Vestry on the west wall of the church. When the new chancel was built in 1912 the beautiful communion rail was given in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony by their daughters. These with the chancel organ in memory of Arthur L. Kelley and the tablet to Henry Barton are the only memorials in Grace Church to commemorate the twelve able and devoted men no longer living who have served as wardens.
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