USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > A history of Grace Church in Providence, Rhode Island, 1829-1929 > Part 14
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The death of Mr. Anthony was the occasion of an entire re- adjustment of the business organization of Grace Church, which was thoughtfully prepared for in the three months preceding the annual meeting at Easter. Mr. Peirce, who had been Treasurer since 1857, felt that the time had come to turn the heavy re- sponsibilities of that office over to younger shoulders, though he continued to play an important part in the deliberations of the Vestry until his death in 1910. He was succeeded by Frank P. Comstock, who had already served eight years on the Vestry. In the annual report of the Vestry Mr. Smith said of Mr. Peirce, "His long and faithful service has identified him with Grace Church in the mind of the community more closely than any other living man." With Mr. Anthony he had shared in peculiar fashion the love and respect of all Grace Church people.
The Junior Warden, as had happened before, felt himself, after twenty-eight years in office, unable to take the responsibilities of Senior Warden and decided to decline re-election even as vestry- man. In acquiescing in this decision with expressions of regret at "the loss of his counsel and leadership," the Vestry recorded of Mr. Smith,-"To his energy, his practical business ability and his conservative counsel much of the material prosperity of the Church is due."
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The new Senior Warden, then, by common consent was the energetic Secretary of the past five years, Rathbone Gardner, who had taken a most prominent and devoted part in every kind of activity in the Church and community for the past decade and had been on the Vestry since 1887. As his colleague, Arthur L. Kelley was selected, a business man of keenness and of devoted loyalty to Grace Church, who in his three years on the Vestry had won to a marked degree the confidence and affection of his colleagues.
Mr. Gardner's place as Secretary was filled by the election of Henry V. A. Joslin, then newly added to the Vestry, whose faith- fulness and ability in the discharge of the duties of that office for the next ten years set an inspiring standard for his successors. The two other vacancies on the Vestry,-for John H. Campbell declined re-election on account of ill health,-were filled by the election of William Angell Viall and Henry T. Grant. With all these changes a new day had come in the organization of Grace Church. It may be added here that Mr. Rousmaniere from the beginning of his rectorship resumed the custom of Dr. Greer's last years and often attended meetings of the Vestry,-so often in fact that not infrequently the Clerk, it is clear, omitted to record his presence, which of course had no legal significance, as the Rector could in those days be only a guest.
The only radical changes in the building and equipment of the church during Mr. Rousmaniere's rectorship were those necessi- tated by the installation of the choir in the chancel and extensive repairs to the ceiling, which necessitated using the chapel for the Sundays in September, 1903. Memorials added included a window given by Edna R. Gardiner in memory of her father and grand- parents, which was installed in 1905, the completion of the bap- tistry and a stone altar offered by Mrs. Sully, and the improve- ment of the font platform by Mrs. Samuel Ames. Two tablets were placed on the walls of the church, one to Mr. Eckstorm by the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and one to Mr. John B. Anthony by the Vestry. St. Elizabeth Society gave a credence table (the one now in the chapel) and also a service book and brass book-rest for the altar. Floyd Circle of King's Daughters presented a brass cross for the chapel in memory of Emily A. Barton and a copy of Raphael's Transfiguration was given by Mrs. Daniel Webster and Mr. William Fletcher in memory of their mother.
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In 1907 a new terraza floor was laid in the aisles and vestibules and certain improvements in the vestry and chapel were made which were merely a temporary alleviation of the inadequacies of the apology for a parish house then existing. Almost from the beginning of his rectorship Dr. Rousmaniere pleaded continually for a parish house which would enable Grace Church to do the missionary work which was crying out to be done as well as to carry on adequately the ordinary parish activities. The chief objection, however, to the plans made by Mr. Nickerson for Mr. Tomkins in 1897 had been from those who felt that a four story building on Mathewson Street would dwarf the church itself and would not provide adequately for enlargement of the chancel. Mr. Rousmaniere seems to have felt this latter point strongly and also to have desired even more room for parish activities than could be provided on the small amount of land in the rear of the church. On the occasion of his refusing a tempting call to St. James' Church, Washington, D. C., in the spring of 1902, the Rector took the opportunity to explain his plans for the develop- ment of the work of Grace Church. According to the records of the Vestry he expressed strongly his conviction "that the parish was so situated as that it was called upon to do a special missionary work among the poor and those who were religiously neglected . . He stated that in his opinion a parish house separate from the church and located preferably on one of the cross streets south of Weybosset Street was an immediate need of the parish."
In 1902 a committee was appointed to consider the cost of land near the church and of a building, and the Vestry put itself on record as approving the idea and intending to urge upon the congregation the need of contributing largely for this purpose. In 1903, however, at the annual meeting, the committee reported that the problem was so difficult that they recommended that "they make haste slowly" and wait a more favorable opportunity. Year by year in their reports to the Corporation, the Vestry stressed the need of a parish house, reiterating the inadequacies of the existing building and the impossibility of any extension of work. In the annual report of 1907, Mr. Gardner writes of the excessively high cost of any available land and adds "perhaps the erection of a high building on Chapel Street after all affords the only solution." A small fund was started, which grew slowly but steadily, and by 1908 the feeling of the Vestry was that if a thoroughly feasible plan were presented it might be possible to arouse sufficient interest to procure the necessary funds. This
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plan was not, however, at once forthcoming, and Dr. Rousmaniere1 left the parish without having achieved for it the thing which, in a material way, he considered most important. Just before he left, however, he had the satisfaction of ordering the preliminary drawings on which the plans of the present parish house were based.
A partial expression of Mr. Rousmaniere's desire to minister to the neglected was found in the establishment in the spring of 1904 of Grace House, at 149 Point Street, as a "neighborhood house." Under the direction of Miss Eliza W. Beard as Head Worker, this house was informally opened on November 30, 1904, when Miss Beard and Miss Elizabeth Tillinghast, the parish visitor, took up their residence there. The Rector defined the purpose thus: "The purpose of Grace House is simply to help the men, women, and children of the neighborhood in which it is placed in all the ways in which one friend helps another." By the summer of 1905 we find Miss Ella H. Rhoades as Head Worker and the name has been changed to Neighborhood House ;- "in order to remove some mis- apprehension [doubtless of proselytizing] and to express more accurately the purpose of our work," wrote the Rector. The parish worker ceased to live there after January, 1906, and by the next summer Neighborhood House was no longer listed among Grace Church activities. In the meantime the governing board had been enlarged by the addition of persons who were not con- nected with Grace Church. In its last years Neighborhood House was entirely separate from Grace Church under non-secta- rian management.
Reference has already been made, here and there, to the various assistants who served the parish faithfully during the ten years from 1899-1909. Mr. Eckstorm, who held over from the pre- vious rectorship-owing partly no doubt to the opportunity for leadership afforded by Mr. Tomkins' leave of absence in 1897- had won in an unusual degree the love and admiration of the parish. To this the testimonials at the time of his death and the memorial tablet in the church bear witness. Mr. Whittemore, in addition to his duties as Vicar of the Church of the Saviour, gave valuable assistance at Grace Church as occasion offered and made many friends in the parish. On November 1, 1902, he left
1 Brown University conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity on Mr. Rousmaniere in June, 1905. President Faunce pronounced the following citation: "Edmund Swett Rousmaniere: son of another state and college, helper of reli- gion and education in Rhode Island, translating ancient creed into present fact and showing the humanity of godliness."
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to become the Rector of Calvary Church, now Saint Martin's, accepting at the same time the rectorship of the Church of the Saviour.
Mr. Flewelling, Mr. Carstensen and Mr. Waterhouse made many friends and won favor during their connection with the parish. The Rev. Frederic W. Smith from the summer of 1900 to March, 1906, first as deacon and after April, 1901, as priest, gave himself with energy and devotion, especially to the Sunday School and to boys' work. The Rev. Allen Greene, having done effective work with the boys at Pinewood Farm in the summer of 1904, was ordained deacon in Grace Church on January 15, 1905, and worked as second assistant during his senior year at the Cam- bridge Theological School. After his promotion to first assistant on Mr. Smith's resignation, Dr. Rousmaniere had no regular second assistant, though in the year 1908-09 John H. Lever and John A. Gardner came each week-end from Cambridge and did valuable work as lay-readers and teachers in the Sunday School. Mr. Lever continued to help in the next year as well. Mr. Greene was advanced to the priesthood in the fall of 1905. His special service to the parish lay in his successful work with the boys and young men, and it was remarked in a report after a year or two of his ministry that in the confirmation class the masculine ele- ment predominated, the credit very evidently being assigned to him. Mr. Greene resigned his work at Grace Church in May, 1908, to become the rector of St. Paul's Church in Peabody, Mass.
Leave of absence for six months from June, 1906, was granted to Dr. Rousmaniere by the Vestry early that year and he, with wise foresight, secured the services as minister-in-charge of the Rev. Frederick J. Walton, a man of maturity and large experience, who continued his work for Grace Church with a fine degree of faith- fulness and force until the fall after Dr. Crowder's coming.
The reliable source of revenue during Mr. Rousmaniere's rector- ship continued to be the taxes and rentals on the pews, augmented by the pledges of deficiency guarantors. During this period, even with the help of the guarantors, the running expenses exceeded the income of the parish by varying amounts, so that each year there was more or less of a deficit, and special subscriptions or collections were necessary from time to time. One year when the deficit was particularly disturbing the Vestry appointed the veteran James Lewis Peirce as a committee to raise the needed amount by sub- scription, evidently feeling that his long experience in such crises made him the one person able adequately to cope with the situa-
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tion. The number of people who contributed regularly either as pew-holders or through the pledge system then in use to provide money for charitable, diocesan, and missionary purposes was extremely small in proportion even to the number of communi- cants of the Church, and, of course, was far from commensurate with the number of worshippers. Money for extraordinary re- pairs or for changes in the church such as those in the chancel to accommodate the choir seems to have been forthcoming quite readily, and the Easter offering never failed to make adequate provision for the particular object designated as beneficiary.
On Easter Day, 1902, $1,130 was raised for the maintenance of Pinewood Farm. This was a venture sponsored by Mr. Rous- maniere with the co-operation of individual members of the parish. That year a farm property in Bellingham, Mass., not far from Woonsocket, was loaned to the parish for the purpose of providing a summer home for those people who without some such op- portunity would be unable to be away from the city during any part of the hot weather. In 1904, the owner of the house, Mrs. Ethel R. Burnett, offered to deed the house to trustees for the parish, provided a fund of $5,000 to ensure the payment of taxes and the cost of necessary repairs was raised. This opportunity was, of course, not lightly to be passed by, and the property was formally made over to Dr. Rousmaniere and the two wardens as trustees for the parish in April, 1906. Every summer groups of people were sent for two weeks at a time to this farm-mothers with small children, boys and girls from the parish organizations and always the choir boys, the expense of running the farm being amply provided for by the Easter offerings. An annual visiting day was arranged on which members of the parish were urged to see for themselves the opportunities offered.
The personnel of the congregation appears to have been under- going rather radical changes in these years at the turn of the century. Attention was called to the fact that "even on Sunday morning the number of those who hire or own pews is less than that of the others, and that Grace Church is becoming a people's church." The congregation was drawn from many sources, not least important among which was Brown University. Speaking at the seventy-fifth anniversary celebration, Dr. Faunce said, "I am glad to say tonight publicly, as I have often said privately, that there is no minister of the Christian faith in this city who is doing more by sympathy and kindly counsel for the Brown stu- dents than is the present rector of Grace Church."
REV. EDMUND S. ROUSMANIERE, D.D.
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The program of Sunday services which Mr. Rousmaniere found in operation upon his arrival, with the exception of the Sunday afternoon service, was maintained for a year or two, after which the Christian Endeavor Meetings were dropped. A change in the time of the Sunday School was made in the fall of 1900, the classes meeting directly after the morning service instead of at 2.45 p. m. At the same time as the Sunday School session, Mr. Rousmaniere himself conducted a Bible Class for young men.
At various times during the years of his rectorship, Mr. Rous- maniere held series of classes or services, all of them tending in the direction of making the church more helpful to all who might be brought in contact with it. Thus, in 1903, a Question Box was conducted by the Rector. In 1904 devotional meetings for com- municants such as had been held by Mr. Tomkins were held regu- larly on the Friday evening before the first Sunday in the month. For several years a Lenten Band for children was conducted with a system of prizes for attendance and memory work which would encourage the children to take their place in the Church. Bible classes were held three times a week at such hours as to ensure any interested person's ability to attend. In the earlier years of this rectorship a "service of hymns" was held at 8.30 after the Sunday evening service. In November, 1907, the experiment of having noon-day services throughout the entire winter and well into May, instead of confining them to Lent, was tried. These services were found to minister to so many that the experiment then started was continued long after Dr. Rousmaniere left. Dur- ing the first year of daily noon-day services there was an average attendance of sixty-two, with a total attendance of nearly 8,000. In 1907, the church was again opened for rest and prayer on week- days, and it was reported after a year's experiment that the opportunities thus offered had been more widely appreciated than could have been supposed. In this year, too, the Three Hours Service on Good Friday was resumed and has been held each year since. Grace Church was offered to the missionary in charge of the work for deaf-mutes about 1902, and a monthly service for them on the afternoon of the second Sunday in the month was held here for many years. In 1908 four of these were confirmed. In January, 1909, Dr. Rousmaniere started a class in "Personal Religion," meeting every Thursday morning at 10.30,-a signifi- cant venture as a forecast of his success in similar work at the Cathedral in Boston.
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Among the parish societies, the Bishop Clark Club for men and the Greer Club for young men were founded by Dr. Rousmaniere. The Choir Guild was, of course, started soon after the boy choir was inaugurated. The women's societies which functioned seem to have been in existence longer and to have been less temporary.
Special attention was given to the Sunday Schools during this rectorship. As was to be expected they were suffering from the changing character of the population in the neighborhood of Grace Church and of the observance of Sunday, as well as from the very cramped quarters in the small parish house. So far as can be ascertained the superintendents of the main school were appointed from the assistant ministers, Mr. Smith and Mr. Walton being especially active in this capacity. In the fall of 1906 the Sunday School was greatly improved by an effective systematic grading done under Mr. Walton's supervision. The East Side classes, which had been for a time under the charge of Mr. W. A. Viall, were discontinued from 1904-1908, when they were resumed in Churchill House under the superintendency of Mr. Walton.
A fruitless attempt was made in 1904 by a number of women to have themselves recognized as voting members of the Corpora- tion through an amendment to the charter. After prolonged dis- cussion and several inconclusive meetings of the Corporation, the feeling of the parish was so divided that in the interest of harmony the matter was dropped, though it seems probable that the reform could have been forced through. Accordingly, for a decade more, women, even though pew-owners, were not permitted to add a share in the business organization of the Church to the effective part they had always taken in work and worship and even in con- tribution of financial support.
It was in this rectorship, in the fall of 1905, that the conspicuous pinnacles on the spire around the clock were found to be loosening. In the attempt to repair these one fell and a second was acci- dently knocked off by the ropes of the workmen. Accordingly, the others were removed and were never ordered restored. The stone cross surmounting the spire was struck by lightning on Saturday, July 18, 1908, and destroyed. After some discussion the Vestry voted to replace it with a bronze cross "in shape as near as can be" like the former one. In the spring of 1902, Mr. Rousmaniere published the first mumber of the Grace Church Monthly, which in some measure took the place of the Year Books compiled by Mr. Greer and Mr. Tomkins and discontinued since 1898.
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A service full of blessed memories for the people of Grace Church and the Diocese of Rhode Island was held in Grace Church on Thursday evening, November 5, 1903, as a diocesan memorial to Thomas March Clark, who died the previous September after an episcopate of almost half a century. Seldom has Grace Church witnessed a service of such impressiveness and beauty. The edifice was thronged with people including the Governor of the State. In the procession marched the Standing Committee, most of the clergy of the Diocese, with not a few from away. Four bishops, Restarick of Honolulu, Griswold of Kansas, McVickar of Rhode Island, and Henry Potter of New York brought up the rear and, proceeding between the files of the halted procession, took their seats in the sanctuary. Rev. F. W. Smith was master of ceremonies and Rev. E. M. Waterhouse, as precentor, had charge of the music. Mrs. Waterhouse, our soprano soloist at that time, sang the offertory anthem. Bishop Potter gave a most appropri- ate and beautiful memorial address on the text from the Psalter, "He fed them with a faithful and true heart and ruled them pru- dently with all his power."
The generation before the war was a generation that dearly loved elaborate celebrations. One of the events in Grace Church during Dr. Rousmaniere's rectorship was a large and impressive celebration of the tenth anniversary of Bishop McVickar's con- secration, on Thursday, January 27, 1908, at II a.m. The day was marked by the service of Holy Communion in Grace Church, preceded by addresses, luncheon in Churchill House, and a general reception in the evening at St. John's Parish House. Bishop Lawrence and Dr. Arthur S. Lloyd of New York came on for the occasion. In the long procession were both clerical and lay mem- bers of the Standing Committee, nearly a hundred clergy, includ- ing Dr. Vose and Rev. Frank G. Goodwin, representing other denominations as special guests of the Bishop. Dr. Fiske and Rathbone Gardner made congratulatory addresses in behalf of clergy and laity to which the Bishop responded in a rather lengthy address, which the Journal reported in full. This gathering seems to have been the last of a long series in which Grace Church filled the place of the Bishop's church,-a place now occupied by old St. John's, as the Cathedral.
The parish in the summer of 1908 was called to mourn the death of Stephen Brownell, one of the oldest communicants of Grace Church and a member of the Vestry for forty-three
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years. The vacancy in the Vestry was filled by the election of Rush Sturges, a grandnephew of Robert Knight.
The unanimity of Mr. Rousmaniere's election was a happy omen of the relations which were to exist between him and the parish throughout his entire incumbency. He won for himself the affection and trust of his people by his earnest, heartfelt, and eloquent preaching, and even perhaps more by his pleasing per- sonality, his sympathetic ministrations and his devout Christian spirit.
On the occasion of his tenth anniversary a reception was tendered him at Churchill House on Easter Tuesday, 1909. 'So many people came to greet Dr. Rousmaniere that when the speaking began all the seats in the hall and gallery were filled and many were standing in the adjoining rooms. Mr. Gardner, though present, had lost his voice and was unable to preside, his place being taken at short notice by Mr. Viall. To him it fell to present to the beloved Rector a clock, and a purse as well, since the con- tributions had come in so generously and so generally that there was a considerable surplus above what the committee had planned for. The Rev. Robert B. Parker of St. James' and Dr. Bradner of St. John's made brief congratulatory speeches.
At the Corporation meeting, the night before, the Vestry in their annual report had recorded their official appreciation as follows:
"At this Easter Dr. Rousmaniere completes his tenth year as Rector of Grace Church. The Vestry voices the feeling of every- one connected in any way with the parish when they say that it is their fervent hope that many decades may pass before that rector- ship is ended. Rarely, we believe, is the relation between minister and people so close, so warm and so beautiful as in this parish at the present time. Seldom has a minister so clearly realized his people's needs and so devotedly ministered to them. As each year has passed, he has known better how to lead us, and we have fol- lowed him more confidently and unquestioningly. In few parishes anywhere is there such an utter absence of friction and criticism. We realize with shame how often we have disappointed him and how much we have withheld that he sorely needed and that we might have given him, and we mean to do better. We realize with deepest gratitude the sacrifices which he has made for us. To minister to us he has repeatedly declined larger fields of labour and more conspicuous positions. We beg him to believe that we are not ungrateful and that we desire nothing so much as that we
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and our children may continue to be led under his guidance in the paths of righteousness. We want to feel that for always we are his people."
Late in the following July, however, Dr. Rousmaniere, like Dr. Vinton before him and Dr. Sturges later, received a call from St. Paul's, Boston, so imperative in its special appeal and in the opportunities that Bishop Lawrence offered him in the preparation of that historic Church for its present important position as the Cathedral Church of Massachusetts that it could hardly be refused. The Vestry met to face the situation and adopted the following minute:
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