USA > Virginia > City of Lynchburg > City of Lynchburg > Historic and heroic Lynchburg > Part 10
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Then, did they die in vain, these brave boys who went out from their homes to battle for the right, these lads so full of eager hope and willing self-immolation? Not so, not so, God grant it be not so, for the sacrificial offering which they made of their lives bought for their country and the world the opportunity to partake of untold benefits and blessings which otherwise could never have been! The Great War was undoubtedly the greatest calamity in all history. But out of all its agony and bloody sweat will come great gain if the world will but prove itself worthy to receive it. For, like the salvation bought with blood on the tree of Calvary, this gain can not be ours unless we do our part. These boys have bought us with their blood a renaissance of true liberty and real democracy, the right of nations of the earth to emerge finally chastened and purified and enlightened through trial, so that future generations may enjoy a new era of "liberty, equality and fratern- ity," of justice and unselfishness which under the old order was impossible. God grant that we prove not unworthy, for so, and
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only so, may we take hold on the yet unseen and fundamental things for which they died :
"Things that time can not fashion and unfashion, The fearless faith that love of freedom gives, The fire, the inextinguishable passion, The will to die, so only freedom lives."
Rupert Brooke, the young English poet who fell nobly at Galli- poli, has referred to those who died for country as "the rich dead," and brought out the value of the guerdon won by them, the costly but precious heritage of glory they have left us, as a gift beyond rubies or pearls :
"Blow out, you bugles, over the rich dead! There's none of these so lonely and poor of old, But dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold. These laid the world away; poured out the red Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene That men call age; and those who would have been Their sons they gave, their immortality. Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us for our dearth, Holiness, lacked so long, and love and pain. Honour has come back, as a king, to earth, And paid his subjects in a royal wage; And nobleness walks in our ways again; And we have come into our heritage."
It is meet and right and our bounden duty, therefore, that we should make fitting memorial of those who have done these great things for us, and cherish forever in our hearts their imperishable renown.
"They went with songs to the battle, they were young, Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning We will remember them."
XVII.
GRACE MEMORIAL CHURCH
HISTORICAL ADDRESS AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNERSTONE OF THE NEW CHURCH, FORT HILL, LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA, MAY 15, 1928
Reverend Father in God, Brother Masons, Fellon Episcopalians, Ladies and Gentlemen :
The history of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Lynchburg goes back for more than a century.
Of St. Paul's, the mother church, the history is eventful and interesting, but it is unnecessary to repeat it now. In the summer of 1843, the Rev. William H. Kinckle, who had previously been in charge of a church in Cumberland County, came to St. Paul's as rector, and served the congregation with rare ability and fidelity until his death on the second of March, 1867, in the forty-ninth year of his age.
On the twenty-eighth of January, 1859, at the request of Mr. Kinckle, a meeting of those members of St. Paul's who lived on Diamond Hill was held at the residence of Captain Blackford to take the initial steps towards building a church in that part of the town, and committees were appointed, to further the plan. Mr. Kinckle applied all his energy to the work, and in 1860 a lot was purchased and the church built. It was not, however, completed when the war stopped all such work. During the war it was used as a hospital, and when peace returned it was almost in ruins. Through Mr. Kinckle's efforts it was restored, and on Easter Day, 1866, it was opened for worship, and thereafter until his death, in 1867, Mr. Kinckle conducted services there every Sun- day evening. In his report to the Diocesan Convention in 1866, Mr. Kinckle said: "With God's blessing we hope this promising offshoot from the parent church of St. Paul may before long develop into a full grown parish of its own, with vestry and pastor. The field around it is wide. It needs only to be faithfully worked
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to yield an abundant harvest." This aspiration of its founder, in honor of whom it was called Grace Memorial Church, has received abundant fulfillment. In 1867 it was placed in charge of the Rev. James Grammer, and soon thereafter became a separate congrega- tion. Since then it has grown and flourished. The first building was succeeded by a handsome new one, which in its turn now gives place to the beautiful edifice to be erected on this site. Among its rectors were the late Rev. John J. Lloyd, who was universally esteemed and beloved, and Mr. Carleton Barnwell, our present rector of St. Paul's.
On January 1, 1870, there came to St. Paul's, as rector, a man than whose name that of no man is held by this people in deeper reverence or more abiding affection-Rev. Theodore M. Carson.
In 1877, under Mr. Carson's leadership, a church was built in the neighborhood of Miller Park, and named Epiphany. In 1881, Rev. Edward S. Gregory, the "poet priest of Lynchburg," was placed in charge of this church and labored there most devotedly and successfully for a few years until his death. Mr. Gregory was a man of the highest type and the truest piety, and it is eminent- ly fitting that the building for which we now lay the cornerstone should contain a tablet to his memory, along with one to Dr. Kinckle. Spiritually, Dr. Kinckle and Mr. Gregory are the founders of this church, and it is a most happy coincidence that this new building is to consist in large part of materials from both Epiphany and the former Grace Church building which still stands on Grace Street. Great was the work done at little Epiphany and at old Grace Church in Lynchburg, but the time came, when in the providence of God, it was considered that the work begun by saintly Kinckle and Gregory, and carried on so well by their successors, could be done more effectively in a new location. Hence it was that in September, 1926, negotiations between St. Paul's Church and Grace Church resulted in the passage of resolutions by the vestry and congregation of Grace Church of which the following is a copy :
"Believing (a) that it is vitally necessary to the future advance- ment of the church in Lynchburg that an Episcopal Church be established in the Fort Hill section of the city as soon as possible,
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and (b) that the opportunities for service on the part of Grace Church would be greatly increased and multiplied if this church were re-located in this rapidly developing section of the city, there- fore, be it
RESOLVED, I. That in accordance with the invitation issued by the vestry and congregation of St. Paul's Church, the vestry and congregation of Grace Church unite with the vestry and congregation of St. Paul's Church, under the rectorship of the present rector of Grace Church; continuing with the congregation of St. Paul's Church in worship, in active service and in financial support of the church's work at the home and abroad, that there may be no needless impairment of the church's efficiency as regards its work in this community or its support of the church's program.
2. That the property of Grace Church, exclusive of its furnish- ings, memorials, etc., be disposed of as quickly and advantageously as possible, upon condition that similar disposition be made of the Epiphany property; and that the proceeds of such sales be used towards the purchase of a lot and the erection of a new church in the Fort Hill section, which church is to be known as Grace Memorial Church.
3. That upon completion of the new church in Fort Hill, the members of the united congregation, whether former members of Grace Church or St. Paul's Church, be given the opportunity, either of continuing their membership in St. Paul's or of uniting themselves with the new Grace Memorial Church."
The members elected to constitute the first vestry and who still hold office are as follows: Harrison T. Nicholas and Dr. Geo. J. Tompkins, wardens; L. P. Mann, registrar; Geo. H. Shumate, treasurer; A. P. Craddock, Walter S. Nelson, Edley Craighill, R. A. Ralph, Thos. R. Allen, W. F. Whately, John Cosby, and J. L. Shaner. Dr. Tompkins was elected chairman and has presided over the meetings which have taken place from time to time. By resolutions of the vestry he was directed to appoint a Building Committee, including himself a member of the same, and the following were so appointed to serve with him in that capacity : H. T. Nicholas, A. P. Craddock, Edley Craighill and W. F. Whately.
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It should be recalled at this point that the original resolution, inaugurating this movement, passed by the vestry of old Grace Church September 9, 1926, and later accepted by the congregation at a special meeting, referred to the Epiphany property. This property consisted of a plat of ground lying between Fort Avenue and Marsh Street, adjacent to the Miller Park, on which was located a stone chapel of most pleasing architectural design, a relic of former efforts of the Episcopal Church in Lynchburg, but on account of changes in the growth of the city, no longer suited to its purpose and for the past twenty-some years had been abandoned, closed, and left to the erosions of passing time. The title was vested in the Trustees of St. Paul's Episcopal Church and the property under the control of St. Paul's vestry which construed the trust as a moral obligation resting upon them to hold it solely for the purpose of restoring it to the advancement of the church's work whenever and by whatever means that could be accomplished, so the proposal of the Grace Church vestry as embodied in the reso- lution met with their prompt and hearty response and the property has since been sold and the proceeds passed to the treasury of the new Grace Memorial Church. At this time the old Grace Church and grounds located on the corner of Grace and Sixteenth Streets are being offered for sale with the same purpose in view.
Upon the completion and adoption of the plans and specifications prepared by Craighill & Cardwell for the new building, a contract was closed with Hancock & Sons and on February 7, 1928, first ground was broken on the new lot and the wrecking of the Epiphany Chapel was begun for the purpose of using its beautiful stone and all other available material, which had been preserved, for the new Grace Church structure.
Grace Memorial Church vestry has extended to Dr. W. G. Pendleton, of the Virginia Episcopal School, a call and his acceptance, already in the hands of the vestry, predestines him to become the first rector.
As provided in the resolution a committee, consisting of H. T. Nicholas, chairman, C. S. Hutter, D. C. Frost, S. G. Hamner, Dr. B. H. Kyle, and Dr. Geo. J. Tompkins, was appointed to institute the Fort Hill enterprise. This committee, with the consent of the proper church authorities, sold the rectory of the old Grace
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Memorial Church on Sixteenth Street, and with the major portion of the proceeds, purchased ground on New Hampshire Avenue in the Fort Hill section for the location of the new Grace Memorial Church. A congregational meeting in the Fort Hill Club House was called and presided over by the Rev. Carlton Barnwell, member ex-officio of the committee, and after discussing and view- ing several proposed locations, approved the site selected by the committee on which the new church building is now being erected. The firm of Craighill & Cardwell, architects, was the choice of the committee and they were directed to prepare plans for the building.
In the fall of 1927 it was decided to re-organize Grace Church for the purpose of beginning active church work, and a meeting of the congregation again took place in the Fort Hill Club House, at which time a vestry was elected and became successors of the above committee and assumed full charge of the new situation. A committee was appointed to organize a church school and arrange for regular Sunday morning classes in the Fort Hill Club House. Their work rapidly bore fruit and in a short time the Sunday school reached an enrollment of 100 members with Mr. Walter S. Nelson as superintendent, and has since conducted regular classes each Sunday morning.
It is hoped and believed that a greater work for God's Kingdom on earth will be done than would have been possible under former circumstances at either of the old locations of Grace Church or Epiphany Chapel. The latter building has already been torn down and the stone from its walls is being rebuilded into this structure, which, although much larger, will greatly resemble it in style of architecture. The furnishings and memorials from old Grace Church will be transferred here later on, and thus the new Grace Memorial Church of Lynchburg, will be, to a large extent, physically, as well as spiritually, the successor of old Grace and Epiphany, and we can well believe that upon this work the spirits of Dr. Kinckle and Dr. Carson and Dr. Lloyd, and Mr. Gregory look down in smiling benediction. Let me also mention the late Captain Frank T. Lee, who was deeply interested in the work at Epiphany and gave liberally of his time and means to its founda- tion as well as the Rev. Dr. T. H. Lacy, who labored there faith-
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rully for several years and who but a few days ago passed to receive his Master's plaudit of "Well done, good and faithful servant." Also deserving of highly honorable mention are the Rev. Mr. Lawrence, Rev. C. B. Wilmer and the faithful lay workers, who strove valiantly to keep Epiphany alive, but, who, owing to its unfortunate location at the south corner of the city park were unable to do so.
All success then to the new venture! As a member of St. Paul's, I feel that I express the sentiments of its rector, its vestry, and its congregation, when I say that we wish the people and pastor of this new parish Godspeed in their labors. Just as old St. Paul's gladly gave of her life blood, in the sacrifice of means and members, to help in the establishment of Grace Church and Epiphany originally, just as later on she willingly made the same sacrifice to establish St. John's in Rivermont, so does the old mother church now gladly and willingly, yet not without pain at the parting, give of her sons and daughters to help establish this new branch of our beloved church, and follow them with her constant prayers and love.
XVIII.
MARY VIRGINIA ELLET CABELL
ADDRESS AT THE UNVEILING OF THE TABLET IN HER MEMORY, "POINT OF HONOR," LYNCHBURG, JUNE 14, 1931
Madame Regent, Ladies of Lynchburg Chapter D. A. R., Friends and Compatriots :
It is a privilege, for which I shall ever remain profoundly grateful, to be permitted to have a part in the exercises of this occasion. I take it that I am thus honored not only because of the position I hold as president of the Virginia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, an organization closely affiliated with that great patriotic organization of women under whose auspices these exercises are held, but also because it was known to those who invited me that throughout my whole life, as long as she lived, I was intimately associated with the great woman whose memory we honor, and closely bound to her by ties of blood kinship, and personal and inherited friendship, and of mutual affection and esteem. Even during the closing years of her life, as long as she was able to see, I was favored with occasional letters in her own hand, and no task could have been assigned me more appealing to my sense of appreciation than that I now exercise of paying my humble tribute to her memory. It is, indeed, a labor of love.
Mary Virginia Ellet Cabell was born here at "Point of Honor," on January 24, 1839, and after a long life, full of usefulness and beauty, passed into the life beyond, at Michigan City, Indiana, on the fourth day of July, 1930, in the ninety-second year of her age. The place of her birth and the date of her death are both filled with suggestive significance. With her it was ever a "point of honor" to concede to others all that was their due, and her notable distinction, as one of the organizers of the Daughters of the American Revolution, made it peculiarly fitting that her noble life should end on the anniversary of the American Declara- tion of Independence. On both sides she was descended from
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families of worth and character, and her ever unfailing recognition of the spirit of "noblesse oblige" caused her never to falter in making her own life and character measure up to the standard they had set.
Her father was Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr., an eminent and distinguished civil engineer, one of whose exploits was the building of a famous bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis, and another the introduction of wire suspension bridges into America, erecting one at Fairmount, Pennsylvania, in 1842, and another across the Niagara, below the Falls, in 1847. Still earlier, in 1837, when hardly more than a youth, fresh from his studies at the famous Ecole Polytechnique, in France, he had become chief engineer of the James River and Kanawha Canal, a project which for many years faithfully and efficiently served the transportation needs of those living along the James River from Buchanan to Richmond, and the now abandoned remains of which may be seen hard by this spot. He became a colonel of engineers in the Union Army during the Civil War, and converted a fleet of Mississippi steamers into rams with which he sank or disabled several Confederate vessels in a naval engagement off Memphis, June 6, 1862. In this engage- ment he received a wound from which he died, at Cairo, Illinois, on June 21. Colonel Ellet's use of the ram in naval warfare is said to have been suggested by the sinking of a large vessel by a smaller one in an accidental collision. It is related that while her father was building the Niagara Bridge, the little Mary Ellet, always fearless, would often make the trip across the river on the cable, in the cage which carried the tools and workmen, and she was told by her father to "tell her grandchildren that she was the first woman ever to see the Falls from the middle of the river."
On her mother's side her ancestry was also eminent and dis- tinguished. Of Revolutionary descent, through the Baldwins and other well known families, her mother was one of the four daughters of Judge William Daniel, my great grandfather, whose seat on the Circuit Bench of Lynchburg and Campbell County I now have the honor to hold, and her uncle, the brother of these four sisters, was Judge William Daniel, Jr., long a leading member of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Of these four daughters of the elder Judge Daniel, it may be said that each was
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a woman of unusual charm and character. One of them, Martha, a notable belle and wit of fragrant memory, became the wife of Judge Wood Bouldin, who followed his brother-in-law, Judge William Daniel, Jr., on the Supreme Court of Appeals, and their daughter, Miss Ellie Bouldin, gifted with all her mother's charm and wit, graces the occasion with her presence here today. Another of the Daniel sisters, Cornelia, married Mayo Cabell, of Union Hill, and became the mother of William Daniel Cabell, who married Mary Virginia Ellet, in whose honor the Daughters of the American Revolution place this tablet which has just been unveiled by her distinguished son, Major Charles Ellet Cabell. The mother of our subject was Elvira Augusta Stuart Daniel, who married Colonel Ellet. The other Daniel sister, Eliza, married Lewis Cabell, son of Dr. George Cabell, the builder of "Point of Honor," who acquired the deed to the land from John Lynch, the founder of Lynchburg, in 1792. It was through Eliza Daniel Cabell that her father, Judge William Daniel, became the owner of "Point of Honor" and that it afterwards descended to his son, Judge William Daniel, Jr., who later built another home higher up this hill called Daniel's Hill, which, by his second wife, the beautiful and accomplished Elizabeth Cabell, daughter of Judge William H. Cabell, president of the Supreme Court of Appeals, was named "Rivermont," the name now applied to that large and beautiful section of Lynchburg north of Blackwater Creek and reached from the rest of the city by Rivermont Bridge. The house called "Rivermont" was for many years the home of Major E. S. Hutter. It is an interesting coincidence that at one time while Judge William Daniel, Jr., was on the Court of Appeals, the president of the court, who afterwards became his father-in-law, and his uncle, Judge Briscoe B. Baldwin were also members, and that among his successors was Judge Bouldin, his brother-in-law. Here it may be mentioned that the sister of Judge Baldwin, the grandmother of Mrs. M. V. E. Cabell (Judge William Daniel's wife), was that Margaret Baldwin, of Winchester, of whom and of whose daughter, Eliza Daniel Cabell, there is found an interest- ing account in "Sketches and Recollections of Lynchburg." Here too may be mentioned the fact that "Point of Honor" derives its name from the fact that, according to tradition, once in the long
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ago, before the house was built, it was the scene of a duel which was about to be fought between Captain Samuel Wyatt and Mr. Henry S. Langhorne, but which was averted and amicably settled without bloodshed, and without yielding by either party of any "point of honor." According to some accounts the duel was to be fought between Captain Wyatt and a Mr. Nowlin, and Mr. Langhorne was one of the seconds.
My earliest recollections of my distinguished kinswoman, Mrs. Cabell, begin with my boyhood days in Nelson County, where my parents lived at the time, and where, at "Fern Moss," their home, and at "Norwood," the handsome estate of Mr. William D. Cabell, whom she had married shortly after the Civil War, our families used to exchange visits and my sisters and brothers and I would play with their children. "Norwood" is only a short dis- tance from Union Hill, Mr. Cabell's ancestral home, of which estate it was formerly a part, and there it was that young Ellet and I used to roam the fields and woods, learning to swim in the James and the Tye, and indulging in all the usual delights of boyhood. As I look back over the intervening years, I can think of no place where the beauty and charm of Virginia family life in those days were more beautifully exemplified. Mr. Cabell was a man of courtly and dignified presence, of the highest type of physical and moral courage, and as a preceptor of youth he left his impress upon the lives of many who today remember him with gratitude and reverence.
In the 1880's the Cabells decided to break up the school for boys which he was conducting at "Norwood," and removed to Washington, where they established a seminary for young ladies under the name of Norwood Institute, located at Thomas Circle, on the northwest corner of Fourteenth Street and Massachusetts Avenue, in buildings some of which are still standing. This became one of the most noted and best patronized institutions of its kind, numbering among its students hundreds of girls from the best families of North and South, and including many daughters of members of both branches of Congress and prominent government officials.
During their management of Norwood Institute this school became not only a center of art and learning, with a faculty com-
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posed of the best teachers in their respective branches, but it also became one of the most brilliant centers of social life in the nation's capital, characterized by a cultured charm and refined hospitality that made it unique and notable even in that city of culture and social grace. On Friday evenings their parlors were the scene of gatherings at which many of the leaders of social and official life in Washington would be found present, and many of the leading lights of literature and music and dramatic art would contribute their talents for the entertainment of the pupils of the school and their guests. Well do I remember the privilege of attending many of these gatherings, for, though I was but a boy in years, my kins- folk, the Cabells, were ever loyal to their tribe and clan, and meticulously careful that none should be overlooked.
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