USA > Virginia > City of Lynchburg > City of Lynchburg > Historic and heroic Lynchburg > Part 8
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-From "Sketches and Recollections of Lynchburg, by the Oldest Inhabitant."
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wards called the Norvell House, which stood at the corner of Eleventh and Main Streets (formerly Second Street and Sixth Alley) where Guggenheimer's store now is. But before that occasional services of the Church were held by visiting ministers, among them Bishops Moore and Ravenscroft, and it is evident from the fact that these services were well attended, that there were a goodly number of Episcopalians in the town and community. It is a fact, moreover, that the first church building, of any denomina- tion, ever erected within the bounds of what is now the City of Lynchburg, was that of the Church of England, built in 1765, and which was a frame building, one story high, and stood in a grove where the corner of Tenth and Court Streets now is. Who built this church or who ministered or worshipped there I do not know,* ex- cept that it is said that it contained two special pews, one of which was occupied by Judge Edmund Winston, and the other by Major Samuel Scott. While the historian does not so record, it is possible that this property, along with other which had belonged to the
* Mr. C. S. Hutter, long a member and vestryman of St. Paul's Church, and now a vestryman of Grace Church, says that tradition in his family has it that the Church of England in Bedford and the surrounding country was served by Rev. Charles Clay, or "Parson Clay," as he was familarly known, who must have been a man of considerable force and ability. He used to travel on horseback, and held services for the main part at private houses, but it is a fair conjecture that he most probably had charge of the Church referred to. Prayer-books being scarce, he carried a leather bag containing cards, which were printed on both sides with an abbreviated form of the service, and these would be distributed among the people to enable them to make the responses. As they were mostly unfamiliar with the service, and therefore timid about the responses, he usually had with him a companion, or clerk (pronounced clark), who would lead in making the responses in a loud tone of voice. After the disestablishment of the Church, Parson Clay refused to preach, because it was part of his belief that his salary should be paid by the State, and that he should not have to depend upon his parishioners. He was a great friend of Thomas Jefferson, who held him in high esteem, and spent much of his time at Jefferson's residence, Poplar Forest, near New London, and a considerable number of letters written by Jefferson to Parson Clay are preserved. In one of them he speaks of a pair of spectacles he gave to the Parson, together with "a complete set of glasses from youth to old age." In this letter Mr. Jefferson discourses at some length on his views of religion, of which he says: "I have probably said more to you than to any other person." In another letter to Parson Clay he spoke of having calculated the exact latitude of Poplar Forest, and gave it as 37 degrees, 22 minutes and 26 seconds. Poplar Forest is now owned and used as a summer residence by Mr. Hutter.
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Church, was forfeited to the State, and, in 1802, when it burnt down, we find that it was being used as a school. In Christian's History of Lynchburg he tells us that in the grove which surrounded this church there was a graveyard, from which most of the remains were removed to the Methodist Cemetery. But some were not, and when the foundation of one of the present houses was being dug, there was unearthed the skeleton of a man who in life must have been seven feet tall. It is said that as a result of this finding the wife of a prominent citizen refused to live in the house he had erected, and he sold the property to some one whose wife was not so fearful that the ghost of this giant might return to "revisit the glimpses of the moon, making night hideous."
The meeting of September 14, 1822, was opened with prayer by the Reverend C. H. Page. Captain Robert L. Coleman was elected Chairman, and the Reverend Nicholas Hamner Cobbs was made Secretary. Here let me make special mention of Dr. Cobbs, for he was in a true sense the founder of this church as he was the father of Episcopalianism in all this section of Virginia. He was born in 1795 on his father's plantation, "Rose Hill," near Goode's, in Bedford County, within sight of the Peaks of Otter, and he used frequently to say that he was a better man for having been born in sight of those peaks. It is noteworthy that five years later James Hervey Otey was born in Bedford, still nearer to the Peaks. He subsequently became the first Bishop of Tennessee, as Cobbs became the first Bishop of Alabama. He is described as a "gaunt, raw-boned, six-foot-three son of a Virginia farmer and grandson of a Revolutionary soldier." He and Cobbs were lifelong friends, "true yoke-fellows in the work of the Lord," and they were among the foremost of those heroes of the Cross who laid firm and strong the foundations of this "Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States" of which we are now so proud. Among other churches established by Bishop Cobbs, during his ministry around here, were Trinity, near Boonsboro, and St. Stephen's, a short distance from Forest, buildings which are still used for worship, and St. John's at Liberty, now Bedford City. At the time when Bishop Cobbs was born there was not a single church, nor even a chapel, of our denomination in all this part of Virginia, not, in fact, in any county of what is now the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, and
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as an infant he was carried by his mother, on horseback, sixty miles to Charlottesville, in order to be baptized.
At that little organization meeting, a hundred years ago, the Hon. St. George Tucker (then a member of Congress and afterwards Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Virginia), Chiswell Dabney, James Bullock, Dr. Howell Davies, Henry Morris, and Elijah Fletcher* were appointed a committee for the work in Lynchburg and at once went to work to raise money for the support of a minister. In addition to the committee already named, a vestry for the whole work in Lynchburg, New London, and Bedford was elected, consisting of that committee and Col. Gerard Alexander, William Radford, and Seth Ward, from New London, and Patrick P. Burton, Nathaniel I. Manson, and Nicholas H. Cobbs, from Bedford. Mr. Cobbs, although a devout and consecrated Christian, had not then been ordained a minister or even confirmed. He was both confirmed and ordained a deacon on the same day, by Bishop Moore in Trinity Church, Staunton, in 1824.
The organization meeting was preceded by services conducted according to Episcopal usage in the Presbyterian Church, then at the lower end of Main Street, by a Rev. Mr. Prout, of Washing- ton, who preached there on the eighth of September, 1822, and the Sunday succeeding. At that organization meeting an annual sub- scription of $234.00 was raised "for the support of an Episcopal minister." There were twenty-eight subscribers, the largest con- tribution being made by Elijah Fletcher. The committee for Lynchburg secured as a minister the Reverend Amos Tredway, who preached in Masons' Hall the rest of the year 1822, all of 1823, and part of 1824. He was greatly assisted by Mr. Cobbs, who, although residing in Bedford, and not yet ordained, neverthe- less took a peculiar interest in the Lynchburg parish, where he was much beloved.
In September, 1824, Rev. Franklin G. Smith, a native of New England, who had opened a school in the Masonic Hall, assumed charge of the little congregation. He preached his first sermon in
* Father of Mrs. Indiana Fletcher Williams, the founder of Sweet Briar College.
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his schoolroom on Sunday, September fifth, and thereafter for nearly two years continued to conduct his services there. At Christmas of that year he administered the Holy Communion, this being the first time the rite was ever performed in Lynchburg ac- cording to the form of the American Episcopal Church. There were only seven communicants, namely, Mrs. George Cabell, Mrs. Ann Byrd, Colonel and Mrs. Gerard Alexander, Major William Warwick, Miss Otway Ann Carter, and Mrs. George Tucker. For some time Mr. Smith labored under discouraging circumstances, and without any salary, but his efforts soon bore substantial fruit. In January, 1825, a subscription was started for the erection of a church building to be known as "St. Paul's Church." It soon amounted to $2,804.00, of which $300.00 was given by Mrs. Cabell," who also gave the lot at the south corner of Church and Seventh Streets, on which the church was built. Other large sub- scribers were Rev. John Early, afterwards a distinguished Bishop of the Methodist Church, Elijah Fletcher, Chiswell Dabney, Thomas T. Bouldin, David Kyle, and Marshall Lodge No. 39 of Masons. In a little sketch written by the late Captain Charles M. Blackford, largely from the diary of his father, Mr. William M. Blackford, who like himself was long a vestryman and warden of St. Paul's, he says: "No two men contributed as actively to the gathering of an Episcopal congregation in this town, or to the building of a church in which it could worship, as Chiswell Dabney and Elijah Fletcher." The cornerstone of the church was laid during that year, and so zealous were the efforts to complete it that it was ready for the Convention of the Diocese to be held in it, beginning Thursday, May 18, 1826. Among the donations to the building fund, which made possible its early completion and equip- ment, was one of $500.00 made by the "Thespian Society," which gave a series of plays for the purpose of raising the money.
When the Convention met, it being the first Episcopal Conven- tion ever held in Virginia above Tidewater, it was a great event in the religious history of Lynchburg. The people, being unused to the rites of our Church, came from everywhere to attend the services, and the hospitality of the town was taxed to its utmost, the private
* She was Sarah Winston, daughter of Judge Edmund Winston.
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houses of the citizens, as well as the hotels and taverns being filled to overflowing. On the first day of the Convention the building was consecrated by Bishop Moore, who preached the sermon and confirmed thirty-one persons in the presence of a large congregation, among whom were thirty-seven visiting ministers, one of them being Rev. William H. Wilmer, of St. Paul's Church, Alexandria, who also preached during the Convention. It is said that this church building, though small, was tasteful and very picturesque, standing on a high plateau, surrounded by beautiful shade trees, and reached from Church Street by twelve or eighteen stone steps. In the steeple was a clock, which, when, twenty years or so later, this church building was taken down, was thrown out on the hillside, and left exposed to the elements for several years, and then in 1855, when the present Court House was built, was gathered up again, and placed in the facade of that building, where we still see it as the town clock, having faithfully, and for the most part accurately, marked the passage of time for the people of Lynchburg, during nearly three score years and ten.
The first funeral held in St. Paul's Church was that of Mrs. George Cabell, who had given the lot. She died early in the spring, but the funeral, according to the custom of that day, was post- poned for some time, and was held on the last Sunday evening of the Convention. Rev. Mr. Smith officiated, and a terrific thunder- storm came on during the sermon, which greatly alarmed the con- gregation. Mr. Smith was so overcome by his grief while speaking of the excellent lady who had done so much for his church, and whom he looked upon almost as a mother, that he descended from the pulpit, unable to continue his sermon, and the congregation, though awed by the tempest, was in full sympathy with his feelings.
In August, 1826, a Sunday School was organized, with Seth Ward as President, and has grown and prospered ever since. Mr. Ward lived at New London, but he was a devout Christian and devoted churchman, who did much in the establishing of the Church in Lynchburg, as well as in Bedford County.
In November of that year a pipe organ was installed in the church at the cost of over one thousand dollars. It was the first one ever heard in this community, and a division of sentiment, amount- ing to dissension, was aroused over this innovation. Mr. Smith
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preached a sermon upholding its use, and although the agitation brought many to church to hear the "new machine," many others absented themselves, believing its use to be a sin, and it was some time before the breach was healed.
Mr. Smith filled the pastorate most acceptably until December, 1837, when he resigned to engage in educational work. His de- parture was greatly regretted as he was a finished scholar and eloquent preacher, as well as a man of earnest and consecrated Christian character. In her "Sketches and Recollections of Lynch- burg," published in 1858, and justly regarded as one of Lynch- burg's chief literary treasures, Mrs. Margaret Cabell speaks of him as "a man of great worth and purity of character, exercising at all times that charity which beareth all things, and is not easily provoked."
He was succeeded as rector by Rev. Thomas Atkinson, who came here from Norfolk early in 1838, and continued the work with much success until in 1843 he left to take charge of a church in Baltimore. Dr. Atkinson was one of the ablest and most beloved ministers that ever held this parish. In 1853 he was made Bishop of North Carolina, and occupied that post of honor for many years. During his stay in Lynchburg, Bishop Moore died at his house on the fifteenth of November, 1841, being then eighty years old, and having truly been a mighty worker for God and His Church in his day and generation. Bishop Atkinson was a worthy member of a fine old Virginia family, and became a great leader of the South- ern Church, conservative and able. When the war came on he took the view that the secession of the States did not ipso facto separate the Southern Dioceses from the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, holding that a State "could not by any direct attempt thus deprive the Church of its rights." A different view prevailed, however, and the "Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America" was formed, with the same doc- trines, the same prayer-book, with the consequential changes of names, the same form of government as the old church, but it was never recognized in the North, the names of the Southern Dioceses were kept on the rolls of the parent organization, and when the war was over they were received back as if they had never been absent. A letter from Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont, the presiding Bishop,
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was addressed to each of the Southern Bishops under date of July 12, 1865, and assured them all of a cordial welcome to the Gen- eral Convention, appropriately held that year in Philadelphia, the "City of Brotherly Love." The promise was abundantly made good, and under the leadership of Bishop Atkinson the Southern Bishops returned to the open arms of the mother church.
In the summer of 1843, the Rev. William H. Kinckle, who had previously been in charge of a church in Cumberland County, was called to succeed Dr. Atkinson, and served his congregation with rare ability and faithfulness until his death, on the second of March, 1867, in the forty-ninth year of his age. Says Captain Blackford: "No man ever lived in this community who was more respected and beloved, and death never robbed it of one so universally mourned." A tablet to his memory was placed on the wall of the old church, and is now in the Sunday School room of this building. It bears the inscription, "A faithful soldier of the Cross, he wears the crown." During Mr. Kinckle's tenure of the rectorship a new church building was erected on the site of the first one. The corner- stone was laid June 11, 1850, and the first services were held in the new church on Easter Sunday, 1851. The architect of this building was W. S. Ellison, who also designed the Court House, and both of these buildings showed him to be a man of talent and cultivation, as the church was an excellent example, in a small way, of the Gothic type of architecture, and the Court House is an un- usually fine specimen of the Græco-Roman style. A portion of the old church is still standing, but has now been converted into an apartment house, which is owned by a member of St. Paul's vestry. In its tower there was a bell of wonderfully sweet tone and power, which has now been transferred to the Randolph-Macon Woman's College. During the Civil War, in 1862, the vestry passed a resolution that "the wardens be authorized to tender the bell of St. Paul's Church to the Confederate Government whenever it may be deemed necessary by the authorities at Richmond."
Under the leadership of Dr. Kinckle the church continued to grow and prosper, but it was much hampered by the question of finances, and repeated references are found in the vestry minutes to increasing the pew rents, taking steps to enforce collection of delinquent rents, requesting the ladies of the congregation to hold
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fairs, and other methods of raising money. In September, 1856, the rector was requested to "preach a sermon on the indebtedness of the church, and make a special appeal to the liberality of the congregation." At the vestry meeting of January 6, 1858, the rector announced that "in a spirit of noble munificence, Mrs. Rosannah E. Claytor had paid the debt of the church," and a suitable resolution of thanks for her liberality was passed. Thus, for a time, the church was rid of "the devil's salary," as a church debt has been called. After the death of this good woman a beau- tiful stained glass window was placed in the church as a tribute to her memory. This window has been carefully preserved by the present owner of the building, and it is to be hoped that at some time a fitting place connected with the church may be found where it can serve the ornamental, useful, and memorial purposes for which it was designed.
Of the history of this church during the great war that divided our beloved country in twain and bathed its soil with the blood of thousands of the best and brightest of its sons, time fails me to make fitting mention. Suffice it to say that the men and women of this congregation gave of their best in every way to the Confederate cause, and many of its sons shed their blood and yielded up their lives on the fields of battle. Among these was the gallant General Samuel Garland, Jr., who was killed at South Mountain, near Boonesborough, Maryland, September 14, 1862, and who for several years was a member of the vestry. General D. H. Hill spoke of him as "a pure, gallant, and accomplished Christian soldier who had no superior, and few equals in the service."
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,
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in 1867, Mr. Kinckle conducted services there every Sunday eve- ning. In his report to the Diocesan Convention in 1866, Mr. Kinckle said: "With God's blessing we hope this promising off- shoot 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 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, and the first building has been succeeded by a handsome new one. Among its rectors was the late Rev. John J. Lloyd, who was universally esteemed and beloved.
Following the death of Mr. Kinckle, the Rev. Henderson Suter, D. D., was called to this church, on June 1, 1867, and he assumed charge on the first day of July, that year. He was a man of fine cultivation and deep piety, and under his administration the church continued its upward and onward career until he resigned on October 1, 1869, to go to Christ Church in Alexandria, where he served for many years with success and distinction.
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. It is doubtful if in the history of Lynchburg any pastorate ever existed for a longer continuous period than did that of St. Paul's Church under Dr. Carson. For nearly a third of a century this godly man preached and labored among the people of this parish, endearing himself to all who came within the sphere of his holy influence, and "throughout all this tract of years wearing the white flower of a blameless life." Dr. Carson was a man of very dis- tinguished presence, with a deep, well-trained voice, and never have the services of the church been more impressively read than by him. His sermons were clothed in scholarly diction, and delivered with a dignity of bearing and a benignity of expression which will never be forgotten by those who heard him. It was under his ministry that the congregation again found that it had outgrown its
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quarters and erected the present beautiful and commodious struc- ture, second to none in the State, and one of the handsomest specimens of Romanesque architecture in the country. It is built entirely of grey granite, trimmed with brownstone, and its classic lines and proportions, its lovely windows and interior decorations mark it as a real gem of ecclesiastical art and architecture. The first service in the new church was held on the Sunday before Christmas, 1895, being conducted by Dr. Carson, with the assist- ance of the Rev. T. H. Lacy, D. D. Those who were present will never forget the impression made by the beautiful and eloquent sermon delivered by Dr. Carson, who, in the joy of seeing the fruition of his long cherished hopes, surpassed himself in the chaste elegance of his thought and language, and the superb character of his delivery. At this service a vested choir was for the first time introduced, and, like the first use of the organ, it excited both favorable and adverse comment, but it has long since been accepted by all as an improvement that adds much to the impres- siveness of the services.
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 de- votedly and successfully for a few years until his death. Since then it has languished, in spite of repeated attempts to revive it, but many hope that it may yet become a worthy monument to the devout and saintly man who gave to it the best efforts of his gifted mind and consecrated heart.
Dr. Carson died while rector of St. Paul's, on the twenty-third day of September, 1902, in his sixty-ninth year, after a continuous and fruitful ministry to this people during a period of almost thirty-three years. A most fitting and lofty tribute to his memory was written by Captain Blackford, then Senior Warden, and who followed him to the grave in less than six months, and spread upon the minutes of the vestry by unanimous vote. In it Captain Black- ford said: "As long as health and strength were spared him, he discharged his many and arduous duties with a zeal and fidelity.
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and an industry which won our love and deserved our admiration, for surely was he
" 'In his duty prompt at every call,
He watched and wept; he prayed and felt for all!'
"He stood high in the councils of the Church, and was dean of the Convocation of Southwestern Virginia. His sermons were models of ecclesiastical eloquence, but to us he was endeared by his ready sympathy, his pastoral care and his steady friendship. We admired his virtues, and loved the purity of his gentle soul. He taught us while living, by precept and example, how to be a Christian gentle- man, and on his death bed, as with the last stroke of his vital energy, he raised his feeble hand in prayer, he taught us how to die, in his whispered aspiration, 'Thy will be done'."
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