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O FEAR GOD, TELL THE TRUTH AND MAKE MONEY.GHTS ILLINOIS, SATURDAY, AUGUST 17,1901.REMINISCENCESOF THEPresbyterian Church, Arlngton Heightswritten by Mrs. Hattie E. B. Farweia for the Women’s Club.I take you back in memory to a day in the ^a.r\y Fifties, to a little brown school house close to the State road, and quite near the site of our present school building.The teacher of that little dock was Jeannette Allen, and among those who gathered daily from far and near were Bessie, Isaiah, Benjamin and Sarah Ell wood, Sarah and William Burkitt, Hattie Carson, Desdemona, Julia and Henry Howe, Al-meda and William Wing, Edward and George Dunton, Charles Allen, Albert, Edward, Flora and Floyd Field, Clara Torrance, Maggie Peter, Mary and Hattie Baker, and others whose names I do not now recall.One day a caller came to the little school, the Rev. David Kingsley of Ca-zenovia New York; speaking pleasant words of greeting, he gave to each child a copy of “The Well Spring,” probably the first Sunday School paper that many of us had ever seen.Later he came again and a preaching service was held on the main floor of £ large barn owned by William Dunton. during this service Mrs. Lydia Allen, and Mrs. Margaret Peter occupiel a seat directly in front of several little girls among whom were Mary Sawyer, Anna Mooft and Hattie Baker; during the sermon we became restless and began whispering; whereupon Mrs. Peter opened her handbag, and brought out a handful of seed cookies, bestowing one upon each culprit accompanying the gift with a cordial smile which at once won each heart.At the close of this service a Sunday School was organized, and Mrs. Lydia Allen turning toward our seat said “And I choose these little girls for my class”, so until we were grown to womanhood, Mary Saw’yer, Anna Moore and myself, and later Amelia Denio, Emma Kidder and Mary Carson were loyal members of Aunt Lydia’s class, now two of the old members, Mary Sawyer McFarland, and Anna Moore Barrett are w’ith the loved teacher in the Better Land, but those who left will bear loving witness to the faithful teaching of this dear friend.Another class chosen that day by Mrs. Ellen Baker consisted of Bessie Ell wood, Flora Field, and later Ella Hawkes, Eu-lalie Scoville and Helen Blodgett; of this number, only two Bessie Ellwood and Helen Blodgett are now living; three gifted and beautiful have been promoted with their beloved teacher to that Higher School of which they studied.Mrs. Almeda Dunton was for many years the teacher of the Infant Room Lately, when some name was mentioned, she said “I always feel such an interest in him for he was in my Sunday School room and I never forget any of my old scholars” Mrs. Mary Olmsted also did faithful work in this room for many years.A little later John and Eliza Fleming, William and Matilda Alfallace, Ebenezer and Mary Moore, LeahKBeaumont, William Dunton and Mary flbomis joined the ranks as faithful teachers in our Sunday School and still later George and Emily Bugbee, Emily Barrett, Mary Fast, Will Hanchett and Emily Draper. For thirty five summers Mrs. Draper has brought flowers, each Sabbath, and arranged them for the morning service has planned and superitended the decorations for Christmas and other holidays, has hung festoons for our brides and somber draperies for our dead, her heart never losing its warm sympathy, nor her hand its cunning.Mr. Moore was for many years chorister of both Church and S. S. and his daughter Anna organist. After the death of Mr Moore, Daniel Draper was chorister for many years, with Ella Hawkes, Anna Carson and later Nellie Noves as organist, All did faithful work and helped to keep our standard of church music high.The first winter of our Church life, we held services in the Rand Store and then, helped by a loan from the Church Erection Fund, our present Church Edifice bnilt; and the men who selected the materials for building and over looked every stage of the work, were tnen of such £are judgement, that I feel confident w’ith some minor repairs, our church building will stand intact for yet a ^quarter of a century.A few years after the completion of our diurch, we still owed the Church Erection ?und a hundred or more dollars and so a meeting was called of both Church and Sunday School to try and liquidate the debt. For months before hand the older members had been working and economizing and we younger ones busily earning pennies, weeding gardens, running errands, gathering eggs, selling paper ~ags, etc. etc. When ttie eventful evening ame and everyone, great and small, had ►rought forward his gift, it was found that there was “enough and to spare”. Those who w’ere present that uight, will still remember the fervor with which all joine! in the strains of “Praise God from Whom all Blessiugs Flow” with a new sense of its neaningand an added love for the Church that was all our own.Of those who assisted iu the organization of our church, Amos Bailey, who died in the early 60s was greatly loved and missed. Asa Dunton and John Peter elders for life, lived to a ripe old age, and died beloved and regretted by all.Later in our church history came the deaths of four other elders equally beloved John Fleming, Amasa Allen, William Dunton and Rush Miner.Among the noble men who worked for and sacrificed to, and loved with a w hole hearted devotion the church of their choice, and died loved and revered by all were Ebenezer Moore MarkSawyer.Thom-John Bowe, Wm Scorville John Carson. J. V. Downs, Lucius Skinner, William Beaumont and Charles “F. Haw'kes. Amasa Alien and John Bowe each left $1000 to be used iu carrying on our church work.Still living and engaged in active work here or elsewliere are Joseph Olmsted, William Wallace, Janies Shirra, Luther Whiting and William Russell.Of the noble women who in those early days counted no sacrifice too great for the church of their love, and who have gone now to their reward, were Mesdames Betsev Kingsley, Margaret Peter, Mary Wing, Marietta Sawyer, Mary Moore, Eliza Fleming, Lydia Allen, Emily Barrett, Narcissa Field, Margaret Lewis, Ellen Baker, Esther Dunton, Lucinda Scoville, Mary Loomis, Bethia Carson, Almira Porter, Pamelia Blodgett, Ann Russell, Maria Thurber, Augusta Mea-chum, Clarissa Hawkes, Wilda Hanchett, Sarah Kellogg and Leah Beaumont.The loss of three youthful members, Jessie Whitiug, Ella Hawkes, and Mary Dunton Bray, was deeply felt by our church.Still left of that early band of workers are Mesdames Almeda Dunton, Matilda Wallace, Hester Miner, Lauretta Whiting Loraine Miner, Clara Cooley, Mary Olmsted, Susan Guild, Rebeca McNab, Minnie Miner, Emily Bugbee, Mary Anderson Mary Shirra, Rebecca Pate, Hettie Noyes, Ellen Scluss and Mary Baker Hawkes.I only recall three of our members who entered the ministry, Edward and Frank Barrett, and William Newton; the two first mentioned were sons of our beloved pastor, and were possessed of rare gifts and devotion.Both compassed a great work in a few short years, and went in the prime of lifebrightnessof the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.”One of our earliest members, Samuel Perry, an elder and half brother of H. B. Perry, and a young man, of great worth nd ability w'as studving for the ministry at the time of his death; his loss was deeply felt by the church at that time, as later was felt the loss of Charles Allen, Frank Bowe, George Abbs and Frederic Dunton, all young men of great promise.We counted ourselves specially blest in our choice of Pastors. Revs. David Kingsley, Newton Barrett, William Bartholomew and Alexander Gilchrist, cultured, scholarly, genial and sympathetic, they hold warm places in our affections; all are now living except our first pastor.Aside from these, who were regularly installed as pastors, many men of worth and ability occupied our pulpit for varying periods of time; among them being Revs. Calvin Clark, John R. Sutherland, Thomas Hubbard, Janies Bassett, George Marsh, William Clarke, William Irwin, and William Cort.The old time meetings of our Ladies’ Society each month, will be pleasantly remembered, when in response to an invitation from some hostess, men and women gathered in her home at an early hour of the afternoon, some coming from their farm homes miles away; after spending a few pleasant social hours together, an early supper was served by the hostess, and many returned home to attend to the evening work. Often the young people wTere specially invited for the evening, but the afternoon society was one of the pleasantest features of our church life, for twenty five years; then, conditions changing, it gradually merged into our present monthly evening social.A delightful feature of those early days as the Singing School held during the long winter evenings in our S. S. room, first by William Green, then by Robert Scott, the blind singer, and afterward by Mark Jones, and others. Among those who attended, whose voices I especially recall were Lauretta Whiting, Daniel Draper, Ebenezer and Marv Moore Julia, Hannah and Mary Gay, Janies and F.dward Sawyer, and their sisters *Hat-and Mary, Mary Kingsley, Sarah Bill-1, Mary J. Wood, John Lewis and A. Dowms and wife. Mr. Green once d of all the Alios he had ever heard those of Mary Kingsley and Mrs. Downs w’ere the purest and the sweetest. Of the more youthful singers at that time, were Anna Moore, Eda Gould, Agnes Lewis, d all the members of the Skinner, Ellwood and Field families. I have heard it d that the concert given at the close of each term of singing lessons, was worth going many a mile to hear.‘There have been sweet-singing voices,In our aisles that now are still.There are seats left void in this earthly homeWhich noue again may fill.*’Of our church membership, five at least were in the Civil War, Daniel Draper, Falward Sawyer, John Lewis, William Higgins and Charles F. Hawkes, and of our Sunday School, David Carson and James Peter. All of these returned in safety to their homes.In looking back over our past it seems to me that as a church we owe much to the memory of William Dunton. He gave the lots for both church and parsonage, suprintended the building of both, and throughout a long and useful life gave generously of his means, and never wavered in his allegiance to the church of his love. .A few of our old members are living in other places; a few still remain here and gather in their accustomed places on the Sabbath day. Often as we sit, the form of the preacher fades and another stands iu his place, the pews fill with those well remembered and loved, who occupied them nearly fifty years ago. The old familiar room takes on new beauty.The place.Where shining souls havejmssed, imbibes a graceBeyond mere earth; some sweetness of their forms,il its unextinguishedin the trace, Pungent, patheti That penetrates them,vFcrith nobler aims , and heightensihanies,”Hattie E. B. Farwell Woman's Club.Dim ton Cemetery Association MeetingAn informal meeting of the Dunton j Cemetery Association will be held at the village hall Tuesday, Aug. 20, 1901, at 8 o’clock p. in., for the purpose of onsidering the question of the management and improvement of said! —cemetery. A full attendance is desired. All lot owners are members.WM. PFLUGER, I °JJ. W. BURKITT. i D. T. M’NAB, j tyCommittee on Improvements j teCemetery Association Meeting.The Elk Grove Cemetery Association that has recently been formed will hold; their first public meeting Saturday wening, Aug. 17, at 7:30 o’clock, at the home of Mrs. Rose Cooley. All inter ! ested are earnestly requested to be present. By order of the president. MARY A. COOLEY, Secretary.$1.25 per year for this paper, all English, and $1.50 per year for half German edition. Cash in Advance. p|WEDDING CARDS.For Wedding Stationery of the finest quality and workmanship always come to H. C. Paddock Sons’ Printing Offices, Arlington Heights and Palatine We challenge competition in fancy a? well as plain printing. We can furnish anything (engraved work a specialty) on as low terms as can be obtained in Chicago. Remember, we Guarantee satisfaction.
Newspaper Details
Palatine Enterprise Register
Palatine, Illinois, US
Sat, Aug 17, 1901
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Arlington H.
IL, USA 21 Jul 2024
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