June 26. Andrew Gray Weeks died. Having been born in Portland, Maine, in 1823 and confirmed by Dr. F. Dan Huntington, he served on our vestry (1879-82 & 1884) and as junior warden from 1885 until his death. Having become a successful merchant, Andrew was generous to our church and those less fortunate. In 1905 his sister Harriet (Mrs. Silas Reed) Anthony gave in his memory the playground for the Emmanuel Memorial House, which his widow Alice gave. She also paid for a brass memorial plaque for their son Kenneth, who fell at Givenchy, France, in 1915. 
Monthly Archives: February 2013
1902
Vicar Arthur L. Bumpus reported that the Sunday School of our mission Church of the Ascension had on its books 500 children, of whom about 300 attended on a given Sunday. The Rev. Bumpus, who was born 1871 in Quincy MA, son of Judge Everett C. B., graduated Harvard College in 1891, and joined the Rev. Edward L. Atkinson at Ascension in 1899. He eventually became rector of Trinity Church on Long Island NY, where his funeral was held in 1926.
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Alexander Hamilton Vinton (1852-1911), namesake and nephew of our second rector, became Bishop of Western Massachusetts.
1901
Our Building Committee reported expending $16K to expand the seating capacity of the Church of the Ascension (our mission in the South End) to hold more that 565. Vestry member Cranmore N. Wallace (1834-1918) reported on cost overrides for the project in the Year Book of Emmanuel Church.
1900
24 June. A funeral service was held for our first sexton, James Haynes (30 Dec. 1836–21 June 1900). Born in Wantage, England (birthplace of Alfred the Great, he would always note), James was a mason, who immigrated to the US in 1859 and found his vocation at our newly constructed church.
1 July. Walter R. Spaulding, who had been organist & choirmaster since 1898, resigned to pursue duties as instructor at Harvard. He was succeeded in September by Arthur Sewall Hyde.
1900
Joseph Hersey Pratt, M.D. (1872-1956)
Dr. Joseph H. Pratt joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School and served as secretary of Ascension Chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. He reported in the Year Book of Emmanuel Parish that members of its Sailors Committee visited about a dozen vessels per month to distribute literature and invite men to the mission church. See also his later role in founding the Emmanuel Movement.
1899
- The new sanctuary was dedicated.
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Fay Cottage @ 216 Elm Rd., Falmouth MA was built c1740 by David Butler. 1916 photo thanks to Woods Hole Historical Archive
A cottage overlooking the Vineyard Sound in Falmouth was provided for a summer-long series of 10-day seaside sojourns for women and children of the Church of the Ascension by Emmanuel parishioners Mr. & Mrs. Henry B. Fay. A piazza and bathhouses along its beach were constructed with Emmanuel funds. Sarah M. Gay assisted Clara M. Carter, the Diocesan Deaconess, in managing the retreat at Fay Cottage for the first of 25 years to come. See also history of Fay Farm.
- The Students’ House was rented at 21-23 St. James Ave. It housed about 20 young women and maintained a club for 150 others for more than a decade.
Club Room at Students House, 21-23 St. James Ave.
1898
- Henrietta Sargent, daughter of our benefactor Mary Robeson Sargent (1847-1919) and Charles Sprague Sargent, married architect Guy Lowell at St. Paul’s Church, Brookline. CSS has a botanical legacy in the Professor Sargent camellia, which was released in 1908.
- April 19. Francis R. Allen‘s plans were approved and work began on the expansion.
- Florence R. Rhodes rented a cottage on Sandy Pond in Lincoln MA as a summer camp for girls of Church of the Ascension, which was run by Deaconess Henrietta Goodwin and Helen E. Moulton, intern from the NY Training School for Deaconesses.
1897
October 28. Rector Leighton Parks set up the Emmanuel Club to give young men of the parish a venue for fellowship. Samuel Taylor was its first secretary. They met several times a year for dinner with speakers or entertainment at the newly formed University Club at 270 Beacon Street. Fitz-Henry Smith Jr. was secretary during its last year in 1911. A member of the Harvard College Class of 1896, he went on to write these works about Boston:
- The story of Boston light, with some account of the beacons in Boston harbor (1911).
- The French at Boston during the Revolution : with particular reference to the French fleets and the fortifications in the harbor (1913).
- Storms and shipwrecks in Boston and the record of the life savers of Hull (1918).
November. The Rev. Henrietta Rue Goodwin began her service as deaconess at Emmanuel, which included distributing clothing, monitoring the Mothers’ Meeting, helping to fund choir vestments, and overseeing a Bible class and the Students’ Club. Her reports in our Yearbooks (1897-1906), give her accounting of Special Funds for distribution of aid to the poor and her other activities, which included thousands of visits to the sick and needy.
Children of Anne & Benjamin Rotch (clockwise): Aimee, Edith, Arthur & Lawrence
Work of Emmanuel House in the South End was transferred to our mission there, Church of the Ascension.
Edith Rotch, the younger daughter of Anne Bigelow Lawrence & Benjamin S. Rotch died at the age of fifty. She was memorialized by her sister Aimee R. Sargent in our Rotch reredos.
1896
- Leighton Parks rejected a call from a Brooklyn parish. The Vestry quickly began work on a larger church, which would add forty pews.
- The Ascension Chapter (#1407) of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew was organized by the Rev. Edward Atkinson.
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Harriet Dexter Lawrence Hemenway, 1890, by John Singer Sargent. Credit: WikiCommons
Harriet Lawrence Hemenway and her cousin Minna B. Hall founded the Mass. Audubon Society. For some time they had fought against the slaughter of egrets and other birds for their plumes by organizing women to stop wearing feathered hats.
1895
The Rev. James Yeames, Superintendent of the newly-established Emmanuel House, reported in the Year Book of Emmanuel Parish that two rooms and a hallway were combined to create a meeting space for about a hundred people on the first floor. Its treasurer Walter Baylies reported that $1778 covered the expenses for its first year.
June 16. The first service of Evening Prayer with hymns was held there and weekly thereafter. Throughout the next two months, a Summer Play School was held by the Episcopal City Mission for about a hundred boys & girls.
September. A Boys Club of about sixty members began meeting on Tuesday evenings. A Children’s House was held on Fridays at 6:30.