Timeline of History at Emmanuel

We’re interested to learn of significant dates and events involving Emmanuelites past and present. Please email archivist@emmanuelboston.org about the details of your Emmanuel timeline.

See also

Select one of these years to jump to a decade in this chronology and then Previous or Next to move up or down by years:

1860 | 1875 | 1885 | 1895 | 1905 | 1915 | 1925 | 1935 | 1945 |

1955 | 1965 | 1975 | 1985 | 1995 | 2005 | 2015 | 2020 | History.

1884

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Edward Sprague Rand (1809-84, senior warden 1860-64)

Jan 18.  SS City of Columbus was wrecked on Devil’s Bridge off Martha’s Vineyard. A group of Wampanoags heroically managed to rescue several men. All women and children had perished when an icy wave swept them overboard.

Among the 65 passengers drowned were parishioner Oscar Iasigi, who was the Turkish consul for New England and our founding senior warden Edward Sprague Rand, who was on his way to Florida with his wife, daughter-in-law, grandson, and son, The Rev. C. A. Rand, rector of Trinity Church, Haverhill. All were lost. 

 

1883

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Memorial bronze bust of The Rev. Dr. Alexander Hamilton Vinton by Augustus St. Gaudens was installed in the nave.  It was finally dedicated in 1894. For details please see an article in the Boston Daily Globe.

The family of the late Benjamin Smith Rotch endowed the Rotch Travelling Scholarship for architects.

See also

1882

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Our first organist and music director, Silas Atkins Bancroft (1823-1886), retired after two decades of faithful service.  He is buried in Lot 2607 on the Mistletoe Path of Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

B.S. Rotch (1817-1882) at time of our foundation. Photo courtesy of Boston Athenaeum.

Senior Warden Benjamin Smith Rotch died in office. A founding vestry member and warden since 1880, he was later memorialized with his wife Anne Bigelow Lawrence (1820-93) in our sanctuary’s reredos.

They are buried in  Lot 3004 on Bellwort Path in Mt. Auburn Cemetery.  His epitaph from Revelation 2:10 reads:  Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

1881

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  • Emmanuel Chapel was established as a mission at 114 W. Canton Street in the South End.  After 1885, it became Chapel of the Ascension, then Church of the Ascension in 1890.
  • Enoch Redington Mudge, who had founded recently-dedicated St. Stephen’s Church, Lynn, died. Jr. Warden from 1865-72, he had been a vestryman during the Civil War, when he lost his son Charles Redington at Gettysburg.

    Enoch Redington Mudge (1812-1881)

1880

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The Rev. Dr. William R. Huntington wrote “A Brief Sketch of the Early Days of the Church of the Good Shepherd”, Parish Journal of the Church, pp. 7-10.  Its title page lists as rector The Rev. George J. Prescott and as warden JDW French, who had come with founding priest WR Huntington from Emmanuel.  Also listed are warden Robert H. Richards and other founders, vestrymen, and sexton.

See also 1866

1878

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The Rev. Dr. Leighton Parks became our third rector.TimeLineLeightonparksHead1

He requested free seats at afternoon services, which required releases of pew holders’ rights. For biographical information on Dr. Parks please see the chapter on him in Emmanuel Church, 1860-1960: The First Hundred Years.

 

The Dakota League was incorporated into the Massachusetts branch of the Women’s Auxiliary to the Episcopal Board of Missions, which had formed in 1871. Since its founding here in 1864, the League had raised $56K for Native Americans and $8500 for freedmen, according to the Boston Evening Transcript of 18 October.

1877

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Richard S. Fay (1806-65), drawn in 1847 by Duane H. Hurd (History of Essex County MA, 1888).

Richard S. Fay , member of our founding vestry, helped found and manage the Cooperative Society of Volunteer Visitors to the Poor in response to high unemployment coupled with the devastating fire that had left many poor people homeless in Boston.  Having undergone name changes since then, the Society abides with us as Community Work Services, which provides job training to those with disabilities or living in poverty.  Under the direction of Rob Yeomans, trainees clean and maintain our facilities, which are enjoyed by the many groups of our community.

 

 

1876

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Rand's orchid

Paphinia cristata var. Randi named for ES Rand, Jr. Painting by M. A Goossens, lithographed by P. De Pannemaeker. Lindenia – Iconographie des Orchidées (Ghent, 1887)

Edward Sprague Rand, Jr. published in New York Orchids: Description of the species and varieties grown at Glen Ridge.   Lucien Linden and Emile Rodigas in their collection of plates of orchids Lindenia:  Iconography of Orchids,  ed. Jules Linden (Ghent, 1885-1906) named a variety of Paphinia cristata for him (randi).

See also 1873.