10 August. Our benefactor Priscilla Rawson married Henry Melvin Young in Kent CT. They had known each other since he had attended Kent College there before going to Trinity College, Oxford. Known as Dinghy Young, he had been awarded Britain’s Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar. Killed returning from a 1943 RAF bombing raid on dams in the Ruhr Valley, Squadron Leader Young of was played by Richard Leech in the 1955 movie The Dam Busters. For a more technical description of 617 Squadron’s achievement, see this documentary, which mentions him at about 39 minutes. See also 1909, 1939, 1971, 1973, 1994 & 2000.
Timeline of History at Emmanuel
1941
- Nov 6. The Rt. Rev. Dr. William Lawrence, Bishop of Massachusetts (1893-1927), died. Born in 1850, he was the nephew of our founder William Richards Lawrence (1812-1885).
- Nov. 23. Rector P.E. Osgood preached a sermon in his memory.
- Dec. 7. Japanese bombed the U.S. fleet in Pearl Harbor.
- Dec. 8. U.S. Congress declared war on Japan.
1940
July 19. Our fourth rector, The Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester, died at the age of 78.
Hollis French, warden 1914-1940. Credit: Cleveland Museum of Art
Nov. 21. Senior Warden Hollis French died. Born in Boston in 1868, he had served as Jr. Warden 1914-1936, when he became Sr. Warden under Rector P.E. Osgood, who is pictured below with Associate Rector Arthur Silver Payzant (served 1937-1945).
The Rev. Dr. Phillips Endecott Osgood (1882-1956) & The Rev. Arthur Silver Paysant (1884-1965) in 1938.
1939
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Priscilla Rawson Young (1909-2000), benefactor of our series of Bach Cantatas
Our benefactor Priscilla Rawson (Young) studied music with Stanley Chapwell at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Craig Smith, founder of Emmanuel Music, who also had studied with Chapwell, kept this portrait of her on his desk. See also 1909, 1942, 1971, 1973, 1994 & 2000.
- January. A funeral was held at Emmanuel for our organist Albert Williams Snow, who had recently retired and died at the age of sixty. Having studied under Wallace Goodrich at New England Conservatory of Music, he had become organist at Church of the Advent, Boston, before he replaced our organist Lynnwood Farnum in 1918. During his tenure he taught at NEC and served as organist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His memorial plaque (#G4), reconstructed by Ted Southwick in 2021, can be seen behind the chancel organ.
1938
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- The Rev. Samuel McComb, Associate Rector (1906-1916) died at the age of 74 in England. Educated at colleges in N. Ireland and Oxford University, he became a Presbyterian minister in England, Ireland, and New York City. Ordained to the diaconate in our diocese by Bishop William Lawrence and to the priesthood in RI, he then worked with Rector Elwood Worcester to create the Emmanuel Movement. After serving as canon of the Episcopal cathedral in Baltimore, he taught at the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge MA. He finished his pastoral ministry as rector of the American Episcopal Church in Nice, France. After having written (with Worcester) Religion & Medicine (1908), he published The Making of the English Bible (1909) and many other works. The New York Times published his obituary on Sept. 12.
- Thanks to Nathaniel White Williams, Jr., we have these images of our choirs of men and boys, which were directed (c1930-1946) by Dr. Stone Thompson (2d from right in the banner image at the top of this page).
Nathaniel W. Williams, Jr. 1946 graduation photo, English High School, Boston
Nathaniel, (second from left in image above) born in 1929, lived with his parents Rose and NWW, Sr. at 113 Poplar St., Roslindale (Boston) until 1952, according to research by Julian Bullitt, who digitized the above images and many of our archival images.
1937
15 Sept. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt mentioned in her diary My Day that Harriet Robeson was her guide at a convention of the American Hospital Association, which was held at Atlantic City NJ. Harriet Allen Robeson (1882-1978) compiled our centennial history in 1960. Namesake of an aunt who had died young in 1852, she was the granddaughter of our founders Andrew Robeson, Jr. (1817-1874) and Mary Allen Robeson (1819-1903).
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt & Harriet A. Robeson at Atlantic City NJ. Photo. Fred Hess
1936
December 13. Celebration of our 75th Year
The Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, D.D., Bishop of Massachusetts (1893-1927). Photo credit: WikiCommons
Our fifth rector, The Rev. Dr. Phillips Endecott Osgood, said in his sermon: “We are stewards of an inheritance, interpreters of a tradition”. Organist Dr. Albert Snow composed an anthem for the service. Bishop Emeritus William Lawrence praised our first four wardens:
- Edward Sprague Rand (1st senior warden), a trustworthy, public-spirited lawyer
- William Richards Lawrence (1st junior warden), who had bought the land for our church. was his uncle.
- Benjamin Tyler Reed (2nd senior warden), who founded in Cambridge the Episcopal Theological School, which became the Episcopal Divinity School
- Enoch Reddington Mudge (2nd junior warden), who later built St. Stephen’s Church, Lynn
For more detail, see Boston Globe, Dec. 14, 1936, p. 4: “Bishop Lawrence in Tribute to Early Emmanuel Wardens. Services Celebrate 75th Birthday of Church. Dr. Osgood Views Future”.
1935
Walter Cabot Baylies (1862-1936)
Walter Cabot Baylies, our greatest benefactor and longest-standing senior warden, retired. He had served faithfully with three rectors: Elwood Worcester, Benjamin M. Washburn, and Phillips Endecott Osgood.
In October, the Rev. Lloyd Gillmett, who later became dean of Los Angeles’ cathedral church, was succeeded as curate by the Rev. Ivol Curtis, who left in 1937, thereafter held many posts including rector of St. John’s, Jamaica Plain, and became Bishop of Olympia (WA) in 1964. Gathered in our Emmanuel Room is Dr. Osgood seated at his desk with the Rev. Albert Coursin Morris, Vicar of Church of the Ascension, on his right. Behind them (left to right) are Gillmett, Curtis, and the Rev. John Bradner, Curate of Church of the Ascension. Thanks to Julian Bullitt for his research on our clergy.
1934
Parishioner Guy Lowell‘s widow Henrietta Sargent Lowell gave us his 1896 Steinway piano, which is frequently played in our Music Room.
1932
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- Feb. 12. The Rev. Dr. Phillips Endecott Osgood was installed as our fifth rector. For information about him and his tenure, please see the chapter on him in Emmanuel Church, 1860-1960: The First Hundred Years.
- Nov. 23. Our former organist Lynnwood Farnam, who had become head of the Organ Department at the Curtis Institute of Music before his death in late 1930, bequeathed his papers to their library. Theodore Presser published in Philadelphia Farnum’s Toccata on “O Filii et Filiae“. Often played at Easter, the magnificent piece is employed to test organs.
- See his memorial plaque in the chancel behind the organ.
- Listen to a rendition of his Toccata by Diana Bish.
- See also 1913, 1917, and History of Music at Emmanuel.
- Charles Scribner’s Sons published The Rev. Elwood Worcester‘s autobiography Life’s Adventure: The Story of a Varied Career (OCLC# 1896075). For a description of his ministry based on it, please see our page and Wikipedia’s on the Emmanuel Movement