Working with Rector Al Kershaw, Oliver Colburn became senior warden, and Prudence King, junior warden. Barbara DeVries, who was to eventually become senior warden and treasurer, began her first vestry term.
Tag Archives: wardens
1978
- 21 April. Gov. Michael Dukakis proclaimed it to be Johann Sebastian Bach Day in the Commonwealth as “the orchestra and chorus of Emmanuel Church in the City of Boston…after seven years [had] completed for the first time in the USA the cycle of [his]194 sacred cantatas”.
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Constance Hammond was elected our first woman (junior) warden. After ordination in our diocese, she served as rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR (1990-98) and then as rector and priest in other churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon Since 1998, she has been a practitioner and instructor in the Healing Touch Program. See also: 1986.
1947
Redington Mudge DeCormis (1884-1967), son of the Rev. Dr. Louis De Cormis (1846-1916), became Jr. Warden and then served as Sr. Warden from 1948-53, during the tenure of Rector Metters. His father, the Rev. Dr. Louis De Cormis, was priest of St. Stephens, Lynn, when he named his son after Enoch Redington Mudge, patron of the beautiful church, whose cornerstone was laid in 1881. E.R. Mudge had served as our Jr. Warden from 1865-72. Having been vice president of the Second National Bank since 1923, R.M. De Cormis retired in 1955, when it merged with State Street Bank and Trust. Correspondence of his second wife, Charlotte (Lotten) Augusta Lenander, a Swedish physician whom he had married in 1944, have been archived.
1943
- 17 September. The Rev. Henrietta Rue Goodwin died. She had retired from the faculty of the National Cathedral School to live with her sister Helen Goodwin French, widow of Hollis French, who was warden here from 1914-1940. After her burial from the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem PA, which the Goodwins had helped to found, a memorial was held at Emmanuel. For a discussion of her ministry here, see also: 1897.
1940
July 19. Our fourth rector, The Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester, died at the age of 78.
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).
1936
December 13. Celebration of our 75th Year
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, 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.
1917
- President Theodore Roosevelt came to Emmanuel for his son Archie’s wedding. See a Library of Congress clip of their arrival on Newbury Street.
- Emmanuel organist Lynnwood Farnam designed and supervised the installation by Casavant Frères of a 137-stop pipe organ, which was the third-largest in N. America. See also Timeline entry 1918 about its dedication & 2007 about its sale and restoration.
1913
When Weston Gale retired, Lynnwood Farnam became Emmanuel’s organist, a post he held until 1918, when he left to join the Canadian Army. According to the L. F. Society, when the Music Committee asked what he would play for his audition, “He handed them a notebook containing a list of 200 pieces which he had memorized, saying “Anything in this book.”
We thank the Royal Canadian College of Organists for this photo. For more about Lynnwood Farnam, see 1914, 1918, 1932, and History of Music at Emmanuel.
13 Mar. Bishop William Lawrence presided at the funeral of Silas Reed Anthony, which was attended by more than 400. Born in 1863, he had become a Boston banker and served as Clerk of the Vestry (1887-97) and Jr. Warden (1907-13). Assisting the bishop were the Rev. Dr. Samuel McComb and the Rev. Ralph Bray of Emmanuel and the Rev. Charles Clark of Church of the Ascension. Among the pallbearers were Sr. Warden Walter Cabot Baylies, William Endicott, Jr., Philip L. & Richard M. Saltonstall, and several Anthony and Weeks relatives.
31 May. Nora Iasigi, daughter of parishioners Amelia Gore Iasigi and the late Oscar Iasigi, married at St. Paul’s Church, Stockbridge, US Solicitor General William Marshall Bullitt, great uncle of our parishioner Julian Bullitt.
1907

Ruth Baylies Schulze (1907-1986) by Alfred Jonniaux
Walter Cabot Baylies became senior warden, a post he faithfully filled until 1935. His wife Charlotte (Lottie) Upham, daughter of founding member George Upham, gave birth to their daughter Ruth. They resided at 5 Commonwealth Ave., which now is the Boston Center for Adult Education.
See also: Jim Cronin, “BCAE Mansion Built for Textile Merchant, The Boston Courant 13(11):1, Dec. 1, 2007.









