In the 1890s, Sunday Evenings Meant Going Back to Church; For Young People, Sundays Also Meant Courting

In the previous post, Sarah Eva Howe described the typical Sunday morning service at the Methodist Episcopal Church South in Carrollton in the early 1890s. She continued with stories about Sunday afternoons and evenings, a time when teens of all faiths found excuses and opportunities to "court."

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I left off in the other book with Sunday afternoon. At this time we didn’t have “Young People’s Meeting,” as we called it, on Sunday night but on Tuesday night, so when the various meetings were over, we had two or three hours of lovely Sunday afternoon left, to spend in the Sabbath calm, the absolute stillness, broken only by a few buggies going by in the soft flaky dust. (Papa¹ didn’t quite think these Sunday buggy rides were a good thing, but he didn’t condemn them too much, having had a fine horse himself when he was a boy.) 

We had a supper of salt rising bread made by Mama,² apple sauce, jelly and “cold sliced meat” with good country butter, sometimes tea, and at 7:45 were on our way back to church, where the fearful and wonderful “central chandelier” was lighted. (If you saw "The Phantom of the Opera House," it was very much like the one that fell, and we were always afraid this one would.) It was beautiful — with a big glass reflector and about twenty small lamps and many crystals hanging from it. Its one drawback was the multitude of light bugs that came and buzzed around it all the time the service was going on — pretty bad, too, for those who sat under it! We still had that chandelier until almost 1903, when the church was again thoroughly remodeled and electric chandeliers were installed. I believe we had electric lights in the church before that, but the chandelier was still there — perhaps it was wired for lights, now I think of it. I don’t know what became of it finally.

The night service was about the same as the morning, almost but not quite all of the same members present. ... A lot of the boys and girls came together to church at night, as in

Off to Church 

Papa’s day, tho they sat rather far back. Still other boys waited at the back of the church, in bunches, and sat in chairs at the back, and stood at the side to “pick off the girls” as they came in and “escort them home.” I remember Juanita Coltrane ... was visiting then. She was the first “Southern girl” I suppose I ever saw — dark, and in lovely clothes, with a picture hat and plumes; she was at church with Pierce Winslow,³ and I thought I’d never seen anyone so pretty; when they said her name was Juanita I was entranced, it just fitted her. (She is now Mrs. Garrison and is about 70!)

[Sarah inserts some comments about the young people who attended the Catholic church.] The young mill girls and domestic workers, almost all of them Catholics, used to dress in their best, go to Young People’s service at their church at 3 o’clock, and then pair off (many of the marriages were thus arranged) and go down to see the mail boats come in. This was a breathtaking scene, about four on Sunday, and sometimes the up and down boats came in close together. 

Let me tell you that the young girls and boys of “Society” did little more of an exciting nature on Sundays; most of the marriages were fostered by long happy summer evenings either on one’s own porch or in the yard, in porch chairs under the trees, or in the newly fashionable “lawn swings” beginning to be seen — I believe about ’92 or ’93.

Of course a buggy on certain occasions was a must. Many young men had their own or used their father’s, or hired one for other occasions, “going in together,” two boys taking two girls, and dividing the cost.

The Rest of the Week
After Sunday with its many and varied activities, the week was well started. ... Tuesday night was “Young People’s Meeting” attended and enjoyed by everyone under forty (and even over if they wanted to attend, and they often did). Up to 1892, it was a branch of the Christian Endeavor, ... but when Papa found out about the Epworth League, he was one of the pioneers (with C.C. Stoll of Louisville) in getting it started in Kentucky and was state Vice President (in 1895 I think it was), going to all the district and state meetings and to the “international” meeting in Chattanooga in 1895. ... The young people, especially young married people, enjoyed it so much in the early days. ...

Our prayer meeting was Thursday night, and we were all there, Mama playing, as usual.  ... It was very interesting and a wonderful “break” in the week, an inspiration to those who came, and there was a pretty good crowd who did, even a good many young people — mostly those whose parents brought them!

In the meantime, there were day meetings at the church — the first Monday of the month,

Styles worn by women and girls cira 1892

the Ladies Missionary Society, with Miss Sue Browinski as president, and on another day in the month the Parsonage and Home Missionary Society, of which Aunt Lou Howe3 was president and ruling spirit. (Aunt Sallie Goslee Howe⁴ was secretary of this society). The W.C.T.U. met on still another day. ...

There were no Women’s Clubs [in Carrollton], but about 1891, I suppose, Mrs. Henry Winslow⁵ insisted on forming a very serious Chautauqua circle, which really studied the course assigned. Mrs. Atha Gullion,⁶ co-editor of the Democrat, with her husband, had a bookstore on “upper Main” near Fifth, and just under the Winslow & Winslow law offices and next to the Carrollton National Bank. Miss Hallie Masterson and her sister Miss Emma were two other interested members, and Mrs. John Cox.

In Ghent, though, there was a Woman’s Club being formed by Miss Caby Froman,⁷ Uncle Mack’s oldest sister. She was distressed by the rather sketchy morals of the young wives, at least of some of them, around Ghent (for they were considered a rather gay act!) and thought that if they had more to occupy their thoughts with than dress and food (they had so many negro servants living in the town, no white lady ever did much housework). There was not much travel, except on the boats, and not much community life in such a place; so she formed a literary society called the “H. & P. Literary Society." 

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¹ Robert James Howe (1855-1910)
² Alice Ada Cost (1859-1939)
³ Pierce Godbey Winslow (1873-1948), brother of Louisiana Winslow, who married Sarah's uncle William Ficklin Howe in 1873
⁴ Sallie Goslee (1858-1934), who married Sarah's uncle Joseph Brown Howe in 1889
⁵ Lucy Ann Cooper (1863-1950), wife of Henry Moore Winslow (1850-1932)
⁶ Nancy Atha Hanks (1844-1932), wife of Edmund Asbury Gullion (1853-1923)
⁷ Caby M. Froman (1892-1974), daughter of state senator Hiram McMakin "Mac" Froman and Sarah's aunt Sarah Varena "Sallie Howe Froman.

A 'Soft Sunday Hush, the Distant Humming of Bees, the Sleepy Twitter of Birds' — Sunday Mornings at Church, 1892

Sarah Eva Howe recalls the beauty of the recently renovated Carrollton Methodist Episcopal Church South (1891-1892), where her parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents contributed much time and considerable resources over the years. Her description of a typical Sunday service includes words and rituals still in use today at Methodist churches today.

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The church was all done over around this time ... This is as good a place as any to tell about how beautiful it looked. The organ, that first year we were there ... was in the back part of the church up against the window, where the entry is now. There

was a door on each side, and through those doors decorously passed the members, divided into two groups, those who went up to the left side and those who went up the right side. That is where that cleavage started, which continued with us children even when both doors emptied into the same entry. Still, like the lemmings in Norway, we turned to the two staircases, just the same, tho we couldn’t go thru the wall, where the doors had been bricked up.

If the doors as they are now are typical ... the other way was also typical of the intense

One of the windows installed in 1891-1892

sectarianism of the time, for “never the twain should meet.” Many of the members upstairs had not been on the other side of the auditorium from theirs for many a day. The Howes always sat on the side next to our house, the east, and were rather peeved when this window¹ was placed on the west side (tho they said nothing, but I used to sit and look at it and wonder about it). 

There is a beautiful window in the tower that no one ever sees now; it is never lighted from the inside at night, and of course no one looks at it from inside by day. In those days, tho, the tower door was open more often than not, so we could see it. I have stood by the bell rope (which went on downstairs when Frank Whitehead, the colored sexton — you remember him — rang the bell at 8:30, at 9:00, at 10:30, at 10:45 and a few daps at 10:55 and so on for all services on Sunday. ... The [wall]paper was brown (so as not to show dirt I imagine) and it worried me because there was a false alcove on the flat wall behind the pulpit; that is, there was the shaded appearance of one in the pattern of the plain paper. I have traced that alcove hundreds of times with my eyes, wishing that just once I could step inside it. I have now, for the organ and the rooms behind it have been put there, so that when I go in, I have a sort of “Back of the North Wind” feeling.

Before the organ was moved up there, the church was very square and flat, with rows of seats on each side making the “Amen Corner” where older people, slightly deaf or extra devout, would sit. When the organ was put there after the revolutionary door closing at the rear, all that was changed was that instead of two amen corners, there was just one — the choir sat facing the preacher sideways, on a slightly raised platform, on three or four benches set one behind the other. (No one ever sat on the front one unless there was a revival and an extra big choir.) 

Carrollton Methodist Episcopal Church circa 1895

You don’t remember the organ, which is now in the Ghent church, but it was a Pilcher organ and had a lovely tone when Mama played it! Mr. Pilcher supervised its “moving up,” and Mama became acquainted with him, as she was just taking over the organ then. (I am pretty sure now this was in 1891.) He showed Mama a little about the pedals, which so thrilled her; she was always trying them out after that — but always afraid she would step on the wrong one!

The floor was bare, but there was a strip of Brussels carpet up each aisle. One pew, I forget whose, had a strip of red carpet under it and a cushion on it; the lady there had said she was cold! We regarded this as the height of effeminacy, tho we didn’t consciously call it that. As to kneeling benches, of course, we had none; all except the sick, the hardened, strangers, or the fashionable (or perhaps infirm or old) knelt facing the pew. There was carpet on the double platform (one smaller, on a larger one) in which the pulpit stood, surrounded by the altar rail, at which we knelt for communion, and for prayers at different meetings. Tho there was no outward altar, I know that in the hearts of people like my father and many others there was surely an invisible one, before which they knelt at this rail. ...

However, the drabness of the church was transformed and glorified by the sunlight pouring thru the lovely windows, eight of them, and three at the back of the church. I’m inclined to think those were there always, tho the other windows were frosted white glass when we came. ...

I can close my eyes now and go back to that summer Sunday morning of 1892, with the lovely windows opened to let in the soft air (also bees and an occasional bird) and the scents from the flowers (at our house and yard) and the grass of the old, sweet churchyard, and the wild roses. There was a soft Sunday hush over everything, just the distant humming of bees (there was probably always a swarm in the tower, along with the pigeon’s nests) and the sleepy twitter of birds, then the soft drone of the preacher’s voice, or the organ music in the “voluntary,” “offertory” or “processional.” We had probably sung “Welcome, Delightful Morn” and meant it with our whole hearts. 

Then the “opening hymn” standing and the second hymn sitting (or the other way about, perhaps), then the prayer (ten minutes at least, and were those who came in and had to be seated after the prayer looked on with critical eyes!). Then the anthem, the lesson read by the preacher, the announcements, sometimes made by Uncle Will,² a second hymn (sitting), the collection, while Mama played an “offertory,” then the sermon. The Gloria Patri was only sung on special occasions, generally to take the place of the Doxology which otherwise closed the service (plus the benediction). However, a good many ministers called for a final hymn, in which they “opened the doors of the church,” sometimes they sang one verse after another of this if it looked like more were coming, and some ministers had another prayer after the sermon, which could last another ten minutes. 

We never recited the Apostle’s Creed — it was just something on the back of the Sunday school magazines and in the back of the songbooks; it was just as well, for if anyone had mentioned The Holy Catholic Church³ at that time in our pews, half the congregation would have wailed in horror.

The “lesson” was generally quite lengthy, for they read the old and new testament lessons both, often from Deuteronomy and Romans, or Leviticus and Hebrews, and therefore hard for an eight-year-old to follow, tho I made a polite attempt, generally, but fell over against Mama’s shoulder midway.

Afterwards, we met ... in the back of the church, and then went home to such a good tho easily prepared dinner — sometimes taking company, or perhaps a whole family would eat at a brother’s or sister’s house and “spend the day,” or if the Presiding Elder was there, all would vie in inviting him home. He was “Brother” Vaughn for four years. (They told me afterwards to call him “Dr.” It was the first time I had known you could call a preacher that!) We almost always had a beef roast for dinner. Papa was felt to be extravagant in paying 40 cents for his, but we used it in “sliced cold roast beef” for three meals at least afterwards. ... He could slice it right across in such thin, lovely slices — he was an artistic carver. 

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¹Possibly the new stained glass window contributed by brothers William Ficklin Howe, Joseph Brown Howe, and Robert James Howe. William was married to Louisiana "Lou" Winslow, sister of William Beverly Winslow, who with his brother George Bohrum Winslow was instrumental in organizing the purchase and installation of new windows for the church in 1891-1892. (Source: Our Church: A History of the Carrollton United Methodist Church by Hallie Masterson)
²William Ficklin Howe, brother of Sarah's father
³In the Apostle's Creed,"catholic" is not capitalized; it means "universal."

Images courtesy Carrollton United Methodist Church, Carrollton, Kentucky.

Bits & Pieces: Transition From One Century to the Next

So far, this blog has mined scrapbooks about Sarah Eva Howe’s ancestors and then about her own childhood and young-adult years. Soon we will be jumping ahead to Sarah’s life as a wife and mother. There is a gap in the scrapbooks for 1900-1910, when Sarah and Will Salyers courted and married. In transition, here are some final bits and pieces from the 1800s into the early 1900s.

Trip to Chattanooga, 1895

Sarah, like the rest of the Howes, was a member of the Carrollton (Kentucky) Methodist Church. As a teen, she was active in the Epworth League youth programs locally, regionally, and nationally. Here’s what she wrote about attending a national event:

The summer of 1895 was a notable one for me for we went to Chattanooga to the Epworth League National convention. It included the northern and southern branches of the church and the Canadian as well. We stayed at a boarding hotel with other delegates. A special thing I remember about the “fare” was eating my first huckleberries the breakfast before we left. But I certainly remembered well the Convention, the great hall put up for the occasion the speakers and singers, the new hymns [unreadable] and “[When the] Roll Is Called Up Yonder.” Then our trips to the Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.

Death of a Young Bride

N. Lucy Froman Howe, 1878

On 1 August 1879, at age 19 and still in her first year of marriage to Sarah's uncle John Irvin Howe,  N. Lucy Froman drowned in an accident on the Ohio River near Covington. A family servant also drowned.

A Carrollton (Kentucky) Democrat newspaper story about the tragedy is filled with the flowery language of the day, yet the writer didn't think to include Lucy's given name! To this day I do not know what the "N" initial stands for. The article also omits information handwritten in one of Sarah's scrapbooks: that Lucy was pregnant at the time of the accident.

I believe the photo shows Lucy in her wedding dress. Does she look wistful, or is there sadness there? Did she sense that happiness would last only a little while?

(On FindAGrave.com, A. L. Fisher)

 

   

 Family Baptisms

In Sarah's handwriting is this account of a few of the many baptisms within the Howe-Salyers family. The list begins with Sarah's parents. Unless otherwise noted, these were infant baptisms. Sarah, her siblings, and her children were likely baptized at the Carrollton (Kentucky) Methodist Episcopal Church.

• Robert James Howe (Sarah's father; no date listed)
• Alice Cost Howe (Sarah's mother; 1869,  age 10)
• Sarah Eva "Sallie" Howe (Sarah herself; 1884)
• Chandler Harper Howe (Sarah's brother; 1889)
• Leonora Alice Howe (Sarah's sister; 1898)
• William Levi Salyers (Sarah's husband; 1906, age 28)
• Robert King Salyers II (Sarah's first-born child; 1908)
• James Richard and Mary Alice Salyers (Sarah's twins; 1910)
• David H. Salyers II (Sarah's youngest child; 1916)

Leaders of the Methodist Church, 1891

Prominent in Sarah's scrapbooks are clippings, leaflets, and other ephemera related to all levels of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This postcard-size piece presents 18 clergymen serving as the church's bishops in 1891:
William Taylor 
Randolph Sinks Foster
Stephen Mason Merrill
James Mills Thoburn
Cyrus David Foss
E. G. Andrews
Thomas Bowman
John Fletcher Hurst
Henry White Warren
John Morgan Walden
William Xavier Ninde
Charles Henry Fowler
Willard Francis Mallalieu
John Heyl Vincent
John Philip Newman
Isaac Wilson Joyce
Daniel A. Goodsell
John N. Fitzgerald

Cultural Pursuits

Throughout the scrapbooks are programs from cultural events attended by various members of the Howe and Cost families. Here are two of them: a program from a formal symphonic concert in Cincinnati (no date found) and an invitation to a gathering in the home of Mr. and Mrs. F. P.(?) Stucy of Ghent in Carroll County, Kentucky. The invitation directs RSVPs to Jessie Tandy, likely a relative of James Tandy Ellis (1868-1942), a nationally recognized soldier, politician, musician, author, and poet. Sarah's Winslow relatives, especially poet Louisiana Winslow Howe, were well acquainted with James.

When Church and Family History Collide – Part 2

Readers of the Carrollton Democrat back in late 1920s were so taken with Lou Winslow Howe's article about the history of Carrollton (Kentucky) Methodist Church that they prevailed on her to write another. This second article, recalling the living arrangements of the church's pastors, was even longer than the first!

Here is my transcription of the clipping Sarah Eva Howe pasted into a scrapbook. Again we see many Carrollton names and details about their homes and affiliations.

Like so many other clippings in the scrapbooks, this one was not dated. Lou Winslow Howe's reference to G.D. Prentiss as the current pastor puts the date of the article circa 1926.


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CARROLLTON METHODIST CHURCH
BY L.W. (MRS. W.F.) HOWE

The former article, which was published in a recent issue, under the above caption, has elicited from friendly critics so many expressions of appreciation and commendation that I have been persuaded to cull from memory’s storehouse some well-authenticated facts in regard to the dwelling places of the preachers who, in early times, were dependent on the hospitality of those of the membership who chose to invite them into their homes.

In this they complied with the Scriptural injunction which Christ urged on His disciples: “into whatsoever house ye enter ... remain eating and drinking such things as they give; for the laborer is worthy of his hire.”

Such were the conditions in our Carrollton church for many years, until in 1850, the second year of the pastorate of Rev. John B. Ewan, the contract was let to James F. Wyatt, a skilled carpenter, who belonged to one of the pioneer families of Methodism, to build a frame parsonage, facing east, on Seventh street, a short distance north of Seminary.

This building, with some modifications, is now the comfortable home of the Kirby family. When first erected, this residence consisted of a front entrance hall, five rooms, and a long back porch on the west side. At the south end of it was a good-sized kitchen and a pantry adjoining. A coal house and wood shed were added and a small chicken coop, to whose contents the farming members were encouraged to contribute. In the rear was a fertile garden spot from which Brother Ewan supplied his family with almost everything they needed to eat. He was delighted with his surroundings and with great gratification the following September relinquished the parsonage, feeling that he was passing on a great favor to his successor, Rev. James Lawrence.

This brother had come from the interior of the state and had cherished bright anticipations of living near the confluence of the rivers, where, in addition to hearing the boats whistle at night, he could have the pleasure of seeing them pass in the day time, so he left the parsonage vacant in the hands of the trustees and rented for his own use a house which stood down near the point, on the east side of First street, overlooking the wharf.

During the delightful autumn weather he luxuriated in the glorious scenery and the invigorating atmosphere, but when the snows had fallen in December and the Frost King in January had congealed the waters into cakes of floating ice, and later the March winds began to howl, followed by the drenching rains of the Spring equinox, which filled both rivers to overflowing, he found his chosen place of abode, on a high mound, entirely surrounded by water, and realized that he had more than he had bargained for. He then decided that it would have been better if he had satisfied himself with the home that had been provided for him.

The next pastor, Reverend Samuel Adams, and twenty-one of his successors were grateful to shelter their families under its protecting roof, though it frequently needed and received repairs, and quite a number hinted that it was a long distance from the church.

In September 1892, the appointee of the Conference was Dr. Robert Hiner. (Some will be interested to recall that it was his privilege in the following December to dedicate the church at Prestonville, which for the accommodation of about twenty-five of our members, during the summer of that year, under the supervision of Rev. C.J. Nugent, had been erected on a lot donated by Mr. E.H. Smith. For that church and the congregation which worships there we continue to cherish a most neighborly regard and loving interest.)

Shortly after the arrival of Dr. Hiner’s family some of the good sisters of the church who were at the parsonage to assist them in “getting fixed up” discovered that his wife was not feeling well, and insisted on calling in medical attention. According to the diagnosis of the physician, Dr. L.E. Goslee, incipient typhoid fever had been sapping her vitality for at least ten days. In less than a month her spirit was called “up higher” and her mortal remains were interred in the church yard.

Dr. Hiner was then nearing the completion of his threescore and ten. He was not vigorous as in former years, and he became impressed with a decided preference to live nearer the church, so the official board gratified him by renting out the parsonage, and securing for his accommodation, from the heirs of the late Rev. Wm. McD. Abbett, the house in which he had spent his last days and from which his freed spirit had taken its departure. This house, a two-story brick on High street, between Fourth and Fifth, is now owned by Mr. Geo. S. Lee and occupied by himself and family.

Dr. Hiner, whose sermons were uniformly logical, forceful and eloquent, entered upon the fourth year of his pastorate with enthusiasm of spirit but with waning physical vitality, and in March 1896, he suffered an attack of paralysis from which he never fully recovered, although at the Conference in September of that year the Bishop appointed him to serve the Warsaw circuit, which was the last place he attempted to fill.

After that he spent several months in Warsaw with his daughter and grandsons; later he went to Central Kentucky, where he had many friends, but his feebleness became more and more pronounced until, in the spring of 1903, he got aboard a train with a ticket for Carrollton, and arriving here on the formerly well known “Grobmyer bus,” when the driver said “Dr. Hiner, where do you go?” he replied, “Take me just beyond the Methodist church and put me out at Brother Joe Howe’s.” When that gentleman’s wife greeted him at their front door, he said, “Sallie, I’ve come to stay.”

. . . As the summer passed he hoped to recruit sufficiently to attend the Annual Conference, but a kind Heavenly Father decreed otherwise, and just at sun-rise one morning near the middle of September his spirit took its flight to the abode of the blessed, and his body was placed by the side of his wife, in the church yard, which resting place eleven years before had been chosen by himself.

Dr. Hiner’s successor in Carrollton was Rev. Wm. Shoesmith, who moved into the Seventh street parsonage October 1, 1896. Having an agricultural taste and two boys in their teens, he encouraged himself in an eager desire for more land to cultivate, so early in the following spring on his own initiative he vacated the parsonage and rented the farm just beyond the city limits, afterwards purchased and now occupied by Mr. J.W. Harrison.

During Brother Shoesmith’s pastorate a fund was started of individual subscriptions to supplement a donation (for a new parsonage) of $1,000, which had been bequeathed by Sister Mary E. Conn, whose oldest daughter was the wife of Rev. W.T. Rowland. Before the expiration of his term of service Brother Shoesmith accepted a position as traveling agent for the Kentucky Children’s Home Society, and Rev. H.G. Turner was appointed to fill out that year and also to serve the following year. He and his young wife preferred to board, but the parsonage fund was increased from time to time and in 1899 the brick parsonage

Image courtesy nkyviews.com

at 219 Fifth street was completed, and Rev. J.D. Redd was the first preacher to occupy it. The same has been a much appreciated home for our pastors during the first quarter of the twentieth century.

The present occupant, Rev. G.D. Prentiss and wife, keep it in excellent condition and spare no pains to beautify the premises with shrubs and flowers.

Rev. W.T. Rowland, our highly esteemed “pastor emeritus” (local superannuate), for the past thirty years has resided in the Conn homestead, from which, in 1875, he claimed as his bride Miss Mary Ethylene Conn, to assist him in his work as pastor at Danville, Ky.

Other brides who have gone from our midst to itinerate as helpmates to pastors of the Kentucky Conference were Miss Margaret S. Winslow, who was united in marriage with Rev. William McD. Abbett in 1826; Miss Sallie Turpin, who married Rev. E.L. Southgate in 1867; Miss Anna Browinski, who married Rev. J.E. Wright in 1889, and Miss Mary E. Coliver, who married Rev. George Froh in the old church June 27, 1870. The two last named, now on the retired list, are still living together in their own home in Lagrange, and celebrated their golden wedding anniversary six years ago. Though physically frail, they are spiritually alert, relying on the promise of God . . .

. . .  Some time ago it became quite manifest that our auditorium needed to be re-decorated; we also became aware of the fact that our present organist, Mrs. R.M. Barker, an accomplished musician, could learn to handle, with pleasure and satisfaction to herself and the entire congregation, a much larger instrument than the small pipe organ to which we had been listening for the past forty years.

Also we needed more rooms, more conveniently arranged for our now well-graded Sunday school.

Our small hot air furnaces, which sometimes failed to furnish adequate heat, were also worn out.

After several preliminary meetings during the spring months, our pastor, Rev. G.D. Prentiss, who is now serving the fourth year of his quadrennium, called a special session of the church conference and appointed committees to decide what improvements were practicable and how the funds should be raised to defray the inevitable expenses.

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Example of windows installed in 1892

Lou Howe then generalizes about the church hiring an architect; remodeling the church; adding several rooms; and installing a new organ, three pianos, a Raymond Vapor Heating System, Battleship Linoleum in the halls and stairways, and a Wilton velvet carpet in “the hallowed places.” She identified as project leaders George B. Winslow and his brother William Beverly Winslow, an attorney living in New York, who in 1892 had managed the replacement of clear glass with stained-glass windows.

When Church and Family History Collide – Part 1

Sometime in the late 1920s, Sarah Eva Howe's aunt Louisiana Winslow Howe took it upon herself to respond to a question printed in her local newspaper, the Carrollton Democrat. The question: "How many Methodist churches have there been in Carrollton?"

Lou's answer wasn't just a number. She wrote an article more than 1,000 words in length!

Today I post a transcription of that article, not because I think all of you are eager to know the history of Methodism in Carrollton but because Lou includes stories and names. Lots of names. We know from other written histories that she was not always on target with dates, but that doesn't diminish the value of her article to those seeking ancestors and stories. Genealogists and historians with Carroll County roots, this post is for you.

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Forasmuch as the publishers are anxious to have a response to the query propounded a short time ago in the Carrollton Democrat, “How many Methodist churches have there been in Carrollton?” yielding to their urgent request I have examined some old papers and have discovered a pamphlet, designated as the “Methodist Church Directory,” prepared and distributed among the membership in 1898. It would be gratifying to learn if other copies have been preserved.

This pamphlet contains several pages, mentioning at some length “A few facts worthy to be recorded in the history of the nineteenth century.”

For the information and enlightenment of those who may be interested, I have agreed to furnish for publication, at the present time, the following paragraphs.

In 17_ _ [1] the Reverend Henry Ogburn, a preacher of the Methodist church, came with his wife and family from Virginia to this State. He frequently preached at his own residence, the stone house with a flat roof, south of the Ghent road, on the north side of what is known as Ogburn’s Hill, and also at the home of Richard Masterson, near the bank of the Ohio river, about a mile from our corporation limit: the house is now owned by R.W. O’Neal and occupied by John Hewitt.

It was in that house in 1817 that Louisiana Winslow [2] , then eleven years of age (afterwards Mrs. Henry Moore), joined the Methodist church, remaining an active member and consistent Christian until she was called to the church triumphant in 1882.

A log house, weatherboarded, on Sixth street, facing west, about half way between Seminary and Clay streets, was used as a place for worship during several years subsequent to 1820.

We subjoin an early record left with Mrs. M.J. Masterson by Mrs. Sarah Boorom when she left Carrollton in 1869. It consists of the names of persons belonging to the class led by George W. Boorom in 1824:

Home of Richard and Sarah Masterson, church organizers, 1790

Henry Ogburn
Charlotte Ogburn

Log church built 1810 on the farm of Henry Ogburn, first minister

Elizabeth Guinea
Joseph Hardy
Rebecca Hardy
Margaret Hardy
Nancy Porter
Sarah Masterson
Sarah Peniston
George W. Boorom
Lucy W. Boorom
Garland Bullock
Mary Bullock
Sarah Bullock
Hannah Vanpelt
Mary Blair
Nathaniel Porter
Patsy Porter
Mary Ogburn
Nancy Gaunt
Esme M. Lowe

Brick church, built 1818, sold 1830 [4]

Rachel Lowe
Sally Lowe
Mary McClelland
Margaret S. Winslow
Louisiana Winslow
Sarah Pearson
Catherine Crosley
Anne Gaunt
Rachel Parks
Nancy Shields
Hane Metcalf
Eliza Lingenfelter
Maria Abbett
Nancy Hawkins
Angeletta Vanpelt
George Goddard
Theresa Goddard
Eliza Goddard
Sally Bailey
Nancy Goddard
Eleanor Goddard
Nathan Lee
Sally Netherland
Lydia Clark
James Hutchison
Colored members: Phyllis, Sarah, Lucinda, K [3]

It is possible that these constituted the total membership at that date, although there may have been other classes; the colored women whose names are appended were no doubt worthy slaves belonging to some of the white members.

Jonathan Stamper was presiding elder; James P. Milligan pastor, and James H. Ross, associate pastor; the church in this locality was one appointment of Licking circuit, probably embracing the country between the Kentucky and Licking Rivers.

It will doubtless be interesting to many of our people, as well as to some now connected with other denominations, to examine the foregoing list with the purpose of discovering how many may claim relationship with this Methodist ancestry.

Sarah Bullock, fourteenth on the list, was married a short time afterward to the preacher, James Milligan, who only lived a few months, when she was again married to George W. Boorom and lived for many years in Carrollton. The remains of this honored couple are interred in the burying ground south of the present Methodist church.

The first brick church in this locality was erected about the year 1830 [5] on High street, between Third and Fourth, at least eight years before the name of the town of Port William was changed to Carrollton. The bricks were burned in a brick yard near the Kentucky river, owned and managed by Wm. H. Harrison. It was a one-story building, having four windows on each side, one large window in the front between two doors, one used exclusively for men and the other for women. Both doors opened on to a portico having four columns which supported its roof, that roof being crowned in the center by a square belfry or cupola with an oval dome. The pulpit was between the two front doors so that late comers faced the assembled congregation. At the rear was a door and stairway leading to a gallery on the inside of the building, which was used for the accommodation of colored people, who frequently came and listened to the white preachers. (Later the Methodists built a church for them on Sycamore street, between Fourth and Fifth.)

The brick edifice on High street was occupied regularly for Sunday school in the summer at eight and in the winter at eight thirty in the morning, preaching at eleven a.m. and seven p.m. on Sunday, and for prayer meeting on Thursday evening. These services were continued without interruption all through the years of the war between the States, though many other churches closed their doors.

The last sermon within its walls was preached the first Sunday in July, 1870, by Bishop Hubbard Hindle Kavanaugh, who had come to Carrollton to baptize his namesake, the oldest son of the pastor, Rev. E.L. Southgate. The following week the building was torn down and replaced by the present structure (standing on the same lot), which was dedicated on December 25, 1870, and is now being remodeled.

The ground was donated by William Winslow, who had moved from Virginia to the town of Port William, in what was then Gallatin County, in 1804.

Some years ago a careful investigation was made of the old Quarterly Conference records which had been kept by William Beverly Winslow. He had been selected recording secretary in 1835, when he was 21 years old, and filled the position almost continuously in the years that followed until he was called to his eternal home in 1883. By reference to the first entry made in the record, beginning with 1835, it was ascertained that Rev. H.S. Duke was presiding elder and Rev. J.C. Harrison, circuit preacher. The first Quarterly Conference for the Conference year was held at Owenton, showing that Port William and Owenton were two appointments of what was then Port William circuit.

On that occasion January 23, 1836, Thomas C. Cropper was granted license to preach. At the next Quarterly Conference April 10, 1836, Rev. William McD. Abbott was licensed to preach. In after years this good man served a number of stations in the Kentucky Conference, also was presiding elder on the Shelbyville and Covington districts, and in 1880 returned to Carrollton, a superannuated preacher, where be bought a home in which he lived until his peaceful transition . . .
*******************************************************************************************************************

Apparently, the article continued on another page of the newspaper, but I have not found it in the scrapbooks. I did find a follow-up article, also written by L.W. (Mrs. W.F.) Howe. I'll feature that article in the next blog post.



ENDNOTES
[1] The numbers are unreadable in Sarah's scrapbook. On Page 164 of The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky by Paul A. Tenkotte and James C. Claypool (via Google Books), a segment on Carrollton United Methodist Church states that Henry Ogburn began holding services in Carrollton in the 1790s and in 1799 performed the first marriage service conducted in Carrollton. The bride was Mary Pickett; the groom was Nicholas Lantz.
[2] Likely a family member for whom Aunt Lou was named. A grave marker in the Carrollton Methodist Church Cemetery says Louisa, born 1806, died 1882. 
[3] The paper is torn, and the rest of this name is missing. Other writings on church history list this name as Kitty.
[4] Images do not appear with the article but are published on the cover of a booklet on the history of Carrollton (Kentucky) United Methodist Church. Used here with permission.
[5] A history compiled by the church indicates that the church was built in 1818 and sold in 1830 to raise funds to build another church. The congregation met in the county court house until the new church was completed in 1833.

Sarah's Next-Door Neighbor, Carrollton Methodist Church

Sarah Eva Howe lived next door to the church. I don't know if that was by design, but the location was definitely convenient. Her parents were "pillars of the church." Both Robert James Howe¹ and Alice Ada Cost Howe taught Sunday school classes and were leaders of various committees and groups within the church. Robert was the Sunday School superintendent, as was at least one of his brothers. Alice played the piano and organ, organized the Foreign Missionary Society, and worked on many committees.

The family's connections with the church go back another generation to Sarah's Irish immigrant grandparents, John Howe and Sarah "Sallie" Brown Howe, who were church members and leaders by the 1850s. Their eldest son William Ficklin Howe was an active leader of the church, too, and his wife Louisiana Winslow Howe – Sarah's "Aunt Lou" – compiled a church history in 1898. Before that, from 1835 to 1883, Lou's father William Beverly Winslow was secretary of the church's Board of Stewards and kept the records his daughter used to write the history. 

Sarah herself participated in all of the church's programs for children and youth. When she grew up and married William Levi Salyers, she followed in her parents' footsteps and served the church in multiple ways. She brought up four children in that church.

No surprise, then, that she mentions the church often in her scrapbooks. Here is a transcription of one church-related story.

I haven't been saying much about the church at this time [1890s], but it was the ever-present factor in our lives – living next door, as we did, every church service was important to us. As Mama had played the organ up to about July before Leonora was born, we even had the big iron key of the church at our house and if someone wanted to get in the church without going clear out to Frank Whiteheads (on Sycamore St. right on the alley from Cousin Jenne's house), they came to us. . . .

Carrollton Methodist Church circa 1895³

Dr. [Robert] Hiner suffered a severe illness during his later ministry; his son Morton Hiner preached for him for awhile, but Dr. Hiner himself was able to preach again during the spring and summer of 1896, and Papa told him Mama was going to have to give up the organ by that time. He was very much perturbed, for he was devoted to Mama's playing. But he himself faced what was to him a bitter prospect – that of being "superannuated"; ² he preached such a moving sermon before he left from the text "and now I go to Jerusalem not knowing what shall await me there." It was the end of his 4th year at Carrollton; almost all this time his family had lived in the Orr-Lee house (next to Mrs. Rose Baker) instead of in the very antiquated parsonage on 7th street near Seminary, which besides being pretty far from the street was in bad repair. So when Dr. Hiner's successor came and the "Lee" house was not available (as the Orrs were moving into it), the new family, the Shoesmiths, had to live in the old parsonage. It was Brother Shoesmith who soon began agitating and planning for the new parsonage, which was built a few years later.

Since writing the above, I have been doing some mental calculations. It was in the fall of 1895 that Dr. Hiner left and Brother Shoesmith came to preach. What deceived me was that I knew the Shoesmiths went to school to Mr. English – but at last it came back, Brother Shoesmith only preached for us a year. The next year his family remained in town but he traveled for the American Bible Society, making Carrollton his headquarters. So, in the fall of 1896 Brother Horace G. (Greeley?) Turner came to preach – he was unmarried but brought his new wife in a few months – they did not occupy the parsonage but boarded at the home of Mrs. Cox in the "Vance house" (across from Uncle Will Fisher's) on 5th Street. The Shoesmiths moved, I believe, to the brick house next to Brother Rowland's now occupied by the Harrisons, on Highland Ave. But the movement for the new parsonage, once started, grew and finally the site was bought, next to Aunt Lou's in what was formerly the big yard where we used to play Hoo hoo and Prisoner's Base.


ENDNOTES
¹ Read more about the role of Robert James Howe in Methodism locally, regionally, and nationally in the "Papa – Robert James Howe (1855-1910)," the post dated August 11, 2016, "

² Poor Dr. Hiner! According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "superannuated" means " "old and therefore no longer very effective or useful; out-moded; old-fashioned; incapacitated or disqualified for active duty by advanced age." It appears that the Methodist bishop and/or the people who decided where Kentucky's Methodist ministers would preach were giving Dr. Hiner his walking papers based on his age. (I wonder if they could get by with that today!)

³ Image courtesy Carrollton United Methodist Church, Carrollton, Kentucky.

Sarah and Jenn Travel to Lakeland, 1898

I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, in the 1940s and 1950s. On days when my two younger sisters and I wore our mother's patience thin, she would throw up her hands and proclaim, "I might as well check in at Lakeland." We were too young to know what Lakeland was, but Mama's tone of voice told us it must be a place for people who had just about reached their breaking point.

Decades later, I figured out that Mama was referring to Lakeland Asylum for the Insane (as it was once known), a mental health facility in Anchorage, just east of Louisville. Other names for the facility were Central Kentucky Lunatic Asylum, Lakeland Hospital, and Central Kentucky Asylum for the Insane. You may know it by its present name, Central State Hospital.

In 1898, Sarah Eva Howe and her cousin Jenne, both about 15 years of age, traveled from Carrollton, Kentucky, to Anchorage to visit Mildred Goslee, whose father was the Lakeland superintendent. Sarah's comments give us a peek at some of the social customs of the day and include references to some of the charity and mission projects that involved her mother, cousins, aunts, and friends in Carrollton, Kentucky.

Lakeland Administration Building, built c1872 ²

As soon as school closed, Jenne and I began to get ready for our big trip, which was to be a visit to Mildred Goslee at Anchorage, or rather Lakeland, for tho she went to school at Bellewood¹and we were to attend her closing exercises, she lived with her family in the Superintendents home at the Asylum. We ate at their table, with the other doctors and their wives, and the food was really delicious; we went all over the buildings “on tours,” especially into the kitchens, where I saw more beans being prepared to cook than ever in my life so far. On Saturday night we looked on at the dance given every week for the patients and attendants. We attended class night, when Mildred sang and several girls contested for a prize in “elocution.” The girl who won had a long recitation about a gypsy, which ended “like Wild Zaratella, whose lover is dead.” Sunday we attended church at the present Anchorage Presbyterian Church. At the close of the service Mildred introduced us to several of her friends; one well dressed lady rushed up to us and said “Have you ever heard of Ramabai?” We were dazed, we never had, and didn’t know whether it was a medicine or a new kind of flower or food.

Mildred arranged that we should go to her home next day to hear about “her” (as we found out later Ramabai was). We still didn’t understand very well when she told us about the Zenana work in India which was Pandita Ramabai's great contribution to progress – it was one of her special charities, this lady, and she was quite wealthy, living in a lovely home. She was so enthusiastic about it that she talked about it to everyone. Since then I have found out what a really marvelous person Ramabai was, but I didn’t understand it then. We had our Missionary Society, the Willing Workers (changed in 1893, I believe, to Carrollton Truehearts for Mrs. S.C. Trueheart) and of course there were the adult

The Willing Workers Missionary Society of Carrollton (Kentucky) Methodist Episcopal Church received this certificate circa 1886 recognizing a $10 donation to a project in China. Sarah's mother Alice Ada Cost Howe was a member of that society, and Sarah later joined.

societies, the Foreign Mission and “home mission” or “Parsonage” societies – but we had no missionaries in India in the southern Methodist church so knew nothing of the work done there.

The graduation exercises were held, I believe, Tuesday morning – this was the week of June 9, for on that day we went to the exercises at "Rest Cottage" named for the Frances E. Willard one in Chicago where poor working girls could go for a week of free vacation in the summer and have instruction and entertainment as well as food and lodging. Jennie Casseday was really the originator of the idea, and every WCTU³ had (and has yet) a department in her honor called The Flower Mission in which special attention is given to sending, as she did (and she was for so many years acclaimed), little bunches of flowers to the sick at hospitals with verses of cheer and comfort attached. Her birthday, June 9th is always especially celebrated by a particular act of mercy – in Carrollton we took a treat and held a service on that day at the Poor Farm.

So, as I say, in 1898 on that day we went to exercises at Rest Cottage. On Tuesday there was the Bellewood Graduation. I don’t remember much about it, except that there was an Anne Finzer who graduated (of the Nicholas Finzer Company, tobacco people). She had the most exquisite white dress of lace and sheer “voile” and carried a sheaf of lilies (and this was why I particularly remembered her) in her withered left arm pressed against her body; she probably had had infantile paralysis⁴, tho we knew nothing of it then – even her wealth had not been able to help that poor little arm.

On another page in the same scrapbook, Sarah provides a bit more history of Bellewood Seminary. The excerpt refers again to Mildred Goslee.

Transcription: [Mildred Goslee was] now living at Lakeland Hospital, where her father was superintendent (appointed by Governor Bradley) and was for the second year attending Bellewood Seminary, a famous local Presbyterian School (its buildings now are incorporated in the Orphanage at Anchorage and the chapel is the Anchorage Pres. Church. This is the school mentioned in The Little Colonel at Boarding School written sometime later.


ENDNOTES
¹ Bellewood Female Seminary, established in 1860 by William Wallace Hill. The school was associated with the Anchorage Presbyterian Church until the school closed in 1916. Source: The Encyclopedia of Louisville by John E. Kieber, page 33, via Google Books.
² Image ULPA 1994.18.0716, Herald Post Collection, 1994.18, Photographic Archives, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. Used here with permission.
³ Women's Christian Temperance Union. Sarah's mother, and later Sarah, were members.
⁴ An old term for polio, an infectious disease (now all but eradicated in the U.S.) that can cause paralysis, difficulty breathing, and sometimes death. Source: www.mayoclinic.org.

"Papa" – Sarah's Father, Robert James Howe (1855-1910)

Sarah Eva Howe was a daddy's girl. That's my sense, based on what I see in her early scrapbooks. There are many loving mentions of her mother, Alice Ada Cost, but many more mentions of her father, Robert James Howe, and much more detail about the things he did and the ideas he expressed. Today, we get better acquainted with "Papa" – or Rob, as he was known to his friends.

We already know a little about Robert Howe the businessman. I've found a few other items that offer more insight. One is what Sarah called "Papa's little book." It is only 2 1/2 inches wide and 5 inches long. Apparently, he had many of them over time. As Sarah wrote:

"Papa filled endless little books like this with lovely cramped writing mostly of special orders to be looked for on his trips to the cities." 

Look how much writing he wrote on each tiny page! The example below shows a numbered list of expenses for October, November, and December 1894. Among the highlights:

• seltzer 25 cents
• meat 30 cents; figs 35 cents; grapes 50 cents
• 3 chickens 60 cents
• Book Concern 35 cents
• Renewal of St. Nicholas magazine subscription [for Sarah] $3.10
• 2 lecture tickets 50 cents
• Overshoes 85 cents
• 2 concert tickets 70 cents
• Christmas gifts $1.80

These and other entries in the list reveal or confirm things about Robert. His purchase of lecture and concert tickets indicate that he enjoyed culture and the arts and was a life-long learner. His renewal of his daughter's favorite magazine tells us that he encouraged Sarah to read. His habit of keeping these bits of information in such a detailed and consistent way makes me think he was a highly organized and meticulous man. Those characteristics fit with what we have already learned about his approach to business.

Robert's contribution to Book Concern, the first publishing house of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, hints at his connection to that denomination. The scrapbooks confirm that he followed in his parents' footsteps as an active member and leader of Carrollton Methodist Episcopal Church (now Carrollton First United Methodist). Robert was also a leader in church programs on a state and regional level. In the next photo, he sits front and center (to viewer's right of the woman wearing leg-of-mutton sleeves) at a convention of the Epworth League, an association established in 1889 for young adults in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Robert would have been 41 that year, so he and others at the convention were likely the organizers within the organization. His place in the photo tells me he may have had a leadership role.

In her scrapbooks, Sarah pasted many items about her father's involvement with his church – too many to include in one post. She also wrote about his popularity as a Sunday school teacher and his commitment to Bible study at home.

A portion of Sarah's writing about Bible lessons.

"Papa was a joyous teacher of the Bible — that is, he could make it so interesting for us. Before Leonora, Mama and I on Sunday afternoon were his companions in many contests, to see who could first recognize the descriptions he gave of Bible events. He called them Word Pictures and always began 'I see a ____.' Sometimes we took the letters of the alphabet and gave all the men’s names of each letter, or all the women’s names or all the places. I remember how Papa astounded us all by finding the only one for F (it must have been in the Old Testament 'Fair Haven,' in Acts, about one of Paul’s journeys). Of course, there were Felix and Festus for men’s names."

Considering Robert's strong faith and his leadership in the church, we can't be surprised to find his temperance card in the scrapbooks.

In 1870, Irish immigrant Francis Murphy considered the value of temperance after his own drinking had destroyed his family and his successful hotel and saloon business.¹ By 1876, the Murphy temperance movement1 had 65,000 card-carrying abstainers. The Epworth Herald,² a publication of the Methodist Church's Epworth League, promoted a pledge-signing crusade, so Robert may have signed this card as part of his church's participation in that crusade. Robert's daughter Sarah became a life-long member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.³

Lest I paint him as always serious, I include an image of Sarah's Papa at a summer camp in Chicago. Robert (the man with the fishing pole in the picture with friend Harry Given and standing on the far left in the group picture) is not smiling, but I think this camp must have been for fun. The scrapbooks do not indicate what kind of camp this was; maybe it had something to do with the Methodist church or a literary or social organization. The scrapbook has similar photos of other people at the same event. 

Based on letters and postcards from Robert, and Sarah's written comments about her Papa, I know that the meticulous businessman also had a soft side. He cared deeply about his family – especially Sarah, if I dare speculate on that. He doted on her and encouraged her, and maybe, to some degree, spoiled her. He was her champion in education, and he taught her about the world. He included her in conversations about the news of the day.

Robert obviously loved his wife. When he traveled, he wrote her almost every day – and some days twice. His letters were often brief, but they told of his daily activities and asked about hers. Unfailingly, he signed with "all my love" or "your devoted husband" or other endearments.

He participated in a number of civic groups and literary societies; he attended concerts and plays.

All in all, I surmise that Robert was a learned and sophisticated yet friendly man who was loved and respected at work, at church, at home, and about town.

Endnotes
¹ https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/blog/western-pennsylvania-history/francis-murphy-pittsburgh-great-temperance-movement
² tinyurl.com/zxwdcpf
³ https://www.wctu.org/history.html