A Brief History of St. John's Episcopal Church of Mt. Pleasant
as told by William T. Bulger, 1991
"The true history of this mission can and never will be written except as it is engraved on the hearts of those who helped to make it. Those who have never been deprived of the services of the Church, or passed through the pioneer period of a country's history, can form but a slight conception of the trials, vicissitudes, and sacrifices which the early Christians are called on to endure in order to establish churches, and St. John's Church of Mt. Pleasant is no exception to the rule, unless it be that its trials and struggles have been even greater than commonly falls to the lot of a struggling mission in a new country." Thus begins an early history of St. John's, probably written in the 1890s by an unknown recorder.
The village of Mt. Pleasant was first platted and recorded in 1864. Shortly after that Edward A. Audlin moved his family to the tiny village. Audlin was a staunch member of the Episcopal Church and he raised his family in the services of the Church and the liturgy of the Prayer Book. Soon a few other families in Mt. Pleasant began to join the Audlins for services.
On August 9, 1869, the first regular Episcopal church service was held in the
Methodist church by the Rev. W. R. Tillinghast of Midland. He baptized four children and read the service of Holy Communion. The next day Mr. Tillinghast lectured in the schoolhouse on the beliefs of the Church.
Late in 1869, Edward Audlin was licensed as a layreader by the Rt. Rev. Samuel A. McCoskry, Bishop of Michigan. Mt. Pleasant was a part of the diocese of Michigan until 1874 when the diocese of Western Michigan was established. Episcopalians in the village met in homes for services. Occasionally a priest from Midland or Ionia would come to hold a regular service.
By 1872, Dr. Joshua Miller was also licensed as a layreader and St. John's was formally organized as a mission. There is some question about this date, however, as an early historian of St. John's says that the mission was begun while Mt. Pleasant was still part of the diocese of Michigan and other records indicate the year 1876 as the official date of when the church was accepted by the western Michigan diocese as a mission. The congregation soon rented a hall for services. The Rev. Henry J. Brown Jr., of Detroit, served as the first permanent clergyman, but only for eight months. The tiny congregation received the gift of a carpet for the chancel from St. Paul's Church in Detroit (now the Cathedral Church of St. Paul) and it also purchased an organ. Soon they had a Sunday School and some fifteen to twenty communicants.
The growing mission had its first visit from a bishop in 1875. The newly-elected Bishop of Western Michigan, George Gillespie, confirmed four adults and also baptized some children. The Rev. William Mathias, of Evart, was now holding services in Mt. Pleasant every other Sunday. When the congregation lost their lease on their meeting hall, they moved the services to the Court House, then to the school house, then into private homes. When Bishop Gillespie made occasional visits, the congregation would meet in one of the other Mt. Pleasant churches for the service.
By 1880, Mt. Pleasant had grown into a village of 1,115 people. Two years later work began on the present church building. The site on the corner of Maple and Washington streets was the gift of General Dwight May, a prominent citizen of the town. The lot was cleared and the timber was stored. Later this wood was made into the pews that are still in use.
The church itself was the gift of one family - Mr. and Mrs. William N. Brown. Mr. Brown, born in New York City in 1849, had been raised in Zilwaukee, Michigan. After a year of high school in Saginaw, he had enlisted as a drummer boy when the Civil War began. He served in the Michigan Volunteer Infantry throughout the war, and later was a student at the University of Michigan. He became an attorney and practiced in Saginaw until moving to Mt. Pleasant in 1872. Here, he and John C. Leaton established the law firm of Brown and Leaton and prospered. He became a landowner, was successful in the lumber business, and helped found one of the first banks in the village. He was also director of a railroad. In 1878 he married the daughter of General Dwight May. He and his wife had worshipped with the wandering congregation of St. John's and they now decided to give the parish a permanent home.
The cornerstone of the church was ceremonially laid on October 19, 1882. Edward Audlin laid the first stone, as was most appropriate; William Brown laid the second stone, and Charles Smith laid the third. Since no clergyman was resident at the time, the service was read by members of the congregation. The people had hoped to complete the outside structure of the church before winter but "were froze out and snowed under." Work proceeded the next Spring and the building was completed by the beginning of December, 1883.
The Browns had paid the entire cost of building the church at the cost of some $4,300. They also provided for the festivities that followed the consecration of the church on January 20, 1884. Bishop Gillespie consecrated the building in the presence of a large congregation. Mr. Brown had chartered a special train from Saginaw to bring clergy and other guests who were put up in the Bennett Hotel. After the service, Brown paid for a ten-course dinner that was served at the hotel.
The church was designed in Elizabethan Gothic style, and the interior was supposedly copied from a church on the estate of the Duke of Devonshire. The bricks were made in William Brown's yard, and the timber was cut in his mill. The building had four stained-glass windows and the inside was illuminated with two prism chandeliers. The interior was completely furnished with gifts from the Browns. A Mt. Pleasant publication that year praised the princely liberality of the Browns, and there is no question but that the paper was correct.
By this time the village of Mt. Pleasant was growing. The lumbering industry was declining, but the town was catering to the surrounding farms. There were grocery and drug stores, a dry goods store, shoe store, jewelry store, a business that sold furniture and also served as the local undertaking establishment, four small hotels, insurance and real estate offices, a foundry, and a mill that made wood products.
Although blessed with a new church, the little congregation still had no resident rector. The Rev. James A. McGlone was appointed missionary to the church on June 15, 1884. By the end of the year he had added sixty-seven members to the church through confirmations and transfers.
The rapidly-growing congregation now needed to provide a rectory for their resident priest. They borrowed $400 from the Diocesan Building Fund and more from other sources for a total of $2,000. They built the rectory which Bishop Gillespie dedicated on February 28, 1886.
Eighteen eighty-six was a notable year for another reason - it saw the establishment of the Ladies' Guild. The women drew up a constitution on April 16, and this group soon became the most important force in the life of the church. Mr. William Brown gave the rectory mortgage to the Guild, and the women agreed to pay off the cost of $900. The Guild would own the rectory for the next half-century.
Guild meetings were devoted to both serious and pleasant business. The meetings usually began with the recitation of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, and perhaps a hymn. Then the ladies took care of any pressing business. By 1888, they would meet at 7:00 pm on the first Thursday of each month, and then at 7:30 would adjourn to invite gentlemen friends and others to join them for a pleasant social evening. They had music and literature programs.
The Rev. James McGlone resigned in July 1887 and was succeeded by the Rev. Frederick C. Lee. Mr. Lee had a short tenure as he was deposed by the Bishop in April 1888 for unknown reasons. The Rev. Norman S. Boardman next led the parish. Apparently the church was having financial difficulties at this time. The Ladies' Guild, in November 1889, agreed to pay $54 on the rectory mortgage and to give what was left in the treasury to Mr. Boardman for salary. It is interesting to note that it was the Guild, not the vestry, that was giving money to Mr. Boardman.
After Boardman left Mt. Pleasant in August 1890, there was no resident clergyman for several years. The Rev. George J. McCandless frequently came over from Midland to hold services and, just before his death in 1893, became the pastor of St. John's.
On December 1, 1893 the Rev. William Westover was appointed to serve the parish. He introduced a boys' choir and also began the use of colored stoles at the celebration of the Lord's Supper - an action that was considered very "high church" at the time. He also started a mission in Clare. Some years later, in 1910, the Good Shepherd Mission was established in Shepherd. It lasted until 1916.
The nation was hit by a panic and depression beginning in 1893 and soon St. John's was in economic troubles once more. Mr. Westover finally had to resign as the congregation could no longer pay him a salary.
After a year's vacancy, the office of the rector was filled by the Rev. Dr. J. N. Rippey in 1898. He was also a surgeon who had served with the Nebraska Volunteers in the Civil War. He had some temporary success and the church was advanced from mission to parish status by the diocese on June 24, 1900. This action by the diocese is somewhat surprising as Bishop Gillespie had sent the parish a stern letter the previous March. He wrote that he had visited the parish and had "come away sadly disappointed. I have conversed with your officers and from them have learned a very painful state of things." The mission owed $235.92 of the $600 salary due Dr. Rippey. Attendance at church services was poor, said the bishop, considering that the church contained 122 adults and 42 children. The bishop wrote that the rector might leave and that the church would be closed. He begged the congregation to help the minister and to improve church attendance. However, the pleas of the bishop were to no avail and Dr. Rippey left in September 1901, the parish being far in arrears on his salary.
Two more years passed before the church had a rector. During this time services were apparently held by layreaders. In October 1903, the Rev. W. W. Taylor took charge until 1907. After another year's vacancy, he was succeeded by the Rev. Charles F. Westman, who came from the diocese of Dallas.
Under Westman's leadership, the church was soon thriving once again. In 1908 the church building was enlarged to its present size. The apsidal sanctuary, the sacristy, and the finished basement under the new additions were added along with a new roof, a new furnace, and a repainting of the building. The church's treasury could now handle most of the cost of $1,800 for these improvements, while the rectory served as collateral for the $700 that had to be borrowed. The Women's Guild was to pay off most of this debt.
The refurbishing of the church continued the next Easter when the rector gave a new baptismal font in memory of his mother, his sister presented the church with a new altar, and Mrs. Mary Winans donated an altar cross in memory of her husband. These gifts were accompanied by new candlesticks, an altar service book, along with thirty-five hymnals and thirty-five Books of Common Prayer from the New York Common Prayer Book and Bible Society.
A vested choir first appeared in the church in 1910. The next year St. John's began the use of eucharistic vestments and was one of the first parishes in the diocese to do so. The tradition of Holy Communion at one service each Sunday seems to have been a custom of some years' standing by this time.
In 1910, Mr. Westman left to accept a call to the church in Petoskey. As he left St. John's, Westman wrote about his ministry in the "Register of Church Services": "He has endeavored [to train] the members of Christ with the Catholic Faith, in her history, heritage and responsibility of the Holy Catholic Church to make herself known as a shining and burning lamp in a dark place until the Day Spring come from on high."
The parish then had a series of pastors who served for short periods of time. The Rev. H. J. Keyser took over for one year, to be succeeded by the Rev. E. S. Barkdull who served for nine months in 1912. The Rev. O. E. Newton was rector from 1913 until 1916, and then the Rev. J. N. Goodrich took over the church until 1918. The records show church attendance in this period averaged from thirty to sixty.
For the next 18 years (1918 to 1936), St. John's was without a resident priest. The church also seems to have been without a vestry for much of this time. Indeed, it was the Women's Guild that kept the work of the parish going for many years. They performed remarkable services in collecting money and paying the debts of the church.
The Guild had paid off the mortgage on the rectory back in 1897, but the deed to the property remained in the hands of the organization. In the lean years following 1918 and the end of World War I, the rectory provided the chief source of funds for the Guild. They rented it out and used the money to pay off the debts of the church. In 1919 they voted to put in new hardwood floors in the rectory - but only on the first floor. They also had a new sink installed for $7.
After renting the rectory to various tenants, the Guild, in 1921, leased the building to Miss Helen Emmons who taught at the Central Michigan Normal School. Miss Emmons paid $40 per month and it appears that her rent was never raised. Occasionally she was given permission to have repairs made on the building and this was credited against her rent.
In the years following the end of World War I, the Guild persevered in spite of terrible obstacles. The church building was allowed to decay and eventually became unfit for use. In February 1919 the Archdeacon of the diocese, the Venerable Lincoln R. Vercoe, wrote to say that he would come to Mt. Pleasant the following month to hold a service. The Guild was forced to write back saying that the church was not in condition to hold a service and that it would not be convenient for him to visit. In November 1922, the Guild was told by a member that she had visited the church and it was "in a dilapidated condition . . . " The women agreed to have the walls repaired with steel rods so that the building would not collapse.
Besides the rent from the rectory, the women of the Guild were constantly engaged in money-making projects. Although their numbers were seldom more than 18, they sold cook books, aprons, wool batts, and pillow cases; held rummage sales; collected clothing for poor children; made clothes for the Red Cross; had bake sales, card parties, and even a "moving picture show." The money from their efforts, plus Miss Emmons' rent, kept the parish alive.
Beginning in November 1923, the church was in satisfactory shape so that services with a layreader could be held. But the prosperity of the early years of the 1920s never seems to have reached the Episcopalians of Mt. Pleasant. They managed to pay their bills, but there was no money for a rector. Once in a while they were able to pay a choir director, and they seem to have had a choir at most of their services. They often voted to send one dollar to parishes in need, although their own parish was in terrible financial shape. In 1923 and 1926 Bishop McCormick came to confirm a class. From time to time a priest came in to administer the rite of baptism.
In the early days of the Great Depression, matters became worse. The Guild was able to hold only one service a month. By 1934, they had persuaded the Rev. W. S. A. Larter of Big Rapids to take occasional services at St. John's, and they paid him $15 per month.
The discovery of oil in the area east of Mt. Pleasant in the late 1920s was now beginning to make an impact on the town. While the rest of the nation was in he depths of depression, prosperity slowly came to Mt. Pleasant. In 1934 the Guild had sufficient funds to put a new roof on the church. It was still renting the rectory to Miss Emmons, but her rent had been lowered to $25 per month.
It was 1936 before the financial condition of St. John's was secure enough to have a full-time rector. The Rev. Mr. Larter now moved from Big Rapids to Mt. Pleasant, although he remained in charge of St. Andrew's, Big Rapids, until the end of 1937. In one of this first appearances before the Guild as rector, he stressed the need for a regular vestry. Although the women of the parish had done magnificent work over the many years, he pointed out that the canons of the Church required that a vestry be elected.
In 1938, a new parish hall was built, the gift of C. L. Maguire, senior warden of the newly-created vestry and president of Roosevelt Oil Company. The building was a memorial to Leslie Remington Maguire who had died in 1907 as a small child.
Once again, St. John's fell into the pattern of having a series of priests who served only for short periods of time. Newell D. Lindner was the rector from 1938 to the autumn of 1939. The Rev. Harold B. Adams arrived in February, 1940, and served until 1944. Then a semi-retired priest, Father Everett A. Moore, served for a year as locum tenens. Under Father Moore, communion services were held twice each month at the main Sunday service.
Meanwhile, a young school teacher, John D. Vincer, became active in the parish and went off to seminary, sponsored by the congregation. He was ordained deacon December 27, 1945 by the bishop at the altar of St. John's. He then succeeded Father Moore as rector. By that time, 1945, the church had 102 communicants and the value of its property was listed at $75,000.
Father Vincer served from 1945 to 1949. During these years a boys' choir was one of the great prides of the parish. The choir had begun in 1939 under the leadership of Bernard Stone, supervisor of music for the Mt. Pleasant schools and also a music critic at the college. Father Vincer encouraged the growth of the choir, which not only sang at the services at St. John's, but also gave concerts all over the state. To this day there are still a few men in Mt. Pleasant who, although they attend different parishes, have fond memories of their time in "The Boys' Choir".
In 1950, the Rev. Robert S. Childs began what became a stormy period of leadership for the parish. During Father Child's pastorate, another effort was made to establish a mission in Clare. This was the third time that such an effort was made. After holding services in a restaurant for a time, a small church building was erected and dedicated to St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The church prospered for a time, but eventually the construction of the freeway cut the church off from the main part of the town. By 1957, a layreader took over most of the services with the rector of St. John's presiding once a month for Holy Communion. Shortly after that, the Bishop closed the mission.
Some members of the parish became troubled with Father Childs' interpretation of the liturgy. He used a great deal of symbolism which distressed some members as being too "high church." The "Register of Church Services" shows that Childs used the term "Mass" rather than "Holy Communion" as his predecessors had done. Morning Prayer was seldom read at Sunday services.
The parish was soon divided in their view of their pastor. On one occasion, someone stole his chasubles so that he could not use them for the communion services. The vestry worried about the division within the parish and asked the bishop for aid. In 1958, Father Childs resigned and Father Charles M. Stuart became the new rector. Under Stuart's leadership, a new interest was taken in the growing number of students at what was then called "Central Michigan College." Father Stuart worked with the students as the college grew into Central Michigan University in 1959, and he saw the parish grow. When he left in 1962, St. John's had 199 communicants.
The Rev. John. H. Goodrow became rector on March 1, 1962. The vestry soon made new plans to reach out to the University students. They also purchased a lot on west Preston road where they built a new rectory. When this building was completed in 1965, the old rectory was converted into the Education building with space for offices, church school, and rooms for a University student center. The parish also set up the Christ Child Day Nursery, which was located in the Parish Hall. This institution continued to meet there until 1973 when it outgrew its quarters and moved elsewhere.
A new memorial organ was give in 1973 by the family of Professor Paul Evett, a member of the English department at the University and a long-time vestry member. At the same time a legacy from the Rev. Francis Tetu, a retired priest from the diocese of Michigan, provided for a remodeled sacristy.
A program to aid the poor and underprivileged was begun in 1970 under Father Goodrow's leadership. The parish sponsored the community action program by offering its facilities for emergency food programs, used clothing and other programs. In 1975, the parish joined with the Isabella County Commission on Aging to provide a hot meal each day to senior citizens of the community. In 1976 and 1977, programs for community mental health, legal services for the poor, and Alcoholics Anonymous began to be held in the parish facilities. The parish also took pride in the fact that a number of young men from the city or the University went off to seminary under the sponsorship of the church.
The parish sold the rectory to the Goodrows in 1975. The priest was then given a living allowance in place of having to live in a church-owned rectory.
In the decade of the 1980s, St. John's went through a period of more change. Mt. Pleasant's population grew to over 23,000 people while the University saw its enrollment top 17,000. The economy of the area became more diversified. The leadership of St. John's changed again. In 1985 Father Goodrow died unexpectedly after 23 years of service in Mt. Pleasant. He served St. John's longer than any other priest. Visiting clergy filled in at the services for more than a year while the search for a new rector went on. During this period the parish survived another financial crisis, discovering a case of embezzlement by a parish treasurer. This breach of trust and the death of Father Goodrow left the parish shaken, but unbroken. In the interim the resolve of the members was strengthened and, as in the past, they were determined that St. John's would continue.
In January 1987, the Rev. Gordon F. Weller accepted the call of the parish to become its rector. During the his tenure, several priorities were established. One was to address the long-term financial woes of the parish and place it on sound footing. To this end, the vestry made a concerted effort in 1987 and 1988 to inform the congregation about the nature of stewardship and the costs of maintaining a parish. The people responded by increasing their pledges by fifty percent.
Another priority was to continue their calling of the ministry as Christians. In 1988 the Goodrow Fund was established. Its purpose was twofold - to give the people of the parish the funds and a vehicle so they could assist the needy in the community, and to create a lasting tribute to Father Goodrow and the ministry he started. Continuing to this day, each year the fund channels between $1,200 - $1,500 each week to those in need of emergency assistance.
A third priority was to "reestablish" a working relationship with the diocese. During the 1970s and 1980s the relationship had become strained because of the geographical problems and the campus ministry situation. A concerted effort was made to attend deanery meetings and diocesan affairs. Members of the congregation had consistently been officers at the deanery and diocesan level. Between 1988-1990, the parish had a representative on both the Standing Committee and the Executive Council of the Diocese.
A fourth priority was to look to the future. "The little white church on the corner of Washington and Maple" has a special spot in the hearts of its members, but there is the realization that renovations and additions would be needed. In the prior four years, a $60,000 mortgage was cut in half and a building fund was established to complement the endowment fund.
The history of a church is more than the history of the clergy or the church wardens or the guild officers or the leaders of the youth groups. While events described in this history were occurring, there were people taking care of the altar, cleaning the church, mowing the grass, teaching Sunday School, attending services and engaging in prayer, guiding young people, calling on the sick and dying, advising the distressed, helping the poor, burying the dead. It is the history of a group of people striving to lead better lives and to do the work of the Lord. Generations in the past struggled to found the Church and to keep it going. Although some of these generations had more success than others, each contributed to the growth of St. John's Church. Just as the Audlins and the Browns and the generations of the women in the Ladies' Guild worked to preserve the church, so now it is the job of this generation. The task of the Church is eternal.
William T. Bulger
October, 1991
as told by William T. Bulger, 1991
"The true history of this mission can and never will be written except as it is engraved on the hearts of those who helped to make it. Those who have never been deprived of the services of the Church, or passed through the pioneer period of a country's history, can form but a slight conception of the trials, vicissitudes, and sacrifices which the early Christians are called on to endure in order to establish churches, and St. John's Church of Mt. Pleasant is no exception to the rule, unless it be that its trials and struggles have been even greater than commonly falls to the lot of a struggling mission in a new country." Thus begins an early history of St. John's, probably written in the 1890s by an unknown recorder.
The village of Mt. Pleasant was first platted and recorded in 1864. Shortly after that Edward A. Audlin moved his family to the tiny village. Audlin was a staunch member of the Episcopal Church and he raised his family in the services of the Church and the liturgy of the Prayer Book. Soon a few other families in Mt. Pleasant began to join the Audlins for services.
On August 9, 1869, the first regular Episcopal church service was held in the
Methodist church by the Rev. W. R. Tillinghast of Midland. He baptized four children and read the service of Holy Communion. The next day Mr. Tillinghast lectured in the schoolhouse on the beliefs of the Church.
Late in 1869, Edward Audlin was licensed as a layreader by the Rt. Rev. Samuel A. McCoskry, Bishop of Michigan. Mt. Pleasant was a part of the diocese of Michigan until 1874 when the diocese of Western Michigan was established. Episcopalians in the village met in homes for services. Occasionally a priest from Midland or Ionia would come to hold a regular service.
By 1872, Dr. Joshua Miller was also licensed as a layreader and St. John's was formally organized as a mission. There is some question about this date, however, as an early historian of St. John's says that the mission was begun while Mt. Pleasant was still part of the diocese of Michigan and other records indicate the year 1876 as the official date of when the church was accepted by the western Michigan diocese as a mission. The congregation soon rented a hall for services. The Rev. Henry J. Brown Jr., of Detroit, served as the first permanent clergyman, but only for eight months. The tiny congregation received the gift of a carpet for the chancel from St. Paul's Church in Detroit (now the Cathedral Church of St. Paul) and it also purchased an organ. Soon they had a Sunday School and some fifteen to twenty communicants.
The growing mission had its first visit from a bishop in 1875. The newly-elected Bishop of Western Michigan, George Gillespie, confirmed four adults and also baptized some children. The Rev. William Mathias, of Evart, was now holding services in Mt. Pleasant every other Sunday. When the congregation lost their lease on their meeting hall, they moved the services to the Court House, then to the school house, then into private homes. When Bishop Gillespie made occasional visits, the congregation would meet in one of the other Mt. Pleasant churches for the service.
By 1880, Mt. Pleasant had grown into a village of 1,115 people. Two years later work began on the present church building. The site on the corner of Maple and Washington streets was the gift of General Dwight May, a prominent citizen of the town. The lot was cleared and the timber was stored. Later this wood was made into the pews that are still in use.
The church itself was the gift of one family - Mr. and Mrs. William N. Brown. Mr. Brown, born in New York City in 1849, had been raised in Zilwaukee, Michigan. After a year of high school in Saginaw, he had enlisted as a drummer boy when the Civil War began. He served in the Michigan Volunteer Infantry throughout the war, and later was a student at the University of Michigan. He became an attorney and practiced in Saginaw until moving to Mt. Pleasant in 1872. Here, he and John C. Leaton established the law firm of Brown and Leaton and prospered. He became a landowner, was successful in the lumber business, and helped found one of the first banks in the village. He was also director of a railroad. In 1878 he married the daughter of General Dwight May. He and his wife had worshipped with the wandering congregation of St. John's and they now decided to give the parish a permanent home.
The cornerstone of the church was ceremonially laid on October 19, 1882. Edward Audlin laid the first stone, as was most appropriate; William Brown laid the second stone, and Charles Smith laid the third. Since no clergyman was resident at the time, the service was read by members of the congregation. The people had hoped to complete the outside structure of the church before winter but "were froze out and snowed under." Work proceeded the next Spring and the building was completed by the beginning of December, 1883.
The Browns had paid the entire cost of building the church at the cost of some $4,300. They also provided for the festivities that followed the consecration of the church on January 20, 1884. Bishop Gillespie consecrated the building in the presence of a large congregation. Mr. Brown had chartered a special train from Saginaw to bring clergy and other guests who were put up in the Bennett Hotel. After the service, Brown paid for a ten-course dinner that was served at the hotel.
The church was designed in Elizabethan Gothic style, and the interior was supposedly copied from a church on the estate of the Duke of Devonshire. The bricks were made in William Brown's yard, and the timber was cut in his mill. The building had four stained-glass windows and the inside was illuminated with two prism chandeliers. The interior was completely furnished with gifts from the Browns. A Mt. Pleasant publication that year praised the princely liberality of the Browns, and there is no question but that the paper was correct.
By this time the village of Mt. Pleasant was growing. The lumbering industry was declining, but the town was catering to the surrounding farms. There were grocery and drug stores, a dry goods store, shoe store, jewelry store, a business that sold furniture and also served as the local undertaking establishment, four small hotels, insurance and real estate offices, a foundry, and a mill that made wood products.
Although blessed with a new church, the little congregation still had no resident rector. The Rev. James A. McGlone was appointed missionary to the church on June 15, 1884. By the end of the year he had added sixty-seven members to the church through confirmations and transfers.
The rapidly-growing congregation now needed to provide a rectory for their resident priest. They borrowed $400 from the Diocesan Building Fund and more from other sources for a total of $2,000. They built the rectory which Bishop Gillespie dedicated on February 28, 1886.
Eighteen eighty-six was a notable year for another reason - it saw the establishment of the Ladies' Guild. The women drew up a constitution on April 16, and this group soon became the most important force in the life of the church. Mr. William Brown gave the rectory mortgage to the Guild, and the women agreed to pay off the cost of $900. The Guild would own the rectory for the next half-century.
Guild meetings were devoted to both serious and pleasant business. The meetings usually began with the recitation of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, and perhaps a hymn. Then the ladies took care of any pressing business. By 1888, they would meet at 7:00 pm on the first Thursday of each month, and then at 7:30 would adjourn to invite gentlemen friends and others to join them for a pleasant social evening. They had music and literature programs.
The Rev. James McGlone resigned in July 1887 and was succeeded by the Rev. Frederick C. Lee. Mr. Lee had a short tenure as he was deposed by the Bishop in April 1888 for unknown reasons. The Rev. Norman S. Boardman next led the parish. Apparently the church was having financial difficulties at this time. The Ladies' Guild, in November 1889, agreed to pay $54 on the rectory mortgage and to give what was left in the treasury to Mr. Boardman for salary. It is interesting to note that it was the Guild, not the vestry, that was giving money to Mr. Boardman.
After Boardman left Mt. Pleasant in August 1890, there was no resident clergyman for several years. The Rev. George J. McCandless frequently came over from Midland to hold services and, just before his death in 1893, became the pastor of St. John's.
On December 1, 1893 the Rev. William Westover was appointed to serve the parish. He introduced a boys' choir and also began the use of colored stoles at the celebration of the Lord's Supper - an action that was considered very "high church" at the time. He also started a mission in Clare. Some years later, in 1910, the Good Shepherd Mission was established in Shepherd. It lasted until 1916.
The nation was hit by a panic and depression beginning in 1893 and soon St. John's was in economic troubles once more. Mr. Westover finally had to resign as the congregation could no longer pay him a salary.
After a year's vacancy, the office of the rector was filled by the Rev. Dr. J. N. Rippey in 1898. He was also a surgeon who had served with the Nebraska Volunteers in the Civil War. He had some temporary success and the church was advanced from mission to parish status by the diocese on June 24, 1900. This action by the diocese is somewhat surprising as Bishop Gillespie had sent the parish a stern letter the previous March. He wrote that he had visited the parish and had "come away sadly disappointed. I have conversed with your officers and from them have learned a very painful state of things." The mission owed $235.92 of the $600 salary due Dr. Rippey. Attendance at church services was poor, said the bishop, considering that the church contained 122 adults and 42 children. The bishop wrote that the rector might leave and that the church would be closed. He begged the congregation to help the minister and to improve church attendance. However, the pleas of the bishop were to no avail and Dr. Rippey left in September 1901, the parish being far in arrears on his salary.
Two more years passed before the church had a rector. During this time services were apparently held by layreaders. In October 1903, the Rev. W. W. Taylor took charge until 1907. After another year's vacancy, he was succeeded by the Rev. Charles F. Westman, who came from the diocese of Dallas.
Under Westman's leadership, the church was soon thriving once again. In 1908 the church building was enlarged to its present size. The apsidal sanctuary, the sacristy, and the finished basement under the new additions were added along with a new roof, a new furnace, and a repainting of the building. The church's treasury could now handle most of the cost of $1,800 for these improvements, while the rectory served as collateral for the $700 that had to be borrowed. The Women's Guild was to pay off most of this debt.
The refurbishing of the church continued the next Easter when the rector gave a new baptismal font in memory of his mother, his sister presented the church with a new altar, and Mrs. Mary Winans donated an altar cross in memory of her husband. These gifts were accompanied by new candlesticks, an altar service book, along with thirty-five hymnals and thirty-five Books of Common Prayer from the New York Common Prayer Book and Bible Society.
A vested choir first appeared in the church in 1910. The next year St. John's began the use of eucharistic vestments and was one of the first parishes in the diocese to do so. The tradition of Holy Communion at one service each Sunday seems to have been a custom of some years' standing by this time.
In 1910, Mr. Westman left to accept a call to the church in Petoskey. As he left St. John's, Westman wrote about his ministry in the "Register of Church Services": "He has endeavored [to train] the members of Christ with the Catholic Faith, in her history, heritage and responsibility of the Holy Catholic Church to make herself known as a shining and burning lamp in a dark place until the Day Spring come from on high."
The parish then had a series of pastors who served for short periods of time. The Rev. H. J. Keyser took over for one year, to be succeeded by the Rev. E. S. Barkdull who served for nine months in 1912. The Rev. O. E. Newton was rector from 1913 until 1916, and then the Rev. J. N. Goodrich took over the church until 1918. The records show church attendance in this period averaged from thirty to sixty.
For the next 18 years (1918 to 1936), St. John's was without a resident priest. The church also seems to have been without a vestry for much of this time. Indeed, it was the Women's Guild that kept the work of the parish going for many years. They performed remarkable services in collecting money and paying the debts of the church.
The Guild had paid off the mortgage on the rectory back in 1897, but the deed to the property remained in the hands of the organization. In the lean years following 1918 and the end of World War I, the rectory provided the chief source of funds for the Guild. They rented it out and used the money to pay off the debts of the church. In 1919 they voted to put in new hardwood floors in the rectory - but only on the first floor. They also had a new sink installed for $7.
After renting the rectory to various tenants, the Guild, in 1921, leased the building to Miss Helen Emmons who taught at the Central Michigan Normal School. Miss Emmons paid $40 per month and it appears that her rent was never raised. Occasionally she was given permission to have repairs made on the building and this was credited against her rent.
In the years following the end of World War I, the Guild persevered in spite of terrible obstacles. The church building was allowed to decay and eventually became unfit for use. In February 1919 the Archdeacon of the diocese, the Venerable Lincoln R. Vercoe, wrote to say that he would come to Mt. Pleasant the following month to hold a service. The Guild was forced to write back saying that the church was not in condition to hold a service and that it would not be convenient for him to visit. In November 1922, the Guild was told by a member that she had visited the church and it was "in a dilapidated condition . . . " The women agreed to have the walls repaired with steel rods so that the building would not collapse.
Besides the rent from the rectory, the women of the Guild were constantly engaged in money-making projects. Although their numbers were seldom more than 18, they sold cook books, aprons, wool batts, and pillow cases; held rummage sales; collected clothing for poor children; made clothes for the Red Cross; had bake sales, card parties, and even a "moving picture show." The money from their efforts, plus Miss Emmons' rent, kept the parish alive.
Beginning in November 1923, the church was in satisfactory shape so that services with a layreader could be held. But the prosperity of the early years of the 1920s never seems to have reached the Episcopalians of Mt. Pleasant. They managed to pay their bills, but there was no money for a rector. Once in a while they were able to pay a choir director, and they seem to have had a choir at most of their services. They often voted to send one dollar to parishes in need, although their own parish was in terrible financial shape. In 1923 and 1926 Bishop McCormick came to confirm a class. From time to time a priest came in to administer the rite of baptism.
In the early days of the Great Depression, matters became worse. The Guild was able to hold only one service a month. By 1934, they had persuaded the Rev. W. S. A. Larter of Big Rapids to take occasional services at St. John's, and they paid him $15 per month.
The discovery of oil in the area east of Mt. Pleasant in the late 1920s was now beginning to make an impact on the town. While the rest of the nation was in he depths of depression, prosperity slowly came to Mt. Pleasant. In 1934 the Guild had sufficient funds to put a new roof on the church. It was still renting the rectory to Miss Emmons, but her rent had been lowered to $25 per month.
It was 1936 before the financial condition of St. John's was secure enough to have a full-time rector. The Rev. Mr. Larter now moved from Big Rapids to Mt. Pleasant, although he remained in charge of St. Andrew's, Big Rapids, until the end of 1937. In one of this first appearances before the Guild as rector, he stressed the need for a regular vestry. Although the women of the parish had done magnificent work over the many years, he pointed out that the canons of the Church required that a vestry be elected.
In 1938, a new parish hall was built, the gift of C. L. Maguire, senior warden of the newly-created vestry and president of Roosevelt Oil Company. The building was a memorial to Leslie Remington Maguire who had died in 1907 as a small child.
Once again, St. John's fell into the pattern of having a series of priests who served only for short periods of time. Newell D. Lindner was the rector from 1938 to the autumn of 1939. The Rev. Harold B. Adams arrived in February, 1940, and served until 1944. Then a semi-retired priest, Father Everett A. Moore, served for a year as locum tenens. Under Father Moore, communion services were held twice each month at the main Sunday service.
Meanwhile, a young school teacher, John D. Vincer, became active in the parish and went off to seminary, sponsored by the congregation. He was ordained deacon December 27, 1945 by the bishop at the altar of St. John's. He then succeeded Father Moore as rector. By that time, 1945, the church had 102 communicants and the value of its property was listed at $75,000.
Father Vincer served from 1945 to 1949. During these years a boys' choir was one of the great prides of the parish. The choir had begun in 1939 under the leadership of Bernard Stone, supervisor of music for the Mt. Pleasant schools and also a music critic at the college. Father Vincer encouraged the growth of the choir, which not only sang at the services at St. John's, but also gave concerts all over the state. To this day there are still a few men in Mt. Pleasant who, although they attend different parishes, have fond memories of their time in "The Boys' Choir".
In 1950, the Rev. Robert S. Childs began what became a stormy period of leadership for the parish. During Father Child's pastorate, another effort was made to establish a mission in Clare. This was the third time that such an effort was made. After holding services in a restaurant for a time, a small church building was erected and dedicated to St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The church prospered for a time, but eventually the construction of the freeway cut the church off from the main part of the town. By 1957, a layreader took over most of the services with the rector of St. John's presiding once a month for Holy Communion. Shortly after that, the Bishop closed the mission.
Some members of the parish became troubled with Father Childs' interpretation of the liturgy. He used a great deal of symbolism which distressed some members as being too "high church." The "Register of Church Services" shows that Childs used the term "Mass" rather than "Holy Communion" as his predecessors had done. Morning Prayer was seldom read at Sunday services.
The parish was soon divided in their view of their pastor. On one occasion, someone stole his chasubles so that he could not use them for the communion services. The vestry worried about the division within the parish and asked the bishop for aid. In 1958, Father Childs resigned and Father Charles M. Stuart became the new rector. Under Stuart's leadership, a new interest was taken in the growing number of students at what was then called "Central Michigan College." Father Stuart worked with the students as the college grew into Central Michigan University in 1959, and he saw the parish grow. When he left in 1962, St. John's had 199 communicants.
The Rev. John. H. Goodrow became rector on March 1, 1962. The vestry soon made new plans to reach out to the University students. They also purchased a lot on west Preston road where they built a new rectory. When this building was completed in 1965, the old rectory was converted into the Education building with space for offices, church school, and rooms for a University student center. The parish also set up the Christ Child Day Nursery, which was located in the Parish Hall. This institution continued to meet there until 1973 when it outgrew its quarters and moved elsewhere.
A new memorial organ was give in 1973 by the family of Professor Paul Evett, a member of the English department at the University and a long-time vestry member. At the same time a legacy from the Rev. Francis Tetu, a retired priest from the diocese of Michigan, provided for a remodeled sacristy.
A program to aid the poor and underprivileged was begun in 1970 under Father Goodrow's leadership. The parish sponsored the community action program by offering its facilities for emergency food programs, used clothing and other programs. In 1975, the parish joined with the Isabella County Commission on Aging to provide a hot meal each day to senior citizens of the community. In 1976 and 1977, programs for community mental health, legal services for the poor, and Alcoholics Anonymous began to be held in the parish facilities. The parish also took pride in the fact that a number of young men from the city or the University went off to seminary under the sponsorship of the church.
The parish sold the rectory to the Goodrows in 1975. The priest was then given a living allowance in place of having to live in a church-owned rectory.
In the decade of the 1980s, St. John's went through a period of more change. Mt. Pleasant's population grew to over 23,000 people while the University saw its enrollment top 17,000. The economy of the area became more diversified. The leadership of St. John's changed again. In 1985 Father Goodrow died unexpectedly after 23 years of service in Mt. Pleasant. He served St. John's longer than any other priest. Visiting clergy filled in at the services for more than a year while the search for a new rector went on. During this period the parish survived another financial crisis, discovering a case of embezzlement by a parish treasurer. This breach of trust and the death of Father Goodrow left the parish shaken, but unbroken. In the interim the resolve of the members was strengthened and, as in the past, they were determined that St. John's would continue.
In January 1987, the Rev. Gordon F. Weller accepted the call of the parish to become its rector. During the his tenure, several priorities were established. One was to address the long-term financial woes of the parish and place it on sound footing. To this end, the vestry made a concerted effort in 1987 and 1988 to inform the congregation about the nature of stewardship and the costs of maintaining a parish. The people responded by increasing their pledges by fifty percent.
Another priority was to continue their calling of the ministry as Christians. In 1988 the Goodrow Fund was established. Its purpose was twofold - to give the people of the parish the funds and a vehicle so they could assist the needy in the community, and to create a lasting tribute to Father Goodrow and the ministry he started. Continuing to this day, each year the fund channels between $1,200 - $1,500 each week to those in need of emergency assistance.
A third priority was to "reestablish" a working relationship with the diocese. During the 1970s and 1980s the relationship had become strained because of the geographical problems and the campus ministry situation. A concerted effort was made to attend deanery meetings and diocesan affairs. Members of the congregation had consistently been officers at the deanery and diocesan level. Between 1988-1990, the parish had a representative on both the Standing Committee and the Executive Council of the Diocese.
A fourth priority was to look to the future. "The little white church on the corner of Washington and Maple" has a special spot in the hearts of its members, but there is the realization that renovations and additions would be needed. In the prior four years, a $60,000 mortgage was cut in half and a building fund was established to complement the endowment fund.
The history of a church is more than the history of the clergy or the church wardens or the guild officers or the leaders of the youth groups. While events described in this history were occurring, there were people taking care of the altar, cleaning the church, mowing the grass, teaching Sunday School, attending services and engaging in prayer, guiding young people, calling on the sick and dying, advising the distressed, helping the poor, burying the dead. It is the history of a group of people striving to lead better lives and to do the work of the Lord. Generations in the past struggled to found the Church and to keep it going. Although some of these generations had more success than others, each contributed to the growth of St. John's Church. Just as the Audlins and the Browns and the generations of the women in the Ladies' Guild worked to preserve the church, so now it is the job of this generation. The task of the Church is eternal.
William T. Bulger
October, 1991