Centers of the spiritual and social life in Lyme Township in the decades from 1860 to 1900 were its four rural churches: Lyme Presbyterian (later Congregational), Trinity Episcopal, German Evangelical Reformed, and St. Paul’s Lutheran. We shall consider each in turn.
Oldest and most historical is the Lyme Church, organized in 1817. It was the first church established in the Firelands, which included what is now Huron and Erie Counties. The ordination of its first full-time pastor was the first ordination west of the Cuyahoga River. The present white frame meeting house, completed in 1836 in the center of Strongs Ridge, was the first church building erected in the Firelands. Its Sunday School is the “oldest in continuous existence in the entire state.” Details of this are given in Books I and II of this series.
The story of the Lyme Church will be told in more detail in this book than the stories of the other three churches, not only because the Lyme Church is the oldest but also because it has such unusually complete and detailed records kept by men who had a sense of history. Some features of its story are no doubt also typical of some aspects of the other churches in Lyme.
Six pastors served the Lyme Church during our forty years: S. D. Smith (1861-1865), W. T. Hart (1865-1881), W. F. McMillen (1882-1885), A. E. Colton (1886-1889), Rev. Pasco (1889-1891) and William Haynes (1892-1901).
The second, Rev. Hart served the Lyme Church for sixteen and a half years, nearly half of the years covered in this book!
William Taylor Hart was born in Indiana in 1833. At age 17 he decided to become and his devout parents were pleased. It had been assumed that young William would want a good education; (his family was related to Mary Lyon, the famous president of Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts). However, as the eldest son, he found it necessary to help support the family as well as to work his way through college. But at length in 1861 he received his B. A. from Wabash College; and in May, 1865, his degree in theology from Lane Seminary. Seventeen days later William T. Hart “accepted a call” to Lyme.
It must have been an exciting time for the dedicated and enthusiastic young man. He had just been licensed to preach, was soon to be ordained, and had recently become engaged to Miss Chloe Barbour of Walnut Hills, near Cincinnati. She, too, had just been graduated, from the Cincinnati College of Music. On September 7, the young couple were married by the groom’s uncle, Rev. C. C. Hart. William Hart was ordained four days later in Columbus, Indiana, with the same uncle preaching the ordination sermon. Then the new Rev. and Mrs. Hart went immediately to Strongs Ridge in Lyme.
They settled quickly into the life of the community and became beloved by their parishioners. Mrs. Hart was of much help to her husband because of her gracious personality, her love of children, and her musical ability. Three of their four children (Alice, Sada, and Edward) were born in Lyme.
The Harts began at $600.00 a year, but in his first three years he found it necessary to spend the $500.00 he had inherited from his father. The his salary was raised to $800.00.
Rev. Hart proved to be a good leader. “He never let any one child or adult say ‘I can’t,’” explained Miss Mary Walter, “he expected us to say, ‘I’ll try!’” He got results.
In a sermon preached after his first ten years in Lyme, Rev. Hart reported that when he arrived, he found 75 members with 13 of them away from home. In the next ten years, 128 new members were taken in; and although 25 died and 51 took church letters to other areas, the net membership in 1875 was an encouraging 127! These figures include 30 added during a revival in Mr. Hart’s first year and 60 more, in a revival in 1873 (See Appendix V). In
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those first ten years Rev. Hart preached 1005 sermons, married 30 couples, and conducted 25 funeral services for members, as well as burial services for children and for non-members.
PRAYER MEETINGS
Rev. Hart recalled that at his first prayer meeting in Lyme there were only two men and four ladies present, with no singing and with women allowed no part in the service. Ten years later, some forty men, women, and children were attending prayer meetings at which there were “spirited singing, remarks, and prayers,” by both men and women.
Miss Mary Walter later recalled those who were always present at those Thursday prayers sessions: Deacon and Mrs. Melvin Wood and family, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Smith, Mr. and Mrs. John Seymour, Mrs. Harcy, Mrs. John Wright (Betsy), Mrs. Nellie Stults, Miss Eileen Long, Deacon Jonathan Drury, Mr. and Mrs. John Drury, Mr. and Mrs. Livermore, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Barnard, and Deacon and Mrs. Betsy Barnard.
Interest in prayer services spread. The ladies decided to have their own afternoon prayer meetings, held in various homes. Eventually children’s prayer meetings were arranged with printed programs of topics and leaders. For a while, the general Thursday meeting also had printed programs listing leaders and topics of discussion and prayers.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The Sunday School was another area in which Rev. Hart found satisfaction after his ten years at Lyme, for the average attendance jumped from 67 in 1865 to 130 in 1873. He recalled later that 90% of the Lyme congregation attended the Sabbath School; thus more adults studied the Bible each Sunday in small groups seated in squares made by the long Deacons’ benches in the first-floor assembly room. Upstairs, primary children were taught in one of the square pews and later in one of the areas set off for the choir. By 1876 the Lyme Sunday School had increased to 196, including 96 below the age of 18 and 100 adults. There were four officers, sixteen teachers, and one hundred seventy-five scholars.
Rev. Hart conducted weekly meetings to prepare the teachers of the Sunday School classes, and “required a good excuse if one were absent.” He was pleased that the “International System of Sunday School lessons was being used: ‘a great step forward in the thorough study of the Bible’ he commented.”
MISSION SABBATH SCHOOLS
For years the historic Lyme Church had conducted mission Sunday Schools in neighboring areas where there was no church. Such a school had been begun at the Hunt’s Corners area as early as 1830 and was continued for over twenty years! In 1845 there was also one at Fitch’s Corners.
Under Rev. Hart, mission school activity was revived and enlarged. The following mission Sunday Schools were listed by Rev. Hart in 1876:
1867-69.....Weaver’s Corners
1867-70;1875....Morey’s school house
1868-76.......Plank Road
1870-76.......Fitch’s Corners
1873-74.......School house northwest of Russell’s Corners.
Because of a letter of thanks printed in a Bellevue newspaper, we know some details of the last of the above schools. Every Sunday afternoon in the summer, William Nims as superintendent and four teachers drove out to the school house. One of the teachers was Josie Wright, who later married the young superintendent (one can surmise that the romance was helped by those weekly trips). The other teachers from Lyme were Mr. and Mrs. Livermore and Miss Livermore. Working also were two from the area of the school: Mrs. Harman, as a teacher, and Joseph Bath, who served as secretary. Mr. Bath was a member of the Lyme Church and so was especially interested.
Children and adults were all invited to attend. That the average attendance at the school was fifty testifies to its success. The letter of thanks stressed the importance of the training of youth in the school and appreciation for the work. “It is with regret that the approaching weather makes it necessary to close for the winter months,” wrote the author of the letter.
(p. 41)COUNTY SUNDAY SCHOOLS COOPERATE
In pioneer days the Lyme Sunday School leaders had been active in the “earliest Sabbath School Union of which there is any record.” The same Sunday School became equally involved when the idea was revived about 1863 as the Sunday School Union of Huron County. This became part of the state Sunday School Union. S. Bemiss of Lyme was vice president of the revived organization.
The Lyme Church served as host for the Union’s eighteenth annual meeting in 1882. The local committee for arrangements consisted of Rev. W. F. McMillen, John Drury, E. H. Edwards, Samuel Bemiss, and Henry C. Barnard, superintendent of the Lyme Sunday School. Officers and teachers from the churches all over the county came together for a day-long meeting to discuss topics which seem modern even today: “Teachers Meetings,” “The Art of Securing Attention,” “Teaching Parents,” “Home Support of the Sunday School,” “How to Teach Temperance,” “Offerings and Benevolences,” etc.
WE WANT THE BOYS!
Interest in both foreign and home missions was fostered in the Lyme Church by three organizations. The Women’s Missionary Society had been formed in 1867 and was “supposed to be the oldest Auxiliary in the state.” The children had their own Mission Band and the younger women had the Mission Circle. This last became a bit unusual.
In 1880, two of the young girls, Jennie Collins and Mary Walter, went with Rev. Hart to Mansfield to attend the Central North Conference of the Church. The young ladies came home full of enthusiasm for what their local group might do. “It would be great to have young gentlemen members too,” they suggested, but were told that their society could not be an auxiliary of the state and national Women’s Board of Missions if they did. The girls didn’t give up; they wanted to invite those boys.
Then they learned that the elderly Deacon Jonathan Drury was an honorary member of the women’s society. That solved their problem; not one but all the young men could be honorary members too! The very next year two of the duly elected officers were Frank Houle and Bert Wright. However, it was the girls who tied comforters. And it was also the girls who arranged business, study, and social meetings to which boys were invited, such as “social evening and banquet” to pack the missionary box. In 1884, their combined efforts raised $74.00 for foreign and home missions.
Said Rev. McMillen, who followed Rev. Hart, “probably no other young ladies’ mission circle anywhere had so many honorary members!”
TO BE OR NOT TO BE?
PRESBYTERIAN OR CONGREGATIONALIST?
In 1872, the Lyme Church changed its denomination from Presbyterian to Congregational! This was not as startling or as difficult a change as might have been expected. Actually probably most of the early members had been Congregationalists “back east.” But under “The Plan of Union,” eastern Congregationalists and Presbyterians had agreed to work in the “wilderness,” and had further agreed that churches organized by their missionaries there should all be “under the Presbytery” because of its stronger central government. Thus the Lyme Church had started out as Presbyterian. Now, 55 years later, the Plan of Union was no longer in force, and a majority of members urged the change. No doubt there were those who had equally strong feelings about remaining Presbyterian!
However, after deliberation and discussion, the church did agree to make the change. That all church members cooperated so well was no doubt partly due to the character of their minister who felt strongly that living a Christian life was more important than denominational barriers. In fact, Rev. Hart was to stay with the church for nine more years after the change, though all that time he retained his own membership with the Presbytery.
Church minutes of May, 1872, show that Melvin Wood and John Seymour were appointed to take the necessary steps so that the deeds of the meeting house and the parsonage could be changed legally over to the Congregational denomination. Accordingly, P. N. Schuyler arranged this at a cost of $34.43.
Services went on as usual with Rev. Hart continuing as minister. Typical of his attitude are these comments made in his tenth anniversary sermon in 1875, three years after the change:
I had no doubt that the Christian people of this community would make a very good Congregational, or Baptist, or Methodist, or Episcopalian Church if they only set their minds to it. Some of them had their hearts set on being Congregational… Some of the Presbyterians scolded about the matter… but I believe they have concluded this will do no good so we have harmony, peace, and prosperity. These are great things to be desired and prayed for and labored for; and so we all thank the Lord for the way He has led us, and go into the work with all our heart and soul.(p. 42)
Finally, in 1881, after serving the church about as long in its Congregational form as he had when it was Presbyterian, Rev. Hart resigned. There is evidence that he may have done so because the Congregational Association centered in Oberlin at that time did not want to recognize a Presbyterian as the pastor of a Congregational church. Thereafter Rev. Hart served Presbyterian churches.
Rev. Hart preached his resignation sermon on November 13, 1881. On November 15, “in anticipation of the usual Thanksgiving gathering at his pleasant home,” one hundred and thirty of his church people “gathered as of one heart and mind” for a farewell reception at the parsonage. They were loathe to have the Harts leave. Said a reporter in a local newspaper, “it was like the breaking up of a family.” With Mrs. Mirtzey making the presentation speech, the church ladies gave Mrs. Hart a gold watch and chain. The men presented Rev. Hart with a purse of money.
The Lyme parishioners did not lose their devotion to the Harts. Years later, in 1915, a motion was carried to deed to Rev. and Mrs. Hart a lot in the Lyme Cemetery. However, when Rev. Hart died in 1919 and Mrs. Hart, in 1930, they were both buried in Monroeville where he last served (ie., in the Presbyterian Church there).
THE LYME CHURCH CELEBRATES THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE U.S.A. AND ITS OWN 59TH
In 1876, the church held a 59th anniversary and reunion. They chose this odd time because 1876 marked the 100th anniversary of the United States and they thought they could observe the two events in a two-day celebration. Details are described by an enthusiastic reporter in the Bellevue Gazette.
Many out-of-town guests came home for the occasion, which began on a Sunday, with two worship services. They found the church, and especially the pulpit platform, gaily decorated with flowers, evergreens, and a welcoming banner. The morning service included, as a special additional feature, a history of the church by Rev. Hart; similarly, the afternoon featured a history of the Sunday School.
Monday’s program resulted in a flood of reminiscing, for it took the form of a huge family reunion. At noon came a family-style dinner, about which the reporter was eloquently enthusiastic:
Early, people had begun to bring food… a bountiful supply of the good things of life… served at six tables, each 16 feet long and filled with provisions… It has not been our privilege often to meet with so kind and generous people… Too much praise can not be given to the ladies for the abundant provision made for the wants of the multitude.Some 250 people were thus served in three successive sittings. One can imagine the lively chatter and the informal renewing of friendships during that long dinner period.
The two formal sessions of Monday were full of reminiscences also. The morning program was opened by devotions, prayer, a welcome address by John Drury, and a response by Lyman Strong of Cleveland. Next, tributes were paid to several who had been active in the organization of the church about sixty years before, as well as in the following early days: Mr. and Mrs. Francis Strong, John Baker, and Dr. Charles Smith. Each tribute or “obituary” was followed by a response by a descendent. The 85-year old John Seymour then gave reminiscences which must have been well worth hearing, for the scholarly Mr. Seymour had already been clerk of the church for nearly fifty years.
In the afternoon program, there were two more “obituaries” and responses, in honor of Elijah Bemiss and of Mrs. Rash (the last response was by Henry Barnard, Civil War veteran). Then followed remarks by Alfred Stebbins, J. G. Sheffield, T. C. Warner, P. N. Schuyler and four visiting ministers, letters from former pastors, and remarks and prayer by rev. Hart to close the successful anniversary.
REV. W. F. MCMILLEN AND HIS MANUAL
Ohio-born William F. McMillen was installed April 4, 1882. Shortly after Rev. and Mrs McMillen and little son Charlie had arrived in Lyme, the “old and young people” appeared en masse at the parsonage to welcome them with a surprise reception complete with refreshments, short speeches, and a gift which proved to be a purse containing three twenty-dollar gold pieces. The oldest deacon, Jonathan Drury, spoke of the friendly relationship between a pastor and his church.
Coming to Lyme directly from his studies in Oberlin, Rev. McMillen was immediately impressed with the Lyme Sunday School and “made it his experiment station with such results that calls came to him from all directions to show other schools the way.”
He was evidently quite an organizer. In a 17 page printed manual, prepared during his first years as pastor, he listed all the church services, gave a brief history of the church, the Articles of Faith, a service for the reception of members, regulations for officers and business meetings, and finally rules for the conduct and discipline of members. One is amazed to find that eleven types of meetings were scheduled for parishioners; on Sunday were morning and evening services, Sunday School, and a young people’s meeting, Weekday meetings included a Ladies’ prayer meeting, the general prayer meeting, and a study session for Sunday School teachers. Once a month came the Ladies Mission Society, the Young People’s Missionary Circle, the Mission Band for children, and a “Missionary Concert.” Most of these had already been long established.
Rules for conduct were apparently as strict as they had been when the church was organized in 1817,
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sixty-five years before. “Manual labor, hunting, fishing, traveling or visiting on the Sabbath except in the case of necessity or mercy” were considered wrong. Horse racing, gambling, and dancing were regarded as “evil practices.” Use of intoxicating liquors was forbidden. The manual stated that these rules were to be read from the pulpit once a year.
COLTON, CALLING, AND SCHEDULE CARDS
A. E. Colton, who succeeded Rev. McMillen, arrived in 1886. The first mention in the church records of a vacation for the minister appears in a motion to offer him a salary of $800.00, the use of the parsonage, and a four-week annual vacation.
Calling on his parishioners seemed especially important to the Rev. Colton. He thought it equally important for the church members to call on each other. A call in those days was likely to mean a visit of some length; and after a long drive with “horse and buggy,” it was disappointing when no one was found at home. Then Rev. Colton had an idea. He made out schedules which he sent out on printed cards, giving each family “at home days” and “calling days.” Thus the “at-home” hostesses could be ready for guests and even have refreshments prepared, if they so desired. Now callers were sure for a welcome.
REV. PASCO, 1889-1891, AND REV. WILLIAM HAYNES, 1892-1901
Important improvements to the parsonage were planned during the short period when Rev. Pasco served the Lyme Church; but it was during the pastorate of William Haynes that the house was finally repaired and enlarged. This was an important financial obligation for church members to assume, and we shall learn later how the necessary funds were raised.
Rev. Haynes was one of two Lyme Church pastors of the nineteenth century some of whose descendents still live in the Strongs Ridge area. His daughter, Lillian Haynes, married William Barnard, son of a Lyme Township pioneer. Lillian and Will were long active in the church and the area, as are their descendents today.
The other pastor with descendents in the area was Rev. Hart, whose grandson, Bruce Hart lives in the old Wood home on Strongs Ridge Road. Another grandson, also a William Hart, lives in Norwalk.
EARLY CIRCULATING LIBRARY
One of the first, perhaps the first circulating library in the area was the Sunday School library of the Lyme Church. As early as 1831, just thirteen years after the Sunday School was organized, that library had 210 books! In 1873, Rev. Hart noted a “marked improvement both in the character of the books and in the method of distribution.” And a report in 1876 spoke of a “carefully selected library of 400 to 500 volumes.” This, it must be noted, was in a small rural community. Books were shelved in an area partitioned off on the east side of the Sunday School room on the first floor of the church. The books were chosen with both children and adults in mind. The librarian was a regularly elected officer of the Sunday School. The librarians, for example, 1886-1892 inclusive, were C. Jones, Frederick Russell (who served four years), Mrs. Clara Barnard, and Fred Bemiss.
When the Bellevue Library Association, for which one could buy yearly subscriptions, opened in a room in Bellevue about 1891, the buying of books for the church library evidently tapered off, and probably ceased altogether after 1904 when the Bellevue Free Public Library opened its doors. But in its years of service, that small library at Lyme had done its work well in simulating reading and education and spiritual values.
FACTS FINANCIAL AT THE LYME CHURCH
To finance a rural church like the one at Strongs Ridge was difficult because of the small number of families, even if each one gave liberally. For years the chief method of raising money was by the annual auction of pews. In 1899, for example, twenty-four families “bought” pews, bidding from $15.00 to as much as $55.00 for that one year, thus raising a total of $663.00. Small yellow cards, attached to the pews, showed the names of those entitled to sit in each one. Pews without such cards were free for visitors. (See Appendix VIII)
Additional money was needed each year to supplement the auction. It was possibly as early as 1869 that ushers began taking up an offering at the morning service by reaching into each pew with a long pole from the end of which hung a velvet bag. The bags were still in use as late as the early 1900’s. Pennies and nickles [sic] were also collected in the Sunday School. Amounts so raised, though small, were used to help defray the expenses of the School. The church collections during the last three months of 1869 totaled $40; and in Sunday School, $23. Money for missions was raised by additional offerings and by projects of the various missionary societies.
Regular expenses to run and maintain the Church were always present and lifting their urgent heads! There
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was the minister’s salary. Rev. Hart’s salary was raised from $600 to $800 in 1868; but by the end of the next year, $200 was still due the pastor. Accordingly, it was voted that the trustees should levy a tax from members to make up the deficit (this method appears more than once in the minutes of the church. A committee would be appointed to talk to individual members to explain the tax--and to get it). IN 1873, shortly after the change of denomination, it was unanimously voted to offer Rev. Hart $1000 a year if he would remain. This was paid for six years until 1879 when it was found necessary to cut all church expenses down by one-fifth. Hence during his last three years at Lyme, Rev. Hart was again receiving $800.
By present-day standards a pastor’s salary of $800 may seem so low that one wonders how the Harts managed, as they did, to send all four Hart children to college. However, when rev. Hart’s grandson, Bruce Hart found his grandfather’s account book of salary payments and gifts of money and produce, Mr. Hart and Bellevue banker, Richard Raish, figured that Rev. Hart’s total salary of money, parsonage and gifts a year was equal to $10,000 to $12,000 in 1972. From this standpoint the salary was good for a small rural community! The $800 with parsonage continued to be the salary of Lyme ministers until 1897, when the Reverend William Haynes unselfishly and voluntarily took a reduction in pay to $700.
Then too, there was a succession of expenses for the large, two-story meeting house. In 1867 extensive renovations were made. The pews which for a time had faced the stairways, were reversed and the present pulpit platform was built. An older choir balcony between the two stairways was removed. Woodwork was repainted and walls on both floors were papered. Outside, the cupola was repaired. This all came to more than $1000, a large amount for that time. In 1880 the roof was repaired; and in 1885 funds were raised to “repair the audience room, procure new lamps, and repair or get new stoves.” When some $400 worth of repairs were needed in 1894, Mrs. Sarah Blair, daughter of Deacon John Seymour, sent a check from Chicago for half the cost for the “dear old church.” “May we now hope that a spiritual blessing will crown the efforts and self denial of you people,” she wrote.
Finally, as late as 1887, a “Weekly Offering Plan” was tried in the hope that eventually pledges could replace the renting of pews. The plan was continued but pew rentals were not dropped until 1894 when “pledged amounts were given in envelopes so only the trustees will know the individual amounts.”
The children, too, did their part. It was also in 1887 that the youngsters used “banks” in the shapes of eggs and jugs in which to put money which they earned or collected from friends--all to be used to help pay the church debt.
After the children had met to break their clay banks, the pastor’s wife, Mrs. Colton, wrote a five-stanza poem for the children; and her husband, who had a small printing press, printed the poem on blue cards to be given to the youngsters as souvenirs on June 2, 1887. Entitled Egg and Jug Breaking, the poem describes the banks and how the children filled them, and climaxes with the news, that when the thirty-eight banks “were smashed to bits,” they found,
I’m sure you can’t guess; Tho’ you may think you could; Just forty round dollars; Now wasn’t that good!Evidently, the project was a smashing success!
THE PARSONAGE AND BIG BUSINESS
During the last year of Mr. Pasco’s pastorate, it was clear that something would have to be done about the parsonage. It needed extensive repairs and was small and cramped compared to the commodious houses of many of the members. It was finally decided to remodel the older part and build a large addition. This would cost more than the usual entertainments or special contributors could raise. Therefore a bold step was taken.
In the summer of 1890 in a combined meeting of church and society, it was voted to “take on the dining halls” at two fairs, ie., the county fair at Sandusky and the town fair in Bellevue. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Bemiss, S. E. Bemiss, Mr. and Mrs. David Nims, and Mrs. Melvin Wood were in charge of arrangements. The project required careful planning, liberal donations of farm produce, meat, vegetables, and home-made baked goods,--and the help of as many as possible of the able-bodied members of the church. Workers must have been weary, but hundreds of people had been served good meals, and the parsonage improvements could be paid for! The construction was not completed, however until after Rev. Haynes became the pastor.
(p. 45)SOCIAL ACTIVITIES -
SOMEWHAT CHURCH RELATED
Much of the social life in Lyme revolved around the four churches. Church socials, for example, were popular.
In Strongs Ridge especially the church members had been farsighted when they put up their meeting house back in 1836. They evidently had been looking forward to a large town developing there and planned a church similar to the ones they had known in the East. The building was large, 36 x 64 feet, and in addition to its high-ceilinged second-floor sanctuary, had a large first-floor room designed for Sunday School and for social and educational activities (see Book II).
Let us visualize that social room: kerosene lamps in black iron brackets were on the walls and on two posts near the small platform. Long “deacons benches” (at that time in the light, natural wood, not painted black as today) were arranged in squares for Bible classes on Sundays, but for other affairs could be set in rows facing the “stage” or placed around the walls. A number of straight chairs added to the seating capacity. For suppers, wooden “horses” were set up to support long table tops. (Adjoining the big room was a small one from which refreshments could be served). To the first floor room, then, came Strongs Ridge families, young and old together, for their social and educational activities.
SINGING SCHOOLS
Singing schools, attended by both adults and children, had long been popular among Lyme Church people. Years later, one who as a boy in the 1870’s and early 1880’s had attended Lyme singing schools pointed out their value:
I remember how well we were drilled by Frank Stults to sight-read music. A chance to learn this was important… because it was not taught in the schools… I remember especially the Stults brothers trio…The Stults brothers, all very tall men, must indeed have sung well together, for their reputation grew and they were often asked to sing. their ability to do a bit of clowning now and then added to their popularity. Once when the trio sang at a Fourth-of-July program in Bellevue, one of the brothers produced comedy by running behind the other two to snatch off their hats every time they rose to sing a patriotic song!
In the post-Civil War period, the training in the singing school resulted in a series of “Sunday School Concerts” and fund-raising “Missionary Concerts.” By this time, a large number of men and women, both young and old, had learned to sing well and were not afraid to do so as soloists or in quartets, trios, and choruses. Among the vocalists were members of the Seymour, Bemiss, Wood, Wright, and Stults families as well as Lillian Haynes, Mrs. Boice, Charles Smith, and Mary Megginson. Also several young ladies were proficient pianists.
HUMOR AT “YE OLD FOLKS CONCERT”
Judging by the printed program, the audience must have enjoyed “Ye Old Folks Concert” given at the Lyme meeting house, September 4, 1895. It begins and ends with selections by “Ye Chorus,” and lists fourteen other numbers: solos, duets, various quartets, and ensembles. Evidently performers were in costumes of an earlier day. The singers are not listed by their real names but as Nihemiah Tunemaker, Arvilla Earlibird, Brother Backwoods, and Polly Dumkin, etc. There were four “spoken pieces” with such subjects as How Mrs. Smart Learned to Skate and A Visit to the World’s Fair. Typical of the song titles were Juanita, The Old Oaken Bucket, and Sweet Alice Ben Bolt.
Interest in local concerts led to interest in bringing outside talent to Lyme. A printed program of a “Grand Holiday Concert by the Schubert Quartet of Oberlin College” at the Congregational Church, Lyme, Ohio, December, 31, 1886, is shown here. At the time, little did the young student of theology, George LeGrand Smith, who sang the baritone solos, know that one day he would be pastor of the Bellevue Congregational Church in Bellevue, only about four miles from the Lyme Church!
FOR AFFIRMATIVE OR NEGATIVE?
What interested the men of Lyme in addition to getting new ideas to improve their farms? Their flourishing Debating Society may give some answers.
Evidently debating went on for a number of years, but minutes of the club have survived only for 1868 and 1869. The group met every two weeks during the winter months in the first floor of the Lyme Church; but they adjourned for the time when farmers are busiest, from April through September.
(p. 46)Both men and women were members, but clearly debating was considered work for men only. No complete list of members exists, but a check of the minutes shows that in those two years in that small community, an amazing total of twenty-five men spoke in debate! (See Appendix VI)
Seven women also were heard, with essays, “readings” or recitations, and musical selections. One young lady served as secretary; in spite of the lack of women’s lib in 1868, Dolly Russell once ventured to second a motion; and the minutes noted that “Mary Holton gave good advice in her essay!”
Sometimes “criticism” followed the debate; at other times discussion in the form of impromptu speeches took place. For each debate there were always two speakers on each side, with one of each pair being appointed foreman. Judges determined the winning side; and the minutes duly recorded the decision for the affirmative or negative. People of the community were all welcome to attend the debates.
A Lyme native who had been a boy when the Debating Club was in its heyday, remembered his “awe, admiration, and ambition” as he “listened to the debating.”
But what is of greatest interest today, over a hundred years later, is the wide range shown in the subjects debated in 1868-1869. Note the following examples:
Ought there to be a property qualification attached to the election franchise?Thus the debates caused the people of Lyme to think seriously in a wide variety of areas: current history, economics, politics, sociology, psychology, and art and literature!
Should General Grant be the Republican nominee for President?
Should the national debt be paid in greenbacks?
Are ficticious [sic] writings injurious to society?
Was the Mexican War justifiable?
Which will stimulate most: fear of punishment or hope of reward?
Should a man declare his political sentiment and connect himself with a political party?
Should corporal punishment be done away with in our schools?
Should farmers under existing conditions sell corn to distillers in Bellevue?
Should pews in our church be free or rented?
Should the use of tobacco be abated as a nuisance?
Which does society the most injury: robbers or slanderers?
Which offers the best inducement to young men, the East or West?
Should there be an educational qualification attached to the elective franchise?
Which is to be most admired: works of art or nature?
IT WAS THE DICKENS (CLUB)
Strongs Ridge young people who had been inspired by the Debating Club organized a new society in the early 1880’s. It was to be a “literary club” and hence took the name of the Dickens Club. The name was suggested by Mrs. Betsy Wright whose favorite story teller was the novelist Charles Dickens. She and her son-and-daughter members invited the club to meet in the third-floor “ballroom” of their house and to put its small stage to good use.
The only requirement for membership was the promise to take part in a program. A member later recalled that “a number of young college men in the area added vigor” and that many interested young people from Bellevue became active members also. Non-members were invited to attend the programs, so the meeting place was often crowded.
The club was divided into sections, each with a leader; then the sections took turns in putting on the programs. There was “pleasant rivalry.” PRograms varied from serious essays and debates to plays, charades, and humorous stunts, with music and games for good measure. One feature which could be expected to be amusing at each meeting was the reading of the section’s “issue” of their hand-written “newspaper.”
Said one of the “young college men” later, “The Dickens Club was one of my most valuable experiences.”
Then there was the Lyme C.L.S.C., ie., a local Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, sponsored by the Chautauqua Assembly on Lake Chautauqua, New York. The assembly, which started in 1874 as a summer institution for religious study, education, and recreation, extended its efforts four years later, in 1878, by founding the C.L.S.C. as a four-year course for home study in connection with a reading circle. The course included a Greek year, a Roman, an English, and an American year. For each year there were provided for about $5.00 a year
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four or five basic textbooks written by recognized authorities. (This writer was delighted to discover that one of the later C.L.S.C. texts had been written by an English professor she had had in Wellesley College, ie., Vida D. Scudder.)
Members did their prescribed reading at home and then met once a week with the local circle to discuss topics outlined in the monthly magazine, “The Chautauquan.” One could take the courses more than once, for new texts were provided for each four year course.
The Strongs Ridge C.L.S.C. must have been one of the first circles organized. John Aubrey Wright, who was graduated from Western Reserve College in 1880, later wrote, “It is a mark of the progressiveness of the community life of Lyme that it had one of the pioneer Chautauqua reading circles. I can remember many who completed the four-year course. My own mother was one of these, and through it she was well informed on many subjects which I was then taking in college.”
At least one small group of Strongs Ridge C.L.S.C. members (including Mrs. Wright) made a trip in the early 1890’s to the Chautauqua Institution in New York state to enjoy its programs and to visit the headquarters of their reading course.
Other local members may well have gone over to nearby Lakeside on Lake Erie to hear the founder of the Chautauqua idea, Bishop John H. Vincent, when he spent three days there, July 26-28, 1881, in the interest of the C.L.S.C. The bulletin put out by the Lakeside Assembly said, “Let western circles… get new inspiration from the instructions of Dr. Vincent. This is the first call and opportunity for a general rally and reunion nearer home than Chautauqua.”
The C.L.S.C. grew in popularity. In the twenty years, 1883-1903, 10,000 new circles were formed and 250,000 readers enrolled! It must have been a source of satisfaction to Lyme member to know that they had recognized the value of the idea so early.
During the years 1861-1900 activities in Strongs Ridge, such as the Sunday School library, the C.L.S.C., the Debating Club, and the Dickens Club, all contributed to the desire for continuing education. In a speech given in 1917, J. A. Wright emphasized the importance of the C.L.S.C.
During the years of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle in Lyme and the years following it, a remarkably large number of Lyme boys and girls left home to prepare for college… May we not see here the influence of the CLSC among Lyme Church folk? I am able to count at least fifty Lyme people whom I have known personally who went away to school and college. Of these, twenty-nine became college graduates; five were ministers; one, a missionary to India, one or two were physicians, and several became teachers and professors.
How many managed to go to college will be considered later in a section on education in Lyme Township.