A fisher of men: Churchill Satterlee, priest and missionary--an interpretation of his life and labors

Chapter I. The Man And His Making

There are, broadly speaking, three types of men whose Hves may be said to be worth recording; first, those w^hose superior mental endowments have won for them an unique place in the popular imagination ; second, those who, while lacking this distinction, have played important parts upon a wide stage of human afifairs ; third, those who, while neither eminent intellectually nor conspicuous because of their connection with great events, have yet possessed personalities which have fascinated and inspired others solely by their intrinsic beauty and worth. To this last class belongs the man with whom this book is concerned. Churchill Satterlee in a ministry of little more than a decade, and that spent mainly in an obscure backw^oods village, had succeeded in so impressing his personality upon those among whom he labored or who came within the zone of his influence, as not only to create for himself a deep and abiding affection in their hearts, but also to effect a permanent change in their moral and spiritual outlook. It is on these grounds, as one who loved humanity, and gave himself ungrudgingly for its uplifting, as a Fisher of

Men, that Satterlee's life and work have been deemed worthy of interpretation.

Churchill Satterlee was born April 27, 1867, in New Hamburgh, a little village in New York State, on the east bank of the Hudson River. He was the first child and only son of Henry Yates and Jane Churchill Satterlee. His father was at that time assistant minister of Zion Church, Wappinger's Falls, and occupied as a rectory the little cottage belonging to Netherwoods, the estate of Irving Grinnell, Esq. The child was baptized June 30, in the parish church by the Rev. Dr. Andrews, a clergyman who was born before the United States had achieved its independence from the mother country. This was a thought w^hich Satterlee always cherished.

The Satterlee family came originally from the little village of Sotterly in Suffolk, England, where, in the parish church of St. Margaret's, may still be seen the old family memorial brasses. During the Wars of the Roses their estates were confiscated, and one of the family, Thomas Sotterly, seems to have removed to Devonshire. There,^ four generations afterward, the Rev, William Sotterly was Vicar of Ide, a suburb of the City of Exeter. Being a Royalist, his property was sequestered by the Round Heads under Oliver Cromwell, and he himself wa€ imprisoned. His son Benedict, the- direct ancestor of the Satterlee family in this country, emigrated to America and settled in New London, Conn. His descendants, like many of the English colonists of those days, became Baptists or Congregationalists, and afterwards, in the case of those who removed to New York, Dutch Reformed. Through intermarriage with the Lansing and Van Rensselaer famihes a strain of Dutch blood was introduced and a relationship thus established with many of the leading Knickerbocker families of New York State. One of Satterlee's relatives in the collateral line, Joseph Yates, was Governor of the State of New York. On his mother's side there was also an admixture of Dutch with English blood. Timothy Gridley Churchill, his grandfather, a merchant of New York City, was of English extraction, but his wife. Patience Lawrence, a descendant of John Eliot the Apostle to the Indians, was a Riker on the mother's side. Satterlee's father, Henry Yates Satterlee, afterwards first Bishop of Washington, was the first of his family to return to the faith of his ancestors, and as his mother's was a church family, their son Churchill was reared in the Episcopal Church as his rightful heritage.

New Hamburgh where Satterlee spent his childhood, contained the country seats of many New Yorkers possessed of wealth and social position, who were his father's parishioners, while two miles distant, in Wappinger's Falls, where the parish church was located, there was to be found beside the ordinary village population, a large contingent of mill operatives employed in the great Garner woollen mills. Thus the boy grew up surrounded by an atmosphere of refinement and culture, and yet lo A FISHER OF MEN.

coming at the same time in close personal touch with the plain village folk and the working classes. The ability to adapt himself to all sorts and conditions of people which Satterlee so conspicuously displayed in after life, was undoubtedly acquired naturally through his daily intercourse with all classes during his boyhood days. Privileged always to move on terms of perfect equality with those highly placed socially, he was yet able to understand and sympathize with the plainest and most uncouth. Though all his tastes were aristocratic, he was yet the most democratic of men, and if he possessed any pride of birth or ancestry, no one would ever have known it from his speech or bearing.

Owing to the fact that there was no good school within a convenient distance, Churchill w^as taught at home by governesses until he was twelve years of age, when his parents took him to Europe with them. During the year they spent in travel, he was placed in the house of a French school-teacher in Switzerland. Here, having as his daily companions only foreign lads, he learned to speak the French language fluently, and moreover, thrown as it were upon his own moral resources, laid the foundation of the robust character which marked his later years. It would scarcely be true to say, that as a boy or young man Satterlee exhibited special evidence of possessing more than the normal interest in religious matters. As a lad he was conscientious and dutiful, but he does not seem to have impressed anybody with his piety. Perhaps,

THE MAN. II

indeed, he could hardly be called an especially devout boy. He seems to have entered with zest into the observance of the Church Festivals, in connection with which there were in his father's parish many unique circumstances attending, but there is nothing in the history of his boyhood to suggest that the ministry was in his thoughts, unless an incident recalled of his once sprinkling water upon some kittens and pretending to make them Christians, may be so regarded. Another incident which occurred when he was only about eight years old, may be mentioned as early revealing the spirit of helpfulness to others which w^as one of his distinguishing traits. The story is recalled in a letter from a lady whom it concerned, w^ho was his governess at this period :

^T was not surprised when I learned that Churchill had entered the ministry. I recall a little incident of my stay in New Hamburgh. One day in my room Churchill took up a book from the table, turned it around and upside down, trying to read it.

"He asked, 'What kind of a book is this, Miss Shaw^ ?' I answered, Tt is my Spanish Bible.' Ts this all the Bible you have?' *A11 I have,' I replied. He turned over the leaves and looked puzzled. The next day he brought me a beautiful new English Bible, saying, 'Miss Shaw, I think you can read that easier.' On the first page he had written in his boyish hand, 'Miss Shaw, from Churchill Satterlee, New Hamburgh, July 29, 1876.' I left New Hamburgh twelve days afterwards, August tenth, and was married on that day. The Httle Bible has been my constant companion ever since. I have it now in good condition on my Httle altar. It was probably Churchill's first missionary work."

Upon the whole it may be said, that there was little about the boy which marked him off as in any way different from his companions, or which seemed to indicate the direction of his future career. He was just a simple, healthy-minded lad, who entered heartily into the games and sports of his associates and did with cheerfulness the tasks assigned him by his parents and teachers.

Upon the return of his parents from their European trip to their home in New Hamburgh, Churchill, now in his fourteenth year, was sent to St. Paul's School, Concord. The influence of the rector, Dr. Coit, and the genius of the school made a deep and permanent impression upon young Satterlee. The friendships he formed there remained with him through life, and the gratitude and affection he ever felt and expressed for St. Paul's were unbounded. Owing to an accident which befell him while coasting, he was seriously injured and compelled to leave without finishing his course. Subsequently, from this or some other cause, inflammatory rheumatism set in, and Satterlee was compelled for several years to spend the winter months in the South.

Thus from his fifteenth year until a period reaching into the early days of his ministry, Satterlee had to suffer the lassitude and weakness, as well as pain, occasioned by recurrent attacks of this disease. He was naturally active, with a love of athletic sports, which he had to forego when rheumatism set in. This was a keen disappointment to the young boy, and it was only through strong will power that the continuity of his life and studies was maintained. Thus he early learned the lesson of bearing pain and overcoming obstacles. He was never discouraged by physical weakness, and though for long periods he suffered severely, his bedroom was always a scene of brightness. Every morning in answer to inquiries, his unfailing response would be: "Oh, I am better to-day," and so attractive was his influence, that his sick-room was a meeting place for his school-boy friends, who came to see him as often as permitted.

While wintering in the South he continued to pursue his studies under the direction of a tutor of Unitarian belief. The rector of the parish in the town where the two stayed took a great interest in both teacher and pupil, and subsequently, when the teacher was brought to Confirmation and the Holy Communion, declared his conviction that the step was due largely to Satterlee's influence. In speaking of the matter years afterwards to Satterlee's father, this clergyman said : "Instead of the teacher leading the pupil, the pupil led the teacher."

There was nothing in Satterlee of the prig as a boy or man. He frankly enjoyed the acquaintance and companionship of many whose actions at times he was fain to disapprove. He did not choose his associates with any idea that he would receive himself any benefit morally or otherwise. He seemed never to imagine that any moral fault or viciousness in them would redound to his own injury or sully his manly purity. If he refrained commonly from rebuking them or uttering any condemnation of their actions, it was not because he was indifferent to the course they were pursuing or that he easily condoned their offences, but simply because he liked them in spite of their faults and did not feel called upon too closely to scrutinize their lives. Such an attitude is often misunderstood and usually set down as indifference to moral issues. In some cases this is undoubtedly true, but in his case no one could know him without being convinced that his attitude was the result of wholly different motives. Doubtless all unconsciously he felt that they could not drag him down to their level, while there was a possibility that he might be the means of lifting them up. If he foreswore their society or made himself in any way unpleasant to them by the adoption of a censorious spirit, he was conscious that his influence over them would wholly disappear. He was willing to take the chances of being himself defiled, for the opportunity of being helpful to them.

In 1882 Dr. Satterlee was called to become the rector of Calvary Church, New York City, and the family accordingly removed thither and occupied the rectory on East Twenty-first Street, adjoining the church. This change from the conditions prevailing in a country village to those obtaining in a metropolitan city, undoubtedly exercised a potent influence over the life of young Satterlee. In the manifold activities of a large and highly organized city parish, situated in the very heart of the most densely populated region of New York, a thoughtful and observant boy such as he was, could not fail to find much to inspire him and quicken his susceptibilities. In his new home which was always a center of a wide church life, he would meet men distinguished in the ecclesiastical world; missionary bishops and clergymen prominent in the Church being frequent visitors at Calvary rectory. In listening to the conversation and discussions which went on about him, he could hardly fail to imbibe a general knowledge of ecclesiastical and missionary matters and have his interest in these things aroused and stimulated ; thus receiving unconsciously into his mind the pregnant ideas which determined his future career.

Satterlee entered the Freshman Class of Columbia University, his father's Alma Mater, in 1886. The recurring attacks of rheumatism from which he suffered during this period, and which prevented his regular attendance upon his college course, made it impossible to take a high standing in scholarship, but he acquitted himself creditably and was graduated in due course with his class. While in college Satterlee entered fully into the social life of the institution, joining one of the Greek Letter Fraternities, and making many friends both within and without the Society. He indulged freely in all the legitimate amusements of his fellows, but had the reputation of never exceeding the limits of temperance and good behavior.

One of the closest friends of his boyhood and college years furnishes a frank description of Satterlee's characteristics as they appeared to his associates of this period :

'*One thing characteristic of Churchill was his pleasure in helping others, which he always did in a way of his own, and no obstacle ever prevented him accomplishing his purpose. I remember his borrowing money to lend it to another to provide funds so that the other might study with a tutor. The man finally got through, mainly by the grace of the Faculty, it was said, but the man had very little grace to spare, and what he did have was obtained through the money he borrowed from Churchill, which Churchill did not himself have, but, ever resourceful, he obtained elsewhere.

"Churchill was a financier and promoter, in so far as he might help or give pleasure to others. Even as a boy he was resourceful. When the lemons gave out at home and no lemonade could be procured, his father's postage stamps were converted into ginger ale and soda water at the nearest drug store for our enjoyment.

"All sorts and conditions of fellows would come to Churchill while he was in college, and also in later years, when they were in trouble, and he helped them in some way or other, any little thing, from getting a bondsman when they were arrested, to going down to court after them. If they needed money, and he had none, he would allow them to pawn anything he had that was pawnable. In many instances he never heard of the article pawned, and often he was not even reimbursed with thanks, but still he trusted everyone who came to him, and everyone who knew him, no matter how slightly, trusted him.

"Churchill was not a 'goody-goody' fellow. He liked a good time, and this, combined with his strength of character, v/hich in some cases almost amounted to obstinacy, he was so purposeful, made him loved by many and respected by all. These points are clearly characteristic of him; they emphasize certain phases of his personality which, perhaps, a good many may think vv'^ould better be passed over, but they are facts. In one case with which T was familiar, he was up nearly all night obtaining a bondsman for a student who belonged to another Fraternity. This student's friends, if they had felt so inclined, could easily have bailed him out, but did not lift a finger, while Churchill ran about town to get the bail, thus contracting a cold which compelled him to leave college and go South for several months."

During successive summers Satterlee accompanied his family upon tours through Europe. Thus he visited repeatedly England, Spain, France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. He w^as privileged to visit Oberammergau twice, once while he was a boy of thirteen, and again in 1890 during the summer following his graduation from college. He had lodgings on both occasions with the same family, members of which had parts in the Passion Play, and his impressions of its wonderful influence were strengthened by his consciousness of the genuine goodness and purity of the lives of those who participated in the production. The conjunction in them of religious devotion with a keen appreciation of the value of art in music and handicraft, was a matter he often spoke of with enthusiasm, and probably accounted for his marked predilection in after years for a rich and beautiful church service.

When in England he was taken by his father to inspect Oxford House and other phases of Church work in East London, and he also attended with his father a retreat for the Clergy at Keble College, Oxford, conducted by Canon Grore. It is probable that these experiences had a determining effect upon his choice of a vocation. Up to this period his father had scrupulously refrained from making any suggestion to his son in regard to his future work, though, of course, Satterlee could hardly fail to realize the hopes his father cherished for him.

Proof that he had given the matter of choosing a career full consideration before finally deciding to adopt the ministry, is clear. That he did not simply drift into it as following the line of least resistance, is apparent from the fact that he had seriously thought of going into business.

The following letter from one of his intimate friends is illuminating on this point :

''One day I asked Churchill why he went into the ministry. He said: T told my father soon after graduation that I had about decided to go into the real estate business. Instead of jumping up to congratulate me he just looked at me and said, 'I can picture you sitting in an office on the Avenue waiting for a customer to come in — and then ?'

''I believe those two words — 'and then' — had a direct influence on his whole course of life thereafter. He felt that he was fitted for a higher calling and one more useful. Many times have I heard him tell the story of the worldly man who was being questioned as to his ambitions in life, and after each goal of riches or pleasure had been reached the insatiable questioner would ask, 'and then?' until finally the man was forced to admit that after he had attained all his ambitions in this world, he would in reality be just where he started, having done no good to mankind, as his aims were entirely selfish, or at least not directed towards things worth while."

A letter from a friend of mature years, whom Satterlee often consulted, is similarly significant:

"When Churchill was about leaving Columbia, we had a long talk with regard to his future. He had not fully decided what he would do. Someone had urged him to become a chemist. I did not think much of it, and suggested, that if he w^ould like to study law, I could help him. He said he thought he would enter the ministry, but was not quite decided ; that he felt that his Hfe did not strictly belong to himself, which was one of the reasons why, before deciding, he desired to talk with his friends; that in the walk of life in which he felt he could be most useful to those about him, he would engage and do his best, whatever the results might be."

Satterlee's father gives an account of an interview which he had with his son relative to the choice of his vocation in life. It was when the summer vacation following his graduation from college was drawing to a close, during a sojourn in Lucerne. The two had gone for a walk in the fields, and were resting under a haystack. The subject was introduced by Dr. Satterlee, who said to his son :

''So far you have made a creditable mark for yourself ; now that you have graduated from college, you must choose a profession — what are you going to be?"

''Churchill replied : 'I don't know ; I don't think I am good for anything specially.'

" 'What is your idea in life,' I said, 'to get or to give ?'

"Churchill replied : 'Oh ! I've thought and decided about that long ago, I want to give all that I have to give; I want to be useful, of course, I want to help my Day to take its stand ; I want to be a builder of some kind, but I am not fitted to build up anything.'

"I said, 'Build up the human body.' He responded, '1 never cared for surgery or medicine.'

''I said, *Build up the sense of justice in the community.' He repHed, *I am no orator : no dialectician, I am not fitted to be a lawyer.'

"I said, ^Be an architect or a civil engineer.' The answer was, 'You know that I am neither a draughtsman on the one hand nor a mathematician on the other ; I am qualified for neither profession.'

'*I then said, 'Be a character builder.' Churchill replied, 'How can I ? I am not qualified ! Anyway, how is this to be done?' I answered, 'The character builder in a village is the religious leader, who goes in and out among the people, and shows the butcher, the baker, the candle-stick maker, how, in pursuing their trades, to be better tradesmen, better citizens of the commonwealth, better Christians and more faithful witnesses for Jesus Christ, in their several callings ; who shows fathers and mothers that the Christian family is the unit upon which Christian civilization is built up, and thus prepares the Avay for the coming of God's kingdom.' Churchill replied, 'Oh! if I only had the power to be such a character builder, I should gladly give my life to this work, but here again I have no qualifications for filling this sphere.' I begged him to stop and think, and reminded him of the influence he had exercised over others in his college life and his Fraternity, and over the friends who had been coming for the last eight years to our house. He made no reply and we walked quietly home. The next morning he announced to us that he should sail for home a month earlier than we had intended, for he wished to have a conference with Dean Hoffman and Dr. Dyer, with a view possibly to entering the General Seminary in the autumn. When we all demurred, saying that this would break up the family party and spoil the pleasure of our European trip, he replied, somewhat gruffly, 'Duty first — pleasure afterwards.' His one great dread seemed to be lest he should be influenced into entering the ministry without being really fitted for it. Now, when he was on the point of deciding through his own free will, it was a satisfaction for him to feel, that by thus sailing for America contrary to his own inclinations and our wishes, he was giving proof of his sincerity and independent choice. Two months from that time, on St. Matthew's Day, 1890, while Churchill was being matriculated as a student in the Seminary, we were in John Keble's church at Hursley, praying that God would bless him in the act and consecrate his whole future life in the ministry, as a faithful servant of Jesus Christ."

Satterlee entered the General Theological Seminary in the autumn of the same year. He did not lodge in the Seminary dormitories, but continued to live at home, going back and forth for the lectures. He felt that his first duty was to throw all his energy and strength into his studies, and he, therefore, refrained from taking any active part in the work of Calvary Church. He realized that by nature he was more inclined to energetic and practical work than to books, and he conscientiously devoted himself to the study of theology. As the result of this persistent effort he now acquired habits of systematic reading which afterwards proved a constant safeguard to him in his life as a country rector. The only definite and regular work which he undertook in Calvary Church during this period was the training of the Auxiliary Choir. His natural shyness made him exceedingly reluctant to fill this position, but his sense of duty and his extreme fondness for music finally led him to accept. Under his leadership as organist and choir-master, a distinct improvement in the behavior of the choir members was noticeable. Though the young men and women composing the choir were many of them his most intimate friends, his enthusiasm enabled him to conquer his diffidence, and he learned to play the part of a strict disciplinarian.

As at school and college, so also in the seminary, Satterlee made many friends and was a prime favorite with his classmates. He introduced them to his parents and made them free of the hospitality so lavishly dispensed at Calvary Rectory.

A fellow seminarian, who, perhaps, knew him as intimately as any of his friends of that period, writes as follows in a letter addressed to Satterlee's mother :

"Though I know that Churchill must have changed greatly from our Seminary days, developed in every way, intellectually and spiritually, I am confident he had not outgrown one of his chief characteristics, namely, his loyalty to those whom he honored with his friendship.

^Terhaps you have forgotten, if, indeed, you ever knew, what I said about him over ten years ago in a class poem which I wrote. I had my fling at the foibles and idiosyncracies of my classmates and professors. There was no intention of hurting or of leaving a sting behind, but I fancy in some cases there was a feeling that I had been pretty severe. There were one or two men whom I could not bring myself to say anything 'spicy' about, their characters were too simple and transparent to lend themselves to my satire, good humored as I meant it to be.

''Here is what I said then about Churchill :

" 'And here's a man, whose heart is true as 'Slt-eel, A statement this from which there's no appeal, Whose friends upon him always have a claim, Which he will honor, — Satterlee's his name.'

'T can't remember precisely how it was Churchill and I first struck up our friendship. He was the younger by some years, and I think then, even for his age and although a graduate of college and what is called a man's man, singularly unsophisticated. Perhaps it was this quality which attracted me to him first. This, and the cordiality of his manner, together with the absolute lack of conceit w^hich marked him, served to draw me to him. I know that inside of a week after our first meeting, we found ourselves entering upon terms of great intimacy. He used to come to my room and leave his overcoat and hat and don the mortar-board and gown. I sat near him, generally next to him, in the class room. Shortly after the return from the country of the Rector of Calvary and his family, Churchill invited me over to lunch and made me acquainted with you all.

"During the two years of my Seminary course our intimacy continued and our friendship increased. I suppose I saw more of Churchill than anyone else did. Churchill was a man the better you knew him, the more you liked him. He was a gentleman under all circumstances. I use the term in its fullest significance. I do not mean that he was merely well-bred, — that was to be expected, — ^but that he was a gentleman, always considerate of the feelings of others. I never knew him to say anything unkind of anyone. He had an innate refinement that led him to detest whatever was vulgar.

"While many of us shirked our Seminary duties, either out of constitutional laziness or because the teaching was not to our liking and we felt we could do better by following private reading, Churchill was a faithful student. I fancy he did not learn quickly, and that study was to him the hardest kind of work. Remember, I am speaking of him as I knew him a dozen years ago. I am quite prepared to believe what I have been told regarding the subsequent development of his capacities. I am not at all surprised to know of the important work he has been able to accomplish during the last few years. Had God spared his life I should have fully expected to see him take his place among the leaders of the Church in this country."

Satterlee was duly graduated from the Seminary with the Class of 1893, and was ordained to the diaconate with twenty or more of his classmates on Trinity Sunday, by Bishop Potter, in Calvary Church. He was to have been married on the following Saturday, but owing to a severe attack of his old trouble, the wedding was postponed to June 15, when he was united in matrimony to Margaret Humbert, the youngest daughter of Pierre Humbert, Esq., of New York City. The marriage took place in Calvary Church, Satterlee's father officiating. He began his ministry the following September as a curate to the Rev. Dr. Battershall, Rector of St. Peter's Church, Albany. In Advent of that same year he was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Doane* Shortly afterwards, owing to the failure of his wife's health, he was compelled to resign and go to California. The following entry appears in his diary, under date of January 7, 1894: "Celebrated for the first time the Holy Communion in St. John's Church, Los Angeles, with what feeling of trepidation and happiness."