The history of the first pastorate of the Howard Presbyterian church San Francisco...1850-1862...

Front matter

BX i STORY FIRST PASTOR,

BSBYTERIAN

BX?3LH

Chapter I

Preliminary Explorations from California Street Southward to Rincon Hill — ' ' Happy Valley ' ' — A Village of Cottages — The Carpenter-Shop Chapel — The Organization of the Sabbath School and the Church 13

Chapter II

Donation of a Church Lot by W. D. M. Howard — Subscription Toward a Church Building Started — The Pastor's Long Sickness — On His Recovery, the Subscription Started Again — Wretched Condition of Civil Affairs — The Help of the Pulpit was Sought — Building of the House of Worship Commenced 29

Chapter III

The Work of Church-Construction Pushed — It Approached Completion in April — On May 3d the City was Laid in Ashes — Then, only by Borrowing Money could the Building be Completed — It was Made Ready for Occupancy in June, and was Dedicated on the 15th of that Month — It was a Notable Occasion 40

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE IV.

Growth of Population in that Part of the City — Increase of the Sabbath School — Growth of the Congregation — The Church Coming into Responsible Work in the City and in the State — Was Foremost in Establishing The Pacific — Took Part with the Other Churches in Philanthropic Work, in the Founding of the Protestant Orphan Asylum, the Ladies' Protection and Relief Society, and the First Chinese Mission — The First Church Organ in the City was Presented to it — Churches of Other Denominations were Organized Near It 55

Increase of Church Membership — Reorganized with New Board of Elders — Increase in Church Membership — New Board of Elders Chosen — Pleasant Relations of Pastor and Members of the

Recollections of Captain E. Knight and Major A. B.

Reconstruction and Enlargement of the House of Worship , 148

8 CONTENTS.

CHAPTEK XV.

Secession and the Civil War . . .

CHAPTER XVI. The Resignation of the Pastor

A WORD IN EXPLANATION.

In 1848, and for many years before that, the Presbyterian Church, New School, and the Congregational churches carried on their home missionary work through the agency of the American Home Missionary Society.

It was the understanding that new churches organized by home missionaries should be Presbyterian or Congregational, according to the choice of those uniting to form them.

It was at the request of this society that the writer came to California, leaving New York, December 1, 1848.

My church relation had been first with the Congregational church in my native New England home, and next with the Dartmouth College church, and later, while I was in Union Theological Seminary, New York, it was with the Central Presbyterian church, Rev. Dr. William Adams, pastor.

Before leaving for California I was or- 9

A WORD IN EXPLANATION.

dained by the Fourth Presbytery in New York.

In Monterey, to which I first came, no church was formed. AVhen the Howard church, in San Francisco, was organized, the greater number of individuals proposing to unite in it were Presbyterians, and all cordially agreed that the church should be Presbyterian.

My connection with the Presbyterian Church continued during my eight years' service in behalf of the College of California, or a little over twenty years in all, when I accepted a call to the pastorate of the Congregational church in Santa Cruz, and that, of course, carried me into the Congregational body.

The readers of this history, who were members of the church or congregation during my pastorate, will remember many more things that might have been stated, and many names that perhaps ought to have been mentioned. But I have been obliged to depend largely upon memory.

Very few memoranda were kept in the

A WORD IN EXPLANATION.

early days. There was no time for it in the haste and confusion of the time.

And very few^ indeed, of the people of that day are now left with whom to consult in making up the record.

If, therefore, it is not perfect, the reason will be obvious.

THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PASTORATE

OF

THE HOWARD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

Chapter I

After fifty years it is pleasant to review the history of the Howard church.

The circumstances which led to its formation are a part of that history.

Fifty-one years ago I was preaching in Monterey, It was the capital of the territory, and was my designated missionary field. It was the army headquarters and the residence of the governor. Quite a number of the officers, as well as the governor, had their families with them there.

They constituted almost my whole congregation and parish, the residents of the town being nearly all Spanish-speaking people.

When, later, the state of California was organized, and the capital was removed from Monterey, together with the army headquarters, I quickly looked for a more promising field.

In October, 1849, in company with an army officer, I came on horseback to San Francisco, and saw the city for the first time.

I rode all over it, and studied it with curiosity and wonder. Five or six ministers had already arrived here, and one or two very temporary houses of worship had been erected, but the neighborhood of Stockton, Powell, and Washington streets, where most of the families were then living, was the part of the city where churches seemed likely to be built. There was a great concourse of men landing from ships and getting outfits for the mines, multitudes of others returning from the mines, some going home, and many crowding the gambling-saloons that surrounded the Plaza on three sides.

Business was transacted for the most part on Montgomery Street, which extended southward only to California Street, and beyond that no street was opened.

I went exploring in the direction of Pincon Hill to see what might be found in that region. I found a succession of sand dunes or drifts lying nearly parallel with one another, and in the direction of east and west.

The winds of ages, blowing strong and regularly through the long dry seasons, had drifted the loose dry sand from the shore of the ocean, clear across the peninsula, and left it in windrows along this low and level region, extending them clear down to the shore of the bay.

The highest of these sand-hills lay along what is now Market Street, and was, as I remember it, at least sixty feet high, if measured from the present Market Street grade.

The others south of it were smaller, with narrow valleys between. Climbing to the top of the one lying along what is now Mission Street, I looked down upon a wider valley, refreshingly green, and protected from the ocean wind-currents.

It was strikingly beautiful, and in wonderful contrast with the desert-like sterility of the surrounding region. It is not strange that it came later to be called " Happy Valley."

Beyond it there were one or two sand-drifts, and then came Bincon Hill, solid and permanent, the only feature of the landscape in that direction now remaining.

Rincon Hill was covered thickly with a growth of tangled shrubbery and small trees, principally oak, and so, to a large extent, were the sand-hills and the valley.

It is worth while to recall the topography of this part of San Francisco as it was then, for it has been so completely and utterly changed, that otherwise its memory would be forever effaced. Two or three years later the steam-paddy came and shoveled these sand-hills into cars, and they trundled themselves down to the bay on rails and filled in the water-lots on which stand our great business houses to-day. But it so altered this part of the city, that it is very difficult to describe it as it was. Among the shrubbery on the lee side of the sand-hills were, here and there, tents pitched by the newly arrived, who stayed only long enough to make ready for the mines. A few immigrants, with their teams, from over the plains were among those encamped, and some of them had their families along. Their locations could be discovered by the smoke of their fires rising above the chaparral, by which they cooked their meals.

No signs of street surveys or boundaries of lots were visible, though the surveyor had laid off the whole territory in blocks and lots, checked with streets, but the stakes were driven down out of sight in the sand.

Some people were bold enough to think that the city might grow that way in time, and make this property valuable.

It was owned largely by a few men, among whom were Messrs. Howard, Folsom, and Brannan, and it was for their interest to have it come into use.

So much I learned, on that October day, concerning a part of San Francisco with which, as it turned out, I was later to become better acquainted.

Returning to Monterey on horseback, as I came, I passed the winter of 1849-50 busy in my mission-work. My congregation remained the same through the winter, with perhaps some additions. The daj r school which I opened in the preceding March, and also the Sabbath school, were well cared for by Dr. T. L. Andrews, besides which there was nothing of public interest going on, except the collecting of some two thousand dollars for the beginning of a public library, which amount was afterwards obtained. This was the first public library begun in the state.

Monterey, however, gained nothing in population from the great California immigration, and the time was drawing near when the army officers and their families would move away.

In May, 1850, I mounted my horse to go to San Jose, to attend the spring meeting of the Presbytery of San Francisco, which was organized in Monterey in September, 1849, and to take part in the installation of Rev. T. Dwight Hunt as pastor of the First Congregational Church, San Francisco.

I remembered " Happy Valley," and rode over to see it again, when, lo! what a change.

The land proprietors had brought out a whole village of pretty cottages, ready-made, from the East, and during the winter they had been put up and prepared for occupancy.

Most of them stood in rows on either side of Minna Street, between First and Second streets. Minna Street was the center of the valley.

Another row was on the south side of Mission Street, and other separate cottages were located here and there in different parts of the valley.

Messrs. Howard, Brannan, and Melius had built themselves residences on Mission Street, west of Third Street, and Captain Folsom had built his on Second Street, south of Howard Street.

There were also some residences here and there, of more or less permanence, occupied by families, and children were to be seen playing among the sand-hills.

Ought there not to be a church begun here? This was a question that occurred to me at once. There were the cottages, now recently completed, and it was evident enough that they would soon be occupied.

A considerable number of people were already dwelling in the neighborhood, and among them some families, and there was every indication that there would soon be more. I thought the matter over seriously.

On inquiring of a few Christian people in the city, whom I knew, I found that there had been some visiting in that section of the city on Sundays for the purpose of the distribution of tracts and Bibles and with reference to the opening of a Sabbath school.

This was done, as I learned, by T. J. Nevins. 1

1 Thomas J. Nevins was born in Hanover, Xew Hampshire, in 1795. He was trained for the profession of the law, and was admitted to the bar in 1823. He removed to Buffalo, Xew York, where he practiced his profession. He was an earnest Christian, and was always engaged in philanthropic work. He took a deep interest in the subject of public education and in the improvement of the Buffalo common schools. In 1850 he came to California. He was then somewhat past middle life. He did not come for gold, nor to practice his profession. He came as the agent of the American Tract Society, to try to supply a wholesome literature to the people who were flocking to this country.

He began his work in San Francisco, distributing tracts and books, and visiting the dwellers in tents pitched outside of the business part of the city, and especially the families that were temporarily camped in the vicinity, and if there were children, he tried to agent of the American Tract Society, and Mr. D. N. Hawley, a young merchant of the city.

gather them into Sabbath schools, providing them teachers as best he conld.

He soon brought about the organization of the "Pacific Tract Society," and enlisted a great many young business men in its support. In this way his work was extended, through the influence of people friendly to his cause going to the mines, and good reading was distributed largely in remote parts of the country.

He was a pronounced and active temperance man, and gave much time to gathering friends of the cause into temperance organizations.

No sooner had our first legislature, in 1850, passed a law empowering the city to establish free schools to be supported by tax, than he began to agitate the question of immediate action on the part of the city authorities.

They were somewhat slow to respond, because there were not a great many children then here needing schools.

There were, however, some members of the board of aldermen who appreciated the situation, and were in favor of immediate action.

They were business men, and asked Mr. Nevins, who was used to legal work, to present a draft for a law organizing the department of San Francisco city free schools. He did so, and in the fall of 1851 the law was passed, and Mr. Nevins was appointed superintendent to carry out its provisions.

This he did very effectively, and a few schools were at once commenced.

This increased my interest in this section of the city as a mission-field, and before I returned to Monterey I determined to test the matter a little further.

Riding into the valley, I found that the carpenter-shop in which the work of putting together the cottages had been done was now unused.

This carpenter-shop stood in what after-

But he did not stop with this. He discovered that there was a great deal of city property yet unsold, and he selected hundred-vara lots and fifty-vara lots and had them reserved from sale, to be used for school purposes. This could be readily done then, and in the years that followed this property became a rich inheritance, devoted to the free education of the city's children. In this service Mr. Nevins earned the gratitude, not only of the people of his time, but of those of all succeeding generations.

Mr. Nevins was one of the first to suggest the formation of the Academy of Natural Sciences.

He invited those interested to meetings in his office, where for two years they were held weekly, and w T here were deposited collections and the correspondence with other associations.

Early in 1862 he visited Nevada, and while there, at Silver City, he fell into a stream, and though he was rescued from drowning, he fell sick and died, January 14, 1862.

wards proved to be the intersection of Second and Minna streets.

Securing the use of it for the next Sunday afternoon, I had notice given, as well as it could be, that I should hold Sunday school there on the next Sabbath, May 19, 1850, and preach at two o'clock in the afternoon.

On the day appointed, after preaching to one of the young congregations in the city in the forenoon, I rode over the sand-hills to the valley at the time appointed, and hitched my horse to a small oak tree near the carpenter-shop door.

Going in, I found that the loose lumber had been cleared away from the front part of the room, boards were laid from chest to chest, and about a dozen people were there, and a few children. 1 First came a Scripture

1 There were six children in all : four girls and two boys. Of this number, three girls — Harriet Redman, Isabel Redman, and Jane Crowell — are now living in this city or its vicinity.

The first is Mrs. Sidney J. Loop of Alameda ; the second, Mrs. Don Carlos Somers of this city ; and the third, Mrs. J. L. Martel, also of this city. Of the others we have no certain information.

lesson, and then a short sermon, after which we made one another's acquaintance a little more fully, and talked over the question of the wisdom of beginning a church in the valley.

There was one thing in favor of it, surely: it would not be building on another man's foundation.

It was determined to continue the Sabbath school, at least, and arrangements were made accordingly. Some further examination as to helpers, and the prospect of an immediate increase of population, led me to decide to come at once and take up the work here, bringing my family from Monterey, and occupying one of the cottages before described.

With this in mind I returned as soon as possible to Monterey, and made preparation for the removal of my family to San Francisco.

By about the 20th of August, 1850, we were here, cozily settled in the cottage standing by itself on Second Street, between Minna and Natoma streets.

Securing now the use of the carpenter-shop for a chapel, it was first cleared of lumber and tools and lined with white cotton cloth, as all buildings were in those days. Then some very good settees were obtained for seats, and a tastefully arranged pulpit completed the furnishing of the chapel. Our friends from the other part of the city, who came to see us, said it was a much better place in which to begin than the other churches had, that were organized in the city the year before.

So my work began in a very simple and primitive way.

The morning was always for study, and the afternoon for exploration throughout all the neighborhood, wading among the sand-hills and through the thickets, looking up the people and the children, and inviting them to join us in our new church-enterprise, or else in wandering along the beach east of First Street, where boats were moored, and men were making ready for the journey to the mines, or repairing machinery of one sort or another, all of whom it was good to talk with, and some of whom might be found helpful for a longer or a shorter time in our new church -work.

We at once commenced our mid-week prayer-meeting, which brought together people who came from divers parts of the world.

The Sabbath congregations gradually increased. The Sabbath school also grew, though but few women and children had yet come.

Confidence in the permanence of our undertaking began to increase, and drew the attention of thinking people.

Thorough exploration of the entire section was carried on by Mr. Nevins and Mr. Hawley on Sundays, to bring in children, and if they were too small to wade any distance through the sand, they picked them up, literally, and brought them.

Meanwhile, some Christian people were found who were likely to remain with us for a considerable period of time, and after a few weeks they were of the opinion that it would be wise to join together and organize a church.

In consultation, they found that the greater number were from Presbyterian churches of the New School at home. Inasmuch as there was no church of this order in the city, and there was readiness on the part of all to join in a church of this denomination, it was decided that the church should be Presbyterian.

Though but four of those proposing to unite in forming the church were prepared to do so at this time, there were reasons why it was thought best to effect the organization at once, and let the others join later.

The four above referred to were Thomas J. Nevins, from the First Presbyterian church, Buffalo, New York; Samuel Newton from the Congregational Mission church, San Antonio, Texas; James Stuart, from the Presbyterian church, Sydney, New South Wales; and John D. Munford, from the United Presbyterian church, Richmond, Virginia.

These four united in a formal petition to be organized into a Presbyterian church.

Accordingly, notice was given of the formation of the church on Sabbath, September 15, 1850.

"At that time," the record runs, " the abovenamed persons were constituted and recognized a Church of Christ, according to the Standards and Rules of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, Rev. Samuel H. Willey officiating, and Rev. T. Dwight Hunt assisting."

And over their own signature? these individuals say, "We do hereby give to the church the name, ' The Howard Street Presbyterian Church, San Francisco."'

For certain sufficient reasons, the word "street" was, some years afterward, dropped from the name.

On the following Sabbath, September 22d, John D. Munford and Samuel Newton, who had been ordained elders and had served in Presbyterian churches East, were asked to serve as such, and also as deacons, for the time being, more especially as neither of them expected to remain in California more than a short time.

Chapter II

Meanwhile, with the church organization complete, and a congregation already filling our chapel, and a bright little Sabbath school, and also a society composed of such business men in the neighborhood as expected to remain some considerable length of time, 1 we

1 On Monday evening, September 16, 1850, the Ecclesiastical Society to conduct the secular affairs of the church was organized by the following subscribing members : —

Thomas J. Nevins. Otis Wilson.

David N. Hawley. Samuel A. Hastings.

James Stuart. E. B. Goddard.

John C. Piercy. Stephen S. Smith.

Samuel Newton. Lewellen A. Eogers.

Henry M. Garcelon.

W. A. Palmer, a lumber merchant from Maine, was present and took a deep interest in the establishment of the church, but inasmuch as he was just then about to return East, and was not certain whether he would return to California, he did not join the society.

Mr. John C. Piercy was from New York, and came with his family to make his home in California, and was esteemed the more highly on that account. Later, he interested himself in municipal affairs, and was at one time a member of the city common council.

went through the month of September and well into October.

Mr. Howard had given us a lot on which to build a church, and it was part of my afternoon work to get subscriptions to a fund for the needed building.

This took me a good deal into Montgomery Street when it was for the first time torn up for grading, and the upturning of all manner of decaying things trodden down in the previous winter's mud filled the air with malaria, and seemed to awaken in me the Panama fever, which had been lurking in my system for eighteen months, or from the time I was detained a whole month in Panama, during January, 1849.

This laid me low indeed. It was near the middle of October, 1850. Of course, pretty much everything about my work stopped. The last thing I remember was hearing that the steamship Oregon was coming in from Panama, all gayly dressed with flags, bringing the welcome news that, at last, California had been admitted to the Union!

And all I could do was to get my two hands out from under the bedclothes and try to clap them for a cheer.

Then I fell into the nursing care of my precious young wife and faithful doctor, — Dr. B. B. Coit, — and knew little more for a month or six weeks. Life was barely saved, and from that exhausting sickness recovery was very slow. I was not able to take up work till March, 1851. During that four or five months of my sickness, several clergymen helped to keep my congregation together by preaching for me. Rev. Frederick Buel, agent of the American Bible Society, was particularly kind in preaching whenever he was called on, and the Sabbath school was well kept up by the teachers.

But when, on recovery, I came to look after the plans and subscriptions for church-building, they were not to be found. Everything was done by the week or by the month in those days, and after a period so long as four months it was not strange that almost none of my subscribers obtained in October preceding were to be found. So all that work had to be started over again.

The membership of the church now began to increase.

On March 26, 1851, Lewellen A. Rogers and David N. Hawley 1 were received to membership.

On April 9th, Mrs. C. B. W. Lansing, Mrs. Sarah Henrietta Redman, Mrs. Sarah Wilson, and Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Horswell were received on certificate, and Miss Maria Carr on profession of her faith.

1 Mr. Hawley joined by letter from the First Congregational church, of which he was one of the charter members.

He united with us from purely missionary motives. He was sorely needed in the Congregational church, then composed of only a handful of young men. But Ave were so much fewer, and were just trying to begin in a" remote part of the city, that he consented to join us, and with much reluctance his associates consented that he should do so.

He was at the head of the hardware firm of Hawley, Sterling, and Company, and as active and busy a man as there was in the city, but he somehow T found time to do a great deal of Sunday school work, and w T ork of every kind that was necessary in laying the foundation of a working church in a part of the city where no church whatever existed.

He was a man who was never weary in well-doing.

On June 1, 1851, Major Amos B. Eaton, U. S. A., and Oliver D. Freeman were received on certificate. And so the numbers gradually grew, as people began to feel settled for a long enough time to send for their letters and receive them.

When all things were going fairly well in the church and congregation, the subscription for a church building was started again, with better prospects than before, since business in San Francisco had become more settled.

But civil affairs and public morals were in a dreadful condition. Our municipal government exercised little or no control.

The city was the resort of the most desperate characters.

They seemed to come from all quarters. In February, two men entered a merchant's store and asked to see goods, and when they were shown, the men struck the merchant down, and, supposing that he was dead, robbed him of two thousand dollars and fled.

This threw the town into a fever of excitement. One or two men were arrested on suspicion. As no criminals had been punished by due process of the law, the cry was for summary proceedings by the people. This was opposed by people of cooler heads, and with great difficulty the multitude was restrained for the time being.

But excitement continued. Mass meetings were held. Suspicious characters were watched. Great dissatisfaction was felt with the city officers and courts. It rose to such a pitch, that in June, after trial, a culprit was hanged by a " vigilance committee."

This state of things was largely owing to the fact that the citizens had concerned themselves so little with their duty to the city.

Large numbers of the best of them considered themselves here but temporarily, — merely for a few months or a year at most, — and they did not feel themselves obliged to give time to voting or looking after city affairs.

The natural result followed. There was no knowing w^hat would happen next. Thoughtful people were anxious.

Though the Christian congregations were small, and their places of worship were inconspicuous and not easy to find, the public mind turned to the pulpit for its help. The Alta California said, in June: " The state of public morals is so lax, crime so bold, law so impotent, life so insecure, property so unprotected, that the support of the pulpit and all the influences which it can possibly exert ought to be given at the present crisis to the correction of existing evils. The question is one of life and death, of success or ruin, of progress or destruction."

The pulpit was not slow to respond. Indeed, it had already uttered its voice.

These remarks just quoted from the Alta were part of its comment, one Monday morning, on a sermon of my own of the preceding day, which it published in full.

My theme was one of urgency, entreating all citizens to give time and attention to city affairs, and do it at once.

Similar subjects were discussed with great earnestness in all the city pulpits, and were urged everywhere by the ministry.

The situation was perplexing. There was no foundation to work upon. The ordinary motives in favor of good order and the establishment of society on the right basis did not operate. Very few people took any permanent interest in the country or in the city. The population, as a whole, consisted of a mass of strangers, — nearly all men, — from many lands, and of diverse languages, having no thought of founding here a commonwealth.

And the half-dozen ministers here — most of them young and inexperienced, and all of them without facilities of any kind with which to gain people's attention and exert an influence — were thrown upon their own individual resources.