Where Do We Come From--Our Holy Space

Second in a series about the history of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Fort Wayne by Sandra Maze.


Those of our congregation that came to us after 2000 only know our Meetinghouse as it is now.  However there are also those who know it as it was.

         

 In “Projects ARCHITECTURAL FORUM”, was an article titled “Hyperbolic Church for Unitarians”.  “For the Unitarian Society of Fort Wayne Indiana, Humbrecht Associates have designed twin hyperbolic paraboloids—one to serve as an auditorium for about 200, the other as a religious education area.”

           

The congregation entered the building into what is now the Langhinrichs Gallery. Where the library is now was the minister’s office and the cloak room was the secretary’s office.  The reception hall housed the RE area and the choir also practiced there.

           

This all began in the late 1950s.  The Unitarian Society of Fort Wayne still met in that house on Fairfield Avenue.  They were beginning to have growing pains.   In April of 1957, The Congregation voted in favor of a committee to study the acquisition of a site for and the building of a new meeting place for the Society.  This committee was chaired by Larry Burke.  The committee recommended Humbrecht Associates be retained as Architects to build the Unitarian Meetinghouse.  This recommendation was approved by the Board of Trustees.

          

 In 1958, the task of raising the money for the new space began.  The building campaign was launched on May 13, 1957 and formally ended on June 7, 1957.  On July 17^th Humbrecht Associates became our architects.  At a potluck supper on November 22^nd, a model of the proposed building constructed by Kenneth Cole was the centerpiece of the feast and the discussion.

           

On Friday, December13th, the congregation voted to approve the preliminary plans and also the site of the plot between old Mill Road and Foster Park Road in the Woodhurst neighborhood development.  Peggy Seigel wrote in her “Brief History of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation” that the land itself is rich in history, for it was part of a parcel given (given back) by the federal government to Miami Chief jean Baptiste Richardville in 1825.  It is located next to the new home of Achduth Vesholom Congregation, the same congregation that shared its home with the Universalists a hundred years earlier.

          

 It was reported in the 1959 Profile, Analysis and Proposal for a new building, that there was a membership of 175, of which 140 were resident.  They had a mailing list of 250 and a Church School of 50.  The room that was used for worship seated only 56 and at times there was an attendance was about 60.  The new membership decreased from 40 new members the first year of the minister’s incumbency and had declined to about 12 during the current year.  It was determined that there was a “dramatic need for the new building which would no doubt accelerate the growth pattern as it has typically done elsewhere.”

         

 In June of 1959, The Unitarian Society of Fort Wayne, entered into an agreement with Allied Fund Raising Counselors of Chicago Illinois to receive professional direction for the canvass.

           

The Unitarian Congregation of Fort Wayne dedicated their new building on January 29, 1960.  The Opening Sentences were delivered by The Reverend Robert S Hoagland, our first minister of the congregation.

           

The following words appeared in the dedication program:

Open to us the gates that shall never be closed to any man, whatsoever his race, his class or his creed.  We would enter into them; we would give forth our thanks.

Enter into these gates with thanksgiving, and into these courts with praise. Sir, the Unitarian Congregation of Fort Wayne now enters upon the use of this building.  On behalf of the Congregation I gratefully acknowledge the fidelity with which your committee has fulfilled its duties.

Let us now proceed to the dedication of this church.

To be continued....

Turner Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church

by Tom Castaldi

  

The name of the African Methodist clergyman who first gathered Fort Wayne’s black residents in worship is not known. By 1845, the denomination’s Ohio and Western Conference had assumed responsibility for the fledgling congregation, which was served by the ministers who traveled the Carthagena Circuit between Van Wert, Ohio and Eel River, Indiana. 

In 1849, the trustees for the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME.) in Fort Wayne purchased a lot on the south side of Jefferson Street between Hanna and Francis streets, but were unable to erect a church.  Indiana’s exclusionary “black laws,” enacted in 1851, discouraged African-Americans from settling in the area; by 1860, the black population of more than one hundred had declined by a third, while the white population had doubled. 

By 1869, however, the congregation exhibited sufficient potential that the Reverend Nixon Jordan was assigned.  Worship was held at Hafner’s Hall.  When St. John’s German Reformed Church offered its building for sale, the AME officers purchased the twenty-four year old frame church and moved it to the lot at the corner of Wayne and Francis streets, which had been donated by Emerine H. Hamilton.  The Turner AME Chapel was named in honor of the Reverend Henry McNeil Turner, a black chaplain who served during the Civil War.

In 1888, a larger facility was built.  This was the first church building erected by an African-American congregation in Fort Wayne.  In 1963, the congregation purchased the present site at 836 East Jefferson Boulevard.

Originally published in Fort Wayne Magazine “Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” 

– February 2008 No. 40

Allen County Historian Tom Castaldi is author of the Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series; hosts “On the Heritage Trail,” which is broadcast at 6:35 a.m., 8:35 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Mondays on WBOI, 89.1 FM; and “Historia Nostra” heard on WLYV-1450 AM and WRRO 89.9 FM. Enjoy his previously published columns on the History Center’s blog, “Our Stories,” at history centerfw.blogspot.com.

Jesse Hoover and St. Paul’s Lutheran

by Carmen Doyle

Jesse Hoover was in Fort Wayne for only a few years, but he left a lasting legacy for Lutherans.

Jesse Hoover’s arrival in Fort Wayne was due to Henry Rudisill. When Rudisill arrived in Fort Wayne, his family was the only American-born German family as well as the only Lutheran family. Rudisill had come to Fort Wayne to help administer property for John Barr. When Rudisill tried to find help to clear land, he found that there wasn’t much local labor and what labor was available was expensive. Rudisill suggested that Barr recruit “some Germans from Germany and send them out to me… They are more industrious and temperate than our Americans.”  Rudisill preferred families, as families usually meant that both husband and wife would work.

Soon Germans started arriving, and Rudisill realized that a German-speaking pastor would be needed. He placed an ad in a German newspaper back east.  Jesse Hoover replied and came to Fort Wayne.

A quick visit to Fort Wayne in 1836 to visit and preach to Germans in Allen and Adams counties resulted in Hoover deciding to take the job. However, there was a problem. The counties did not have enough money to fully support Hoover and his family. Hoover was also not formally assigned to Indiana by his synod, so he could not receive a stipend from them. He was determined to become a missionary despite the obstacles. Hoover’s great amount of energy and amiable disposition had people convincing him to stay and settle.

One thing Hoover did to earn money was to teach school. Fort Wayne already had a school with two teachers. It was decided that three would open up a tuition academy with Hoover serving as principal. As there was no Lutheran church building at the time, school was held in the lower level of a partially completed Presbyterian church. The school was non-denominational, but some religious education in the form of students learning Bible verses, was included. The teachers had nothing but praise for Principal Hoover.

Another way Hoover was able to earn money was to preach at a local Presbyterian church while they were looking for a new pastor. None of the preachers who came to Fort Wayne measured up to the standard set by the previous pastor, who had died a few months before. Susan Man, one of the teachers, (and who later married Hugh McCulloch, who became Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury) wrote to friends in New York complaining about the quality of the visiting preachers, but noted that Hoover preached “excellent sermons, and we are therefore poorly prepared to listen to such poor ones”. Hoover spoke German as well as English and many Germans came long distances in order to listen to a sermon in their own language. The first year Hoover was in Fort Wayne, he preached to the Lutherans exclusively in German and the next year in English in order to help the foreign-born members become “American Lutherans”.

It took several months before Hoover’s German congregation had been developed enough that he was able to celebrate a First Communion in which 63 people participated.  In the fall of 1837, Hoover formally organized the First German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Fort Wayne, which was later renamed St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.

In the spring of 1838, Jesse Hoover died unexpectedly at age 28. His energy and devotion helped shape the foundation of the Fort Wayne Lutheran community.

Information came from Frontier Faith by George R. Mather and Old Fort News 50:01, 1987.

A Brief History of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

by Carmen Doyle

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is an imposing structure that dominates the downtown Fort Wayne skyline. It wasn’t always that way.

The Cathedral started life as St. Augustine’s, a small log church, in 1836. In 1857, the Diocese of Fort Wayne was established. With Fort Wayne now the seat of the Diocese, a Cathedral was needed as the principal church for the Bishop’s throne.

Father Julian Benoit had come to Fort Wayne in 1840 and had been planning to build a larger, more impressive church since he arrived. With Fort Wayne now the center of the newly created Diocese, there was even more reason to build a permanent and magnificent church.

Fr. Benoit was the biggest influence on what would eventually become the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.  He was the man who raised the money to build the new church. Before he even began to raise money for building, Fr. Benoit had started improvements to the parish. In 1843, three years after his arrival in Fort Wayne, Fr. Benoit opened St. Augustine’s Academy, the first Catholic school in Fort Wayne. Establishing a school meant more families would be attracted to the church and be eager to help improve the parish. By 1846, Fr. Benoit had persuaded the Sisters of Providence to open a girls’ school at St. Augustine.

In 1859, the cornerstone for what would become the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was laid. A short 18 months later, the structure was finished and consecrated. (In contrast, the Allen County Courthouse was begun in 1897 but not dedicated until 1902.)

  

Fort Wayne in this time period really could boast of being “the City of Churches”. There was an informal rivalry between the different religions and parishes in the city to see which of them could build the most elegant place of worship. Fr. Benoit knew he could not rely solely on area Catholics to contribute funds toward building another church.  Some money did come from among Fort Wayne residents, including non-Catholics.  Fr. Benoit visited New Orleans in order to raise money to build the Cathedral in Fort Wayne. However, a large portion of the funds came from Fr. Benoit himself. Fr. Benoit also served as architect for the Cathedral.

Portions of the Square were originally purchased to be used as a cemetery. A European custom was to build a church over the graves of the deceased. The Cathedral is built in part over a Miami Indian burial ground, and as a condition of buying the land where the church sits, it was agreed that those graves would not be touched. A prominent Native American and Catholic originally buried at Cathedral Square is Chief Richardville. In front of the church on Calhoun Street is a boulder with a plaque marking his burial site and telling why he is honored. (The gravesite is Site 41 on the Bicentennial Heritage Trail map.You can also find a more detailed description of why Chief Richardville was honored in a blog post from August.)

Chief Richardville is not the only notable person buried at the Cathedral. Monsignor Benoit, after serving 45 years as a rector for the Diocese, requested to be buried in the Cathedral that he had helped to develop and build. Originally buried at the entrance to the sanctuary, his remains were moved to the crypt when it was constructed in 1906. Also buried in the crypt are Bishop Luers and Bishop Dwenger, the first two bishops of Fort Wayne.

While the Cathedral has experienced many interior changes in its 152 years, the structure has not. The fourteen columns holding up the vaulted ceiling are original, if a different color than what Fr. Benoit had designed. While the stained glass windows along the sides of the church were not installed until 1896, the famous stained glass window over the sanctuary is the same one Fr. Benoit had installed in 1861.  

While today Fort Wayne has more than churches dominating the downtown skyline, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is still one of the most recognizable landmarks. The Cathedral may have undergone some small cosmetic changes over the last century, but it nevertheless rises proudly over Fort Wayne.

Sources

Worthy of the Gospel of Christ-Joseph M. White

E-mail conversation with Janice Cantrell, Archivist for the Diocese of Fort Wayne/South Bend

Frontier Faith- George R. Mather

The Diocese of Fort Wayne (1907) - http://archive.org/details/dioceseoffortway01aler

National Register of Historic Places Inventory- Nomination Form (September 1978)

Welcome to the Cathedral- pamphlet

Reflections: A History of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception-booklet available from Cathedral Museum

Follow the Pipes!

As we prepare the room that will house our new exhibit, “Allen County Innovation”, we’re taking photos of the construction process and some close ups of the artifacts on display. Since Follow the Pipes is next week, we thought you’d like to see the organ that has been in the soon to be remodeled room and the craftsmanship that went into it.

The Fort Wayne Organ Company manufactured organs here from 1872 through 1906. The company changed its name to the Packard Company in 1895. Interest in organs waned over time but not in pianos, so the company continued to make pianos until 1930 when they went out of business. These pianos also included player pianos, one of which is upstairs at the museum in our Orientation Room.

This Bond Piano was named after the Packard Company president, Albert S. Bond. Player pianos had their heyday from 1910-25 with 1916 being the peak year of production. But the rise in popularity of Victrolas and the radio spelled their demise.

But back to organs.

As you can see from the photos, the detailed woodwork is impressive but even more surprising to this writer are the needlepointed pedals. The top three photos show the wood carving, photo number four shows the needlepoint pedals (pretty worn, aren't they?) and the bottom photo shows the inside of the organ.

Follow the Pipes occurs this year on July 17-19. In cooperation with the American Guild of Organists, this annual event during the Three Rivers Festival is a self-guided “concert tour” of area pipe organs. Find the schedule in the events section of our web site and join us for some great music!