[Illustration: John Hopkins Denison]
But if the Madison Square church withdrew officially it left behind more
than the old church ever expected. It was a young man who, in October,
1894, reported to the Sunday school superintendent as coming from
Madison Square. He was John Hopkins Denison, a grandson of Mark Hopkins,
of fine New England stock. He had come to New York to become Dr.
Parkhurst's assistant when he was making war on Tammany. Those were the
days of the City Vigilance League, when unsavory revelations were
necessary to effect a change in city government. There was a meeting
which crowded the old church to the second galleries when Dr. Parkhurst
spoke. It was a noble battle and not without its dangers.
So when the Madison Square church went, Mr. Denison staid, and he was
a prodigious worker. The quarters in the tower were enlarged for there
were many visitors who bunked there.
[Illustration: The Tower Study]
Mr. Denison set out to prove the right of the church to existence and he
did it. He did more: he brought no end of friends that remained to the
church. The thought of Cuyler to establish a mission, of Parkhurst to
affiliate the church with a stronger one, was developed under Denison
into an organization amply supported by the whole church, working out
by itself its own local problems. It was no longer a self-evident
proposition that a church not able to support itself must go.
[Illustration: 52 Henry Street]
One of the early steps was the establishment of a church house at 52
Henry Street. Mr. Denison said: "It was not an institution--it was not
even a settlement; it was simply a house where people lived. The time
is gone by for men and women to come down as outsiders and pry into the
homes of poverty and sin, and then return to their own life far away.
One must live in a community, one must be a neighbor."
Mr. John Crosby Brown was the munificent friend who made the house
possible, Miss Mae M. Brown being a deeply interested resident there.
Mrs. Rockwell was in charge, then Miss Eleanor J. Crawford. It was the
center for all social activities, tastefully fitted up, the ladies
working at the church living on the upper floors. In the same house Sea
and Land people had lived for many years: the Stevensons, the Boyces,
Miss McGarry.
In 1906 the building was torn down and other arrangements had to be
made. For a time apartments were occupied at 138 Henry Street and 51
Market Street.
[Illustration]
The Fresh Air Work, too, was put on a permanent basis. Besides making
the church the local station for the Tribune Fresh Air Fund, houses
were rented at Rockaway for five years, later at Huntington, until in
a more recent time Staten Island property was bought. Later years saw
an extension of this work to Schenectady, where Dr. Bigelow of blessed
memory headed it.
Under the auspices of William W. Seymour,--of course he was not mayor of
Tacoma then,--the first boys' camp was establisht at North Hero, Vt., and
is still a glorious memory. The girls were welcomed at Litchfield and
Saybrook.
Not only did money flow in readily, but it was quite the thing for young
ministers and theological students to spend a year, a summer or a winter
at Sea and Land, and they did not study books: they worked on men and
women at all hours. If some wretch got into trouble some one to whom he
was assigned had not been vigilant enough. Before Hoover made a world
reputation for himself, Denison studied food economics, and he proved it
by having the group live on a minimum allowance. Then he preached on
what was economical living.
The most prominent men spoke in the church: Dr. Paton from the New
Hebrides; Dr. Grenfell from Labrador, Dr. Van Dyke and a hundred others.
University extension ideas were anticipated in courses of study, the
men of the church were put to work writing independent Sunday school
lessons, the teachers had pedagogical talks and studied Biblical
masterpieces. The girls were taken to sing in Rutgers Square and it
was not always safe to do it either. The Upper Room was establisht in
Rutgers Street, then the Lighthouse in Water Street, a fine stereopticon
was in frequent use. The Men's Club, under George M. Bailey, prospered
like the green bay tree, drawing men of all classes. A design for a
church flag was adopted. Sports were encouraged. Numerous clubs were
organized, among them the Good Time Club, also the Penny Provident and
the Helping Hand. Nursing was taken up; sewing and cooking classes,
model flats and cottage meetings started. Magazine and newspaper
articles commented on unusual sermons, such as the one on the balloons.
Addresses at Northfield, Silver Bay and other places called attention
to the church's work in ever-widening circles, Hamilton House came into
being, but without organic connection with the church.
[Illustration: New Church Flag]
In short, Mr. Denison's compelling personality and enormous capacity for
work put others to work, so that in the summer of 1895 9,546 persons
were brought together in the old church in five weeks.
So men and women came and went, some of them wrote books and magazine
articles about the work with more or less accuracy. Mr. Denison's own
poems were more appreciated by those who knew.
The force of it all was irresistible, and so the last trace of
opposition in Presbytery and elsewhere disappeared. On November 11,
1895, the sale of the property was called off, and $2,000 a year paid
for three years. Ever since Presbyterians and others have been proud
of the outpost the united church is maintaining at Market and Henry
Streets. It is a happy memory that all of the men who in Presbytery
supported sale resolutions became staunch friends of the church.
Mr. Denison was not ordained when first he came to Market Street, but
this was done later at Williamstown in the College Chapel. On entering
New York Presbytery his installation as regular pastor of the Church
of the Sea and Land was effected March 23, 1899.
In 1894 Mrs. Shaw spent considerable money fixing up the lecture room
and in 1896 a new roof was put on the church at an expense of $600.
Mr. Denison made a tour of the world, being absent from November, 1900,
to October, 1901.
Among the men working under Mr. Denison was Horace Day, a young
theological student who gave his life after a brief but intense period
of work.
In Mr. Denison's time, too, falls the best work of Mrs. Eliza E.
Rockwell. She was indefatigable, beloved of many, none too far gone to
merit her attention, nothing too hard to do. She, too, laid down her
life as a sacrifice. Even Mr. Denison's book, "Beside the Bowery,"
insufficiently tells the full measure of her devotion for the thirteen
years she was at Sea and Land. Her last message to the trustees was:
"I died in harness." It was on March 14, 1908.
One of the men of that day was Edward Dowling. As a tinker he wandered
about distributing tracts, speaking the word in truth, and returning
during the winter to be factotum in the tower. In that kindly old soul
few guessed the old fighter in India. Did he really know the place where
priceless treasures were hid beside an old idol?
One of the men in whom united the Sea and Land of the staid old ways
and the boundless energy of later days was John Denham. He lived to
see the day when the boy in the primary of the school of which he was
superintendent for years sat beside him in the session. He was the
living embodiment of that perennial spirit in the Church of Christ which
ever adjusts itself to new conditions and never loses sight of its main
object.
Mr. Denham's strong point was with the older people. It was
characteristic to have him read his Bible, quietly take up his hat
nearby and pay a visit.
When on February 4, 1910, John Denham went home to the Master whom he
had served thru a long life the younger men first felt the burden of
things: the senior elder was no more. He had held open the door of the
church for many a one and they had entered in.
[Illustration: John Denham]
Mr. Denison left the church December 31, 1902, to take up work in
Boston. It was a great loss, but as one of the officers said: "What
shall we do when Mr. Denison leaves? Why, what we always do at Sea
and Land: the best we know how."
Dr. William Adams Brown said: "None know better than the people of Sea
and Land how costly the contribution which they have been called to make
to the spiritual welfare of a sister city."
It was H. Roswell Bates, who, in the Spring Street Presbyterian church,
worked out Mr. Denison's plans, as he had helped to formulate them at
the old Market Street church while he was resident there.