CHAUTAUQUA'S ELDER DAUGHTERS
CHAUTAUQUA, planted upon the shore of its Lake, grew up a fruitful vine,
and within two years shoots cut from its abundant branches began to take
root in other soils. Or, to change the figure, the seeds of Chautauqua
were borne by the winds to many places, some of them far away, and these
grew up, in the course of little more than a generation, a hundred, even
a thousand fold. Many of these daughter-Chautauquas were organized by
men--in some instances by women--who had caught the spirit of the
mother-assembly; others by those who had heard of the new movement and
saw its possibilities; some, it must be confessed, by people who sought
to save a decayed and debt-burdened camp meeting, and a few with lots to
lease at a summer resort. From one cause or another, immediately after
the first Assembly had won success, Dr. Vincent began to receive
pressing invitations to organize similar institutions in many places. As
he was already fulfilling the duties both of an editor and a secretary
for the rapidly growing Sunday School cause, he could accept but few of
these many calls. But a number of younger men trained by a year or two
of experience in teaching at Chautauqua were around him and to these he
directed most of the enquirers. At least three Assemblies arose in 1876,
two years after the founding of Chautauqua. Of these I possess some
knowledge and will therefore name them, but without doubt there were
others which soon passed away and left scarcely a memory.
So far as I have been able to ascertain, the first gathering to follow
in the footsteps of Chautauqua was the Sunday School Parliament on
Wellesley Island, one of those romantic Thousand Islands in the St.
Lawrence River, where it emerges from Lake Ontario. This island stands
on the boundary line between the United States and Canada, but the home
of the Parliament was on the Canadian side of the line. The name
"Chautauqua" has now become generic and almost any gathering in the
interests of the Sunday School, or of general literature with a
sprinkling of entertainment, is apt to be named "a Chautauqua." But in
those early days the word Chautauqua was not known as the general term
of an institution of the assembly type, and the new gatherings were
named "Congress" or "Encampment" or "Institute," and for this gathering
the title "Sunday School Parliament" was taken, as smacking somewhat of
English origin. Its organizer and conductor was the Rev. Wilbur F.
Crafts, at that time a Methodist minister, afterwards a
Congregationalist, and still at present working as the head of the
International Reform Bureau in Washington, D. C. He was aided in the
plan and direction by Mrs. Crafts, for both of them were then prominent
leaders in Sunday School work. It was my good fortune to be present and
conduct the Normal Class during a part of the time. As compared with
Chautauqua, the Parliament was small, but its spirit was true to the
Chautauqua ideal and it was maintained faithfully for ten or twelve
years. The place had been established as a camp-meeting ground, but it
shared the fate of many camp meetings in gradually growing into a summer
resort for people in general. As cottages and cottagers increased the
Chautauqua interest declined, and finally the attempt to maintain
classes and meetings after the Chautauqua pattern was abandoned, and the
island took its place among the summer colonies in that wonderful group.
The same year, 1876, saw another camp ground becoming a Chautauqua
Assembly,--at Petoskey, near the northern end of Lake Michigan. Here a
beautiful tract of woodland, rising in a series of terraces from Little
Traverse Bay, about forty miles south of the Straits of Mackinac, had
been obtained by a Methodist camp-meeting association, and laid out in
roads forming a series of concentric circles. Here the first Bay View
Assembly was held in 1876, and again in its scope were combined the camp
meeting, the summer home, and the Chautauqua conception, three divergent
aims that have rarely worked well together. It will be remembered that
on its land side the original Chautauqua was shut off from the outer
world by a high fence, and everybody was compelled to enter the ground
through a gate, at which a ticket must be purchased. At Bay View, as at
most camp-meeting grounds, access was open on every side. At first they
undertook to support the Assembly by collections, but the receipts
proved inadequate, and they placed a ticket window at each lecture hall
and endeavored to induce the cottagers to purchase season tickets, a
plan which has been pursued down to the present time. One of the
founders of Bay View, perhaps the one who suggested it, was Dr. Wm. H.
Perrine, an ardent and intelligent Chautauquan, the rebuilder of
Palestine Park. Other men came to the aid of the Bay View Assembly,
some of them men of means, who gave liberally in the form of buildings,
an organ, and to some extent an endowment. One of these was Mr. Horace
Hitchcock of Detroit, another was John M. Hall, who organized the Bay
View Reading Course, analogous to the C. L. S. C., and by his personal
endeavor built up a reading and book-buying constituency. I was present
at the second session in 1877, when it was a handful of people in a
wilderness, and again thirty years later, when I found a beautiful city
of homes in the forest, rising terrace above terrace, with good roads,
fine public buildings, and a body of people interested in the best
thought of the time. Chautauqua points with pleasure and pride to her
oldest living daughter, the Bay View Assembly.
Mention should be made here of an Assembly established at Clear Lake,
beside a beautiful sheet of water in northern Iowa, nearly midway
between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. It was organized in 1876,
with the Rev. J. R. Berry as superintendent. For some years, beginning
in 1879, it was under the direction of the Rev. J. A. Worden, who, like
some others of us, had learned the Assembly trade in apprenticeship to
Dr. Vincent at Chautauqua. For ten years Clear Lake was fairly
prosperous, but in time it met the fate of most assemblies and dropped
out of existence.
During the year 1877 three more Assemblies arose, one of which remains
to this day in prosperity, while the two others soon passed away. The
successful institution was at Lakeside, Ohio. Like many others, it was
grafted upon a camp meeting which had been established some years
before, but was declining in its interest and attendance. The name
"Encampment" was chosen as an easy departure from its original sphere,
but after a few years the name "Assembly," by this time becoming
general, was assumed. The first meeting as a Sunday School gathering on
the Chautauqua plan was held in 1877, with the Rev. James A. Worden, who
had assisted Dr. Vincent for three years in the normal work at
Chautauqua, as its conductor. Afterward Dr. B. T. Vincent was in charge
for a number of seasons, and one year, 1882, Dr. John H. Vincent was
superintendent. For many years all the Chautauqua features were kept
prominent, the Normal Department, with a systematic course,
examinations, and an Alumni Association; the C. L. S. C. with
recognition services, Round Tables, camp fires, the four Arches, and all
the accessories. Lakeside drew around it helpers and liberal givers,
and still stands in strength. Lakeside has the benefit of a delightful
location, on a wooded peninsula jutting into Lake Erie, near Sandusky
City, and in sight of Put-in-Bay, famous in American history for
Commodore Perry's naval victory in the War of 1812. It still maintains
lecture courses and classes in the midst of a summer-home community.
Another Assembly began in 1877, with high expectations, at Lake Bluff
overlooking Lake Michigan, thirty-five miles north of Chicago. It was
confidently supposed that on a direct railroad line from the great city,
Lake Bluff would draw large audiences, and Dr. Vincent was engaged to
organize and conduct an Assembly upon the Chautauqua plan, with
lecturers and workers from that headquarters. A strong program was
prepared for the opening session. Among the lecturers was the Rev.
Joseph Cook, at that time one of the most prominent and popular speakers
in the land. I recall in one of his lectures at Lake Bluff a sentence,
wholly unpremeditated, which thrilled the audience and has always seemed
to me one of the most eloquent utterances I have ever heard. It was
twelve years after the Civil War, and on our way to the Assembly we
passed the marble monument crowned with the statue of Stephen A.
Douglas, the competitor of Lincoln for the Senatorship and Presidency,
but after the opening of the war his loyal supporter for the few months
before his death. Dr. Cook was giving a history of the forces in the
nation which brought on the secession of the Southern States. He
referred to Daniel Webster in the highest praise, declaring that his
compromise measures, such as the Fugitive Slave Law, were dictated by a
supreme love for the Union, which if preserved would in time have made
an end of slavery, and he added a sentence of which this is the
substance.
Had it been given to Daniel Webster, as it was
given to Edward Everett, to live until the guns
were fired upon Fort Sumter, there would have been
an end of compromise. He would have stamped that
mighty foot with a sound that would have rung
throughout the land, have called forth a million
men, and might have averted the war!
Just then a voice rang out from one of the seats--"As Douglas did!"
Joseph Cook paused a moment. His chest swelled as he drew in a breath,
and then looking at the man who had interrupted him, he spoke in that
powerful voice:
The firmament above the massive brow of Daniel
Webster was a vaster arch than that over the
narrow forehead of Stephen A. Douglas, and the
lightning that rent the clouds from the dying face
of one, would never have been needed to bring
daylight to the other!
I was seated beside the Rev. Charles F. Deems of New York, a Southerner
by birth and in his sympathies through the then recent war. He turned to
me and said: "That was the most magnificent sentence that I have ever
heard!" There was a moment of silence, and then a burst of applause from
the audience.
The Lake Bluff Assembly never drew a large patronage, as no Chautauqua
Assembly ever has which depended upon a great city whose inhabitants can
hear the famous preachers and orators. The successful Assemblies have
been located in fairly large towns, with villages and small cities
surrounding, near enough to reach the Assembly, but so distant that to
enjoy its benefits the visitors must stay more than one day. The support
of a Chautauqua Assembly of the higher grade comes not mainly from the
one-day excursionists, but from those who plan to enter the classes and
remain at least a fortnight. These patrons constitute the backbone of
the institution, and without them the transitory crowds soon lose their
interest and the Assembly declines. Lake Bluff maintained an existence
for ten or twelve years, but never obtained an extensive constituency.
The year 1878 was noteworthy in the establishment of two Assemblies, one
still living after more than forty years, the other one of the largest,
most steadfast in fidelity to the Chautauqua ideal, and most extended in
its influence. The first of these was the Round Lake Assembly, at a camp
ground near Saratoga in New York. We have narrated elsewhere (see page
44) the story of the "praying band leader" who undertook to hold a
little meeting of his own at Chautauqua, and when called to order left
in disgust, but later showed his manly spirit by asking Dr. Vincent to
organize an Assembly on the Chautauqua plan on the grounds at Round
Lake, of which camp meeting he was President. This Assembly began in
1878, and is still maintained both as a summer school, a camp meeting,
and a Sunday School training institution. It was opened according to the
Chautauqua pattern, with an evening of short speeches, of which some at
least were supposed to blend humor with sense. Frank Beard was on the
platform, and was expected to be the wit of the evening. To the blank
perplexity of all, he made a serious speech, without a solitary funny
allusion. The audience did not know whether to laugh or to look solemn,
as he talked on, and at last brought us all "before the great white
throne." The next morning at breakfast--for all the imported workers
took our meals at one table in the Round Lake Hotel--Dr. Vincent freed
his mind to Frank Beard, somewhat after this fashion:
Now, Frank, I want you to understand that we bring
you here to brighten up the program with a little
fun. We don't need you to make serious speeches;
there are plenty of men to do that; I can do it
myself, a great deal better than you can. To-night
I'm going to give you another chance, and I expect
you to rise to the occasion with something to
laugh at.
So, before the evening lecture, Dr. Vincent announced that Mr. Beard
wished to say a few words. This was something of what he said:
Dr. Vincent, he didn't like the speech I made last
night. He told me this morning before all these
fellers that it was too eloquent, and he said,
"Mr. Beard, when you are eloquent you take the
shine off from me, and these other men, and you
mustn't do it. If there is any eloquence needed, I
will do it myself, and you mustn't interfere with
the regular program."
Then he went on, in his usual way, using some of the dear old jokes that
some of us had heard at Chautauqua, but polished up for a new
constituency. Everybody saw that he was guying the doctor, but there
was a group of us present who knew just how Frank was twisting the
breakfast talk of the Superintendent of Instruction.
On the shore of Round Lake, near the Assembly ground, a copy of
Palestine Park had been constructed, and daily lectures were given
there. It was just a few feet larger than the Park at Chautauqua, as we
were informed by the President. Let me correct the report that a big
Methodist bishop arriving late one night, and enquiring the way to the
hotel, fell into the clutches of the most mischievous small boy in the
region, who told him:
"The gates are all shut and you'll have to climb the fence yonder."
He did so, according to the story, and fell from the top of the fence
into the Dead Sea, which at once swelled its waters and washed away the
city of Jericho. The eminent divine, it is said, drenched with water and
spattered with mud, walked up the Jordan Valley and over the mountains
of Ephraim, destroying the cities and obliterating sundry holy places;
one foot caught in Jacob's Well, and his head bumped on Mount Gerizim.
He reached the hotel at last, but the next morning showed the land of
Palestine in worse ruin than had been wrought by Nebuchadnezzar's army.
All this I, myself, read in a New York newspaper that is said to
contain "All the news that is fit to print"; but I here and now declare
solemnly that there is not a shred of truth in the story, for I saw the
Bishop, and I saw the Park!
The Round Lake meetings are held to this day, courses of lectures are
given, and classes are held. But the Park of Palestine, which was to
surpass Chautauqua's Park, is no more. It was built on swampy ground,
after a few years sank under the encroaching waters of the lake, and was
never restored.
The other institution founded in 1878 was the Kansas Chautauqua
Assembly. It was organized by the Rev. J. E. Gilbert, then a pastor of a
Methodist Church in Topeka, who was an active Sunday School worker and
started other assemblies during his different pastorates in the Middle
West. It was held for three years at Lawrence, then at Topeka for two
years, and finally in 1883 located at Ottawa, about fifty miles
southwest from Kansas City. Most of the Assemblies already named were
held upon camp grounds, but the Ottawa Assembly was unique in its
location upon the large Forest Park just outside the city, leased for
this purpose by the authorities. Being public property, no cottages
could be built upon it, but a city of three hundred tents arose every
summer, and after a fortnight were folded and taken away. For nearly
twenty years this Assembly was under the direction of the writer, and in
every respect followed the lines laid down by its parent Chautauqua.
Buildings were put up for classes, which served as well for the annual
agricultural fair in the fall. In our first year at Ottawa, our normal
class was held out of doors, the members seated upon the unroofed grand
stand of the Park, and I was teaching them with the aid of a blackboard.
Clouds began to gather rapidly and a storm seemed to be in prospect. I
paused in the lesson and said:
"I am somewhat of a stranger here--how long does it take a thunder storm
to arrive?"
"About two minutes!" responded a voice from the seats; and instantly
there came a rush to cover, leaving the history of the Bible to care for
itself. We were just in time, for a minute later it was blowing a
hurricane, bending the great trees and breaking their branches. I had
heard of Kansas cyclones, had been shown a "cyclone cellar," and only
the day before had taken dinner in a house of which one end had been
blown clean off by a cyclone. As we stood in a building which we had
named "Normal Hall," I asked a lady by the window, "Is this a cyclone?"
She glanced without and then calmly said: "No, this is a straight wind."
In ten minutes the tornado was over and we reassembled for the lesson.
Kansas people seemed to accept occurrences like this as all in the day's
work. One weather-story of Kansas reminds of another. On my first visit
to that State in 1882, the last year of the Assembly at Topeka, I was
standing in front of the hotel, thinking of the historic events in
Kansas,--where the Civil War actually began, though unrealized at the
time,--when I saw nearby a rather rough looking, bearded individual.
Thinking that he might be one of the pioneers, with a story to tell of
the early days, I stepped up and began in the conventional way by
remarking:
"I don't think it's going to rain."
He looked me over and responded:
"Wal, strangers from the East think they know when it's goin' to rain
and when it ain't; but us fellers who've lived in Kansas thirty years
never know whether it'll rain in five minutes or whether it won't rain
in three months."
The Ottawa Assembly was one of the best in the Chautauqua system. The
people of the city built for its use a large tabernacle and halls for
classes. Beside the park flows the River Marais du Cygne, "the Swamp of
the Swan," celebrated in one of Whittier's poems; and on a bank
overlooking the river was erected a Hall of Philosophy, copying the old
Hall at Chautauqua, except that its columns were lighter and ornamented,
improving its appearance. We followed the Chautauqua programs as far as
possible, having many of the same speakers on our platform and Professor
Sherwin to lead the music, succeeded later by Dr. H. R. Palmer. The
teacher-training work, then called the Normal Class, was maintained
thoroughly, with adult, intermediate, and children's classes,--all
wearing badges and following banners. The C. L. S. C., with all its
usages of camp fires, Recognition Day, vigil, procession and arches, was
kept prominent. We established a Chautauqua Boys' Club, and Girls' Club
also. We could not conduct a summer school, as the meeting lasted only a
fortnight, but we had lecture courses of high character upon literature.
Kansas contained more old soldiers in its population than any other
State in the Union, and the Grand Army Day at Ottawa was an event of
State-wide interest. Some distinguished veterans spoke on these
occasions, among them General John A. Logan, Major William McKinley, and
General John B. Gordon of the Confederate Army; also Private A. J.
Palmer of New York, whose "Company D, the Die-No-Mores," roused
enthusiasm to its summit. One element in Ottawa's success was the
steadfast loyalty of the city,--a place then of seven or eight thousand
people, which enjoyed a special prohibitory law some years earlier than
the rest of the State. Almost every family had its tent in Forest Park
and lived there day and night during the fortnight of the meetings.
Another cause of its prosperity was its able, broad, and continuous
management. Its President for many years was the Rev. Duncan C. Milner,
a Chautauquan from his boots up to his head, and laboring with untiring
energy in its behalf.
I must tell an amusing story of our camp fire one summer. As the ground
was by this time well occupied, we decided to have the bonfire on a raft
out in the stream, while the crowd sang the songs and listened to the
speeches from the Hall of Philosophy on the shore. But when we met at
night for the services, the raft and the materials ready for lighting
had disappeared! We were told that the janitor had thought it an
improvement to have the fire lighted above, in a bend of the river, and
float down to the Hall. We waited, not exactly pleased with the
janitor's unauthorized action, and after a time we heard a mighty
racket. The raft with the bonfire was floating down the stream, while
around it was a convoy of about a hundred boats, loaded with boys, and
each boy blowing a horn or yelling in the most vociferous manner. That
put an end to any prospect of songs and speeches, for who could command
silence to such a din? But that was not all nor the worst. The janitor
tried in vain to anchor his raft, but it still floated downward. We saw
our camp fire sail majestically down the river, until it approached the
mill dam and the falls, when the boys desperately rowed their boats out
of danger. Raft and contents went over the falls and the bonfire was
quenched in the devouring flood. As we saw it going to its doom, I
distinctly heard the word "dam" spoken, and I fear it was intended to
include a final "n." But that was the last attempt at a camp fire. When
I proposed one at the next season, the entire Round Table burst out with
a roaring laugh.
The success of Ottawa led to the opening of many other Assemblies all
over the State, and by degrees weakened this, the mother Chautauqua of
Kansas. It is still maintained, but in a small way, as one of the chain
Chautauquas.
In 1879, a Sunday School Congress which soon grew into an Assembly was
held at Ocean Grove, on the Atlantic Coast, almost the only place where
the camp meeting, the summer resort, and the Chautauqua idea have lived
together in mutual peace and prosperity. But even at Ocean Grove the
Assembly has been overshadowed, almost out of sight, by the camp meeting
and the summer boarding-house contingent. For several seasons I took
part in the work, and in 1881 conducted the Children's Class. On the
next to the last day I told all the children to meet me at our chapel,
naming the hour when the tide would be at its lowest, every child to
bring a pail and shovel, or a shingle, if his shovel had been lost. We
formed a goodly procession of three hundred, marching down the avenue,
myself at the head. At the beach I had selected a suitable area, and set
the children to constructing out of the damp sand a model two hundred
feet long of Palestine, the land of which we had been studying in the
daily class. It was a sight to see those young nation builders, making
the coastline, piling up the mountains, and digging out the Jordan
valley with its lakes. Some Biblically inclined gentlemen aided in the
supervision, and apparently a thousand people stood above and looked on.
When it was finished I walked up and down the model, asking the children
questions upon it, and was somewhat surprised to find how much they
knew. Some whose conduct in the class gave little promise were among the
promptest to exploit their knowledge. It was my purpose to leave the map
that it might be seen by the multitude until the tide should wash it
away. But the boys shouted, "Can't we stamp it down now?" and I rather
reluctantly consented. Palestine has been overrun, and trodden down, and
destroyed by armies of Assyrians, Babylonians, Turks, Crusaders, and
many other warriors, but the land never suffered such a treading down by
the Gentiles as on that morning at Ocean Grove.
In the year 1879, the wind-wafted seed of Chautauqua was borne to the
Pacific Coast and an Assembly was founded at Pacific Grove in Monterey,
California. I know not whether it remains, but the Grove has been the
place of meeting for the California Methodist Conference year after
year. Another Assembly combined with the summer resort was established
this year at Mountain Lake in Maryland, a charming spot, whose elevation
beside a lovely lake brings coolness to the summer air.
One more Assembly established in 1879 must not be forgotten. In the
early years of Chautauqua we used to see a plainly clad man, who from
his appearance might have been a farmer or a lumberman; in fact, he was
the proprietor of a large saw and planing mill. This man was at every
meeting, listened intently and took full notes, for he was intelligent,
reading good books, and ardent in his devotion to Chautauqua. For years
he was one of my friends, but, alas! I have forgotten his name. He lived
in Northern Indiana, and in 1879 was able to interest enough people to
start an Assembly at Island Park at Rome City, Indiana, not far from the
Michigan line. He became its Secretary, managed its finances, and called
upon the Rev. A. H. Gillet, one of Dr. Vincent's lieutenants, to conduct
it. For many years Island Park was one of the foremost children of
Chautauqua in its program and its attendance. It was situated upon an
island in a lovely lake, with bridges leading to the mainland, where
most of the tents and cottages were placed, and where buildings were
erected for the normal classes and the kindergarten; the Tabernacle,
seating 2500, being upon the island which was bright with flower beds
amid winding paths. For years Island Park was a center of Chautauqua
influence and strong in promoting the C. L. S. C., but like many other
Assemblies, it failed to receive financial support and was abandoned.
Two great Assemblies, both closely following the path of Chautauqua,
were founded in the year 1880. One of these was Monona Lake, near
Madison, Wis. It was established by the State Sunday School Association,
its founder and first president being the Hon. Elihu Colman of Fond du
Lac. Like Ottawa in Kansas, it was an assembly of tents, not of
cottages. The first session, a small gathering, was held in 1880 on the
shores of Green Lake, one of the five hundred lakes of Wisconsin; but in
the following year it was removed to Monona Lake, one of the five
surrounding the capital city, Madison. After Mr. Colman, the Rev. F. S.
Stein, D.D., became President, and for nearly a generation, Mr. Moseley,
a bookseller of Madison, was its efficient secretary, business manager,
and organizer of its programs. The standards of Monona Lake were high
and its work was thorough, but for lack of adequate support, it was
given up after nearly thirty years of usefulness and the point became an
amusement park.
Among those prominent in the early seasons at Monona Lake was the Rev.
O. P. Bestor, who was active in promoting the C. L. S. C. He brought
with him his son, who began as a small boy attending the Assembly, and
formed the assembly-habit so strongly that in the after years he grew
up to be the President of the Chautauqua Institution--Albert E. Bestor,
LL.D.
The other notable Chautauqua started in 1880 was the New England
Assembly at South Framingham, Mass., originally in closer affiliation
with the original Chautauqua than any other Assembly, for it chose Dr.
Vincent as Superintendent of Instruction, and many of its speakers were
also on the Chautauqua program. It drew from all the New England States,
until its success led to the establishment of other Assemblies at
Fryeburg, Maine, at Northampton, Mass., and at Plainville, Conn. One of
Dr. Vincent's assistants at the Framingham Assembly was the Dr. A. E.
Dunning, at first Congregational Secretary of Sunday School work, later
Editor of the Congregationalist. Dr. Vincent, after a few years, gave
the Assembly into the hands of Dr. Dunning and the writer, and sometimes
we conducted it jointly; at other times in successive years. On an
eminence overlooking the grounds and the adjoining lake arose another
Hall of Philosophy, like the one at Chautauqua, and all the Chautauqua
customs were followed--C. L. S. C., Normal Class, Children's Classes,
and the rest. The first President was the Rev. William R. Clark, who was
instrumental in locating the Assembly upon the ground of a camp meeting
which it succeeded. It was continued for more than a generation, but at
last succumbed to changing times. Perhaps it might have continued
longer, if throughout its history it had not been encumbered by the
debts of the former Camp Meeting Association.
Our chapter has already grown beyond bounds. We would like to tell the
stories of Monteagle, Tennessee, of Mount Dora, Florida, of De Funiak
Springs, also in Florida, of the Arkansas and Dakota and Southern
California Assemblies. In fifteen years after Chautauqua began there
were nearly a hundred Assemblies, each independent of all the others,
yet all in friendly relation to the oldest and greatest of them all, the
mother--Chautauqua by the Lake.