Produced by Mark C. Orton, Barbara Kosker and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration]
FRANK NELSON _of_ CINCINNATI
_Writing is the offspring of thought, the lamp of
remembrance, the tongue of him that is far-off, and
the life of him whose age has been blotted out._
--_Anon_
[Illustration]
_Frank H Nelson
of CINCINNATI_
_by_
WARREN C. HERRICK
_a sometime Assistant_
_With A Foreword
by Charles P. Taft_
LOUISVILLE . THE CLOISTER PRESS . MCMXLV
COPYRIGHT, 1945, BY
The Cloister Press
_All rights reserved. No part of this
book may be reproduced without the
written permission of The Cloister Press._
[Illustration: _The Cloister Press_
VITAL BOOKS]
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
_To My Wife_
CONTENTS
Page
1. "Arise, and go into the city" 2
2. Reclaiming A Church to Meet A New Age 14
3. The Shepherd Among His Flock 30
4. The Spokesman of The City's Conscience 42
5. They Came to Be in His Presence 62
6. Beyond Cincinnati 76
7. The Mystery of Personality 88
8. Last Years 102
9. The Afterglow 110
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is made possible only through the interest and contributions
of the many friends of Frank H. Nelson. Space does not permit my
mentioning by name all who have furnished me with material, but I do
wish to record my gratitude to them. In addition to the years 1925-1928
as Mr. Nelson's assistant I spent two weeks in the autumn of 1943
interviewing a cross-section of Cincinnati and Christ Church. Many
business men gladly gave of their time because they enjoyed recounting
memories of one whom they loved, and often detained me when I felt I had
imposed myself long enough. I noticed also that Mr. Nelson's photograph
occupied a place of honor in more than one office as well as in many
homes.
There are others far better qualified than I to write this story, and I
accepted the task, though with a keen sense of my inadequacy, first,
because Mrs. Nelson honored me with the request, and second because I
have the strong conviction that it should be done for the sake of those
who knew Mr. Nelson, and also for those of a succeeding generation who
ought to know how one minister more than met the requirements of an
exacting profession. Furthermore, I have written as one who owes an
incalculable debt, and, therefore, cannot be wholly objective. While I
have endeavored not to make this biography a eulogy, it is frankly his
life as I saw it, and depicts one whom I loved, admired, and have tried
to follow.
For innumerable suggestions and for valuable material I am particularly
grateful to Mrs. Frank H. Nelson, to Mr. Nelson's sisters, Miss
Margaret[1] and Miss Dorothea Nelson, and to Mr. Howard N. Bacon, who
have helped me more than perhaps they know. Then there is the pleasant
duty of expressing my thanks to Mr. Charles P. Taft, the Junior Warden
of Christ Church, Cincinnati, for writing the foreword; to the Vestry of
Trinity Church, Melrose, Massachusetts for gladly granting me a leave of
absence in 1943, and to Mrs. E. Howard Favor, my secretary, for the
typing cheerfully undertaken. In the labor of preparing the final draft
for the publishers I shall ever remember with gratitude the careful
thought and skillful phrasing of Miss Mary Putnam of the English
Department of the Melrose High School whose corrections and amendments
were nothing less than creative. Finally, I wish to let stand my
heartfelt thanks to the Right Reverend Henry Knox Sherrill, Bishop of
Massachusetts, without whose encouragement and advice this little book
could not have been written.
WARREN C. HERRICK
_Trinity Church_,
_Melrose, Massachusetts_;
1945.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Deceased, July 6, 1945.
A FOREWORD
How does one life affect another?
I have tried to remember what Frank Nelson directly asked me to do. He
asked me to teach in the Sunday School, and I did it. Gradually I found
myself studying out an intellectual foundation for faith in God. He
never said anything to me about that, except from the pulpit. He wrote
me asking that I act as captain in the Nation-wide Campaign, and I
answered that I could not. But the next thing I remember was being a
visitor in the Nation-wide Campaign, and I was always in it after that.
He asked me to serve on the Vestry, and somehow made me feel that
nothing except being really sick was an excuse for not being there.
Certainly he never exhorted people to be civic patriots or reformers,
and save the city. He just gave you such a human picture of the teeming
life of a great city that it made a tear come to your eye to think of
what the city could be at its best, and it made you love it and the
people in it. Your own actions in civic affairs just naturally followed.
He wasn't an exhorter of virtue, but he made of clean living and noble
service such a fascinating objective that people went to work on their
own problems with fresh faith.
The only time I recall he was really annoyed with me was when I had an
emergency operation for appendicitis in the middle of the night, and
didn't let him know until the next day. He was my minister, and that
meant _minister_. After that, when I had a major choice to make, I felt
I was risking his disappointment unless I went down to talk to him about
it.
He didn't want me to go to a great school as headmaster. "The city is
the place that needs service and talents," said he. To that he had given
his life, in the personal contact with his parish. His life stands as a
symbol of the way a true love of home and community is tied to a love of
all God's children everywhere.
CHARLES P. TAFT
_Arise, And Go
Into The City_
"_Arise, And Go Into The City_"
--_Acts 9:6_
1
"Tell the rector of Christ Church that if he doesn't call off the
Woman's Club, I'll bring the women of the streets to the polls." And he
added, "He knows I can do it." The boss of old Ward Eight, in which
Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Cincinnati is located, had become
alarmed by a serious threat to his power. Although this incident took
place long before the coming of universal suffrage, Reverend Frank H.
Nelson, the young rector, had discovered that women had a legal right to
vote in public school matters. Following his leadership, the Woman's
Club of Christ Church was actively supporting as a candidate for the
Board of Education John R. Schindel, a fearless young lawyer in the
Ward. This independent action was an open challenge to the dominance of
the boss of Ward Eight, Mike Mullen. Though the courageous lawyer was
defeated, and without the aid of the women of the streets, the affair
was one of many which presaged the uprising that eventually wrenched the
control of Cincinnati from the hands of one of the most notorious
political gangs in American democracy.
A second "passage of arms" between the rector and Boss Mullen had its
origin in the work of Christ Church among boys, and ultimately involved
the boss of the entire city and his powerful machine. The privilege of
running gambling games throughout Cincinnati had been alloted to one of
the higher-ups in the organization. Within a block of the Parish House
of Christ Church was a flourishing candy store, so-called, but the chief
"confection" was a crap game run for the boys of the neighborhood under
the direction of a member of the City Council, and with the knowledge
and acquiescence of the police department. It was inevitable that some
members of Christ Church Boys' Clubs should lose their earnings, and
whatever of character the church was building up was thus broken down.
To meet this danger, Mr. Nelson organized a good citizenship club among
his parishioners. The members made a survey of the gambling places which
were catering especially to boys, and found nearly one hundred
throughout the city. The publication of their findings was one of many
"shots heard 'round the ward."[2] When in later years Frank Nelson spoke
for the City Charter or Reform Party, he knew from first-hand experience
the moral and spiritual influence of good government in the lives of
boys and young men. Behind the youthful clergyman's deep concern for
decent government was a vital religious faith, without which he was
convinced social service and reform work can never attain the best
results.
Frank H. Nelson was Rector of Christ Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1900
to 1939, having been the assistant minister in the year 1899. These
forty years in the one parish constitute a career seldom paralleled for
breadth of vision and devoted service. He became one of the first
citizens of a great city, a crusader for honest municipal government,
and the foremost Protestant clergyman. For the understanding of his
ministry and of his religious convictions, one must know something of
his early life and family, and the preparatory years.
Frank Howard Nelson was born in Hartford, Connecticut on September 6,
1869. His father, Henry Wells Nelson, the nephew of the Reverend E. M.
P. Wells, a pioneer in early Christian social service in Boston, was the
Rector of the Church of The Good Shepherd in Hartford. Before Frank was
ten years old, his father accepted a call to Trinity Church, Geneva, New
York, and there exercised a distinguished ministry for twenty-five
years. Geneva, an attractive college town situated on lovely Seneca
Lake, was an ideal place in which to bring up a family. There were five
children: Margaret, George, Frank, Mary, and Dorothea. George now lives
in Brookline, Massachusetts, and Mary, who married Edward L. Pierce,
lives in Princeton, New Jersey. After the father's retirement, Margaret
and Dorothea lived with their parents in the family home at North
Marshfield, Massachusetts where they still reside. Frank was not a
strong child, but in the freedom and simplicity of the life which a
small town affords, he gained strength rapidly. A sister relates that
he was unusually venturesome, and sometimes horrified timid ladies in
the parish by walking on stilts on open rafters, and by frequenting the
canal, where once he fell in and was pulled out by a bargee. As all boys
do, he roamed the environs of his home with his chums, occasionally
pilfering fruit and getting into all kinds of mischief; but though other
boys might go unpunished because of doting parents, he was always firmly
chastised for his pranks.
The influence of both father and mother upon these strong-minded
children was vital and enduring. The father possessed that happy
combination of gaiety and goodness that commends religion. As he was
deeply and naturally spiritual himself, the expression of religion in
his home and parish was unusually beautiful and appealing. The last
twenty-five years of his life were spent in blindness, but his courage
and his deepened understanding of the ways of God because of this
affliction led him to a thankful acceptance of his limitation; and his
continuing interest in people "made the latter years of his ministry,"
to quote Bishop Lawrence, "as fruitful as the more active ones." His
devoted wife, who was Hortense Chew Lewis of New London, Connecticut,
guided the children through their formative years with skill and
understanding. She was an intelligent mother, discriminating in taste
and judgment. Because of her abounding love of good literature, the
family passed many delightful evenings in listening to her readings from
Scott, Milton, Shakespeare and many other great writers. Her fine gifts
of interpretation made the masterpieces of English prose and poetry come
alive. In later years, Christ Church people were to love Frank Nelson's
readings at Christmas parties in the parish house and in his own home.
The older he grew the deeper became his appreciation of the character of
his parents. An intimate friend once said to him, "You are a fortunate
and a blessed man to have had such a father and mother."
The family was privileged in possessing means beyond a minister's
salary, and Frank, at the age of thirteen, was sent to aristocratic St.
Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. The headmaster, Dr. Henry A.
Coit, an austere and exacting teacher of the old New England type,
stimulated the natural student, and under his influence Nelson achieved
a scholastic standing among the first five in his class. He was not
particularly skillful in athletics, and had even then a cough which
persisted throughout his life. The lad was not noticeably popular, and
had more than the average measure of shyness peculiar to adolescence. He
was extremely sensitive, somewhat unhappy, and in many accomplishments
and activities was overshadowed by his older brother who was in the same
school.
In the fall of 1886, upon graduation from St. Paul's School, Frank
returned to Geneva and entered Hobart College, a small church college of
considerable standing. There he began to find himself, and became one of
the popular men in his class and in the Sigma Phi Fraternity. Although
in college he took more active interest in athletics and participated in
rowing, tennis, and track, he never excelled in sports. At his
graduation in 1890 he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, _Magna
Cum Laude_, being valedictorian and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Throughout his life he maintained relationships with his Alma Mater,
coming to know the successive presidents, and in 1907 was instrumental
in securing a large gift for a new gymnasium. Still later he refused the
presidency of the college. In 1906 Hobart bestowed upon him the honorary
degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology.
In the course of his undergraduate days at Hobart, Frank Nelson had
seriously considered the profession of the ministry, but graduation
found him still undecided. As it turned out, the summer following the
close of his college years was one of critical importance to his entire
life. He accompanied a surveying expedition to the state of Washington.
The party put up for a while in Merrysville, a rough-mannered,
tough-living town of the old West. Into this place there came one day a
circuit rider who fearlessly preached the Gospel in the face of
opposition and outright hostility. This Methodist minister was utterly
sincere, and Nelson saw what could be done by the sheer power of the
spirit against the forces of evil. It surged over him that a man can
hold the mastery over wrong, an inner conviction which at the same time
was set aflame by a Communion Service held for the surveyors in the
out-of-doors. The circumstances and surroundings were strikingly
different from those associated in his mind with such a service.
Possibly for the first time in his life he was intensely conscious of
the presence of God. As in all such experiences the vision illumined and
deepened his thinking and living. It has been said that in all great
Christian leaders and reformers are found two elements: "The imperious
commission from above, and the tumultuous experience within." Both these
elements were present in the experiences of that eventful summer, and
all Frank Nelson's doubts and waverings concerning the ministry were
resolved. He returned East aware of being called to preach the Gospel.
In the light of this happening one is not surprised that later when a
professor dogmatically stated that there could be no true Sacrament
without the Apostolic Succession, Nelson walked out of the classroom
saying to himself, "It is a lie." To those who knew him through his
forty years' ministry in Christ Church, this experience in the far West
sheds light upon his burning sense of mission, for in those hours of
inward tumult he had come close to God in the breaking of bread and in
the society of his fellows, conditions which he preached throughout his
life as being always the essence of fellowship with God.
On September 18, 1890, he matriculated at the General Theological
Seminary in New York City. The General Seminary is directly under the
government of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, and while
it has always been characterized by a conservative type of
churchmanship, all shades of opinion were and are to be found within its
faculty and student body. At this time the respectability of the
Episcopal Church was considered an asset and not a liability, and the
Seminary community was in the social forefront. When an upstanding man
like Frank Nelson, whose background was well-known and whose
intellectual gifts and social graces were obvious, entered this
environment, it was inevitable that he should immediately take a leading
place in the undergraduate body. His tall, commanding figure naturally
attracted notice, and within a few days he was elected president of his
class. There was magnetism in his personality, and he was soon welcomed
among the socially distinguished in both seminary and city. His
fellow-students at General, when speculating about the future, as
students do, always considered him destined for the highest office of
the church; throughout those now remote years he clearly revealed the
qualities of the born leader. His class was a notable one, and through
the passing years gave a good account of itself, listing four bishops
and ten honorary degrees, Frank Nelson himself receiving the degree of
Doctor of Sacred Theology from the General Seminary in 1934.
As a student he excelled in Pastoral Theology, Biblical Learning and
Evidences, subjects which in their nature give some indication of his
intensely human interest in all aspects of life. Like many theological
students, he was groping and feeling his way through the multiple
problems that center upon man in the light of God. One of his classmates
says that the curriculum and the methods of instruction in that day bear
poor comparison to modern standards, but Nelson, unlike many students,
was never in a state of open or even tacit rebellion. He did his work
faithfully and well. He was graduated in 1894, but for some reason was
not present at Commencement to receive the degree of Bachelor of Sacred
Theology, which is the mark of scholastic distinction at General. On May
19, 1894, he was made a deacon in his father's church in Geneva, New
York by the Right Reverend Arthur Cleveland Coxe, the Bishop of Western
New York. During his senior year he had assumed work on the staff of St.
George's Church, New York City, and after his ordination was quickly
absorbed into the work of that great parish. Because he did not feel
ready, Frank Nelson, at his own request, was not advanced to the
priesthood until November 14, 1897, when he was so ordered in St.
George's Church by Bishop Henry Codman Potter of the Diocese of New
York.
Another important element in Mr. Nelson's preparation for his unique
ministry in Cincinnati was this experience on the staff of St. George's
Church from 1894 to 1899 under the prophetic leadership of the Reverend
William S. Rainsford. This notable rector possessed unusual gifts and
exerted an incalculable influence upon the Episcopal Church. He gathered
about him a group of young men the like of whom has never been found
elsewhere. St. George's stands as the pioneer of what was known as the
"institutional church," and in the midst of the teeming activities of
the parish house and a heterogeneous congregation, Dr. Rainsford set
loose his young and enthusiastic assistants. They experienced a training
comparable to the clinical instruction gained by an intern in a modern
hospital. Under his tutelage these men received a course in applied
religion, and their rector set a standard of preaching, parish
administration, and pastoral care that not one of his "boys," as he
called them, failed to practice in an unusual manner. Dr. Rainsford's
impassioned preaching of the essentials of Christianity as opposed to
those aspects which are merely traditional, and his forceful efforts,
radical for those times, to democratize a conventional Episcopal parish
were significant contributions to church life throughout America.
Although Dr. Rainsford exerted a lasting influence upon all his young
assistants, he set his stamp to a marked degree upon Frank Nelson. For
the first time in his life this young man, the choicest flowering of a
cultured home, lived among the underprivileged, spending his afternoons
climbing interminable tenement stairs, and his evenings in the parish
house. He came to know poverty and squalor and the honest worth of
struggling humanity. If "The Rector," as Dr. Rainsford's "boys" called
him, bade them preach on the street corners, he himself had done the
same. His example and his personal religious faith were those of a
living St. George touched with the heart-stirring Gospel of Love. Under
him young Nelson found the services and work of the church taking on a
meaning that was like a cool, refreshing breeze. Things concerning the
Church, doctrine, and ritual, which had formerly perplexed his youthful
mind, now seemed subordinate.
Dr. Rainsford evoked a loyalty which held his young men long after they
had "graduated," and when he died in 1933 at the age of eighty-three,
many of his former assistants were in the chancel of old St. George's
for the burial service. One who was present said, "We shall not see a
service like that again, for we shall never see and know another
Rainsford." Eulogies are not customary at funerals in Episcopal
Churches, but on this occasion the tradition was fittingly broken, and
Mr. Nelson delivered a brief address from the pulpit in a breaking
voice, barely audible at times. In this very moving tribute, the speaker
reveals much of himself:
I am not here to presume to speak of the man we loved in any
formal way; to try to weigh the imponderable, to measure the
immeasurable--but only to say a word out of our hearts of
thanksgiving to God that the rector was our rector in the days
that are passed, was The Rector always and will be always, for
those who knew him, who loved him, to whom he gave that
tremendous love of his.
A book was written by a friend of his some years ago, and the
dedication of that book was this: "To William Stephen Rainsford,
who has seen the Christ and has shown Him to men."
I know of no more perfect description of the rector than that.
For twenty years and more of his rectorship in this great parish
he showed Christ to men; showed Him in the incomparable words
that he poured forth Sunday after Sunday and year after year from
this pulpit--in his great concern for the men and women and
little children; for the strong and for the weak; for the wise
and the foolish; for the saints and the sinners; for those who
labor and were hungry and perplexed, and were strained by the
tasks of life. They came here week by week; they heard from him
the words that refreshed them and sent them back with courage and
with faith in God and in man, to the tasks that were breaking
them, to the problems that were perplexing them.
I suppose that to every one of us who knew him in his great days
here and have known him in the years since, the one supreme thing
that poured out of his life was his love of God. Not the love of
God that theologians speak of, that men reason about, but that
pure love that a man gives to his friend, to his loved
ones--personal, intense, vital, real.
We came here church people, professing the Christian faith,
thinking we believed in God and in His son, Jesus Christ, and as
we sat under the rector here Sunday after Sunday, we came to know
that our profession was a form of sound words, that in him was
the form of unsound words, but that he poured forth _reality_ for
the thing that we _professed_ to believe in, and he helped us to
see the real work of God, the real passionate love of God for
men--not for the chosen few, but the weak, the broken, the
struggling--those in sorrow and the hungry--the love of God that
drove him to lay down his life as few men had laid down their
lives before. He gave of himself without stint, rejoicing in the
chance to serve his God and his fellowmen with his whole heart
and soul, with such passionate devotion that at last broke
through his own conventional beliefs and tore them to shreds, and
made him the voice of the living God, to us in St. George's, to
New York and to America.
In the great days of his preaching, he took us who were his
clergy--young, inexperienced and conceited--and made us over. He
took us, to whom religion was a profession, and made of it a
passion. He was ever patient with us, giving us his best; day
after day walking with us around Stuyvesant Square in the
morning, sometimes for hours, and then pouring out to us as we
walked the best religious thought of his time, his judgment on
the questions of the day, his interpretations of religion and the
tremendous work of the church as a gift that God had put into the
souls of men for service to their fellowmen.
He told us of his thought for men and women, of the problems of
the time, of the problems of the church--not conventional, but
vital, not formal, but distinctly real--and then he would take us
into his study and we would kneel there. And never have I heard a
man pray as the rector prayed--without any of the ecclesiastical
technique and form of prayer, without any formal discussions of
the value of prayer, but pouring out the things that we had been
talking of; as real to God as they were real to us, bringing into
them God; God's companionship, God's sympathy, God's
understanding and patience; God's ruthless will that we should
love our fellowmen and serve our fellowmen--without name, without
a distinction.
That is the vivid life, a little of it, that we lived with, which
made God real to New York and to us here at St. George's, and to
his clergy. God has taken him home, and we meet here, every one
of us, because the rector--broken though he was in these later
years--because the rector, whose great and lovely smile we had
loved to see, as we had loved just to touch his hand to gain
strength, courage, faith and joy--because we cannot do that any
more. His work is done and God gives him a safe lodging and he
shall rest in peace to the last. Thank God who gave him to us, to
know and to love, that we might be lifted by him to find God and
Jesus through him.
He wrote a little prayer, and in closing I am going to read it
and ask you to join with me in making it our own. Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, I am trying to do right and be right and help
others to be right. Give me my daily bread. I am Thy child; Thy
little, weak child. Give me Thy strength; Thy patience; Thy
wisdom; Thy love--that with confidence and with joy I may do the
work Thou hast given me to do in my home and among men. Amen.[3]
The charter of Frank Nelson's future is set forth in the impression he
made at the General Theological Seminary, and in the zest and
enlargement of vision which characterized his five years under Dr.
Rainsford at St. George's. When the opportunity presented itself to
create in Christ Church, Cincinnati, Ohio a work similar to that of St.
George's, he displayed a characteristically wise judgment in making his
decision. Henceforth he was to live "in the upper story" of that
decision, conceiving of his work as a mission to the city, and pursuing
it with a fidelity and a diligence that ranked him as an unusual servant
of God.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] For these stories I am indebted to the Rev. J. Howard Melish, D.D.
whose forthright denunciations of political corruption in Cincinnati
were further "shots heard 'round" the city.
[3] _The Churchman_, January 1st, 1934.
_Reclaiming A Church
To Meet A New Age_
"_By the grace of God, and the loyalty of the
members of Christ Church I was enabled to
carry on the work when Alexis Stein had to
give it up._"
--_Frank H. Nelson_
2
The surging currents of city life had left old Christ Church in a back
eddy, and certain leaders including the senior warden advocated selling
the property or turning it over to the Diocese for a mission. The
population, as in many another American city, was shifting from the
downtown district, and many believed that the parish had seen its best
days. In those late nineties, parishioners of wealth and prominence were
moving to the suburbs; the older, conservative members still attended
the morning service, but the young people either attached themselves to
churches nearer their residences or were drifting away from church
affiliations altogether.
Christ Church was established in 1817 when Cincinnati was a small river
town of nine thousand inhabitants; looking at the present church
building which seats over one thousand people and is flanked by an
enormous and ever busy parish house, one finds it difficult to picture
Bishop Philander Chase meeting in that year with a group of men in the
home of Dr. Daniel Drake to lay the foundations of what was to become
one of the largest parishes in the Middle West. The first services were
held in a cotton factory, and the church slowly developed into a strong
parish, small in numbers but served by several very able rectors, one of
whom later became the Bishop of Virginia. As the first Episcopal Church
to be founded in Cincinnati, it was the parent of a number of other
parishes; but at the close of the nineteenth century it appeared that
the "mother-church" was about finished. Churches of other communions
located in the downtown district were going through the same transition.
The slump in finances by reason of removals created something akin to
panic in the fearful and timid vestrymen, but because of some loyal and
far-sighted women Christ Church was not disbanded. They wanted it to
mean to their children what it meant to them, and they gave assurance of
support in substantial ways.
These ardent supporters had a definite vision and plan. In 1897 Dr.
William S. Rainsford had come on from New York City and had packed old
Pike's Opera House for a week in Lent, and thrilled his hearers with the
recital of his efforts to anchor St. George's Church in the heart of
that great metropolis, and make it free to serve the community. When
Bishop Vincent of Southern Ohio wrote him about the difficulties of
Christ Church, he replied with this momentous letter:
I am going to give you the greatest proof I can of my love and
deep interest in Cincinnati. I have a plan for Christ Church.
Here it is. Take two of my men--let them work and live together;
they could take a mighty strong hold, and do a really good work.
I feel sure that in the future many a position of great
difficulty can be much better occupied by two men, pulling
together, than by one alone. There are two magnificent
fellows--dear, dear boys after my own heart--who have been here
with me for years; and I shall be lost without them, if you call
them. Stein (Alexis) is the ablest preacher of his age (28) in
our Church in these United States today. Nelson (Frank) is a
strong, capable man, full of energy and charm and a first-class
organizer. This is a big idea, my friend; but I believe God may
be in it. It is like offering to cut off both my hands for you.
Thus the Reverend Alexis Stein became Rector of Christ Church in
December, 1898, and within a few weeks of his arrival the people of
Cincinnati awoke to the mighty fact that a prophet was in their midst;
the doors of all churches were flung open to him, and everywhere he
spoke, new interest and hope in the Church were born. Stein has been
called a modern Savonarola, but, unlike the great reformer, he was
burned within by the fire of his own consuming message. "He was a
preacher of most unusual power with a message he burned to give; and a
vision of truth that made him a leader of men. He loved God and showed
Him to men; he loved men and led them to God."[4] Before Stein left New
York, he had asked his friend, Frank Nelson, to join him in the new
venture, but it was not until May 21, 1899 that he was free to come.
We came out to Cincinnati because Dr. Rainsford sent us; he told
us that we ought to come--not that we wanted to come. Stein and I
both had always lived in the East. It was the America that we
knew, and it seemed a desirable place to live, just as those of
you who have been born here think that Cincinnati is the most
desirable place to live, because it is your home. But he, with a
larger vision of America, and a larger vision of the calling of
God to a man in the ministry, sent us here to do what we
could.[5]
In February, 1900, the doctor ordered Alexis Stein out West, a victim of
tuberculosis. He lived a short twelve years, but was never well enough
to do more than a little incidental work. This tragedy was a deep,
personal loss to his young associate, for all through their St. George's
days they had been the closest of friends. They complemented one another
and made an ideal team.
Invariably on Good Friday in the course of his address on the Sixth Word
from The Cross, Frank Nelson spoke of Stein's influence upon him and
upon Christ Church: "The work he began is witnessed to by you who are
here. You wouldn't have been here forty years ago or the likes of you
would not have been here, but he opened the door of life and the spirit
to the people of this city, as to the members of this church. His work
goes on. The thing that God wanted him to do he did, and it was
finished." He expressed himself in more intimate fashion to his friend
Bishop Touret: "The heart of all its worth (Nelson's own forty years'
ministry) has been that I was carrying on for Alexis. I've first been
his assistant in my own mind always, and that has made it possible for
me to dare to undertake it." If Stein's work was finished, and a prophet
needs no great length of time, then it was brought to fruition through
the resolute efforts of this devoted servant who with great humility and
genuine searchings of heart took up the reins so tragically
relinquished.
Frank H. Nelson was elected Rector of Christ Church on May 5, 1900. In
the light of subsequent events his letter of acceptance is of interest:
May 16, 1900
Gentlemen:
In a letter from your Secretary, I have been informed of your
action of last Saturday, in electing me to succeed the Rev.
Alexis Stein, as Rector of Christ Church. That I appreciate very
deeply the honor that you have conferred upon me, I do not need
to say. I have considered the subject very carefully, and painful
to us all though the circumstances are that have led to this, I
feel strangely that it is God's work we have undertaken, and that
He has led us in it all. I therefore accept the call you have
given me, and I believe that working together we can, with God's
help, do a real work for Him in this city. For the success of the
work I regard two things as essential: the first that the Church
shall remain absolutely free, and the second that the lines of
work represented by the Parish House shall be continued. I ask
your cooperation and support in them both. I am writing the Rev.
J. H. Melish to ask him to be my associate. I hope to have him
begin his work with us in June. I feel deeply the burden of
responsibility, and the great opportunity that your call
involves. I can but say that I shall do all in my power to be
faithful to both.
Frank Nelson distrusted his own ability. Stein's preaching had packed
the church, and the numbers drastically declined when his eloquent voice
was stilled. The Bishop, conscious of the difficult problem confronting
a downtown church, advised Rev. Mr. Melish not to become associated,
saying "Stein could have solved it, but Frank Nelson never will." The
Bishop, however, had not sufficient evidence to gauge the young rector's
talents, nor could he foresee the capacity of the parish to respond to
the man's magnetic appeal.
There was at this time not only a break in the center of population in
the city, but also a shifting of the center of gravity in religion.
There was dawning a unity of the spirit which led men to break away from
the orthodox emphasis on creeds, and which strove to express itself in
many forms; such as parish houses, Christian associations, reforms, and
educational and missionary movements. Mr. Nelson's mind, being busy with
the stars, was concerned with the moral and spiritual movement which
outlasts the stars. He said, "To some of us it seems that Jesus was not
so much interested in establishing an institution as in revealing a new
quality of life." Likewise, Frank Nelson was not so much interested in
being the rector of a large, prosperous parish as in making the church
an agency for leavening the city's life with the spirit of Jesus Christ.
He caught the imagination of his people when he pointed to the
possibility of a church becoming the community center for multitudes in
the downtown district. In the near neighborhood of Christ Church were
new offices, factories, and boarding houses, and at the distance of one
block began the tenement houses where lived the poor and
underprivileged. He said:
We owe to them the gift of Christian friendship, of spiritual
influence irrespective of religious affiliations. The church
should provide not only a place to pray, but to play; a place not
only for worship, but for friendship. There are no places for
leisure except the streets, saloons, burlesque houses,
pool-rooms, public dance halls, or other commercial places of
entertainment. The Church is not here for its own sake. It is
here to bear witness, and to spread a spirit. It should be the
center from which radiate the forces of righteousness and the
spirit of brotherhood and every human activity and interest in
the community. Therefore, it must speak not to the individual
only, but to the business, social, and political problems,
dealing with them not from the viewpoint of the economist or
political theorist, but from that of the preacher of
righteousness. If Christ Church can be a force for righteousness
in the city, it matters but little whether it gain in numbers.[6]
"Distinction," it has been said, "is the emphasis put upon qualities by
circumstances." There were two circumstances which enabled this young
rector to create in Christ Church, Cincinnati a far-famed chapter in the
history of American churches and cities. One was his conception of the
place and function of the modern church in the new age, as just
outlined. It has been the reproach of the Protestant Churches that they
have too largely attracted only the well-to-do and middle classes. Frank
Nelson made Christ Church a place where rich and poor met on equal
footing. Drawn by his personality, both responded to his vision. There
was something about working in his parish that gave people a peculiar
zest and joy in living. There was, for instance, a Jewish lad in the
Sunday School, (Mr. Nelson never liked the term Church School) who after
his marriage came every Christmas to Christ Church with his wife and two
children. He proudly introduced them to Mr. Nelson, saying, "Though I am
a Jew, this is my church!"
On the other hand, Mr. Nelson's special gifts as a rector were developed
and brought into full flower in Christ Church because of the many
remarkable people who formed the backbone of his parish. In point of
numbers and in ability, they were an unusual group, a group
characterized by breadth of vision, and by a faith sufficient for them
to carry through the bold projects outlined by their leader. Many were
blessed with abundant means, and, above all, were filled with a
consummate loyalty and affection for their church. In this happy
partnership of pastor and parish, each inspired the other to great
accomplishment. The older members who were in the parish at the
beginning of Mr. Nelson's rectorship were vigorous, strong-minded people
accustomed to having their own way. They hewed to the old lines,
suspicious of change. With his deep sense of loyalty, Mr. Nelson felt
bound to maintain the sort of practices and low-church ceremony which
prevailed when he took over, but such was his adroitness, skill and tact
in leading them that he won their complete confidence and trust, and
they gave him an unreserved support as well as a free hand in many
things. This unbounded support of his early work he never forgot; nor
did he let his appreciation diminish with the success of later years. In
the course of the observances that marked his forty years as rector, he
said of them:
We found here, as the days went on, a group of people that I
think have never been equaled. Not a very large group of people,
but a group of people who gave us freedom--freedom to speak the
thing that was in our minds: to do the things that we believed
the Church ought to do and to stand for in the heart of a great
city.
A new parish house had been erected as Alexis Stein's rectorship closed,
and Mr. Nelson's organizing abilities made it hum. With the assistance
of the Rev. J. Howard Melish, the most competent of all his clerical
assistants, a Men's Club was organized, and became a mecca for the young
men of the city. For those of small means, it was the only sort of club
available, and was thrown open to every race and creed. In 1901 the
yearly attendance was 7,000, and by 1903 it had grown to 16,973. In line
with the policy of a community center, the Club included members of all
faiths, Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic. The Roman priest was always
notified of Catholics joining the club and informed that no proselyting
was intended, but rather that it was hoped these young men would become
better members of their own church. Athletic grounds were secured
together with a field-house, and Christ Church teams won an enviable
reputation for high standards of sportsmanship. Their spirit may be
judged by the story of a football player who waxed into colorful
profanity in the heat of a game and was bawled out by a Roman Catholic
teammate in terse words: "Don't you know who you represent?" During an
interim when another parish house was being built, Christ Church
basketball teams used the Holy Cross Monastery Hall for an entire year,
with the full approval of the Roman authorities and the gratitude of Mr.
Nelson. At that time, the captain of the Christ Church team, John M.
Cronin, was a prefect of the St. Xavier Sodality and also the secretary
of the Christ Church Men's Club. By 1911 it was necessary to limit the
Club's membership to six hundred, and there was always a long waiting
list. The social atmosphere, the entertainments, the athletic record,
the camp established by the church on the Miami River made this club one
of the most popular in the city. Mr. Nelson and Mr. Melish spent untold
hours in the work and gained an intimate knowledge of the individual
members and their views, particularly on labor questions. The men
expressed themselves freely, and at the close of an evening's discussion
Mr. Nelson would gather up the points of argument into a clear and
effective summary easily understood and remembered. It was in this club
that a small group once earnestly discussed how they might best help a
member when he should be released from a prison term which he was
serving. Nothing gratified the rector more than this sort of human
comradeship because it is the very essence of the Christian fellowship
which he was striving to implant.
As time went on, an increasing number of girls and young women entering
the business world created a social problem which weighed heavily on the
rector's mind and heart. Knowing the special conditions which these
young women must meet in a large city, he applied grave thought and much
energy to the study of their needs and to the opportunity which Christ
Church had in meeting them. Finding nothing for them socially in the
city except the Y.W.C.A., some distance away, he sent invitations to
department stores for a meeting at the parish house. At this meeting he
proposed to establish a branch of the Girls' Friendly Society which is
found throughout the Episcopal Church and which exists for social and
educational purposes. Mr. Nelson gave himself particularly to this
organization. He gathered a set of workers in the parish, women of
character and cultural background, who became the leaders and friends of
the various groups. He was a frequent visitor at meetings and often
conducted a question box. He encouraged the members to make it one of
their prime objectives to work for the city's interest. The rapid growth
of the Society enabled it to support a bed in the Children's Hospital,
to finance the Vacation House on the Ohio River, and to promote other
civic projects. The Christ Church organization became one of the largest
and most active branches in the national society, and had a succession
of remarkable directors, such as Deaconess Lloyd and Miss Alice Simrall.
Mr. Nelson's faith and incomparable friendship as well as his careful
planning made the Girls' Friendly a strong and useful force in
Cincinnati and an influence in the national body.
In those days the public schools provided nothing in the way of training
in the practical arts, and a large work along these lines was carried on
among the boys and girls who lived in the districts adjacent to Christ
Church. The Sewing School, for instance, grew in membership in three
years from twenty-four to over two hundred under unfavorable conditions
in the already cramped parish house. When the College Settlement on
Third Street closed, the church took over its kindergarten equipment and
its list of members, and every morning gathered in the children of
pre-school age.
When some people said it was a mistake to make a parish house a
community center, because in their minds it was being used only for
social purposes, Mr. Nelson's scorn was beautiful to hear. He asserted,
"The Church claims to be the Body of Christ, doesn't it? How did our
Lord regard His body? He used it freely with no thought of preserving
it, even to the final extent of hanging it upon a Cross. This is the
only way, His Way, that the Church will have eternal life."
Not many years passed before it became apparent that the parish house,
though not an old building, was literally worn out and was entirely
inadequate for such an extensive work. In 1907 Mr. Nelson announced the
gift of a new parish house from Mrs. Thomas J. Emery, a devoted member
of the church. So munificent a gift had rarely been equaled anywhere.
The six-story building, complete in every detail, was not finished until
1909. In it are club rooms, a large auditorium, a gymnasium, locker
rooms, and bowling alleys. At the corner next to the church rises a
beautiful clock tower which before the day of skyscrapers could be seen
from distant parts of the city, and which has been sketched by many
artists. Under the impetus of this gift the parish took on increased
vigor and extended the work into new fields. A Baby Clinic set up by the
Visiting Nurses' Association provided one more opportunity for service;
in 1910 the problem of crowded conditions in the nearby Guilford School
was solved by the use of Christ Church parish house for Kindergarten
and Domestic Science classes. It was a long list of services which gave
Christ Church and Mr. Nelson a far reaching reputation for efficient and
intelligent social service.
In the Parish House we meet each other, not as having the same
point of view, the same opportunities, but as having a common
humanity infinitely various in thought, in faith, in desire. Each
may learn from each, and grow in breadth and depth, and the
knowledge of God through his brother. It is in recognition of
this that we have a free church and free parish house. No
distinction of wealth may mar the worship in the one; no
distinction of faith may hinder the service in the other.[7]
The passing years brought fresh opportunities which were seized upon
with tireless energy by this far-seeing rector. In August, 1917 came the
opportunity to establish a Red Cross unit which through day and evening
groups enlisted the woman power of the parish. At the close of the war,
Mr. Nelson envisioned the continuance of this work on a scale far
exceeding the conventional idea of church missionary work. Tactfully
overcoming certain prejudices and narrow points of view, he again
secured the enthusiastic support of the same group of women. This unit
became one of the largest and most diligent organizations in the parish,
continuing the indispensable Red Cross work, and enlisting larger
numbers in the special program of the Woman's Auxiliary as it is
conducted in Episcopal parishes throughout the country.