Rev. John Jacob Faude, rector at Plymouth and Michigan City, Indiana
1 media/Rev John Jacob Faude_thumb.JPG 2019-11-16T18:27:15-08:00 John David Beatty 85388be94808daa88b6f1a0c89beb70cd0fac252 32716 1 Rev. John Jacob Faude, rector at Plymouth and Michigan City, Indiana plain 2019-11-16T18:27:15-08:00 John David Beatty 85388be94808daa88b6f1a0c89beb70cd0fac252This page is referenced by:
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Trinity Episcopal Church, Michigan City
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Trinity Episcopal Church, Michigan City, is officially the second oldest congregation in the Diocese of Northern Indiana. It was actually the first to be established in 1837, but through a technicality in its first year its official organization was delayed until after St. Paul's Mishawaka had been organized.
In the 1830s, pioneers, adventurers, and entrepreneurs began arriving at the new town named Michigan City, platted at the end of the Michigan Road near Lake Michigan. The new road that began at Madison, Indiana, was fulfilling its purpose of encouraging settlers to move from southern Indiana into the scarcely-populated northern part of the state. In 1830, Isaac C. Elston, a real estate speculator, purchased land at the mouth of Trail Creek as the site of his town, which was called Michigan City. In 1832 only one cabin stood, but by 1833 enough settlers had arrived to hold an election for a justice of the peace and to name a postmaster. The stage coach ran through the town three times each week, bringing new residents. In 1834, Charles Cleaver stayed in the local tavern and wrote that in Michigan City, “the buildings consisted of one small brick tavern, a frame one opposite, a blacksmith shop, and half dozen houses built in, on, above and below the sand. It then contained about fifty inhabitants.” However, no church had yet been built. With few people living in the area between Niles, Michigan, South Bend, Indiana, and Michigan City, there were few resources to support a church. Those few clergy who had moved to the area traveled frequently to serve the needs of the new settlers.
The first Episcopal Church service held at Michigan City occurred in October 1834, when the Rev. Palmer Dyer preached what is considered the first sermon in town. However, Bishop Philander Chase is given more formal credit for getting church services going. Chase, formerly Bishop of Ohio, had settled with his family for a time on a farm near Niles, Michigan. In the same month that Dyer preached, Chase visited the town and recorded in his diary that he “stopped in Michigan City, read the service, visited with a few people, drove through the sand dunes along the lake, and in the evening again read the service.” By this date there were about 700 residents. A few months later in 1835, Chase was elected Bishop of Illinois. On his way to Illinois from Niles, he again stopped in Michigan City and recorded the event in his diary: “Preached the first sermon ever delivered there from an Episcopal minister. This was in a large schoolhouse well filled with attentive auditors.”
With a lack of clergy from its inception, Michigan City's community of Episcopalians depended on the work of its faithful members reading Morning Prayer. The first recorded communicants who arrived in 1835 included Zebina Gould, Dr. H. T. Maxon, and Schuyler Pulford, who later served as wardens and vestrymen of the fledgling church. Gould, a bachelor and native of Charlton, Massachusetts in 1803, had arrived by way of Rochester, New York, in the spring of that year, and wrote that he considered himself a "stranger in a strange land" until another communicant arrived that fall.
Gould and others made arrangements with the Rev. James Selkrig, missionary at Niles, Michigan, to travel periodically to serve the spiritual needs of the new community. On December 11, 1835, he held services in the building used by the growing congregation as the first church in Michigan City. This structure was located at the corner of Fourth and Pine streets, and it later housed the congregation until 1858.
When Jackson Kemper was appointed Missionary Bishop, Gould wrote him a letter of welcome in March 1836 and invited him to establish a church in Michigan City. He extolled what he deemed the town's future prospects: "A single glance... at a map will show you that from its local situation, being at the extreme head of Lake Michigan and the only port upon the Lakes...It must ere long become the great inlet and outlet for all the imports and exports of this truly fertile and flourishing State."
Indeed, Michigan City was incorporated as a city later that same year. Gould and another parishioner induced the Rev. J. W. Hallam of Chicago to visit in June and conduct two services. Selkrig returned in the fall for a service, and the congregation increased in strength such that by the season of Advent, the congregation organized itself informally without a clergyman as the "Church of the Advent."
Due to a conflict with state law and the fact that no official papers had been filed, the congregation had to organize itself again in 1837, and they changed the the name to “Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church.” Gould attempted to entice the Rev. Burton H. Hickox of Watertown, New York, to serve as the first rector, but the effort fell through when the missionary chose to settle in Maumee, Ohio. Gould wrote to Kemper in April 1837, hoping the bishop could recruit a clergyman, but he hoped the missionary would not have a large family, since the parish could not support him. Nevertheless, Gould expressed his congregation's high standards. "The people of our place are mostly from the East, where they have been accustomed to hearing men of the first order of talents & one of anything less would scarcely meet their expectations or succeed in building up a congregation."
Kemper visited the newly-named parish for the first time in August 1837. With his encouragement, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of New York sent the Rev. Daniel Van Mater Johnson, a cousin of the Rev. Samuel Roosevelt Johnson of Lafayette, to serve as missionary and became the town's first settled priest on 1 February 1838. Gould purchased hymnals, prayerbooks, and other books for the parish from the Sunday School Union. Johnson met all of Gould's expectations and was a talented priest. In his first report to the society, the missionary wrote: “The large room which the congregation has neatly fitted up is almost full of attentive listeners to the preached gospel.” Regular participation in the sacraments thus began with the first baptism in February 1838, the first marriage in April, and the first confirmation in January 1839. After two years the society concluded that its aid was no longer necessary and that Trinity could be self-supporting.
The history of Michigan City and that of Trinity Episcopal Church are inseparably intertwined. The strength and prominence of the church was due to the faithful service of its wardens and vestry, many of whom were also civic leaders. Gould, elected the first Senior Warden in 1837 and Trinity's chief lay supporter, also served as the city harbor wheat inspector for the growing shipping industry. Other early members included T. B. W. Stockton, Samuel Mower, Charles Palmer, and H. I. Rees, all of whom served as early mayors. Augustus Barber was an early postmaster and city treasurer. Urial C. Follet also served for many years as treasurer.
Michigan City evolved over time from humble beginnings, but progress was slow. When Bishop George Upfold visited in April 1850, he arrived by rail after having visited Detroit. Less optimistic than Kemper about the town's prospects, he commented: "This is a doleful looking place - separated from the lake by immense hills of sand - and surrounded by a very dreary looking country. There are about 1500 inhabitants. It is very irregularly built, and there are few fine looking houses." Over time, the town would grow, and its appearance as a town became more defined.
More than any other lay leader, Urial Follet had the most significant influence on the growth and development of Trinity Church. He served for 25 years as a vestrymen from 1849 to 1862, and again from 1864 to 1872. He served as Senior Warden for 24 years in 1863 and from 1872 to 1896. His generosity made the present endowment fund possible. In spite of the tragic loss of all three of his children, his faith endured. The memorial gift of the white marble baptismal font in honor of his children is used to this day. He led the parish through the Civil War, economic depressions, and panics, as well as through the industrial growth of Michigan City. During his years of leadership, Trinity had 15 rectors, and two churches were built.
By mid-century, the pioneer church on Pine Street was no longer adequate to meet the needs of the congregation or the growing importance of the Episcopal church in the social and political life of the city. The rector at this time was the Rev. Caleb A. Bruce, formerly rector of Trinity Fort Wayne, who in his long career built six new churches from Michigan to Arkansas. Under the patriarchal leadership of Zebina Gould and Urial Follet, the vestry resolved to seek subscriptions for a new church. The congregation acquired the property at the corner of Sixth and Franklin streets, essentially the geographic center of the town. A new wood frame church was built in the prevailing architectural style of the time called “Carpenter Gothic.” It was a demonstrative statement of the church’s prominence in the community.
The fortunes of Trinity Church rose with the growth and development of Michigan City as both a port of commerce and an industrial manufacturing site. The largest and most significant industry was the manufacture of railroad cars by the Barker and Haskell Company. Three generations of the Barker family left their imprint on Trinity as major patrons. The marriage of John Barker Sr. and his wife Cordelia in 1841 was one of the first recorded at Trinity. Both his son, the industrialist John H. Barker, and his granddaughter, Catherine Barker Hickox, donated buildings and many improvements to the property at 6th and Franklin streets.
Success as an industrialist did not insulate the younger John Barker from personal tragedy, when his three children by his first wife all died in infancy. The construction of the first Barker Hall, a building attached to the church, became his memorial to his children. It served the congregation as both community center and school with classrooms and an auditorium.
During the 30 years between 1858 and 1888, the Trinity Church congregation experienced a six-fold growth. Under the continuing leadership of Follet as Senior Warden and the influence of Barker and banker W.W. Vail as vestrymen, the old wooden church was deemed no longer adequate in size or style for the congregation. In 1889 the third Trinity church seating 450 was built of Indiana limestone. Designed by Chicago architect Henry Starbuck in the Romanesque Revival architectural style, it matched the grandeur of any Chicago building of its day.
In 1898 the Diocese of Indiana was divided with the northern portion of the state becoming a separate diocese. The vestry, under the continued leadership and financial backing of Barker, voted to offer Trinity as the cathedral church. Bishop John Hazen White took residence in the rectory as both rector of Trinity parish and the first bishop of the new Diocese of Michigan City. The Very Rev. Walter S. Howard served as the first dean and associate rector. In 1901, Barker, at his expense, replaced the old rectory with a grander eight-bedroom mansion as a residence for the bishop. In 1910 Mrs. Barker donated the Gothic arched cloister that connects the church to the bishop’s residence. However, changes in liturgical style and lay leadership brought conflict to Trinity parish. Bishop White was too High Church or Anglo-Catholic in his liturgical preferences for the parish's tastes, and the vestry demanded that the dean of the cathedral be of Low Church style against the bishop's wishes. Relations between the bishop and the vestry soured and eventually ruptured. John Barker died in 1911, and by 1918, Trinity's cathedral status had been revoked at White's insistence. With the bishop relocating to South Bend, the diocese was renamed Northern Indiana, though it had no designated cathedral at that time.
It is a testament to the spiritual fortitude of the Trinity congregation that in its first 100 years the parish thrived without clergy leadership for 15 years and nine months. Twenty-five rectors served Trinity with each staying an average of one year, nine months. Only five rectors served more than five years.
The 20th century brought stronger clergy leaders who served for much longer terms, resulting in congregational development. New buildings and renovations were added to the Trinity church complex. Lay leadership remained as a core strength of the congregation, with several parishioners serving multiple terms as senior warden. The beauty of the church and its worship services were enhanced through numerous furnishings, gifts, and memorials from parishioners. Ministries included choir and organ, Altar Guild, Acolytes, Youth Group, and Women of Trinity.
By the 1920s the congregation had outgrown the space provided by the first Barker Hall. The Rev. Earl Ray Hart coordinated the gift of a new Barker Hall, financed by the railroad car heiress Catherine Barker Hickox, daughter of John H. Barker. Her gift included a substantial endowment for the maintenance of the hall. The new facility was constructed in 1929 as a memorial to her father and his deceased children. Dedicated “for the use of the people,” the building became a social and cultural center for the entire community. Along with the “Great Hall.” meeting rooms, classrooms, and offices, a chapel expanded the opportunities for worship.
During the rectorship of the Rev. David Reid in 1956, significant alterations were made to the layout of the 67-year-old church in the name of modernization and to fit better with changes in liturgical style. Entrances were rearranged, the choir and organ were moved, and open arches were closed, changing the essential character of the sacred space. At that time, growth of Michigan City’s lakefront communities and a desire to offer alternative liturgical worship lead several Trinity’s lay leaders to found St. Andrews by the Lake Church.
The long rectorship of the Rev. Robert Center from 1964 to 1988 provided stability for the parish during the time when Michigan City was undergoing both economic and urban transformation. The departure of manufacturing industries, combined with the forces of urban renewal and changes in consumer shopping, left the historic center of the city with mostly empty storefronts. Trinity Church and Barker Hall were no longer at the cultural, social, and geographic center of the city, as new city development occurred to the south. Nonetheless, Trinity’s congregation supported extensive repairs and maintenance projects, including a new slate roof for the church. An additional endowment fund was established to support the ongoing maintenance of the church and rectory. Throughout the ten-year rectorship of Father Stephen Gerth, Trinity maintained its identity as a locus of traditional Anglo-Catholic worship.
In the twenty-first century, Trinity has been sustained by the faithful service of its lay leaders and the visiting ministry of the Rev. Canon Hugh Page Jr., Vice President of the University of Notre Dame. Recognizing its important role in servicing the community, Trinity leaders established a Food Pantry program, continued its Thrift Shop ministry, and hosted community events in Barker Hall.
As Michigan City heads into the third decade of the century, it is once again at the center of an urban development: Michigan City’s revitalizing Arts District. The beauty of Episcopal worship remains at the center of parish life. A youth music program provides spiritual growth and education for children. Service to neighbors continues to make Trinity integral to Michigan City community life. Under the guidance of dedicated wardens and vestry, and the ministry of Father Joseph Tamborini Czolgosz, Trinity remains a loving community dedicated to serving the spiritual, social, and cultural needs of Michigan City in the name of Jesus Christ.
Clergy:
Daniel Van Mater Johnson, 1838-1841
Solon Wines Manney, 1841, 1843-1847
George Bartly Engle, 1841-1843
Fortune Charles Brown, 1847-1851
Henry Monroe Safford, 1852-1855
Caleb Alexander Bruce, 1855-1859
William Henry Stoy, 1859-1860
Edward Purdon Wright, 1860-1861
Richard Leo Ganter, 1863-1865
Thomas Lloyd Bellam, 1865-1866
John Frank Winkley, 1868
Abraham Reeves, 1869-1870
Richard Brass, 1870-1873
Samuel Johnson French, 1875-1879
Charles James Wood, 1879-1881
John Jacob Faude, 1882-1890
Herman Baldwin Dean, 1890-1891
Niles Wright Heermans, 1891-1898
John Hazen White, 1898-1905
Walter Simon Howard, (dean and associate rector), 1898-1905
Frank Ernest Aitkins, 1905-1910
Walter Stephen Trowbridge, 1910-1917
James Andrew Miller, 1918-1922
Jesse Ketchum Brennan, 1922-1927
Earl Ray Hart, 1927-1938
William Aaron Driver, 1938-1943
Russell Garfield Flagg, 1943-1950
David Joseph Reid, 1950-1963
Robert June Center, 1964-1988
Stephen Shea Gerth, 1988-1999
Eugene Edmund Kohlbecker, 2001-2007
Anthony F. M. Clavier, 2010-2012
Tanya Scheff, 2014-2017
Joseph Tamborini Czolgosz, 2018-2020
Kathy Townley, 2021-2022
Robert Rhodes, 2022-
Text adapted from from "History of Trinity Church [Michigan City]"
Bibliography:
Robert J. Center, Trinity Episcopal Church, Michigan City, Indiana, 1834-1984: A History of the First One Hundred Fifty Years. Michigan City: Trinity Episcopal Church, 1985.
Centennial, Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, Michigan City, 1834-1934
Parish Registers (Forthcoming)
Book 1, 1838-1872
Book 1 transcription (to correct legibility problems)
Book 2, 1873-1882
Book 3, 1882-1914
Book 4, 1914-1927
Book 5, 1928-1947
Book 6, 1947-1955
Zebina Gould Papers, 1836-1841, on the Founding of Trinity
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St. Thomas-Santo Tomas Episcopal Church, Plymouth
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In October 1856, the Rev. Almon Gregory, rector of St. Paul's, La Porte, arrived in Plymouth and began conducting "house services" as an Episcopal missionary. He led the first service on 19 December 1856, when fourteen people gathered in the Presbyterian Church for a sermon. He promised to return once a fortnight, holding later services at the home of Joseph Westervelt. This first congregation was still not formally organized and had no lay leadership. Bishop George Upfold visited the town in 1858, 1860, and 1861, confirming several persons and encouraging Gregory's efforts. On 23 March 1861, the congregation finally organized officially as St. Thomas Episcopal Church with the election of Gilson L. Cleveland and A. O. Packard as wardens, and Charles Palmer, Thomas McDonald, and John G. Osborne as vestrymen. Other early leaders included Mrs. Sarah Westervelt and John C. Cushman.
During these formative years the congregation gained the support of Henry C. Carter of New York City, who donated a lot on Center Street for the building of a chapel in May 1860. The vestry raised funds to build the small frame church at a cost of $10,000. The first Eucharist was celebrated on 27 June 1860 in the Presbyterian Church; the second was held in November 1860 and the third, the first in the new chapel, was celebrated by Gregory on 3 April 1861. The Rev. Louis Tschiffely arrived in October 1861 and became the parish's first resident priest. Through his efforts, he secured from Henry Carter a donation of the church's first communion set. By 1865, 73 families attended.
When Bishop Upfold made his visitation to Plymouth in 1863, he baptized the babies of Tschiffely and A. O. Packard. Packard's baby pulled the bishop's beard so hard that it hurt him. He had positive comments notwithstanding, writing that he was pleased to see the church filled with 175 people and that "Tschiffely is doing good work here."
Despite this strong beginning, the parish struggled to find permanence in the years following the Civil War. Both Episcopal clergy and adequate funding were in short supply. Between 1865 and 1870, the Rev. William Lusk, a Presbyterian minister, supplied the parish and performed baptisms and marriages, but he was not able to celebrate the Eucharist. After his departure the parish called several priests who stayed only for a few years. In 1877 the Rev. John Jacob Faude arrived in Plymouth, and under his able leadership the parish built a rectory at a cost of $3,500 in 1881. For several years Faude conducted services at both Michigan City and Plymouth before resigning the Plymouth charge and moving to Michigan City to become its rector, remaining there until 1890 and returning to Plymouth for a brief stint between 1889 and 1890.
Services continued in the chapel until 1905, when the congregation outgrew it. During the tenure of the Rev. Walter S. Howard (formerly dean of the cathedral at Michigan City), the parish built a new edifice of Indiana limestone designed by local architect Jacob Ness and located on the southern part of the lot at the corner of Adams and Center streets. Bishop White consecrated it on St. Thomas Day, 21 December 1909. A few years later the old church was moved and remodeled into a parish hall. Among the priests who served during these years was the Rev. Benjamin F. P. Ivins, who later became Bishop of Milwaukee.
After World War II, the congregation suffered financially, and the building fell into poor repair. The Rev. William Cordick, who had become rector in 1916, retired in 1940 after a 24-year rectorate. After several pastors served short tenures, Bishop Reginald Mallett ordered the Rev. William Sheridan, then at St. Paul's Gas City, to become rector in 1947. It marked the beginning of a 25-year pastorate, during which the parish grew and gained distinction. The building was extensively restored under his leadership. Sheridan also became chaplain of nearby Culver Military Academy. He remained rector until he was elected bishop in 1972, the first bishop chosen among the priests of the diocese. After his retirement, he returned to Plymouth and became a member of the congregation. In the 1990s under the leadership of the Rev. John Schramm, St. Thomas developed a strong ministry with the local Hispanic community and began offering Spanish-language services. Schramm also led several mission trips to Honduras in the 1990s to build churches and do community work. Later, under the rectorship of the Rev. Thomas Haynes, the parish became known under the dual name of St. Thomas-Santo Tomas to better reflect the diversity of the congregation.
Clergy:
Almon Gregory, 1856-1861
Louis Phillippe Tschiffely, 1861-1865
Richard Leo Ganter, 1865
William Lusk, 1865-1870 (Presbyterian supply)
John Portmess, 1870-1871
Samuel Johnson Yundt, 1872-1873
James N. Hume, 1874-1875
Andrew Mackie, 1876-1877
John Jacob Faude, 1877-1886
Thomas Byron Kemp, 1886-1889
John Jacob Faude, 1889-1890
William Wirt Raymond, 1891-1902
Walter Simon Howard, 1902-1910
Benjamin Franklin Price Ivins, 1910-1913
Samuel Winfield Day, 1913-1916
William John Cordick, 1916-1936
Charles Delano Maddox, 1936-1939
Edward Lemuel Roland - 1939-1941
George G. Shilling, 1941-1943
J. Bradford Pengelly (supply), 1944-1945
James Savoy, 1946-1947
William Cockburn Russell Sheridan, 1947-1972
James Gossett Greer, 1972-1976
Gregory Brian Sims, 1976-1981
John Schramm, 1982-2013
Thomas Erskine Haynes, 2013-2019
Bernadette Hartsough, 2020-
Sources:
Marshall County Historical Society, History of Marshall County, Indiana (Plymouth: Marshall County Historical Society, 1986), p. 27.
Parish Registers:
First Book, 1857-1871: Baptisms, Marriages, Burials, Confirmations, Visitations, History, Sponsors
Book 2, 1872-1890, History, Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Burials
Book 3, 1892-1910, Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Burials
Book 4, 1909-1956, Communicants, Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Burials
Book 5 [marked as Book 1], 1956-1977, Communicants, Baptisms, Marriages, Burials, Confirmations, Index
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Rev. John Jacob Faude
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The Rev. John Jacob Faude was born in Tuttlingen, Wuerttemberg, Germany on 29 August 1852, the son of Philipp Friederich and Henriette Caroline (Riess) Faude. He came to America with his parents when aged 7 and settled in Coldwater, Michigan. He graduated from Racine College, where he had sung in its choir, and later Nashotah House. In 1870 he worked as a school teacher in Branch County, Michigan, but he later settled in Indiana and married in Marshall County on 7 October 1875, Florence S. Hollund. Faude was ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Talbot in 1877, the same year he was given charge of St. Thomas Church in Plymouth. In 1882, he also took charge of Trinity, Michigan City, and held both posts concurrently.
In 1883, Faude, who served as dean of the Northern Convocation of the Diocese of Indiana, met with the Rev. William Naylor Webbe and vestry of Trinity, Fort Wayne, to discuss the possibility of creating a new northern diocese. Though the meeting was kept secret from the press, Trinity's vestry pledged issuing a $10,000 bond for it support, should the diocese be created. A second meeting in Fort Wayne after Easter that year included other clergy and gathered increasing support for the idea. When the Diocese of Indiana gathered for its Annual Council in June, the matter the division was brought up, and Bishop Talbot had indicated his consent, even though he was now paralyzed after suffering a stroke. Although Webbe spoke enthusiastically on the subject other clergy broke ranks and opposed it as premature. An article soon appeared in a Cincinnati newspaper accusing Webbe of being overly ambitious in his desire to become the bishop of the new diocese. Webbe rebutted the charge, but Faude disliked the letter and disputed the charge that he had endorsed the plan or supported Webbe's views. Faude said he had counseled waiting to divide the diocese until all parishes in the northern convocation had paid into Bishop Talbot's endowment fund. The clash between the two rectors seemed to dampen any further discussion of the issue for a number of years.
Faude remained at Plymouth until 1886 but stayed at Michigan City until 1890. He also returned briefly to Plymouth in 1889-90. That year he was elected rector of Gethsemane Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, an influential parish which Bishop Knickerbacker had previously led. He remained there until his death from appendicitis on 2 April 1901. At the time of his death, an obituary on the front page of a Minneapolis newspaper said, "He had ... self-control in the highest degree and has always held himself well in hand. He was a natural leader and a born organizer. His work at Michigan City was very successful."