Bay City, Michigan 48706
Front Page 03/28/2024 13:03 About us
www.mybaycity.com October 10, 2013
(Prior Story)   Columns ArTicle 8463   (Next Story)

ROCK OF FAITH: First Presbyterian Church Opens 1891 Time Capsule

October 10, 2013       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

Printer Friendly Story View

Workers remove 121 year old time capsule from cornerstone of First Presbyterian Church.
(Photo courtesy Geraldine Higgs)
 

"A history, a tradition, a building are but a part of the First Presbyterian Church. The strength of our church is its people."



That is the purposeful statement of the First Presbyterian Church of Bay City, the operative concept of its 157 years of existence.

The congregation recently opened a time capsule sealed into the cornerstone when the church was built more than 120 years ago. Among artifacts in the leaden box of the capsule were: names of church members from June 25, 1891; sermons by former pastor Rev. J. Ambrose Wight; an account of the 25th anniversary of the church and sabbath school from May 1-2, 1881; reminiscences by former Bay County Probate Judge Albert Miller; and several newspapers from that time.

Judge Miller wrote: "This beautiful region of northern Michigan, between the northern limits of Oakland county and the Straits of Mackinaw, now teeming with life and industry, with great religious privileges and educational facilities, was known to the writer when it was a howling wilderness, inhabited only by Indians and wild beasts of the forest, except a settlement of white people in what is now Genesee county, containing about seventy souls, and twenty-eight whites at Saginaw."

"The Presbyterian presence was evident and at work in the early 1840's," states the history. Part of that early history was formed by one of the nation's visionaries, James Gillespie Birney (1792-1857).

Growing up in Danville, Kentucky, Birney was brought up in the Episcopal Church, but his Aunt Margaret Doyle often took him to the Presbyterian Church.

As a pioneer in Alabama, Princeton-educated Birney chose to be a Presbyterian because of the revival spirit sweeping through its congregations, according to biographer Betty Fladeland. The revival spirit of the "Second Great Awakening" sparked by Rev. Charles Grandison Finney, went hand-in-hand with the upsurge in democratic faith rooted in the ideals of Thomas Jefferson.

Birney embraced Jefferson's words "all men are created equal," which cost him his political position, his wealth and almost his life in the slavery-bound South where many considered equality to be merely an abstract goal.

Returning to Kentucky in 1834, Birney took his anti-slavery crusade first to the ministers and elders of the Presbyterian Church. Moving on to pro-slavery Cincinnati, he published the anti-slavery weekly Philanthropist at great peril.

When 50-year-old Birney moved to Saginaw County, Michigan, in 1841 with his new wife, Elizabeth Fitzhugh, and five of his six children, he began holding religious meetings in a schoolhouse that could be considered the wellspring of the Presbyterian Church in Bay City.

A disconsolate Birney, having been a distant third in Presidential campaigns of 1840 and 1844, and having been badly injured in a fall from a horse here in 1845, moved on to his last home, Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

On July 28, 1856, the first regular meeting of the Citizens of Lower Saginaw was held for the purpose of organizing a Presbyterian Church. The name of the organization was chosen: The first Presbyterian Society of Lower Saginaw.

Birney died in 1857 and was buried in Livingston County, New York, having spent his life on an anti-slavery quest paving the way for Abraham Lincoln but not fulfilled until the end of the Civil War.

The first meeting of the Society, as an organized church, was on September 5, 1856. The first members included two men and six women. After meeting in Birney Hall and sometimes in a court room, funds were raised in 1861 for the first Presbyterian Church building, located between 9th and 10th Streets on the east side of Washington Avenue, across from a grove of trees the Indians sometimes used as a campground. A short time after its completion and dedication, in the midst of a communion service, it took fire and was burned. The building was totally lost in the presence of a sorrowing congregation.

Through energetic efforts, a new church was built on Washington Street opposite City Hall. Its dedication took place December 25, 1863. The congregation worshiped there until our present site was purchased in 1883. The cornerstone was laid July 23, 1891 and the church was dedicated July 6, 1893.

The total cost of the ground, buildings and furniture was $105,000, the Bay City Times-Tribune reported, adding: "The structure is of Ionia sandstone and the auditorium affords sittings for 1,100 persons.

"There is a spacious chapel at the rear, with Sabbath-school rooms, ladies parlors and apartments for Bible classes. Underneath the chapel is a large dining room, with kitchen, pantries, and toilet rooms.

"The interior finish of the auditorium and chapel is of quartered white oak, and the church, in its architecture, construction and appointments, is one of the most elegant and commodious houses of worship in the State."

In 1941 the church was remodeled, rededicated and completely refurbished for its 50th Anniversary. In the chancel, a magnificent organ of over 4000 pipes was installed.

In 1958 a 28,000 square foot addition of 56 rooms including a nursery, classrooms, kitchen, fellowship hall, parlor, offices, study and chapel was added at the cost of $670,000.

The Gothic style building which contains the Sanctuary was once again restored to its original Victorian beauty in an extensive renovation project beginning in 1979. The aging organ was replaced by a Casavant Freres Pipe organ in 1983. It was specifically designed for our sanctuary and has 38 stops, 54 ranks of pipes, over 3000 pipes. Today this building houses: the choir room, Heritage Parlor, the Wheel and several meeting rooms.

In 1999 the church embarked upon a "Keeping the Covenant and Leaving a Legacy" campaign. The $2 million construction project made major improvements to entrance ways, the commons and courtyard, stained glass, exterior stone restoration, construction of an elevator, roof repairs, technology upgrades and more.

The church building was listed on the State Registry of Historic Sites in May of 2001.

The church history concludes:

"The First Presbyterian Church of Bay City is more than statistics, more than a beautiful building, more than organizations and activities. It is a story part of a larger history. It is a covenant community which has contributed to the nurture of countless lives, and the development of our community. For nearly 150 years our ministry has been one that distinguished itself in service to the Bay County area and beyond with a sense of resiliency, fortitude, foresight, focus and faithfulness.

"Our history is not something complete, concluded and closed, but the corpus from and for which we continue. It is an important part of our story. A rich, proud and fruitful heritage forms a firm foundation for continuing ministry in Christ's name and ever boldly moving forward in faith together."



Printer Friendly Story View
Prior Article

February 10, 2020
by: Rachel Reh
Family Winter Fun Fest is BACC Hot Spot for 2/10/2020
Next Article

February 2, 2020
by: Kathy Rupert-Mathews
MOVIE REVIEW: "Just Mercy" ... You Will Shed Tears, or at Least You Should
Agree? or Disagree?


Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

More from Dave Rogers

Send This Story to a Friend!       Letter to the editor       Link to this Story
Printer-Friendly Story View


--- Advertisments ---
     


0200 Nd: 03-24-2024 d 4 cpr 0






12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm

SPONSORED LINKS



12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm


Designed at OJ Advertising, Inc. (V3) (v3) Software by Mid-Michigan Computer Consultants
Bay City, Michigan USA
All Photographs and Content Copyright © 1998 - 2024 by OJA/MMCC. They may be used by permission only.
P3V3-0200 (1) 0   ID:Default   UserID:Default   Type:reader   R:x   PubID:mbC   NewspaperID:noPaperID
  pid:1560   pd:11-18-2012   nd:2024-03-24   ax:2024-03-28   Site:5   ArticleID:8463   MaxA: 999999   MaxAA: 999999
claudebot