By 1889 the Sacramento Unitarian Society had paid for a $2,000 lot and had pledges for the construction of a building1 and a bank account for that purpose. The outcome of that effort is not recorded; instead, in March of 1892, a new Unitarian organization replaced the previous one.
There is no record of the events leading to the reorganization of 1892, but there are intimations that it was the result of an internecine battle. Minutes of the Board of Directors for that period, still in Society files, are silent on that point but relate details of reorganization. On March 10, 1892, in a meeting of fifteen members held in Pioneer Hall, the name “First Unitarian Society of Sacramento” was adopted, and legal incorporation for a term of fifty years was begun under a newly elected board of trustees headed by Dr. Henry Lambard Nichols as president.
In a meeting a week later, three of the trustees resigned from the Society, resulting in a new election and the acceptance of an interim minister for replacing Reverend C. P. Massey, who remained a member although there were contested financial differences between him and the Society. These were eventually settled by submission of the dispute over a sum of money to an arbitrator whose decision was to be binding upon both parties. In April of 1892 the incorporation and newly adopted by-laws provided for membership in a body defined as Liberal Christian:
Any person over eighteen years of age approved by the pastor and Board of Directors may become a member of this Society, by signing the following Church Covenant: In the love of truth and in the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth for the purpose of sustaining liberal Christian worship, of inciting each other to good works and right living, we subscribers write ourselves together as the First Unitarian Society of Sacramento and promise to aid in the maintenance of the Society according to our ability.
In October of that year Reverend T. J. Horner of Westford, Massachusetts, was appointed as minister at an annual salary of $1,500, with two months‘ vacation in summer. During that period the American Unitarian Association was providing $400 a year for the support of the Society, which had been assisted over the years by both the national and Pacific Coast bodies.
Formal installation of the new minister was in January of 1893. Evidently, that service was held in the synagogue of Congregation B‘Nai Israel, as was noted in the January 30th minutes of the Board of Directors recording a resolution thanking Congregation B‘Nai Israel, its officers, and Rabbi J. L. Levy for the use of the synagogue during the past few days. This supports the legend in our Society that there has been a long term friendship between the two bodies.
Meetings of the Society were regularly held in various public or fraternal order buildings. The rent of Unity Hall of the Foresters fraternal order for Sunday services was $6 a month; for social occasions the use of the kitchen and dining room complete with linen, dishes and cleaning-up was $2.50. In the spring of 1893 Sunday services were being held in Pythian Hall, at Ninth and I, starting at eleven o‘clock, followed by Sunday school at fifteen minutes past noon.
Celebration of Easter was the feature of services in March and April of 1893 in a series of sermons in answer to the question, “What Reason is There to Think that Jesus Was More Than Man?” Regular advertisements in the Saturday issues of the Sacramento Bee announced sermon topics of “The Christ Ideal,” “The Deification of Jesus” and “Jesus Brought Back to Humanity.” These meetings brought in about five new members each week to the small but growing First Unitarian Society of Sacramento.
1 Reference to the January, 1889 “News from the Field” department of “The Unitarian” monthly magazine quoted in a letter of 7 April, 1933, from the librarian of the national church headquarters in Boston, to Rev. Robert C. Withington, Sacramento.
« PREV | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | NEXT » Sacramento Unitarians of the 1890s