Heritage Sunday1
Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor
10-16-11, Rev. Dr. Sarah M. Foulger
Ecclesiastes 9:13-17; Matthew 11:282
30
The Great Depression stretched carelessly through the 1930s, changing many
Americans and many American institutions irrevocably, ending countless dreams
and sending most of the nation, including the Church, into survival mode. Some of
you know this painfully well because were born into the depression or grew up in
it.
The very words “Great Depression” conjure black and white images of
sorrowfully long soup lines and gaunt-thin farm workers and make-shift squatters’
camps and hobos riding the rails. Yet the 30s were also a time of remarkable
generosity, creativity determination, compassion and a nearly unavoidable soulsearching that was both spiritual and cultural.
These were the days of swing, of Duke Ellington and Tommy Dorsey, the
days of gathering around radios and listening to the next riveting episode of the
Green Hornet or the Lone Ranger. Eugene O’Neill and Lillian Helman and
Thornton Wilder brought incomparable drama to the stage. Hollywood turned out
movie after movie to help define the prevailing desperation and to help people
escape it. John Steinbeck opened our eyes to “The Grapes of Wrath”, while Shirley
Temple flew us to Candyland on “The Good Ship Lollipop”. Margaret Mitchell
illustrated the meaning of survival in “Gone with the Wind”, while the rhythmic
feet of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers preached, “Pick yourself up; dust yourself
off, and start all over again.” Frances Perkins became the first woman to serve in
any presidential cabinet, intrepidly announcing, “I came to Washington to work for
God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen,” while
Amelia Earhart sent imaginations soaring in uncommon flight paths. The Works
Progress Administration3 and the Federal Housing Administration and the Food
Stamps program were about to be developed even as Dorothy Fields4 lyrics
directed our feet to the Sunny Side of the Street and Judy Garland assured us that
“Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue; and the dreams that you dare to
dream really do come true.”
1
Special thanks to Jack Bauman of the History and Archives Committee of The Congregational Church of Boothbay
Harbor for coming up with this year’s Heritage Sunday theme: How the church survived the Great Depression.
Thanks to Chip Griffin and Jack Bauman for gathering up pertinent materials from local and church records.
2
These particular scripture periscopes were selected because they turned up in a search of great sermons from the
Great Depression. The Ecclesiastes passage was the basis of a 1934 Chicago sermon by Douglas Horton, entitled,
“Taking a City” and the Matthew Passage was at the center of a famous 1933 sermon called “Repentance” by the
great theologian, Karl Barth.
3
Later became Work Projects Administration.
4
Fields wrote the lyrics; Jimmy McHugh, the music.
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Here in Maine, the Great Depression did not hit with the lightning bolt
impact experienced in New York. Gradually, the depression crept up the coast
rather like a fog and by 1931, was dampening everything. Maine residents lost jobs
and homes. Salaries were cut. Employees were forced to take unpaid furlough
days. Nineteen shoe factories were closed. The textile industry was hit hard. Taxes
went unpaid, sending the State and its municipalities into unprecedented debt.
Nevertheless, the Great Depression, in Maine and throughout the nation,
brought out the best in some people and some institutions and there were
unexpected blessings, as already mentioned, in the areas of generosity, creativity,
determination, and compassion.
I. Generosity
The Great Depression was a time of meaningful and sometimes surprising
generosity. Those who were forced to tighten their belts considerably were usually
willing to share what they had but there were also stunning acts of generosity on
the part of those who retained their wealth during the Depression.
At a time when churches were struggling mightily, losing members and
facing declining attendance, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. generously opened the doors
of a brand new church, the interdenominational Riverside Church on the west side
of New York City, and he placed Harry Emerson Fosdick in its pulpit. The first
worship service at Riverside took place on October 5, 1930, and, for this grand
occasion, Fosdick wrote the hymn, “God of Grace and God of Glory” asking God
to “grant us courage for the living of these days.”
Such generosity was also seen right here in Maine. In that same year, 1930,
with great generosity of spirit, former governor Percival Baxter purchased nearly
6,000 acres of land including Maine’s tallest peak and gave it to the State along
with an endowment so that the people of Maine would have a place of natural
beauty to enjoy forever. Demonstrating some the aforementioned soul-searching,
Baxter wrote: Man is born to die, his works are short-lived. Buildings crumble,
monuments decay, wealth vanishes. But Katahdin in all its glory, forever shall
remain the mountain of the People of Maine.
Locally, in Boothbay Harbor in 1933, Dr. James Todd generously gave
$5000 to the town (a lot of money at the time5) so that a much-needed town office
with public rest rooms could be constructed.6 This would not have happened
otherwise.
5
One inflation calculator translates $5000 in 1933 into $83,656.11 in 2011. See Dr. Petrosino’s Education Project,
part of the online Hoboken Curriculum Project.
6
This story, along with many others mentioned in this sermon, come from a collection of news items printed in the
Boothbay Register. News items from the 1930s were gathered by Kathleen “Toots” Adams.
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II. Creativity
If generosity took on a new sheen during the depression creativity downright
sparkled. Nationally, Hollywood was taking off. Music became critically important
as an expression of faith and hope and priorities. The hymn, “Precious Lord, Take
My Hand”7 struck an empathic chord: “through the storm, through the night, lead
me on to the light.” Billie Holiday crooned the double-sided lyrics of “Pennies
from Heaven”, singing, “You’ll find your fortune fallin’ all over town.”
Maine joined in the expansion of the arts that took place both in spite of and
because of the Great Depression, in 1931 starting the Portland Concert
Association, now called Portland Ovations8. Locally, one of the institutions that
kept the economy going was the A.K. Cross Art School, which attracted people
from all over the country, including the famous Thomas Watson, co-inventor of the
telephone and President of IBM.9 On Southport, the great illustrator and portrait
artist, Lucius Hitchcock, created and sold some of his finest work throughout the
1930s. The arts were critically important during the Depression, both economically
and spiritually and both nationally and locally.
III. Determination
As always, people in Maine continued to work hard wherever and whenever they
could, displaying dogged determination. The determined work ethic in Maine
served the people well but it is hard to work when jobs are few and far between.
The Boothbay Register reported the selectmen selling off houses, many houses,
that were in arrears. Teachers and pastors and others took pay cuts. Some
businesses failed. But others continued to thrive. Bootlegging, for instance,
remained big business around here at the beginning of the Depression. Throughout
the 30s, there were several local commercial start-ups. The “Tinker Tavern”
opened, as did the “Gray Gull” Restaurant, the Jade Pagoda, and the Smiling Cow
Yarn Corner. A tourist camping ground opened on Oak Street, adjoining the
Congregational Parsonage. Hodgdon Brothers launched the elegant yacht, “Water
Gypsy.” The ice trade was still excellent. With great determination, commerce kept
going and people kept dreaming.
IV. Compassion
During the Depression, there was a broad-spectrum swelling of compassion. The
unemployed, the hungry, the desperately poor were not denigrated as often as they
7
Written by a musician named Tommy Dorsey but not the same Dorsey of Swing fame.
See the Portland Ovations website for additional information.
9
A.K. Cross developed a vision methodology for art instruction and sold specific tools for art. The movement was
based in Ashland, Massachusetts. In 1931, this art school, backed by local business and by the civic club, was
declare to be “a permanent institution of the town.”
8
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are today. From books like “Of Mice and Men” to films such as “Our Daily
Bread”, the poor became heroic figures whose stories of survival were seen as
inspirational. They call to mind the words of Ecclesiastes who tells of a poor wise
man who saves the city and whose wisdom ought to be heeded. There was a
pervasive, not universal but pervasive, compassion for the poor. Behind every soup
and bread line, there were good-hearted people in kitchens, kindly church folk,
baking that bread and making that soup. You didn’t hear people in high places
angrily telling young people to “get a job.” People in high places understood the
fact that there was a debilitating dearth of job opportunities.
We could do with a little more compassion these days. The crowds who are
occupying Wall Street are filled with young people who have no jobs or are
working for minimum wage while burdened with college debt and pitiless people
in power are telling them to “go get a job.” One of these young adults blogged:
“This whole go out and get a job thing is ridiculous. OWS (Occupy Wall Street)
exists because corporations are being bailed out with obscene amounts of money,
yet they aren't hiring.”10
We could do with a little more compassion. In 1932, 100 Christmas dinners
were distributed on the Boothbay Peninsula to persons and families in need by
local organizations working collaboratively. In response to the needs of older
citizens for care, the Lincoln Home was opened during the Depression. Special
collections were taken up regularly so that the basic needs of those who were
struggling the most would be met.11 Gifts of generosity, creativity, determination,
and compassion helped the nation and this community to survive the Great
Depression.
The Church
What about the church? What was happening right here in this building? Well, just
a few days after Harry Emerson Fosdick preached his first sermon at the Riverside
Church, the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor hired a new minister, the
Rev. Elton Kennedy Bassett of Massachusetts.12 It was a challenging time for any
pastor to get started in any church and Elton Bassett did not have a Rockefeller in
his pocket. According to Maine Conference Records, throughout the 1930s,
ministers’ salaries were cut over and over again. Sunday School enrollment
10
www.occupywallst.org
The Civic League, supported by businesses and the churches, took responsibility for caring for the poor.
12
Much of the information conveyed in this section of the sermon was gleaned from minutes of the Business
Committee of The Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor as well as minutes of the Women’s Guild of the
church.
11
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dropped and half of the churches reported no growth at all.13 These were the rough
waters of the Depression that Rev. Bassett tried to navigate.
In addition, long-standing problems with the church facility continued to
trouble our congregation as they do to this day. In 1930, the cellar of the
Congregational Church flooded to the extent that services to be cancelled for an
undetermined period of time. In other words, the building needed serious attention.
The church was having trouble raising sufficient funds to meet its mission and
church leaders did not seem to have much confidence in Rev. Bassett. In 1934,
Bassett offered to send a stewardship letter out to the members of the congregation
and what was then called the business committee14 told him, essentially, not to
bother.15 By 1936, Bassett was gone and the church immediately searched for a
different minister.
In July of 1936, the church called the Rev. Walter Miller and by December
of 1936, he was gone too.16 This is surely a sign of the deep distress in which our
congregation found itself mired. There are plenty of other signs located in the
minutes of various church meetings that point to the trouble of the times. In 1930,
there had been a plan to expand the vestry but that plan was soon abandoned. In
1931, there would be no flowers for Mother’s Day due to lack of funds. Also, there
was no Vacation Bible School that year because, at the time, Vacation Bible
School was a joint venture with the Methodist Church and the Methodist Church,
in a similar state of financial crisis, made the decision not to proceed. Our church
was having trouble paying its bills. Pockets of emergency funds were quickly
being emptied.
However, by the grace of God and with the same gifts of heavenly
generosity and divine creativity and holy determination and sacred compassion,
this congregation survived. In 1933, a group of young women founded what was
called “The Congo Guild”17 and its primary purpose was to raise funds for the
ailing church. The Guild took up a collection of gold and silver from generous
church members in order to raise funds just to pay the insurance bill.18 With great
determination and energy the Guild held bridge parties and suppers and showed
movies and sponsored Christmas Fairs and Valentine Balls and organized “White
Elephant” sales and created entertaining and well-attended shows - all to raise
funds for a church that was scraping by sometimes one day at a time. This activity
13
Maine: First of Conferences by Mervin M. Deems
This committee morphed into the current Board of Trustees.
15
Rev. Bassett seldom attended Business Committee meetings, a fact which may have exacerbated problems.
16
Soon after, the church hired a young Bowdoin College student, Kenneth Gray, and a year and a half later, there
was a special service to ordain him. Interestingly, Harry Emerson Fosdick recommended a different candidate to
the church but his advice was not heeded. Fosdick continued to contribute to the church nevertheless.
17
Boothbay Register notes from 1933.
18
Church minutes of April 3, 2011.
14
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persisted throughout the 30s and in 1939, when the church was still struggling
financially, the men jumped in and served up a clam stew dinner that paid off that
year’s insurance bill.
And, for the most part, they maintained and deepened the compassion to
which the church of Jesus Christ is endlessly called, the compassion we hear from
the mouth of Jesus who beckoned gently to the poor and oppressed, saying, “Come
to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you
rest.”
I’d like to end with a story that is not local but speaks to the generosity and
creativity and determination and compassion that helped the nation and the church
through the anxious and often frightening days of the Great Depression.
A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia19, who was the mayor of New York
City during the worst days of the Great Depression. He was a colorful character
who used to ride the New York City fire trucks, raid speakeasies with the police
department, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York
newspapers were on strike, would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to
the kids.
One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night
court that served the poorest area of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the
evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, a tattered old
woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told
LaGuardia that her daughter’s husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick,
and her two grandchildren were starving.
But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the
charges. “It’s a bad neighborhood, Your Honor,” the man told the mayor. “She’s
got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.” LaGuardia sighed.
He turned to the woman and said, “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no
exception – ten dollars or ten days in jail.” But even as he pronounced the
sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and
said, “Here is the ten dollar fine, which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to
fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has
to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and
give them to the defendant.”
The following day, it was reported that $47.50 was turned over to a
bewildered lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren,
fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner,
while some seventy petty criminals and New York City policemen, each of
19
This story is available widely on the internet and it is difficult to determine its origin. As determined by Snopes,
the earliest report of this story is in a collection of anecdotes by Bennett Cerf.
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whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a
standing ovation.
In that act, LaGuardia embodied Jesus and through his words and actions, he
repeated those blissful words, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying
heavy burdens and I will give you rest.”
In our own present time of economic struggle and soul-searching20, may we
embody Jesus. By the grace of God and inspired by those who made a difference
during the Great Depression, those who helped the nation and this community and
this congregation to survive, may we exhibit a similar generosity and creativity and
determination and compassion.
20
For some interesting soul-searching in print, see two articles from the October 9, 2011 Sunday Review of the
New York Times: “The Depression: If Only Things Were That Good” by David Leonhardt and “Redefining The
Meaning of No. 1” by David J. Rothkopf.
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