San Francisco County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter 5 1900
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Book Title: History Of The First Pastorate Of The Howard Presbyterian Church

CHAPTER V.

  THE membership of the church had grown in numbers.

  The elders first chosen having left the state, it was determined that their
successors should be chosen at the regular meeting of the church on December
14,1853. On that date the election took place, and resulted in the choice of
William A. Palmer, E. B. Goddard, Franklin Knox, and Elijah Bigelow.

  The difficult work of reorganizing things and bringing them into order was
undertaken by the Session. It had all sorts of work to do, — not only that
usually belonging to the eldership, but, in the newness of everything, they had
to plan for every interest of the church in its changing circumstances,—
spiritual, social, financial, and what-not, — and the trustees of the society
carried out the plans, and a very efficient circle of ladies gave their
important aid.

  And so the interests of the church were cared for.

  The community was watched on all sides, and newcomers were visited. If
children were seen playing on the hillsides, somebody went soon to find to whom
they belonged, in order to invite them to our church and Sabbath school.

  Steamships were arriving twice a month, and ships were coming in from around
Cape Horn every week, bringing people bound for the mines, and many of them came
to pitch their tents near us while they were fitting out for their journey to
the mountains.

  Some fell sick, and must be looked after. All were strangers, and needed
information. The Sunday school needed constant looking after, for we made it
always a foremost institution of the church. Very early some of the young men
began to go out into the unoccupied parts of the city on Sunday afternoons to
gather children into Sunday schools, and they needed help. There are churches in
the city to-day that are the outgrowth of these beginnings.

  Churches in new towns, that were beginning under trees, or in shops, or such
unoccupied rooms as they could find, were frequently coming for help and advice,
and there were no "church-building boards" to refer to in those days.

  In the midst of all this, the minister, in his inexperience, often got
bewildered and half-discouraged, hut a session-meeting was a good tonic, and was
sure to put life into a week's work. In the midst of perplexities, a half-hour
spent in prayer together often cleared things, and brightened the faces of all.
We were as confidential as brothers, and in conference so universally came to be
of one mind, that, in the twelve years we constituted the session, I do not
remember a single vote that was not unanimous. And yet, in those years, the
matters coming before us for determination were so various, there were often
plenty of opportunities for marked differences of opinion.

  We nearly always met for an hour once a week, and sometimes two or three times
a week, and the needs of the church life were never lost sight of.

  It is a precious memory, that of the session. My study, where we used to meet,
is long since gone; and the members, they are gone. And that whole section of
the city has changed from residence to business, and blocks of stores have come
to occupy it; but the memory of that session, and the study in which we met, and
the plain church beside which it stood, is so vivid, that I have but to close my
eyes to see it all as it was.

  And I like to go there and call back the past, now, after fifty years, and
allow it in thought to become present, and forget for the moment that I shall
not meet the same individuals any more, nor see the welcome of their
countenances, nor hear their familiar voices. I walk slowly along the streets,
and see here and there doors yet remaining where I used to call. Those doors, —
they remind me so of the people I used to go to see there, that the feeling
comes over me, "Now, I ought to have called there before; it is too long since I
paid them a visit."


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PASTORATE OF THE HOWARD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 
1850-1862

BY REV. SAMUEL H. WILLEY
THE FIRST PASTOR

SAN FRANCISCO: THE WHITAKER AND RAY COMPANY (INCORPORATED)
1900

COPYRIGHT, 1900
BY
SAMUEL H. WILLEY



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