St Johns County FlArchives Biographies.....Hindry, Louis F. ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 October 19, 2015, 11:00 pm Source: Vol. II pg.101-102 The Lewis Publishing Co. 1923 Author: History of Florida, Past and Present Rev. LOUIS FITZ-JAMES HINDRY, M. A., B. D. Closely identified with the parish of Trinity, Saint Augustine, which he has served as rector for over eighteen years, Rev. LOUIS FITZ-JAMES HINDRY, M. A., B. D., is one of the leading divines of Florida, and a man widely known for his scholarly attainments and splendid business capacity. He was born and educated in England, and prior to 1893 he was tutor in preparatory schools for the army and navy in Margate, England, and Llandulas, North Wales. Coming to the United States in 1893, he obtained his degree of Master of Arts from Central University, Indianapolis, Indiana, and his degree of Bachelor of Divinity from Seabury Theological School, Faribault, Minnesota. While studying for the ministry he taught school at Oxford, Sumter County, and West Palm Beach, Dade County, Florida, and was ordained deacon and priest by the Right Rev. WILLIAM CRANE GRAY, D. D., Bishop of Southern Florida. As assistant at the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, Palm Beach, Florida, Rev. Mr. Hindry spent the first four years of his ministry, and for the succeeding five years was rector of the same church. In 1904 he was called to Trinity Parish, Saint Augustine, where he has since continued. Rev. Mr. Hindry has been a member of the Board of Missions of his diocese since 1905; has been secretary of its Standing Committee since 1914; has been a member of its committee on Constitutional and Cannons since 1915; of the Board of Religious Education since 1914; of the Commission on Social Service since 1919; has been a deputy to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church on five separate occasions, and since 1914 has been a trustee of the University of the South. From 1905 to 1918 he was chaplain of the First Regiment, Florida National Guard. While living at Palm Beach, Florida, in addition to other work he served mission stations at West Palm Beach, Jupiter, Delray and Boynton, with occasional services as far away as Miami. Trinity Parish is the oldest one of the Episcopal Church in Florida, and its Centennial was celebrated April 19, 1921, in conjunction with the seventy-eighth counsel of the diocese of Florida. One of the most interesting features of this celebration was the delivery of an extended history of the parish by Rev. Mr. Hindry, from which the following facts are drawn. The church building of Trinity Parish stands upon a historic site, for it was once occupied by what was known as the English Constitution House, in which services of the Church of England were held during the period embraced between the years of 1763 to 1783, when Florida was in the possession of Great Britain. With the recession of Florida to Spain there was an immediate cessation of services, and the Episcopal Church was torn down. On October 28, 1821, soon after the admission of Florida to the Union, the Young Men’s Missionary Society of Charleston, South Carolina, sent Rev. ANDREW FOWLER to organize a parish at Saint Augustine. During the month he remained in the city he began the work which is still continued, and at the expiration of that period, went back to Charleston and reported favorably. Returning to Saint Augustine in the following spring, he remained at Saint Augustine until May 1823, when he was succeeded by Rev. MELLISH J. MOTTE. On July 2, 1823, the charter of incorporation of the parish was obtained from the Territorial Legislature, but no church was built until 1825, when, June 23 of that year, the cornerstone of Trinity Church was laid. The lot was secured to the church by Act of Congress February 8, 1827. This church was completed in 1830, and was opened for Divine worship, the following Sunday in June, 1831. This church was 36 x 50 feet, but it was entirely rebuilt, after a number of additions and improvements had been made on the original building, and now has a seating capacity of 500, and is in the proper cruciform shape. On November 16, 1837, THOMAS DOUGLASS, JOSEPH L. SMITH and B. A. PUTNAM were appointed delegates to the meeting at Tallahassee, at which the Diocese of Florida was organized. One of the clergymen who served as rector of Trinity Parish, the control of which he assumed March 1, 1840, was Rev. FRANCIS HUGER RUTLEDGE, who became first bishop of the Diocese of Florida and was consecrated in 1851. On May 7, 1850, the congregation met and reorganized under the corporate name of “The Vestry of Trinity Church of Saint Augustine,” and adopted by-laws which were duly recorded in the county clerk’s office. In 1856 a lot in the rear of the church was purchased for the purpose of erecting a parish school, and the first money to apply on the erection of the building was the sum of $37.50 derived from a sale given by the children of the church. The cornerstone was laid April 23, 1857. The original rectory, Beach Cottage, was sold in 1858, and the Drysdale House on Marine Street was bought for a rectory. Subsequently the old schoolhouse was fitted up and used for a rectory, and the house on Marine Street was rented. A house was erected by the Ladies’ Aid Society on Marine Street, but this was later sold. In 1906 the present beautiful rectory was purchased for $11,000. A beautiful new parish house was erected in 1917, and dedicated January 1, 1918. During the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Hindry the church has been entirely cleared of debt, and a balance of $2,500 has been canceled on the mortgage against the rectory. The number of communicants, 137, in 1904, when Rev. Mr. Hindry became rector of Trinity Parish, has been increased to 375. There are 228 families in the parish, and 500 persons can attend the services. With the exception of the font, the church building has been entirely re-furnished, beautified and adorned, largely by memorials to departed ones, including magnificent stained-glass windows, the altar and reredos, the window frame for the east window, the oak paneling for the sanctuary, the carved oak doors, the communion rail, the oak credence table, the processional cross, the organ and chimes, the lectern, the pulpit desk, the pulpit, the chancel rail, the eucharistic candlesticks, the tessellated pavement of the baptistery, the Gothic door to the parish house, the oak vestibule and porch at the west end of the church, bronze tablets, and choir stalls. The war between the two sections of the country resulted in a cessation of services for a time in Trinity Parish. At its outbreak Rev. L. R. STAUDENMAYER was rector, and he was a strong sympathizer with the Southern cause. In 1862, after Saint Augustine was captured by the Northern troops, he refused to substitute in his church ritual, “The President of the United States,” for the “the Confederate States,” and was ordered to leave. Following this there were no services until after the close of the war, when Rev. ALFRED A. MILLER was placed in charge. The following have served Trinity Parish as rectors: Rev. ANDREW FOWLER, MELLISH J. MOTTE, RAYMOND HENDERSON, DAVID BROWN, FRANCIS HUGER RUTLEDGE, C. C. ADAMS, BETHEL JUDD, BENJAMIN WRIGHT, WILLIAM JACKSON, HENRY B. WHIPPLE (later Bishop of Minnesota, and noted Apostle to the Indians), ALFRED A. MILLER, R. L. STAUDENMAYER (sic), W. W. BOURS, OWEN P. THACKARA, D. GORDON ESTES, A. HULL, JAMES W. CAPEN, JOHN E. C. SMEDES, WILLIAM MUNFORD, THOMAS BOONE, E. ROOTE, EDWARD L. DROWN, W. L. GITHENS, JOHN B. LINN, E. V. EVANS, J. R. BICKNELL, C. M. STURGES and LOUIS FITZ-JAMES HINDRY, the present incumbent. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/stjohns/bios/hindry204bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/flfiles/ File size: 8.2 Kb