RIGHTEOUSNESS MAKES US ALL BRETHREN
In 1914, looking back to the origins of the Chicago City Missionary Society, Superintendent J. C. Armstrong reviewed the relationship between the Society and the Congregational churches:
In the year 1882, there were twelve Congregational churches within the city limits. The First Church with 1,192 members, Union Park 742, Plymouth, then pastorless, 592, New England 441, Leavitt Street 447, and Lincoln Park 159¬these six churches constituted the backbone ofour Congregational forces in the city. Their pastors, Noble, Goodwin, Little, Williams, Leavitt and Peake, were the captains that led them.
Outside the city were Evanston and the First Church, Oak Park… [and] Ravenswood [which] came into the city later by the increase of the city’s area.
Church extension was then in the air. The First Church had to her credit ten missions, Ravenswood four, Union Park and New England three each, South and Plymouth two each, and Lyonsville, not to be altogether outdone by the city churches, had four missions at her girdle. It was in the heat and inspiration of these activities that our City Society was born. [Notes for address, 1914]
The Society did not aim to take over the mission work of these churches. Rather, the Society had been created to pursue a greater mission effort. Many of the then existing missions became churches, others remained small mission stations for a time, then were closed, and still others became larger mission centers which required increasing support. As the ability of the above churches to support the missions decreased, the Society assumed their work.
From the beginning the Society pursued two goals. One was to serve the poor and needy, to enter into the world of the distressed and neglected people and work with them and for them in order to better their spiritual and physical lives through missions, churches, and community organizations. Another was to serve the organized church, and help build up the ecclesiastical institution that upholds and proclaims the sacred Christian values. The Society has always, but with varying emphasis, pursued both dimensions of Christian service. To have focused only on the poor and needy and abandoned support of and service to the churches may have resulted in the Society’s becoming a non-religious value-based social service agency. And to have served only the churches might have led the Society away from the “unchurched” and needy people to become a purely ecclesiastical agency. The Society has resisted either extreme.
Gates discovered very early the tension between these two aspects of Christian mission. In one of his weekly letters to his son, he wrote:
A slight friction has developed between the members of the board of directors of the City Missionary Society. Some prefer to spend their money on the better class of fields, where by the aid given Congregational churches may reasonably be expected [to be repaid] at an early day, and they did not approve of taking up work among the Bohemians with the large expense attending it. I have heard sundry reports, and seen the drift of opinion for some time back. While I fully appreciate the necessity of seizing strategic points and holding them for Congregational churches, I should never have given time, strength, and money as I have, had not the thought of the neglected classes been constantly before me….
Gates felt that a great number of Chicago’s Bohemian community, especially, leaned towards socialism, and therefore atheism, and this constituted a great danger to the religious lives of other groups.
…hence I would push work among these classes simply “in His name” and by the power of the gospel to purify these homes and sweeten them. If life and health are spared to me, I can appeal to business men of other denominations for help to carry on the work at Clinton Street and among the Bohemians, where I could not appeal to them for church extension. I have no desire to bend the society to any plans of my own, but if the churches endorse that policy I shall have to go out among my business friends and secure funds to give the Bohemian enterprise a fair trial. If God is in the movement, a way will be opened; if he is not, then we had better drop it. [Gates, 162-63]
German and Bohemian immigrants were of special concern to Gates because of the leading role played by representatives from those communities in the riots attending the Railroad Strike of 1877. There were more than 100,000 Germans in Chicago and the Society was aiding two small German churches and conducting a thriving German mission on Sedgwick Street. The Bohemian population of Chicago, numbering about 40,000, was the largest of that nationality in the United States.
Like many Central European immigrants, the Bohemians came from the ranks of the peasants, the poor, and the oppressed, and treated with suspicion the authority of either church or state. They were seeking new lives in the land of the free, but the freedom they found in Chicago offered hard work and few rewards. They faced tough competition for housing, jobs, and capital, and they found that they had to stick together or be swallowed up in the competition. It was difficult for the Bohemians to learn the “American way,” especially since everyone else seemed to be caught up in the same competition and no one offered help.
Thus one of the first efforts of the Chicago City Missionary Society was to plan a Bohemian Mission. Because Gates found it hard to get financial support for this endeavor he decided against erecting a building and instead took over the ailing Lumberman’s Mission on Center Street (now Racine) and 19th Street, the scene of some of the fiercest street fighting during the troubles of 1877.
Gates’s sincerity and devotion did their work. As the Reverend Henry Stimson described it:
The sight of this single-minded and simple-hearted business man giving himself so unselfishly to help them and their children produced an impression in the Bohemian community, hardened as it is by infidel teachings and anarchical clubs, which was deepened by the following incident: Mr. Gates had purchased three unoccupied lots in the edge of the Bohemian district, the only lots which then could be obtained, and he was holding them until the money could be raised to build a chapel. He had been sick for a few weeks, and on his return to the field he discovered that a brick building was going up on one of his lots. He began to make inquiries in the neighborhood, and soon found himself surrounded by an eager and excited crowd whose words he could but imperfectly understand. He gathered from what he heard that a Bohemian was putting the savings of many years into a house on a lot which he had mistaken for his own. In the course of a few days he sent for the man to come to his office. He came, accompanied by a Bohemian lawyer; but Mr. Gates amazed and delighted him by transferring the lot to him at the price at which he had acquired it, with the addition only of interest on the investment. Meanwhile the account of the situation had spread among the Bohemians, and they were commenting upon it. “Now,” it was said, “you will see what these Christians are after. They will get you into their power, and then squeeze every dollar out of you”--with more to the same effect. When at last the facts were known the revulsion of feeling was tremendous. This quiet pale-faced business man, who came so regularly from his beautiful home and his great business, in all weathers, to teach them about Jesus Christ, was generous after a fashion which they could not understand. [Gates, 153-54]
Gates addressed many gatherings and often spoke three or four times on Sundays. However, he always, except on rare occasions when he was ill or away from the city, was at the Bohemian Mission to conduct the English Sunday school class. He took great interest in the Bohemian people and studied their history, the lives of their heroes, and the numbers, character, and condition of the Bohemians in this country. He also had a dream for a permanent and substantial home for the mission, but it would be several years before this was to be fulfilled.
The Society employed the Reverend E. A. Adams (who for ten years had been a missionary in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire) to direct the Bohemian Mission, beginning in November 1884. The Bohemian Sunday school had 355 in attendance and the English Sunday school drew 180 after only six months under Adams. Within a year, an industrial school directed by Mrs. Adams was serving 180 children.
Industrial schools were the Society’s response to unemployment among young people. Armstrong defined the problem in 1887:
The secret of man’s ruin in our great cities is to be found in the lack of employment in youth.… At the age of fifteen or sixteen, he goes out into the world wholly unfit to care for himself. He can neither spin nor toil. He knows only how to be idle, vicious, and worthless. He must set about learning a trade, or starve, or become a criminal. To his undisciplined mind the last method named of securing a living is the easiest. [1887 A.R., 11]
In the Bohemian Mission’s industrial school, girls learned “cleanliness, obedience, ladylike behavior, as well as sewing…. Scripture and precious hymns have been committed to memory. It is impossible for refined Christian ladies to sit beside such children for two hours a week without leaving impressions which will never be effaced.”
Although the Bohemian Mission moved to better quarters on South Throop Street in 1886, these rooms too were soon overcrowded. In addition to the well-attended kindergarten, industrial school, and other activities, the mission’s preaching drew a strong response. This encouraged the mission to organize the Bethlehem Church in March 1888. According to Gates’s son:
In the spring of 1888 Mr. Gates applied himself earnestly to the work of raising money for the building which was so greatly needed, and ground was broken the following year. Two or three times Mr. Gates was laid aside by illness while the work was going on…. One of these times came when money was urgently needed for the prosecution of the work on the building, and his anxiety in regard to it was retarding his recovery. Some friends discovered this when they came to visit him. When they spoke of the Bohemian church his eyes filled with tears and he turned his face to the wall. They went away determined that he should carry that burden no longer. Many friends responded nobly to their appeals, the money needed to complete the building was raised, and the burden lifted from Mr. Gates’ heart. It was an act which gave him greater joy than anything which could have been done for himself. [Gates, 164-65]
As the building neared completion, Gates took visitors through it. Describing the experience, one of the visitors recalled, “I did not know which to admire most-the edifice or the quiet elderly gentleman whose soft blue eyes were aglow with heaven’s own light as he placed his hand on the shoulders of some smiling Bohemian children who had gathered about us and to whom he spoke of the building as all theirs.”
With a new building the mission grew rapidly. The kindergarten, which had over 100 members in 1889 and met every morning, was made possible through the generosity of Mr. A. P. Kelley, who also supported kindergartens at other missions. By 1895 Miss Bozena Salava, the “church visitor” who managed the kindergarten, also conducted an “infant class” of between 250 and 300. Miss Salava’s salary was paid by the Hinsdale Union Church. The annual report of 1902 praised her for conducting “the Bohemian primary school of 100 -175 with rare skill.”
Support from the churches included groceries sent from Hinsdale and clothing from Oak Park. And “a gentleman” from Oak Park contributed Christmas presents from his crockery store. Englewood Sunday school sent clothes, groceries, and toys.
The Reverend Adams published a Bohemian paper entitled Pravda (meaning “truth”), which emphasized “the nature of Christianity, Man’s obligation to man, our responsibility to God, and the need for vital piety.” It set itself to combatting the Bohemian community’s tendency to support “free thinkers” and others who were seen as being against any form of religion or government control. Although some of the community’s newspapers proclaimed anti-establishment feelings and printed such statements as, “religion is the very worst of evils for all nations,” Adams believed that
This Bohemian people can be reached. The gulf that separates them from American ideas, American citizenship and American Christianity can be bridged….there shall be neither bond nor free, Jew, Gentile, American, German, Scandinavian, Bohemian nor Pole, but all shall be one in Christ Jesus. [1888 A.R., 20]
Reporting on the Bohemian Mission’s efforts some years later, Adams wrote:
It is just now thirteen years since the work commenced in a store on the corner of Twenty-first Street and Center Ave., with a congregation often persons and a Sunday School of seven children. Now we have a fine church building at 711 Loomis Street, two doors north of Nineteenth, in which we have congregations often numbering 250, and on special occasions six hundred or seven hundred; three Christian Endeavor Societies, with average advocate attendance of 140 weekly. Last Sunday the Junior Society had 200, and this will be the average probably till the end of March. Our Industrial School of 250 only awaits Mrs. Adams’ return of strength in order to reopen. We have two Literary Societies, one Bohemian and one English, and a club of smaller boys numbering over 50, managed wholly by the young men who have grown up with us, who used to be in Mrs. Adams’ Boys Union and who are now in the English Literary Society. We have a church membership of 185-nearly all young people. We have also a Kindergarten of70 pupils, supported by Mrs. Page. Twelve of our young people who started with us as children are now teachers and active officers in our Sunday School. Nearly as many more have been teachers but have moved away. Our very efficient and enthusiastic musical conductor is one of our “boys”. These young men and women, with more than 75 others, who are active workers, but not yet old enough to be teachers, are a recognized power in the community, standing as they do, firmly and enthusiastically for temperance, patriotism and purity in politics. Only a few of these young people are, as yet, voters, but those who are, regard suffrage as a sacred trust, neither to be shirked or lightly used. Of all the young people whom I have recommended for positions not one has been a failure intellectually or morally, and they are now occupying positions of trust and responsibility. One young man is a private secretary to the general manager of the Rock Island Railroad Co.; one is the bookkeeper of a large clothing firm, and others are salesmen and saleswomen in various stores. Wherever they are known and more help is needed we have no difficulty in placing one of our members. One young lady moved to Minnesota at the age of 16 and immediately started a Sunday school among her neighbors, and has been a superintendent of it ever since.
The work that I have thus far indicated has been done in the English language. That which has been done in the Bohemian language, having to do almost wholly with adults, has produced less tangible, but by no means less real results. While our congregations are not large, our preaching services reach a large number in the course of the year, and our visiting reaches many more.
When we began, no word in favor of temperance was ever seen in any Bohemian paper. Now not a few adult Bohemians practice total abstinence and several papers are strong in condemnation of drunkenness, and the whole tone is entirely changed.
The people used to follow certain political leaders and ask no questions; now there is a very strong feeling, I dare not say a general feeling, that each voter is responsible for his vote.
When we began, we were politely received, but no one made the least account of our influence nor expected any results from our work which they could not either approve or condemn. Now these leaders who want to keep the people in their power for their own selfish interests make no secret of their opposition to us. The mass of people, so far as they know us, manifest in many ways their confidence in us and their belief in the purity of our motives. That a marked and great change has taken place in the attitude of the people is the decided conviction of all who know them and who judge from a higher political, intellectual or moral standpoint. That other influences, besides the Bohemian work, have conduced to this result is not denied. But the words that have been spoken in our church, aided by those connected with it, the lives of our young people, many of whom have stood firmly against great opposition, have contributed greatly to produce this result. [1897 A.R., 24-26]
The Society had experienced considerable success in all of its endeavors. At the end of five years it had already organized 11 churches. In addition it was helping 24 weak churches and was maintaining six kindergartens with 475 children, and ten industrial schools with 2,400 in attendance. It had organized 14 Sunday schools and had brought several more “into fellowship.” The Society did not accomplish these things alone but depended on the support of church members who gave of their time and money. Gates’s dedication helped inspire them.
In May 1885, in an address entitled “The Duties of Christian Laymen to the Neglected Classes” given at the Congregational Club, Gates explained his belief in mission work: “I desire to emphasize the word ‘Christian’ in its connection with my theme…in the time of Paul…Christians…were simply Christ-men and women, who believed in him as their personal Savior, to whom they had unreservedly surrendered their own wills, simply asking, Lord, what will you have me to do? and prepared at whatever sacrifice to do it.” And after citing the example of Jesus, Gates went on to say, “we should count it our highest privilege to enter with fresh ardor and new consecration upon this work of saving souls of the neglected classes and thus save the city. This is the Biblical way of saving the state....Sin levels down and drags all classes into one common ruin. Righteousness levels up and makes us all brethren, with one Savior, one hope of eternal life and one Golden Rule....” [Gates, 177]
Gates continued his work with the Chicago City Missionary Society until his death from pneumonia in June 1890. Rich and poor alike came to the funeral service at the prestigious New England Congregational Church. As his son reported:
the church was filled with those who had come from all parts of the city to unite in testifying their love and esteem for one whose life had won their confidence. But there were none whose presence so touched the hearts of the mourners as the sight of the little band of poorly clad men and women from the Bohemian quarter. One poor woman had carried her baby in her arms clear across the city rather than fail to come; and they brought a wreath of flowers to be laid upon the coffin, on which was inscribed, “Mi loval nas” [He loved us]. [Gates, 189-90]
Gates’s special project, the Bethlehem Church, which had moved into its new building at 1853 S. Loomis only six weeks before his death, would serve the Bohemian community for 75 years. Its presence and the strength of its support “became the strongest argument to allay the suspicions of the Bohemians and convince them that the Christians of Chicago cared for them.”
The Society’s success among the Bohemians did not go unnoticed. During the almost two decades of social and political unrest that followed the 1877 violence, Chicagoans were much concerned with what Armstrong referred to as the “dynamite element...men who ‘fear not God neither regard man’.” As he went on to say, “it is far cheaper and wiser and safer to go to them with the gospel than have them come to us with fire and sword.” [1884 A.R., 6] And many who supported the work of the Society agreed with him. Thus Dr. D. K. Pearsons, who gave over $150,000 to the Society, said, “I give to the Chicago City Missionary Society because it has a direct influence upon the laboring classes.”
The 1894 annual report of the Society had expressed the same sentiment: “Our churches have been centers of good for the poor and the destitute….It seems probable that if a tenth of the money destroyed by the riots last summer [the Pullman Strike violence] had been spent in the organization and support of churches and missions in the past decade, no property would have been wasted, and bloodshed would have been avoided.”