ST ANDREW'S CHURCH Continued from page 7....

ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH

Continued from page 7.

each one a classic by itself. Besides as I have heard older members say; there was always some uplifting thought, some precious message to help one bear life's daily burdens till Sunday came around again.
This scholarly man for nearly eight years shared the ill fortunes of St. Andrews' ; tilling his acres weekdays and in his place in the pulpit on Sundays. At this period of the church's history the people were greatly in arrears on their pew rents and it seemed impossible to collect enough to meet the rectors salary, hence this necessity for his hard labor. Yet there were those who spoke sneeringly of his sun browned hands and called his ponies little rats.

The Rev. David F. Lumsdon was a man of an altogether different stamp. He was a jovial Scotchman, "Hale fellow well met" with everybody and he soon became very popular.

Mr. Lumsdon possessed a good deal of native talent and his Sunday evening lectures drew great crowds so that long benches were brought in and placed each side of the long aisles. These were all filled and all the standing room besides.

A good many were added to the church, in fact, never before had such large classes been presented for confirmation. The pew rents were paid and the rector bought a house for himself.

It was while Mr. Lumsdon was here that Forest Hill cemetery was laid out and part of the Taylor farm was purchased for this purpose. Our rector was chosen to deliver the consecration sermon and he certainly did us credit on that occasion. Mr. Lumsdon was energetic and perservering and whatever he undertook was quickly and thoroughly done, as witness the remodeling of the church.

The congregation who worshipped in Old St. Andrews' from the beginning down to 1850. Mrs. Hannah Clark, her son Gen. Edward Clark and daughter Lucy Ann, afterwards Mrs. James Kingsley, Henry Rumsey and family. His daughter Minerva married John C. Munday who left her money to build the rectory, Mrs. Millen, her son Chauncey and daughter Julia who soon became Mrs. John N. Gott, the Falls, Judge Miles and family, Dr.  E. Wells, Hon. Charles Kellogg and family, the Sinclairs, Zenas Nash and wife, Charles Tull and family, Judge Wilson and family, Geo. Corselius and family, Mark Howard, Sylvester Abel, Wm. Abel and wife, Daniel Kellogg and wife, the Hoopers, Olney Hawkins and family, Col. Jewett and wife, Dr. Brigham and family, the Tuttles, the Greens, the Matthews, the Lynns, the Lambs, the Howards, the Bardwells, Mr. Hughes and family, Wm. Brannagan and family, Dr. and Mrs. Platt, Judge Caleb Clark and wife, E. T. Williams and family, Mrs. James Platte, the Fullers, Mrs. Lawrence, the Misses Clark, Prof. Williams his first wife and daughters Mary and Louisa and niece Elizabeth Gibson, Miss Spelman with her four nieces and nephew, of whom Mrs. Sarah Beakes and Mrs. Fanny Hubbard are still with us, Mr. and Mrs. Frazer Harris, the Loomis', the Bowers, Tracy and Charles Root, the T. F. Hills, Prof. Fasquelle and family, the Cutlers, the Buchoz, the Beegans, the A. M. Goulas, Dr. Guun and wife, Sam Baldry, the Cleavelands, Hiram Goodspeed and his two sisters, Abby and Mary, the latter who was Mrs. Chambers, Dr. Gibson and family, David Page and wife, F. Gibson and wife. St. Andrews' has substantial reasons for remembering Col. and Mrs. Lyman, Parson Dwight, the Suttons, Mrs. Giles, Miss Leach, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Wood and family, the Douglas, T. Edwards' and family, Dr. Houghton who ended his brilliant young life in the cold waters of Lake Superior.
It is with a feeling akin to reverence that I think of these old parishioners most of whom have long since joined the ranks of the church invisible. They had their homes here where we now live and helped to make the first pages and the history of our town. They were acquainted with the four Anns who were all here in 1824 and from whom our town was named. Mrs. Ann Allen, Mrs. Ann Rumsey, Mrs. Mary Ann Thayer and Mrs. Ann White. Col. White built the first cobble stone house in this section. It may still be seen as good as new, on the old farm three miles down the river, for it was built so well that the ravages of time have made no impression on it. Lately another story has been added to it.

They helped to build corduroy roads across swamps and ravines. My father and Mr. Zenas Nash built one across the gully (they used to call it) on Miller ave.  Some "thank ye maams" were still there late in the '50's.They jolted over these roads in springless wagons till their bones was sore; but they were good natured about it, for this was much better than being stuck fast in the mud.

They all had their seasons of chills and fever and shook so hard when the chills were on that the furniture rattled in the room. Then Dr. Brigham came along on his old horse bringing his saddle bags and dosed them with blue pills and cholagogue until the chills were broken up.

When the cholera visited Detroit and Ann Arbor in August and September of 1834 and swept off several of our citizen within two weeks, three out of one family (the Vails in the lower town) they were part of the community to be appalled at this dread calamity.

They were here through the wild cat money time in '37 and '38 when people grew rich in a flash and Ann Arborities asked each other have you seen Mrs. Cobb, the cashier of the bank's wife ride by in her brougham? But alas for human greatness the crash came. The brougham with all of its glory departed and the cashier of the bank's wife had to find her way on foot over the muddy crossing the same as the  humblest of her fellow citizens.

The bank was the building now used for the Arlington hotel and was considered a quiet and imposing structure for the young village. It was for many years the home of Mr. Volney Chapin and family. He and his wife finished their long and useful lives there. People passing that house would remark "there lives an honest rich man."