Early Beginnings
(1881-1895)
The Texas
& Pacific Railroad tracks reached the future city of Abilene on Jan.
13, 1881. The railroad fostered the springing of a small town along its
tracks later to be known as Abilene. A town lot auction was held on
March 15, 1881 and a floundering "tent" city was born. In the
previous year of 1880, Col. C. W. Merchant and his twin brother John
along with other ranchers in the area, met with the Texas & Pacific
Railroad to persuade them to choose a route through this area. One of
those ranchers was a member of the Guitar Family, John Guitar, some of
whose descendants still attend the Church
of the Heavenly Rest, including the
Guitar, Alexander, Polk and Woods' families. Abilene was a town that
slowly increased in size and population and the new railroad assured its
economic nourishment. Abilene was off and running.
(Above,
First known photo of Abilene taken in late 1881, South First looking
east from Chestnut. The T & P Railroad tracks are in the bottom
left corner)
In late1881, it was Dr.
J. M. Isbell and Mr.
Ed Starkey Kean who decided that
Abilene must
have an Episcopal Church. They wrote a letter to the new missionary
Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Charles Garrett
requesting his permission to begin a new mission.
Bishop Garrett happily granted permission and indicated that when they
felt they were ready, that he would come out and help them. The seed had
been planted and in 1881, Dr. Isbell and Mr. Kean organized the first
Episcopal mission in Taylor County and called it St.
Paul's.
The first
layreader, Mr. J. H. Hatfield,
was appointed and licensed in 1881. He conducted the first services of
Morning Prayer that year for the members of the mission since a priest
had not been appointed to the fledgling mission at this time. The exact
date of this first service is unknown, but it is
known that on Oct. 25, 1881, the first Holy Baptism was conducted by a
visiting missionary priest, the Rev. W. D.
Sartwell. The seed planted earlier by
Dr. Isbell and Mr. Kean began, little by little, to grow so that the
nascent congregation could, by 1882, boast an average attendance of 75
persons for Sunday services.
During the
first year of St. Paul's Mission, the congregation was served once a
month by missionary priests and services were held in the old Northside
School on Pine Street. (The building is extant and is located at the
northeast corner of Pine & 13th St. in Abilene. It has been
refurbished for use as office space). Morning prayer was celebrated when
a priest was not available. By the end of 1882, St. Paul's had become a
viable and thriving mission.
Bishop
Garrett was pleased with the progress that had been made and decided
that Abilene needed a "real" church. In typical form, Bishop
Garrett got himself into the fray and began to search out funds to
assist in the building of a new church. He looked to the eastern
congregations for assistance and the search bore fruit when a Mrs. Mary
Burgess, of Brookline, Massachusetts pledged $1500 toward the
construction of "the first church to be built in Texas, west of
Fort Worth, of stone and named the Church of the Heavenly Rest."
(The church is named after a church of the same name in New York City,
founded in the late 1860's) The offer, however, was contingent upon the
congregation procuring a suitable site for the church and match the
initial $1500 pledge. A building committee was formed and the funds were
raised and a lot was donated by Colonel
Josiah Stoddard Johnston, a devout
Episcopalian. Mr. Stoddard owned most of the original town lots in the
new town and he is credited with the naming of Abilene. The Church of
the Heavenly Rest, Episcopal was off and running.
(Below
is a picture of the original church built on the corner of N. 3rd
& Orange Streets. It was completed in 1884. When the current
church was built in 1951 the stained glass and furnishings from this
church were placed in the chapel area and the stone was placed into
the foundation of the new church. The First Baptist church bought the
land and built a church that still stands here today.)
The cornerstone for the new church was laid at
the corner of North 3rd and Orange Streets on December 11, 1883 with
Bishop Garrett participating in the services. Placed inside the
cornerstone were a Bible, a Book of Common Prayer, a hymnal, a list of
parish officers and guild members, various coins, and a copy of The
Abilene Reporter dated December 3,
1883. The church was built of native stone and was the only building
constructed of permanent material in the town for nearly 25 years. The
church itself was designed by Bishop Garrett after a model of a little
church parish in England. The first service was held in the "Little
Stone Church", by which everyone knew it, in the summer of 1884
with The Rev. W.W. Patrick leading
the congregation in worship.
On October 1, 1884, the Rev.
Doctor George H. Higgins became the
missionary-in-charge of Heavenly Rest Mission after the Rev. W.W.
Patrick returned to the Diocese of Texas. Rev. Higgins was in charge of
the mission when it became a parish on July 27, 1885. On July 4, 1886
the Church of the Heavenly Rest
was consecrated by Bishop Garrett; a service which also included morning
prayer read by the Rev. Mynn Turner,
who had become the first rector of the new parish on April 15, 1886.
Bishop Garrett preached, confirmed 4 persons and administered Holy
Communion. In just four short years, the little mission in Abilene had
procured full parish status; a remarkable feat of faith, hard work and
ingenuity.
(Below: The Fulwiler Livery
Stable at Cypress and N. 2nd in 1884. The first Church of the Heavenly
Rest at N. 3rd and Orange was being constructed two blocks northwest
of here. The Fulwiler Family later became one of the city's jewelers
and continue to be so today. The "Drake Hotel", later
"The Grace Hotel" would be built one block south of here.
This is the current location of "The Leaf" tobacco shop with
the Museum of Contemporary Arts next door.)
In 1887, the Rev.
A. T. DeLearsey became the resident
priest of the parish. Few records are kept of this period and little is
known of the church's accomplishments during this period.
The Rev. George C. Whyte
took charge of the parish on March 12, 1889. The Rev. Whyte did not stay
long with records indicating he was of an "ungovernable
temper" and that " ...we were all glad when he left."
Next to serve as priest was the Rev.
Robert S. Stuart. He was rector for
nearly 5 years, beginning his tenure on Sept 1, 1890 until February 28,
1895. Mr. Stuart was a welcome change from Mr. Whyte and the parish
greatly loved their new priest and the parish prospered greatly.
Clergy -- 1895-1910
A series of clergy followed through the years,
some more notable or effective than others. On May 1, 1895, the Rev.
Aylesworth Perry became rector. He
served the church three Sundays a week and was shared with the Holy Cross
Mission in Baird. On the Sundays Rev. Aylesworth was absent, Mr. F. D.
Batjer, a lay reader, led the services.
Next in line was the Rev.
James Keeble who took his post on Feb.
1, 1898. The Rev. Keeble was much loved and it was under his tutelage
that the parish became financially self-sufficient and was awarded the
status of an independent parish. Unfortunately, Rev. Keeble late in his
tenure, experienced poor health and after 10 years as rector, he
submitted his resignation. He remained in Abilene until his death on
Nov. 21, 1916.
After Rev. Keeble's resignation, the Rev.
Harry Limerick took charge, but he
appears to have left little imprint for not much is known of him.
On June 18, 1908, the Reverend
Ernest Allman moved to Abilene from
Kansas to become the rector, a position which he held for 3 years. It
was under Rev. Allman's leadership that the church obtained its first
vested choir. Mrs. Ernest George Batjer, a communicant and organist of
the parish, helped greatly in this effort. Also during this period, in
1909, a new altar was added to replace the previous one. (This
altar is currently found in the All Saint's Chapel of the Church of the
Heavenly Rest. See
Image Below)
It was also while the Rev. Allman was rector
that the Diocese of Dallas was divided, and the diocese we now call
"The Diocese of Northwest Texas" was born. Unfortunately sad
for many parishioners, Bishop Garrett remained the Bishop of the Diocese
of Dallas and a new Bishop was appointed for the newly founded diocese.
(See History of
the Diocese)
Clergy -- 1911-1919
Rev. Allman left the parish sometime in 1910 or
1911 and was replaced in 1912 by the Rev.
A. Donalson Ellis. Under Rev. Ellis,
the church began expansion of its physical plant, first remodeling the
interior of the church in 1916, adding a north and south wing and a
parish hall in 1918. Rev. Ellis was highly respected in Abilene and
everyone knew the Episcopal Church through his honesty, integrity,
kindness and ingenuity. He also served as parish clergyman for the State
Epileptic Colony (now Abilene State
School). The membership of the parish also increased from 100 in 1912 to
183 in 1918, with a baptized strength of 230. The parish was without
benefit of clergy for nearly a year after Rev. Ellis left in 1918. But
the hiatus was well worth the wait. For it was the next rector of
Heavenly Rest that would become a virtual legend in his own time on up
to the present. It
was on Feb. 22, 1920, that the Rev.
Willis Piedmont Gerhart became the
twelfth priest of the Church of the
Heavenly Rest. The parish of the
Heavenly Rest was never to be the same.
The "Gerhart" Years --
1920-1957
The Reverend Willis Gerhart, "Parson"
Gerhart as he came to be called, was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, in
1889, the son of a Clarksville merchant. He attended and graduated from
the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, and earned both a
Bachelor of Arts degree in 1914 and a Bachelor of Divinity degree in
1915. He also served as a chaplain during WWI. Parson Gerhart spent four
years with the Thankful Memorial
Episcopal Church in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, before coming to Abilene to be the rector of Heavenly
Rest in February, 1920, at the youthful
age of 31 years old. Parson Gerhart served as rector of the church in
Abilene for thirty-eight phenomenal years during which time he became
known "by all" as a man of fairness and goodness; a man of
God. One notorious Abilene agnostic was recorded as saying:
"That parson of yours is enough to make
even me
believe in God. That may be one of the finest specimens of gracious
manhood I've ever met."
"Parson" pioneered ecumenical
thinking at a time when most people didn't have a clue what that meant.
He ministered to members of ALL churches and was referred to as
"everybody's preacher". He didn't just talk about God only; he
ministered in his life and work by example. He was a role model for many
in the community and everybody knew and loved him.
After some period of adjustment to Abilene,
Parson Gerhart set about generating activity and involvement both in his
parish and in the community. The Gerhart stories are many, but a few
will suffice to provide an understanding of this man's profound
spirituality and influence.
On one occasion, a parishioner observed that
Parson had been wearing an old, nearly threadbare overcoat and he
purchased a new overcoat for him. Several days later Parson was observed
by his benefactor wearing his old overcoat once again. When asked why he
was wearing the old coat, he responded that he had met a fellow who did
not have a coat and he was cold, and besides, the old coat still had
lots of wear left.
On another occasion, Parson was found in his
study, on a cold winter evening, during the depression, with his coat
collar pulled up around his ears, and working on his Sunday sermon. A
visiting parishioner commented on how cold the room was and went to
start a fire in the stove. When he came to the area where the stove
"usually" sat, he found a bare space instead. When queried as
to what had happened to his stove, the Parson remonstrated that he had
visited a woman on China Street who had twelve children and they had no
heat in their home. It was Parson's feeling that it was better for one
person to be cold than thirteen, so he gave the stove to this poor
family after spending several hours making arrangements to have it
moved. To top that off, at a time when it would not have been a popular
demonstration, it is believed that the family was an African-American
family. Whether they were or not, as some tell it, there is little doubt
that if they had been, they would have gotten the stove anyway!
Parson Gerhart seemed to place little value on
money or material possessions. If someone was in need and asked for
help, he gave without hesitation. This lack of hesitation regarding
fiscal matters caused some concern to the vestry to the point that they
changed the way in which the Parson was paid. They initially paid him
once a month, but soon discovered that within several days Parson
Gerhart was "flat busted", having given most of his money away
to "those in need". In an attempt to assure that their rector
was eating properly, the vestry decided to pay him once a week. Though a
somewhat better arrangement, there were still days when he had no money
by the end of the week. However, other parishioners, understanding his
plight, were more than happy to have his company for an evening meal and
chat. "The Lord always provides...", was the spiritual flag he
bore in front of him in his Christian ministry.
Under his leadership the church grew quickly.
He was constantly attempting to stimulate interest in the Church. He
would seek out ranchers or others in the area of Taylor County of
English descent who might be shown their historical relationship to the
Church of England and who just might be interested in what the Church
had to offer to them and to the community. As a result, the Church grew
rapidly under the Parson's tutelage. When he arrived in Abilene, the Church
of the Heavenly Rest was situated at
North Third and Orange Streets in Abilene but on his retirement after
nearly 38 years, the parish occupied a beautiful Gothic structure at
South Sixth and Meander, the current location of the church. The church
rolls had climbed from 200 to 595 communicant parishioners.
As a result of the expanding growth, by 1949,
the time had arrived when the small stone church was insufficient to
meet the needs and demands of the parish. The first Baptist church which
had occupied the eastern half of the same block, offered to buy the
additional land from the Episcopal church for $45,000.00. At the same
time, land on the south side of Abilene had gone up for sale at South
Sixth and Meander. It was the old Leggett property which had at one time
housed the Leggett Mansion, and the church offered $25,000 for it and
the sale was approved. The building and planning committee for the new
church building was composed of Mrs. W. M. Lewis, E. A. Ungren, Mrs. E. P.
Austin, Mrs. V. C. Perini, Jr., Max Bentley, Frank Strange, John Ward,
Elbert E. Hall, (one time mayor of Abilene) and Dr. Willis Gerhart.
(Parson Gerhart had been awarded an honorary Doctor
of Divinity by the University of the
South, Sewanee, Tenn., on June 9,1947).
(Below: A painting of the
Leggett mansion which once stood where the Church of the Heavenly Rest
currently stands. The house faced east and was considered one of the
finest pieces of Classical architecture with its Ionic capitals &
columns and classical symmetry this side of the Mississippi. Leggett
Drive in Abilene is named after this prominent family.)
