Christ's Lutheran Church in 1905

[ Pastor Walter Frederick ]

Pastor Walter Frederick, 29, conducting services in the new church building (the present one) on Mill Hill Road in the village.

(To enlarge either picture, just click it.)

Miss Evadora Russell, 25, led church services on several occasions in the absence of Pastor Frederick. Together with no fewer than 14 other women (Helen Wolven Lasher, Josie Krack Twadell, Florence B. Shultis, Lydia Russell, Miss Martha J. Shultis, Margaret Overbaugh, Mrs. George W. Shultis, Edna A. Herrick [who later married John H. Garrison], Mrs. Walter Frederick, Mrs. C. H. Cooper, Elizabeth Dederick, Miss Ethel Croswell, Miss Elizabeth Britt, and Mrs. Joseph W. Van Gaasbeck), she occasionally led church services for the next 3 years, a ministry very unusual in a Lutheran church in those days.


According to church historians Magda Moseman and Mark Anderson(1),

Quoted from Moseman, Magda, and Anderson, Mark, eds., Perspectives and Patterns: Christ's Lutheran Church, 1806-1976 [Woodstock, NY: self-published monograph, 1976]. (Close) [ Our church at about this time ]
The new church building was illuminated by a large, ornate chandelier hanging in the center of the chapel. It was balanced by a counterweight. Miss Florence Peper recalls helping her mother light the circle of kerosene lamps. The chandelier was pulled down with a long hook and the task took about ten minutes.

[ Shultis Corners ]

During the winter season, Pastor Frederick conducted midweek cottage services for 26 worshippers to the community at Shultis Corners (the intersection of current Route 212 and Glasco Turnpike east of Woodstock; see the map).

The congregation paid its full quota to the synod annually and made other contributions.

[ The new parsonage across the road ] The congregation sold the small parsonage and lot it had purchased three years earlier, because it was being replaced by a larger parsonage (that is, one was being built on the lot the congregation had purchased the previous year).

On April 15th., 1905, members of the congregation with teams, plows, scrapers and shovels, began to make ready for the foundation of the new building. From that day until the work was completed, it might be said of this little band as it was said concerning a group several centuries ago, "The people had a mind to work."(2) Quoted from Frederick, Rev. Walter, "Historical Address, Woodstock, N.Y., May 3, 1931," p. 11. (Close)
When the old parsonage was sold, however, the new one was still not ready when Pastor Frederick and his family had to move out.
[We] moved into a house owned by Mr. Nelson Lasher where [we] remained until Sept. 6th when they celebrated [our] 7th. wedding anniversary by moving into the new and commodious parsonage which stands across the street just a little to the East. The building had not been completed, but it was in a condition that it might be occupied.(3) Ibid. (Close)
(That new parsonage is now the Catskill Art and Office Supply store. You can click the picture to see an enlargement.)

The Bible School was flourishing. A class of 7 students in the Sunday School catechetical class were confirmed at Easter by Pastor Frederick.

[ View looking up Mill Hill Road ]

Above is a postcard view of looking up Mill Hill Road in the earliest years of the twentieth century. Our church is in the distance on the left of the road, the new parsonage on the right. (To enlarge the view, click it.) There is no Joyous Lake or Denny's or CVS (Grand Union), no Woodstock Meats, Catskill Mountain Pizza, or Cumberland Farms to interrupt the view.

The Woodstock Region in 1905

This is a placeholder for information on our region during this year. The information will come soon. The footnote at the end of this sentence is also a placeholder; please don't click it.(4)

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The United States in 1905

[ Theodore Roosevelt ]

Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) was President. The newly elected 59th Congress was in session. A dollar in that year would be worth $20.90 in 2006 for most consumable products.

Immigrants from the British Isles and western Europe (especially Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany)--the so-called "Old Immigrants," most of them boasting a comparatively high level of literacy and accustomed to some level of representative government, who were either Protestant (most of them) or Catholic, were arriving during this decade at an average annual rate of 106,900. The "New Immigrants," those from southern and eastern Europe (especially Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia), largely illiterate and impoverished, who tended to be either Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish and who had little experience with representative government, were arriving at an annual rate of 578,900--five and a half times as much as the Old Immigrants' rate, more than a threefold proportionate increase from a decade earlier and more than a threefold increase in raw numbers. The New Immigrants huddled together in large cities, such as New York City and Chicago.

New York Democratic State Senator George Washington Plunkitt, 63, a Tammany Hall political boss, candidly described his ethical stand in a series of newspaper interviews:

Everybody is talkin' these days about Tammany men growin' rich on graft, but nobody thinks of drawin' the distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft. There's all the difference in the world between the two. Yes, many of our men have grown rich in politics. I have myself. I've made a big fortune out of the game, and I'm gettin' richer every day, but I've not gone in for dishonest graft--blackmailin' gamblers, saloonkeepers, disorderly people, etc.--and neither has any of the men who have made big fortunes in politics.

There's an honest graft, and I'm an example of how it works. I might sum up the whole thing by sayin': "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em."

Just let me explain by examples. My party's in power in the city, and it's going to lay out a new park at a certain place.

I see my opportunity and I take it. I go to that place and I buy up all the land I can in the neighborhood. Then the board of this or that makes its plan public, and there is a rush to get my land, which nobody cared particular for before.

Ain't it perfectly honest to charge a good price and make a profit on my investment and foresight? Of course, it is. Well, that's honest graft. (5)

From Bailey, Thomas A., Kennedy, David M., and Cohen, Lizabeth, The American Pageant: A History of the Republic, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998, p. 515, quoting Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, 1905.(Close)

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30.

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years. The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were: (1) pneumonia and influenza, (2) tuberculosis, (3) diarrhea, (4) heart disease, and (5) stroke

Two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had no college education. Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."

More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub. Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Sugar cost four cents a pound (84 cents a pound in 2006 dollars). Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen ($2.93 a dozen). Coffee was fifteen cents a pound ($3.14 a pound).

A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars ($230).

The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour ($4.60 an hour). The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year ($4,180 and $8,360, respectively). A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year ($41,800 per year), a dentist $2,500 per year ($52,250 per year), a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year ($31,350 and $83,600, respectively), and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year ($104,500 per year).

Most women only washed their hair once a month; they used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet. There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then, the pharmacist said,

Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.

Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

According to Melissa Harris-Perry(6):

In The Nation, March 21, 2011, p. 12. (Close)
Anxious about a growing immigrant population and the racial and economic strife it could provoke,... President Teddy Roosevelt famously mocked the expanding class of working women who were pushing for suffrage. In a 1905 address to the National Conference of Mothers, Roosevelt argued that women's contributions ought to remain primarily within the private sphere. He claimed that the highest service any American (read: white) woman could provide her country was to bear and raise children. Roosevelt acknowledged that the work was hard but insisted that no true mother would exchange the joys and sorrows of parenting for a life of work. He called a woman who avoided motherhood "a creature [who] merits contempt as hearty as any visited upon the soldier who runs away in battle."

There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S. There were 62 reported lynchings during this year (counted among the "murders"?); 57 of the victims were black, 5 of them white. (Apparently what terrible things that happened to Native Americans or to Asians did not get counted.)

W. E. B. DuBois, 37, observed the following(7):

From "Transwiki: American History Primary Sources Reconstruction and the New South," Wikiquote (part of Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.), at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Transwiki:American_History _Primary_Sources_Reconstruction _and_the_New_South, accessed 7 April 2007. (Close)
Any discrimination based simply on race or color is barbarous. Persistent manly agitation is the way to liberty.

The World at Large in 1905

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering their country for any reason.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

This is a placeholder for information on the world at large during this year. The information will come soon. The footnote at the end of this sentence is also a placeholder; please don't click it.(8)

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Notes

The copyrighted material cited on this page comes under the definition of "Fair Use."

See also the general sources.