Working Within The Holy Spirit
By Randal J. Loy
This will be the last article published here concerning The Glorious Masterworks of Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral. As I believe many of you know, I have devoted the better part of three years to this project: researching, writing, corresponding with experts and with family members of individuals memorialized by gifts in the Nave, collecting photographs, and raising funds for the printing of the book.
Now, we're getting very close to finalizing this project. Many of you have expressed surprise that the project wasn't finished sooner. There is a simple reason for that: the timetable was guided by The Holy Spirit.
 James H. Hogan |
 Patrick Hogan |
 Gottfried Heinersdorff |
 Thomas Heinersdorff |
Working within The Holy Spirit has been truly amazing. I have found, through my continued searching, the grandsons of two of the most important stained glass artists represented in the Nave of the Cathedral. Patrick Hogan (b. 1940), grandson of James Hogan (1883-1948), designer of our Powell & Sons windows in the Chancel, was a "gift" given to me very early, in September of 2005. But Thomas Heinersdorff (b. 1952), grandson of Gottfried Heinersdorff (1883-1941), wasn't revealed to me until February of 2008. (By the way -- notice that James Hogan and Gottfried Heinersdorff were born in the same year!)
Likewise, Clif Cook, the great-grandson of John Darwin Shepard Cook (1834-1909), (that early member of Grace Church who donated a Memorial Record Book to preserve information on the memorial gifts, such as what has been uncovered in the research I have done the past three years,) only responded to an Internet posting in March of 2008. Clif Cook is also the grandson of Bishop Philip Cook (1875-1938) of the Diocese of Delaware, who was responsible for the choice of the Powell & Sons firm as the makers of the stained glass windows this Parish commissioned in 1929 to replace those early windows lost in the fire of March, 1929. Bishop Cook had dedicated a stained glass window in Trinity Church, Wilmington, Delaware, in early 1929, which was designed by James Hogan and fabricated by Powell & Sons. Bishop Cook was very impressed with that window, and then toured the Powell & Sons factory outside London, England, in October of 1929.
 John Darwin Shepard Cook |
 Rosalie Barlow Cook |
The wealth of information these three men provided to me for the book was simply incredible. And all three of them also provided me with important photographs of their family members for the book. I am most grateful to Clif Cook for the photograph of his great-grandmother, Rosalie Barlow Cook, because that photograph is the only one I was able to obtain for the early women who are memorialized in the stained glass windows. However, I am convinced that there is a very strong possibility that the images of the two angels in the original Pratt windows in the Chancel (below), fabricated by Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company in 1897, were actually portraits of the first wife and eldest daughter of Wallace Pratt (1831-1907). It is obvious by the hairstyle and demeanor of the angel in the window memorializing Alice Pratt Berdell (1858-1887) that the artist chose a non-traditional depiction of a heavenly being. Ellen Goheen, a member of this Parish with academic credentials in art, first pointed this out to me when I showed her the photographs I found of the windows destroyed in the 1929 fire. I had planned on publishing the photographs as a part of the book, but when she gave me this revelation, I knew I had to record that astute observation for the Parish. I can't help wondering if in fact those two angels were portraits of the women they honored, and that fact was in some way distorted into the erroneous legend that the image in the Chorister window was based on an early photograph of John Alexander Ross (1850-1901), (which error is patently obvious just by comparing the one photograph we have of Mr. Ross with the face of the Chorister).
 Berdell Window (click to enlarge) |
 Pratt Window (click to enlarge) |
 John A. Ross |
 Detail from the Chorister Window (click to see entire window) |
There will be more than three hundred photographs in the book, to illustrate an almost unbelievable amount of information that was revealed to me as I worked and labored on this project. And The Holy Spirit was in charge there, as well, for the more I searched and read, the more contacts I made and more information I obtained. The resulting text is so dense with data that I don't recommend that anyone read more than one chapter at a sitting, so that you have time to absorb the wealth of facts, dates, deeds, and accomplishments. The names that surround us in the Nave of the Cathedral represent persons of great faith and great achievements.
There have been more than 75 people who have assisted in the writing of this book, many of them from within this Parish. But how wonderful it has been for me to speak with the grandchildren of Bishop Spencer (1877-1961), the grandson of Bishop Partridge (1857-1930), the daughter of Dean Sprouse (1888-1952), and the daughter of Dean Haden (1910-2000)! They have related such thrilling stories of their lives and their fathers' and grandfathers' lives. That work in and of itself was a blessing to me.
What has amazed me most has been the unselfish help and assistance of those who have never met me in person. There have been so many who have given help in the genealogical searches I've made, and without their help, we would know nothing of the families of those who are honored in our stained glass windows and other gifts. While I was finally able to break through the barrier in my search for information on Caroline Felthousen Dudley Pratt (1835-1902), for whom the Christ Preaching window is a memorial, I was totally stumped when I attempted to research the family of the mother of John Alexander Ross, for whom the Chorister window is a memorial. Without the gracious and extensive assistance of Susan B. Nass, of California, we would still be wondering about the Gabaudan family, and also about the maiden name of Frances Eliza Lothrop (1809-1893), due to the amazing fact that she married her third cousin, John Hiram Lathrop (1799-1866). They are both remembered in the Nunc Dimittis, or Presentation, window, located at the East end of the South wall. Sue Nass was also responsible for assisting me in locating information on the sculptor of the Canterbury Ambo in the National Cathedral in Washington, on which our Pulpit is based. And finally, Sue was responsible for pointing me in the right direction for information on the family of Mary Fraser Wesselhoeft (1873-1971), the artist who designed the "Munich" window next to the Baptismal Font.
There are many others. For example, a gentleman from Pennsylvania, named Kelly Thomas, was incredibly helpful as I searched for information on Charlotte Thomas Faeth (1907-2001) and her family. Even though he was not a member of that particular branch of the Thomas family, he spent several hours researching the family and giving me specific sources for the obituaries of Charlotte's family, so that I could reconstruct the life of Mrs. Faeth, who had been such a private person that she did not have an obituary published for her husband when he died, and her own obituary consisted only of a few sentences!
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Special recognition must be given to Judy Andrews of New York, and Nancy Schaar of Ohio. Judy provided me with a great deal of information on Bishop Spencer's family from a state government that is difficult to work with at best. Because I had only the general information found in Bishop Spencer's published biography as my starting point, she was extremely handicapped in searching there for his family. Finally, by actually walking in cemeteries in and around the town of Colesville, Broome County, New York, Judy found them all, buried next to each other in a small cemetery outside Tunnel, the small hamlet in which Bishop Spencer was born and spent the first 16 years of his life. She spent many hours working on this project for the Cathedral, and even though she expended money for fees, gas, photocopying, and other charges, she refused reimbursement for her expenses. She estimates that she has assisted more than 500 families in this manner. Truly, she is an Angel of God.
Nancy Schaar was invaluable to me in finding the family of Alexander Butts (1844-1910), for whom the St. John window is a memorial. During the time she provided assistance, she was dealing with the life-threatening chemotherapy of her 3-year-old grandson. Her strength was amazing during the trials and tribulations of watching that helpless child struggle against both the cancer and the treatment.
Mr. Robert F. Cell of Texas was one of those who responded to an inquiry I posted on a family genealogical forum. In that case, it was specifically for information on the families of Louise and Henry Musson, for whom the "Munich" window is a memorial. It turned out not only that Mr. Cell was related to Mr. and Mrs. Musson, but also that he had written a genealogical account of the Musson family, and he had been a choir boy at Grace and Holy Trinity Church in the early 1930s, shortly before this Parish became the Cathedral Church of the Diocese!
But I must not fail to mention two extremely important men to this project, namely Albert M. Tannler (b. 1941) of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Dr. Dennis Hadley (b. 1933), of England. Both of these men are experts in the field of stained glass: Dr. Hadley on James Hogan and the Powell & Sons firm, and Al Tannler on all the American stained glass artists of the late 19th and early 20th Century. Dr. Hadley provided us with extremely detailed information about the commission of the seven Powell & Sons windows in December of 1929. Al Tannler was my mentor and editor on the writing of biographies on the important stained glass artists represented in the Nave of the Cathedral. He has just published a book on Charles J. Connick (1875-1945), the artist who produced the last three stained glass windows installed in Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in 1943, 1944, and 1945. Neither one of these men ever refused to assist me, or asked for reimbursement for their considerable services!
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And the greatest allies I have had in this project have been two descendants of Captain Bertrand Rockwell (1844-1930) and Julia Marshall Snyder Rockwell (1850-1947). Captain and Julia Rockwell joined Grace Church in 1906, and were active members until their deaths in 1930 and 1947, respectively. Julia Rockwell was the first historian of this Parish. In the late 1920s, before the 1929 fire, she discovered the Memorial Record Book, which John Darwin Shepard Cook had given in 1897, unused and collecting dust on the top shelf of the closet in the Vestry Room, which is now the Working Sacristy. She was disappointed to see that this important gift had been so carelessly tossed aside, and that Mr. Cook's intention was never carried out. So, she took it upon herself to contact Cameron Mann and other individuals to collect as much data as possible on the stained glass windows and other memorial gifts in the Nave of the church. She spent more than a year on this project, and recorded all she found in the Memorial Record Book, as had been intended. Then, after the disastrous fire in 1929, she compiled a booklet for the dedication of the Powell & Sons windows and the rededication of the Nave in October of 1930 which contained a large portion of the information she had gathered. Her selfless dedication to the process Mr. Cook attempted to begin in 1897 was truly a gift to this Parish. And, thankfully, she recorded enough basic information that I was able to carry out a great deal of detailed research on the Internet, which gave us so much information that was not available to Julia. (It is interesting to note that the last name of Gottfried Heinersdorff is almost illegible in the stained glass window, due to the narrow, elongated lettering used there; not one document in the Cathedral Archives bears the correct spelling of his last name!)
I first met Jean Mary Love Blackman, the granddaughter of Julia Rockwell, near the beginning of my research. She was so very gracious, and was so willing to share the history of her family with me. Not long after that, I was contacted by her daughter, Anne Rockwell Blackman, and we have become very close friends. In the tradition of her great-grandmother, Julia, Anne has compiled a very detailed history of the Rockwell family, resplendent not only with photographs and official documents, but also with precious personal possessions, such as pay script used during the Civil War, and school papers and themes. It is an incredible, loving undertaking she has made, and she shared it all, freely, with me for this project. These two women made the first donation toward the printing of this book, and it was an extremely generous donation, in keeping with the tradition of the Rockwell family in this Parish.
So, there have been many hands in this project -- all guided and overseen by The Holy Spirit. It has taken so much longer than I ever anticipated, but now you know the reason. And now, we have only to look to the guidance of The Holy Spirit for obtaining the remaining funds necessary to print this wondrous book for the congregation, and it will, at last, be finished. I want to thank all of those who have generously made contributions to this project, and for their emotional support to me. God bless each and every one of you! I ask for your prayers as I continue to seek sources of funding for the completion of this project.
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