Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1846-04-16
Sabbath School Anniversary.

The twenty-thlrd anniversary OF the commencement
of Sabbath Schools in indianapolis was celebrated at
the First Presbyterian Church in this city, on Monday
evening last. The house was filled to overfowing
with the beauty and intelligence of the place. The
old teachers and scholars were seated together, many
of them wondering, no doubt, at the changes which
twenty-three years had made on all around them.
Indianapolis was then, as it were, in the woods, and
many of the Delaware Indians, who once owned the
soil, were still lingering around the graves Of their
fathers. The first Sabbath School, in the language of
one of the old scholars, was held in a cabinet-shop,
it being a frame building and the best in the town,
contrasting advantageously with the cabins in which
the early settlers resided.
The celebration commenced with an ode from about
fifty little girls and boys, comprising the Juvenile
class of Professor Sharpe, who delighted the audience
with their wonderful attainments in music, and a
prayer from the Rev. Mr.. Daniels.
The old minutes of the Sabbath School were then
read by MIR. Douglas Mcguire, containing the names
of the old scholars, males and females, which called
up a thousand recollections of other days. The names
of many who were olce familiar TO the early inhab-
itants of this city, as little girls, have now sons and
daughters attending the various Sabbath Schools.
Some are no longer among the living.
The advantages of Sabbath School instruction, were
now s~trikingly portrayed in a few practical remarks
from Calvin Fletcher, Esq, in which he recounted
the success in life and usefulness of a number of the
old scholars, whose characters were formed in this
Sabbath School. Letters were then read, of a highly
interesting character, from Joseph M. Moore, Esq,
now of the city of Madison, and Calvin and Enslow
Gowdy of Jacksonville and Springfield, Illinois, old
scholars, one of the latter, who is now a physician of
some eminence, giving a minute account of how
himself and two brothers were invited into the Sab
bath School, when found wandering about on the
Sabbath, soon after their arrival at Indianapolis in
1896, and the effects it produced on their after lives.
These letters were expressive of an overlooking
sense of gratitude to their early instructors.
Alanson ]. Stephens, Napoleon B. Taylor, and
Simon Yandes, Esquires, three of the old scholars,
now made appropriate addresses. Mr.. Taylor COM
menced in the alphabet in the school. Our friend
Simon having the fear Of state of single bleSsedness
before his eyes remarked, that the projectors of this
celebration must have set the time back some ten
years, as he could scarcely realize the fact that
twenty-three years ago he was old enough to be in a
Sabbath School. He related many incidents in the
early history of the school, in his peculiar and happy
manner. Doctor Isaac Coe, who was the protector Of
the Sabbath School in indianapolis, and who has been
a fixture in it for nearly a quarter of a century, was
present and highly delighted. The school commenced
with 80 scholars and the different schools now number
nearly eleven hun6red-more than equal to the entire
population of Marion county, now the second county
in the State in point of numbers, at the formation oil
the school.