The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-01-02
SILVER REUNl ION.
st. Johns Acorn Society
Celebrates It's Twenty
Fifth Anniversary.
DR.. ST0DDARD's Adj DRESS.
Financial Success Of the Associa-
tion-Ladies Who Worked and
Won-General Church Jews.

Acorn Society Of st. Johns p. E. Church
on Wednesday evening last, the Rev. E.
L. ~Stoddard, pastor of the church, de-
Hvered an address in which he traced
through prosperity and adversely the his
tory of the Acorn Society. The history
furnishes interesting particulars concern
ing the organization.
Pastor Stoddard said
This is indeed a notable occasion. 1t
is given to many people to celebrate the
twenty-ffth anniversary of a marriage,
but rarely is it that a society In union
with a parish, continues In its integrity
of existence and purpose for a quarter
of a century. Still rarer is it to find
members working in that society who
were its founder twenty-five years be-
fore. And rarer yet to n an organi-
cation able to show a continuous record
with break, gap or hindrance, and to
point to over $1,000 a year raised con-
tinuously for two and a half decades
in small monthly subscriptions, collected
by member or helpers of the society.
Yet this Is the record of the Ladies
| Acorn Society of this church, and I have
been asked to briefly sketch a career so
triumphant and successful from start to
finish. n let me begin by saying that
the fact that certain ladies were alive at
the beginning of this organization and
are still with us, is no proof that they
are not youthful, blooming and fair.
1T is not necessary to remember that
they organized this society in their
youth-time, their acorn girlhood, as it
were. This reflection leaves them still
in their prime. This parish was fortu-
nate in having for it's first rector SO
thorough a churchman that he not only
saw the present building constructed on
ecclesiastical lines, but organized this So
ciety upon a chufchly, and so a perma-
nent basis. That rector, the present
Bishop of Central Pennsylvania, whom
we nave with us tonight, was conversing
with Mrs. Appleby during the hot season
of 1871 in regard to some plan for raising
extra money. Can any good thing come
out of Hoboken? we ask.
Eyes, the Acorn Society came out of it,
for Mrs. Appleby told the rector of a
society in that Galilean suburb Of the
Union which bore the name Acorn and
whose members paid small sums in
monthly instalIments. 1t vas al once
decided to nave such an organization in
Jersey City. On August 29, therefore
(notice the date, for If anyone attempted
to gather a company of people at that
time now, he must lave to go to the
Water Gap or Asbury Park; on August
20, at the home of the rector, the Acorn
Society of st. Johns Church was born.
Mrs. Rulison was President; Mrs. Apple
by, Vice President, Mrs. DR.. Luno. Sec
rotary, and Miss Kate Ruddemo, Treas
49, IL .1 &c ~ IF
the committee on work, a thing which,
as far as my observation goes, she has
never stopped. Indeed, among the legends
of her childhood is n which says that
the first time she ever wrote her name
1t was as a subscriber for a missionary
box and that her first piece OF patch
| work is still being worn in a quilt in the
missionary district of Niobrana. Mrs.
Parsells appears in the list as a coll
lector, and after holding out her hand
for subscriptions for a quarter Of q CEN
fury, it is a marvel that like that of q
| Hindoo posturer, it has not become fixed
in an outstretched position. Mrs. Apple
which we know her to possess, soon
slipped into the presidents chair and
no one has ever since been able to get
her out. There were forty-four original
| subscribers, including the three ladies
| Just mentioned, and to whom we do
| honor tonight as having been active
workers IN The society ever SinGe us
birth. Mrs. Cussman, whose name also
appears, is in this neighborhood, but att
tends another parish church Mrs Ed
| munds, Mrs. Samuel Harrison, Mrs. DR.:
| Bance; then Miss Edith Harrison and
Mrs. e. w. Harrison were among those
immortal forty-four and are in this
| parish and still contribute after a quar-
ter of a century. All honor to them. Mrs.
Ruddem, Miss Kate Ruddem and Miss
| Fannie Ridden and Mrs. &Jewett were
also on the list. and the two former,
though Living in. New York, send their
| regular subscriptions to this day.. A few
| others are with US tonight from other
parishes, but the large majority are gone,
lost sight of, or dead.
.sThe churchIy character of the Acorn
Society is seen in its fifth constitutional
| article, which reads that no none shall
| be expended contrary to the expressed
will of rector, wardens and vestry, tney
! officers of the parish according to the
| civil law. Another, which in its eonsti-
| tuition reads, that men and women may
| be members of the society, the men pay
| ing so cents initiation fee and the women
rs cents, but that no man Gin spite OF the
double paymen) shall have any voice In
the proceedings of the organization.
II suppose the ladies really think it is
| this clause which has kept the society
| alive SO long. During the first few years.
| of such an organization the receipts are
| apt to be much larger than after II has
| become an old story. During 1872 and
rs the Acorns collected about S4, 400. Over
| $1,000 of this large sum was made by a
/ most successful combination of supper
| and fair. in which the same people
| made everything for the fair and gave
| everything for the p and then paid
| 81 for the privilege of eating h they
had given and buying back what they
| had made. While the receipts from these
| marvellous entertainments were over
| 81. 600 the expenses were but 500. Fii1an-
! ciaI management has always been a
| strong point Of the Ac0rnS.
SIN those early days the member took
| some interest In missionary and hospital
| work. but their charities in these direc-
| tions were always subsidiary to the main
| purpose for which they were called into
| being. That was the aymen of the.
| interest or principal on the mortgage debt
| Of the church. In fact the vestry kept
too strict a watch on them to permit
| them to wander very far away. In 1874
| the first rectory note was sounded in, the
I following resolution:lThe subject of I,ur-
| chasing a lot adjacent to the church on.
| which to build a rectory was considered
| and it was resolved that If the rector and
| vestry approved. tho further receipts of
the society should be devoted TO that
purpose. This was in February. The
Vestry took until the following October
Ito think over this startling and revo-
l~lutionary proposal, and then said that
the Acorns could carry out their FUR
I pose.
| months later 500 was given n $50