The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-09
THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.

An interesting recapitulation of con- spicuous points in the history of the First Baptist church has been furnish ed the Journal and Courier by Weston Ferris, a member of this church. from personal memorandum in his possess sion, and is as follows:
 The closing service was held in the Chapel street Baptist church, which was afterwards the Skiff Opera house, on Sunday December 10, 1865. An his torical sermon was preached in the morning by Dr. Phelps, who took as his text Psalms xviii, 12 and IS. The sermon in the afternoon was delivered by Dr, Neal. His text was from Acts xiii, S6. Dr. Hill, who had preached the hrst sermon ever delivered in the church, preached the last sermon In the evening, using as text Deuteron- omy, l, 6. On Monday evening, Decem- Der Il, a farewell service was held in the church. It was opened by prayer from Rev. Dr. Fletcher, then the pas tor of the First Methodist church. Speeches were made by the pastor, Dr. Phelps and Drs. Hill, Patton, Bacon. Rev. MT. Atwater, Rev. MT. Glover and Rev. MT. Eustis. Rev. MT. Mason made the closing prayer.
 The first meeting was held in the Wooster Place church on December 1T, 1865. Dr. Phelps preached the opening sermon, taking his text from Genesis xviii, +. Dr. Turnbull preached at the afternoon and evening services. His texts were Phil. iii, IS. and St. John. xix, 25. On November ?, 1873, Dr. Phelps resigned, his resigntion taking effect on December T. 1873, when he preached his farewell sermon. One convert was baptised by him at the service. At the communion service in the afternoon he took an affectionate leave of his church.
 The Wooster Place church was burnt on October l, 1874. The church met on the next Sunday evening in the lec- ture room of the Davenport church, which had been courteously rendered to the First Baptist congregation af- ter the fire. At this meeting Rev. T.. called to be their pastor. He had preached in the Woster Place church a short time before the fire. After re- turning from the west, where he had been on visit, he preached on October IS in Loomis' Temple of Music. an old music hall founded by the late c. M. Loomis, and very popular at that time.
 The chapel of the Wooster Place church was opened for worship Febru- ary 21, 1875. On that day Rev. Dr. Pattison preached his first sermon as pastor of the church. The audience room was dedicated on May 19. The noted Dr. Arlnitage of New York preached in the afternoon and Dr. Phelps, in the evening. Rev. Dr. Pat tison rendered his resignation March z, 1879, having received a call to the Immanuel church, Albany, N. Y. He was a very eloquent speaker. He preached his last sermon on April 13, 1879. The church extended a call to Dr. J. M. Stiff1er on September 15, 1873. He preached his first sermon on Sep- tember 28, of that year. He preached his last sermon on March 25, 1883, hav- ing rendered his resignation on August IS, 1882. The church voted to call Wal lace H. Butrick on February 9, 1883. MT. Butrick commenced his work as pastor June 8, 1883, and rendered his resignation on February 15 1889, to take effect on the last Sunday in l March. The church extended call to Rev. John H. Mason on March p, 1 1889. He preached his first sermon on May and rendered his resignation on April 3, 1896. His last sermon was prached Sunday, June IA, 1896 The First Baptist church gave a call to it's present pastor, Rev. Addison Moore, December 30, 1896. MT. Moore com menced his labors as pastor, January 3, 1897.