The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-11-21
Tabernacle Members Say
They Have Good Grounds
For a Suit.
CRY " PACKED" MEETING
Rumors Flying About Regard
ing the Way the Deed
Was Authorized.


Elks there have been many rumors
among the downtown members of the
consolidated churches about the way the
sale was conducted. The concensus Of
opinion among these members is that
while the sale may be legal it is not Chris
tian. They contend that church members
should have put money second to religious
work, and that such an important matter
as the sale OF the Tabernacle should not
have been consummated without due no.
tice to all the members. Always before it
had been the custom when an important
transaction was to be made to hold a
special meeting to consider the subject,
the call for the meeting stating the sub
ject under consideration. This most GER
tainly was not the case with the sale of
the Tabernacle.
The story which has been going the
rounds ever since the sale among the
| downtown people is that when the annual
meeting was held, Thursday evening, Octo-
ber Ii, there were not enough people pres
ent to constitute a quorum, and that
some of those present went out and
brought in people known to favor the sale
of the Tabernacle. SO that the meeting
could be held: in other words, that the
meeting was packed.
This story the trustees deny. Mr.. Will
lam Rowland. Secretary of the Board of
Trustees, and Mr.. Frank H. Hall, Presi-
dent of the Board and son-in-law of the
pastor, the Rev. John L. Scudder. were in
terviewed by News reporter regarding
the truth of the story.
Mr.. Rowland said:-
N ha hact Of {l,r
last meeting of the society took place on
the 11th of October, there were in the
| neighborhood of forty persons present
when called to order. 1t is only necessary
to have twenty-one to have quorum. In
former years the number was eleven, but
after the consolidation the number was
| raised to twenty-one. I am positive that
there were more than that number of
members present when the meeting was
called to order, even though there was a
Y. P. S. C. E. convention on that night
which drew large number of the church
members.
"As far as I know there have been no
plans made whatever regarding the use to
which the money will be put. In fact we
| have not as yet received the money and
] cannot say just when we will get it. The
| parsonage is almost entirely paid for and
| there will be an entertainment held by the
| Ladies' Aid Society in a short time to try
and raise the balance of the money due on
| the parsonage The house and lot which
the church owns across the street from the
| church is mortgaged, but the rent receiv-
| ed from it amply pays the taxes and in
terest on the mortgage. You will see that
there is very little ground for the state
ment made by some people that the board
of trustees had been using the church
money to speculate in real estate. You
| truth in the statement.
| Mr.. Hall said
'sThe announcement of the meeting OF
the Society was made as usual, but no
| mention was made of the selling of the
Tabernacle previous to the meeting. The
| trustees had not made any plans what
ever. The motion was handed to me by
some one whose name I do not recall and
after carefully reading it over and chang
| ing the wording of the motion to conform
with that prescribed by the manual,
read it off and it was passed. We had
no purchaser in view and it seemed as
| though the motion was an unnecessary
one. Shortly afterwards the Elks were
| looking at the Tabernacle with the idea
of renting it to give ten days fair to
raise funds for the purchase of a building
for a clubhouse. 1t was suggested that
they buy the Tabernacle and after the
matter was talked over by both parties
| the deal was closed.
'There can be no plans made for
| the spending of the money received
| for the Tabernacle building for some
time to come, because the wording
| of the mortgage alone makes it impossi-
BILE. The mortgage is to run for a space
| of ten years, and there are not stated
| periods for payments to be made. The
payments are not to be less than one
thousand dollars but they may be made
whenever the Elks see fit. We certainly
shall not spend the money until we receive
it, and when that will be none of the
Trustees knows
| IT understand that Senator Edwards
| has been engaged to fight the sale on be-
half of the members of the down town
branch of the church. I have offered
him any data which he wishes such as
| the minutes of the society meeting, etc
| It seems peculiar to me- but I have heard
/ that one of those most bitterly opposed to
| the sale of the church was the first to ap-
| ply to the Elks for the janitorship of the
| building
| The downtown people have been pre-
| pairing for over a year for a law suit
| in an attempt to gain possession of the
! Tabernacle. Their action has been
hastened by the sale of the Tabernacle
The committee in charge of the law suit
is.-Miss Lille Vance, Miss Allenette
Frost, Harold L. Trent, Secretary of the
Tabernacle Sunday school, and Richard
/ Dales, treasurer of the Sunday school,
| They have secured William d. Edwards to
/ contest the sale.
| One of the members of the committee
/ who was seen by a News reporter yes
terday morning said:-"Such highway
| robbery never saw. 1t seems to be
/ Mr.. Scudder's plan to make the church as
bare as possible. One by one everything
| is being taken away. Last Friday night
when we assembled for prayer meeting,
/ we discovered the piano was missing 1t
had been taken to the Peoples Palace.
| NOW, that piano belongs to the Sunday
/ school and the scholars had only just
| finished paying for It a few months ago.
| Every closet has been cleared out and
/ garments and cloth we had laid away for
| the poor has been taken. Even II Mr..
scudder has 2 right to take the church