Newark post., 1913-06-04
SERVICES AT HIS
TORIC DRAWERS
EARLY SEAT OF PRESBYTERIANISM

niversary services at Old Drawers
Presbyterian church, near Odessa,
on Sunday attracted to that vener-
able seat Of early Presbyterianism
III the new world about 500 visitors
who participated in the morning
and afternoon services in commem-
Grafton Of the event. Among the
number were Mr.. and Mrs. G. B.
Evans, Misses Raub and Strahorn,
DR.. and Mrs. A. Y. Neale, Mrs. c.
L. Penny, Benjamin Caulk, Eben
Frazer, Mrs. Ira Mote of Newark.
The Rev. Thomas M. Hubbard,
ID. D., clerk of the Presbyterian
General Assembly of the United
States, preached an inspiring SER
mon at the morning service. The
Rev. Edward A. McLaury, pastor
of the Odessa Presbyterian church,
directed the service. The choirs of
the two Odessa churches, assisted
by Mrs. Warden R. Humphrey, of
Wilmington, supplied the special
musical features. The attendance
filled the church but was not so
large as that of last year. At the
afternoon service Atty. Gen. j. O.
Wolcott delivered an address on the
sturdy pioneers who first peopled
the shores Of the Delaware river
and bay.
In the interval between the two
services the annual meeting of the
Friends Of Old Drawers was held.
All of the previous officers were
reelected. The hold-over officials
are: President, Daniel w. Corbit,
Odessa; vice-president, Thomas j.
Craven, Salem, N. j.; secretary,
Miss S. Cornelia Bourman, Will
mintgon; treasurer, George Jani-
yer, Middletown; trustees, Isaac
Janvier Woods, Clarence Pool, Nc
Donough; Howard A. Pool, Middle
town; William G. Janvier, st.
Georges; Miss Barbara Vandegrift,
Wilmington.
Services are held at Old Draw
yers the first Sunday in June Of
each year and at no other time.
Attorney General Wolcott spoke
in part as follows:
cover two hundred years ago,
to be exact, two hundred and two
years ago, was Old Drawers
church erected. It's congregation
had been gathered together a con-
siderable while before this, some
time during the last quarter of the
seventeenth century. The first set
Elements in Delaware were made in
the second quarter of the seven
tcenth century. Those who COM
posed the first congregation Of Old
Drawers were, therefore, but
about one generation removed from
the pioneer settlers of our state.
Doubtless some of those numbered
among its first congregation were
among the first white men that
dwelt in the vicinity of Appoquin-
imy. as it was called in those dis
tant days.
This church, therefore, as we
think of her age, carries us back
across the years to the time when
our fathers first came over the
seas and laid the foundation for
the white man s civilization in this
particular portion Of the new
world.
"And as Old Drawers thus
makes us think of other and dis
tant past, Of the first and earliest
days, | desire to pause for a few
moments to speak of the manner Of
men who came here and set up
their communities in these then re-
mote places.
"The pioneers were a bold and
heroic lot of people. A certain
hardihood of character, fearless
courage i'll the face of dangers, a
spirit of adventurous boldness
must have been theirs, else they
never could have persuaded them
selvs to abandon the ease and com
forts and certainities of their
oldworld homes to brave the un-
known dangers and hardships they
knew they must encounter in the
new land. They were forsaking
home and all that home means; and
that alone bespeaks superior cour-
age and boldness on their part. For
man is by nature predisposed |
against transportation, and as he |
reaches his maturity he strikes his
roots deeper into the soil of his
birth. Wherever he happens to be
born, whether amidst the ice and
SHOWS of the north, or beneath the
heat OF the tropic suns, he loves his
physical environment, and unless
he be strong and brave, to separate
him from it may mean that he will
wither and die