Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-03-11
CHURCH BUILT BY
PREACHER AND WIFE
TO BE DEDICATED
The Rev. and Mrs. Arthur
G. Tippett Finish Task
Begun Nearly a Year
Ago in Spirit of Relig-
ious Zeal.

The Rev. Arthur @. TIppets thought
there ought TO be church in a little set
tlement on the southern side of Maple
Shade, which lies in New Jersey. less
than 10 miles from Philadelphia. He
preached a sermon there and explained
his idea. But when he called for volun-
teer carpenters the only persons who
held up their hands were the preacher
and his wife, Ada Tippett.
No workmen, no money and not even
a road to the place where the church was
TO be built--that was the way the thing
started. Now the church Is ready to be
dedicated, because clergyman who had
never driven a nail had energy, and be-
cause his wife, in the midst of house,
hold work and caring for n baby, helped
him haul stones, carry bags OF cement,
lift heavy sticks OF timber and use a
hammer and saw She was his partner
in building road through an uncleared
wood and together they managed to put
UP n parsonage at the same time they
were building house of worship. The
work was done in the few hours day
that were left after the preacher came
back from his mission work in the Ken
slngton mill district.
The building, called the Christ Free
Church, Is on Fort Landing road, mile
and a half south of the Maple Shade
railroad station. II will be dedicated on
Easter Sunday. Thlrty-eight by forty
feet in size, II has two-story tower In
which is built a study for the self-ap-
pointed pastor, who will have no salary.
Three hundred people can be seated in II.
When work was started last May there
was no road to tho site. The first work
was to build a roadway through a mile
OF swamp land. The preacher and his
wife did It. Then they sharpened their
axes and cut away enough land to erect
the church and the parsonage, next door.
That done, they marked out on the
ground with a stick, the boundaries of
their proposed edifce.
One hundred wagon loads of stones
from neighboring fields and the Same
number of bags of cement went into the
foundations. The cement was donated
after assduous soliciting by the preachers
carpenter, and his timber came in the
same way. There are 10000 feet of lum-
ber In the building. 1t consists of knotty
pieces of many varieties of wood. con-
tributed by lumber dealers. and hauled by
the minister in milk wagon When this
part OF the work was going on, last fall.
the clergymans horse foundered and in
trying to help him out he himself was
caught in mud and almost freezing water
for four hours. The details of the build
ing operation suggest the conditions
in the West half century ago
Seventy-five dollars is the total of cash
contributions which have been received
by the builder. Opera chairs were donated
for seats and an organ was given by a
Philadelphia church. The Pennsylvania
Railroad Company donated an engine bell,
which is being placed in the tower.
The Rev. Mr.. Tippett and his wife were
born in England. He was preacher at
10 years of age, when he worked in tin
mines in Cornwall His grandfather.
BILLY Bray. the Cornish Miner was an
itinerant preacher and built several stone
churches with boulders wheeled from the
mines in a barrow. Tippett's mother was
an ordained minister, and the preachers
builder ascrbes his tendencies to heredlty.
He is non-sectarian. During the week he
does mission work in the mill district OF
this city, where he is a familiar figure.
During the summer he operates Gospel
Car" in Brldesburg and Kensington.