|
|
|
Memorializing Mothers:
Stained-Glass Windows, Female Empowerment, and Religion in Cooperstown, New York
Amy R. Gundrum, Cooperstown Graduate Program, SUNY-Oneonta, Cooperstown, New York
| The women of Cooperstown, New York, honored the ideals of family, piety, and domesticity in the memorial windows they commissioned for Christ Episcopal Church and the First Presbyterian Church.1 Stained-glass windows have long been appreciated for their beauty and the atmosphere they provide in a church but are often overlooked for the social and cultural history they impart. The memorial stained-glass windows of Christ Episcopal Church and the First Presbyterian Church in Cooperstown provide a view into a society long gone and therefore deserve a closer look. Memorial windows for the purpose of this article are stained-glass windows clearly dedicated to one or two individuals on the glass or on a plaque beneath. Over half of the memorial windows in the two churches are dedicated to women. Research into the windows reveals that when the commissioner is known it is, with only one exception, a woman. The woman involved with the commission was almost always a close family member. |
1
|
|
Cooperstown's memorial stained-glass windows were installed at a time when women did not have a lot of public power. Women were expected to stay in the private sphere of the house and tend to their families.2 Women could not vote and rarely held property. Married women lost most of their own identity in the public record. This lack of power also extended to religious institutions. Within the greater Presbyterian Church there was debate about whether women should even be allowed to speak in church.3 Within the church, women joined organizations to help with mission activities at home and abroad, helped keep the church looking nice, and taught Sunday school. However, women still needed permission from the men running the church to get many things done. Memorial windows were a way for women to make a statement in church, even if it was a visual one. The memorial windows left a large and lasting legacy. |
2
|
|
Christ Church contains fifteen stained-glass windows along the walls of the sanctuary. Of these windows, ten are memorial windows. At least six different companies made and installed the windows between 1865 and 1911. One is dedicated to a couple. There are two other couples memorialized, but in this case each individual has his or her own window, making four in all. Of the remaining windows, two are dedicated to men, and three are dedicated to women. At the nearby First Presbyterian Church, there are two memorial windows made by a single company and installed in 1895 and 1896. One is dedicated to a man, and the other to a woman. |
3
|
|
Sources for this article included the windows themselves and various written primary documents. Important information came from church records, including the Vestry Minutes from Christ Church and the Trustees Records and Ladies' Missionary Society records of the First Presbyterian Church. In addition to the church records, the local paper, the Freeman's Journal, provided descriptions of the windows, people, and activities of the congregations. |
4
|
|
Cooperstown did not have a church building for almost ten years after its settlement. William Cooper founded Cooperstown and at first he did not make an effort to start a church. His son James Fenimore Cooper wrote, "During the first ten years of the existence of the village, the people depended entirely on chance for the little religious instruction they received."4 After ten years, William Cooper gave land to the Presbyterians and Episcopalians for their churches.5 Both groups had buildings by 1810.6 Christ Episcopal Church stands one street to the east of the First Presbyterian Church. The two church buildings still exist today, but both went through extensive redesigns in the middle of the nineteenth century. |
5
|
When first constructed, Christ Church was a simple rectangular brick structure. Its windows had rounded tops and were filled with clear glass. James Fenimore Cooper spearheaded the renovation and redesign of Christ Church in 1840 and helped pay for some of the changes.7 When Cooper returned from a European tour in 1833, he remodeled his home, Otsego Hall, in the Gothic style before turning his Gothic interests to the church.8 According to Ralph Birdsall, historian and a rector of Christ Church in the early twentieth century:
In 1840, he [James Fenimore Cooper] found time to plan and supervise extensive alterations in Christ Church, of which he had become a vestryman in 1835, with his mind full of the Gothic splendor of churches that he had seen in England, he set out to beautify the village church at home. The broad windows with rounded tops he caused to be somewhat narrowed and pointed, in the fashion usually described as Gothic.... To this alteration Cooper added the buttresses all about the church, not for structural necessity, but as an architectural embellishment.9
The brick on the outside of the church still shows the size and form of the original windows. In 1840 the new windows were fitted with plain panes of glass. |
6
|
|
In 1859 the plain glass windows were replaced with stained-glass windows, which cost $400.10 These new windows had diamond-shaped panes. In 1864, further alterations were made to the church, which included adding transepts and a new chancel. The addition of transepts changed the plan of the rectangular church into the shape of a cross. As part of that renovation the first of the memorial stained-glass windows were installed.11 The first windows were dedicated to James Fenimore Cooper and his wife Susan Augusta Fenimore Cooper, who had died in 1851 and 1852 respectively. Memorial windows would continue to be added to Christ Church for the next forty-six years. |
7
|
|
| |
|
Christ Episcopal Church, Cooperstown, New York.
Photograph by the author.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
First Presbyterian Church, Cooperstown, New York.
Photograph by the author.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Renovations to the First Presbyterian Church were not nearly as extensive as at Christ Church. The First Presbyterian Church is simpler in style than Christ Episcopal Church. It is rectangular in shape and has a tower at its entrance. When the First Presbyterian Church was constructed in the early part of the nineteenth century there were "two stories of small square windows."12 In 1856, the two stories of small windows were combined to create long windows and stained glass was added.13 Today, these twelve long narrow stained-glass windows, arranged along the sides and at the back of the church on either side of the entrance, have panes in the shape of diamonds in muted tones with only a small religious symbol or two included. The two memorial windows added in the 1890s were placed on either side of the pulpit where no previous windows had existed. The interior of the church is painted in neutral tones, which makes the memorial windows on either side of the pulpit that much more vibrant. |
8
|
|
A memorial window was an expensive investment. The target audience for memorial windows was the wealthy. The Victorians took death very seriously and expected members of society, particularly wealthy women, to grieve in a proper manner. The Victorians expected public mourning, signified by black clothes and other outward material signs. Women bore the brunt of society's mourning strictures, which provides one explanation for the commissioning of stained-glass memorial windows by women. Memorial windows allowed grieving family members already taking comfort in their religion to find further strength in the visual monument. Memorial windows allowed for public mourning and remembrance and fit Victorian sentiments while allowing display of the opulence made possible by the wealth of the Gilded Age. |
9
|
|
The majority of the memorial stained-glass windows in the First Presbyterian Church and Christ Episcopal Church follow the same pattern of dedication. The individual men were memorialized by their widows, and couples were memorialized by their children. Three individual women were honored by a child or mother. The fourth woman, Susan Augusta Fenimore Cooper, was memorialized not by family but by a group of ladies. |
10
|
Of those memorialized in Christ Episcopal Church and the First Presbyterian Church, Susan Augusta Fenimore Cooper was the only female who may have been well known beyond central New York. Her famous father and her mother of the same name are memorialized through stained-glass windows in a transept of Christ Church. Susan followed in her father's footsteps by becoming an author of several works. In addition to her books, she was remembered for her charitable works around Cooperstown. Her obituary remarked that she "Beyond almost any other woman of her rank in society, had devoted most of her life for forty years past to promoting the moral and physical good of others."14 One of her best-known charitable acts was to establish an orphanage.15 Ralph Birdsall, rector of Christ Church wrote:
Her life-work was given to the Orphan House of the Holy Saviour, which she established in 1870, where homeless and destitute children were cared for and educated, and where now, on the broader basis of the Susan Fenimore Cooper Foundation, unusual opportunities for vocational training are extended to boys and girls.16
Over her eighty years, Susan Augusta Fenimore Cooper used her family name and wealth to help a variety of people in Cooperstown and the surrounding area. Susan Fenimore Cooper, though unmarried, was and is well known for her family connections, her books, and her long and charitable life. She is rare among the women memorialized through stained-glass windows and women of her time generally. In the 1860 census she was listed as a head of household with real estate of $3,000 and a personal estate of $7,000.17 Still head of household in 1870, her real estate value was $5,000 and personal estate $13,500.18 She was single, wealthy, and even had a formal occupation as an author. |
11
|
|
The commissioners of memorial windows were generally parents, spouses, or children of the deceased. Susan Augusta Fenimore Cooper, who was unmarried and childless, did not have living parents so ladies in the church commissioned her window. Based on her charitable works it was felt by many in her church and community that Miss Cooper deserved a memorial window in her name. There is more information in the Freeman's Journal and in Vestry Records for Christ Church about her window than any other, showing how important she was in the church and community. |
12
|
|
Just four months after her death, a memorial window was in the works. The Vestry Minutes in April 1895 reveal "On motion of Mr. Keese, the committee having the matter in charge, was granted permission to place a memorial window for Miss Susan Fenimore Cooper, on the north side of the church."19 In early May, just a few weeks after the idea was approved by the vestry, the Freeman's Journal printed: "The sum total of $500 has been practically raised for placing a handsome memorial window in Christ church, in honor of the late Susan Fenimore Cooper."20 When a design was chosen, the vestry was sought to approve the window again and did.21 |
13
|
A year after Miss Cooper's death her window was ready. The Freeman's Journal reported the following:
The beautiful and appropriate Susan Fenimore Cooper memorial window, purchased by admiring personal friends for Christ church, Cooperstown, of which she was a life-long honored member, was this week placed in position in the church edifice, and will be formally dedicated by appropriate services at 10 o'clock this Wednesday morning. The figure represents Charity.22
"Appropriate" probably refers to the fact that the window depicts Charity in the form of a woman giving bread to little children. It is an excellent representation of Miss Cooper's actions during life. |
14
|
|
| |
|
Susan Augusta Fenimore Cooper Memorial Window, Christ Episcopal Church.
Photograph by the author.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following week more information was provided in the paper following the dedication of the window stating that the window was "given to Christ Church by a large number of friends both in and away from Cooperstown." At the dedication, the rector "spoke of Miss Cooper's long connection with the parish, her life of good works, her ministrations especially to the little children, and exhorted all present to imitate her beneficent and holy life."23 Though she did not have children of her own, Miss Cooper acted as a mother to many children in the orphanage she started. The citizens, especially women, of Cooperstown were able to show their appreciation for Miss Cooper's good deeds and religious devotion by memorializing her in her church. |
15
|
The men memorialized at the two churches were all involved in religious life, wealthy, prominent in business, and most were descended from early settlers of Cooperstown. Elihu Phinney, memorialized at First Presbyterian, was the third in the family to bear that name. His grandfather first came to Cooperstown early in its history as publisher of the first newspaper. The Elihu Phinney to whom the window was dedicated, returning from a fishing trip on Otesgo Lake, fell into the water, probably hitting his head on the dock, and drowned. Phinney was nearly seventy years old. He was described as a "highly esteemed and prominent citizen."24 The newspaper editor wrote of how people knew and would remember Elihu Phinney:
They all knew him as a Christian gentleman, a helper in every good cause, a useful man in his church, a loving and tender husband and father, a sincere friend, a general favorite in society, a genial and intellectual companion.25
On the day of his funeral, stores and businesses in Cooperstown closed in a show of respect.26 His memorial window specifically commemorated his involvement in the church, noting that he was "An elder in this Church and faithful unto Death." The 1870 census revealed that Elihu Phinney's occupation was "Gentleman." His real estate was valued at $75,000 with a personal estate of $48,000.27 |
16
|
Sarah, Elihu Phinney's widow, started the commissioning process for the window less than two years after his death. She, like Elihu, was involved in the church and very religious as shown in this letter of sympathy to Sarah after Elihu's death:
We are comforted to know that to Elihu and to you Death is really Life and joy unspeakable. And have you thought that Elihu is now spared the agony which would have come to him if you had been taken first most of men are less able to bear such a loss.28
This note likely comforted Sarah and the memorial window probably provided the same solace. The memorial window was a public testimony to Sarah and Elihu's love and their devotion to the church. |
17
|
|
Elihu Phinney's memorial window, the first in the First Presbyterian Church, shows how important the final look of the memorial window was to the family. Elihu and his wife Sarah lived for many years with his sister, Harriet, and her husband Charles McHarg, a Presbyterian minister. Harriet kept a diary most years of her life and mentioned the memorial window. In September of 1894, before her sister-in-law had even approached the Trustees, Harriet wrote, "Sarah is absorbed in Mem. Window at Ch[urch]."29 In December Sarah Phinney sent a letter to the Board of Trustees at the First Presbyterian Church asking permission to place the memorial window and permission was granted.30 |
18
|
Months later the window was ready to be installed. The window was placed in a spot where there had been no previous window. On Tuesday, August 27, 1895, Harriet wrote, "Men and Sarah at Ch[urch] to attend to Mem[orial] Window—such excitement—my brain and head spin."31 The Freeman's Journal wrote about the unveiling of the window.
The memorial window which Mrs. Phinney has placed in the Presbyterian church to the memory of her husband, the late Elihu Phinney, was put in last week. It occupies the space south of the pulpit, in the east end. It is a beautiful window. There is a crown in the upper part of the window, surrounded by a wreath of palm leaves; and underneath the following scripture quotation: "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, even though he were dead, yet shall he live." St. John XI-XXV. "In Memoriam, Elihu Phinney, died Sept. 20, 1892, aet. 69 years. An elder in this church, and faithful unto death."32
|
19
|
Harriet, and Elihu's widow, Sarah, had a different view of the window than the newspaper. Harriet wrote, "Mem. Window in place, but very disappointing, tho' beautiful to study nearby."33 A lot of money was spent on memorial windows and the family was often still in some phase of mourning during the process so it was important to have a beautiful final product. Harriet and Sarah did not leave record of what was disappointing about the window, but the Freeman's Journal recorded that it was replaced:
The Memorial Window which Mrs. Elihu Phinney placed in the Presbyterian church last year for her husband was recently taken out by the makers, Tiffany & Co., who were disappointed in it when placed, as was also Mrs. Phinney. A new one has just been put in, which must meet the expectation of all concerned, for it is indeed a beautiful creation, It is called "The Victory of Faith." The predominant colors are gold and purple. The center contains the inscription: "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," and is surrounded by palm branches. Beneath is the memorial tablet, with a crown over the inscription. The window needs to be seen to be appreciated.34
|
20
|
|
| |
|
Elihu Phinney Memorial Window, First Presbyterian Church.
Photograph by the author.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This window sounds nearly identical to the one it replaced. However, it is likely that the colors were changed to allow more light to shine through it. Harriet wrote in her diary of the new window: "Window is very beautiful—rather yellow," and "The window very beautiful—no lack of light."35 |
21
|
|
A close inspection of the window in the church shows that Mrs. Phinney and her family may still have been disappointed with it. Elihu Phinney died in 1892. The window, however, states he died in 1894. Looking closely, it appears that someone tried to scrape away the painted four, since it is lighter than the other numbers and letters. After installing the second window, it is possible that the family and manufacturer just decided to keep it. Today no one would know, without research or prior knowledge, that there is something inaccurate about the window, which has a striking presence in an otherwise simple church interior. |
22
|
|
Located on the opposite side of the pulpit in the First Presbyterian Church is a memorial window dedicated to Mary Beadle. Like many of the memorial stained-glass windows in the two churches, the Beadle window shows the importance of the ties of mother and child. Mrs. Sofia Raymond, daughter of Erastus Beadle and Mary Beadle, commissioned this window. Erastus's fortune and fame came from publishing dime novels. In 1895, after both her parents were dead, Mrs. Raymond decided to commission a window in the First Presbyterian Church in Cooperstown. She dedicated it to her mother, with no mention of her father. Why? Erastus Beadle lives on in history but his wife Mary would be relatively unknown if not for her memorial window. This window, like the other memorial windows, tells the story of familial relationships. |
23
|
Mary A. P. Beadle was remembered as "an excellent wife and mother, a kind neighbor, and benevolent to the poor."36 An even more complimentary profile published first by the Banner Weekly of New York City and republished by the Freeman's Journal reported:
As wife, mother, friend, co-worker in good deeds, generous giver, and sympathizer in others' sorrows and cares, she was a living exemplification of the woman admirable, for whose presence the world is better and happier. None knew her but to love her, is truly and always to be written with her name, and therefore is her memory blessed.37
In addition to raising her three children, she was very involved in the Presbyterian Church. Her obituary states: "She was an esteemed and useful member of the Presbyterian church, and President of the Ladies' Missionary Society." Mrs. Beadle was not as famous as her husband, but in Cooperstown she was known for her activities in the First Presbyterian Church and remembered as the epitome of Victorian womanhood. |
24
|
The process for commissioning Mary Beadle's window is revealed in great detail in the church records. A special meeting was called by the board of trustees at the First Presbyterian Church to decide on the window. At the meeting, a representative of Mrs. Raymond presented a design for the Beadle memorial window. The trustees approved the window, which would mimic the Phinney window in size and shape and was placed on the other side of the pulpit. The trustees included in their approval the following strictures:
All expenses incurred, or damage done in putting in said window to be paid by Mrs. E. R. Raymond. The position of said window and any other matter connected there with, where the Church interests are involved to be approved by said Board of Church Trustees.38
|
25
|
When it was unveiled, Harriet Phinney McHarg wrote, "Mrs. Raymond's window in—very pretty but more cloudy ... Honors lady in Ch[urch] Mrs. Beadle."39 The Freeman's Journal added:
The Beadle memorial window which Mrs. Raymond ordered of Tiffany's house in New York last winter, and of which we spoke at that time, has arrived and is being placed in position in the Presbyterian church of this village by a representative of the New York house.40
|
26
|
The window was made of very dark colors of glass so a lot of light did not shine through. As in the case of the Phinney window, the commissioner was not pleased with the end result. Rather than replacing the window, Mrs. Raymond and her husband tried to remedy the situation and sought permission from the trustees to improve the lighting around the window. Another special meeting was held by the trustees.
On resolution of Mr. Pease, Mr. Raymond was empowered to have a tree in the rear of the Church removed, and also to have the North-west window of the Church painted a light-grey color to relieve the glare on the Beadle window, all to be done at said Raymond's expense, and it is further provided that—if said painting on the window is detrimental to the lighting of the church Mr. Raymond cause said paint to be removed from the windows without expense to the Church official.41
|
27
|
|
That is the last mention of the Beadle window in the Trustee Records or the Freeman's Journal, so it is unknown if the fix worked. Modern observation of the window reveals that it is very dark and little light shines through. |
28
|
|
Mary Beadle's contributions to the church and society may not be explicitly stated on her window, but during her life she was a devoted wife and mother of three. Her husband's obituary reflected that she was "his efficient supporter and a model wife and mother."42 In addition to raising her family, she devoted time to mission organizations at church. She worked hard for the Ladies' Missionary Society. Just three weeks before her death, Mary Beadle hosted a missionary from Syria at her home and entertained the members of the Society.43 She also contributed financially to the organization. |
29
|
|
The women of Cooperstown, like other women of the period, dedicated time to raising their families. In addition to their domestic activities, women of the churches took on charitable projects through various organizations. One such organization was the Ladies' Missionary Society at the First Presbyterian Church. The organization, organized in 1832, put women in positions of power. The society's notes from 1888 state the purpose of the group as "sustaining female Missionaries, Bible readers, teachers and schools in the West, and in foreign lands."44 To be an active member a woman had to be a member of the church and had to pay certain dues or provide equivalent work. Young women could join as early as thirteen years of age by paying fifteen cents and having knowledge of sewing. The young women joined the official group at age eighteen.45 |
30
|
|
In 1888 the president of the society was Mrs. Erastus F. Beadle and the Secretary was Mrs. Elihu Phinney.46 The organization met the first Wednesday of each month to sew for an hour and for a meeting. The meetings were attended by a large number of people, both men and women. Seventy-four women, married and single, and seventeen men attended the meeting on October 10, 1888, for example. The men were married to, or close relatives, of the women involved. Some of the men in attendance were Elihu Phinney, Erastus Beadle, and Rev. Charles McHarg.47 The women donated money they collected, fabric, and other items that could be sent to locations around the world to support missionary activities. |
31
|
|
Another organization for women at the First Presbyterian Church, the Ladies' Financial Aid Society, focused its efforts more locally. During the 1890s the Ladies' Financial Aid Society was actively involved in the upkeep and improvement of the church building but had to request permission for certain projects from the all male Board of Trustees. Many of the minutes of the board of trustees' meetings discuss projects the Ladies' Financial Aid Society wanted to undertake and the thoughts of the trustees. One response was: "The Financial Aid Society have the permission of the Trustees to grade the grounds, straighten the stones, all at-their, the Aid Society's expense."48 During 1896 two requests made by the ladies—the removal of a woodshed and closet on the grounds and the removal of a carpet in the Chapel—were denied by the trustees.49 Reading the trustees' minutes, there is almost a sense of annoyance because of all the requests. With one particular now unknown matter the trustees suggested that representatives from the Ladies' Financial Aid Society and the board of trustees meet for "intelligent discussion."50 |
32
|
The women at Christ Episcopal Church were also active in the upkeep of their building. In 1865 Christ Church was undergoing many improvements, many of which were funded by the ladies. The Freeman's Journal acknowledged their contribution:
It is proper to state, that the entire cost of the carpeting of the Church, the chancel furniture and the small round window, has been defrayed by the Ladies of the parish, whose exertions in this cause have been unremitting.51
An even larger contribution made by the Ladies of Christ Church was for the building of a rectory. The Vestry Minutes of 1888 recorded:
Whereas, The ladies of this Parish, of their own free will, have for the past two years labored earnestly to raise money for the purpose of building a Rectory and through their efforts the magnificent sum of about $2000 has been raised and to show our appreciation of their efforts.
Resolved, That this vestry appoint, and we do hereby appoint the following named ladies as a Committee to be known as the Rectory Fund Committee, for the purpose of soliciting subscriptions to said fund.52
The women at Christ Church raised money "of their own free will" for two years before the vestry decided to appoint seven married women and one single woman to a committee to do exactly what they had been doing. The women were very successful at raising money through fairs and suppers to improve the church buildings. They were allowed to make these improvements, with permission, because cleaning and beautifying the sanctuary fit within society's expectations for women. |
33
|
|
Church organizations and other church activities allowed women to help in acceptable ways outside of the home. Appropriate church activities reflected the four qualities of true womanhood—"piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness" that characterized female identity in the nineteenth century.53 Women of the middle and upper classes, particularly married women, were strongly discouraged from holding wage-earning jobs outside the home, and the church provided these women a chance to engage in acceptable non-domestic activities. On the front page of the Freeman's Journal, a list of "Seven Ways of Doing Good" included teaching Sunday school, helping the poor, and visiting hospitals and prisons. All of these were considered acceptable activities for women.54 |
34
|
Despite alternatives in the church, women were still expected to spend most of their time within the domestic sphere. A Freeman's Journal article entitled "Where Woman Rules" reiterated a woman's purpose:
The mission of woman is to make the whole world homelike. While man commands the existing age, it is woman who commands the future, and there is, therefore, nothing more vital than that our homes should become centers of art and beauty, fit to cradle the coming age.55
As the nineteenth century came to a close, women were starting to search beyond the home and church for other pursuits. An article found in the Freeman's Journal column, "For the Ladies," thought nostalgically back to a time of the "Old Fashioned Mother," lamenting: "How few modern mothers understand or perform their duty in training their children. No wonder there are so many desolate firesides, so many unhappy wives, so many drinking, gambling husbands."56 Local newspaper articles like this one showed the growing concern that women working outside of the home and voting would have a detrimental effect on society. |
35
|
|
The Episcopal Church held a similar position. It publicly applauded the glories of true womanhood and motherhood. The Episcopal bishop of Albany, William Croswell Doane, in a graduation address remarked, "The vocation of womanhood is the highest and holiest in the world."57 Bishop Doane brought attention to the great impact a woman could have on the future in the hope that women would care for their families and not seek wage-earning jobs or the right to vote. Bishop Doane of the Albany Diocese would have had Cooperstown in his charge, and it is likely that the rector and members of Christ Episcopal Church would have held similar opinions to those of their bishop. |
36
|
|
The women memorialized through stained-glass windows at Cooperstown's Christ Episcopal Church and First Presbyterian Church are all highlighted in their obituaries for their womanly and Christian virtues. They were wives, mothers, and daughters. The personal and widely accepted roles these women had were recognized and memorialized in stained glass by their mothers, children, and female friends. In addition to their families, the women supported their churches with financial and volunteer contributions. While the specific details of their lives may be lost to history, the memorialized are remembered for their familial and religious roles, each appropriate to someone of her sex. |
37
|
|
Raised to dedicate their lives to their families, these women, with the exception of Susan Cooper, do not appear in history books. They led lives often focused on service to their church and always to their families. Women at Christ Episcopal Church and the First Presbyterian Church in Cooperstown were able to speak out in their churches through their memorials rather than words. During their lifetimes they beautified the church, with the men's permission, and in their death their memorials did the same. The commissioners acknowledged the importance of the women in their families in what was still a male-dominated church and country. Now memorialized in glass, these women otherwise lost to history are still remembered over a century after they lived. |
38
|
|
Memorial windows were a beautiful, vibrant, and public testament to the life of someone who had passed on. The memorial survives long after the commissioner is also gone. For women in Cooperstown, memorial windows made a clear statement in a church where men still made the rules. Women memorialized their loved ones with physical monuments honoring family, piety, and the domestic ideals of the era. |
39
|
|
1. Further information on this topic can be found in the author's 2007 master's thesis, "Woman to Woman—Legacy of Stained Glass: Memorial Windows in Two of Cooperstown's Churches" (master's thesis, Cooperstown Graduate Program, State University of New York College at Oneonta, 2007).
2. "Where Woman Rules," Freeman's Journal, Oct. 17, 1895, 3.
3. Lois A. Boyd and R. Douglas Brackenridge, Presbyterian Women in America: Two Centuries of a Quest for Status (Philadelphia, Pa.: The Presbyterian Historical Society, 1983), 92.
4. James Fenimore Cooper, "The Chronicles of Cooperstown," A History of Cooperstown (Cooperstown, N.Y.: Freeman's Journal, 1929), 18.
5. George Pomeroy Keese, Historic Records of Christ Church, Cooperstown, NY (Cooperstown, N.Y.: S. M. Shaw, 1899), 4.
6. Cooper, "Chronicles," 27.
7. Keese, Historic Records, 12.
8. Elizabeth Feld and Stuart P. Feld, In Pointed Style (New York: Hirschl and Adler Galleries, 2006), 19.
9. Ralph Birdsall, The Story of Cooperstown (Cooperstown, N.Y.: Arthur H. Crist, 1920), 265.
10. George DeMille, Christ Church Cooperstown, New York 1810–1960 (Cooperstown, N.Y.: Freeman's Journal, 1960), 19; Keese, Historic Records, 18.
11. Keese, Historic Records, 20–21.
12. The Church of Christ in this Place (Cooperstown, N.Y.: The First Presbyterian Church, 1950), 18.
13. Ibid.
14. "The Late Miss Cooper," Freeman's Journal, Jan. 10, 1895, 1.
15. "Susan Fenimore Cooper," New York Times, Jan. 1, 1895, 6.
16. Birdsall, The Story of Cooperstown, 305.
17. 1860 U.S. Census, Cooperstown, Otsego County, N.Y., p. 680, microfilm, New York State Historical Association (hereafter NYSHA) Library.
18. 1870 U.S. Census, Otsego, Otsego County, N.Y., p. 407.
19. Vestry Minutes Book 2, April 17, 1895, 147–48, Christ Episcopal Church Archives, Cooperstown, N.Y.
20. "Briefs," Freeman's Journal, May 2, 1895, 3.
21. Vestry Minutes Book 2, Aug. 5, 1895, 149.
22. "Briefs," Freeman's Journal, Jan. 2, 1896, 3.
23. "Briefs," Freeman's Journal, Jan. 9, 1896, 3.
24. "Sudden Death of Mr. Elihu Phinney," Freeman's Journal, Sept. 22, 1892, 3.
25. Ibid.
26. "The Late Mr. Elihu Phinney," Freeman's Journal, Sept. 29, 1892, 3.
27. 1870 U.S. Census, Otsego, Otsego County, N.Y., p. 414.
28. M. S. Andus to Sarah Phinney, Sept. 21, 1892, Phinney Family Papers, Special Collections, NYSHA Library.
29. Harriet Phinney McHarg, Diary, Sept. 3, 1894, Phinney Family Diaries, Special Collections, NYSHA Library.
30. Board of Trustee Records 1894–1900, Dec. 31, 1894, p. 5, First Presbyterian Church, Cooperstown, N.Y., Special Collections, NYSHA Library.
31. McHarg, Diary, Aug. 27, 1895.
32. "Briefs," Freeman's Jounral, Sept. 5, 1895, 3.
33. McHarg, Diary, Sept. 1, 1895.
34. "Briefs," Freeman's Journal, Sept. 24, 1896, 3.
35. McHarg, Diary, Sept. 27, 1896, Sept. 21, 1896.
36. Freeman's Journal, May 17, 1889, 3.
37. "Funeral of Mrs. E. F. Beadle," Freeman's Journal, May 24, 1889, 3.
38. Board of Trustees Records 1894–1900, Dec. 28, 1896, 65.
39. McHarg, Diary, June 7, 1896.
40. "Briefs," Freeman's Journal, June 4, 1896, 3.
41. Board of Trustees Records 1894–1900, June 5, 1896, 87.
42. "Obituary," Freeman's Journal, Dec. 20, 1894, 3.
43. "Obituary," Freeman's Journal, May 17, 1889, 3.
44. Ladies' Missionary Society, 1888, First Presbyterian Church, Cooperstown, N.Y., Special Collections, NYSHA Library.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid., Oct. 10, 1888, p. 19.
48. Board of Trustees Records 1894–1900, July 22, 1895, p. 35. Emphasis removed from "at-their, the Aid Society's."
49. Board of Trustees Records 1894–1900, July 31, 1896, Nov. 13, 1896, pp. 91, 100.
50. Ibid., Sept. 21, 1896, p. 95.
51. "Christ Church," Freeman's Journal, Dec. 8, 1865, 3.
52. Vestry Minutes, Book 2, April 7, 1888, 102.
53. Mary Louise Roberts, "True Womanhood Revisited," Journal of Women's History 14 (Spring 2002), 150.
54. "Seven Ways of Doing Good," Freeman's Journal, Feb. 25, 1875, 1.
55. "Where Woman Rules," Freeman's Journal, Oct. 17, 1895, 1.
56. "An Old Fashioned Mother," Freeman's Journal, Jan. 2, 1896, 1.
57. Bishop Doane, "Bishop Doane on Woman's Vocation," Freeman's Journal, June 13, 1895, 1.
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|