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The reader of this chapter perceives that the centennial year marked notable advancements at Chautauqua: a lengthened and broadened program, the establishing of a newspaper, the beginning of the daily Children's Meeting with a course of Bible study for the young, the organizing of a definite course for the training of Sunday School teachers, the incorporation of the Assembly with a full Board of Trustees, with the transfer of the property from the former camp-meeting proprietorship, and a purchase of ground doubling the extent of its territory. Chautauqua, only three years old is already, in Scripture phrase, lengthening its cords and strengthening its stakes.
CHAPTER VII
A NEW NAME AND NEW FACES
The fourth session of the Assembly opened in 1877 with a new name, Chautauqua taking the place of old Fair Point. The former title had caused some confusion. Fair Point was often misread "Fairport," and letters wandered to distant places of similar names. There was a Chautauqua Lake station on the Erie Railway, and a Chautauqua Point encampment across the lake from Fair Point, but the name "Chautauqua" had not been appropriated, and by vote of the trustees it was adopted; the government was requested to change the name of the Post Office, and the railroads and steamboats to place Chautauqua upon their announcements. Fair Point disappeared from the record, and is now remembered only by the decreasing group of the oldest Chautauquans.
Every season brings its own anxieties, and as the Assembly of 1877 drew near, a new fear came to the leaders of Chautauqua. A few will remember, and others have heard, that in 1877 took place the most extensive railway strike in the annals of the nation. The large station of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Pittsburgh was burned by a mob, and for weeks at a time, no trains ran either into or out of many important centers. Fortunately the strike was adjusted and called off before the Assembly opened, and on the first day four thousand people entered the gates, a far greater number than at any former opening.
On that year the menace of denominational rivalry threatened to confront Chautauqua. Across the lake, two miles from the Assembly, another point reaches westward, facing the Assembly ground. This tract was purchased by an enterprising company belonging to Baptist churches, and named Point Chautauqua. Its founders disclaimed any intention of becoming competitors with the Assembly. Their purpose, as announced, was to supply sites for summer homes, especially to members and friends of their own denomination. They began by building an expensive hotel at a time when the Assembly was contented with small boarding houses; and they soon followed the hotel with a large lecture-hall far more comfortable than either the out-door auditorium or the tent-pavilion at Chautauqua. To attract visitors they soon provided a program of speakers, with occasional concerts. Thus on opposite shores of the lake two institutions were rising, in danger of becoming rivals in the near future. Nor was Chautauqua Point the only rival in prospect. A year or two later a tent was erected near Lakewood for the holding of an assembly upon a "liberal" platform, where speakers of more advanced views of religion and the Bible could obtain a hearing. This gathering favored an open Sunday, and welcomed the steamers and railroad excursions on the day when the gates of Chautauqua were kept tightly closed. In those days the fear was expressed that Chautauqua Lake, instead of being a center for Christians of every name might furnish sites for separate conventions of different sects, and thus minister to dissension rather than to fellowship.
But these fears proved to be groundless. The "liberal" convocation down the lake held but one session, and left its promoters with debts to be paid. The founders of the Baptist institution made the mistake of beginning on too great a scale. The hotel and lecture-hall involved the corporation of Point Chautauqua in heavy debt, they were sold, and the place became a village, like other hamlets around the lake. The hotel was continued for some years, and the lecture-hall became a dancing pavilion, tempting the young people to cross the lake from Chautauqua where dancing was under a strict taboo. Perhaps it was an advantage to the thousands at the Assembly to find only two miles away a place where the rules were relaxed.