CHAPTER XXIV

CHAUTAUQUA'S ELDER DAUGHTERS

Chautauqua, planted upon the shore of its Lake, grew up a fruitful vine, and within two years shoots cut from its abundant branches began to take root in other soils. Or, to change the figure, the seeds of Chautauqua were borne by the winds to many places, some of them far away, and these grew up, in the course of little more than a generation, a hundred, even a thousand fold. Many of these daughter-Chautauquas were organized by men—in some instances by women—who had caught the spirit of the mother-assembly; others by those who had heard of the new movement and saw its possibilities; some, it must be confessed, by people who sought to save a decayed and debt-burdened camp meeting, and a few with lots to lease at a summer resort. From one cause or another, immediately after the first Assembly had won success, Dr. Vincent began to receive pressing invitations to organize similar institutions in many places. As he was already fulfilling the duties both of an editor and a secretary for the rapidly growing Sunday School cause, he could accept but few of these many calls. But a number of younger men trained by a year or two of experience in teaching at Chautauqua were around him and to these he directed most of the enquirers. At least three Assemblies arose in 1876, two years after the founding of Chautauqua. Of these I possess some knowledge and will therefore name them, but without doubt there were others which soon passed away and left scarcely a memory.

So far as I have been able to ascertain, the first gathering to follow in the footsteps of Chautauqua was the Sunday School Parliament on Wellesley Island, one of those romantic Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River, where it emerges from Lake Ontario. This island stands on the boundary line between the United States and Canada, but the home of the Parliament was on the Canadian side of the line. The name "Chautauqua" has now become generic and almost any gathering in the interests of the Sunday School, or of general literature with a sprinkling of entertainment, is apt to be named "a Chautauqua." But in those early days the word Chautauqua was not known as the general term of an institution of the assembly type, and the new gatherings were named "Congress" or "Encampment" or "Institute," and for this gathering the title "Sunday School Parliament" was taken, as smacking somewhat of English origin. Its organizer and conductor was the Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, at that time a Methodist minister, afterwards a Congregationalist, and still at present working as the head of the International Reform Bureau in Washington, D. C. He was aided in the plan and direction by Mrs. Crafts, for both of them were then prominent leaders in Sunday School work. It was my good fortune to be present and conduct the Normal Class during a part of the time. As compared with Chautauqua, the Parliament was small, but its spirit was true to the Chautauqua ideal and it was maintained faithfully for ten or twelve years. The place had been established as a camp-meeting ground, but it shared the fate of many camp meetings in gradually growing into a summer resort for people in general. As cottages and cottagers increased the Chautauqua interest declined, and finally the attempt to maintain classes and meetings after the Chautauqua pattern was abandoned, and the island took its place among the summer colonies in that wonderful group.

The same year, 1876, saw another camp ground becoming a Chautauqua Assembly,—at Petoskey, near the northern end of Lake Michigan. Here a beautiful tract of woodland, rising in a series of terraces from Little Traverse Bay, about forty miles south of the Straits of Mackinac, had been obtained by a Methodist camp-meeting association, and laid out in roads forming a series of concentric circles. Here the first Bay View Assembly was held in 1876, and again in its scope were combined the camp meeting, the summer home, and the Chautauqua conception, three divergent aims that have rarely worked well together. It will be remembered that on its land side the original Chautauqua was shut off from the outer world by a high fence, and everybody was compelled to enter the ground through a gate, at which a ticket must be purchased. At Bay View, as at most camp-meeting grounds, access was open on every side. At first they undertook to support the Assembly by collections, but the receipts proved inadequate, and they placed a ticket window at each lecture hall and endeavored to induce the cottagers to purchase season tickets, a plan which has been pursued down to the present time. One of the founders of Bay View, perhaps the one who suggested it, was Dr. Wm. H. Perrine, an ardent and intelligent Chautauquan, the rebuilder of Palestine Park. Other men came to the aid of the Bay View Assembly, some of them men of means, who gave liberally in the form of buildings, an organ, and to some extent an endowment. One of these was Mr. Horace Hitchcock of Detroit, another was John M. Hall, who organized the Bay View Reading Course, analogous to the C. L. S. C., and by his personal endeavor built up a reading and book-buying constituency. I was present at the second session in 1877, when it was a handful of people in a wilderness, and again thirty years later, when I found a beautiful city of homes in the forest, rising terrace above terrace, with good roads, fine public buildings, and a body of people interested in the best thought of the time. Chautauqua points with pleasure and pride to her oldest living daughter, the Bay View Assembly.

Mention should be made here of an Assembly established at Clear Lake, beside a beautiful sheet of water in northern Iowa, nearly midway between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. It was organized in 1876, with the Rev. J. R. Berry as superintendent. For some years, beginning in 1879, it was under the direction of the Rev. J. A. Worden, who, like some others of us, had learned the Assembly trade in apprenticeship to Dr. Vincent at Chautauqua. For ten years Clear Lake was fairly prosperous, but in time it met the fate of most assemblies and dropped out of existence.

During the year 1877 three more Assemblies arose, one of which remains to this day in prosperity, while the two others soon passed away. The successful institution was at Lakeside, Ohio. Like many others, it was grafted upon a camp meeting which had been established some years before, but was declining in its interest and attendance. The name "Encampment" was chosen as an easy departure from its original sphere, but after a few years the name "Assembly," by this time becoming general, was assumed. The first meeting as a Sunday School gathering on the Chautauqua plan was held in 1877, with the Rev. James A. Worden, who had assisted Dr. Vincent for three years in the normal work at Chautauqua, as its conductor. Afterward Dr. B. T. Vincent was in charge for a number of seasons, and one year, 1882, Dr. John H. Vincent was superintendent. For many years all the Chautauqua features were kept prominent, the Normal Department, with a systematic course, examinations, and an Alumni Association; the C. L. S. C. with recognition services, Round Tables, camp fires, the four Arches, and all the accessories. Lakeside drew around it helpers and liberal givers, and still stands in strength. Lakeside has the benefit of a delightful location, on a wooded peninsula jutting into Lake Erie, near Sandusky City, and in sight of Put-in-Bay, famous in American history for Commodore Perry's naval victory in the War of 1812. It still maintains lecture courses and classes in the midst of a summer-home community.

Another Assembly began in 1877, with high expectations, at Lake Bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, thirty-five miles north of Chicago. It was confidently supposed that on a direct railroad line from the great city, Lake Bluff would draw large audiences, and Dr. Vincent was engaged to organize and conduct an Assembly upon the Chautauqua plan, with lecturers and workers from that headquarters. A strong program was prepared for the opening session. Among the lecturers was the Rev. Joseph Cook, at that time one of the most prominent and popular speakers in the land. I recall in one of his lectures at Lake Bluff a sentence, wholly unpremeditated, which thrilled the audience and has always seemed to me one of the most eloquent utterances I have ever heard. It was twelve years after the Civil War, and on our way to the Assembly we passed the marble monument crowned with the statue of Stephen A. Douglas, the competitor of Lincoln for the Senatorship and Presidency, but after the opening of the war his loyal supporter for the few months before his death. Dr. Cook was giving a history of the forces in the nation which brought on the secession of the Southern States. He referred to Daniel Webster in the highest praise, declaring that his compromise measures, such as the Fugitive Slave Law, were dictated by a supreme love for the Union, which if preserved would in time have made an end of slavery, and he added a sentence of which this is the substance.