Celebrating History: Completing St. Mark's

As Havre was preparing for Christmas 100 years ago, work continued to complete the long-in-construction St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. This article was printed on the front page of The Havre Plaindealer in its Dec. 23, 1916, issue:

HALF OF REQUIRED AMOUNT IS PLEDGED

Strenuous Efforts Being Made to Complete New Church

The campaign for “Finish-Her-Up” month now going on to complete the new stone structure of St. Mark’s Episcopal church has reached $1024, about one-half of the amount required to finish the walls and put on the roof.

Bishop Faber is waiting to hear if the church will be finished or if any assurance can be given him of its completion in the spring so that he can let the convention of the state come to this city next June. Rev. Christler is working hard in an effort to solicit the necessary funds to that end.

St. Mark’s church will be a beautiful edifice as a finished product, one worthy of the enterprise and civic pride of the people of this city. Its valuation to date is probably not realized by the casual observer or passer-by. There is now over eighteen thousand dollars in the edifice. Every bit of it is solid masonry. The chapel now used for public services and parish appointments is very churchly and represents considerable labor as well as expense. It is hoped that when the busy holiday season is over, the campaign to “Finish-Her-Up” can be resumed with renewed vigor. The edifice has now been too long in an unfinished state and does not in its present shape speak well of the religious interests or civic impulses of our little city.

Reverend Christler was also preparing for Christmas church services. This article was also on the front page of the Plaindealer:

CHRISTMAS SERVICES OF EPISCOPAL CHURCH

The Feast of the Nativity will be ushered in with a midnight service of Christmas anthems and carols by the vested choir.

The service will begin promptly at 12 o’clock and will last one hour. The order of the serve is as follows:

‘Silent Night, Holy Night’

‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’

‘Te Deum Landamus’

‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’

‘Hark The Herald Angels Sing’

Miss Francine Harrington will be the soloist. At the midnight service there will be no sermon. The second service will begin at 11 o’clock on Christmas day. At that service the vested choir will render the regular appointed Feast of the Nativity service. Holy Innocents day falls on the 28th of December, and on that day the children of the Sunday school will hold their celebration at 7:30 o’clock in the evening. The order of service consists of carols by the children and the usual distribution of gifts from the Christmas tree. To all of these services the public will be welcomed.

The Christmas tree’s original intent was not the large, prominent symbol of the season we usually put up in our homes and businesses today. Historically, Christmas trees were table top ones that were put up on Christmas Eve, the candles lit and the children allowed to come into usually the parlor to marvel at it for a few seconds before the candles were blown out before the tree caught fire. A bucket of water or sand would not be an unusual feature lurking in the corner.

Presents were not typically found under the tree, rather they were found hanging on the tree. The tree was stripped bare of small gifts and/or little baskets or paper cones filled with nuts and dried fruits, and there may have been sparse ornaments to be used year after year. As presents became bigger and more numerous as the late 19th and early 20th centuries progressed, they then took prominence under the tree and ornaments meant to be displayed and enjoyed year after year took the place of the small presents on the tree, which would evolve from a table top number to the floor-to-ceiling affairs we so enjoy today. It can be a little hard to hang, say, a new-fangled electric toaster for Mom or a new rifle for Dad, from the branches of the tree. Easier to wrap them up in white paper tied with a red bow, or buy some of that new stuff called Christmas wrapping paper to surprise your loved one, then to try to wrestle tying a large present on to a tiny tree.

The tree mentioned in the article harkens back to the Christmas tree’s roots as a simple distribution center for presents.

Of course, we can’t forget the parties found in the Society column! I’m so very happy so many readers enjoy this part of this column as much as I do. Last week, a party at the Pepin Mansion was announced. Here is what was said in the Plaindealer about that party this week:

Party For Miss Needham.

An enjoyable social affair of this week was the dancing party given on Tuesday evening at the home of Mrs. Frank Meyer, honoring Miss Barbara Needham, one of the popular young ladies visiting in the city.

The Meyer home presented a most charming aspect in its decorations of ivy, smilax, lilies and carnations. Those guests who tired of dancing found pleasure in cards, tables for which were arranged in pretty cosy corner effects.

The guests list was made up of Mr. and Mrs. Choquette, Leo Ritt, Roy Fuller, James Holland Jr., Robert Lucke, C. B. Koepke, Robert Brader, Bruce Clyde, Ernest Hayes, the Misses Ednah and Alice Burke, Minnie and Edith Newmyer, Helen Cosgrove, Bertha Dahlstrom, Edith Holland, Jeannette White, Lumena Guay, Cecelia Gaston, Esther Lyman, Lulu Chestnut, and Sybil Fogarty of Chinook; Messrs. Sherwood Cross, Joe McCormick, Cleveland White, Max Kuhr, Arthur Lamey, Warren Smith, Dayton Reem, Charles Bronson, Frank Needham, Ambrose Fey, Guilford Homan, Fred Schick, John Hunter, Andrew Larsen, Joseph Holland.

Merry Christmas, everyone!