Lizzie's Church In Summer

[Kat]

Inquest
Lizzie
56
Q. Why did they go sooner than you could; what was there to keep you?
A. I had taken the secretaryship and treasurer of our C. E. society, had the charge, and the roll call was the first Sunday in August, and I felt I must be there and attend to that part of the business.
~ ~ ~
The Boston Globe
Monday, August 8, 1892: 1, 5.
"CURB THOUGHTLESS TONGUES"

"Rev. Mr. Jubb Exhorts His Hearers to
be Considerate and Charitable.

FALL RIVER, Mass., Aug. 7. -- It was something more than the customary summer congregation that attended the morning service today at the First Congregational church.

It is the custom during the summer months for the Central Congregational church to alternate with the First church in closing three Sundays. This was one of the Sundays when the Central church was closed and members of both churches worshipped at the First church."

--Did we know this? Does it enter into the equation?
We had discssed to what duties Lizzie was referring, and a judgement was made that she might be in charge of counting church attendance for tithes. But I did not realize that in the summer, both Cong Churches combined. From what we have figured out, did Lizzie make a mistake in her reason given for staying in Fall River over that Sunday, the 7th, forgetting the congregations would be combined at The First, or, if she was referring to this, it made her participation even more important- mandatory? What if the First Cong, when they hosted the other congregation, used their own Secretary/Treasurer?
This info was imparted in the papers Monday, before Lizzie's inquest statements were ever taken.

[nbcatlover]

I had always assumed her duties pertained to the actual meeting of the Youth Ministry as part of the Sunday School. If she misspoke about the necessity of her being present, don't you think Rev. Jubb would have called her on it?

If the Evening Standard is to be believed, many Christian societies had their annual meetings in the summer months, sometimes they were local meetings, sometimes they were regional meetings. I remember reading articles about the local people attending the national conference of the WCTU in July.

It's hard to reconcile someone being so actively involved in Christian Endeavor and involved in murder at the same time, but it would explain her seeming enjoyment of the antics of young boys.

From http://www.christianendeavor.com/about/

An introduction to Christian Endeavor from the annual report of 1887:

As all those into whose hands this pamphlet may fall may not be acquainted with the Society of Christian Endeavor, a few words concerning its history and aims will not be inappropriate. The first Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor was organized February, 1881, in Williston Congregational Church, Portland, Maine.

During the preceding weeks a gracious revival had blessed the young people, in connection with Sunday School Prayer meetings which had been held directly after the session of the Sunday School, and a large number had become hopeful Christians. Many of these young Christians were boys and girls from ten to fifteen years of age.

The practical questions which have frequently troubled pastors at once arose: What shall be done for these young Christians? How shall they be set to work? How shall they be kept near to Him whom, with faltering steps, they have begun to follow? Is it safe to admit them all to the church at once? How shall the gap between conversion and church membership – often a long gap with young children – be safely bridged over?

With these unsolved practical questions pressing upon his heart, the pastor of the Williston Church invited the young people to his house one evening and there proposed to them that they band themselves together in a voluntary association for Christian effort.

From these comments, it would seem the youths Christian Endeavor was trying to attract were not church members.

[Kat]

Thanks for the info.
Does anyone recall the thread where we tried to figure out which duties were Lizzie's?

Notice that the statements by Lizzie were in a secret inquest, the week after Rev. Jubb spoke that Sunday. I don't know when , or if, he was privy to her statements as to why she stayed in Fall River over that weekend.

[diana]

I'm not sure if this is the thread you were looking for, Kat. But there are some posts on this one where we speculate about why Lizzie thought she had to be in town that Sunday.

viewtopic.php?p=14393&highlight=#14393

[Kat]

Very good- yes that's the topic. Thank you Diana.
Does the combination of the congregations that Sunday mean anything to the case?
(Like what Eugene was wondering on that thread- about checking what Lizzie said).

[diana]

Kat writes:

Does the combination of the congregations that Sunday mean anything to the case?

If we take Radin's word for it, (and I'm not suggesting we do BTW) he seems to indicate that combining the congregations on the 7th was not planned and only occurred because of the murder.

"The murders had one unexpected result: they healed the breach between the rival churches. The Reverend W. Walker Jubb, recently installed as pastor of the Central Congregational Church, announced that joint memorial services for the murdered couple would be held Sunday at the First Congregational Church. No member of the family attended, however, because of Mayor Coughlin's instructions." (Radin,85)

So we have two conflicting reports there: the Boston Globe says that this was a regular thing -- and Radin suggests it was an extraordinary occurrence.

Take your pick...

[Kat]

Thank you that was very interesting!
I'm not as recently conversant with the authors as the rest of you and that is very helpful!