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CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD
HISTORY
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1880 - 1885 THROOP FAMILY
Bishop W.C. Doane was the author of the hymn, Ancient of Days, organizer and founder of the Cathedral of All Saints, St. Agnes School for Girls (now Doane Stuart) and Child's Hospital, all in Albany. The Rev. Throop II, whose great-uncle was governor of New York state from 1829-1832, was married in September 1884 to Agnes Campbell of St. Andrew's Episcopal in Harlem. In 1887 he served as assistant to St. Michael's and in 1888 Church of the Advent, both in Harlem, and from 1893 - 1897 as rector of St. Matthew's in Jersey City, New Jersey. In 1900 he ran for the democratic nomination to Congress. During WWI his son, Montgomery Hunt Throop III and his wife Elizabeth Nichols, left for Shanghai, China, as missionaries under the Episcopal Missions where their son, Montgomery H. Throop IV (1918-2004), was born. In 1922 Rev. Throop III undertook the first Protestant translation of the Apocrypha into classical Chinese. Unfortunately with the entrance of America into WWII during which his son was a decorated fighter pilot, Mr. Throop III was swept up with thousands of expatriates living in China, Japan and the Philippines. He spent six months to two years interned in a Shanghai prison camp, returning to the United States in 1943 aboard the Swedish liner, the Gripsholm. From the New York Times 3 December 1943
In 2001 and again for the 125th anniversary in 2005, we were delighted to
welcome the three great- great-grandsons of Montgomery H. Throop II to the Annual Service with their
families. They have owned property on Pine Island on Raquette Lake since the 1950s but
were unaware of Mr. Throop's connection to St. Hubert's. 1886 - 1894 VARIOUS CLERGY
Mr.
Flagg was born 13 December 1824 in Georgetown, South Carolina. He married
Mary Letitia Ferris, born about 1839, daughter of a Connecticut lawyer who went
on to become a state senator. They settled in New York where they had
three daughters. 1895 - 1941 BROWN-SERMAN FAMILY
RAQUETTE LAKE On 1 December 1894 William was appointed priest-in-charge of both St. Barnabas' Church in Stottville, New York, and the Church of the Good Shepherd in Raquette Lake. The Stotts were members of both congregations, and contributed financially to the construction of the island church in 1880. In 1876, Francis Stott, at the urging of his friend William West Durant, built a great camp on Bluff Point on Raquette Lake (sold to the Collier family in 1905).
1911 St. Barnabas, Stottville and 1913 Good Shepherd, Raquette Lake Before the rectory was built in 1882, visiting clergy stayed at Camp Stott or at Fairview on Osprey Island. For over 20 years, from 1880 to 1900, the Stott women took charge of the little church, cleaning the buildings and planting the gardens each spring, often during the worst of the black fly season. In all likelihood, this contact with the Stotts at St. Barnabas led to William Brown-Serman staying at Raquette Lake for 47 summers. FIRE In 1914 the rectory and all the church records were destroyed by fire. William barely managed to get his wife Elizabeth down from the second floor in time using an outside stairway at the rear, although it too was made from wood. A rough cottage was built between the church and the empty site in 1917 while their son Stanley designed a new rectory, constructed in 1918. It was all his own design save some professional help with the stairway. A pasteboard of a pyramid of building blocks was set up in the church vestibule and each member of the congregation could purchase a block. About one-quarter of the cost of the new structure was funded in this manner with Stanley's father, William, absorbing the balance. A huge fire in 1922 on neighboring Osprey Island destroyed Fairview, built by Ed Bennett for Charles Durant in 1879 (later sold to J Harvey Ladew of NYC in 1891). Stanley climbed out on the porch roof of the new rectory and covered it with wet bed sheets to catch the large chunks of burning material that were flying across the channel. WEDDING In the 1920's Asygell (a-SY-jell) Carrington married William's daughter, Muriel, on St. Hubert's Isle in a beautiful ceremony for which a bounty of fresh flowers, including lilies, were delivered by train direct to the Raquette Lake Station from New York City. Asygell then assisted his father-in-law with the summertime church services .
1931 - 1941
Stanley's daughter, Mary Brown-Serman Walke Kirby (1917 - 2010), remembers her first visit to St. Hubert's the summer of 1927 when she was 10 years old.
CHURCH FÊTE
In November 1943 Mary's brother Arthur
Stanley Brown-Serman lost his life at age 20 training for WWII, his name inscribed on the wall of Harvard
Memorial Chapel, Class of 1944. He was a Marine stationed in San Diego
and is buried in Arlington Cemetery, Virginia. Also in 1942 their father's teaching schedule at
Virginia Theological Seminary changed to 12 months a year due to
the war and, sadly, the family had to end their long association with
Good Shepherd. 1942 - 1958 (No Services) From 1946 through 1953, the Island was a favorite vacation home for Bishop Frederick Barry of Albany. But the great storm of November 1950 took down about 60 trees and St. Hubert's lay idle from 1953 until 1959. (Another 70 trees came down during the microburst of 1986, and 27 more in 1995.) Bishop Barry's brother-in-law was the caretaker for St. Hubert's during this period, but the damage caused in 1950 was just too much for one person. All the paths were blocked by huge tree trunks, the ice house and tool shed were badly damaged and a tree had fallen against the roof of the east bedroom causing a leak. Fortunately the church was not damaged. Bishop Barry did not return after 1953.
1959 - 1995 CARMICHAEL FAMILY
In 1967 and 1968 Boy Scout Troop 400 from Syracuse under Jack Ekland repaired the leaking roof. In 1979 the brick chimney was rebuilt by Fred Burke. In 1980 Troop 400 painted the outside of the church, using the color scheme of brown stain and cream paint taken from early photographs found in the study. The indoor-outdoor carpeting was a gift from Helen Stewart in 1980. Troop 2 from Albany has visited several times over the years, helping to clear paths.In 1969 the church was rededicated by Bishop Barry of Albany. He stated that his opinion of 1960s young people had been dramatically reversed after viewing the repairs made by the Scouts and observing the participation of the Echo Camp Girls' Choir in the service. Adirondack Heritage Ralph and Jean loved Raquette Lake and had a keen interest in the history of the area and of St. Hubert's. Their guests included Harold K. Hochschild, William Wessels, the two Brown-Serman granddaughters, Craig Gilborn, Ruth Timm, Warder Cadbury, Howard Kirschenbaum of AARCH and others concerned with preserving the property as an historic place of Adirondack heritage.Just the week before he died, Ralph was filmed by A&E for a video on America's Castles. The footage was cut, but later released as Part I of Adirondack Great Camps: Durant and Raquette Lake. Electricity The church has never had electricity, but the Carmichaels decided to stop the use of kerosene lamps on the island due to all the grandchildren who were not familiar with the danger from fire. In the 1960s four of the five islands, Strawberry, Osprey, Little Osprey and St. Hubert's (Wee Two was added later) joined together to have a telephone line and then electricity brought over in an underwater cable from the Antlers. Telephone For many years we had a party line with Strawberry, had to call "central" for any call not within Raquette Lake and only had to dial four digits for local calls - all this while the rest of the country already had touchtone service! When we requested a second phone line in 1996 the installer said we already had two - one dating from the 1940s. This was so amusing, remembering the signals my parents had concocted from 1959 through 1965. Guests would drive to the Antlers dock and honk for my father to come and pick them up in our boat. When there was a telephone message on shore, Don Langham would raise a white flag on one of the dock pilings. Then Dad would paddle over in our old Grumman canoe to use the phone at the Antlers Casino. Services RESUME For 39 summers, Ralph served the Church of the Transfiguration in Blue Mountain Lake (1957-1995). He was appointed priest-in-charge in 1959. After retiring from St. Andrew's Albany (1955-1975) he was asked by Bishop William Crittenden to serve as the first priest-in-charge of another St. Andrew's, this time in Chapala, Mexico (1976-1989) during the winter months.
Our Baltimore friends, the Rev. Lyman Farnham and his wife, Sue, served Blue Mountain from 1996 until Barney's death in 2007. Annual services at Good Shepherd resumed in 1959, with the Echo Camp Girls' Choir leading the music for over 20 years, accompanied by the 1873 Estey pump organ. "...I was also in the choir and we went to the little church in the middle of the lake one time during the summer and sang for them...." [Echo camper] From 1977-1995 two brass quintets from Baltimore, Classic Brass and the Mount Vernon Brass Players, accompanied the hymns at both Good Shepherd and Transfiguration as well as presenting concerts near the gazebo, at Echo Camp, the Blue Mountain Arts Center and the Adirondack Museum. In 2002 and again in 2007 we were privileged to have Michael
Salvatore from the Fenn School in Massachusetts as organist. He is a specialist in
pump organs similar to the 1873 Estey and made the little instrument sound as
though we were in a cathedral. In 2005 trumpet fanfares helped celebrate
the 125th anniversary.
1997, 1998 and 2001 to the present THE REV NANCY ROSENBLUM **********
1996 The Rev. George Easter, Lyon Mountain NY
1999
The Rev. Alan Macnab, Lake
Placid NY Indian Lake NY and Norwood NY
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