Preface to the History

On October 6, 1952, the Unitarian Fellowship of Olympia came into being. We're fifty years old this year. From now until October 6th, we'll be celebrating our fiftieth anniversary. Yet, it seemed appropriate as we begin this celebration to recall that the last fifty years is only part of our religious tradition's story here in Olympia.

When I discovered that the Olympia Unitarian Society was welcomed into the American Unitarian Association. on April 27, 1872, 130 years ago yesterday, it seemed even more appropriate that we acknowledge our community's deep roots in Olympia on this Sunday. Then, when I learned that it was on April 28, 1860, that the Reverend Thomas Starr King first arrived on the West Coast, in California, that was too much for me. As April 28th is the very day of my installation; this felt truly auspicious.

You see, the congregation I served in New Hampshire was named for Starr King - Starr King Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. When he served congregations in the Boston area, he would often spend long stretches of summer's time traveling and speaking with people in New Hampshire's mountains. Given the number of places and things named for him he clearly became an important figure to the folks in central New Hampshire. There's a Starr King village, a Starr King mountain, a ravine, a view over the Pemigewasset River, and in the town where I lived there was even an Elm tree named for him.

In California he was held in even higher regard, for during his brief four years from 1860 until his death in 1864, he played a crucial role insuring that California remained in the Union during the Civil War. His function was deemed so important that his statue is one of the two that Californians placed in our nation's Capitol to represent their state.

In important ways he was a precursor to an important strand of our own developing theological perspective in that he was deeply invested in the issues of his day, yet he sought renewal for his spiritual life most significantly through Nature. I believe he understood himself as a part of what we call in our 7th principle, "the interdependent web of all existence." During a speaking tour that brought him north of California along the West Coast, one of our historians, Bill Arensmeyer, assures me that Starr King spoke in Olympia. I like to think so, to know that he walked and spoke in my former hometown back East, and similarly that he walked and spoke in my current hometown in the West.

As you may have guessed, I'm a great admirer of Thomas Starr King. When I said earlier that it was auspicious that Starr King arrived on the West Coast on the same day as my installation, I meant this: We humans are meaning-makers. In order to both make sense of and perceive meaning in our existence, we look for those connections around which we create stories. We try to place our personal and communal lives into a context. That's part of the significance of the installation ceremony in which I will be officially installed as minister of our congregation this evening. With this ceremony we are re-enacting a ritual that goes back a couple hundred years in our particular religious tradition and goes back hundreds of years in the larger tradition from which we evolved.

With this ceremony we're placing our relationship of ordained minister and congregation into the context of our larger tradition. We are able to be here and to have this ceremony because of the work, the sacrifice, the commitment of all who came before us. As an ordained minister I bring the tradition refined and passed on by all ministers who have come before, but for me it feels tangible here in the memory of Thomas Starr King for whom I have such great admiration. As a congregation you bring the tradition developed and passed on by all the congregations that have come before, and for us it can become tangible in our predecessors here in Olympia.

When we remember our past -not to be tied to it, but to experience our connectedness- we can perceive the meaning of what some call the beloved community. I will close this part of my remarks with a reading from our Universalist heritage, written in 19th century:

Through the long centuries of human history, there has been building a beloved community.
All souls that love, all souls that aspire, strengthen its bonds.
Precious unto us are the names of the true and the brave who have toiled and suffered for the sake of the beloved community.
Precious unto us are the nameless and lowly who have served it with single hearted devotion.
There are no strangers in the beloved community, none against whom are shut and harsh words spoken.
For they who belong to it are bound together in one loving body.

Sermon

It was in 1846 that Levi Lathrop Smith staked a claim on Budd Inlet at the foot of what's now Capitol Way. He called his claim Smithfield. Had it not been for an unfortunate accident that took his life two years later, this city might be Smithfield today. It was renamed Olympia in 1850. In 1848, a French priest arrived with several fellow missionaries. They established a mission in what is now known as Priest Point Park. This park is my favorite place in Olympia. Apparently, then as now that area conveyed a sense of sacredness. In some places when the soft beams of late afternoon sunlight stream through the trees, it feels as though I'm in the presence a great cathedral. It was there that the French missionaries built their mission school for the Indians.

In those earliest years, relations between Indians and whites were fairly amicable. The town folk and Indians lived in proximity to one another as we hear from a journal entry written by an employee of the town's custom house. The conditions described are probably around the year 1851: "The largest house by far in the place is now occupied by the Customs House. It is a large two-story house, not far from the extreme northernmost point, and on paper is designed as being near First and Main streets, though the streets, to a great extent, exist in the imagination."

"There are about a dozen one-story cabins of primitive architecture," he wrote, "covered with split cedar siding, well-ventilated but healthy. They answer the purpose well, for the winters are mild but moist." Mild but moist? The journalist clearly had a gift for understatement. "Snow and ice are comparatively unknown." Having just come through my first winter, I especially appreciate this next part. "[B]ut it rains on short notice and without difficulty. There are some 20 or more Indian huts at a short distance from the Customs House."

Additional entries in the journal reflected some observations about the Native people that generally revealed a disdainful attitude toward them. To the extent such an attitude was shared by the newly arrived settlers, it undoubtedly contributed to the war with the Indians during the mid-1850's. Following the war the Indians were removed from the area and situated on reservations.
Within its first couple of decades Olympia transitioned fairly quickly, though obviously not painlessly, particularly for the Indians, from a rough settlement to an established town.

As Olympia was beginning to assume the general shape we know today, other developments were taking place that would lead to the establishment of Unitarianism in Olympia. The Reverend Charles Andrew Farley served a poor Unitarian congregation in Connecticut. When the California gold rush occurred he caught the fever, and he headed West. His good intention, of course, had he struck gold, was to help his congregation become solvent. Like most others he had no luck finding gold, but when he wandered into San Francisco he discovered former parishioners running one of the hotels. With their urging and help, in 1850, he organized the first Unitarian congregation on the West Coast.

As I mentioned before, Thomas Starr King arrived a few years later to serve that same church. Dr. Thomas Eliot of St. Louis visited Starr King in San Francisco and became intrigued with the idea of missionary work on the frontier. Then, in 1867, while still living in St. Louis, Dr. Eliot received, on the very same day, letters from two congregations inviting him to serve as their minister. One letter was from Portland, Maine and the other from Portland, Oregon. Because of his experience with Starr King in California he chose Oregon. From Portland he visited and spoke in different parts of the territory. In Olympia he found Unitarians as well as others who were attracted to the Unitarian message.

Dr. Eliot saw the promise for Unitarianism in this new territory. He persuaded the American Unitarian Association in Boston to send a missionary to the Northwest. In 1871 the Reverend John Kimball arrived in Olympia. On February 28, 1872, the first Unitarian organization, a Sunday School, was formed. Shortly after, a Unitarian Society was created. Its first two articles read as follows: "Article I: The only basis and platform of this society shall be the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Article II: The objects of this society shall be to promote among ourselves and in the world the principle and practice of the Christian religion."

Two points regarding these articles: First, most obviously, our religious ancestors understood themselves to be Christian. Second, their faith as Christians was fixed upon Jesus, but not upon Jesus as God. Rather it was the Gospel of Jesus. They believed his words and actions pointed to a true understanding of God. The focus of our ancestors was not on what belief in Jesus might offer them in an after-life, but on Jesus' understanding about how to live well in this life.

Having duly organized themselves as a Unitarian society, on April 27, 1872, The Reverend Dr. Thomas Eliot, on behalf of the American Unitarian Association welcomed the First Unitarian Society of Olympia into membership. I have spoken about the role of the ministers in bringing Unitarianism to Olympia, but as I said, there were already Unitarians in Olympia when Dr. Eliot first visited. One of those was Hazard Stevens, the son of the first Washington territorial governor, Isaac Stevens.

Brought up in the East Isaac Stevens had been a Unitarian all his life, except perhaps for a brief time as a teenager. Isaac Stevens and his father often had a difficult relationship. I suspect he could come up with no better way to antagonize his father, a long-time Unitarian, than to announce that he was becoming a Universalist. That did not last, however. As territorial governor Isaac Stevens was extraordinarily active. Unfortunately, his greatest legacy as governor may be the grave disservice he did to the Indians with the treaties he instituted. When the Civil War broke out, he returned to the East to fight for the Union and he died a hero's death. Governor Stevens' children remained in Olympia. His son, Hazard, was among the prominent people of Olympia, and he was the first treasurer of the Unitarian Society.

With the congregation officially organized the Unitarian Women's Society set about raising the money to build a church. In June 1872, they held a festival to begin raising the necessary funds. A description of the event appeared in the local paper: "The decorations of the room and the table exhibited exquisite taste. Strawberries, raspberries, ice cream, lemonade and a number of good things were temptingly displayed and dispersed by the hands of beautiful women. During the evening the Anvil Polka was performed by an improvised orchestra with an anvil, cymbal, and triangle accompaniment…The entertainment was well planned," the article concluded, "realizing a handsome sum for the society." This is the origins of our own strawberry festival held each June following a service.

The Reverend John Kimball stayed only a couple of years, for he missed New England. Dr. Eliot enticed another young minister to the West with his descriptions of its beauty. On April 3, 1875, the Olympia Unitarians held a reception for the Reverend and Mrs. David Utter. Then, one century after our nation's independence, on July 4, 1876, the cornerstone was laid for the first Unitarian church in Olympia. The "cozy, convenient and artistic building" as it was described was completed a year later.

Mr. Utter's interests went beyond what was then considered the province of religion. He gave talks to the Academy of Science on electricity and the evolution of primitive life forms. His lectures apparently antagonized his Presbyterian colleague. Following one of Mr. Utter's talks on Revelation, the colleague wrote a letter to the newspaper: "Why any man," he scolded, "who has accepted the Holy Bible as the rule and guide of his faith and calls himself a Christian minister should seek to show that it is a fraud and not worthy of being believed is beyond understanding." In 1880, Mr. Utter left Olympia, and three years later the little church burned down.

This was a difficult and discouraging time for the congregation. The Northwest's Unitarian minister-at-large, the Reverend George Greer, who was based in Tacoma, gave them occasional assistance as he was able. After several years without a minister the Reverend Napoleon Hoagland arrived in Olympia, to find a small group of disheartened parishioners. He set about helping the people reorganize their church. His actions and words brought new energy to the congregation. Here's an example: "The words of the Lord," he said, which came to the ancient prophets, if they square with known proof and recognized morality, are not despised, but the words which come to the later day prophets, poets and thinkers, if they inspire life with goodness are also honored as words of God." Even when our forebears recognized themselves explicitly as Christian, their religious perspective was informed by a variety of sources. Revelation for them was not sealed, or in other words, it didn't end with the compilation of the Bible, for they heard the "Word of God" in contemporary writings as well.

At the outset of Mr. Hoagland's tenure the church prospered. They bought land on Franklin Street between 9th and 10th Avenues. Attached to the property they bought, was a row of houses that became known as the Unitarian Flats. These initially provided good income. The church they built had no steeple and no bells but a dome over the second floor corner entrance. Beware that the following description of the building by one of the members may evoke a serious case of building envy: "It does not look like a church, the member observed. It looks as if it were built for many purposes, and it was…every inch is built to be used, in not one but many ways and on many days."
He then went on to describe what appears to have been a fairly elaborate structure. It held two auditoriums, one of which was 50 x 72 feet and the other 50 x 48 with an inclined floor leading to a 14 x 25 foot stage. The first auditorium could seat 400 people with another 175 in the gallery in opera style chairs. The member's description continued saying that the pastor's second floor study commanded views of the city, forest, mountains and bay, and "is as it should be, a nesting place for wholesome, broad gauge views." The building was dedicated on March 27, 1892.

The community engaged in social justice work of various types. They held public forums on issues such as "Municipal control of Public Utilities." or "Can General Poverty be Abolished? If so, How?" The church was also very active socially, holding semi-monthly socials with music, dancing, cards and refreshments. There was a dancing school, concerts, and children's parties. In the May 25th, 1892, issue of "The Olympian," an article appeared saying, "It has been remarked that the Unitarians are indulging in so much amusement that they would be likely to soon open a bar and provide a prize ring in the church." Not having fun in church seems to be a long-standing American tradition, and being suspicious of those who do has been just as ingrained.

A revival sponsored by some of the more orthodox churches targeted the Unitarians. Mrs. Malloy Bartlett wrote an article entitled, "Hell, the Lost Condition of Olympia." She gave particular attention to "that class of unbelievers who have a dance house called a church and are going down to hell in a frightful rush." In response the Reverend Hoagland preached a sermon entitled, "Hoagland on Hell." I am going to quote one passage at length, for I found it quite beautiful and pertinent. "The fear of hell in the next world," he said, "is one of my smallest fears. The hells of the present life demand all the energy and thought at my command to help abolish. Jesus prayed, 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth,' and he worked faithfully to bring it about. It was not the gospel of fear and terror and exclusiveness that he preached but the gospel of love and hope, a gospel of Divine Fatherhood and universal brotherhood. So, finally, brethren, let us join hands to do the duty that lies nearest us. If we cannot take Olympia to heaven, perhaps we can do something toward bringing Heaven to Olympia. We should lose no opportunity to do any service to another, however humble that service may be. 'We shall not pass this way again.'" It was such a gracious response to a goading of intolerance and a gracious understanding of how we might journey through this life.

Sadly, this newly revived Unitarian presence would not prosper long, for in that same year, 1893, the country was struck by a devastating financial panic. Many in the congregation were hurt financially. The church building could not be maintained and by 1898 it was sold. This is where the story ends for the moment. It is important for us to remember and celebrate the last fifty years of our history as we will do in the coming months. It is also important for us to remember that our history did not originate here fifty years ago.

We are able to gather here this morning in this liberal religious community because of the commitment of those who have gone before us, because of their courage in questioning commonly accepted religious perspectives and because of their faithfulness in the promise life holds. May we, too, know such commitment and courage and faithfulness in our efforts to create the beloved community here in Olympia.

Information regarding Olympia's history was drawn primarily from "A History of Olympia" by Gordon Newell.