Franklin Circle Church finds missing piece of Ohio City history

Three U.S. Presidents are now a part of Ohio City’s rich history.  President Barrack Obama made a surprise visit to the West Side Market during this year’s Market Centennial.  Candidate Ronald Reagan campaigned at the Market in 1980.  More than a century earlier, long before entering politics, James A. Garfield preached at Franklin Circle Christian Church.  Yet there always has been one lingering question surrounding the lore about Garfield: Was this lay minister’s preaching time here cut short because of a pay dispute?  We now know the answer is “yes,” confirmed by a fragile copy of The Plain Dealer dated April 9, 1894.                       .

Thanks to diligent efforts of volunteers readying the church for an open house as part of its community-wide lighting ceremony in December and an on-going archival display coming soon to the church parlor, major house cleaning has been underway for months. Heading the archives project is Jonathan Wotring, executive director of the Lakewood Historical Society and a member of Franklin Circle Christian Church.  Resolving the age-old mystery was volunteer team member Albert Betts, of Cleveland.  Betts, the past chair of the church’s official board, was painstakingly reviewing myriad papers jammed into an old steamer trunk when he carefully opened one of its treasures.

"Not only had the newspaper been smashed and folded up for years, but it is covered with an early type of contact paper,” explained Rev. Allen V. Harris, pastor of the Franklin Circle Christian Church. While the newspaper is yellowed with age and “preserved” by likely well-intentioned early members of the congregation with a non-archival adhesive covering that cannot be removed, it nevertheless provides proof about the rumored payment objections that had been swirling for decades about the famous preacher.

 In 1894, on the 10th anniversary of the then Franklin Circle Church of Christ’s pastor, S. L. Darcie, The Plain Dealer devoted nearly a full page to the “Good Done by One Church in Ten Years.” It also traced the church’s impact on the city since its founding in 1842.

 Quoted among those sharing Victorian reminisces is James Cannon, one of the three living charter members of the church who served on the committee that “employed James A. Garfield as pastor.”  “Mr. Cannon also related why Pastor Garfield was dismissed:  Because the official board thought $5 too high a price to pay for each Sunday’s sermon,” the paper reported. 

 Still in his mid-twenties and not yet married when he preached here, Garfield was known for his stump speaking on the anti-slavery movement.  He was hired by Cannon and his colleagues and preached at Franklin Circle Church in 1857 and 1858.  The gifted speaker would go on to become the 20th President of the United States, after turning to academia before serving in the state legislature, the U.S. Congress and later as a Major General in the Civil War.  President Garfield was in the White House for just 200 days when an assassin’s bullet cut short his term.  Cannon, a church elder, merely touched on Garfield’s “pastorate,” but his short quotation about the apparently pricey $5 fee addresses the abrupt end also to Garfield’s service in Ohio City.

 The unexpected piece of history that completes the puzzle for Franklin Circle Christian Church comes at a time when members are preparing to celebrate the building’s $130,000 renovation. 

The newspaper, as well as antique pieces of furniture that have survived from “God’s barn,” the church’s original frame structure built in 1848 where the Masonic Temple now stands, soon will be on display.   Prior to the “barn,” the congregation gathered on what was called Vermont Street, near West 28th, and also had worshipped downtown in the Apollo and Empire Halls before returning to Ohio City. 

 “We invite all of our neighbors and friends to see our newly restored towers in a special lighting ceremony at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, December 28, and become a part of our history,” said Pastor Harris.  The Tower Lighting and Renovation Dedication Ceremony and Open House will include a brief outdoor worship service, followed by refreshments, an organ concert and tours of the church, organized by Wotring.   

 “We are especially grateful to the Cleveland Restoration Society, who made the entire lighting project possible with its generous grant, and to the Lutheran Medical Center for helping to install the special lighting and insuring it will continue to showcase this historic church in the future,” Pastor Harris added.  Part of the agreement with the Restoration Society is that the church would work to address both the deterioration of the towers that would be lit, as well as restore their beauty, especially by replacing the stained glass features and the louvers.  An early gift of $5,000 from neighboring Voss Industries also helped to underwrite the restoration and jumpstart a capital campaign by the congregation to replenish the funds used from the endowment.

While the imposing brick structure, begun in 1874 and dedicated on May 13, 1883 is an Ohio City landmark designed by renown architects Cudell & Richardson, Pastor Harris points out the strength of the church is not from its bricks and mortar but from its people.  In the early church, seven ship captains were members, and the parish numbered more than 600.  Through the years, programs ranged from Chinese Sunday School and the North American Indian Cultural Center to the current Community Meal Program, Disciples (clothing) Closet and the Community Youth Program. Today membership is closer to one-third the size of the church in the late 1900s, but outreach and a mission to empower disciples to serve and glorify God remain constant.