Book details history of parish in Spa City
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Bethesda Episcopal Church will host a book signing and open house after publishing a 300plus page book about the history of the parish.
From 4 until 6 p.m., editors and chapter authors will host a launch reception Sept. 21 at the church at 41 Washington St.
“Bethesda has been blessed with not only a rich history, but a stable of writers and editors whose professionalism has imparted a high quality to this volume,” said Dean Vang. “We are especially indebted to Jane Agee and Mary Sanders Shartle, whose academic and professional careers have led them inexorably to this achievement. We know this is not only an enjoyable read, it will become a critical historical resource for Saratogians and history buffs for many years to come.”
Copies of the book, called “A History of Bethesda Episcopal Church, Worship and Healing in Saratoga Springs, New York,” will be available to purchase at the reception. Pre-paid and pre-ordered copies are available to be picked up after the 8 and 10 a.m. Sunday services beginning August 19.
The book details a history of the parish from its founding in 1830, revealing never-before-published details of the historic personalities and the parish’s role in the community.
Among the newly discovered and rediscovered facts included in the book:
• How Rockwell Putnam, who sold the land to the church on which the building now stands at an exorbitant price, and, while serving on the Vestry, nearly forced the church into foreclosure, a news release said.
• Biographical sketches of clergy, including Rev. Irving Granville Rouillard, Rev. John Henry Hobart, Jr., Rev. Thomas T. Parke and others.
• Military veterans who Bethesda Episcopal Church is located on Washington Street in Saratoga Springs. A new book details a history of the parish from its founding in 1830, revealing never-beforepublished details of historic personalities and the parish’s role in the community.
were members of the parish, from the Civil War onward, are recorded in their own chapter, by John Van der Veer. Included is the record of the family of Denton Crocker Jr., whose death in Vietnam was a major feature of Ken Burns’s historical public television series in 2017. Denton Crocker Jr.’s mother, Jean Marie Crocker, of Wilton, also was featured in Burns’s series, is a member of Bethesda and contributing author in the book.
• Architectural history of the nationally listed church building, designed by Richard Upjohn. The building’s history, including its expansion in the 1890s, is authored by James Kettlewell, retired from Skidmore College.
• All interior features and stained glass windows, are meticulously detailed and explained by author Mary Sanders Shartle.
• Musical personalities associated with Bethesda, including Harry Burleigh, David Hyde Pierce and Katrina Trask are profiled in the music history of the parish. Burleigh was the 20th Century’s premier composer/arranger of African-American Spirituals, and TV and Broadway star Pierce grew up in the parish. The parish was also a musical home to Katrina Trask who, with her husband Spencer, were major benefactors of Bethesda, and whose family is memorialized in plaques and windows throughout the church.
• Bethesda’s role in serving the community is the subject of a chapter by Mary Ann Fitzgerald, City Historian, who rediscovered a letter to The Saratogian newspaper from Rev. Rouillard on December 11, 1929 calling eloquent attention to the economic plight of the less fortunate and calling on the community to “act immediately” to relieve suffering. Bethesda’s role in founding the Home of the Good Shepherd in the 19th Century is detailed along with other community services.
The history also details the leadership roles of many who were important to Saratoga Springs’s development throughout the decades, including the family of Judge Thomas Marvin, owner of the United States Hotel and friend of Solomon Northup, author of “Twelve Years a Slave,” plus the Sackett, Todd, Walworth, Griffith and other families.
Vestry minutes from the earliest years of the parish’s founding were researched, along with correspondence, service programs and other primary documents. All relevant sources have now been organized, archived and professionally preserved thanks to the leadership of Diane Robinson, parishioner and professional librarian, said Dean Vang.
The book’s editors are Jane Agee, a retired professor of English Education at the graduate school of the State University of New York at Albany, and Mary Sanders Shartle, is a poet and novelist.
“One of the pleasures of this project was working with librarian Diane Robinson on the organization and preservation of records and materials for the Bethesda Archive, a permanent improvement. Some of the records were more than 150 years old,” said Agee. Agee brought to the project her academic background, her experience as a publisher and her skills as a photographer.
Proceeds from the sale of the book will be applied to the development of the parish archive and library in the new parish house Bethesda is developing adjacent to the church on Washington Street, Vang said.