I was asked to help set up Grace’s Endowment Fund many years ago when a generous parishioner left us a gift in her estate and requested that it go into a permanent endowment. She wanted it to be used for future church needs. We didn’t have an endowment at the time, so we got one set up with that donation.

Since that time, several other generous parishioners have named Grace’s Endowment Fund as beneficiaries in their estate and that has allowed the Fund to grow.

Today, the parish take an annual draw from the Fund to help support the mission of the parish, especially helping towards Outreach and extraordinary capital expenses. After that initial gift, the Stewardship Committee realized that we needed a formal policy for our endowment and so a small committee was pulled together to write that policy. The Fund has an Endowment Board that meets to oversee the fund and to keep an eye on how the money is invested. It is invested with the Episcopal Church Foundation in a diversified portfolio of stocks funds and bond funds.

As a financial adviser, I have seen through the years how a healthy endowment can help support the mission of an organization and provide funds for projects or needs that may be beyond the normal budget.

At Grace, we actually have two ways to leave a legacy:

1. The Endowment Fund, which is a permanent fund where income is distributed and the principal is invested in perpetuity.
2. The Benefactor’s Trust Fund, which supports specific purposes and may be used completely. It is invested until disbursed for a particular purpose.

It is easy to give to either of these funds:

1. Name the fund as a beneficiary on your IRA, 401K, annuity contract, or life insurance policy. All you need to do is request a Change of Beneficiary Form from your investment provider.
2. List the fund as a beneficiary in your will or trust. This may require the help of an attorney to make this change.
3. Donate cash or securities directly to the fund while you are alive, possibly is honor of or in memory of someone.

Gifts of any size are welcome.

The church benefits greatly from these long-term gifts as they give stability to our finances and allow us to tackle projects that we might only have dreamed of doing! The church’s financial secretary, the Endowment Board, or the stewardship chair can answer questions on how to contribute to our Grace Church Endowment.

Submitted by: Barbara Griffin

Our liturgy is a history lesson, poetry, and a celebration. Within it, we are called – literally – to acknowledge God, the world around us, and the people next to us. The liturgy does not waste opportunities. My favorite part of our service is the confession of sin. I know that may seem sanctimonious at best or creepy at worst, so want to focus on this phrase tucked into the confession: “and by what we have left undone.” That line comes immediately after the confession of sins that had been committed (“by what we have done”). Committed sins are pretty easy to manage. They happened. We can quantify them — remember those Seven Deadlies? — because they are real: the hoarding of toys, the hurling of insults, the hatred of the Other. These we can picture in our minds, offer up an apology to God, along with a promise to learn from the mistake. Check the box. Breathe with relief. A sin not done? That is another story. It’s where this story begins.

What does it mean to leave something undone? The not doing of something gets away from my ability to count. I’ve yet to see anything about the Seven Deadly Sins You Didn’t Do. The grammar of this line in our confession grabbed my attention many years ago on joining Grace. I didn’t understand to what we were actually confessing. Over time, I learned from the examples of those around me that it wasn’t about what could be counted. The lesson was about to whom we were accountable.

“By what we have done and what we have left undone,” manages to present to us a burden in the midst of a moment of grace because saying the confession offers us a few brief moments to be both honest with God and with ourselves. The second part is not easy. I’ve found that being honest with God comes far more simply that being honest with myself. God offers me recognition and then forgiveness. I offer myself something far less useful. More recognition and less forgiveness. Being accountable to myself turned out to be pretty uncomfortable.

What have you left undone? Here’s my list, just in case you need something to compare:

1) not calling my mother

2) not (yet) sending this blog to Jeanne

3) not telling my family that I’m in the process of becoming a parent

4) not replying to an email about forming a book club

5) not saying hello to the person who always sits alone at a table in the coffee shop

This is a depressingly shortened version of the list I could have made. I can apologize to myself (if I remember) and promise to get them done. But I still have to do them. In several of these circumstances, I had promised another person that I would do something. I had given – in effect – someone my word. And it was on thinking about the stuff undone in terms of not fulfilling one’s word that the expression made more sense.  

To give someone your word is an easily understood idea: to make a promise based on your honor. Its interpersonal power shapes the cultural and social behavior of those involved in it. John’s gospel starts on that point: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Thinking about the undone stuff as failing to extend God’s Word to others lead to me to wonder about the parable of the Good Samaritan. As we know, the praise for the Samaritan comes after a pair of examples in which mercy for the wounded was withheld. And we absolutely can count those. Jesus said as much, on asking his followers which of the three men in the parable counted as one’s neighbor. I read into this story that the men who choose not to provide assistance to the injured man had in effect denied him the Word. While I have never refused to assist a human being suffering along a road, I have certainly left unacknowledged a person’s request for help. I live in Chicago. The requests for assistance — whether bus fare, food, or spare change — come at me daily.  

I once shared (nearly) all of this with Jen. She seemed surprised to hear it. I wasn’t sure how to talk about it, caught up in worry about that previously mentioned creepy sanctimony than being free to admit to a spiritual struggle. She was, as always, gracious in her shepherding me through an unexpected conversation. I had arrived unannounced at Grace that morning, having driven in from Chicago to spend a weekend in Holland visiting my family of friends. She opened up her morning and herself to an unexpected traveler. I think back on the conversation now as something that was on my then list of undone things: to talk with Jen about this little line tucked into our liturgy.

“And by what we have left undone,” became my favorite line in our liturgy for its subtly reminding us that the grace of God extends to the fulfilling of promises. It’s calling to us in words, like the better angel on our shoulder – to do the right thing and be who God wants us to be. Late is better than never, and we’re almost never beyond hope of doing the right thing. That’s a grace on which we can count.

Amen.

Submitted by: Donald Martin 

“If you have two coats, give one away,” he said. “Do the same with your food.” Luke 3:11 (referencing John the Baptist)

There are so many reasons to love the community of Grace Episcopal Church. One very big reason for me is that we are living the teaching of the Gospels in several ways.

Through Feeding America, we not only work to get food to the hungry, but we offer a warm space with a hearty meal, and we provide toilet paper and laundry detergent. We are currently offering our Parish House to a refugee family. Every Christmas, we use a ‘star tree’ to help connect people who have two coats (literally or figuratively) to give one away to someone in need.

When I first came to Grace in the 1990’s, the church had a daycare – Grace Christian Child Care. It was a very forward thinking form of outreach at the time. Over the years since that time, members of the Grace community have participated in numerous mission trips – some geared towards adults, some geared towards the youth. The two most recent youth mission trips tied in with the work we do with Feeding America. Four years ago a group went to Arkansas to glean food from fields for Feeding America. This past August a group worked on an urban farm in downtown Detroit that gave its harvest to the surrounding neighborhood.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second, like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Matthew 22:37-39

The Grace community intentionally welcomes everyone. In addition to welcoming all those who wish to worship at the church, safe spaces for people who may be marginalized in some areas of society have not just been created at Grace, but have been boldly proclaimed.

555 Michigan Avenue has been, and continues to be, the meeting place for the Holland chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and Gender SAFE (Supporting All for Equality).

For several years, Grace worked with Good Samaritan and Community Action House to provide transitional housing and mentoring to families through the Community Housing Partnership.

Members of Grace have joined to peacefully march in protest of inhumane immigration policy and practices. In 2016, Grace Church provided a safe place for many to meet and to express their grief following the tragic Pulse nightclub shooting.

Members of our community are supporting and working with Out On the Lakeshore, and with Lighthouse Immigration Advocacy.

Grace has been participating in Faith Leaders for Justice with several other churches. This is a group of leaders (religious, secular, lay and ordained) working for broader acceptance and justice for and with those who find themselves on the margins of our community.

A Hispanic/Latino Ministry Committee has been formed to pursue ways that the church can be more welcoming and inclusive of Holland’s Latino community.

And there are many, many other ways that Grace reaches out.

But perhaps the most bold example of Grace’s outreach and inclusivity is noted in the bulletin every Sunday: “ALL ARE INVITED TO RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION”.

Submitted by Elizabeth Brubaker

Rev Jen and I often reflect on the unique nature of the community at Grace. One important aspect of this uniqueness is its ability to pray in song with heart, mind, and soul. Another unique trait is the wide range of musical styles we use to do this.

When we pray together at Eucharist, we do so with all Christians who have ever lived, who are living now, and will live in the future. As the General Editor of the Hymnal 1982, Ray Glover, has written, “… in [our congregational song,] we are bound together with countless numbers of those with whom we share the faith experience. Among them are not only the visible body of people with whom we gather for corporate worship, but also that invisible body of people who share our faith, but live and worship in other places. And even larger than all of these is that body of the saints who are present with us and who continue to sing their endless songs of praise and prayer around the ‘Lord of hosts Most High.’ The rich variety and sheer magnitude of congregational song is almost beyond human comprehension, imagination or conception.”

The Hymnal 1982 was followed by several other authorized American Episcopalian collections for use in our prayer. These extended the variety and excellence of songs available to us in our weekly prayer. Wonder, Love, and Praise: A Supplement to The Hymnal 1982 was published in 1997. Its preface tells us that this collection “should be seen as a continuation of the current hymnal.” Hymns from this book and other supplements are printed in our weekly bulletin for ease of access to us. Wonder, Love, and Praise has added many of our favorite hymns including:

“We are marching in the Light of God,”

“Now let us rise and hymn the grace,”

“We all are one in mission,”

“Will you come and follow me,” and many others.

Even before Wonder, Love, and Praise, the national Episcopal church recognized the rich and unique heritage of African American religious singing traditions and published Lift Every Voice and Sing II: An African American Hymnal in 1993. Drawing on the incredible rich tradition of Negro Spirituals which is at the core of our experience as Americans, this book also reaches into other traditions including African, Caribbean, Native American, and Hispanic hymns and songs. From its pages we use:

“Ain’-a That Good News,”

“There’s a sweet, sweet spirit,”

“Is there anybody here who loves my Jesus?”

“Just a closer walk with thee,”

“Standing in the need of prayer,”

“This little light of mine,”

“Take me to the water,”

and “Soon and very soon.”

In the 21st century, historians are correcting American history to reflect those of us who arrived here in chains enslaved and continue a life of incredible pain and suffering even after the abolition of slavery. In my opinion, the genius of American music is its eclecticism, the fusion of so many musics to make something very unique. The African American experience has been a key ingredient in this.

In 2003, the hymnal supplement, Voices Found, was added to list of authorized hymnal supplements. The purpose of this book was to provide a “rich collection of hymns and spiritual song by, for, and about women.” It is another important resource we use. Many songs we use come from this work such as:

“Give me oil in my lamp,”

“O wheat whose crushing was for bread,”

“We stand within the circle,”

“Bread of Life,”

“Jesus, name above all names,”

“Be still and know that I am God,”

“Blessed assurance,”

and “Love astounding, love confounding.”

As individuals, we come from many religious backgrounds. Many times parishioners who have decided to be part of our community express surprise at the songs we sing. Our resources draw on the breadth of Christian song only limiting it to the theology of our church.

Of course there are many other ways we use the beauty of music to enhance our prayer. While the choir is an important leader of our sung prayer, it also brings the heritage of choral music into our Eucharist. Our group of dedicated singers meets weekly during the choir seasons. Performing the wide range of excellent choral music we do requires a rigorous discipline. For every minute of fine music in our service, choristers have spent hours practicing and learning it to the best of their ability. The result is a first rate church choir. The beauty of its offerings elevate our sense of who we are as humans and Episcopalians and is an significant part of the story of Grace Church.

Our bodies and voices are the essential instruments of praise in our worship. Grace is also privileged to have a significant pipe organ to lead us in song and provide preludes and postludes. The Martin Pasi, Opus 26, installed in 2017, is an example of the highest art of pipe organ building. The purity of its sounds leads us to not only sing better but also experience the beauty of the great organ music. As the wind passes through the pipes and creates ripples in the air around us, it moves among us like a reminder of the real presence of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit in us. Both in its appearance and sound, the craftsmanship, authenticity, and beauty of this splendid instrument will enhance the worship of Grace community for years to come.

The Grace community is a remarkable one. But we also are humbled by the privilege of serving Christ and each other with our time, talents, and treasures. When we embrace each other and the larger community through social justice and inclusiveness and other ways, we are most ourselves and the Church. Thus the “circle is unbroken” as our daily lives draw us to gather together in our weekly communal prayer to hear the living Word in proclaimed scripture and gather at the Table of Eucharist. Then the doors of our church building open and we go out to be the Church in the world.

In our ears ring the words of songs we have sung together.

“How often, making music, we have found, a new dimension in the world of sound,

as worship moved us to a more profound Alleluia” Hymn 420 in The Hymnal 1982

“The church of Christ in every age, beset by change but spirit led,

must claim and test its heritage and keep on rising from the dead. Hymn 779 in Wonder, Love, and Praise

Submitted by: Steve Jenkins, Music Director of Grace Episcopal Church, Holland, MI

Paul Trapp has done extensive archival work on the history of Grace Church. In this blog post, he shares his research on Henry Clay Matrau, who was a prominent member of Grace Church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

When word reached Holland of Henry Clay Matrau’s death, local scribe and historian, Gerrit Van Schelven described Matrau as one of the “Pillars” of Grace Episcopal Church. [1] And he was correct for Matrau provided support and continuity during a tumultuous decade when rector and vestry struggled to shape the course of the young congregation.

When his son was born in Berrien County on 24 April 1845, Joseph Matrau named him after the “Great Compromiser,” the Kentucky, Whig politician, Henry Clay, who had struggled to keep the country together. The Matraus were a frontier farm family struggling to clear land and establish a homestead near Watervliet, Michigan. [2]

Following President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers after the attack on Fort Sumter on 12 April 1861, sixteen year old Henry responded to the call to arms. Whether he was responding to patriotism, seeking adventure or just trying to escape from the drudgery of farm life Henry was determined to join the army. He was young and stood only five foot, four and one half inches tall. Having a round happy face he seemed younger. Michigan officials, perhaps local men who knew him and his age refused to enroll him. He was not to be deterred. Learning there were places open in a company that was being formed in Beloit, Wisconsin, he traveled to that town and signed in as a resident of Milwaukee. Arriving at Beloit and lying about his age (the minimum age was eighteen) he still feared he might not pass muster so he acquired a large pair of shoes added higher soles and heels then stuffed more insoles into the shoes to raise his height about an inch. After topping himself off with a high crowned hat he marched past the recruiting officer with an air of confidence and he was enrolled into the “Beloit Star Rifles,” Company G of the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry on 11 September 1861. [3] His enthusiasm and willingness to follow every assignment without hesitation led to his being named a corporal in November 1852. [4]

The Second, Sixth and Seventh Wisconsin along with the Nineteenth Indiana and later the Twenty-fourth Michigan made up the all-western brigade that became identifiable by their tall black felt hats. After their tenacious stands at Second Bull Run and South Mountain, the “Black Hats” became known as the Iron Brigade. In addition to Second Bull Run, they fought in many bloody battles including; Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Richmond–Petersburg. The Iron Brigade suffered the most casualties of any brigade in the Civil War. At Gettysburg 61% of those engaged were killed or wounded and at Antietam of the three hundred men of the Sixth Wisconsin who entered the battle, 40 were killed and 112 were wounded. [5] Matrau survived the war without a serious wound; perhaps being short made him a smaller target. The unit’s many casualties included a number of officers. This opened opportunities for advancement. Matrau was promoted to sergeant in September 1863. During the siege at Petersburg Company G’s field officers were killed and in August the governor of Wisconsin commissioned him as a first lieutenant. [6] As General Grant kept sending troops to batter the Confederate lines, the company’s captain was killed and Matrau, now just nineteen years old, was named captain on 7 March 1865, probably the youngest captain in the Army of the Potomac. [7] When Robert E. Lee abandoned his defenses at Petersburg, Matrau led his company as part of the pursuing force that brought Lee to surrender at Appomattox. [8] He wrote to his mother that the hard fighting was over and “the boys are beginning [to] plan what they will do for a living when the war is over.” While there wasn’t much more fighting, there was still a lot of marching. After a sixty-five mile march to Burkeville Junction, he wrote his last letter home and described himself as “a sorry looking object. I have waded creeks, plunged into swamps & morasses, laid in the dirt until I look more like a gopher than a human being.” [9}

Despite the dangers, fatigue and hardships he had experienced; Captain Matrau hoped for a military career, but so did a lot of other officers. That hope died when his unit was mustered out on July 14, 1865. [10] He returned to Berrien County and became engaged in the “mercantile business.” On 8 October 1867, he married a cousin, Jerusha Owen Woodruff. Henry and “Rusha” had five children. [11] In 1872, he took a position with the Chicago & Michigan Lake Shore Railroad and moved to Holland. [12]

As the station agent in a small community Matrau was the public face of the railroad company and he had contact with as much of the community as anyone in the area. Like Matrau, most station agents came from a commercial background and their activities were governed by the rule book, the “Company Bible.” Those rules outlined his responsibilities and stipulated in detail how to meet them. He had to sell tickets, make out waybills, make up switch lists for local crews, and maintain a myriad of records and ledgers. A required skill was mastery of the language of dots and dashes so he could pass on train orders as well as serve as the fastest form of communication for business and personal emergencies. He served many trades while maintaining the depot, updating bulletin boards, filling lamps and signal lanterns, throwing switches and servicing the water tower. He met every train to assist passengers and handle baggage and package freight. He met with business leaders to solicit business and coordinate shipments. He dealt with public officials and paid local taxes. He met with community residents to give travel advice, sell tickets, deal with losses and damages and handle complaints. Depots were public gathering places over which he had to maintain order among the hangers on and tramps, some of whom he occasionally hired on as day laborers. He also knew more about what was happening in the community and the outside world than anyone else in town. He knew the message of every telegraph, met passengers from far-away places and learned about business from both locals and “drummers” or salesmen waiting for their trains. [13]

In addition to his responsibilities as station agent, Matrau served on the Holland City Council as an alderman representing the First Ward. [14] He was also an officer in the Free and Accepted Masons Unity Lodge 191. [15]

Matrau, a former Methodist, joined Grace on 7 October 1876 and his wife, Jerusha, joined him in March 1877. [16] As a member of Grace Episcopal Church in Holland, Matrau provided leadership and support during its financial and leadership crisis of the mid–1870’s. Following the 1871 fire that destroyed Grace Church and much of the city of Holland, the parish’s first rector, J. Rice Taylor traveled east appealing to congregations in the larger cities for help to rebuild his burned church. He raised enough money to construct a building sufficient for the needs of his parishioners. However his vision outstripped available resources and the church was left with a debt it struggled to pay. A bitter dispute developed between the rector, the vestry and the bishop. Taylor had served a church in New York for a year then demanded that Grace take him back as their rector. When Bishop George D. Gillespie insisted that Taylor be reinstated, the vestry led by the founders of the church including Heber Walsh resigned on 31 March 1877. Matrau was one of three members who stepped forward to reorganize the church. He was elected to the vestry and named both as warden and treasurer. [17] Taylor offered to again serve on alternate Sundays and Matrau was licensed by the bishop as a lay reader for the weeks when Taylor was not available. Serving as a lay reader, he could lead a service using the form for morning prayers found in the Book of Common Prayer and read a sermon from a collection a messages approved by the bishop. [18] Matrau was faithful in upholding the duties of lay reader as long as he remained in Holland. There were years in which he read the service more than thirty times. [19] As Grace suffered financially, J.R. Taylor resigned and left the Diocese of Western Michigan. After a one year gap, E.W. Flower took leadership of both Saugatuck and Holland. In his first report he expressed his gratitude to Matrau stating; “During the whole year there has been lay reading, one service every Sunday by Mr. H. C. Matrau, to whose fidelity and zeal the Parish is greatly indebted for the continuance of services, and Parish work during the vacancy of Rectorship.” [20]

Henry Matrau also took Walsh’s position as Superintendent of the Sunday School. Sunday school still served as more than a children’s Bible school. Some children in Holland still did not attend regular schools and many that did only attended four months of the year. So Sunday school was an important source of instruction particularly in reading. During Matrau’s six years as superintendent the average enrollment was about fifty children. At the same time there were only about twenty-five communicants at Grace and during that time were never there more than five male communicants.[21]

Matrau accepted a position with the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad and left Grace moving to Grand Rapids in October 1882. In 1884 he accepted a position as Northwestern passenger agent on the Michigan & Ohio Railroad. It seemed like a promotion and friends in Holland hoped this position would allow him to return to Holland. But that was not to be. For he was hardly settled in with the M&O when the line went into receivership. [22] He then accepted a position with the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad arriving in Norfolk, Nebraska on the Fourth of July 1885. The F,E&MV also known as “The Cowboy Line” covered an area from Omaha to the Black Hills. It was operating under the control of the Chicago & North Western by the time Matrau arrived in Norfolk and in 1903, it was purchased outright by the C&NW. 23] He served twenty-two years as station agent with the F,E&MV and the C&NW

He lived an active life in Norfolk. Within a year of his arrival he was elected to the school board, a position he held for twelve years and he served on the city council. He was mayor of Norfolk for two terms, 1893-1894 and in 1911 he served as a member of the state legislature. After a combined thirty-six years in railroading he resigned in 1907 entering a partnership with Theodore Wille operating Matrau and Wille, a lumber and coal company.

      In 1913, Matrau made one last move, this time to Windsor, Colorado where he opened another lumber and coal business. He died on 5 January 1917, suffering a heart attack while undergoing dental surgery. He was buried with military honors by the Grand Army of the Republic at Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska near the home of his children. After Henry’s death, Jersusha disposed of the family business and lived with a daughter in Lincoln, NE where she died 20 March 1928. [24]

1. Holland City News, 25 January 1917.
2. Background items found in ancestorylibrary.com, accessed on various dates. Marcia Reid–Green, Editor, Letters from Home: Henry Matrau of the Iron Brigade, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), pp. 1-3.
3. Reid-Green, Letters from Home, pp. 3–5; Allen C. Guelzo, Fateful Lightening: A New History of the Civil War & Reconstruction, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 236-237; Holland City News, 12 March 1896
4. Reid-Green, Letters from Home,p. 42n; Holland City News,12 March 1896
5. O. B. Curtis, History of the Twenty–Fourth Michigan of the Iron Brigade Known as the Detroit and Wayne County Regiment. (Detroit: Winn & Hammond, 1891; Reprint Edition, Gaithersburg, MD: Ron Sickle Military Books, 1987), Chapter 13, “The Iron Brigade,” pp. 452–473; David S. Heidler and Jeanette T. Heidler, Editors, Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, 4 Volumes, (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC–Clio, 2000), sv. “Iron Brigade” pp. 2: 1040–1041. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 528;-529, 540n, 654.
6. Mataru to Parents, Yellow House, VA, 30 October 1864 in Reid-Green, Letters Home, pp. 98–100.
7. Mataru to Parents, Near Petersburg, 13 February 1865, 22 February 1865 in in Reid-Green, Letters Home, pp. 107–112; Holland City News, 14 March 1896; Watervliet Record, 19 January 1917, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58680882/henry-clay-matrau, Accessed 18 November 2018.
8. Elizabeth R. Varon, Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War, (New York: Oxford University Press 2014), p. 83;
9. Matrau to Mother, Burkeville, VA, 18 April 1865, in Reid-Green, Letters Home, pp. 115–116.
10. Curtis, History of the Twenty–fourth, p. 457; Reid-Green, Letters Home, p. 123n.
11. Reid-Green, Letters Home, p. 127; Henry and Jerusha’s children were Ruth born ca. 1874, Grace born ca. 1875, Mamie Born ca. 1872, Harry born ca. 1885 and Agnes born ca. 1891. Census of 1900, Norfolk, Madison County, NE accessed through ancestorylibrary.com.
12. The Chicago & Michigan Lake Shore Railroad was formed by the consolidation of five shorter lines on 23 April 1869 and reorganized as the Chicago & West Michigan Railroad on 20 December 1878. The C&WM RR merged with the Grand Haven Railroad to form the Chicago & West Michigan Railway which was sold to the Pere Marquette Railroad on 20 September 1899. Nick Korstange, “Railroads of Ottawa County,” West Michigan Railroad Historical Society, Waybill, (March 1989), pp. 4-5; Graydon M. Meints, Railroads for Michigan,(East Lansing, MI, 2013), pp. 187, 243, 295.
13. Walter Licht, Working on the Railroad: The Organization of Work in the Nineteenth Century,(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988), pp. 34, 37–38, 42–44, 83–86, 91; H. Roger Grant, Railroads and the American People, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012), pp. 110–131.
14. Holland City News, 25 January 1917, City Council Minutes, Holland City News, 4 December 1875 and 5 December 1876.
15. Holland City News, 27 December 1879 and 18 December 1800.
16. Grace Episcopal Church, Register 1,Grace Church historical records. Held at the Joint Archives of Holland.
17. Holland City News, 7 April 1877; Heber Walsh. “History of Grace Episcopal Church, Holland.” 1878. Both a draft and a final edition are preserved among Grace Church historical records held at the Joint Archives of Holland. A typescript transcription of the final edition by Paul Trap in 2015 is available.
18. Episcopal Church. Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan [DoWM]. Journals of the annual conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Michigan. Published annually from Primary Convention, 1874 to the present. A set of these journals are archived at the Bentley Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI and available www.hathitrust.org. Canon XIV, DoWM, Journal, 1st, 1875, p. 120; Rev. George D. Gillespie, Compiler, A Manual for the Use of Rectors, Wardens and Vestrymen, in the Diocese of Michigan with Annals of the Diocese, (Ann Arbor: Dr. Chase’s Steam Printing House, 1868) pp. 90-91.
19. DoWM, Journal3rd, 1877, pp. 75, 106–107; 4th, 1878, pp. 63–64, 79, 136–137; 5th, 1879, pp. 85, 120–121; 6th, 1880, pp. 93, 161; 7th, 1881, pp. 81, 120–121; 9th, 1882, p. 106; Church Helper of Western Michigan, February 1881,September 1881, July 1882.
20. Parochial Report, DoWM, Journal, 5th, 1879, pp. 120-121.
21. DoWM, Journals, 3rd, 1877, p. 106; 4th, 1878, pp. 136-137; 5th, 1879, pp. 120–121; 6th, 1880, p. 129; 7th, 181, pp. 121–122; 8th, 1882, p. 106; Church Helper of Western Michigan, July 1882.
22. Holland City News, 1 November 1884; Graydon M. Meints, Michigan Railroad Companies, (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1992) S.V. Michigan and Ohio Railroad; Norfolk Weekly News Journal, 13 December 1907, Accessioned through Chronicling America, Library of Congress.
23. Norfolk Weekly News Journal, 13 December 1907, Accessioned through “Chronicling America”, Library of Congress; Robert J. Casey and W.A.S. Douglas, Pioneer Railroad: The Story of the Chicago and North Western System,(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1948), pp. 126, 145, 169, 217–219, 232–238.
24. Norfolk Weekly News Journal, 13 December 1907; Reid–Green, Letters Home, pp. 127–128