Miscellaneous, Rev. Wm. Allen Johnson, 1905

A visit From a Former Rector

Rev. Wm. Allen Johnson of St. Peter's Church

His Work in Bainbridge and Afton

Bainbridge Republican, Aug. 3, 1905

 

Rev. William Allen Johnson and wife, who have been spending ten days in Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY], left Monday for Middletown, Conn., to break up their home in that city and prepare for a permanent removed to Lyttleton, Col., a town a few miles distant from Denver.  Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were greeted warmly in Bainbridge.  No rector in St. Peter's church [Bainbridge, NY] ever inspired a deeper regard in the hearts of his people than did Mr. Johnson, nor a more universal respect among the townsmen.  Besides his spiritual influence he was of practical benefit to the parish in increasing the membership and enlarging the church.  The present attractive modern interior of the church is in marked contrast to that of fifty years ago with its two pulpits of quaint architecture, adorned with stately candelabra, situated between the front entrance doors of the church, the box pews, the tall windows of plane glass cut into infinite prisms, the high gallery at the further end, the somber air of the whole room--it was a much changed appearance from the present.  This reference to the past recalls with vivid remembrance such clergymen as the Rev. Norman H. Adams and Rev. Israel Foote, predecessors of Mr. Johnson, who stood in the high pulpit dressed in black robes with white stoles and delivered the most eloquent sermons of their times.  The former rector represented the first period of the church's history and the latter the middle period, coming down to Mr. Johnson's entrance in 1857 upon his active and successful work which continued five years.  In addition to Mr. Johnson's manifold duties in Bainbridge, also serving the Guilford parish part of the time, he organized a society of the Episcopal church in Afton, and later through his instrumentality the pretty little church of St. Ann's was built.  Mr. Johnson  has led a very busy life and one of great usefulness, aided in all things by his faithful wife, who was the daughter of the late Joseph Chamberlin of Afton, and is the sister of Mrs. Joseph Juliand of this village.  Many people had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Johnson last Sunday morning and evening preaching from his former pulpit in St. Peter's church.