Reverend Crouse
Letter from 1955-1959 Boston Chapel Pastor Nevin Crouse
September 6, 2011
Dear Jim, What a pleasure to hear from you; “I thank my God upon every remembrance of thee”. I have some information to give you; I hope it is all accurate… fifty-two years is a long time ago. I assumed the Boston Chapel as year-around pastor in 1955. It was in July right after our wedding and honeymoon on July 9, 1955. Hence, our anniversary of marriage began in July 1955.
I just retired after 44 years of pastoral ministry – 27 years as Fire Dept. Chaplain, 21 years as Volunteer Hospital Chaplain and 11 years as Hospice Chaplain. Of course, a lot of the service was concurrent. I retired in July after 56 years of full time ministry. As you know, I left Boston Chapel in September 1959, turning the mantle over to you.
Some of the people I remember are: Bill & Jennie Harlow & family, Mary Deas & 2 children, and Lillian Hynes and her 2 boys. I buried her husband when he died. Mrs. Hynes’ friend, Bob Breton, worked as an orderly in one of the hospitals. There was Dallas Willis (a young teenage girl). There was the Blake family, the Sandersons, the Butlers, Mr. & Mrs. Barbou (very nice looking black couple), Katie Lashley (young adult) & a teenage girl named Akeitha. There was Mrs. Hargray – I visited her often through a long illness. She had two daughters, one named Torrence. I had been hearing from her but not lately, her address was & could be 2714 Sandalwood Drive, Atlanta, GA 30350. Also there was Mr. & Mrs. Marcel Filteau. She was the lady that blasted me when I took you around to meet the people. Remember??
When I took the pastorate there, I lived in Wollaston, worked on campus, spent a couple of afternoons visiting or working on the building and of course Wednesday nights, Sunday afternoons and back in for the evening service. I split up a THB degree to spend more time at the chapel. Sundays were a little difficult. Church, at college, eat, hurry to pick up people for Sunday School, back to college, rest a little, eat and back to the chapel.
At first, we rented, later we bought the building for $5,000. A miracle of grace and sacrificial giving by the student workers. Somehow we bought a Chevy carry all to transport the students and to pick up people. Emerson Twining drove it at first, then Ted & Joan Esselstyn later. Couples courted in that carryall. Somehow they always had a lot of Chapel work to do…get the drift??
Later, we purchased one bus, later another. This is the way we got the first one: Rodney Everhart & I were putting turkey manure on the flower beds one Thanksgiving, working for and with Dr. Babcock. Somehow we got on the subject of tithing. He said he was holding his tithe; not giving to the college or sending them home. I told him this wasn’t right that they should be in use. I prevailed; hence his tithes bought the first bus. I don’t know if God was overjoyed at the process but we got the bus.
Merle Fetter drove it a lot. One Sunday, Merle accidently hit a post leaving the college parking lot. No damage appeared. Later on, I got behind him and noticed the bus was at least 2 ft. out of line, a weird looking thing going down the road. I pulled him over before the back end could hit parked cars. It had broken the back spring shackles. I don’t remember if that was the Sunday, but one Sunday I took home 22 kids in my car. Between Bill Harlow putting dents in my car and all the use in Chapel work, it wasn’t worth 2 cents when I got rid of it. One Ford for the Kingdom.
Here is a list of some of the chapel workers: Merle & Barbara Fetter, Walter Mullen, Jay & Margaret Bergers, Don Brotherton, Don Green & his wife to be Ethel Rowe, Stew Fretz & his wife to be Ruby Ricketts, Sam Henck & Joyce Rose, Steve & Irene Rieder, Chuck & Doris Gailey, Ted & Joan Esselstyn, Emerson Twining, Tom Cahill, Fred Wenger, Hazel Goodwin, Bill Williams, Barbara Church Irwin, Doris Clingerman, Walter Irons and Evelyn Bass. Some I may have missed will come to mind. All, or almost all, of the students that worked in there went into full time Christian service. The church as a whole now gives more praise to that kind of work in the slums, etc.
Sometime, during our tenure, we got pews. When they arrived we got them inside, but for some reason left one in the entrance way outside while we went to get something to eat. When we got back, it was gone. If I ever wanted to get rid of anything from home, old mattresses, etc. - I just set them beside the building and when I would get back from calling it would be gone. The Police Dept. wrote a big article in the Reader’s Digest about the biggest and busiest police station in the U.S. On a field trip for a course in Criminology, we toured the police station and I was allowed to look at a lot of mug shots. Many that wandered around the area and even some of the Chapel people were in the police files.
I forgot to mention; when we bought the building, Dr. Davis and her husband, a lawyer, did all the legal work for free….God Bless them. Dolores and I both had been doctored by her and to top it off, I believe they were Jewish. They lived on Kemper Ave. near the college if I remember correctly.
We heated the building with many oil space heaters, 2 downstairs and at least 10 or more in the upstairs rooms. To help me on Sundays, Sam Henck (bless his heart) took care of putting in the oil and lighting them. After being a fireman for 27 years, that now scares me to death.
Remember this: we never got an occupancy permit to my knowledge, no indoor plumbing, no fire exits that I remember. Don’t know how we got away with it. Not that we were bent on breaking the laws, we just didn’t give those things any thought. It is called divine ignorance. For a couple of years, we kept smelling gas fumes and called the utilities. They dug up in front of the chapel and found no problem. One time, I went into the basement and walked back and, lo and behold, gas came in from the back building from Village St. which had never been shut off and there was a pinhole leak with gas coming out. Wonder that we all didn’t get to heaven before we expected.
There was a big ex-Marine who sold floor covering next door and ran a flop house upstairs and God knows what else. His name was Eugene Wesson. He was good to me, loaned me tools and helped me get my car unlocked when I left the keys in the car.
One cold Sunday, I was out calling and I stopped in one of those little Mom and Pop stores to get warm. The owner asked me what I was doing, I said, “I’m out here trying to help people to get to heaven”. He replied, “These people can’t find their way home, let alone heaven”. Once I was preaching, on Wednesday evening, the front door was open; it was a warm night and in staggered a woman carrying a lantern from off a construction sight. I don’t remember how we dealt with that.
Jim, I don’t remember when you came into the picture, but I do know I was thankful you were there to follow me. I know without question God had called me to Easton, MD. where I spent 9 years. This I know, we had the cream of the crop from the college that devoted themselves to God and the Chapel. God, how I appreciated them. Actually and somewhat unknowingly, the Chapel was a Christian Training Course. I don’t remember if we moved to Dorchester before I left or did we ever. I think it was done by me or you or not al all? I know Mr. Angel across from Wollaston Church looked at a building with me. This is somewhat nebulous in my thinking.
I got to bring this to a close, so I will close with the gravy story. Once we got the bright idea to have a Thanksgiving dinner for the Sunday and Wednesday night people. Remember, no water and no stoves in the Chapel, so we and others cooked the meal and brought it in. We did have hot plates. Dolores baked the turkey and a huge kettle of gravy. I put it in the trunk of my ‘48 Pontiac that I had at the time. The kettle had a lid on it, but I was afraid it might spill out. I had an old rusty set of tire chains in the trunk and got the idea of putting one of those chains on the lid. When I got to the chapel, to take out the gravy, low and behold the tire chain was gone. What happened, I thought? Then, I realized the lid had flipped and the chain was in the gravy. It was still very hot so I took the jack handle and got the chain out and let the gravy drain back into the pot. Then, I took it in and told whomever to boil the gravy. While eating, I let people know gravy was good for them for it contained a lot of iron. I didn’t let the true word get out. Would I do such a thing as that now? No, but you see I have grown in grace since then.
I never was a camera buff so I don’t have pictures. I am sending 3 slides. I don’t know if anything can be done with them. There is a picture taken at Walter Mullen and Mary Loy Wheeler’s wedding in Wolcott, VT. As you can see, I was in the wedding party. Marvin Buell married them. The slides are of: (1) Adult class- Walter Mullen, Bob Breton & Lillian Hynes. (2 & 3) I can’t make out the people but note pews and those in attendance if you have a slide projector to see them with. (4) Wedding of Walter Mullen. (5) Letter from Branson Roberts.
Jim, I’m not a typist. This isn’t neat, and is disconnected, and looks like a bad theme paper corrected by Mrs. Spangenberg. Well, I don’t have anything else coming to mind, this is longer than the epistle to the Hebrews now. If I can be of any further help, let me know. I wish you the best on this project.
God Bless, Nevin
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Please note: The font-based content above is forwarded rather than the original handwritten letter, for ease in reading. The original letter from 1955-1959 Boston Chapel Pastor Nevin Crouse to 1959-1962 Pastor Jim Tasker has been preserved in the personal files of Jim & Myrta Tasker.