Happy birthday to John T. Faris!

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Editor, author, traveler and Presbyterian minister, John Thomson Faris was born 150 years ago today on January 23, 1871 at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. John studied at several schools, including Princeton and McCormick Theological Seminary. His father, William Wallace Faris, was both a Presbyterian minister and an editor, in whose footsteps, in both capacities, John would follow. John’s brother, Paul Patton Faris, also became a minister and an author.

In the field of journalistic publishing, John worked for The Talk, Anna, Illinois (1890); The Occident, San Francisco, (1891–1892); and The North and West, Minneapolis (1892). Ordained to the ministry in 1898, John ministered in Mt. Carmel, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri, before taking on official journalistic duties for the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA). He saw the importance of Sunday School, and this would become a focus of his labors.

He served as editor of the Sunday School Times, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1907–1908); and editor of the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work, Philadelphia (1908–1923). He was the Director, Editorial division, of the Board of Christian Education of the PCUSA (1923–1937). Finally, he served as General Director of the editorial department of the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, and as President of the Sunday School Council of the Evangelical Denominations.

He had a special affinity for J.R. Miller, whose biography he authored, and several of whose works he posthumously edited and published.

John T. Faris traveled extensively, and wrote prolifically. He published over 60 books, many of which highlighted the history and the geography of America. He focused on the romance of the past, and the virtues needed for the present, as well as the value of Sunday School for the strengthening the work of the kingdom. He seemed to have a vision for reaching people through words and imagery that evoked the best virtues in his readers. He died on April 13, 1949, and is buried in the same cemetery at Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania as where J.R. Miller is interred. We continue to add Faris’ writings to Log College Press, but today we remember that while his mortal life began 150 years ago, his legacy through the written word endures.

Mrs. A.T.J. Bullard: Peeress for a Day

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In 1850, Rev. Artemas Bullard, Jr. traveled to Europe, with his accomplished wife Anne Tuttle Jones Bullard, to serve as a delegate at the International Peace Congress in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The couple spent six months traveling in Europe. She wrote letters to the Missouri Republican back home in St. Louis, Missouri, which were later published as Sights and Scenes in Europe: A Series of Letters From England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, in 1850 (1852), which she dedicated “to the ladies of the First Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, Mo.”

There are interesting literary connections to the Bullard family. Anne herself was a gifted writer who often published under pseudonyms. Her husband’s younger sister, Eunice Bullard, married the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (both Eunice and Henry were noted writers), which meant that Anne also had family ties to Harriet Beecher Stowe. And, further, the Rev. Henry Bullard (son of Artemus and Anne), was a fellow transatlantic passenger with Mark Twain. It has been noted before that Anne’s Sights and Scenes in Europe bears a similarity to Twain’s Innocents Abroad (1869), inspired certainly by the 1867 voyage, but perhaps Anne’s 1852 book was known to him, since Twain also was from St. Louis and it is thought that he had heard Artemas preach (before Artemas died in 1855 during the Gasconade Bridge train disaster).

One little snapshot of the Bullards’ trip through Europe has to do with the day that Mrs. Bullard was an invited guest for a speech given by Queen Victoria to the House of Lords in London on August 15, 1850. A Mr. R . Cobden procured for her admission to the one of the most-sought after seats in the city (she writes: “A ticket of admission is obtained only from the Lord Chamberlain through a Peer”).

Mrs. Bullard’s ticket of admission to hear Queen Victoria’s speech.

Mrs. Bullard’s ticket of admission to hear Queen Victoria’s speech.

Mrs. Bullard’s description of the event takes up many pages (see Letter No. IV), but we can glean how momentous the occasion was from this extract:

The streets were lined with people to see the Queen pass. I understood it is three years since she has prorogued Parliament in person. Temporary seats, three tiers or more, were built up on each side, for which some persons paid three shillings (or seventy-five cents) each.

No gentlemen are admitted to the floor of the House of Lords except peers, Bishops, and Ambassadors, and there are seats for only about two hundred ladies. It was announced that the Queen would arrive at 2 o’clock, and to be in season I took a carriage at half-past eleven. There were about fifteen carriages in advance of mine, and as the House was not opened until 12 o’clock, the ladies must of course sit in their carriages until their turn came to be admitted. Precisely at twelve the door was opened, and when all the carriages before me were emptied and my turn came, I was allowed to pass in, but without the escort of any gentleman. Only about thirty ladies were seated before me, and I was shown one of the most desirable places for observation in the room, near the Queen, and for two hours and a half I had an admirable opportunity to scan the novel scenes before me.

The House of Lords is a most gorgeous place. The ceiling is magnificently gilded in raised figures, and the galleries are formed of very open iron-work, also gilded. The Queen’s throne, or chair of State, her canopy &c., have also all the appearance of the most elegant carved work, covered with gold. The seats, arranged lengthwise of the room in four rows, were without backs and covered with crimson morocco. One of the most beautiful young ladies in the rooms [was] at my right hand, and, very fortunately for me, she was agreeable and communicative, and pointed out many persons of rank, whom I could not have recognized but for her politeness. In answer to one of my inquiries, whether such a lady was a Peeress, my companion replied, “Oh, yes, we are all Peeresses, you know.” I smiled, but did not undeceive her, thinking as it was the first and last time I should ever pass for a Peeress, I would enjoy my rank.

She went on to enjoy the privilege of hearing Queen Victoria’s speech, which was a rare opportunity for the wife of an American Presbyterian minister. For the full story, see her account, and read about her other experiences in Europe, here. Peeress for a day!

American Presbyterians in Europe

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St. Augustine, when he speaks of the great advantages of travelling, says, that the world is a great book, and none study this book so much as a traveller. They that never stir from home read only one page of this book. -- John Feltham, The English Enchiridion (1799)

Like many today who might be itching to travel again, American Presbyterians in the 19th century also sought the benefits of a long voyage, and Europe was one particular favorite destination. Among the life experiences of authors found at Log College Press, trips to Europe are a recurring theme, and our Travelogue page highlights this.

The letters, journals, books and poetry that resulted from such trips are a valuable historical record of life on one side of the pond as viewed through the eyes of residents from the other side. In today’s post, we take a closer look at these memorials of their experiences.

  • James Waddel Alexander — J.W. Alexander traveled to England, France, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland on a six-month tour of Europe in 1851. He met Adolphe Monod in Paris. Later, in 1857, he returned to Europe and met Charles H. Spurgeon in England, and Thomas Guthrie in Scotland, while also visiting France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. His reports on these travel experiences are recorded in Forty Years' Familiar Letters, and also in James W. Garretson, Thoughts on Preaching & Pastoral Ministry: Lessons from the Life and Writings of James W. Alexander.

  • Joseph Addison Alexander — J.A. Alexander spent a year in Europe (1833-1834). Time was spent in England, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. From diary extracts given in H.C. Alexander’s The Life of Joseph Addison Alexander, we learn many fascinating details about the people he met, and the poems he wrote, inspired by his European travels.

  • Henry Martyn Baird — Baird spent much of his childhood in France and Switzerland, and then after graduating from the University of New York, lived in Greece and Italy during 1851-1853, and studied at the University of Athens. Besides his many written studies of the French Huguenots, he authored Modern Greece: A Narrative of a Residence and Travels in that Country (1856).

  • Robert Baird — Baird visited Europe many times as recorded in H.M. Baird’s biography The Life of the Rev. Robert Baird, D. D. (1866). Baird himself wrote about his travels in Visits to Northern Europe (1841) and Old Sights With New Eyes (1854). His travels also enabled him to write with personal knowledge about Protestantism in Italy.

  • John Henry Barrows — Barrows’ world travels, detailed in A World Pilgrimage (1897), included England, France, Germany, Greece and Italy.

  • Robert Jefferson Breckinridge — R.J. Breckinridge was appointed by the PCUSA General Assembly to serve as its representative in Europe, leading to a trip to England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. His travels are detailed in Memoranda of Foreign Travel (1839 and, in 2 vols., 1845).

  • George Barrell Cheever — Cheever’s journey though the French-Swiss Alps is recorded in Wanderings of a Pilgrim in the Shadow of Mont Blanc and the Jungfrau Alp (1848).

  • Theodore Ledyard Cuyler — Cuyler’s travels through England, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Greece, and the Czech Republic, are recorded in From the Nile to Norway and Homeward (1881).

  • George Duffield IV — Duffield’s travels were published in the Magazine of Travel during 1857, and later republished in Travels in the Two Hemispheres; or, Gleanings of a European Tour (1858).

  • Henry Highland Garnet — Garnet traveled to Europe in 1851, including England, Ireland Scotland and Germany. His speeches from some of those locations are found here.

  • Stephen Henry Gloucester — Gloucester, pastor of the Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, visited England and Scotland in 1847-1848. The record of his trip, and letters which he wrote home, can be found in Robert Jones, Fifty years in the Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church (1894).

  • Charles Hodge — From 1826 to 1828, Hodge traveled to Europe, studying in Paris and and wrote a handwritten journal of his experiences (primarily in Germany) available to read here. See also A.A. Hodge’s The Life of Charles Hodge for more on these travels, including letters written to home.

  • Alexander McLeod — McLeod visited England and Scotland in 1830. His experiences are recounted in Samuel Brown Wylie’s Memoir of Alexander McLeod (1855). Wylie’s own trip to Europe in 1802-1803 is also discussed in this volume.

  • James Clement Moffat — Moffat recounts his experiences in the summer of 1872 in Song and Scenery; or, A Summer Ramble in Scotland (1874).

  • Walter William Moore — Moore recounts his experiences in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in A Year in Europe (1904, 1905).

  • James W.C. Pennington — The “Fugitive Blacksmith’s” s travels to England, Scotland and Germany are detailed in Christopher L. Webber, American to the Backbone: The Life of James W. C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists. He was the first African-American in Europe to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

  • Samuel Irenaeus Prime — Prime’s travels were recorded in Travels in Europe and the East: A Year in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, 2 vols. (1855, 1856).

  • Joel Edson Rockwell — Rockwell’s journey through France, Germany, Italy, England, Scotland and Ireland is chronicled in Scenes and Impressions Abroad (1860).

  • William Buell Sprague — Sprague writes in the preface to his Visits to European Celebrities (1855), “In 1828, and again in 1836, I had the privilege of passing a few months on the continent of Europe and in Great Britain. In both visits, especially the latter, I was more interested to see men than things; and I not only made the acquaintance, so far as I could, of distinguished individuals as they came in my way, but sometimes made circuitous routes in order to secure to myself this gratification.” See also his Letters From Europe, in 1828 (1828).

  • Thomas De Witt Talmage — A world traveller, Talmage wrote Great Britain Through American Spectacles (1885); From the Pyramids to the Acropolis: Sacred Places Seen Through Biblical Spectacles (1892); and The Earth Girdled: The World as Seen To-Day (1896).

These are some of the men at Log College Press who spent time in Europe, and their writings often tell us about life abroad, and often inspired them in various ways, just as travels inspire us. It is human nature to want to travel, and if we are limited in our ability to do so at present, we can at least turn to others who have done so and be inspired by them.