Serena's World: January 26, 1851 Serena's Sunday

Sunday 26^th (January)

Went to bible class as usual, thence to church, thence home ate my dinner, went to class in the afternoon thence to my german (?) Sunday School, and down to Mr Boyinton’s church in the evening where I heard a most splendid sermon. Returned home about 9 oclock but met with a sad misfortune. I stept in a mud hole and was quite wet. When I got home I found T.H. there and father quite angry.

Serena goes to church today, so she must have acquired a bonnet somehow. She doesn’t mention shopping for a bonnet or making one. There are three German Methodist Churches in Cincinnati. Martin Schaad, minister of the German Presbyterian Church, lives near Serena. (1850 Census). He may have invited her to visit his church. Schaad is the minister of First German Presbyterian Church on the northeast corner of Franklin and Sycamore (Cist 79).

The Rev. Charles B. Boynton is the minister at the Second Orthodox Congregationalist church on the east side of Vine, between Eighth and Ninth Streets (Cist 79).

The afternoon Class is a characteristic of Serena’s church. The Doctrines and Disciplines of the Methodist Episcopal Church states that each society (congregation) should be divided into smaller companies, called Classes, of about twelve persons. One member of each Class is to be the leader. It is the duty of the leader to meet with each member at least once a week:

1. ”To inquire how their souls prosper.

2. To advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort, as occasion may require.

3. To receive what they are willing to give toward the relief of the preachers, church and poor.”

In addition, the leader must meet with the ministers and stewards once a week:

1. “To inform the minister of any that are sick, or of any that walk disorderly, and will not be reproved.

2. To pay the stewards what they have received of their several classes in the week preceding” (Doctrines 26-27).

Streets are either dirt or paved with limestone blocks. The limestone breaks, creating puddles after heavy rains. (Cist 338) The streets can also be very dusty. Street sprinklers are used to combat the dust. These are large horse-drawn barrels on wheels (Green, and Bennett 41). “Bowlder pavement” is being introduced in 1851. The hope is that this type of pavement will eliminate “those clouds of dust, which in dry summer weather, constitutes our greatest street nuisance” (Cist 338).

T.H. is Thomas Hunt, sister Libby’s fiancé. We don’t know why Father is angry. Perhaps he is worried about the young man’s intentions.