University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XIV.

The summer of 1844 was saddened by the death of Mrs. Pendleton's
youngest sister, Hughella Page, a bright, attractive girl,
greatly beloved in her family. In August Mr. Pendleton went to
Baltimore, and was most kindly received by the clergy of the city.
They showed their friendliness not only by courtesy and advice,
but more substantially by recommending and endorsing his proposed
school. Dr. Wyatt, rector of St. Paul's Church, Dr.
Atkinson, of St. Peter's, afterwards Bishop of North Carolina,
and Dr. H. V. D. Johns, of Christ Church, each placed a son
under his tuition, and their example did much to secure him
patronage and insure his success.

Baltimore was so much smaller forty years ago than it is now,
that the location most desirable for a classical school was within
a few squares north of Baltimore Street and west of Calvert.
No house capable of affording convenient school-rooms, and at
the same time accommodating a family, could be found in that
part of the city, and it seemed impossible to incur the expense
of renting two houses.

Mr. Pendleton had therefore nearly determined to send his wife
back to Virginia, where his children had been left, and fight the
battle with debt and hard work alone. A final decision was put
off until the prayerful consideration of another night. That
very evening Dr. Johns called for the purpose of informing Mr.
Pendleton that Sherwood Chapel, near Cockeysville, and St. John's
in the Valley, in Baltimore County, were in need of a pastor.
The parishes were unable to pay salaries sufficient for the support
of a rector, and would therefore be very glad to secure the
services of a non-resident clergyman, who could minister to them
on Sundays and occasionally in the week, and Dr. Johns brought
an invitation to Mr. Pendleton to communicate with them.

It was his earnest purpose to connect ministerial duty with his
school-work, but he had supposed that the only field open to
him would be that of a missionary in Baltimore. With devout

thankfulness he listened to Dr. Johns's suggestions. An arrangement
satisfactory to all parties was soon made with the two
vestries, and Mr. Pendleton became their rector. The salaries
promised, though small, were certain, and he at once rented a
house on Fayette Street, near Charles, for his school, and
another on Lexington Street, a few doors west of Liberty, as a
residence. The children were brought on from Virginia and the
family established on Lexington Street.

"St. Luke's Hall, a classical school for boys," was opened
October 1, 1844, with a good number of scholars. Mr. Pendleton
had not proposed to take any boarding pupils; but at the
urgent solicitation of their parents he consented to receive three
boys into his family. Mr. Mahan was his assistant for a few
months, when he entered the General Theological Seminary in
New York, and was succeeded by Mr. Robert Nelson in the
school and the family.

Labor as constant and anxiety as pressing as filled up this and
the two following years might well have broken down a vigorous
constitution and courageous soul. Not only was the daily
routine of school-work performed, but private pupils—classes
of young ladies in belles-lettres and literature, boys who required
"coaching," and special students in engineering—were engaged
and taught at high prices. Sermons were prepared every week
for his churches, to which he went by rail Friday evening or
Saturday morning. The morning service was held alternately
in the parishes, and after a ride of eight miles across the country,
the evening service and sermon in the other. When the morning
was given to Sherwood, the rector spent Saturday in visiting
his parishioners in that neighborhood, doing the same thing the
next week at St. John's. No matter in which he officiated in the
afternoon, he was obliged to spend Sunday night at Sherwood,
so as to take an early train Monday morning and return to
Baltimore in time for the opening of the school. Weekly services
in the afternoon or at night were frequently held for the
Baltimore rectors, and on two occasions it happened that under
an urgent appeal for help he rode down from Cockeysville, fourteen
miles, after his two services in the country, and officiated at
night in Baltimore, once in St. Peter's and once in Christ Church,
thus riding forty miles on horseback, reading the service, and

preaching three times in one day. The second of these efforts
came near having serious consequences, a violent headache and
high fever following the over-exertion.

Rigid economy and diligent care on Mrs. Pendleton's part
seconded her husband's labors. Skilful housewifery kept the
family comfortable with the smallest possible outlay. The children
were mainly clothed by their grandparents, and systematically
taught by their mother, the elder ones also receiving instruction
from their father or his assistant in Latin, Greek, and French.
Mrs. Pendleton, in addition to her other occupations, did almost
all the sewing for her household,—no slight task when as yet
there were no sewing-machines. Creditors pressed, however,
notes were falling due, and in the effort to meet such claims
promptly there was a hard struggle to keep the wolf from the
door. Twice the emergency became so great that Mr. Pendleton
was obliged to pawn valuable scientific instruments to procure
food for the family. A third morning came when there was
neither money in the purse nor provisions in the pantry. Leaving
his wife, with the promise to return at ten o'clock and again pawn
his theodolite, he went to his school. Scarcely had he finished
the opening prayer when an envelope was handed him containing
six dollars. It was for rent owed by a widow whom he
permitted to occupy the upper story of the school-house, and
from whose scanty means he neither sought nor expected payment,
but whose timely relief of his necessities was received with
a thankful heart.

Neither the plainness of their home nor the restricted mode of
life cut Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton off from social privileges and agreeable
association. Not only the families of the clergy, but others
who appreciated worth, talent, and good breeding offered them
kind attentions, and friendships were formed which lasted through
life. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel G. Wyman were especially cordial to
the struggling family. Long drives in Mr. Wyman's capacious
carriage and charming Saturdays passed in his hospitable house
were bright spots in the quiet lives of the little folk, while his
thoughtful kindness afforded their parents opportunities for meeting
literary men, seeing fine paintings, and hearing good music.

The winter of 1844 was a painful era in the American Church,
and when Bishop Meade, fresh from the trial and conviction of

the Bishop of New York, stopped for a brief visit to Mr. Pendleton,
the little parlor was the scene of long and earnest talk, lasting
far into the night, while different clergymen of the city
listened and argued and lamented as the excitement of the
times pressed upon their hearts.

The friendly relations in which he had once stood to the
Bishop of Pennsylvania made his fault and punishment very
distressing to his former presbyter.

At the close of the first session of his school a change for the
better was made. A house was found on Courtland Street, in a
quiet but central position, capable of accommodating comfortably
both his family and school. This lessened the expense of living
considerably, and avoided the necessity for his absence from
home for so many hours. The second year was as successful as
the first. Mr. Nelson, as Mr. Mahan had done, went to the
Theological Seminary, and Mr. Sterling, of New York, on the
recommendation of Dr. Muhlenberg, became the assistant.

The people of Sherwood and St. John's became much attached
to their rector, and evinced their regard not only by sending supplies
of provisions, very helpful to his household, but also by
insisting on having his family to sojourn among them for weeks
at a time. These visits to the country, spring and fall, at Colonel
Bosley's stately home, "Hayfields," Mr. Jessop's, Mr. Anderson's,
and other hospitable houses, were cheering and serviceable
to parents and children, both on account of health, recreation, freedom
from household cares and anxieties, and the cordial good
will which subsisted between pastor and people. Finding the
two parishes too heavy a burden, Mr. Pendleton gave up St.
John's in the spring of 1846. The congregation requested him
to assist them to procure another pastor, and he communicated
with different parties on the subject. One gentleman presenting
himself with a letter of introduction, was requested to accompany
him the next day to St. John's to see the place and people
and, if he chose, preach to the congregation. He delivered a
sermon on "Jonah's gourd," so striking and admirable that Mr.
Pendleton returned to Baltimore much pleased and somewhat
astonished at the unexpected ability of his clerical brother.
Describing the discourse to another clergyman, the listener
interrupted him in a few minutes, and taking up the theme,

proceeded to give an accurate outline of the sermon. "You
have, then, heard Mr.—preach it?" "Not at all; I never saw
him; but I have read that sermon recently in a volume of Bradley's
Sermons." The book was sent for, and on examination
was found to contain, word for word, the sermon preached at
St. John's the preceding Sunday. It is needless to say that the
gentleman delivering it was not called to the church.

Various efforts were made by his friends to transfer Mr.
Pendleton to other fields of labor during his residence in Baltimore.
Some of the most influential among them sought his
appointment to the chaplaincy at West Point, then vacant, but
the President thought it best to give it to a Presbyterian minister.

Replying to an invitation from the trustees of a large school
in Alabama to become the head of their academy, he wrote in
1847,—

". . . Regarding my ministerial duties as those to which I
am first pledged, and as those for which I resigned my commission
in the army, I have no expectation or intention of engaging
in any situation where full prominence is not at once
allowed to clerical duties, with a desirable field for discharging
them, and if such is not the case here, my negative response may
be anticipated. The impression has been made, much to my
hinderance as a minister of the Gospel, that in my case clerical
duty is a secondary matter only."

His arduous and incessant labors in Baltimore were so prospered
by Divine goodness that at the close of the third year of
his school he found himself so far relieved of the burden of
debt as to be able to give up teaching and devote himself wholly
to parochial work. Of this period he wrote years afterwards,—

"By diligence and a reasonable exercise of self-denial I had
the satisfaction of so paying off my debts in a few years as
virtually to fulfil the sacred injunction, 'Owe no man anything.'"

After the lapse of forty years it is difficult to understand, and
almost ungracious to recall, the strenuous controversy and strict
party lines which then divided the Protestant Episcopal Church
in the United States. Nowhere were argument and action more

violent, or division on almost every question of doctrine and
practice more absolute, than between the "High" and "Low"
Churchmen in Maryland. The learned and laborious Bishop
Whittingham believed in and claimed rights of Episcopal prerogative
almost without limitations; holding and teaching also the
advanced views of sacramentarianism as promulged in the Oxford
school and advocated in the Oxford Tracts. Against these
teachings and practices some of the most godly, earnest, and
useful clergy and laity of the diocese felt it their duty to protest
whenever occasion was taken to enforce them. Reference to
the journals of the Maryland Conventions and the Life of Bishop
Whittingham will show how, once and again, when it was claimed
by him as an inherent right of his office to regulate all the
services, whenever he held a visitation,—himself to celebrate the
holy communion, to the setting aside of the parish minister, and
always to pronounce the absolution when in the chancel, a conscientious
rector declining to admit that even his bishop could
lawfully supersede him in his official duties and privileges, was
either brought to trial for violation of duty, or found his parishioners
deprived of Episcopal visitation and confirmation.

These differences and dissensions are referred to because Mr.
Pendleton was, from the time of his coming into the diocese, in
sympathy with those known as "Low Churchmen." His conservative
disposition, knowledge of Church standards and laws,
his diligent study of the Oxford Tracts, as mentioned in a
former chapter, together with his readiness and fluency in argument,
made him a valuable and welcome addition to the church
party, which, against large odds, contended for the purity and simplicity
of their Church, and resisted all innovations in her doctrines,
ritual, and ecclesiastical freedom as contrary to the teachings
of the Apostolic and Anglican fathers, and Romanizing in
tendency. No lay-member of the Convention among the Low
Churchmen was equal in debate to Mr. Hugh Davey Evans and
Judge Chambers. Mr. Pendleton was therefore especially welcome
to the ranks of his party, as being a forcible debater and
well-informed speaker against arbitrary Episcopal rule and dangerously
erroneous teachings. With pen as well as tongue he
contributed to the maintenance of what he believed true, writing,
in the midst of his other labors in Baltimore, several tracts, called

forth by the trial of the Rev. Joseph Trapnell and other difficulties
between the bishop and clergy. The refusal of Dr. H.
V. D. Johns to recognize the bishop's right to arrange and
perform all the services at the time of a visitation to Christ
Church had been met by the withdrawal of the appointment.

Years afterwards, during a visitation to All Saints', Frederick,
a similar question arose between the bishop and Mr. Pendleton,
which was settled in a rather unusual way. As the
service was appointed for night, there was no difficulty on the
score of the communion. The bishop arrived in the afternoon,
and was received and entertained at the parsonage. When the
hour for service came, the gentlemen proceeded to the vestry-room,
which was up-stairs in one arm of the transept of the
church. Persons in the pews below could hear voices above
them in earnest and prolonged conversation, and the congregation
became restless at an unusual delay. At length the door
opened and the rector appeared alone, entered the chancel, and
proceeded with the service. His calm voice and reverent manner
quieted the flutter of excitement which had rustled through
the congregation at his entrance. The service over, he passed
out, as was his custom before the sermon, into the vestry-room,
and soon returned ushering in the bishop, who preached an
excellent sermon and confirmed a large class. When the rector
was alone with his family he told how, after the bishop and himself
were ready to go into the chancel, the bishop had said that
he intended to pronounce the absolution. Mr. Pendleton demurred.
An argument ensued, and at last the bishop took off
his robes, saying he could not go into the chancel at all unless
he were allowed to regulate the service. After a moment of
prayer for direction, Mr. Pendleton decided not to keep the
congregation waiting longer, and telling the bishop he hoped
reflection would induce him to alter his determination, went
down and read the service. On returning to the vestry-room he
found the bishop again dressed in his robes. No word was
spoken, but when the hymn was nearly finished, the bishop rose
and silently accompanied the rector into the church. Solitude
and prayer had decided him to waive the point at issue, and his
sermon and confirmation address were unusually fervent and
instructive.