Trinity Episcopal Church and Rectory, Sharon Springs, NY
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Interview Transcript: audio excerpts in italics

Speaker: James Bowmaker

Background: James Bowmaker is the oldest person born in the Village of Sharon Springs. He shares memories of the Trinity Episcopal Church and its members in days gone by.

Interviewer: Did you grow up in Sharon?
Bowmaker: Yes

Interviewer: Please tell me something about your childhood.
Bowmaker: You know, that's a long time ago. Well, It was the average, we grew up in the average ways, with lots of friends, you know, lots of school chums. There wasn't very much activity at the school though, you made your own activities, and the majority of us were very fortunate to have what you call playhouses, some of us had two rooms, and other ones only had one room, and they entertained different elderly people at around the town at different Saturdays. And, another thing we did which was very illegal, we broke into all the hotels, even, our dearest friends' mother's hotel, that w knew backwards and forwads.

Interviewer: What were your parents like? What kind of jobs did they have?
Bowmaker: My mother was a typical housewife. My father was a salad chef at the Beechnut Hotel in Canajoharie.

Bakkom: Brothers and Sisters?
Bowmaker: I had three brothers. George, and Frances, and Paul. The're all deceased now.

Interviewer: Tell me something about your life in Sharon as an adult.
Bowmaker: Well, it was very interesting, especially in the summer when Sharon was a very thriving community in the summer, at least 10,000 people came here for the treatments and so on, in the summer. There was horseback riding and swimming pool, and tennis, and of course we had a theater here too. One time they had open air theater in the park, it was very interesting.

Interviewer: The I Spy project is particularly interested in some of the old buildings in Sharon Springs, one of those buildings is the Trinity Church. What connection did you have with the Trinity Church?
Bowmaker: I was a member of the church.

Interviewer: What was your part in it? What did you do?
Bowmaker: Yes, I attended the Episcopal Church. My whole family did. They were Episcopalians. And there was Sunday School every Sunday preceding church.

Interviewer: Who were the Sunday School teachers?
Bowmaker: We had no Sunday School teachers, the priest was usually our Sunday School teacher.

Interviewer: What did you learn in Sunday School?
Bowmaker: We learned primarily about the Bible. The life of Jesus and etc.

Interviewer: Please describe the interior of the Trinity Episcopal Church when you attended there.
Bowmaker: The roof of the Episcopal Church was designed after the bow of Noah's Ark. It was a very, very, very impressive church. The altar is still beautiful and still remains in the church, they never did get rid of it. The entryway was very, very lovely, it had the baptismal font to the right as you came in the front entrance. The font for Baptismal is never in the front of the church, its always in the rear of the church. And most of the baptismals were done privately. It wasn't done during services.

Interviewer: How many people can be seated in your church?
Bowmaker: I would say anywhere from 150 - 175 people.

Interviewer: Was there an organ in the church?
Bowmaker: Yes, we had a pipe organ.

Interviewer: Where was it located?
Bowmaker: To the front right.

Interviewer: Do you know who played it?
Bowmaker: Yes, Jane Becker

Interviewer: Was there a choir?
Bowmaker: Yes.

Interviewer: What kind of songs did they sing?
Bowmaker: Regular hymnals. There was about ten of us in the choir, most of us were all he same age.

Interviewer: Which was?
Bowmaker: About 16,15, 14.

Interviewer: Who was the choir director?
Bowmaker: The priest was the choir director.

Interviewer: Were there acolytes?
Bowmaker: Yes, I was an acolyte.

Interviewer What did they do?
Bowmaker: Well, you lit the candles on the altar, and you used the processional cross in entrance to the daily service.

Interviewer: Were you an acolyte?
Bowmaker: Yes, I was.

Interviewer: Please describe an ordinary church service.
Bowmaker: There was communion every Sunday, followed by the sermon, the sermon and the regular service was first and then communion service followed.

Interviewer: How was Communion distributed?
Bowmaker: By bread and wine. And you went to the altar and you kneeled in front of the altar and the priest put bread in the palm of your hand and then he also served the wine.

Interviewer: How often was Communion distributed?
Bowmaker: Every Sunday.

Interviewer: Did children take Communion?
Bowmaker: No, you had to be 18 years old to receive Communion.

Interviewer: Was there a First Communion ceremony?
Bowmaker: No.

Interviewer: At what age did children join the church?
Bowmaker: Probably around six or seven.

Interviewer: Did any children go to confirmation classes?
Bowmaker: We had confirmation classes, yes.

Interviewer: Who taught them?
Bowmaker: The priest. You had to go through confirmation, I was baptized in the Episcopal Church and I was confirmed at the Episcopal Church. The bishop of Albany, Bishop Alden did the confirmation.

Interviewer: Was there a special confirmation ceremony?
Bowmaker: Not really. It was very elegant and very simple.

Interviewer: At what time of the day was services held?
Bowmaker: At 10:30 in the morning.

Interviewer: Can you remember some of the priests who served at the Trinity?
Bowmaker: There was Father Armstrong who baptized me, and then there was several after him, and one that I remember distinctly as of late years was Father Jobley and Father Harold Thompson. That was Julia Sampson's husband.

Interviewer: How did you celebrate Easter?
Bowmaker: By a primary Easter service.

Interviewer: What other special days did you celebrate?
Bowmaker: We only celebrated Holy days prior to Easter, and of course Christmas was a big day too.

Interviewer: When and why did the Trinity Church close?
Bowmaker: Because there was no - it was not the lack of finances because the church was very well endowed. But, when you only have seven families left, over the years elderly passed away and there was only seven families left when it closed. All the interior of the church with the exception of the pews, were taken out by the diocese and distributed to other churches.

Interviewer: Where are the church records kept?
Bowmaker: In Albany, at the diocese.

Interviewer: What are your fondest memories of the Trinity?
Bowmaker: The weddings - how elegant they were, they were really very, very elegant. All by candlelight. Beautifully. And of course many funerals were held there, most of my family were buried from the church.

Interviewer: Is there anything about Trinity Episcopal Church which you would like to tell me about and I didn't think to ask you?
Bowmaker: The majority of the windows were given by the Morgan family, most of the windows were Tiffany windows. They were very valuable, and J. P. Morgan's family built the church.

Interviewer: Thank you Mr. Bowmaker for the marvelous experience, I had no clue about anything about that church.
Bowmaker: You see, at one time in Sharon, there was a great deal of wealth. Primarily the wealth belonged to the Episcopal Church. And it's the same thing today. I go to church now quite a bit, not -- because - the service is at 11:15, which is good for me. I go to the Episcopal church in Cherry Valley which is an exceptionally beautiful church. Have you ever been in it? It is an exquisite inside. An exquisite church.

Interviewer: Okay, thank you.
Bowmaker: I was also Janitor of the church. Had to build the fires on Saturday.

Bakkom: How was it heated Mr. Bowmaker?
Bowmaker: Huge stoves! One, two, three. Two in the main church, and one in the vestry.

Interviewer: Can you tell us something about the bell tower?
Bowmaker: The bell tower is still there you know, and the bell tower is rung every Sunday, and upon a persons death and it was told the age of the person, immediately after the ritual of burial.

Interviewer: Will the church ever be opened up again?
Bowmaker: Doubt it. Although there's money, money left to the church in escrow in Albany at the diocese in case another church should ever be built. And the fact's well known, it was horse and buggy days, today with the hill and parking, it would be almost impossible.

Interviewer: Do you know anything about the parsonage?
Bowmaker: The rectory? Yes. Its, delightful. It has a fireplace in the main living room, had a library, a beautiful library and lovely dining room with a fireplace, rather a small kitchen with rather an impressive entrance. And the rector and his wife lived there, naturally, with their children.

Interviewer: Thank you very much.
Bowmaker: Alright, Alright. Is there anything else you want to know?

Interviewer: If there's anything else you would like to tell us?
Bowmaker: I can give you a little "ditty" - during the wedding of Margaret White and Paul Silverman. They forgot to bring Mrs. White to the church.

Interviewer: Then what?
Bowmaker: Well, they had to go after her, when they realized she wasn't there!. (laughter) Right. But, it was a very very very impressive church, and very well cared for during its operation.

Interviewer: Do you know how old it was Mr. Bowmaker?
Bowmaker: I bet ya well, at least 200 years, if not a little bit more, I do remember, I can't remember now. Bein' so old and decrepit. (laughter)

Interviewer: Tours of the church so we can go inside and see it.
Bowmaker: I can't. She wants to know if there will be a tour of the church.
Well that all depends upon the owners today, and besides, I would think it would be very disastrous because it's not like it used to be. They have made more or less a home, rooms out of the main church, you see.

Interviewer: Who does own the church now?
Bowmaker: I don't know who owns the church now, its been sold several times.

Interviewer: What ways would people dress back then?
Bowmaker: Well, when the Empies came to church, they were very dignified people anyway, he would come in a black chesterfield with a black derby, and his sister-in-law had a long hudson seal coat trimmed with mink and they'd walk with canes, and nobody but nobody ever sat in their pews. Most all families had their own pews.

Now, I can name you a number of people that belonged to the church, I'll tell you about this one lady, who was a great aunt of mine. Aunt Annie Swift, she lived below the pavilion and walked every Sunday, when it was decent, from her house, to the church. And she was an elderly lady too. Her daughter-in-law used to own what is now The Cobbler Shop.

Then you had the Harold Townsends, you had the Scofields, you had the Sampsons, you had the Footes, you had Eugene Smith, Jenny Becker, Christine and Duane Neal, Lolita Whinney and Caniff, the Bowmakers, and of course Mr. Muller and his wife when they were here in the summer.

You had some of the Claussen family who attended the church. Clara Foote was a very good patron of the church. Oh, and the Stick family who were druggist's in town here, they were very good members of the church. Smith and Mabel, Arthur Smith and his wife.

Interviewer: You mentioned the Smith's. Which Smiths were they? Were they the ones that built the Smith-Empie swimming pool?
Bowmaker: Yes, they were all members of the church. My uncle was Senior Bowmaker Smith, and Mabel, then there was John Empie, then there was Arthur Smith. At one time owned the swimming pool downtown. It was all interesting. Those days are long gone, not to be returned……. That's it.

I will tell you about the Christmas tree, in the church at Christmas time was a huge cedar tree, huge, and it was, hooked with little candles about so high, spiral and it had little things that would snap on and they would light all those candles, and it would stay lit during the service, it's a wonder it never caught fire. That's it.

Interviewer: There are older people here but you are the oldest one that was born here.
Bowmaker: You see, Edgar, was born in Louisville, Somebody, he was older than I am, he was born out west, I am the only one that was born here in the valley. I was born in 1915. I am the only living survivor that was born here.

 

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