Church of Our Father – Meeting Minutes, Jul 9, 1894 (Resolutions for Kennedy/Dixon)

July 9, 1894

Adjourned meeting of Board of Trustees Church of Our Father.

Present: Crafts, Currier, Behre, Harding, Lederle, McCutcheon and Rev. Cole.

Minutes of the last meeting read and approved.

Special committee on resolutions reported as follows and on motion the report was adopted.

Resolution for Mrs. Kennedy

Whereas, the Board of Trustees of the Church of Our Father learned with sorrow of the death of Mrs. Theo. H. Kennedy. Be it,

Resolved, that we tender to our esteemed fellow member Theo. H. Kennedy, Esq. and the members of his family our sincere sympathy in this season of loss and loneliness.  To make it less hard for you to bear we join your sorrow with our sorrow and offer to you this tribute to her memory. And may the great Phyician of all our sorrows and pain lighten your burden and distress through the plenteousness of his Grace.

Resolution for Mr. Dixon

A native of Newtonards, Ireland, one of the earliest members (Archivist Note: Dixon was the 28th signer of  the church membership book) of the Church of Our Father and served years its faithful Treasurer, departed this life May 16, 1894 aged 46 years.  Therefore be it,

Resolved, that in his removal the Church has sustained a great loss as he was indefatigable in his work for its good and rebuilding.  As its financial officer he was most conscientious and the good credit of the church is largely due to his devotion to tis business affairs.

Resolved, that the community at large has lost an honorable citizen and Christian gentleman.  In his friendship also loyal and in business strictly just.

Resolved, that we tender to his family our heartfelt sympathy and would remind them of the unfaltering trust which sustained them in his hours of trial and which must be a source of joy to them in this time of mourning.

Resolved, that these resolutions be spread upon the records of the Church and a copy sent to the family of our deceased brother.

A bill from H.M. Currier for service in the choir amount $40.00 received and ordered paid.

Adjourned,

H.M. Currier, Clerk

Archivist Note: A newspaper article was also include in the physical archive.

May 31, 1894

John Y. Dixon

In the death of John Y. Dixon of Altanta, Ga., our church has suffered an irreparable loss. Born in Newtonards, Ireland, forty six years ago, he has in a few years completed a full life.  As son and brother, husband and father, he has shown the domestic virtues at their best.  As friend, he was ever faithful; witty in conversation, wise in counsel, quickly angry in a just cause, yet sinning not with tongue or pen.

A prudent man, yet wisely daring; exact as a clock, yet having nothing mechanical in his prompt keeping of his appointments and nice accounting of his stewardship. “Not slothful in business serving the Lord.”

He was one of the early members of the Church of Our Father in Atlanta, and his services in its behalf were unbroken to the end of his life. As trustee and treasurer, he was both purse and staff to our first mission, and, growing with the growth of the cause, he came at length to be the presiding officer of the Southern Conference.

There he displayed on a wider field the same official virtues which he had shown in his church. Dignity, propriety, earnestness, marked his too short conduct of the conference.  As early friend and business manager of the Southern Unitarian, his thoroughness in matters of detail and his intelligent understanding both of the temporal needs and spiritual interests of that paper made his a yoke-fellow who could always be relied upon to do his share of the pulling.  How do we work without him we do not know. But there must be compensations for losses so real.  When we see them, we shall be grateful.  Now we can only be resigned.

Our friend was not a rugged man. On the contrary, his slender frame seems apprehensive of early death.  But his abundant store of nervous energy seemed ably to make up for other physical disabilities. When at length, a mortal malady attacked him, it found him immortal in spirit.

He neither murmured nor feared.

No self-delusion blinded him to the grave nature of his disease.  For others’s sake he bore the weariness of a long journey to consult the most skillful physicians. “I am not expecting relief,” he said, “but I wish to satisfy my friends and to leave no means of recovery untried.”

Faithful to the duties of his life, he was ready for the larger ministries of the life to come. He waited as patiently as he had labored, and died as bravely and peacefully as he had lived.  In life and death he found the belief and faith or our all-trusting Church sufficient for him.

G.L.C.

Archivist Note: Assuming G.L.C. is George Leonard Chaney

Physical Archive: UUCA Box: 26 Folder: 02 Book: 02 Pages: 114 – 115
Citation: Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta Records, RG 026, Archives and Manuscripts Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University, Atlanta GA