Church Continues its Growth and Expansion

After Father Randall left us in 1912, another excellent man, the Reverend
William
H. Haupt came here from Burlington, Kansas to be our rector. Due to a childhood
accident, he spent his entire life on crutches. He had a fine singing voice, directed the choir himself, and founded the Alter Guild in 1914. He left us in
1915 to do missionary work in Wyoming where he founded several missions around
the Yellowstone Park area. He then took a position as rector at Grace Church in Philadelphia, where he passed away during the Easter Communion Service in
1928. He is buried here in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Also, in 1914, St. Mary's Guild was started, and it remained an active part of
our church until it was dissolved into the Women of Epiphany Auxiliary in 1971.
Fr. Haupt was followed by Father Mack on March 1, 1915. Fr. Mack was especially active in holding services -- the trouble is, often times no one would
attend; no one at all.

By this point, there was a regular choir of seventeen people and he instituted a later afternoon/early evening program on an occassional basis
called Choral Evensong. He always conducted three services daily during
the Lenten season. He also had a service called "Harvest Festival" with a
Reverend Fenn from Wichita as the guest preacher. But, often as not, few or no people would come to church for the 7:30 AM mass. People would attend for the service in the later morning, and also in the evening however. Bishop Millspaugh died November 21, 1916 and Fr. Mack held a special Eucharist for him on
November 26. The newly elected Bishop, The Right Reverend James Wise made his
first visit here on April 29, 1917.

In the spring that same year, 1917, the church had purchased, for $2000, a
small cottage and lot north of the church (approximatly 8th and Chestnut) to be
used for the Sunday School and other group meetings. Just before Fr. Mack left,
a Girl's Friendly Society was organized, with Mrs. Houston (see earlier message about the Epiphany Sunday School) sponsoring it. Girl's Friendly
had several projects, including much work for the Red Cross, and they also
furnished and maintained a room at West Side County Hospital which we now know as Mercy Hospital.

Those early days at Epiphany were very busy, active times. After the vist by Bishop Wise on April 29, 1917, Fr. Mack tendered his resignation effective July 1, 1917.
We did not have a priest until April, 1918 -- about nine months later -- when Reverend William E. Warren was appointed by the vestry. He was here about three years and the last recorded activity in his register was the baptism of L.C. Inge on June 28, 1921.

Warren stayed here from 1918 until 1922, when Reverend Francis B. Shaner took over on October 1, 1922.
But time was starting to run out for the little church building. After 54 years, the building had seen better times; was much to small for the number of congregants regularly worshipping, had leaks in the roof, and just overall was not very satisfactory for our needs. The vestry sold the building to the D.A.R. (Daughters of American Revolution) who used it for a few more years and moved it over to the corner of Park Boulevard (formerly Third Street) and Locust. D.A.R. eventually sold it to the Girl Scouts who now (as of 2006) use it now and then. The building is protected from being torn down under federal law and the Historic Preservation Act. Our vestry sold the land under the building for five thousand dollars and started planning a new home.

PAT