Pastor of the First Congregational Church. Norwood.
REV A. H. PINGREE PASTOR
Installed Last Evening in Norwood —Sermon Delivered by Rev Dr George A. Gordon.
NORWOOD. Nov 13—The ceremony of installing Rev Arthur Howe Pingree as pastor of the First Congregational church in Norwood took place last evening in the presence of a large audience.
The churches invited to participate included all those in the Suffolk south conference, several Boston churches and a number along the North shore, including the Pigeon Cove church at Rockport, of which Rev Mr Pingree has been pastor for several years.
Rev Mr Pingree was graduated from Harvard university in 1890, and from the Hartford theological seminary In After postgraduate work at Andover, and after some time spent in England and Germany studying social problems. Rev Mr Pingree was ordained at Pigeon Cove, where he has spent the last four years in a pastorate which has been remarkably successful.
He comes to the church in Norwood equipped with all the modern improvements and has a work to do in one of Boston’s most flourishing suburbs. Norwood has doubled Its population in tbs last five years.
The Installation services consisted of the reading of the minutes of the council by the scribe, anthems by the quartet. Invocation by Rev Edward C. Ewing. reading of the Scriptures by Rev John I Keedy. sermon by Rev Dr Geo. A. Gordon, prayer by Rev Prof Alexander R Merriam, extending of the right band of fellowship by Rev Edward Hunting Rudd, charge to the pastor by Rev Dr Charles S. Morgan, charge to the people by Rev Ellis Mendell and benediction by the pastor.
PASTOR DROWNS RESCUING GIRLS
A. H, Pingree Loses Life at Pigeon Cove.
Helen Perkins of Norwood Also Victim of Undertow,
Miss Marston Saved by Roger W. Brannon
Special Dispatch to the Globe.
GLOUCESTER, July 19—In trying to save the lives of Misses Helen M. Perkins and Helen Marston of Norwood, Rev Arthur H. Pingree, pastor of the First Congregational Church of that town, lost his life at the easterly end of Coffins (or Wingaersheek) Beach this afternoon. Miss Perkins, who was 15 years old, also was drowned. Miss Marston was saved.
HELEN M. PERKINS.
Norwood Girl Drowned at West Gloucester.
The accident occurred at about 2 o’clock. The girls were of a group of Campfire Girls from Norwood, who are being entertained at Rev Mr Pingree’s Summer camp at Pigeon Cove. They were having an outing at the beach, and a part of the entertainment was instruction in swimming. They were in the water near Bar Rocks, a very unsafe place at times.
According to eye witnesses, Miss Marston got beyond her depth and was being carried out by the undertow. Miss Perkins, hearing her cries, went to her assistance, and also became caught by the undertow. Rev Mr Pingree saw their dilemma from the shore and immediately plunged in to their assistance. When he reached them the affrighted girls immediately gripped him, rendering him helpless.
Roger W. Brannon of Worcester, who was in bathing nearby, hurried out to the struggling group and succeeded in bringing Miss Marston to land after a struggle. Beyond a thorough fright she was uninjured.
Brannon then hurried back to the rescue of the two others. Mr Pingree had sunk, but Brannon found him floating a little below the surface and dragged him ashore, unconscious. Miss Perkins had disappeared.
Meanwhile a crowd from the westerly and easterly banks of Squam River and from the Wingaersheek Beach colony had reached the scene. Dr Shields of Annis-quam was summoned and Steward Jameson of the Annisquam Yacht Club accompanied him here, bringing the clubs pulmotor. Efforts to revive Mr Pingree with the apparatus’ were in vain. Asst City Marshal Mehlman of this city went to the scene in an auto, also taking along a lungmotor.
About 20 minutes after the accident, a man on shore saw part of a bathing costume appearing above the surface of the water. It was the body of Miss Perkins. It was secured and taken to the Strand, where all attempts at resuscitation were useless.
Rev Mr Pingree was very well known here. He came to Pigeon Cove about 15 years ago and was minister of the Congregational Church. He was very active in church work and socially, and was a pioneer in the Boy Scout movement, organizing camping parties of boys while here.
The place where the drowning occurred was the scene of a dual drowning accident last year, Jeanne Armand, a French governess, and her two little charges, Ethel Lingren and Helen Swan, losing their lives in a similar manner.
REV ARTHUR H. PINGREE, Norwood Clergyman. Drowned While Trying to Rescue Two Girls at Pigeon Cove.
The body of Rev Mr. Pingree was taken to the Summer residence of his brother, George W. Merrill. 51 Phillips av, Pigeon Cove. His tragic death has caused general mourning in that section. The flag on the Hotel Edward was placed at half-staff. Last night, in Postoffice sq, Pigeon Cove, Mr Pingree delivered a lecture on “Self Sacrifice,” urging his auditors to work for others. He came to Pigeon Cove six weeks ago.
The body of Miss Perkins was taken to undertaking rooms in this city. It will be taken to her Norwood home tomorrow. Her mother, who was chaperon of the party, witnessed the drowning. The Camp Fire Girls, saddened by the accident, left here for home tonight.
A prayer service for Rev Mr Pingree will be held at the Pigeon Cove chapel at 2 o’clock Wednesday afternoon. The body will then be taken to Norwood, where services will be held at the First Congregational Church at 2 pm
NORWOOD PASTOR 12 YEARS.
Rev Mr Pingree Was Prominent in Civic Affairs and Highly Esteemed by Townspeople.
NORWOOD. July 19—Rev Arthur Howe Pingree had been pastor of the First Congregational Church here for the past 12 years and was 47 years old. Under his charge the church gained rapidly in membership, and the Sunday school is now the largest maintained by any Protestant church in this section. He was highly esteemed by the townspeople in general.
It was largely through his influence that George F. Willett was induced to build the clubhouse of the Norwood Civic Association, of which Rev Mr Pingree was a director for three years. The gymnasium in the clubhouse is named the Pingree Gymnasium.
Rev Mr Pingree had been very prominent in civic affairs. He took a special interest in matters relating to parks and playgrounds. He was a member of the Norwood Board of Trade and was once chairman of its playgrounds committee He was chaplain of Orient Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and also prominent in the recently organized Federation of Thinkers.
He was born in Jamaica Plain, the son of William John and Lucretia Pope (Howe) Pingree, attended the Boston Latin School and was graduated from Harvard in 1890. For three years he was a teacher.
Later he entered the Hartford Theological Seminary and was graduated in 1898. He took a year’s course at Andover Seminary. His first pastorate was at Pigeon Cove. In 1903 he married Juliette Christie Merrill, daughter of the late Moses Merrill, headmaster of the Boston Latin School, and she survives him. He also leaves his mother.
Miss Perkins was the daughter of Mr and Mrs George A. Perkins of 52 Highland av. Mr Perkins is employed at the George H. Morrill printing ink factory here. The girl would have entered the sophomore class in the High School in September.
She was president of the Norconchu Group of Campfire Girls, which was visiting at the Summer home of Rev Mr Pingree at Pigeon Cove.
REV. ARTHUR H. PINGREE was drowned in the Annisquam River at Pigeon Cove on July 19, 1915 while trying to save the life of Miss Helen H. Perkins, a member of his parish.
Rev Arthur Howe Pingree was born on July 3, 1868 in Jamaica Plain, the son of William John and Lucretia Pope Pingree. He attended the Boston Latin School. For three years after graduating from Harvard he was a teacher and then he entered the Hartford theological Seminary and was graduated in 1898. He took a year’s course at Andover Seminary. His first pastorate was at Pigeon Cove in Rockport, Massachusetts.
In 1903 he became pastor of the First Congregational Church in Norwood. Through his influence Mr. George F. Willett was induced to build the clubhouse of the Norwood Civic Association, of which Rev Pingree was a director for three years, the gymnasium in the clubhouse being named the Pingree Gymnasium.
He organized the Boy Scout movement in Norwood and took an especial interest in matters relating to parks and playgrounds. He was a member of the Board of Trade of Norwood and chaplain of Orient Lodge, A. F. & A. M. Under the will of Mrs. Peabody of Boston he was given a substantial bequest a few years ago, and although there was no limitation upon the use of this money, it gave him means with which he carried out some of his projects.
Mr. Pingree, when settled over the little church at Pigeon Cove near Gloucester, Mass., began to interest himself especially in work for the young people of the parish, and when he moved to the larger and more important church in Norwood he continued to devote his principal energies to this line of work. He formed boys’ clubs and girls’ clubs in the parish, and interested himself in the lives of the young people. To his summer home at Pigeon Cove he brought each year parties of boys or girls for an outing by the sea, and this had grown and developed until it had become a regular camp, and a very important feature of his work. It was while entertaining a party of young girls and their mothers in this way that Mr. Pingree lost his life. His church at Norwood had a very large number of working people in its membership, and offered peculiar opportunity for just this son of care and oversight that he was able to give.
At the time of his death a group of girls were visiting, and while they were being instructed in swimming two of them got beyond their depth. Pingree succeeded in saving one and went back to the assistance of Miss Perkins, but both lost their lives. Their bodies were speedily recovered, and the doctors who made the examination announced that Miss Perkins had died from drowning, and Mr. Pingree from heart failure due to shock.
Funeral services were held at his church in Norwood on Thursday, July 22. They were conducted by Rev. George A. Gordon, of the Old South Church. Some evidence of the esteem in which Mr. Pingree was held was shown by the fact that the town closed all of its places of business during the services, and the church was filled with delegations of various municipal and other organizations with which he was actively connected.
Source: Supplementary Report 25th Anniversary Celebration Harvard Class of 1890
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