Comprised of women from many of the parish’s leading families, including several who were wives of vestrymen, the Ladies Protestant Episcopal Aid Society devoted itself to assisting Christ Church Parish overcome the financial difficulties it faced following the Civil War. Holding its first meeting at the rectory on April 13, 1868 (Easter Monday), the group felt it “their duty at this time to aid to the uttermost their beloved church in this emergency…”
Though “overwhelmed with pecuniary losses [and] sorely perplexed how to meet the future,” these determined ladies used fairs and other means to raise critical funds for the church. Much of the money went to repairing and furnishing the rectory. But at various points, the Ladies Aid Society also helped the vestry pay the rector’s salary, and on one occasion they even outfitted him with a horse and carriage. No doubt they were much of the reason Rev. Gorge May observed in May 1869 “a kinder and more loving people I never expect to serve.” |
