March 2011 — the 1930s

In the 30’s, the big thing that took place was the gift of the portable building given through the kindness of the Church Extension Committee of Yonkers, NY. This took place at a special corporate meeting on July 5, 1932.

The trustees of the church acknowledged the receipt of the sum of $500.00 as a loan made by the Presbytery of Westchester for the purpose of partially defraying the expenses of the completion of the portable building adjoining  the church building on October 21, 1932. The church agreed to repay the loan in five equal annual installments of $100.00 each, without interest.

In 1938, our “Bicentennial Anniversary” 1738-1938, the October Program included these items:

  • Friday, October 14th Women‟s Missionary Society will entertain the Presbyterial of the 1st District at ten o’clock in the forenoon.
  • Sunday, October 6th Worship at 11:00 AM, Rev. Benjamin Everitt.
  • Sunday, October 23rd Special Service, Sunday School at 10:00 AM and Historical Review 2:30 PM. Enos Lee remarks by former ministers and visiting clergyman.
  • Sunday, October 30th, 11:00 AM Communion Service, Rev. Thomas Straus.

On October 14, 1932 Mrs. Cumming gave a history talk on the Ladies Missionary Society.

“On April 18, 1882 the ladies of this church were called together to listen to Mrs. Stanton Cady of Sing Sing who gave an address on mission work for women, after which a society was formed bearing the name of The Young Ladies Missionary Society of the Yorktown Presbyterian Church. A month after organization, 15 women became members, pledged to give as a membership fee one cent a week. The high mark reached in membership was 41.”

So in 1932 the “Ladies Missionary Society” was going strong. In the last sentence of Mrs. Cummings talk she stated

“Long years ago God said to Moses ‘Speak unto the Children of Israel that they go forward’; can we not today hear him saying, speak unto the women of the Yorktown Presbyterian Church that they go forward, and in so far as that call is heeded can we be at all joyful in the far look ahead to another year of Jubilee.”

Rev. W.J. Cumminings was pastor of Yorktown Presbyterian Church for thirty years, 1876-1906.

The information of the three subjects that I highlighted here will be posted on the history board in the hall to read in full.
Dick Hunter, Church Historian