St. Paul's Episcopal Church Put-in-Bay, South Bass Island, Ohio Serving the Bass Islands

Rev. Charles. H. Tucker, served the St Paul's REC, Put-in-Bay, Ohio 1898 to 1906

In 1873 The Rev Tucker had been present at the meeting that established the Reformed Episcopal Church in Chicago on a cold day in December. In the years that followed he traveled with Bishop Cummins and Bishop Cheney who initiated the new denomination. They sought to talk to Episcopal clergy about joining the Reformed Episcopalians. The Rev Tucker also served The Reformed Episcopal Church of the Covenant, Wilmington Deleware. In 1906 he sent a letter of resignation to St Paul's which was later published in the Published in “The Evangelical Episcopalian”, March 1906 – a Monthly publication.

St. Paul's Church, Put-in-Bay, Ohio. Rev. Chas. H. Tucker; Letter of Resignation.

My Very Dear Brethren and Friends of St. Paul's Church, Put-in-Bay, Ohio:

When in 1898 you called me unanimously and heartily to become your rector, at the earnest solicitation of Mr. Jay Cooke I was induced to accept your call and entered upon the Master's work as your spiritual leader on this island. After seven years of most delightful labors in this parish I am made to realize that the time has come for the dissolution of this sweet and sacred relationship. The same conviction of duty that led me to come to you then, now leads me to go to our church at Westchester, Pa. The call to Westchester seems to me even more clearly and unmistakably from God than was His call through you to me in 1898, and there is not one of yon, I feel, who with this conviction on my part, would have me do otherwise than I have concluded to do. I ask you to please accept my resignation as your rector, to take effect on the last Sunday in April, 1906. Now, when about to sever the tender and hallowed ties which have so long bound us together, permit me to say, in all sincerity, that among the happiest years of my life are the years that have been spent with you, and our mutual friends of .Mr. Jay Cooke's family. The beautiful and uninterrupted harmony and unity which have characterized the present pastorate; the readiness and earnestness with which you have always responded to my parochial wishes; the unprecedented prosperity with which we have been blessed, including the large amount of $1,800 the Ladies' Aid Society have realized during these seven years, giving them the ability to paint our church within and without, to repaper it. rebuild the steeple, greatly improve the furnace, to recarpet and recushion the church, to lay extensive stone sidewalks, to convert the basement into an attractive church parlor, are causes for heartfelt gratitude to God, and in our departure to a new field of labor my wife and self will have the sweet memories of our association with all classes among you, young and old, in the house of worship and in the home.

Now, the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the. everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. In best bonds,

CHARLES H. Tucker

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clearly, St Paul’s Parish had been well known as a Reformed Episcopal Church during Mt Tucker’s tenure. Six years later, the congregation joined many others churches who returned to the Episcopal Church.

From an address by Ms Grace Noakes -- Read before the Young People's Conference at Ashtabula, Ohio, February 22, 1907 – published in the April 1907 edition of the “Evangelical Episcopalian”

How many of this conference know that there are any other Reformed Episcopal churches than Christ Church, Chicago; St. Paul's, Put-in-Bay; The Redeemer, Detroit; Trinity. Ashtabula, and the Church of the Epiphany, Cleveland? Or that there are bishops other than Bishop Cheney and Bishop Fallows?