Excerpt from History of Cleveland Presbyterianism: With Directory of All the Churches, 1896 N the year 1892, the Miles Park Presbyterian Church, feeling I the urgent need of enlarged facilities for Sunday-school work, undertook to erect a new building costing about $8, 500. With no prospect of large subscriptions, and fully sensible of the heavy responsibility of the undertaking, but with faith in its ultimate accomplishment, the work was commenced, and the building dedicated January 15, 1893. About has been raised in small amounts for the payment of this building, no appeal having been made to the sister churches of the city for aid, although several voluntary subscriptions from the brethren of those churches were gratefully received. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This book examines the role Protestants played in the formation of the public culture of antebellum Cleveland, a developing commercial city typical of many cities throughout the Midwest. The author analyzes the extent to which, and the way in which, Protestants were able to exercise power in the city, concluding that they achieved a measure of success during the years 1836 to 1860, after which their power began to erode. As a framework for this analysis, he develops a methodology for measuring the success, or influence, of religion in a particular society. By focusing on the public culture, this book encompasses both the formal and informal uses of power and the public, quasi-public, and private activities of Protestants. This allows for a discussion of a broader spectrum of culture-shaping activity than is usually included in studies of religion and society, including an examination of contests within the Protestant community over identity and commitments and attitudes toward economic development, benevolent work, temperance agitation, antislavery campaigns, participation in civic rituals, and the social bases of Protestant influence.