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Davenport
The Unitarian Church of Davenport
In the 1850s, religious liberals and transplanted New Englanders supported a “free thought society” in Davenport, while Universalist missions appeared in Davenport and across the Mississippi River in Moline, Illinois. These fledgling groups disappeared during the Civil War, even though the interest remained. In 1866, Carleton Staples appeared as a Unitarian missionary and within two years a congregation was formed in Davenport. Rev. Nathaniel Seaver was called in 1868, and he ministered to the needs of Unitarians in Iowa and western Illinois. The bi-state nature of support persisted, and under the dynamic leadership of Rev. Arthur M. Judy, the church became influential in the community.
Rev. Judy (1854–1922) transformed his immigrant heritage into American acceptance. The family name had been changed from its original Swiss spelling of “Tschudy” to a more Americanized version of “Judy.” He studied under Horace Mann while an undergraduate at Antioch College, and received a Bachelor of Systematic Theology degree from Harvard in 1881. For more than twenty-five years he created a reputation as a “scholar expositor” of New England valued for the citizens of Davenport and Moline in the Middle West. He was known throughout the region because of his theological positions at the Western Unitarian Conference meetings in Chicago in 1985: he strongly urged that admission to the church organization be based upon ethical considerations, not strictly theological ones. In his sermons, Judy “preached a faith which the best reasoning of our age will more and more substantiate.” (Davenport Democrat, 30 September 1901). Under his leadership, the church congregation built a permanent meetinghouse on the Davenport bluffs, Unity Hall (1897). G. A. Hanssen was the architect who designed this functional building which directed “the mind back through the traditions of the liberal church in sturdy New England.”
During his ministry, many traditions were devised for the growing metropolitan area. The Moline Church continued and grew large enough to have their own minister, the first woman Unitarian minister in the district; fairs were held as fund raisers for many purposes; The Sunday Evening Guild provided adult education courses for the community at large; the Harmonie Society encouraged musical activities. Three writers were members of the congregation during this period: Alice French, local colorist; Arthur Davison Ficke, Harvard poet; and Henry Downer, regional historian.
In the twentieth century, the congregation has remained a microcosm of national trends and currents of thought. During World War I, ultra-Americanists caused many members to resign and led to the resignation of the minister. By the time of the church’s centennial celebration in 1968, activists for social change (anti-war and civil rights) changed the consensus within the congregation. While F. D. R. was President, Rev. Charles E. Snyder resumed the leadership role of Judy, participating in many community organizations and pursuing his interest in local history. In the late 1950s when membership stood at 170, a new church was built in a cornfield along US 6, the old Grand Army of the Republic highway, three miles north of Unity Hall. Services were held in Temple Emanuel, which along with Edwards Congregational Church held an annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. Non-members joined with the church sponsored plays, public debates, and the Hilltop Bazaar. By the early 1980s, the membership has risen by 47% to 250 members. A missionary effort in Clinton continued during these decades as part of the congregational responsibility for extending the liberal faith.