Plymouth Magazine-Spring24-FINAL - Flipbook - Page 13
Plymouth’s archive room when Allie
Shambaugh-Miller began work in 2022.
unfolded before me. Nearly all of the
information in this article was gleaned
from those items in the Stoddard Lane
Papers held at Plymouth Church.
Born in Connecticut in 1887, Lane spent
the first 30 years of his life studying and
preaching in New England. His early
ministry was interrupted by the advent
of the first World War, after which he
enlisted in the army ambulance corps in
1917. Nearly a decade older than most
men in his unit, Lane served with the
Black Cats of Amherst in France until
1919. Lane kept a detailed wartime diary
during his service and forever credited
those two years as the foundation for his
pacifist ideology.
In one stirring entry he wrote: “His right
arm had been cut completely off above
the elbow… There was nothing I could do
but to hold his hand… The ride seemed
cruelly endless. He died 15 minutes after
arriving – Another life sacrificed to the
hell of war… I shall never forget that 20
kilo ride.”
Even before his military service, Lane
was acquainted with death. His first
wife, Anna Hepburn, died during
childbirth in 1916. In 1920, he remarried
Estella Hitchcock, a woman who
became indispensable to Plymouth as a
community leader and educator.
Lane’s ministry at the First Congregational
Church in Manchester, New Hampshire
marked the beginning of his socially and
R to L: Speakers C. A. Leland, S. F. MeGinn, and Rev. Stoddard Lane at the 1940 “kick-off” dinner for the
annual Des Moines Commuity Chest drive.
politically conscious style. Lane spoke
often about labor rights which was a
major concern for the mining town. His
ministry drew so much attention that a
New Hampshire senator intervened to
keep newspaper editor and Navy Secretary
William Knox from printing an article
criticizing Lane for his political activism.
Halfway across the country in April of
1929, Burtis MacHatton resigned as the
Senior Minister of Plymouth Church.
The Minister Search Committee invited
Lane to visit the church and speak to the
Congregation in July, and they ultimately
chose to extend a call to him out of the
pool of 25 candidates. Lane accepted
and was installed on May 13, 1930. Des
Moines intrigued Lane, referencing its
“strategic location with a large modern
plant recently completed, and with an
unusual opportunity for growth and
wide-spread Christian service.”
Moines Tribune writer claimed that Lane
was “the handsomest man ever to have a
Des Moines pulpit in my lifetime.”
Much of what is known about Lane’s
ministry comes from newspaper articles
that cover his public appearances and
church programming. His frequent
appearance reveals his position not just as
an important figure in Christian spheres
but as a community leader. Through these
articles, church bulletins, correspondence,
and other documents in the collection I
peered into the world that Lane inhabited
and found a world not dissimilar from
ours: economic inequality, rising tides
of nationalism, racial and religious
discrimination, violent conflict, and
questions about the place of religion in
the social-political realm.
Upon his arrival to the Midwest, a profile
in the Des Moines Register described
Lane as “a tall man with a big frame,
slightly graying hair [and a] smile that
welcomes everyone.”
Lane held the unwavering assertion that
the place of religion was at the center of
social conflict. He asserted that while faith
can bloom in any setting, there are real
social conditions that foster faith such
as peace, prosperity, and equality. He
believed it was the duty of Christians to
make it easier for the world to have faith.
It wasn’t the last time Lane would be
mentioned in the press, both with
admiration and criticism. Park E.
Smith wrote to the Register in 1939
characterizing Lane as the “half-baked
communist” and the newspaper’s “protégé”
along with other “radical troublemakers.”
In a more flattering portrait, one Des
A Register article covering Lane’s first
sermon at Plymouth describes how he
set the tone for his ministry: “The pastor
scored today’s discussion of modernism,
of creeds…and said Christ would make no
such questionings if he visited the world
today. Instead, he declared the Savior
would ask, ‘How is your life lived?’…
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