Fr. Walton Hall Doggett

by John A.K. Boyd, MD
Version 2/25/2019

By 1907 St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Durango had lost its parish status , and by the end of that year the number of communicants attending services had dwindled to about 35 per week. Despite this, the church continued to elect vestries, celebrate weddings and hold Christmas tree ceremonies. An organ was installed, and a furnace was built. In 1908 the Reverent Walton H. Doggett, a cigar smoking priest who loved to fish, arrived in Durango. He also loved to give sermons. Every Sunday, his morning homily was different from the one he gave on Sunday evening. He often used a large chart to illustrate his messages. Many of his sermons were based on church seasons or specific scriptural texts. Occasionally he presented discourses on “last things”: “The Church Expectant,” “The Divine Purpose for Humanity,” and “The Modern Interpretation of Eternal Punishment.” But his most consistent topics tended to be on practical Christian coping with everyday life: “The Indwelling Christ,” “The Penalty of Hate,” “The Dignity of Work,” “The Value of Man,” “Hurry and Worry” [there should be a balance between procrastination, the thief of time, and hurry, the enemy of reflection], “Religion on a Business Basis,” “Our Duty to Our Neighbor,” and “Present Day Conditions and Their Lessons For Us.” One sermon was titled, “A Vacation and What It Accomplished.” This sermon was given on the Sunday following the Durango Herald’s article of August 29, 1908, which noted that “Mr. Doggett reports a fine vacation, fishing on the Piedra and with Mr. John Pearson in Hermosa Park.”

Fr. Doggett was also, especially for the early Twentieth Century, very inclusive and ecumenical. Written invitations at the bottom of each week’s announcements included: “Everybody cordially invited: a church for all sorts and conditions of men”; “Come and have the burden lifted”; “Welcome all,” “A cordial welcome, “a cordial welcome to all.” On one occasion, the inducement to attend was unabashed: “The service is short; the music is hearty.” It was not unusual for him to invite others to preach at St. Mark’s. He also organized interfaith and allowed inter-social services at the church. Some of the latter included: Ascension-tide services with the Ivanhoe Commandry of the Knights Templar [Masons], and yearly memorial services with the Knights of Pythias, as well as with the Grand Army of the Republic, Catholic Benevolent Legion, Knights of Columbus, Odd Fellows and Elks Club.

On January 31, 1910, the Durango Semi-Weekly Herald carried the full text of Fr. Doggett’s funeral oration for his dear friend, Mr. David E. Morell, the former pastor of the Presbyterian Church in town. The reporter noted that “As we listened [to Fr. Doggett], we wondered how people could hear such words and not make up their minds to be better men and women.” Indeed, he received the closest attention to his remarks.”

Fr. Doggett’s ministry was not limited to Durango while he was at St. Mark’s. Shortly after his arrival in 1908 he began making trips to St. John’s in Silverton, St. Michael’s in Telluride, Porter, a coal mining camp up in Wildcat Canyon, and St. John’s in Farmington (the new stone building for which he helped to fund in 1908). He encouraged interdenominational meetings with local clergy, and in 1908 the Durango Democrat reported that “the ministers of Durango met yesterday morning [November 4] in the study of the Episcopal Church to discuss the feasibility of a ministerial association.” On November 22nd of that same year, the Durango Democrat reported that “There will be a union service at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church - Thursday morning at 10:30” and that the service would involve “the united choirs of the city rendering hearty music” to all who attended. These interdenominational services continued on a regular basis even after Fr. Doggett and his wife left in 1911. In the late summer and early fall of that year, “St. Mark’s held reciprocal union services with the Methodist Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and a group calling themselves ‘Central Christians.’”

One of the first commitments undertaken by Rev. Doggett and the local ministerial association was implementation of the new “social gospel.” At Thanksgiving, contributions were to be brought to the rectory of St. Mark’s at 928 Third Avenue [the little white frame house north of and next to the church today], or to the church on Thursday morning. Fr. Doggett announced that any gift was welcomed: money, groceries, fruit, vegetables, flowers, etc. After the service, all these items were turned over to the Salvation Army, who distributed them to folks who had no home or had little food. Fr. Speaking to his parishioners, Fr. Doggett said to the more fortunate members of the community, “Let us all unite for the true purpose of Thanksgiving Day - giving thanks to God and doing for others.” He had become a leader in promoting genuine spiritual and social harmony between the Durango churches, building on a heritage that went back to Fr. Hoge’s interfaith services for President Garfield in the early 1880s.

During the Doggett era, music and “essay reading” became an important features of St. Mark’s services. Local papers frequently mentioned the organist, Professor York, praising him for his “special musical services” known only for “their excellence.” Congregational singing was supplemented with soloists including, Miss Paul, Miss Senecal, and Mr. Dougald McRee who graced their listeners with popular hymns such as “Abide With Me,” “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” and “Face to Face.” During Lent, Easter, Advent and Christmas members of the church (including those not musically gifted) would read essays appropriate to the season. One year the Advent Essays included: “The Egypt of Abraham,” read by Mrs. Gilbert; “The City of Damascus” by Miss Gwendoline Houk; and “The Cave of Machpelah” by Miss Gladys Barton. Even though they were not allowed in the early Twentieth Century to be clergy or vestry members, women at St. Mark’s played important public roles in the services of the church.

Children’s activities at St. Mark’s were frequently mentioned in the local papers. On the day after Christmas 1908, the Durango Evening Herald reported:
A Christmas tree at St. Mark’s Sunday School made the children of the parish very happy on Christmas eve. A beautiful symetrical [sic] tree, 20 feet high, was resplendent with decorations and gifts at 7:30, when the children marched in singing a Christmas hymn. After a short service with the singing of carols, the rector delivered an address on true Christmas meaning, showing the children, that while giving, obligation and duty (which, he said, sometimes demand a return C.O.D.) prompt us only too often to the giving of Christmas gifts, the only true giving must spring from the love of God through the Christ Child in the heart. Then followed the lighting of the candles on the tree by Ned Haggart and Paul Jakway, after which presents and candy were delivered by the rector., assisted by Mr. Walker, Wood, Downs, McCloskey, and Walter Jakway, with a happy kindly word to each and all. After the benediction the scholars marched out in order to the singing of the hymn, “Shout the Glad Tidings.” A large congregation was present.

Other youth activities were less orthodox. Sometime after construction of the new church in 1892, young boys and girls to figured out that St. Mark’s sandstone block construction made it very easy for them to play games like “follow the leader” in a more exciting way. According to parish oral tradition, eager youths would occasionally follow a dauntless leader up the side of the church to the bell tower. Halloween was particularly prone to pranks involving the building. On one All Saints Day, Fr. Doggett awoke to see a Light Spring Wagon resting triumphantly atop the roof of the church. Such scenarios were reenacted more than once. Since Fr. Doggett lived next door to the church, and since he was a man of gusto, there must have been some interesting and curious encounters between him and the younger members of his flock.

Under Fr. Doggett’s leadership, St. Mark's flourished. Parish status was restored in 1910. Increasing numbers of Durango’s citizens, including delegations of Elks, Woodsmen, and Knights of Pythias, attended funerals and other parish functions, some of which involved “a long line of carriages.” The choir was named the Clover Leaf Club, choir gowns were purchased, the women’s guild was selling cook books, and a new rector was called to succeed Fr. Doggett: Fr. Higby was offered a salary of $1000 per year to serve both St. Mark's in Durango and St. John’s in Farmington. Before Fr. Doggett’s departure, the Vestry Treasurer was authorized to pay for Fr. Doggett’s box of cigars.


Reference:
The Eyes of Faith and the Sounds of Time: St. Mark's Journey with Durango 1880-1921; T. R. Eckenrode; completed by Eckenrode circa 2011; edited and footnoted by Chandler Jackson, 2013; (unpublished)