About 20 years ago, my extended family sold the white wood-frame house where my great-grandparents had lived in Avon Park, a small town in Central Florida. It hadn't been occupied for years; my great-grandmother died in 1974, my great-grandfather well before that, and the house passed to my great uncle and his wife, who lived in Miami. They'd come up now and then for a short stay but I believe it was mostly vacant. Selling it made sense.
Some time afterwards, the Realtor who handled the transaction contacted my mom and said he had four boxes of stuff that had been found in the house, and did we want them? We drove over one afternoon to pick them up.
The boxes contained some moldering Masonic robes belonging to my great-grandfather, as well as some old pictures, bibles, scrapbooks and some other stuff. Most of it was in terrible condition, but inside one of the bibles I found this certificate (above). It was presented to my great uncle for completing a term of what was known as Little's Cross and Crown System.
As I understand it -- and finding information about this online isn't all that easy -- the Cross and Crown System rewarded children for perfect attendance at Sunday School. He was given this certificate in April 1919 -- just months after the end of World War I!
This is the back, which explains (kind of) how the system works. Apparently you could get a certificate for each of three 3-month terms (I suppose they took the summer off?) and at the end of that time, assuming you had perfect attendance, you'd get a bar to hang from your pin.
This is what the pin looked like. This one is in my mom's jewelry box. My grandparents were dedicated church-goers. My mom said that when they drove to Florida from their home in Massachusetts and then Maryland each year to see my great-grandparents -- which took a lot of time in those days before Interstate highways -- they would often stop at some random church along the way to attend Sunday School and church services. I suppose that kind of dedication is how Mom wound up with perfect Sunday School attendance.
Nowadays, lots of these vintage pins are available on sites like eBay and Etsy, and apparently new Cross and Crown pins are still being made. You can even get year bars going all the way up to 90 years! (I wonder how many people have those?) Apparently Cross and Crown isn't just a Presbyterian thing; I see pins for Baptists, Methodists and other denominations as well.
I don't remember a Cross and Crown system in the church we attended when I was a kid. No one ever offered me a certificate or a pin. But we were also more lax about our churchgoing -- we didn't bother when we were on the road traveling, for example.
So, anyway, there's a little slice of family history, complete with tangible evidence of our erstwhile Christianity!
26 comments:
History that would have been so easy to lose
I don’t know if I’ve ever met an admittedly Erstwhile Christian. This is a special. The pin and bars are a treasure. When I saw the title of the post, I assumed you were going to tell about a local pub.
Very interesting. We used to receive something for Sunday School attendance and my mother was a Sunday School teacher for a time, before I was born. I can't remember what we received, perhaps because our attendance was poor and so never received anything.
An interesting post. Did you try on the mouldering masonic robes? I suspect you would have looked very cool in them.
I, too, was raised as a Presbyterian. Not only that, I had the same set of perfect attendance bars for 7 years! Long gone, must have lost when I lost my religion, haha. These days I am a staunch atheist.
I guess it depended on which religion you belonged to. I was Christened in the Lutheran Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul. (in Germany)
I hardly ever went to Sunday School, only a few weeks in late winter and spring, in order to be invited to the Sunday School picnic, but after a couple of years I didn't bother with that anymore. I have a photo somewhere of my siblings and I at Sunday School, my mum took it because she had just made our new dresses or some reason like that. I must have been six, because she left when I was seven.
I know the Catholic kids got certificates and stuff and the Baptist kids too, but I never had anything because of not going.
Forgot to say what a lucky find that was for your family.
When I was a youngster, the baptist church I attended had these pins. We're talking circa 1968 or so,
As a young kid, for some reason we attended Bible School at the Baptist church or our childcare provider. I suspect that my then divorced mom was working on Sundays but never thought to ask her before it was too late.
Anyway, for perfect attendance that summer, my brother and I were each allowed to pick out one record as a prize. My brother chose a record about Sinbad the Sailor and I chose one about Kojak, the detective. We used to listen to those records over and over. The one commonality is that they were full of violence which always seemed odd since Sunday School usually forbids violence.
Interesting. Did you find any good photographs of ancestors?
I never heard of attendance rewards for church. Since I was in parochial school, everyday was religious teaching along with the secular stuff, there was no Sunday school. But there was a children's afternoon church service, bang in the middle of Sunday afternoon, groan.
I went to Catholic grammar school, high school, and college! But now I can't stand any of it. Religion doesn't make sense to me anymore and all of the teachings I learned seem like fairy tales and folklore.
Never heard of this! Such a fuss made over attendance. Religion is just weird.
I think I was inside a church and a synagogue once or twice in my life. It is so interesting to think of someone going every week. I like what Ms Moon wrote, 'Religion is just weird." Amen.
The certificates tell of a system that had a rigorous system to keep members in the church.
This is something I had not heard of before. I don't think there was anything equivalent in the Catholic church. Going to a Catholic school, I had to go to church every day before class started. My family went about once a month on Sundays. One memory of those daily trips sticks in my mind. The church was across the street from the school and the street was paved with bricks. I have a distinct memory of the sound of all those shoes shuffling across those bricks when 25 or so kids crossed the street.
as swag goes that pin is pretty neat! Catholics have outdone everyone else in that department I do believe. Love catholic swag! Crazy saints , and blue virgins- delightful baby christ objects- Endless!
There were a number of years my kids had perfect Sunday School attendance, but there were no rewards for it. Technically, the reward should go to the mom or dad who got them there each week!
I'm trying to imagine wearing a pin with dozens of bars hanging from it!! If you whipped around too quickly, it could swing out and injure someone! 😂
My reaction is the same as Red's! I am a BIT surprised because I'd expect this of the Catholic or Anglican churches but not Presbyterianism ... although I guess the former used guilt, not rewards, to ensure future church adherents.
I received 0 attendance awards for church! My dad would have but not my mom.
Those pins really bring back memories. We had them in our Lutheran church in the 60s. I never got any because I didn't have perfect attendance, even though my father was the pastor. As a child I thought they looked really cool.
The little medals are nice looking. To me they represent a lot of miserable Sundays.
I love family history and discovering something like this is really wonderful. It helps tell the story of people whose lives we knew -- and never really knew. I never thought of looking for such a thing online!
GZ: It's true. If we hadn't gone back for the box that certificate would be long gone, as well as my great-aunt's travel scrapbook (which I also have).
Mitchell: There are a lot of erstwhile Christians about, but maybe they don't admit it!
Andrew: Weirdly, I don't remember any kind of reward at our church for Sunday School attendance, but I suppose there must have been something.
YP: No way! Too moldy! We eventually threw them out.
Wilma: I'm impressed you had such good attendance!
River: I imagine the Lutheran churches (at least in America) also use this system. It seems spread across Protestant denominations.
Dov: OK, that would make sense. I've seen Baptist varieties online!
Ed: That IS funny. You'd think they'd have given you Christian-themed records! (They probably would now.) I also went to Vacation Bible School at the Baptist church of my child-minder, and it freaked me out a little, because it was a more strident version of Christianity than we practiced at the Presbyterian church.
Colette: There were some, yes, but mostly pictures we already had, and many of them weren't in great shape.
Boud: That seems cruel -- Sunday School EVERY DAY and a church service on a weekend afternoon!
Ellen D: Well, they are fairy tales and folklore. But they're not valueless. I think church taught me a lot about compassion and thinking of others -- lessons that seem sorely lacking these days.
Ms Moon: It IS kind of weird! LOL! I think it's mostly social/cultural "glue" and not about literally believing all the mythology.
Robin: We went almost every Sunday, especially when we were little.
Red: Well, I don't know how rigorous it was, but they were definitely trying to incentivize attendance.
Sharon: How funny that the sound of those footsteps stands out in your memory!
Linda Sue: Yeah, Presbyterians are not big on all the statuary and figurines and stuff. That's what John Calvin was trying to get us away from!
Kelly: Ha! It DOES seem like an awkward thing to wear. And yes, the parents definitely deserve some recognition!
Jenny-O: Yeah, Catholicism seems more about the "stick" than the "carrot."
Margaret: Interesting that your dad's attendance was better than your mom's. It seems like in many families (certainly in mine) it's the other way around!
Susan: Oh, there you go. I was just telling River (above) that I imagine these pins were used in Lutheran churches as well, and you've confirmed it!
Allison: Ha! Definitely! I didn't mind Sunday School so much, but sitting through church services and sermons felt like a drag.
Jeanie: (Your comment was blocked by the spam filter, which is why I didn't respond earlier!) It's amazing what you can find online. I am continually astonished by all the information out there.
I know people are indoctrinated as children and pass it on to their children. My parents took us to church (my mother's insistence as my father was ambivalent) but I remember at a very early age taking issue with some of the beliefs which only grew as I grew older. Like newborn babies being sinners, like the whole notion of hell that a supposedly loving god sends you to for eternity, or that all sin is the world was the fault of the first woman. I was signed up for confirmation classes (so as to be able to take communion) but didn't do any of the work and there was an emergency meeting with the pastor about my not passing the class. I had to write an outline of the life of Jesus to make up for it. So yeah, I got confirmed but shortly after that was the big scandal and my mother was to embarrassed to show her face in church so it was up to my father to take us. That lasted one time. The next Sunday us three kids talked him into going out to breakfast instead and that was the last time we went to church. Well, except for Christmas Eve midnight service (which started about 10 PM I think). That lasted til I was 17 when I refused to kneel for prayer. We were late and so were sitting in the last row of the balcony where NO ONE could see us. My mother tried to force me to kneel, I resisted, then she made the whole family get up in the middle of the service and leave. We never went back.
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