The Elim House on Massachusetts Avenue in Boston in 1920 was called "Elim" referring to Exodus 15.27 and Numbers 33.9 in the Bible. I printed this Census out very large so that the names and information are legible on the print since they include Howard Fenderson (my great-great-grandfather) and his wife Mary Fenderson (my great-great-step-grandmother) and since it also includes the leader of the Shiloh Movement in Maine: Frank Weston Sandford. Howard and Mary Fenderson were listed as "lodgers" and as "evangelists". Frank Sandford was listed as "Lodger (and then they crossed out Lodger) and wrote "head"; his occupation was listed as "Man Of God" while his wife, Helen Sandford (who was herself an evangelist and from a very wealthy family) didn't even get an "evangelist" as an occupation and instead she is listed as "none"; I wonder how she would have felt about that title, they didn't even list her as homemaker or mother.
I used one strip of patterened paper (Studio Calico - this one is scrapbooker Celeste Smith's favorite btw) and I kept the embellishments to a minimum and added a cross and a few brads:
I decided to break my rule about only one page per year of the 20th century and I made a follow up page all about Elim, perhaps I'll use this as a 1902, 1919, or 1900 page since the information on the page references those dates, but for now, it is just going on the backside of this census page in The Century Scrapbook:
Text (copied & pasted from a site about Shiloh, Maine):
2-19-1898 Mr. and Mrs. Cummings decide to devote their boarding home at 545 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, to Christian work. While a convention is held at the home for the previous 7 days, Mr. S and the students take the home in faith. The Cummings still have a $150.00 per month mortgage to pay on the home. At some point Mr. S. took on the mortgage payments. Mr. S says in reference to 545, "...He (God) gave us the privilege of beginning the purchase (in advance)...".
545 and 547 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, or "Elim". Actually, only 545 was acquired at this time, 547 being purchased in the summer of 1903.
In the lead article of Everlasting Gospel , Aug 7-31, 1902 Ralph Gleason [having releaved Charles Holland as overseer of work in North American during Mr. Sandford's absence] indicates the following:
"God has given me a royal company of workers to stand by me in the great financial battle at Elim. It is greatly on the heart of Mr. Sandford that this home should be entirely paid for and royally furnished by Oct. 2nd. When we bought this house there was a mortgage on it for about $12,000 which we could not buy until it should expire. As we would not run in debt we would not accept a deed for the property until the mortgage should be paid." The previous issue, however, lists Elim at 545 Massachusetts Ave., Boston as one of the movement's centers.
The mortgage is ultimately paid off by the church on 7-4-1919. p35TF 3-1-98 & p181H & p115TF 7-1&15-1900
On this same date (2-19-1898) Mr. S says, "I feel sure that God wants a temple capable of seating ten thousand people in the city of Boston, and that the great, mighty God who said, "Go to," has started a fund with this end in view." p35 TF 3-1-98. (This temple never materialized.)
2-25-1898 Sandford, in a sermon at Elim in Boston, discusses at great length the appearance of Elijah, and the sharing of his authority during the millenium. p.244H, TF May15,1900-June 1,1900 p.96
Elim (Hebrew:) was one of the places where the Israelites camped following their Exodus from Egypt. It is referenced in Exodus 15.27 and Numbers 33.9 as a place where "there were twelve wells of water, and seventy date palms," and that the Israelites "camped there near the water". From the information that can be gleaned from Exodus 15.23, 16.1 and Numbers 33.9-11, Elim is described as being between Marah and the Wilderness of Sin, near the eastern shore of the Red Sea.
