Cooperative Recreation Service’s Customers

Topic: CRS Versions
Lynn Rohrbough’s Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS) published songs requested by his customers.  He set an aesthetic that included a disdain for popular music heard on radio.  Within that framework, his customers refined the repertoire with their selections and contributions.  Some, like Edward Schlingman, remained customers for years.  A few, like Olcutt Sanders, became close advisors.

The Michigan Methodist church was more typical of the one-time customer who by sheer numbers had a great influences on his workshop.  While Schlingman gave him more money for larger print runs, the sheer quantity of the small orders kept his employees busy.  The work was the same, whether the output was a large number of songbooks, or a small one.

Below are profiles of the men mentioned in the posts for 13 February 2022, 20 February 2022, and 27 February 2022 who ordered songbooks when the business was just beginning in the 1940s.

Notes on Performers
The Evangelical and Reformed Church resulted from a 1934 merger of what began as the Calvinists’ German Reformed Church of Pennsylvania and the Lutherans’ German Evangelical Church Association centered in Missouri.  In 1957, it joined with Congregational Churches, descended from Massachusetts Calvinists, into the United Church of Christ. [1]
 

Edward Louis Schlingman was part of the Reformed tradition.  He did his undergraduate work at the German Reformed college in Tiffin, Ohio.  Schlingman’s primary activity at Heidelberg was the YMCA.  It organized most of the students’ social parties. [2]  He was part of a subgroup that sent teams to local churches on weekend.  On Fridays, the men showed films on Saturday afternoons they entertained children, then managed social affairs for the youth in the evenings.  On Sunday mornings, they conducted services and, later in the day, presented musical programs. [3]

When Schlingman was a sophomore in the 1930–1931 school year, Rohrbough had just returned to Delaware, Ohio, but had not yet discovered folk music.  The Y may have used some of the materials he prepared in his Handy collections, or may have used some prepared by the YM and YWCA’s.

After graduation, Schlingman earned his divinity degree from Lancaster Theological Seminary in 1935.  He was 25 years old. [4]  This means he was in school when the first denominational merger occurred.  In the nineteenth century, Lancaster was a leader in rejecting revivals that followed Cane Ridge for an emphasis on the church as a community. [5]

Following graduation, Schlingman was assigned to small churches in eastern Bucks County, Pennsylvania. [6]  By the time he published Songs of Many Nations, he was in Boyertown.  When he spoke at the German Reformed Church’s Ursinus College in 1942, the school paper said he was “well known to many students as a recreation leader in summer camps and conferences.” [7]

By 1950, Schlingman was the recreation specialist for the denomination’s general staff in Philadelphia. [8]  He remained in this position after the merger into UCC. [9]  He died in 1980. [10]  At his funeral, the congregation sang “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” [11] while the four presiding pastors sang “For All the Saints.” [12]

The editor for the Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) edition of Joyful Singing probably was Elvin Oscar Harbin, who still was the recreation specialist for the Youth Department of the church’s General Board of Education in 1944. [13]  He was from Louisville, Kentucky, and had worked for the YMCA near Memphis, Tennessee, in World War I. [14]  His earlier associations with Rohrbough at recreation workshops are discussed in the posts for 9 February 2020, 12 September 2021, 26 September 2021, 3 October 2021, and 10 October 2021.

Michigan had two conferences in 1941, one called the Michigan Conference with its headquarters at Albion College, and the other called the Detroit Conference with offices in Flint. [15]  Frederick Gifford Poole was in charge of education for both groups. [16]  In 1941, the western conference decided it was time to appoint its own education director, and hired Wayne Harrison Fleenor. [17]

Melody in Michigan says it was published for the “Detroit Area of the Methodist Youth Fellowship.” [18]  It may have been edited or overseen by Paul Franklin Abery, who was in charge of that conference’s programs for youth. [19]  However, the copy I have was distributed by both conferences.

Albery was raised in Iowa [20] and earned his divinity degree from Boston University in 1941. [21]  He served in small town churches, while also running institutes for the Detroit conference, [22] until he transferred to the Michigan conference in 1946.  He retired in 1981, and died in 2006. [23]  While he was assigned to Saint Joseph, he directed music one night at the Crystal Springs annual assembly. [24]

The other men responsible for Melody in Michigan were administrators who probably were responsible for distributing songbooks and paying invoices.  Thus, while they were not the creators, they were the ones who had to be satisfied if the creators were to keep their positions.  Poole was raised in Canada [25] and worked with the YMCA. [26]

Fleenor was from Michigan’s thumb area [27] and graduated from Albion College in 1924. [28]  He probably arrived at Garrett Seminary in Chicago the same year as Rohrbough, [29] but it is unlikely they shared any classes, since Rohrbough already had done work at Boston University. [30]  However, Fleenor may have been aware of Rohrbough’s promotion of recreation.  In 1927, he was the recreation leader at the Crystal Springs camp meeting. That may simply mean he was responsible for equipment like rowboats and volleyballs, or something more. [31]

Photographs of Poole and Fleenor appear in MacNaughton’s history, which The Michigan Area Conference has put on the internet. [32]  Sanders is discussed in the post for 13 February 2022.

Graphics
1.  Edward Louis Schlingman.  Copy provided by Alison Mallin, Archives Assistant with Lancaster Seminary, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

2.  E. O. Harbin at Northland Recreation Laboratory.  In Bob Nolte.      .  1984.  Copy provided by Heidi Ryan, 21 June 2016.

End Notes
1.  “Evangelical and Reformed Church.”  Wikipedia website.  UCC is not the same as the Churches of Christ.  It also is not related to the Prussian Union of Calvinist and Lutheran churches in Germany.

2.  “Y. M. C. A.”  158 in The Aurora, Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio, yearbook for 1932.  Edited by Howard Baker.

3.  “Gospel Teams.”  160 in The Aurora.

4.  Program for “Memorial Service for Dr. Edward L. Schlingman.”  Shenkel United Church of Christ, North Coventry, Pennsylvania, 3 August 1980.  Copy provided by Alison Mallin, Archives Assistant with Lancaster Seminary, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

5.  “Evangelical and Reformed Church.”  Wikipedia website.

6.  General Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church.  1938 Year Book & Almanac of the Evangelical and Reformed Church.  Philadelphia: The Board of Christian Education, 1938.

7.  “Rev. Schlingman to Speak at Brotherhood Meeting.”  The Ursinus Weekly, Ursinus College, 41(11):1:14 December 1942.

8.  “St. Pauls To Be Host at Curriculum Institute.”  The Kutztown Patriot, Kutztown, Pennsylvania, 75(48):6:6 April 1950.

9.  “Training Our Leaders.”  The Christian Sun, Southern Convention of Congregational Christian Churches, Elon College, 116:14:28 January 1964.

10.  Schlingman memorial service.
11.  Schlingman memorial service.

Henry van Dyke.  “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.”  The Poems of Henry van Dyke.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1911.  Written to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” Symphony No. 9, movement 4.  Adapted by Edward Hodges. [32]

12.  William H. Howe.  “For All the Saints.”  Salisbury Hymn-Book, edited by Horatio Nelson.  Salisbury, UK: Brown and Company, 1858.  Set to Ralph Vaughan Williams. “Sine Nomine.”  English Hymnal, edited by Percy Dearmer.  London: Oxford University Press, 1906. [33]

13.  Larry Eisenberg.  “It’s Me, O Lord.”  Tulsa, Oklahoma: Fun Books, 1992.  54.
14.  Camp Songs, Folk Songs.  60.

15.  A. Douglas MacNaughton.  The Methodist Church in Michigan: The Twentieth Century.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1976.  xx.

17.  Keith J. Fennimore.  The Albion College Sesquicentennial History: 1835-1985.  Albion, Michigan: Albion College, 1985.  536.

18.  Melody in Michigan.  1.

19.  MacNaughton.  236.  Holcomb says the Methodist book was edited by Larry Eisenberg, [34] but I suspect he or Rohrbough confused this with the songbook Eisenberg edited for the Methodist Church in 1945 that is discussed in the post for 9 February 2020.  Eisenberg was then a student at Garrett Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.  His first job was in Ames, Iowa.  [35]

20.  “Rev. Paul F. Albery.”  Grand Rapids Press, Grand Rapids Michigan, 26 November 2006.

21.  “Gagetown News.”  Cass City Chronicle, Cass City, Michigan, 27 June 1941.
22.  MacNaughton.  226.

23.  “Paul Albery.”  United Methodist Church, Michigan Area website, 16 November 2006.

24.  “Crystal Springs Assembly Program.”  The Courier-Northerner, Paw Paw, Michigan, 21 July 1950.  5.  Crystal Springs was established as a privately owned camp meeting ground in Cass County, Michigan, in 1860. [36]  By 1927, it ran for ten days with speeches every night.  Richard A. Dawson came from Evanston, Illinois, to lead the singing, and his wife played the piano. [37]

25.  “Frederick Gifford Poole.”  Mormon’s FamilySearch website.
26.  MacNaughton.  229.

27.  “Wayne Harrison Fleenor.”  Mormon’s FamilySearch website.  He was born in Cass City in Tuscola County.  I should say, as a disclaimer, his wife, Ethel Helrigel Fleenor, was the guidance counselor and debate coach in my high school.

28.  “Fleenor Announces Retirement.”  Albion Pleiad, Albion College, 26 May 1967.  4.

29.  See the post for 12 September 2021.
30.  See the post for 19 September 2021.

31.  “M. E. Campmeeting Now in Full Swing.”  Coloma Courier, Coloma, Michigan, 29 January 1927.  1.

31.  MacNaughton.  Poole’s photograph is on page 14; Fleenor’s is on 223.

32.  “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.”  464 in The Presbyterian Hymnal Companion, edited by LindaJo H. McKim.  Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993.

33.  “For All the Saints.”  676–677 in Psalter Hymnal Handbook, edited by Emily R, Brink and Bert Polman.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: CRC Publications, 1998.  389.  They give the hymnal as Earl Nelson’s Hymns for Saint’s Days.

34.  Larry Nial Holcomb.  “A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Michigan, 1972.  104.

35.  Eisenberg.  54–55.
36.  “Crystal Springs Decommissioning.”  UM Camping website.

37.  Coloma Courier.  Evanston was the home of Garrett seminary, so Albery may have been one of Dawson’s theology students.  Dawson later served a year in Stevensville. Michigan. [38]

38.  “One Hundred Fifty Years of Stevensville United Methodist Church (continued).”  Church newsletter, undated but covers events planned for May 2017.  8.