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ST. FRANCIS EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF Rutherfordton, NC. LEGACY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF FRANKLIN COXE. HISTORY. St. Francis is an Episcopal Church today, but it was originally built by the Coxe family as a private burial chapel. CEMETERY. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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ST. FRANCIS EPISCOPAL CHURCH
OF RUTHERFORDTON, NC
LEGACY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF FRANKLIN COXE
HISTORY
St. Francis is an Episcopal Church today, but it was originally built by the Coxe
family as a private burial chapel.
CEMETERYDirectly behind the
church are the grave sites of the family members dating back to the early 1800’s.
Tombstones date from the earliest members of the family to live in Rutherford County to current times.
Franklin Coxe was born in 1839. He moved here from Pennsylvania to manage the “Speculation Land.”
Franklin married Mary Mills, who was a local girl. Her family built what is now known as
Green River Plantation.
Mary and Frank Coxe’s son, Francis Sidney would be influential in developing the railroads of western North
Carolina and Asheville and the tourism industry.
We are interested in the sisters of Francis Coxe. They were Daisy and Maude.
Now even though the ladies were born in Pennsylvania,they spent most of their lives at Coxe
Plantation in Rutherford County, NC. It is now known as Green River Plantation.
http://www.green-river.net/History.html
Daisy married a Mr. Wright from Pennsylvania and spent much of her
life there.When she became a
widow, however, she returned to North Carolina.
http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/coxef/jpegs/coxe009.jpg
DAISY COXE WRIGHT
MAUDE COXE
Maude never married or left Rutherford County.
SIBLING RIVALRYThe interesting fact
about these two ladies, is that they
could not stand for the other one to outdo
them.They started an ongoing
contest to see who could do the most to
recognize their family!
This is where St. Francis Church comes into the
story.
FUNERARY CHAPELIn the late part of the 19th and the early part of the 20th centuries, the Coxe sisters hired an architect from New
York to design a private chapel for
their family’s funerals.This architect also
designed Grand Central Station in
New York City!http://img.allposters.com/6/LRG/27/2744/O2BTD00Z.jpg
That’s quite a fancy chapel for the small
town of Rutherfordton, North
Carolina!
Notice how the ceiling resembles and
unside-down boat. (Early Christians hid from the Romans in
upturned boats.)
IMPORTS
One imported Italian marble altar rails and an altar wall, hand-carved by master
artisans.
STAINED GLASS
The other ordered a stained glass
window to memorialize an ancestor.
BURIAL CHAPEL
Now, remember, this was originally just
a private family burial chapel.
At the back of the church next to the altar area you can see the chamber
for the coffins and bodies.
ADDITIONSBut once the other sister decided to add another window, then the other sister added
another, etc., they kind of ran out of
room.
So, the church was enlarged. They then
gave it to the Episcopal Diocese.
TIFFANYEventually, just plain
stained glass windows would not
do.
So these two sisters began buying Tiffany
Glass windows.
The three Tiffany windows are the last
religious stained glass the company
made.
TIFFANY CHARACTERISTICS
Tiffany glass is characterized by having
layers of color.
The colors are not as clear, but they have
much more depth and create more realistic
imagery.
They were also quite expensive!
This is the last
religious stained glass
window made by Tiffany Glass
Company.
These windows are very
important historicall
y in the field of
decorative arts.
MANUFACTURE OF STAINED GLASS
Stained glass windows consist of pieces of colored glass which
are held together with channels of lead or
copper.
Typically, the glass pieces represent a
piece of the image, like a jigsaw puzzle.
Ordinarily, each piece is a different color,
unless a large area of one color is present in
the design.
TRADITIONThe art of stained glass
originated during the late Middle Ages and Gothic Period, 1100-
1360 A.D.
Stained glass windows were built into the
large Gothic Cathedrals of Europe, especially in France.
http://www.greatdreams.com/sacred/chartres-windows.jpg
CONTINUUMThis tradition, like so
many others, is continued in
modern culture throughout the United States.
The Coxe sisters glorified their
family’s memory with the use of this
decorative art, also.