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Rev. Dr. Thomas Filben, his family and his work
As mentioned in my previous blog posting, there are over 3000 newspaper articles on Rev. Dr. Thomas Filben regarding the Chautauqua Society, the Epworth League as well as on the Methodist services that he gave. The best of these articles can be found at the bottom of this posting, but I would like to begin by writing about Thomas and his early beginnings.
Since 2014, I have been wanting to search out more on Rev. Thomas Filben (from here onward he will be referred as Thomas). During my formative years growing up as a catholic, I met several Irish Priests and Nuns. So many of them have passed away, but if they were still alive, I would love to ask the following: Did all first born sons/daughters of Irish families become nuns/ministers? Was it a calling they personally felt or instead not a choice but a tradition!?
According a voter registration, Thomas was 5’ 7 inches tall with auburn hair, a fair complexion and blue eyes.
Recalling that I had three obituaries on Thomas (from the Sacramento Bee, Santa Cruz Sentinel and the San Francisco Examiner), I went back and began reading these wonderful tributes. As you can see, Thomas was loved by his parishioners wherever he preached. The San Francisco obituary in particular, included a bit of information that I had forgotten to include in my last blog posting!!
After the 1906 earthquake, it was President Theodore Roosevelt who appointed Thomas to assist the Chinese! Our family's connection to American History!
Sometimes the best way to find out more information on an ancestors life is to go through their obituaries. One of the first I found on Rev Thomas mentioned that he was one of the first graduates of the Lincoln Grammar School. Below are two photos of the school before the 1906 earthquake and after.
Thomas was also one of the first graduates of the College of the Pacific now known as University of the Pacific-a private Methodist-affiliated institution.It was founded in Santa Clara, California 1851 by three Methodist Ministers-Edward Bannister, Issac Owen & William Taylor as pictured below.
A BRIEF HISTORY ON THE COLLEGE
In 1924, President Tully C. Knoles moved the College of the Pacific from Santa Clara to Stockton, California.
At that time, the institution represented 17 of the current 18 departments in the College. There was also the Conservatory of Music and departments of education and engineering. It now has one of the top dental schools in the country!
Thomas attended College of the Pacific in San Jose beginning in 1875 to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree. Below is a drawing of how the campus looked like during his time.
I wondered however if I would be able to find a picture or two taken during his college days?! So taking a chance, I wrote to a member of the alumni committee.
Hello, my name is Linda and I am the family ancestry genealogist.
One of my ancestors went to your school when it was at the time known as College of the Pacific. His name was Thomas Henry Filben born 1856.
He went to the school to become an ordained Reverend. I am wondering if you have any information and/or pictures of him. I have several already from the newspapers but it would be great to know if you have any with his graduating class. I estimate he would have gone there in the 1870's. Thank you!
Within two hours I received a reply back from a Ms. Janice Wagner!!
Hi Linda,
The alumni database shows that Rev. Thomas Filben, of 975 Bush Street in San Francisco, received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pacific in 1880 and was ordained to the Methodist clergy within a few years.
He also appears to have served on the University’s Board of Regents for 18 years, ending in 1911.
As all faculty and staff are still working remotely, I’m unable to access any yearbooks to check for photos. You are welcome to reach out again this fall, when we hope to be back on campus.
Good luck in your search!
Janice Wagner
I have written to Janice once more since that time and alas none of their year books show a photo of any kind. Yet should they come across anything, they will be in touch. So dear relatives, it never hurts to reach out schools and even businesses who have archives because you just never know who will have a photo and be willing to search!
Taking it even one step further I went back to ancestry.com and was able to locate the year book that came out during Thomas’s first year. Sadly no pictures but below are a few pages from the year book that I thought were quite interesting.
Below on the left is a list of first year students with Thomas's name below- Notice, that his last name is misspelled and reads Filbin not Filben, but this is certainly him based on the information given to me by a member of the alumni association.
To the right and below are two pages discussing miscellaneous information on degrees, tuition cost and regulations/rules. Don't fall off your chair, when you read how much the tuition cost! Ladies I know some of the stuff you'll read might appear to be a bit on the sexist side but this was after 1875! In fact, five years before, it was estimated that only 7% of the female population went to college
Yes, quite surprising- no drinking in those days~Tish Tosh when we all think about our days in college dorms, lord knows I did drink a few sips of beer from time to time at the dances!
As described in the previous posting, Thomas was first a teacher while living with the Cain family in Mendocino.
Living with the Cain Family was how he met his future wife Ella. Thomas was ordained to the Methodist Clergy a few years later and preached up and down the west coast. I have included the best of news clippings pertaining to his sermons below.
1/1
Thomas and Ella, raised a large family of six children, four girls and two boys. The last two children born into the family were in fact twin girls- Adelaide and Marguerite who outlived their family dying two years apart in 1990 and in 1992. More on the children of Rev Filben to come in a future blog posting.
In addition to both the Methodist and Chautauqua society, Thomas and his family were also involved with the Epworth League.
As described from Wikipedia:
"Founded in 1889, the Epworth League is a Methodist young adult association for people aged 18 to 35. It had its beginning in Cleveland, Ohio, at its Central Methodist Church on May 14 and 15, 1889.
"Before then, as many as five young people's organizations existed in the Methodist Episcopal church, such as the Methodist Alliance, claiming 20,000 members in 1883; the Oxford League, organized at the Methodist Centennial Conference with a large chapter at Central Methodist Church; and the Young People's Christian League]
"After discussions of a merger into a single body, 27 persons gathered at Central Methodist to form the Epworth League and adopted a modified version of the constitution of the Oxford League and the motto of the Young People's Christian League, "Look Up, Lift Up."
"The league, which soon spread worldwide, divided its social service into six departments: Spiritual Life, Social Work, Literary Work, Correspondence, Mercy and Help, and Finance. Local chapters organized Fresh Air Work (day camps for city children), literary events, lecture series, and fellowship gatherings.
"At its conception, the purpose of the League was the promotion of intelligent and vital piety among the young people of the Church:and their theme was to encourage and cultivate Christ-centered character in young adults around the world through community building, missions, and spiritual growth"
Below is one of the many articles on Thomas and the Epworth League.
Weddings Performed By Rev. Filben
Thomas presided over many weddings including those of his own children. Below are some of the clippings I found online.
Other Fun Articles on Thomas Filben and his family.
Thomas outlived his wife and two of their children. How sad it must have been for all his parishioners and all the followers who attended his sermons. His work with both saving the Chinese, and getting young people into the church made Thomas a very special man who sincerely cared for everyone!
A small side note to all of this goes back to my earliest days of research. On the site called, "Newspapers.com. I searched out anything pertaining to the father Thomas Filben, but yet I kept coming across articles on a Rev Filben. Hmmmm, thinking to myself no relation to me but soon enough as I worked on the Filben Tree and soon realized the facial similarities that indeed this was a relation to our family!
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