ed to succeed J. W. Scott, served two years and was
appointed for the third when he suddenly passed away to the intense
sorrow of his congregation. Dr. Isaac N. Ross began in 1909 an
incumbency of five years.

In 1914 Dr. C. Harold Stepteau succeeded Dr. Ross and remained for
three years. Dr. Stepteau was succeeded in 1917 by Rev. Carlton M.
Tanner. He at once bent his efforts toward the reduction of the debt
which had handicapped the progress of the church for a generation.
Such was his success that within two years he accomplished what had
been regarded as an impossible task. The event was made an occasion
for great rejoicing, culminating in a thanksgiving service Monday
evening, January 27, 1919, which included among other features an
address by the pastor, Dr. Tanner, one by the presiding Bishop, John
Albert Johnson, and an original poem by Dr. Robert E. Ford. The most
spectacular number was the burning of the fourteen thousand dollar
mortgage deed in the presence of the vast audience, the taper being
applied by a committee of elderly members who had been connected with
the church for a score or more of years.

[15] One has said that not long thereafter they employed as temporary
pastor the Rev. Mr. Nickens, whose coming being unacceptable to some
members of the congregation, caused about thirty to secede, organizing
a church by themselves. These seceding members were expelled and, as
the church property was deeded to the members of the church, there
ensued a controversy as to the title of the church, which for a number
of years was in litigation between the mother church and her
offspring. See the _Special Report of the United States Commissioner
of Education on the Schools of D. C._, 311.

[16] During his school days Rev. Harvey Johnson of Baltimore was a
follower of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church.

[17] This account was given by the present pastor of this church, Dr.
W. H. Brooks.

The deacons during Dr. Brooks's pastorate have included some of the
foremost men in the community. Such men are William Coke, who was a
deacon in 1840, John H. Beale, Nathaniel Gilmer, Henry Jarvis, Linsey
Muse, Albert Parker, William P. Pierre and William Syphax, while among
the trustees will be recalled Carter A. Stewart, Charles Lemos, David
Clark, William B. Brooks, W. A. Johnson, Edgar Ball and John H.
Hunter. Among the local churches either directly or indirectly
originated in the Nineteenth Street Church are the Verm