Rev. Matthew M. Parkhurst: Camp Meeting Preacher

Cooler By The Lake Newcomers
Rev. Matthew M. Parkhurst: Camp Meeting Preacher

Rev. Matthew and Mary Parkhurst and their children c. 1900: (clockwise from top left) Florence, Matthew, Jean Margaret, George, Mary Anne, and Catherine. Image source: Parkhurst family.

Reverend Matthew M. Parkhurst (1834-1920). Image source: Parkhurst family.

Reverend Matthew M. Parkhurst (1834-1920). Image source: Parkhurst family.

Born in 1834 in Albion, NY, Matthew Parkhurst attended Syracuse University, and was a veteran of the Civil War. Image source: Parkhurst family.

Born in 1834 in Albion, NY, Matthew Parkhurst attended Syracuse University, and was a veteran of the Civil War. Image source: Parkhurst family.

Mary Ann Christian Thomson Parkhurst (1846-1923). Image source: Parkhurst family.

Mary Ann Christian Thomson Parkhurst (1846-1923). Image source: Parkhurst family.

404 Sunrise Avenue, Lake Bluff.

404 Sunrise Avenue, Lake Bluff.

A popular religious leader of the Lake Bluff Camp Meeting Association, Reverend Matthew M. Parkhurst was the pastor of Grace Methodist Church in Chicago on Michigan Avenue. When that Chicago church burned in the Great Fire of 1871, he led efforts to rebuild, preaching from atop a wagon on the site "while the embers still smoked," and raising funds for a new church from friends in the East.
Rev. Parkhurst was a beloved preacher at the Lake Bluff Camp Meetings, where the Chicago Tribune described him as "jolly, earnest and thoughtful in prayer meetings, but playing the recreation for all it was worth."Like many at the Lake Bluff Camp Meeting, Rev. Parkhurst was an ardent temperance advocate, arguing for prohibition long before the movement gained popular support. He helped dedicate Lake Bluff's Grace Church tent, a predecessor to the Grace United Methodist Church. He also built cottages for rent to summer visitors.
In 1872 Rev. Parkhurst traveled to Scotland, where he met and married Mary Ann Thomson in Stirling. Daughters Catherine and Jean were born in Scotland. Four additional children were born in the U.S., including daughters Mary and Florence and sons George and Matthew.
Around 1890, the Parkhurst family moved to Lake Bluff permanently. They built a house "with solid concrete walls" on Sunrise Avenue, complete with a bowling alley in the basement. The home was named Ivy Bank. It was said to be patterned after Mary’s family home in Stirling which was named The Elms.