262 EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. 



EXHIBITION, CENTENNIAL. 



the Evangelical Association as they were pub- 

 lished in September, 1876 : 



The total number of children baptized was 

 7,397; of adults baptized, 1,429; probable 

 value of churches, $3,619,468 ; number of par- 

 sonages, 379J; probable value of the same, 

 $465,935 ; amount of conference contributions, 

 $4,787.75 ; of contributions for missions, $66,- 

 800.57 ; of contributions for the Sunday-school 

 and Tract Union, $2,189.17; number of Sun- 

 day-schools, 1,743 ; of officers and teachers in 

 the same, 19,551; of Sunday-school scholars, 

 105,566. The Missionary Society of the Evan- 

 gelical Association supported, according to the 

 last annual report of the corresponding secre- 

 tary, 289 missions, both home and foreign : 

 277 of these missions were supplied by the re- 

 spective annual conferences with 301 mission- 

 aries. The Sunday-school and Tract Union of 

 the Evangelical Association was organized in 

 1859. It has published a number of Sunday- 

 school books and tracts, and aids Sunday- 

 schools in procuring libraries. 



The annual meeting of the Missionary Society 

 of the Evangelical Association was held at In- 

 dianapolis, Ind., October 27th. The treasurer 

 reported that the receipts for the year had 

 been $65,807.13 ; the total expenditures had 

 been $82,000. The amount of the heathen- 

 mission fund now in the treasury, after allow- 

 ing for $1,299.95 spent during the year, was 

 $27,729.53. The standing fund amounted to 

 $52,907.73, having increased $3,739.88 during 

 the year. The corresponding secretary re- 

 ported that the heathen mission had been 

 established in Japan, and the first detachment 

 of missionaries, three in number, had been sent 

 out. The home-missionary work exhibited an 

 encouraging degree of prosperity. The num- 

 ber of missions had been increased, and all had 

 made some progress. The work on the Pacific 

 coast was advancing steadily. The first camp- 

 meeting ever held on that coast had been held 

 in Oregon during the summer, and the Pacific 

 Conference had been organized. The work in 



Europe was in a flourishing condition, and the 

 number of members in the missions there had 

 increased. This work extended over Wiirtem- 

 berg, Baden, Alsace, Saxony, Switzerland, 

 and a part of Prussia. Seven churches had 

 been built during the year in the European 

 district, giving an increase in valuation of 

 church property of more than $38,000, in gold. 

 A building-lot had been bought at Stuttgart, 

 and help was asked in building a church there. 

 This society was organized in 1839, and the 

 first four regularly-appointed missionaries were 

 sent out in that year. The first missionary 

 was sent to Europe in 1850. Now, the society 

 had a very large mission-work in the United 

 States, employing more than 300 missionaries, 

 and had in Europe one annual conference, a 

 Sunday-school work, a branch publishing- 

 house, and a seminary for young preachers. 

 The increase in the European missions was 25 

 per cent, annually, the number of members 

 having doubled during the last four years. 



The annual meeting of the Board of Publi- 

 cation of the Evangelical Association was held 

 at Cleveland, Ohio, October 31st. The book 

 agent reported that the amount of cash and 

 its equivalents in his hands on the 1st of Sep- 

 tember was $35,004.12, or $11,236.51 more than 

 the amount on hand during the same period of 

 the previous year. The total resources of the 

 Board were $336,971.45, against $8,846.55 of 

 liabilities, showing the net resources to be 

 $328,124.90. The net gains on the business 

 of the year had been $21,916.40. The report 

 of the sixteen periodicals showed that they 

 had an aggregate circulation of 183,775 copies, 

 or 69,567 more than were circulated in the 

 previous year. 



EXHIBITION, CENTENNIAL. The In- 

 ternational Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, 

 and Products of the Soil and Mine, to which 

 the citizens of the United States had been 

 looking forward with eager anticipations, was 

 opened in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, on 

 the 10th of May, 1876. In the last volume of 

 THE ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA was given an ac- 

 count of the preparations for this, the sixth of 

 the great World's Fairs, and the first one held 

 in this country, which was also an anniversary 

 exhibition of the country's progress in the 

 hundredth year of its national existence. 



The project of holding a World's Fair and 

 Centennial National Exhibition was first pub- 

 licly proposed by an association of citizens of 

 Philadelphia in 1870. It was officially adopted 

 by Congress in the act of March 8, 1871, cre- 

 ating the Centennial Commission, consisting 

 of a delegate and alternate delegate from each 

 of the States and Territories, intrusted with 

 the selection of a place and making of plans 

 and preparations for the Exhibition, and by the 

 act of June 1, 1872, appointing the Centennial 

 Board of Finance, empowered to raise a capi- 

 tal stock, which was fixed at $10,000,000, one- 

 quarter of which was readily taken up in sub- 

 scription shares of $50, mostly by the oitizena 



