The Blackstone River powered the machinery of those textile mills that brought the Industrial Revolution to America. One such mill owned by Samuel Mann, who gave his name to the village of Manville in which his mill was located. Here, as in the other new mill villages that spread upriver from Samuel Slater’s original mill in Pawtucket, itinerant revivalists rather than settled churches provided only sporadic religious services for the workers in these early factories. Mann, himself a Quaker, found these “enthusiasts” distasteful and sought to replace them with a “sober religion.” He was clearly concerned not only for the souls of his workers but also for the discipline of his workforce when he wrote in 1835 to the Episcopal Bishop of Rhode Island to request a missionary. He offered to provide for the missionary lodging in a mill house, two new suits of clothes a year, and a salary of $300, to be collected at the mill's pay window at the rate of $6 a week. He also promised ongoing financial support for the building and maintaining of a church. The bishop sent the Rev. Ephraim Munroe to answer the call. If some of these early operatives had emigrated from England, they had not been Anglicans there any more than their Yankee counterparts had been Episcopalians here. Munroe found his congregation largely unfamiliar with the Prayer Book and uncertain how to use it. He could be sure, however, of a captive audience for his Sunday afternoon service because Mr. Mann himself attended and noted any absentees, who would next day be summoned to explain their whereabouts. On Sunday mornings teachers instructed the children in reading and writing using the Bible and available primers; the only schooling these children would get, for they too labored in the mill along with their parents. Munroe claimed success in getting increasing numbers of the congregation to use the Prayer Book and participate in the services though the numbers of actual communicants remained very small. From that hopeful beginning Emmanuel Church carried on, experiencing periods of gratifying growth as well as dispiriting declines, which often coincided with a rather rapid turnover of rectors or a period when the pulpit was vacant. It survived the vicissitudes of 19th-century economic depressions, the Civil War, and a large influx of Roman CatholicFrench Canadians in the 1880s. It had always through this long period depended on the mill owners’ continuing financial support. The Great Depression of 1929, however, bankrupted the Manville-Jenckes Mill, leaving the church to struggle through a very difficult time. It nevertheless celebrated its centennial in 1935 in the presence of the Right Rev. DeWolf Perry, who was not only Bishop of Rhode Island but also the Presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church. After World War II, however, the downhill trajectory resumed and membership sank to new lows.
