Having been rather fascinated over the years by some of the interesting religious involvements with which Larkin family members became involved , I decided to take a closer look. I was not disappointed!
EARLY LARKIN FAMILY RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: Daniel Larkin, biographer of his grandfather, John D. Larkin, Sr. (JDL hereinafter), informs us of the not-so-pleasant church experience of JDL’s youth. His family attended a Baptist church located at Seneca and Washington Streets. They were very involved in the church and strictly adhered to its teachings. Every Sunday as well as other days of the week were spent at the church. “On Sunday the sermon, anywhere from one to two hours in length, was the centerpiece of the service, dealing chiefly with the doctrines of the church, salvation, hellfire and the Day of Judgment.” Mary Hubbard Heath, JDL’s future sister-in-law, also recalled her terror at such services. “I listened with horror, waiting for certain inevitable passages describing the Judgment Day…The scenes of Gabriel coming in the clouds of heaven, the blast of his trumpet, the separation of the sheep from the goats, and the awful sentence to the left hand of the throne of God.” “Doleful sounds, she learned, would emanate from the graves as the bodies emerged to either rise to Heaven or descend to the fires of Hell. How that early experience affected JDL, we do not know, but it must have created a tension in his gut, (See “John D. Larkin: A Business Pioneer, by Daniel Larkin, pp. 11-12.)
