Rev. Daniel E. Moylan

Daniel E. Moylan was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1869. He became deaf at age three, a result of a bout of measles. Reportedly he retained some hearing and speech ability.1 Moylan entered the Maryland School for the Deaf at Frederick, Maryland when he was eleven years old. Upon graduation in 1886, Moylan obtained employment at the Maryland School for the Colored Blind and Deaf in Baltimore, Maryland.2

Rev. Daniel Moylan
Fig 1: Rev. Daniel E. Moylan

While an instructor at the Maryland school for Colored Deaf, Moylan began his missionary efforts. It is unclear if he engaged in ministering to students at the Baltimore school, but he frequently traveled to the Maryland School for the Deaf, Frederick to teach the catechism to deaf Catholic students.3 In the 1890s, he became involved at the deaf mission at the Grace Episcopal Church in Baltimore and appears to have converted to the Methodist Episcopal faith at this time.4 It is likely he would have remained at that church, but his aspirations toward the priesthood required him to pursue this end with another faith.5 In 1895, Moylan approached Rev. W.M. Ferguson, presiding Elder of the Methodist Church, Baltimore District. Following a three-hour written conversation, Moylan was granted permission to establish a deaf mission under the Methodist Episcopal church. This mission came to be known as the Eutaw Street Deaf Mute Mission as it was located in the Eutaw Methodist Episcopal Church. Services began Sunday, April 26, 1896.6

"Rev. Mr. Moylan is one of the most well known deaf ministers of America. He is a 'Past Master' in the sign language being very expressive in his interpretation. He is at his best in songs. To see him is to appreciate him."7

In 1892, he married Mattie Linthicum. Mattie also attended the Maryland School for the Deaf at Frederick. Together they had three children, all were born hearing. The family moved to Ijamsville, Maryland.8

Moylan was a dedicated minister. He conducted services across the region, made frequent visits to parishioners in need, aided congregants in finding employment, hosted sign language classes, and formed additional missions in other cities including the Waugh Mission near Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C and another in Hagerstown, Maryland. He also traveled through a number of Southern states giving sermons in signed language for deaf and hearing congregations. In Baltimore he expanded his mission and in 1912, when the Eutaw buildings were sold, the congregation moved to the Schroeder street church and formally became Christ Methodist Episcopal Church for the Deaf.9

In the 1940s, the separate congregations began to share a building. Though they worshipped in the same place, Moylan would provide separate services. At the new location on Calhoun Street, “the African-American congregation met in the basement on Sunday mornings while the white congregation worshipped in the sanctuary on Sunday afternoons.”10 Shortly after this change Rev. Daniel Moylan died. Without a minister the future of the church was uncertain. A rotating group of hearing ministers attempted to serve the congregations until a replacement could be found, but attendance at the church dwindled. In June 1943, the move was made to merge Christ Methodist church with a neighboring church in order to preserve the parish.

It appears that after Moylan’s death, the white and black congregants worshipped together, albeit on opposite sides of the room.11 Photographic evidence at the church archives indicates that throughout the 1940s, white and black deaf congregants continued to socialize separately.12 It was Louis Foxwell and a group of motivated adherants who would lead the charge to reinvigorate the parish and integrate the congregation.

Sources:

Figure 1: "Rev. Daniel Edward Moylan". Bjorlee, Ignatius. Maryland Bulletin 63, no. 4 (January 1943): 61.

1. Gallaher, James Ernst. Representative Deaf Persons of the United States of America: Containing Portraits and Character Sketches of Prominent Deaf Persons (commonly Called “Deaf Mutes”) Who Are Engaged in the Higher Pursuits of Life. Chicago: J. E. Gallaher, 1898.

2. Cloud. “Who’s Who in the Deaf World.” Silent Worker 35, no. 7 (April 1923): 301–2.

3. Otto Benjamin Berg and Henry L. Buzzard, Otto Benjamin Berg and Henry L. Buzzard, A Missionary Chronicle: Being a History of the Ministry to the Deaf in the Episcopal Church, 1850-1980 (Hollywood, Maryland: St. Mary’s Press, 1984), 46.

4. “Fortieth Anniversary of the Deaf-Mute Mission of Grace Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore,” Silent Worker, 11, no. 7 (March 1899): 98, 100; Berg and Buzzard, A Missionary Chronicle , xxvi.

5. Moylan and Powell petitioned the Bishop of Maryland for the right to study for the priesthood- Right Reverend William Paret was unwilling to permit him to do so. Berg and Buzzard, A Missionary Chronicle , 55; James Ernst Gallaher, Representative Deaf Persons of the United States of America: Containing Portraits and Character Sketches of Prominent Deaf Persons (commonly Called “Deaf Mutes”) Who Are Engaged in the Higher Pursuits of Life (Chicago: J. E. Gallaher, 1898), 189.

6. “Fortieth Anniversary of the Deaf-Mute Mission of Grace Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore,” Silent Worker, 11, no. 7 (March 1899).

7. Bjorlee, Ignatius, ed. “Alumni and Other Deaf.” Maryland Bulletin, 47, no. 2 (November 1926): 40.

8. Cloud. “Who’s Who in the Deaf World.” Silent Worker 35, no. 7 (April 1923): 301–2; Gallaher, Representative Deaf Persons of the United States of America.

9. Peggy A. Johnson and Leo Yates, The History of Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf, (Baltimore, Maryland: Christ Church of the Deaf, 2009), 9–10, 13,15; Berg and Buzzard, A Missionary Chronicle, 83.

10. The Best Is Yet to Come; The History of the Whatcoat Mission for the Colored Deaf. Johnson, Interview with Bishop Peggy Johnson; Snyder, “United Methodists Celebrate Historic Black Deaf Church.”

11Ibid.; Ruth Foxwell, “80th Anniversary Christ United Methodist Church for the Deaf, 1895-1975” (Christ United Methodist Church for the Deaf, April 1975), 2, Folder: Fulton Siemers Memorial/ Christ Church of the Deaf - Folder 8/8, Lovely Lanes Archives.

12. Images of social events hosted at the church throughout this period rarely appear integrated. Christ United Methodist Episcopal Church for the Deaf Archives.