[Cabin and Addition Donors and Namesakes]
[Bray Cabin]
NOTE: This page is very much still a work in progress.
built in 1955
© FNCA 2015Birth
Ida Leonora "Orah" Hutchins was born April 8, 1877 in South Eliot ME (just north of Kittery) to Henry B. and Mary O. (Brooks) Hutchins. Her father was a carpenter and later the owner of Hutchins Pharmacy in Brunswick ME.
She grew up in Portland ME, but the family summered at her grandparents home in South Eliot. Growing up on the coast of Maine, Orah developed a very strong life-long affection for the ocean.
Orah married George Henry Allen in Portland ME on August 18, 1897. Exactly when or how George died has not yet turned up, but at some point, Orah became a widow.
Early in 1908, Orah was confirmed into the New Church by Rev. James Reed. On June 29, 1908, Orah married Rev. Everett K. Bray at the Church of the New Jerusalem (now the Church on the Hill) in Boston MA, also officiated by Rev. James Reed. At the time, Rev. Bray, who had been ordained October 20, 1907, was serving his first pastorate: the Portland New Church in Portland ME.
The Brays continued on there until 1911 when, because of Rev. Bray's ill health, they moved to Florida for a year where Orah "found satisfaction and joy in their work with a Cuban mission."1
Next, following Rev. Bray's career, the couple were at the New Church in Indianapolis IN for a year and a half; then from 1913-1929 at the Virginia St. Church in St. Paul MN; and finally in 1930 in Cambridge MA where Rev. Bray began the final stop in his career, teaching theology and pastoral care at the New Church Theological School in Cambridge. ,preaching at the Swedenborg Chapel both in Cambridge. He retired from parish ministry in 1961, and from academia in 1971
In 1922(?), they adopted 1-year-old Elizabeth "Betty" Guiu. After that, Orah and her family spent 17 summers on Peaks Island off the Portland coast in Casco Bay.
Orah died August 21, 1954, while attending the FNCA camp session. Her obituary is on this site here.
1. The New-Church Messenger, October 16, 1954.