Baptismal record for William Hoskins, recorded by St Sebastian Dabovich in the cathedral’s metrical book.

Last week, we published the story of William Hoskins, an 89-year-old veteran of the American Civil War who traveled from Los Angeles to San Francisco in December 1900 to be baptized into the Orthodox faith by St Sebastian Dabovich. Shortly after this, Fr Kirill Sokolov, dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral (OCA) in San Francisco, sent me the baptismal record for Hoskins, recorded by St Sebastian in the cathedral’s metrical book and preserved to this day.

Fr Kirill had Robert A. Parent translate these pages. Here’s the entry for Hoskins:

John – American citizen retired pensioned soldier William A. Hoskin converted to Orthodoxy from the Baptists (who baptized with only one immersion) and named John through Baptism of the Holy Orthodox Church. John is 89 and resides at the Soldiers Home, California. — Hieromonk Sebastian

This page concludes with a summary of all the baptisms (including infants) done at the cathedral in 1900:

In the course of all the year 1900 there were born 18 males and 11 females.  In addition there were 5 conversions to Orthodoxy (one male and 4 females) and one conversion from the Baptist sect.  The entries were recorded timely and accurately with one exception: the number of male births was actually 17 since a seventeen-year-old male was included in conversions.

I am grateful to Fr Kirill and Mr Parent for finding and translating this record!