United States of America
From Sawiki
The first to hold the rank, Commissioner George Scott Railton, accompanied by seven "Hallelujah Lasses" marched down the gangplank of the S.S. Australia at Castle Garden, New York on March 10th 1880.The Salvation Army had opened fire in America. For their first official American meeting, held on the dockside, they chose songs adapted from "The Old Folks At Home" and "My Old Kentucky Home".
Commissioner Railton and his small team found work a-plenty. 10,000 children adrift on New York's streets, the drunkards outside the city's 8,000 saloons. On the east side 290,000 people to the square mile were living in abject poverty. This and more would surely provide fertile ground for the work of The Salvation Army.
The first Salvation meeting was held at Harry Hills Variety Theater on the corner of Houston and Crosby Streets on Sunday, March the 14th at 9 p.m, two and a half hours after the start of the meeting not a soul had answered the call to the Penitent Form and The Salvation Army gave way to a panorama of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
One man didn't attend the meeting because he lacked the five cents admission fee, yet the news of the meeting took him to the Army's temporary headquarters at 44 Baxter Street. Nicknamed "Ash Barrel Jimmy," James Kemp became much more than the Army's first American convert. News of the conversion and changed life spread rapidly, and night after night drunkards, harlots, thieves and down andouts packed the Baxter Street Mission seeking the same potent prescription.
The Baxter Street Mission was soon outgrown. By April 1880 well wishers had contributed sufficient funds to purchase a fine new hall with a porch for open air meetings on Seventh Avenue. Just one month later the forces of Commissioner Railton totalled 16 officers, 40 cadets and 412 soldiers. The first year of operations in the U.S.A. saw more than 1,500 converts. Throughout the summer of 1880, Commissioner Railton travelled west looking for fresh cities to conquer.
In a few short years the work of The Salvation Army would be known throughout this vast land.
