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A History of SAINT JOHN'S CHURCH Hartford, Connecticut
RELEASED FOR SALE
1841-1941
AT THE SIGN OF
THE STONE BOOK
EX-LIBRIS THE CASE. LOCKWOOD & BRAINARD COMPANY
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01802 3116
GENEALOGY 974.602 H25BUB
Pencil Sketch of Original Church Showing Spire.
A HISTORY OF SAINT JOHN'S CHURCH
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT
1841 - 1941
Copyright 1941 Saint John's Church Parish.
To the Clergy and People who have served God in Saint John's Church, this history is dedicated by the author Nelson R. Burr on the Occasion of the Centennial of the Parish, March 18th, 1941.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/historyofsaintjo00burr
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Foreword
9
Introduction: Hartford and the Episcopal Church to 1841 13
Chapter One: An Amicable Separation
19
Chapter Two: The House of Holy Offices 26
Chapter Three: Keepers of the Sanctuary 35
Chapter Four: Life In An Old-Time Parish 49
Chapter Five: Parishes Inspired by Saint John's 58
Chapter Six: The Old Parish in a New Setting
68
Chapter Seven: The New Life
77
Clergy and Officers 90
Chronology
91
Parish Directory, 1941 93
-
ATMANTEL
Old Church as It Appeared Without the Spire.
Interior of Old Church.
INTRODUCTION
Hartford and the Episcopal Church before 1841
H ARTFORD IN 1841, A BUSTLING OVERGROWN VILLAGE between the South Green and Needham's Corners, from the crowded warehouses and wharves along the Connecticut River to the straggling suburbs about Asylum Hill. It was only a mile long and three-quarters of a mile wide. Yet within those narrow limits lived about ninety-five hundred people, conscious that their rising metropolis had grown about fifty percent in the last ten years. They were begin- ning to feel urban, and took pride in reminding the stranger that Hartford was changing from wood to brick, as no frame house could any longer be tolerated within the "fire limits." Of course there was a fire department, fully described in the two city directories and guide books, published by Mr. Bolles and Mr. Gardner. Beyond the city limits farms and gardens covered thousands of acres long since lost to nature under a spreading tide of tenements and "developments." From them came produce for the public markets and many of the more than two hundred stores. On turnpikes leading from the city, and thinly scattered along the dirt roads of West Hartford, lived about three thousand more people, making nearly thirteen thousand in the great township.
Hartford was fast becoming a center of business and culture. Travelers poured in on the newly opened railroad from New Haven, and might find mine host dispensing hospitality at nineteen hotels. In proportion to population the city had far more prominent hostelries than today. Stage lines extended in every direction and vied in whisking the wayfarer to his destination, by relays of horses waiting at
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the many taverns with swinging signboards and hospitable taprooms. A line of fine steamers plied between Hartford and New York, and another ran up the river to Springfield.
The city was proud of its four insurance offices that had begun to make it truly the "insurance city" of America, and of the six banks, said to be "among the soundest in the country." One used to adorn its checks with a picture of a primitive steamer churning the river. Manufacturing also was looking up and calling for protective tariffs, as there were sixty-four "manufactories" in the town, turning out goods worth nine hundred thousand dollars every year.
Hartford was something more than a market-place and stock exchange. The most distant part of the nation knew it by the flood of books from its presses, including an enormous quantity of excellent school texts. That was natural for a city claiming as a native the greatest educator of his time- Henry Barnard, then starting upon his wonderful crusade for better public schools. His native city had three good district schools, and a few far-sighted men already were dreaming of the public high school that became a reality within only six years. An intellectual flavor came from Washington College on the hill overlooking the Little River. The city was then so small that professors were like neighbors to its people, and students were more in evidence in the churches and social life. On Asylum Hill stood a world-famous school for the deaf and dumb, one of the first things every foreign visitor wanted to see. The Connecticut Historical Society was flourishing and gathering its priceless collection of books and manuscripts. Intelligent youths debated at the Young Men's Institute, and there was a Mechanics' Society. Thirteen newspapers competed for patronage and advertising, and among them the Courant and the Times waged their truceless war of Whig against Democrat. Nobody who reads their editorials can believe for a moment that Hartford politics ever grew stale in those days.
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One of Hartford's proudest claims to celebrity was its churches: only eleven, but served by ministers whose names were household words throughout their denominations. At the ancient First Church Joel Hawes was leading the way to a new type of popular, evangelical preaching which the great Lyman Beecher had recommended. At the Third Church Horace Bushnell was in the full power of a ministry that inspires American ministers and educators to this day. The First Baptist Church flourished under the pastorate of Robert Turnbull, one of the most intellectual clergymen of his faith in America, a splendid preacher and able historian. Still shunned by the orthodox and by cynics dubbed "the hell-fire insurance company," a Universalist Society on Central Row carried on the great liberal traditions of Hosea Ballou, John Murray and Elhanan Winchester, who brought Universalism to Hartford. On Talcott Street the growing Roman Catholic parish worshipped in Holy Trinity Church, the first church of that faith in Connecticut. A Methodist house of worship had given its name to Chapel Street, and the African Congregational church met on its present site. Congregationalism, with four handsome meeting-houses, was still the dominant faith. The Baptists had two churches, the Episcopalians, Universalists, Methodists and Roman Catholics each had one. A few Jewish families had recently settled in the city, which was beginning to be the meeting place of all faiths it is today.
To the oldest residents, who could remember when Hartford had only Congregational churches, nothing in the increasing religious diversity was more startling than the growth of the Episcopal Church. A few could have recalled the time when the only parishes within miles of Hartford were old Saint Andrew's at Bloomfield, Holy Trinity in Middletown and Saint Peter's, Hebron. As late as the Revolutionary War, prominent Episcopal householders in Hartford could almost have been counted on the fingers- if indeed one could then have been seriously interested in
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a denomination so insignificant about town. If they had possessed a church, they could almost have sat on the wide doorstep and wondered what impression their beloved Prayer Book would ever make upon the Puritan community.
The coming of Bishop Seabury and the establishment of a diocese in 1785 radically changed the scene. The moribund parish of Christ Church, organized by a little band in 1762, was galvanized into life. A new parish, formed on Novem- ber 13, 1786, resumed the interrupted effort to build a worthy church. The lot, lost by legal chicanery, was recov- ered and the first Christ Church, a wooden-frame edifice with tower and spire, rose in 1792 on the present north corner of Church and Main Streets. It was opened in 1795 and consecrated by Bishop Abraham Jarvis in 1801, when the first rector, the Reverend Menzies Rayner, was installed. His able ministry quickened the parish and reached out to found new churches: Saint John's in East Windsor and Saint Luke's, South Glastonbury. The Episcopalians of Hartford were no longer a lonely and fearful flock.
Their first church served for a third of a century, gradually becoming more and more cramped. As early as 1822 the increasing congregation compelled a substitution of "slips" for old-fashioned square pews. The change was only a fruitless effort to put off the day when Christ Church would have to build a new and more "elegant" church. A new spirit came to the parish with the return from England of the Reverend Nathaniel S. Wheaton, who went abroad in 1823 and 1824 to seek funds for the new Washington (now Trinity ) College. With him came the revival of Gothic architecture then beginning to stir in Europe, and its influ- ence created the present Christ Church, consecrated by Bishop John Henry Hobart on December 23, 1829. The old building, removed to Talcott Street, became the first place of worship of the Roman Catholic Church in Hartford, and was consecrated as Holy Trinity Church in 1831, by Bishop Fenwick of Boston.
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Justly proud of its fine new church, the parish fondly hoped that it would accommodate the Episcopalians of Hartford for many years to come. But the crowds that flocked to services and parish meetings foretold a different outcome. In 1827 thirty men desired to become legal members, and twelve years later there were one hundred and sixty-two voters. It was becoming obvious that the building would have to be enlarged at great expense and risk of marring its beauty, or that the parish must be divided. In 1840 there were two hundred and ninety families, four hundred and thirty-one communicants, and two hundred and twenty-six pupils in the Sunday School. All seats were taken, and as that was the day of "family pews," it was getting very difficult for a newcomer to secure a place for his wife and family. In 1840 the prudent Rector, the Rev- erend George Burgess, already saw what was sure to come, and gravely informed the diocesan convention that the church was "insufficient to afford accommodation for any material increase of the present congregation."
With the customary reluctance of old parishes to be divided, the members of Christ Church pondered while the will of God was decreeing an enlargement of their borders. They called a special meeting for March 15, 1841, and after much discussion instructed a committee to consider whether to create a new parish or to have two congregations in one. With a rare breadth of vision the Rector threw all his influence behind the movement for a new parish. His eagerness greatly surprised and perhaps pained some of the older people, who sincerely believed that the parish would be financially crippled. He realized that the Church's growth, which he had greatly promoted, assured the move- ment's success. Fear of penury proved to be groundless, and the next few years showed that removal of many valuable members was like pruning a healthy tree, an incitement to more intense devotion. The plan for two churches in one parish, a probable source of friction, was wisely voted down,
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and the meeting of March 18, 1841 made possible the for- mation of Saint John's Parish. Within little more than a single generation the weak had waxed strong and the little one had become a thousand.
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CHAPTER ONE
An Amicable Separation
TH HE IDEA OF A SECOND EPISCOPAL CHURCH HAD BEEN SLOWLY germinating for some time in a group of young business men. Among them were several who then or later were prominent in the financial and commercial life of the city. One was George M. Bartholomew of the firm of Watkinson and Bartholomew. Thomas Belknap was a partner in the bookstore of Belknap and Hamersley, which later became Belknap and Warfield and now is Witkower's. Charles and Charles H. Brainard were coppersmiths on Main Street. Charles T. Bull, who lived at the corner of College Street (Capitol Avenue) and Washington Street, operated the wonderful new telegraph office. Virgil Cornish served as steward of the Retreat for the Insane. With his father William D. Eaton ran a bakery on Mill Street. Edward Goodman was a partner in the legal firm of Johnson and Goodman. Erastus Goodwin, a merchant tailor, ran a "Gallery Saloon of Fashion" at the corner of Main and Pratt Streets, and James M. had an insurance office in the same building. George H. and Lemuel Humphrey ran the prosperous firm of Humphrey, Seyms & Company, wholesale and retail grocers. Hezekiah Huntington, a book-seller, had a store on Asylum Street.
The Original Members of Saint John's Parish: 1841
Name, Status or Business
Bartholomew, George M. Merchant
Business Address Home Address Watkinson & Bartholomew, 104 Main St. 40 Front St.
Bartholomew, Sally J. Widow of Roswell
104 Main St.
] 19 [
Name, Status or Business Belknap, Thomas Belknap & Hamersley, Books and Stationery Brainard, Charles H. Charles & Son, Stoves Brainard, Charles Charles & Son, Stoves Brocklesby, John Jr. Professor Bull, Charles T. Charles T. Bull & Co., Druggists
Business Address 6 State St.
Home Address 36 Church St.
106 Main St.
105 Main St.
106 Main St. 105 Main St.
Washington College Bliss St.
78 Main St. College & Washington
Cornish, Virgil Steward
Davies, Charles Book Publisher
Dickinson, Philo Dickinson & Humphrey, Dry Goods
Eaton, William D. Z. Eaton & Son, Bakery
12 Mill St.
8 College St.
Goodman, Edward Johnson & Goodman, Attorneys & Counselors at Law
Goodwin, Erastus Merchant Tailor
Phoenix Bank Bldg.
north wing
27 Ann St.
Goodwin, James M.
Insurance Agent
176 Main St.
32 Church St.
Hewlett, Jeremiah S. J. S. Hewlett & Co. Groceries
132 Main St.
Exchange Hotel
Hoadley, Jeremy ( Selectman ) Hoadley & Chalker, Hat Store
2 Pearl St.
3 Trumbull St.
Hoadley, William H. Hoadley & Chalker, Hat Store
2 Pearl St.
23 Ann St.
Humphrey, George Humphrey, Seyms & Co., Grocers
124 Main St.
4 Wells St.
Humphrey, Henry S. Druggist
289 Main St.
Humphrey, Lemuel 124 Main St.
43 Mill St.
Humphrey, Seyms & Co., Grocers
Retreat for Insane
5 Pearl St.
19 Prospect St.
152 Main St.
Over 152 Main
133 Main St.
Wells St.
] 20 [
Name, Status or Business Huntington, F. J. Book Publisher
Business Address 22 Asylum St.
Home Address Lord's Hill
Huntington, Hezekiah Jr. Book Publisher
24 Asylum St.
36 Asylum St.
Jackson, Abner Professor
Washington College
Bliss St.
Lee, William T. Lee & Butler, Paints & Drugs
144 Main St.
61 Main St.
Mitchell, Henry A. Attorney
18412 Main St.
Welles Ave.
Northam, Charles H. Merchant
Commerce St.
3 Pratt St.
Porter, David S. Clerk, Post Office
Post Office 360 Main St.
Preston, Zephaniah Wm. H. Imlay & Co., Flour Store
113 State St.
45 Front St.
Rice, Enos Shoe Store
4912 State St.
So. Prospect St.
Saunders, Asahel Asahel & Son, Grocers
Main & Mill Sts.
2 College St.
Saunders, Ralph
Main & Mill Sts.
2 College St.
Asahel & Son, Grocers
Stewart, Duncan L.
Washington College
City Hotel
Professor
Taylor, Edwin
Dutch Point
3 Commerce St.
Preston & Taylor Steam Planing Mill
Taylor, Samuel Sailmaker
26 Front St.
Totten, Silas President
Washington College
Washington St.
Wells, Oliver M. Grocer
282 Main St.
287 Main St.
Winship, Walter Robbins & Winship Furniture
118-120 Main St.
25 College St.
NOTE: Some of the occupations, names of firms and addresses changed in later years. Welles Ave. is now Linden Place, Wells St. has become Lewis St., Bliss St. is now Trinity St., College St. has become Capitol Ave., and Mill St. is now Wells St. and the southern end of Trumbull St., along the Park River. The table is made up from the two Hartford City Directories for the year 1841. Some of the statements in the text, concerning the founders, are from later issues.
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One of the wealthiest and most generous of the original members was William T. Lee of Lee, Butler & Co., a large drug and paint store, predecessor of the Sisson Drug Com- pany, now on Main Street. His fine house stood on Prospect Street, which then was lined with stately residences. Another early benefactor of the parish was Charles H. Northam, the head of a wholesale grocery on Commerce Street. Asahel and Ralph Saunders followed the calling of several other founders, dealing in "sugar and spice and all things nice." Zephaniah Preston, long prominent in the Episcopal Church of Hartford, was a flour dealer. David S. Porter ran a printing office. Edwin Taylor, father of the late Senior Warden Edwin P. Taylor, was of the firm of B. & E. Taylor, running a steam planing mill and dealing in lumber at Dutch Point. Samuel Taylor followed the occupation of sail-maker, and Walter Winship was a "cabinet" or furniture maker.“
From its origin the parish was built on a foundation of solid business men, a considerable factor in the generosity it displayed to missions and to every local benevolence. Like the city Saint John's did not lack another and valuable element of strength. An intellectual strain was woven into its fabric, through the influence of Trinity College. Among the founders were several distinguished professors who became staunch supporters-John Brocklesby, Abner Jackson, Duncan L. Stewart, and Silas Totten, who became President and lived on elm-shaded Washington Street. They lent a strong intellectual prestige and were worthy helpers to the Rector in cultivating a sound, churchly parish life.
Seldom has a parish been divided with such kindly feeling on both sides. For that Christian spirit much was due to the kindness and tact of Rector Burgess. At the decisive meeting of March 18th he offered the acceptable resolution pledging the approval and earnest prayers of the mother for the daughter's "full success and prosperity,"
*See table on pages 19-21.
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and hoping that "the unity of purpose, and the harmony of feeling in which they have hitherto acted together, shall never be broken." In proof of their good will, the members of Christ Church Parish voted on April 2, 1842 to authorize their Rector and Wardens to let Saint John's use the chapel. Members of the old church pledged over sixteen hundred dollars to build the first house of worship of Saint John's. The new flock apparently worshipped in Christ Church until their own temple was finished, and held several parish meetings in the old brick chapel on Church Street.
At their first meeting, on March 18, 1841, the thirty-seven founders signed their names to articles of association: Jeremy Hoadley, William T. Lee, Zephaniah Preston, Edward Goodman, Asahel Saunders, Charles Davies, Henry A. Mitchell, Thomas Belknap, Philo Dickinson, Samuel Taylor, Charles H. Brainard, F. J. Huntington, Charles T. Bull, William D. Eaton, John Brocklesby Jr., Walter Winship, Virgil Cornish, Enos Rice, Oliver M. Wells, James M. Goodwin, Erastus Goodwin, Ralph Saunders, William H. Hoadley, David S. Porter, Edwin Taylor, Lemuel Humphrey, J. S. Hewlett, Charles Brainard, Silas Totten, D. L. Stewart, Henry S. Humphrey, George M. Bartholomew, Charles H. Northam, Hezekiah Huntington Jr., George Humphrey, Abner Jackson. Thirty-six men and only one woman member, Sally J. Bartholomew, widow of Roswell and mother of George M. Bartholomew.
They are all gone into the world of light! Their very memory is fair and bright, Like stars upon some gloomy grove.
ETERNAL REST GRANT UNTO THEM, O LORD, AND MAY LIGHT PERPETUAL SHINE UPON THEM. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE.
They were not among those who, having put their hand to the plow, turn back and are unfit for the Kingdom
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of Heaven. As early as April 13th they requested Nathan Johnson, a Justice of the Peace for Hartford County, to warn a meeting in accordance with ancient form, to convene at the chapel of Christ Church on April 19th. They proposed to choose a clerk and other officers of their "society," decide on building a church, agree upon a site, and provide for the cost of the lot and edifice. The call was signed by William T. Lee and Lemuel Humphrey and published by William H. Hoadley. That meeting elected Edward Goodman as the first in a long line of faithful clerks, William T. Lee and Lemuel Humphrey as Wardens. The first Vestrymen were Hezekiah Huntington Jr., Thomas Belknap, Zephaniah Preston, Charles H. Northam, Francis J. Huntington, Charles Davies, Henry A. Mitchell, Ralph Saunders, George M. Bartholomew and John Brocklesby Jr. Charles Davies and James M. Goodwin were appointed a committee to appeal to Christ Church for aid, and soon won eighteen donors. From the beginning nearly every member had some definite duty-a policy that never fails in producing a deep and lasting affection for the Church.
The first meeting displayed a determination and vigor that long distinguished the parish and eventually carried it through trials to a new life. It showed toward the mother church a spirit of love which within a few years bore fruit in united zeal to advance the Church's holy cause in the city and surrounding towns. Before adjourning the members placed on their records a moving and dignified witness of the love they still bore to Christ Church: "Though we now separate from the Parish of Christ Church, we feel a lively interest in the prosperity and harmony of the same, and
. we cherish the most affectionate attachment and respect for its faithful and beloved Rector." In these words we look down the long vista of years and see the faithful of both parishes streaming into the great door. of Christ Church for united Lenten services; or sitting together in the old brick chapel on Church Street, planning the Church
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City Mission Society, that the poor might have the Gospel preached to them.
Without dissension and in the spirit of making a venture for God, the new flock left the old fold for another home. Fifty years later the venerable Bishop Williams called the persistence of that spirit the distinguishing mark of the parish. "It seems to me," he said, "that this church derives a peculiar character and blessing from this fact." Without it Saint John's would not have given its own life so freely to found other parishes; nor spent more for others than for itself; nor remained to minister to the lowly, long after it might have followed the tide of fashion to apparently greener pastures. Saint John's was a giving church, the only kind that ever really lives. Recognizing that spirit in the founders, the diocesan convention of 1841 gladly welcomed the new parish.
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CHAPTER TWO
The House of Holy Offices
E VEN AS THEY SIGNED THEIR ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION, THE founders were mindful that their real purpose was to provide a new temple for what their churchly minds called the "Holy Offices." At the first meeting they authorized the Wardens to purchase a lot. Already the subscription paper was passing from hand to hand. Begun on March 20th, within a short time it bore fifty-one names and seventy-four hundred dollars. William T. Lee, the richest member, sub- scribed for one thousand. The parish had a choice between four lots, and after less than two weeks of consideration, bought one on Main Street for fifty-five hundred dollars. It was the land now comprised in the smooth lawn south of the Morgan Memorial. The Wardens reported their purchase to a parish meeting on May 1st. They bought it in their own names, borrowing from the bank on their personal note to be paid by the parish.
The speed of their business is astounding even at this day of supposedly keen efficiency. Plans drawn by the noted Henry Austin were accepted and a building committee was authorized to erect a stone church at a cost of not over twenty-five thousand dollars, including the lot. Frederick Campbell won the contract for masonry, while the carpentry was awarded to Dixon and Knapp. Bishop Brownell of Connecticut laid the cornerstone on July 14th at four o'clock in the afternoon. The Reverend Abner Jackson, professor of ancient languages at Trinity College, delivered the address.
It seems incredible that so large a church was built and ready for worship in only eight and one half months and
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but thirteen from the parish's organization. On April 20, 1842, a fair day with light clouds, the building stood ready for Holy Offices. The Bishop and about twenty-five clergy met the Wardens and Vestrymen of Christ Church and Saint John's at the house of Doctor Henry Lee, a prominent physician, and moved in solemn order to the new edifice for the consecration.
It was probably the most stately religious ceremony ever held in Hartford up to that time. The Reverend Dr. William Cooper Mead, Rector of Saint Paul's in Norwalk, read the office of Morning Prayer, and the Reverend Dr. Samuel Farmer Jarvis of Middletown read the lessons. Dr. Burgess of the mother church preached the sermon to a large congre- gation of attentive listeners. That generation was brought up on good sermons and polished oratory-it was still the day of Clay and Webster-and on that occasion they were not disappointed. The Wardens and Vestry presented their request for consecration, read by their Rector-elect, the Reverend Arthur Cleveland Coxe, who read also the sentence of consecration. After the sermon the Bishop with the assistance of Drs. Jarvis and Mead and the Rev. Messrs. Burgess and Coxe, administered the sacrament of Holy Communion.
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