USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > A history of Saint John's Church, Hartford, Connecticut, 1841-1941 > Part 4
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"See Chapter Five.
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on Maunday Thursdays and the sunrise Easter service drew great crowds, and the latter has become one of the parish's most beautiful traditions.
This great heritage of worship is due largely to a devoted cultivation of music. The parish cherished the fine old organ and the records frequently mention its repair and improve- ment. In 1890 it was removed from the rear gallery to the lower floor, to assist the new boys' and men's choir. The early rectors took much pride in the music, especially at the great festivals, and recorded their appreciation in the journal. The old church had a succession of distinguished organists and loyal choristers. As early as February 28, 1842 the Wardens and Vestry appointed a committee to look for an organist, and a parish meeting in March accepted Mr. James B. Gilman. In April, 1843 the parish thanked him for his free services during the past year, and did not forget the ladies and gentlemen of the choir. In November, 1844 Saint John's welcomed Mr. Henry W. Greatorex, a famous organist and composer of hymns, who served for four hundred dollars a year. For his benefit the parish fitted up as a singing school the room in the vestibule, behind the organ.
Organists followed each other at rather brief intervals after Mr. Greatorex resigned in July, 1845. Between 1849 and 1853 the records mention Mr. L. T. Downes, Mr. Towner, Mr. Staunton and William J. Babcock, formerly organist at Christ Church, who resigned in 1852. The most celebrated of the earlier organists was Dudley Buck, a composer of nationwide fame, who wrote reams of secular songs, anthems, cantatas and even an oratorio. He composed an anthem setting of "Lead, kindly light," a cantata on the 46th psalm, and many Jubilates, Te Deums and canticles. His career, which began at Saint John's, contributed greatly to the development of American church music. His studio organ finally passed into the hands of Saint Monica's Mission in Hartford.
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The Vestry was generous to the music, often giving several hundred dollars a year-no small sum in those days- and in 1855 appointed a special committee on music, which was continued for many years. In 1865, when the parish was at a height of prosperity, the expenses for music amounted to over thirteen hundred dollars. To the organist and choir the parish gave what is often more grateful than money- repeated and heartfelt thanks. That was even more welcome after 1870, when the parish's reduced finances compelled a retrenchment in the expenses for music.
Dr. Coxe, who loved a rich liturgy, favored musical services and on Easter Day in 1844 wrote a typical note in his journal: "On this occasion the Music was of the fullest and finest character; the Introit & responses to the decalogue, being chanted for the first time in this Church." In 1846 the choir for evening services in Lent was composed of children from Saint John's School and the parish. A few years later we find the rector himself patiently teaching the children to chant the Magnificat. Dr. Doane also loved music and in 1863 was pleased by the new arrangement of the two choirs.
Encouraged by Mr. Bradin's love of a dignified service, Mr. Emmons and Mr. Ernest Peiler trained a boy choir. In the 'eighties the old-fashioned mixed choirs of men and women were beginning to yield to boys and men in many Episcopal churches, and in 1886 the parish decided to intro- duce a vested male choir in place of the quartette. The rector was delighted and wrote "This movement is for the purpose of making our Services more hearty & attractive, & it is trusted will do a good work in promoting congregational singing." At the evening service on November 28th, the first Sunday in Advent, a surpliced choir of thirty-four men and boys entered singing in procession and inspired a large congregation to assist earnestly in the service. They began singing at morning service on Christmas, which probably accounted for the unusually large attendance.
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Although the tradition of a male choir was soon well rooted, older customs still persisted, and a volunteer mixed choir of men and women sometimes served in the absence of the regular choir. Mr. Peiler worked hard, and when he re- signed in 1892 the Vestry thanked him for his long and faithful services and his many sacrifices for the church. He was succeeded at the organ by Miss Mabel Wainwright, who served during the last years on Main Street. She con- tinued the old custom of a voluntary choir in Lent, and in 1895 proposed to add to the regular choir several women vested in white. The Women's Guild choir used to sing at Lenten services, and the Girls' Friendly choir, composed mainly of working girls, used to sing anthems at their own services on Monday evenings. Saint John's could not have become the worshipful church it is today, without that tradition of sacred music which grew up in the old church and was transplanted to the new home.
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CHAPTER FIVE
Parishes Inspired by Saint John's
GRACE CHURCH, WINDSOR: 1842
S AINT JOHN'S STANDS TODAY SURROUNDED BY PARISHES THAT owe their life, more or less, to the zeal and sacrifices of her clergy and people. Before the parish was eighteen months old Dr. Coxe was touched by the appeal of a few forsaken Episcopalians in Windsor. The Church's missionaries visited the town in colonial times and a few people in the western part were still members of old Saint Andrew's at North Bloomfield or of Saint John's, East Windsor, while some journeyed to Hartford for services. The town was a Congre- gational and Universalist stronghold, but such a situation was a challenge to a missionary like Dr. Coxe.
The invasion began on August 7, 1842, with a service at the Second District schoolhouse, and found so many friends that it continued all summer with evening services and sermons. The people pleaded for regular Sunday services and the rector sent a lay-reader, Thomas Scott Preston, who began his ministry in October. Sunday School began that month and the Sunday and week-day services continued until there was enough interest to start a parish. In Novem- ber a council of the faithful decided to move nearer the center of town, and on the first Sunday in Advent Mr. Preston celebrated morning and evening services in the Academy on Broad Street. One December 7 Dr. Coxe came up to establish "a visible organization of the Church of the Redeemer," and after service opened with prayer a meeting that resolved unanimously to start a parish. A week later, after evening service, eight men founded a church,
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which they called Saint Gabriel's, "as being very beautiful and appropriate for the Advent Season, the annunciation of the Archangel to the Blessed Virgin Mary . . " At their urgent request, Dr. Coxe took charge temporarily and sent a lay-reader in his absence. He announced the church as organized in the name of the Holy Trinity, led the members in singing the Te Deum and the Apostles' Creed, prayed and pronounced the benediction.
The tiny parish begun with such devotion is now looking towards its centennial and worships in a fine Gothic church of brownstone with a tastefully adorned interior and splendid organ. While the edifice was being planned, the parish on August 2, 1864 changed its name to Grace Church. The old church, a wooden chapel in pointed Gothic style, was sold to the Roman Catholic parish, which kept the name.
SAINT JAMES'S, WEST HARTFORD: 1843
While fostering the little parish at Windsor, Dr. Coxe joined his friend, Dr. Burgess of Christ Church, in starting the Church's services in West Hartford. In the autumn of 1842 they officiated a few times in the Quaker meeting-house that used to stand near the northwest corner of the cemetery on the east side of South Quaker Lane. Services took place also in the North District schoolhouse at Bishop's Corners, and there the parish was organized on June 12, 1843, with more than forty families. Although the inspiration came from Dr. Burgess, the clergy and laity of Saint John's earnestly helped the struggling parish in its early days. Dr. Coxe used to visit the congregation and the first rector, the Rev. Samuel Benedict, was his friend and took services in Saint John's when the rector was away.
The earliest years of Saint James's were one long struggle for life in a rather unfriendly community. Although services were kept up intermittently by clergymen and lay-readers, parish meetings ceased for nine years. Revival came in 1852,
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chiefly through the interest of Samuel H. Huntington, and Mr. Benedict resumed services in the old Academy on the east side of the park. Huntingtons in the town were con- nected with Saint John's, and Mr. Francis J. Huntington was one of the original members in 1841. The fresh interest inspired the purchase of the present site, the cornerstone was laid on October 23, 1853, and on April 25, 1855 many eminent clergymen took part in the consecration. The building assumed its present aspect in 1861, when the tower was completed. One of the most picturesque churches in the state, it reminds one of the ancient brick churches among the pines and dogwoods of Maryland or Virginia.
For many years the early association with Saint John's remained unbroken. The Reverend Abner Jackson, sometime professor and president of Trinity College, served as rector in 1856, and John T. Huntington, also a professor, was rector from 1864 to 1869. He was the first pastor at the Church of the Incarnation in Hartford, an offshoot from Saint John's. Professor Samuel Hart and Professor Urban, both associated with Saint John's, supplied during vacancies in the pastorate. After the resignation of the Reverend John S. Littell in 1929, the parish for a time was served by the clergy of Saint John's, the Reverend William T. Hooper and the Reverend Walter H. Gray.
SAINT MARY'S, MANCHESTER: 1844
The rectors of Christ Church and Saint John's also contributed to founding Saint Mary's Church, Manchester, which from feeble origins has grown to be one of the largest parishes in the diocese. From 1839 to 1847 they held occasional services, assisted by the Reverend Silas Totten, sometime president of Trinity College and an original member of Saint John's. In later years the Reverend Abner Jackson also served from time to time. The parish, formed in 1844, met in various parts of the town for many years, and was not really strong until revived in 1874, mostly by the
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devotion of young Scottish Churchmen who worked in the silk mills. The parish was reorganized in 1878, and five years later the present church was erected on land given by the Cheney Brothers. The first rector, the Reverend William C. Corbin, came in 1844 and was a Churchman after Dr. Coxe's own heart, as well as an energetic missionary. He planted the Church in a community where it had been practically unknown. In June, 1940 Saint Mary's celebrated the centennial of Episcopal services in Manchester, and now is contemplating a new building program.
SAINT PAUL'S, HARTFORD: 1850
Another evidence of the lasting friendship between Christ Church and Saint John's was the Church City Mis- sion Society, founded on December 1, 1850, at a well- attended meeting of members from both parishes, in the old brick chapel of Christ Church. They desired to estab- lish a free-seat chapel for the congested and poorer district east of Main Street, where lived many immigrants. For city missionary the society chose the Reverend Charles Richmond Fisher, who became affectionately known as "Father" and for years was a familiar figure on the East Side. He was a friend of Dr. Coxe and sometimes assisted him in the services at Saint John's.
The mission worshipped in halls until the completion of the brownstone chapel that still stands on the west side of Market Street, with its tiny garden. Saint Paul's parish was organized in 1857, and excepting brief intervals remained under Father Fisher's care until his death in 1876. It received aid from the Mission Society, which was sustained and managed by members of Christ Church and Saint John's. Father Fisher's death left a void that could not easily be filled, the spirit was gone, and in 1878 the parish dissolved and united with Christ Church, which keeps its records. The chapel later sheltered Hartford's first German Lutheran
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church, then passed to Saint Anthony's Italian Roman Catholic Church, which now uses it as a parish house. Saint Paul's passed away, but the missionary spirit that founded it became a tradition of Saint John's and inspired the found- ing of other parishes and missions.
SAINT JOHN'S, EAST HARTFORD: 1854-1865
One of them is Saint John's Church, East Hartford, started at Burnside (then called "Scotland") in 1852, by two students at Trinity College who were connected with Saint John's. A parish, called Grace Church, was organized on May 29, 1854 and maintained services for about ten years under the auspices of Saint John's. Dr. Doane used to go there for evening prayer and lectures. For a time during the Civil War the mission lapsed, but was revived in 1865 at East Hartford center, with a congregation of almost two hundred and Dr. Doane as pastor. A new parish was organ- ized with the name Saint John's, and bought the present site at Main Street and Burnside Avenue. Bishop Williams laid the cornerstone of a fine Gothic church on June 6, 1867 and consecrated it on June 22, 1869. The first rector, who served sixty years, was the Reverend Dr. John J. McCook. He began his ministry at East Hartford as a lay-reader in 1865 and became rector when ordained a deacon in 1866. Dr. Doane proudly announced to the diocesan convention that Saint John's rejoiced in "two daughters, both promising, and full of earnest growth .. . "
CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, HARTFORD: 1866
The other offspring was the parish of the Good Shepherd, the result of many years of missionary work in the "Mead- ows." As early as 1853 Dr. Coxe lamented the religious destitution of the "South End" and suggested a mission under the care of a deacon. The idea of a "free mission" was revived in 1856 and three years later was realized in a
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Sunday School meeting in a building called Charter Oak Hall but more familiarly known as "the flatiron building" from its peculiar shape. Dr. Doane desired an organized mission, for the growth of Colt's Factory and the spread of dwellings were making the Meadow a part of the city.
Urged by his zeal, in March 1864 the Vestry adopted the mission which he had organized with the generous support of Mrs. Colt. The Reverend Henry W. Nelson was called to be assistant in charge of the school, which received the appropriate name of Holy Innocents Mission. He brought the children up in Churchly ways and began services for older people, with morning and evening prayer every Sunday and weekly and holy-day Communions. The mission grew so fast that it demanded all his time, and in May, 1865 he resigned to devote to it all his energies.
It was but a short and natural step to the organization of a parish on July 18, 1866, and the election of Mr. Nelson as the first rector. Mrs. Colt offered to erect a handsome church in memory of her husband, Colonel Samuel Colt, and her deceased children. The cornerstone was laid on September 4, 1867 and on January 28, 1869 the edifice was consecrated. The sermon, most appropriately, was delivered by Bishop Coxe, whose penetrating vision had seen a great future for the Church in that part of Hartford.
SAINT JAMES'S, HARTFORD: 1868
While the Meadow mission was growing, Saint John's planted the seed of another parish in what was then the city's southwestern corner. In July 1853 Dr. Coxe began evening missionary services and "cottage lectures" in that neighborhood. That enterprise continued for some time and finally inspired the founding of a mission school on Wash- ington Street in November, 1866. Saint John's had long been considering a permanent mission in that district, and in March the Vestry recommended buying a lot and erect-
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ing a chapel. After considerable discussion of sites, the parish chose the southeast corner of Washington and Park Streets.
In the meantime Professor John T. Huntington was think- ing of a mission and in 1867 started a Sunday School in the "cabinet" of Trinity College, then on the site of the State Capitol. A congregation was gathered, largely from Saint John's, and on March 1, 1868 organized the Church of the Incarnation. The new parish acquired the lot at Park and Washington Streets, and erected a small brownstone chapel, which was dedicated on November 15th. The chancel and transepts were added in 1869. Professor Huntington became the first rector and excepting about eight years served until 1912. On June 3, 1878 the parish reorganized with the name of Saint James's. In 1926 it removed to Zion Street and dedicated its present building, intended as the parish house of a future church. The old edifice, a picturesque landmark in a spreading tide of commerce, was razed in 1939.
The period from 1850 to 1870 was one of unequalled growth for the Episcopal Church in Hartford. Within twenty years the members established six parishes: Trinity, Saint Paul's, Good Shepherd, Saint James's, Grace Church and Saint Thomas's. Grace Church began about 1860 as a Sunday School mission of Trinity Church, in Parkville. Saint Thomas's came out of Christ Church and returned to it in 1923. That marvelous burst of energy was succeeded by a period of over thirty years without the establishment of any new parish or mission. The Church seemed to be waiting for the city's growth to present a new challenge to missionary spirit.
SAINT MONICA'S, HARTFORD: 1904
When it did come, old Saint John's was the first to respond, by founding a mission for Negro Churchmen. Mr. Bradin noticed and encouraged a small group who used to worship regularly in Saint John's. In the summer of 1904
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+
The Rev. Edward A. Washburn, 1854-1862.
The Rev. William Croswell Doane, 1863-1867
The Rev. Matson Meier-Smith, 1872-1876.
The Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, 1842-1854.
-
The Rev. Lawrence , H. Mills, 1868-1872.
The Rev. A. Doug- lass Miller, 1876-1882.
The Rev. William Thomas Hooper, 1918-1938.
The Rev. James Watson Bradin, 1882-1918.
The Rev. John Moore McGann, 1938-1939
The Rev. Harold Hand Donegan, 1939-
he urged them to hold their own services, and with his favor on July 31st thirty-two signed a petition for a mission. They worshipped in Saint John's until the parish's removal to its present location in 1907, then for a time met in the old chapel of Christ Church, now the choir room. Their first building, which they purchased, is now the Russian Baptist church on Mather Street. When Saint Thomas's Church on Main Street united with Christ Church, they began to wor- ship there, but in 1926 they acquired and remodeled the Union Baptist Church on Mather Street. The mission is now prospering, with a Church School, a fine choir and over one hundred communicants.
As the present century opened, Saint John's stood in the midst of a family of parishes and Missions. Few churches can boast of such a missionary record, upon which the members could look with a just pride. Yet as the century came in, they were beginning to think of their own future. They were confronted with the problem of starting life anew in another place, and they faced it with high courage.
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CHAPTER SIX
The Old Parish in a New Setting
Tm HE QUESTION OF A NEW LOCATION HAD BEEN PRESSING FOR many years, a constant source of more or less anxiety to the Rector and Vestry. Proposals to unite with other parishes or to move southward had collapsed, and Mr. Bradin's keen interest in missionary service prevailed upon the parish to hold fast where it was. Some perceived, however, that in spite of all devotion and sacrifice the old church was bound to wage a losing battle against inexorable changes. The overgrown village of 1840 became an insurance and manu- facturing metropolis of nearly a hundred thousand people in 1905. The outlying farms were swallowed up by a spread- ing tide of tenements and residences. Quaint, stove-heated horsecars, that used to rock past the old church, gave way in the 'nineties to large electric trams. Old families moved from Buckingham, Prospect, Governor, Woodbridge and South Main Streets to homes in the suburbs. Italian immi- grants took over the East Side, and the Polish captured block after block south of the Park River. Business buildings began to line South Main Street. Everything was changing so fast that the ground seemed to be slipping from under the old church.
Parish reports told the story of altered environment: there were fewer baptisms and confirmations and in 1906 there were but eighty-five pupils in the Church School. About that time a revision of the parish roll revealed the startling fact that out of slightly over three hundred com- municants, about seventy-five were merely nominal-living in other places, attending other churches or not even going
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to church anywhere. That. disturbing surprise probably encouraged in many a desire to move.
But where? As they looked around, they saw their church hemmed in by later parishes, some of them her own offspring. Episcopalians in the South End found a welcome at Saint James's and the Church of the Good Shepherd. Trinity Church had folded in all good Churchmen out on the "Hill," and encouraged a growing chapel in Parkville. Moving north was out of the question, as the field was already occupied by Christ Church and Saint Thomas's. Saint John's, thought some, might try to be a downtown mission church pure and simple, but that probably would require a large endowment-and where could that be found? Christ Church, and parishes of other faiths, already had seen that opportunity. It began to seem that only a bold step could save the parish from a lingering death.
While thoughtful members revolved the matter in their minds, a powerful personality was helping them to decide it-Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, a native of Hartford and a Churchman. He was meditating a magnificent gift to the city, to be associated with the Wadsworth Atheneum. In 1900 the trustees of the Atheneum proposed to buy the church lot, but offered a sum which the Rector and Vestry did not believe would justify the parish's removal. Mr. Morgan's plans moved with the usual speed when his mind was set, and Hartford soon became deeply interested in his ideal of a splendid art museum. The parishioners became convinced that they should not stand in the way of such a valuable civic project, but at the same time believed that the sacrifice of their beloved old church should enable them to build a new one. Their hopes were fulfilled by a generous offer of seventy thousand dollars in 1905, and urged by the Rector and Wardens on October 30th they voted to sell. On November 1st, Wardens Edwin P. Taylor and Charles A. Pease with the clerk, Robert A. Wadsworth, met a com- mittee of the Atheneum trustees and signed the deed. They
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stipulated that Saint John's should use the old church until Easter Sunday, 1907.
The agitating subject of a new location was left until after the sale, as the parishioners differed in their views. All, however, desired to consider not only the future of Saint John's but also the interests of the Episcopal Church in Hartford. None were enthusiastic about any plan of union with another parish, as the western border of the city appeared more and more attractive. That neighborhood had been growing ever since the trolleys began running out to Prospect Avenue, and there was every good reason for confidence that the westward trend would run stronger and stronger. Shrewd business men were already predicting that West Hartford would "boom" some day, and far- sighted realtors were beginning to buy tracts of land.
Two parish meetings discussed the matter exhaustively and referred it to the Rector and Wardens. The decision was made when Dr. Thomas B. and John O. Enders offered the "Casino lot" on Farmington Avenue, as a memorial to their parents. The parish accepted it on February 27, 1906, as the site of a new church. A postcard plebiscite revealed that three-fourths of the parishioners favored the move. The next problem was to procure a place of worship, which was solved by renting the Kings Daughters Chapter House on South Prospect Avenue, which is still standing and is used as the Gospel Chapel. There on April 7th, the Sunday after Easter 1907, Saint John's began a new life.
While their parish struck root in a new soil, the members turned eagerly to plans for a beautiful church. The first suggestion was to erect a building which eventually would become the parish house, to seat about four hundred people and cost around sixty thousand dollars. After different expressions of opinion, a parish meeting on May 14 decided to drop that plan, and on September 20 it was decided to erect a church after plans to be furnished by the renowned architects, Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson. The annual meet-
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