USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. I > Part 15
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But New Haven's growth was westward, and this progressive church was bound to be on the crest of the wave. Sometime before 1872 the church had increased to a then notable size, having in excess of 200 members. They realized that they must have a larger building, and determined that it was desirable to place it still farther westward. So the present edifice was built at the corner of Chapel and Dwight streets, and the church was renamed the Dwight Place Church. There it has rested from its westward progress, and been content to serve and grow in an important and sterling residence part of the city, while the city has grown on so that another Congregational church finds a busy mission beyond it. The church is now the largest Congregational body in New Haven, and one of the largest in Connecticut, having close to 1,000 members.
The first pastor of the church, in the old Park Street days, was Rev. Leicester A. Sawyer. He remained in the pulpit, however, only from 1838 to 1840. Then the Rev. Abram C. Baldwin was pastor until 1845. Mr. Sawyer returned for nearly two years after that, but only as a supply. From 1847 till 1852. or until nearly the middle of the Howe Street period, the pastor was Rev. William De Loss Love. In 1861 the Rev. John S. C. Abbott, since widely known as a historian, came to the pulpit, and remained until 1866. It will be noticed that at a later time he was pastor for a few years of the Second Church of Fair Haven. After a brief interval of supply Rev. George B. Newcomb came to the church, but was only acting pastor for the next ten years. He was succeeded by Rev. Thomas R. Bacon, whose pastorate extended from 1880 to 1884.
Three notable men have served the church in the modern period, perhaps
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its period of greatest progress and influence. Rev. Justin E. Twitchell, D. D., came to the church in 1885, and for thirteen years ministered to its growing congregation, beloved by his church and honored throughout the eity. He was sneeceded in 1899 by the Rev. William W. Leete, D. D., an earnest pastor, an active and efficient organizer and a strong preacher. IJe retired from the pastorate in 1914 to became field seeretary of the Congregational Church Build- ing Society, and shortly afterward was succeeded by the Rev. Harry R. Miles, who has ably continued the high service of this important church, and entered into the esteem of the whole community of New Haven. He also has gone to Y. M. C. A. war service.
The second church of Fair Haven, founded when that section beyond the river was East Haven territory, had its start in 1852. While yet it was an infant, an untoward rivalry arose with a new church a little nearer the city. This was the so-called Third Church of Fair Haven, of which Rev. William B. Lee was pastor. It lasted only a year, however, and its members went back to the second church. The first regular pastor of the second church was the Rev. Nathaniel J. Burton, who was with it from 1853 to 1857. There then followed a series of notable men: Rev. Gurdon W. Noyes, from 1861 to 1869; Rev. John S. C. Abbott, widely known as a writer, from 1870 to 1875; Rev. Richard B. Thurston, in 1875 and 1876; Rev. Horace B. Hovey, 1876 to 1883; Rev. Erastus Blakeslee, 1884 to 1887; Rev. D. Melanethon James, 1887 to 1903. He was followed by Rev. Robert E. Brown, who in 1910 was called to the large Second Congregational Church of Waterbury. The Rev. Harris E. Starr came down from Mount Carmel to succeed him, and was in the midst of a most successful pastorate when this country entered the war. The great need for spiritual ministry on the battle front seized him, and he went out as a chaplain, taking from New Haven one of its most respected and useful pastors. Early in the new century the name of this ehureh was changed to the Pilgrim Church.
Among the elmurches which old Center has mothered is Davenport. That was started as a ehapel on Wallace Street late in the 'fifties. A few years later it had a chapel on Franklin Street. Its next move was to Greene Street in 1864. Ten years later its congregation was able to build the Davenport church, and a period of great prosperity followed. Its pastor for a few years before that had been Rev. John W. Partridge, but soon after the ereetion of the new church eame Rev. Isaac C. Meserve, and for twenty-four years he had one of the livest and most progressive ehnrehes in New Haven. It was a church popular in the best sense, a church of workers, earnest and true. Following Doctor Meserve was the eight years' pastorate of the Rev. George Foster Prentiss, in his time one of the most notable of the younger ministers of the city. He was succeeded by the Rev. Jason Noble Pierce, just ont of the semi- mary, who remained from 1906 to 1908. By that time the church had come seriously to feel the removal from its distriet of a great many of the people who had formerly supported it. The Rev. Ernest L. Wismer succeeded
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Mr. Pierce in 1908, but in the following year the church gave up the struggle, and its people voted to unite with Center. Center Church did not give it up, however. It has been continued as an Italian Congregational body. The Rev. Francesco Pesaturo was its pastor for several years, and did a noble work there. When he went to New Britain, he was succeeded by the Rev. Philip MI. Rose, who has been equally successful.
Howard Avenue Church was organized in 1865. A few years previous to that there had been what is now recalled by older residents as the old South Church on Columbus Avenue. In Civil War times, or just before, this church split on the familiar roek of the slavery question, and a part of the members were waiting for such an opportunity as the Howard Avenue Church presented. The old South Church building, by the way, subsequently went to a Catholic congregation just being founded in that district, and is now the Church of the Sacred Heart. The first pastor of the Howard Avenue Church was the Rev. Orlando H. White. After a succession of brief pastorates, we find Rev. William J. Muteh there from 1887 to 1907, who was succeeded by the Rev. J. Edward Newton from 1908 to 1912. Both were able men and devoted pastors. Under the former the church saw progress and prosperity. The latter led it when it was facing the familiar problem of what to do when all the people move to another part of the city. Rev. Albert L. Scales came in 1912 and left in 1917. The present pastor is Rev. Peter Goertz.
Humphrey Street Church, in its beginnings of 1871, was another mission of Center Church. As far back as that Humphrey Street was, churchwise, on the frontier. Its first pastors were Rev. R. G. S. McNeille, 1871-1872; Rev. R. P. Ilibbard, 1876-1879; Rev. John A. Hanna, from 1879 till his death in 1880; Rev. Stephen H. Bray, 1883 to 1887. Rev. Frank R. Luckey eame to it in 1887. Ile was young and the church was young; so were its people, in large part. It was an inspiring combination. In those days the motto of "all the church in the Sunday school, all the Sunday school in the church and everybody in both" was adopted and made good. In a later period. this eburch also suffered from the condensation of churches in its loeality, and the removal else- where of many of its people. But the faithful pastor held his ground. He still serves the church, and is now the dean of the Congregational pastors of New Haven, a position in which they cheerfully hail him as a leader.
The Taylor Congregational Church, at the corner of Shelton Avenue and Division Street, was established about 1873 as a mission of Center Church, and has been, in recent years, much under the wing of the mother church. It has had some prominent and faithful pastors, but they have not always been sup- ported by such numbers as to encourage a minister. The first was the Rev. Henry L. Hutchins, from 1873 to 1880. He was followed by the Rev. Newton I. Jones, who remained for three years. The pastor from 1883 to 1885 was Rev. Daniel W. Clark, and Rev. John Allender served the church for the years succeeding 1885. The church has been without a settled pastor for the past two years.
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Congregationalism founded in other lands has been notably reflected in New Haven. Aside from the Italian Congregational Church which Davenport has become, there is the Swedish Emanuel Church on Wooster Place, between Chapel and Greene streets, established less than two decades, and the Danish- Norwegian Evangelical, of about the same age, located at 226 Cedar Street. The pastor of the former is Rev. C. H. B. Petterson, and of the latter Rev. Eiel S. Eielsen. A branch of the Italian Church is now conducted at 59 Oak Street.
There was a Ferry Street Congregational Church, founded in 1887 on upper Ferry Street, near the point where the railroad crosses. At one time there was sufficient congregation so that a fair sized building was erected. The pulpit was mostly supplied from the Yale divinity school. But it had a precarious existence, and gave up the ghost about 1900. Since then the building has disappeared.
II
It does not profit now to recall the spirit of opposition to the established church of England in which the first churches of New Haven were founded, except as a background. It was freedom to worship God as they pleased which the early fathers sought, but when they had obtained it, they were not minded to extend it to others, least of all to their aneient enemies of that church whose bishop of London vowed to inhibit John Davenport, even in his refuge across the sea. There was a long and bitter fight before the Church of England was given a foothold in New Haven, and it was 114 years before a truce was declared.
But the short of the story is that Trinity Parish, organized in 1752, did build a house of worship on the east side of Church Street, near Chapel, thereby giving Church Street its name. There the people of Trinity worshipped for sixty-two years. Sixty-two years ean make marvels, but the spirit of brotherhood accomplished, even in that time, a wonderful work to have so changed the hearts of the deseendants of Davenport's stern parishioners, and the proprietors of the Green, that they were ready to permit the erection on the spot dedicated to everlasting liberty, a church of their former religious foe. That building, the present dignified and handsome home of the church, was completed in 1815. Thus-and the coincidence is worth noticing-the three noble church buildings which stand on the Green today, the only ones of many which have survived, the only buildings which seem likely to stand on the Green for some time to come, were completed within two years of 1815.
This first Church of England has been served, in its 166 years of history, by reetors few in number but mighty in influence. Rev. Harvey Crosswell, the first. continued until 1859. The Rev. Edwin Harwood came to the church in that year, and for almost forty years, or until his health failed in 1895, was its rector, occupying a commanding place in the city's eivie as well as religious affairs, highly honored of all. Rev. Charles O. Scoville eame into his place then, and his more than two decades of leadership of this church and people have been notable ones.
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TRINITY PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. NEW HAVEN
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Proceeding in chronological order, the next Episcopal church after Trinity was St. James' Church in Westville. It came into existence after the central church had served the adherents of this form of religious worship for only eighteen years less than a century. Then, in 1835, Westville, feeling remote and independent, required a church, and St. James was the result. Its first rector was Rev. Stephen Jewett, who was with the church from 1835 to 1847, being succeeded by the Rev. Ilenry Townsend. In the next forty years there was a succession of brief rectorates, as many as twenty, we are told. In 1888 Rev. Charles O. Scoville, who later became rector of Trinity on the Green, was rector, and remained for seven years. The following year Rev. J. Frederick Sexton come from Cheshire to this church, and has since been its rector, with a remarkable administration of over two decades to his credit. In that time the church has been a steady, spiritual power in Westville, and Mr. Sexton a per- suasive force for good in the community. The church has outgrown its building long since, and for several years past it has been the effort of Mr. Sexton to secure means for making for it a new and modern home and center of influence. A substantial fund has been created for this purpose, but pressing events delay the consummation.
Another St. James, at the opposite side of the town, follows in the order. It is the Church of England which guards, jointly with what is now Pilgrim Church, the gateway to Fair Haven Heights. Of course that was East Haven ground in 1843, when this church was founded. The church had several rectors for brief periods in its first two years, but then it was distinguished by one of the long rectorates, even of New England. Rev. William E. Vibbert eame to the church in 1845. He remained its rector for forty-six years, and became a power among the clergymen of his order in the vicinity. He was followed in 1891 by the Rev. Charles H. Donpe, who remained for six years. Then came the Rev. A. P. Chapman and A. D. Miller for brief reetorates. The present rector is Rev. John C. France.
There may have been no inclination to draw the color line, but rather early in the history of the Episcopal Church in New Haven its members of dark skin thought it well to have their own church. So it was that St. Luke's was founded as early as 1844. It early erected a building on lower Whalley Avenue, and there it has had a worthy reeord ever since, and some men of high dis- tinetion have been among its rectors. The first was the Rev. Worthington Stokes, who was with the church for several years in its early time. Among the others have been the Rev. Theodore Hawley, who was later bishop of Hayti, and E. L. Henderson, who was rector in 1901 and the seven years fol- lowing. For the past deeade the rector has been Rev. Harry O. Bowles.
It is natural to look for a Church of England in the Wooster Square district in the middle of the last century, and there one finds, founded in 1851, St. Paul's. There it has been continuously for nearly three-quarters of a century; doing a steady, construetive work, which is more effective today than ever before in its history, despite the materially changed character of its neighborhood.
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In other respects it has been a remarkable church. There are few churches in Comeetieut or New England which in sixty-seven years have had two men ealled from their rectorates to bishop's chairs, but such is St. Paul's record.
Rev. Samuel Cooke was the first rector, continuing until nearly 1860. Rev. Edward L. Drown ministered to the church from 1860 to 1868. Rev. Francis Lobdell was the rector from 1869 to 1879. Then followed the distinguished rectorate of Rev. Edwin S. Lines, continuing from 1879 until, in 1903. he was elected bishop of Newark. The following year Rev. J. DeWolfe Perry, Jr., came to the rectorate, and had successfully led the church for seven years when he was elected bishop of Rhode Island. In 1911 Rev. George L. Paine became rector, and under him the church has especially adapted itself to its problem of holding its strength of membership, and at the same time serving the people, seemingly alien to its fellowship, who live round about it. To his wise and unselfish leadership the older members have been loyal, finding joy and satis- faction in the service of the people in this part of the city. St. Paul's settlement work. its general exemplification of how a church can find its greatest strength in expressional activity, have been shown elsewhere.
The next Episcopal church to be established. St. Thomas, in 1848, has had in respect to reetorate a remarkable record. Its seventy years of history have been covered by the terms of two rectors, of the same name and family. Rev. Eben Edwards Beardsley eame to this church when it was established. He found it using a rented room. small in membership and in need of good leadership. He made St. Thomas one of the strong members of the Episcopal fellowship in his forty- four years of service. Its present dignified stone building on Elm Street was erected in 1854 and 1855, and in it the church grew and served the city for the years of his leadership. In 1890 the Rev. William Agur Beardsley, nephew of the rector, came to be his assistant. Two years later, on his uncle's death in 1892. he became reetor, and has sinee condueted the church's important work. Unele and nephew have been prominent in the church of state and country, men of widely recognized ability in many ways.
In 1851 was formed St. John's Episcopal Church, which built a few years later. at the corner of State and Elm streets, what the irreverent used to call the "wheelbarrow church," because of its modest size and unaspiring archi- tecture. In the first thirty years of its time it was served by Rev. John T. Huntington, its first rector, by Rev. Benjamin W. Stone and by Rev. Richard Whittingham, who was rector in 1874. In 1883 Rev. Stewart Means came to this rectorate, and has led the church ever sinee, in what has been its period of greatest nsefulness and progress. At the beginning of the century, under his leadership, the church changed its location to a site on Orange Street at the corner of Humphrey, where it erected one of the most seemly and attractive church buildings in the city, and has continued a noble work. Dr. Means, though now in his thirty-sixth year of service with this church, a period which has made him the dean of all the Protestant clergy of New Haven, continnes his useful work and leadership with undiminished vigor.
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That same year the Church of the Ascension was established as a mission chapel of St. Paul's, in what was the southern edge of the city. It later built at Davenport Avenue and Ward Street. It has bravely striven to uphold the faith and worship of its order in a locality which has lost most of its English population. It has been led by a long list of faithful men, many of its pastorates being brief ones. Rev. Philip Mariett was rector From 1898 to 1902, and the present rector is Rev. Harold Johns.
New Haven's most distinguished high church, an able member of its galaxy of fine Episcopal churches, is Christ Church on Broadway. It dates back to 1856, when it was founded with Rev. Joseph Brewster, father of the present bishop of the Connecticut diocese, as its rector. He gave the church an excellent start and high standing through a service of twenty-six years. Retiring in 1882, he was succeeded by Rev. George Brinley Morgan, who remained with the church until his unfortunate death by accident in 1908. Rev. Frederick Merwin Burgess followed him, and ably carried on the work for four years, when he succumbed to the tremendous burden of the church's work, and terminated what promised to be a most brilliantly useful career. The present rector is Rev. William Osborn Baker.
Grace Church on Blatchley Avenue in Fair Haven was established in 1871, and has had a succession of rather brief pastorates. Among the men who have led it are Rev. John W. Leek, Rev. Peter A. Jay, Rev. John H. Fitzgerald, Rev. Herbert N. Denslow, Rev. Elihu T. Sanford, Rev. F. R. Sanford, and Rev. George A. Alcott, the present rector, who has ably served the church since 1906.
Forbes Chapel of the Epiphany, on Forbes Avenue, is a mission of St. Panl's. It is now ministered to by Rev. Robert Bell. St. Andrew's Chapel at Shelton Ave- nue and Ivy Street was a mission of Trinity, but now it has an independent organization, and is ministered to by Rev. W. E. Morgan. All Saint's Chapel at Howard Avenue and Lamberton Street, under the direction of Trinity Church, has Rev. William P. Williams in charge.
CHAPTER XV
NEW HAVEN'S CHURCHES (Coneluded)
TIIE EARLY AND LATER GROWTH OF THE METHODIST CHURCHES-THE BAPTIST CIJURCHES-THE GREAT RECORD OF THE CHURCH OF ROME-THE JEWISHI CON- GREGATIONS AND THEIR LEADERS-THE VALUABLE GROUP OF YOUNGER CHURCHES
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If the original churchman of the Davenport school looked askance at the arrival of the Church of England, they did more than that when the Methodists appeared on the seene. Their origin was suspected, their ways of worship were to them objectionable. Moreover, in 1789, when their first scattering representa- tives appeared, they were so few in number as to fail to secure respect. But toleranee had entered New Haven in the century and a half of its existence, and the Methodists, who previous to that time had depended on occasional offices from circuit preachers, were suffered in 1795 to organize their first church. But when they sought a central place for a building, they met with difficulties. So after worshipping here and there for the first two years, they were content with the purchase of the building on Gregson Street previously used by the then extinet Sandemanian Church. Here, the record tells, they were more or less disturbed, at the first, by certain of the rowdy element, who had a notion it was popular to "bait" the Methodists. They prospered after a fashion, nevertheless, so that in 1807 they put up their first building. This was what was long known as the Temple Street Church, on the east side of Temple Street south of Center- later used by the first colored congregation, and still later by a Jewish congre- gation. Here, in a building unfinished and narrow, they worshipped for the next fifteen years.
The experiences of this congregation, when in 1821 they erected their build- ing on the Green, and rebuilt it the following year. have been told elsewhere. They did a fine work in that bare old building, however, and justified to men in New Haven the way of God as they interpreted Ilim. So did they prosper that in a few decades they found it desirable to erect a new building, which out- wardly was more in keeping with the city's improving architecture, at the corner of Elm and College streets. As remodeled to the present date, it is without and within one of the finest of our church buildings.
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In its century and a quarter the church has been served by a long line of able men-many of them, in the days of short pastorates. Now its ministers seldom remain less than five years. In the past two decades its pastors have been Rev. Charles P. Masden, Rev. Gardner S. Eldridge, Rev. Henry Baker, Rev. Francis T. Brown, Rev. Elmer A. Dent, who at the close of his pastorate was made a district superintendent, Rev. John W. Laird and the present pastor, Rev. W. II. Wakeman.
The second Methodist Church founded in the New Haven district seems to have been that at Westville, to which is assigned the date of 1815. It was the ontgrowth of the demand of settlers in that important part of the town to have their own community life. It has done a sterling work, and has been presided over by many able men. Some of its recent pastors have been Rev. Wil- liam MeNicholl. who was there in 1896, and Rev. L. II. Dorchester, who led the church for 1913 and previous years. The present pastor is Rev. William II. Mitchell.
Methodism was inevitably well represented among the colored brethren early in the last century, and we find their oldest church to have a record now ap- proaching a century in length. What was formerly the John Wesley Church on Webster Street, now the Varick Memorial, with a recently erected building on Dixwell Avenue, dates back to 1820, and has an honorable history. Its present pastor is Rev. II. MeElroy Stovall.
Fair Haven also was early represented in Methodism. Its East Pearl Street Church dates from 1832, and was started on Exchange Street. Some of its recent pastors have been Rev. R. T. MeNicholl, Rev. Edgar C. Tullar, Rev. George Benton Smith and Rev. G. E. Warner, who now occupies the pulpit.
A second African Methodist Church dates shortly after the original one. It is the Bethel on Sperry Street, founded in 1842. Its pastor is Rev. William H. Lacey.
Grace Methodist Church on Howard Avenne is another of the old churches of the city. In a section not now strongly Protestant, and somewhat oversup- plied by Methodist Churches, it has done a good work and kept the faith. Its present pastor is Rev. H. M. Hancock.
There was a George Street Methodist Church on the south side of that street, almost at its lower end, in 1853. But that locality was rapidly changing from residential to commercial, and it presently disappeared.
The German Methodist Church on Columbus Avenue has a history dating from 1854, and has nobly upheld the faith of Wesley among the people of Luther. The latest of a long line of faithful pastors is Rev. Herman Blesi.
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