USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. I > Part 35
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These are but significant indications of the way the young city of Meriden has met all its physical problems as they have come up. It is a competent, efficient community, controlled by men of character as well as of substance. It is in many ways a typical American eity. In many ways, as we may discover, it is a decidedly original one.
Vol. I-19
CHAPTER XXIX
MERIDEN (Continued)
CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, CIVIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS-MEN WIIO HAVE MADE MERIDEN, PHYSICIANS, LAWYERS, LEADERS IN LOCAL, STATE AND NATIONAL LIFE
I
Meriden is lightly reckoned, by some who know it superficially, a community where the material is uppermost. Such an opinion diminishes in direct propor- tion to the care with which the town is studied. As the young town and the younger city are found, on examination, to have roots in the depths of colonial history, so the supposed mere industrial community is revealed, with real under- standing, as an edifice of character and fineness. Sometimes they speak of New Haven as the city of churches. It would need to add half as many to its present number to have as many in proportion as Meriden. So, on through the list, it will be found that in schools, in publie institutions, in civic and social advantages, Meriden is more than able to match, proportionately, its okler, larger and more pretentious neighbor and mother community.
Meriden, too, has the ancient church of the fathers. Back in the days when Center Church was alone in its glory in New Haven, where only here and there a church of the Pilgrims stood at the oldest points of settlement around the county and the state, the First Church was founded in Meriden. That was in 1729. The five or six hundred people who had by this time settled on the now divided Meriden and other farms did not so much mind the long journey to attend church in Wallingford, but they had begun to feel their community im- portance, and a separate church was an achievement, even if it was a responsi- bility. They did not, however, take their church as far north as the vicinity of Jonathan Gilbert's old time tavern, on Meriden farm. They came south to Pilgrims' Ilarbor, and built on Meeting House Hill. It seems, moreover, that they built somewhat before they were fully organized, for the date of the church is given us as 1729, while the date of the building is set at 1727. There were fifty-nine persons who formed this body, and began separate worship under the leadership of Rev. Theophilus Hall, though there were some temporary preachers before him.
The church had grown in numbers and strength so that in 1755 they needed a new building, and this was erected on Broad Street. The third edifice was built in 1830, on the same site. It was the noble building which still, after re-
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Courtesy of H. Wales Lines Co. WALTER HUBBARD MEMORIAL CHAPEL, MERIDEN
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Courtesy of HI. Wales Lines Co. FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, MERIDEN
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peated alterations which have not marred its distinguished architecture, serves Center Church. For in 1848 there was a division of the people. Prosperity and population had come to Meriden in the period just before that, and the church had so increased its membership that it felt the need of a new and larger build- ing. This was ereeted, in 1846, on Colony Street, half a mile from the old site. But something arose which caused a difference of opinion among the members. Most likely the then familiar question of the abolition of slavery had something to do with it. At any rate, something like half a hundred members withdrew and formed the Center Church. The oldl building on Broad Street was vacant, and they secured possession of it. There they have remained and worshipped ever since-they and the new worshippers who have come in the changing process of seven decades.
The first pastor of the First Church, Rev. Theophilus Hall, remained until his death in 1767. At the time of the division Rev. George W. Perkins was pas- tor, serving the church from 1841 to 1854. It was from 1866 to 1868 that the brilliant Rev. William II. Il. Murray, famous son of old Guilford, more famous " Adirondack Murray," was pastor of this church. The Rev. Asher Anderson, who came to the church in 1890, was in the dozen years of his stay one of the best known and popular Congregational clergymen of Connecticut. Since 1902 Rev. Albert J. Lord has been pastor, and the church has advanced to a position of even more positive religious leadership in the community. It was incorporated in 1893. Today it has almost a thousand members, and is one of the strongest churches of its denomination in the state.
It was a notable example of New England church architecture which the sep- arating few who formed Center Church secured in 1848. It was and is one of the best specimens in Connecticut of the pure Doric edifice, its most prominent rivals in this section being the old North Church on New Haven Green and the distinguished old Congregational Church in Madison. Set on a hill, preserved within in harmony with its appearance without, it is an inspiration to worship and to service.
It was Rev. Ashabel A. Stevens who came to lead the seeeders who formed Center Church. He remained with them until 1854. Rev. James (. Wilson was pastor from 1892 to 1896, being succeeded by Rev. John H. Grant. In 1911 Rev. Thomas B. Powell, previously assistant pastor of Plymouth Church of New Haven, and later at Livingston, Montana, was called. His winning and self sacrificing leadership has greatly built up the church, which now has a member- ship of approximately 500. Under previous pastors the people had kept the church appointments within in harmony with its dignified architecture. The bare old windows had been replaced with leaded glass of colonial pattern, and the decorations had been made to conform to the Ionic type of architecture.
Mr. Powell found a fine old church building, but his experience had taught him that the modern church needs something more than an audience room by which to serve its community. The only approach to chapel or parish honse was the basement. which after the manner of many New England basements had been
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fitted up as a "lecture room," and had to serve for Sunday School, prayer meet- ings and all social gatherings. Moreover, the problem of securing a place on which to ereet a parish house, if the church was ready to build one, was difficult. The building stands on an extremely steep side hill, so steep that the basement, and even the rear of the sub-basement, stand out of ground. No available land for another building was found in the vicinity. Anything in the nature of a lean-to would spoil the architecture of the church.
So Mr. Powell suddenly decided to make a virtue of the church's difficulty and necessity. First, he "dug out" the basement. That is, he so excavated at its sides that, except at the front, it is completely a daylight room. Then he ex- tended the sub-basement under the whole building. So he had, beneath the church, what was virtually a parish house of two stories. This was rearranged, redecorated and in general made into a modern auxiliary church building. At a cost far beneath that of a separate building, with the maximum of convenience and without in the least marring the symmetry of its fine structure, the Center Church had an efficient parish house. In this work, which the pastor inspired and directed, the people have supported him amply with enthusiasm, hard work and funds.
The second of the churches of Meriden, also founded when the community was still a part of the town of Wallingford, is the First Baptist, organized in 1786. Adherents of the Baptist creed, scattered all over the town of Wallingford and the parish of Meriden, previous to this time worshipped at some convenient place midway between the two towns. This combined congregation was for some years led by Rev. John Merriman. His death in 1784 seems to have been in part the cause of the formation of a separate church. Two years later the Baptist Church of Meriden was formally organized. It had but twelve members at that time, however, and they did not feel able to support a pastor, but followed "elders" for several years. One of the first of these was Samuel Miller, who for some time condneted the worship as a layman, but was ordained a minister in 1806. As the church's first pastor he served until 1829. It was during his pas- torate that the church's first building was erected, about 1801. After several short pastorates, the church called Rev. Harvey Miller, son of the first pastor, in 1838. Ile in turn was succeeded by Rev. D. Henry Miller, D. D. It was dur- ing the pastorate of the former that the present fine colonial type church building was erected. Other pastors of note who have served the church are Rev. W. G. Fennell, for eight years from 1892, and Rev. Burtt Neville Timbie, the present pastor.
The next of the Baptist churches to be organized was Main Street in 1861, an offspring of the First Baptist which has now outgrown the mother. There was worship in a chapel building until the church became strong enough to erect a substantial edifice. This it did in 1867-68, the same being its present fine brick and stone home. This church was called the West Meriden Baptist until 1881, when it adopted the present name. The society was incorporated in 1886. Eight pastors led the church for the first quarter-century of its existence, from Rev.
1 Courtesy of H. Wales Lines Co.
ST. JOSEPH'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, MERIDEN
ST. ROSE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, MERIDEN
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E. M. Jerome, who was with it in its founding days, to Rev. Edwin W. Ilusted, who served it for the years following 1891. The pastor at present is Rev. J. W. Musson.
The other Baptist congregations in town are the Olive Branch Sunday Mis- sion, of which Warren J. Parker is superintendent, the German Baptist, founded in 1873, whose pastorate was vacant in 1917: the Swedish Baptist, established 1887, Rev. Alfred Engdahl, pastor; and the Italian Baptist, founded in 1910, of which Rev. Joachim E. Parella is pastor.
When St. Andrews, the oldest Protestant Episcopal Church in Meriden, was established, Cheshire had been separated from Wallingford only nine years, and Meriden was still a part of that town. Cheshire, from early times a center of Episcopal faith, was sponsor for the new church, and for several years furnished it with leadership at long distance. The church was founded in 1789. but for the first thirty-five years it had no resident rector, depending on missionary service from Cheshire and Wallingford. In 1824 the Rev. Ashbel Baldwin settled as its rector, and in the following sixty years the church had fourteen rectors. In 1885 the Rev. Arthur T. Randall came to the church, and has since remained. Now in the fourth decade of his service, he is rounding out a remarkable period and enviable position in the community. The church's house of worship. erected in 1866. is one of the city's fine examples of architecture.
All Saints' Episcopal, one of the younger churches of the city, was organized in 1893. and the same year its admirable church building was erected on West Main Street. Its rector then, and for several years following, was Rev. E. Sprague Ashley. He was succeeded by Rev. I. Newton Phelps, and the present reetor is Rev. Francis S. Lippitt.
The First Methodist Church of Meriden, whose building is at East Main and Pleasant streets, dates its organization from 1844. It has had a useful and pros- perous career, and some men of power in its pulpit. Some of the notable ones of the recent period have been Rev. John Rhey Thompson, who was its pastor from 1889 to 1894, Rev. F. B. Stockdale, and the present able leader, Rev. Victor G. Mills. The South Meriden Methodist Church, now presided over by Rev. Archi- bald Treymaine, was founded in 1851, and for several years the two churches together served all the Methodists in the town and eity of Meriden. But in 1885 growth and expansion had made a third seem desirable, and Trinity Church was formed. Its first pastor was the able Rev. William F. Markwiek, later pastor of the St. John Street Church at New Haven, and some of the others have been Rev. Duane N. Griffin, now of Hartford, Rev. B. S. Pillsbury and Rev. Frederick Saunders, the present pastor. The latest of the Methodist churches, which has been doing a good work since 1890, is the Parker A. M. E. Zion, of which the pastor is Rev. Clarence A. Gooding.
The first of what is now a strong galaxy of Roman Catholic churches was St. Rose's, founded in 1849. It has six associates now. Faithful missionary work by Father J. Teevins preceded the foundation, but ill health obliged him to forego his right to be its first pastor. Rev. IIngh O'Reilly came to the leadership.
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Faithful and able men since him who have guided the church to valuable service have been Rev. Thomas Quinn and Rev. Panl F. MeAlenny, and the present Rev. John Neale. LL. D. This is one of the strong Catholie parishes of Connecti- ent, doing an excellent work through the church, a convent and parochial sehool. Following its leadership, St. Laurent's French Catholic Church, of which Rev. A. Van Oppen is now pastor, was organized in 1880, the Church of the Holy Angels in 1887. Of this the first pastor was the Rev. R. F. Moore, and the present is Rev. L. A. Guinan. The other churches of this faith, in the order of their fonnda- tion. are St. Mary's German Catholic, pastor, Rev. Nicholas F. X. Schneider : St. Joseph's, pastor, Rev. John T. Lynch ; St. Stanislans, Polish, pastor, Rev. John Louis Cepa : Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Italian, pastor, Rev. Domenieo Ricci.
Meriden has three churches of the Lutheran faith, the first, St. John's Ger- man Lutheran, established in 1865. It is today a growing and useful church, with one of the handsome buildings of the city, at the corner of Liberty and Norwood streets. It has been led by several men of marked ability, among them the Rev. S. F. Glaser, who is at present its pastor. The other churches of this order are Immanuel German Intheran, established in 1889, pastor, Rev. Paul A. Kirsch, and the Swedish Lutheran. founded the following year, whose pastor is Rev. Olaf Lundgren.
St. Paul's Universalist Church was organized in 1863, and has done valuable work under several pastors, of whom the latest is Rev. Thomas H. Sanders.
There is in the city one synagogne of the Jewish faith, founded in 1892. S. Kennedy is the president of the congregation. For some years there was a Seventh Day Advent Church, but that has now disappeared, and in its place there is a People's Undenominational Church. of which Rev. C. H. Reimers is the leader. Meriden has also one Christian Science Chureh.
Back of these churches, or possibly as mediums through which their people may work, are the City Missionary Society, and the MeAll Auxiliary. The former society has Mrs. George W. Haywood as its president, and the city mis- sionary is Miss Margaret Burns. Mrs. LeGrand Bevins is president of the Me All Auxiliary.
Meriden has an equipment of public, semi-public and private schools of which, regardless of age, any city of its size might be prond. A central high school of distinguished architecture, constructed some twenty-five years ago at a cost of $100,000, cares for the secondary educational needs of city and town, and seventeen grade and district schools in six districts, together with seven parochial schools, care for the rest of Meriden's 7,700 children of school age. In these there is a force of 159 public school teachers. Ten of the public schools have the full eight grades. In detail. the educational equipment of Meriden, as it stood in the fall of 1917. is as follows:
Superintendent of Schools-David Gibbs.
High School-Principal, Francis L. Bacon: assistant principal. Ivan G. Smith. Thirty-two teachers.
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Church Street-Principal, William E. Gardner; seven teachers. Columbia Street-Principal, Edna M. Harris; five teachers. East-Viola Lacourciere.
East Grammar-Principal, Frank P'. Denning; ten teachers. East Primary-Principal, Minnie Lally, two teachers.
Franklin Street-Principal, Augusta A. Fischer; eight teachers. Hanover-Principal, Nellie E. Simons ; five teachers.
King Street-Principal, Jennie D. Wood ; nine teachers. Lewis Avenue-Principal. Cornelia A. Comstock; eight teachers.
Liberty Street-Principal, Anne P. Foskett; six teachers.
North Broad Street-Principal, Mrs. Nellie F. Russell ; eight teachers.
North Colony Street-Principal, Minnie S. Wiles; seven teachers.
South Broad Street-Principal, Margaret Hickey; eight teachers. Southeast-Esther P. Gardner.
West Grammar-Principal, HI. Engene Nickless ; nine teachers. West Main Street-Principal, Anna T. L. Burke ; cight teachers.
Willow Street-Principal, Katherine II. Curran ; four teachers.
Supervisors-Music, G. Frank Goodale; Drawing, Maude E. Simpson ; Physi- cal training, George Baer; Penmanship, W. R. Stalte; Domestic arts, Hazel Harmon ; Manual arts, Frederick Landers.
The members of the school committee were: Charles F. Rockwell, chairman ; Dr. Alfred A. Rousseau, secretary; Burton G. Lawton, treasurer; Harold G. Hall, clerk ; Lewis E. Clark, Michael F. Kelley, Henry Dryhurst, Oscar I. Dessin, Frank L. Billard, Edgar J. Perkins, Denis T. O'Brien, Jr., Dr. Cornelius J. Ryan, Thomas J. Shanley.
This publie educational force is supplemented by seven parochial schools, as follows: Immanuel German Lutheran Saturday School : St. Bridget's Convent (St. Rose) ; St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Graded School; St. Joseph's; St. Laurent's French Catholie : St. Mary's (St. Rose) ; St. Stanislaus.
Throughout the state Meriden has a mention it does not altogether enjoy as the home of the Connecticut School for Boys, which some will still persist in calling the "Reform School." This, like Middletown's possession of the Cou- necticut Hospital for the Insane, is made a matter of much thoughtless and meaningless jibe. In the first place Meriden is not at all responsible for the school in question, and in the second place it is in these days an institution in which to have pride, not shame. Since 1851 Meriden has had this institution for the restraint if necessary, the training in any case, of minors who reach a point of delinquency or a height of so-called crime which requires imprisonment under the law. In recent years the Connecticut Reformatory at Cheshire has taken over the most difficult classes of these minors, and the school at Meriden has become more strictly a training school, with a higher character of inmates. It is at present under the superintendeney of Charles M. Williams. It is a school for the making of the boys so far as may be useful, well equipped citizens, and it is largely fulfilling that purpose.
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Meriden is a city of fraternity and sociability, if one may judge from the number of social and fraternal organizations. In round numbers there are 155. These include eight lodges of the Masonie order, eight lodges of Odd Fellows, nine courts of the Foresters of America, three lodges of the American Order of United Workmen, four lodges of the Knights of Pythias, three councils of the Knights of Columbus, two lodges of the New England Order of Protection, two conclaves of the Heptasophs, three councils of the Royal Arcanum, two lodges of the Knights of Honor, four divisions of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, four councils of the Catholic Women's Benevolent League, Meriden lodge of Elks, Captain John Couch branch of the S. A. R., Ruth Hart and Susan Carrington chapters of the D. A. R., four temperance societies, Merriam post of the G. A. R. and its Women's auxiliary, a camp of Sons of Veterans and of Spanish War Veterans and Eaton Gnard Veteran associations. The principal social clubs, of which there are twelve, are the Colonial Club, the Highland Country Club, the Franklin Club, the Cosmopolitan Club, the Franco-American and the French- American Country Club, the Motor Boat, the Rifle and the Wheel clubs.
Meriden has a live and well equipped Young Men's Christian Association, organized in 1865, with its own building on Colony Street. It serves the com- munity, through its young men and its old, ideally. A. E. Boynton is president, and the general secretary is V. V. Roseboro. The city also has a well supported Young Women's Christian Association at 30 Crown Street, now under the di- rection of Mrs. Emily J. Youngs, who is president and general secretary.
Public library development, slow in many of the older towns of the state, was not so tardy in Meriden. There was a library as early as 1796. and from that time on the needs of the community were fairly well met. The public library, as now known, was started in 1895, and in 1900 Mrs. George R. Curtis offered to erect a building in memory of her late husband, George Redfield Curtis. The present fitting and artistic building was completed in 1903, giving Meriden a home for a library that now numbers 23,983 volumes. The president of the board is George H. Wileox, and the librarian Corinne A. Deshon. It is a monu- ment to the life of a man and the broad generosity of a woman.
Another Curtis Memorial, a loving tribute to Lemuel J. Curtis, is the Curtis Home for Children and Old Ladies, a commodious and very comfortably appointed institution at 380 Crown Street. It is one of Meriden's noblest and most useful institutions.
II
No one disputes the claim that Meriden has a city hospital unexcelled by any New England city of its size. It stands for the united generosity of a large number of the city's men and women of means. The list of incorporators pays tribute to some of them : E. J. Doolittle, N. L. Bradley, John C. Byxbee, Robert H. Curtis, Rev. J. H. Chapin, George II. Wileox, Isaac C. Lewis, H. C. Wileox, George R. Curtis, John Sutliff, Charles Parker, Seth J. Hall, Eli Ives, Levi E.
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Coe, Walter Hubbard, II. Wales Lines, William F. Graham, Abiram Chamber- Jain. It is a roll of honor. That was in 1885. In the years since the hospital, keeping pace with all needs, has done a great work. The president of the board now is Edward Miller.
Most of Meriden's thirty-three physicians have at one time or another parti- cipated in the work of the hospital. It is a distinguished group. Que may safely put at its head, for none names him but to praise, Dr. Jere D. Eggleston, for approaching forty years not only a dependable physician in Meriden, but very much in the city's life in every way. Dr. Edward T. Bradstreet, one of the dis- tinguished family of Thomaston Bradstreets, graduate of Yale and Columbia, has also for nearly four decades been an honored citizen of Meriden, whose work for the community has been even broader than the saving service of the physi- cian. Ile is a large participant in the work of Gaylord Farm, has since 1901 been the town's medical examiner, and is in every way a thoroughly useful force in the life of the community. Dr. Edward W. Smith and Dr. Elbridge W. Pierce are men of long practice and high standing in the town. Dr. Frederick P. Griswold, of Connecticut birth, Mayflower descent and eminenee in his profes- sion, joined by marriage with one of the old families of Madison, is an honored member of a fine group. One of the younger men in Meriden and in his profes- sion is Dr. Harold A. Meeks, whom Connecticut owes to New Jersey, of an old Knickerbocker family, is making a great place for himself in the esteem of Meriden. And there is Dr. Joseph A. Cooke, born in New Haven, since 1899 a resident of Meriden, who is rounding out a period of useful service in his profession in the position of chief magistrate of the city.
Meriden has one of the state's sanatoria for the treatment of tuberenlosis. Formerly it was a private sanatorium, known as Undercliffe, but under the super- vision of the commission it is merely the Connecticut State Sanatorium. Meriden has for some years, however, had an independent interest in the combat with this disease, and did some excellent work at Undercliffe, backed by local support, before the state took over the institution.
Practicing at long distance in all but the minor courts, Meriden's group of lawyers-there are about nineteen of them now-have won for themselves honor in the New Haven. County Bar Association. Some of them are veterans like George A. Fay, long in practice in Meriden, state senator in 1871, for some years a partner at New Haven with Judge William L. Bennett, now of the Superior Court, whose work here ended a few years ago. Or his brother, Frank S. Fay, who has been judge of the police and city courts and city attorney, and in various other ways honored in Meriden. James P. Platt, who has achieved the difficult task of making himself a high place on his own account despite the competition of a distinguished father, is no less an honored member of the Meriden group since he was promoted to the United States District Court. Albert R. Chamber- lain, rising in the law, is rising in the community as well, and bids fair to be as much a factor in the life of Meriden as was his father, Governor Chamberlain.
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