USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 41
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The Greenville Church in Norwich (Third Congregational) had been established (1833) in a suburb where the water privileges began to attract manufacturing interests. Its pastorates were short for over a half century of its life, but it is closing the century with the long and faithful ministry of Rev. Charles H. Ricketts. In 1867, as the manufacturing interests moved further up the stream, the Taftville Church was added to the Norwich group, doing its helpful service to a fine constituency of people mostly connected with the mills established there. The Second Congregational Church of Stonington was organized in 1833 and the Mystic church in 1852, and with the Groton church have given the shore section of the county a steady and vigorous Congregational ministry.
At the Old First at New London the pastorate of Dr. McEwen was succeeded by that of Rev. Thomas P. Field, D.D., after an associate pastorate from 1856 to 1860, closing in 1876. Dr. Field brought to New London from his professorship of literature at Amherst College, culture and learning, and a spiritual leadership, as well as a wide reputation throughout religious and educational circles. A revival in 1858 led on to a steady growth throughout his strong ministry. Rev. Edward Woolsey Bacon (1877-87) and Rev. S. Leroy Blake, D. D. (1887-1902), succeeded, each with a fruitful service. Dr. Blake wrote in two volumes the story of the church he served.
Rev. J. Romeyn Danforth, the present pastor (1922), came in 1903 and has carried on with distinction the high-grade service of the church. He has represented the denomination in her national councils for many years, and proved a wise councillor in the American Missionary Association. The war opened the heart of this church, and it rendered valuable service, social and religious, to the soldiers and sailors, who accepted to an unusual degree its hospitalities. Its Young People's Society was especially active in this work and has since been carrying on strongly. The Old First Church was incor- porated in 1919 in harmony with the modern plans of best church organiza- tion, and the venerable ecclesiastical society voluntarily closed its long and honorable career. It added deaconesses to its efficient organization. At the
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time of epidemics its parish house has been used as an emergency hospital. Mr. Danforth entered widely into the religious and philanthropic life of the community. The Smith Memorial Home, the Mohegan fund, the Tinker Bread fund, the Rotary Club, the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders, claim him.
As we have seen, the Second Congregational Church started off in 1835 with the warmest favor of the Old First, and has grown into the stature of a powerful leader among the churches of the denomination in the State and country. It worshipped in its original building until its destruction by fire in 1868, just after a thorough repair. At that time the present main building was erected, one of the finest in the State, especially after the addition in recent years of the Church House, fully equipped for all lines of church activity. The early pastorates were comparatively short, with intervening supplies, and the names of Hurlbut, Huntington, MacDonald, Boies and Edwards (1845-57) make up the rapid succession. During the pastorate of Rev. G. B. Wilcox (1859-69) two hundred and seven persons were received into the membership, and the Bradley Street Mission (since the Learned Mission) was founded (1859). Many still living will recall the edifying ministry of Rev. Oliver Ellsworth Daggett (1871-77), during which he received 156 new members. Rev. John Phelps Taylor, D.D. (1878-83), brought a learned and distinguished equipment to the pulpit of the Second Church. He was followed by Rev. James Gibson Johnson, D.D. (1885-91), who will be remembered by a still larger group for his genial and effective ministry. But it was not until the eighth pastor of the Second Church that it was able to hold a strong man for a full quarter of a centur, the Rev. James Wilson Bixler, D.D., who rounded up his uplifting ministry from 1891 to 1916 with a power rarely surpassed in the annals of Connecticut. The membership of the church grew from 413 to 622. Under the ministry of Dr. Bixler the church was incorporated and the ecclesiastical society eliminated, a men's club established, the Whiton chimes mounted in the belfry, the Harris manse erected and endowed, as well as the Harris organ installed and the Church House built, completing the superb working plant of church. There were several revivals during this pastorate, notably the one under the leadership of Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D., in 1894. The influence of Dr. Bixler pervaded the community, and no important organization in the city failed to receive the strong impress of his congenial personality. He was especially a leader in the establishment of the Connecticut College for Women on its noble site in New London. He retired from his long pastorate to take an honorable position in Atlanta Theological Seminary. The ministry of Rev. J. Beveredge Lee, D. D., began in 1917 with every promise of a full utilization of all the successes of the eight preceding pastorates.
The Congregational churches of New London county came up to the end of 1920 with a total membership of 5,332 in the thirty-two churches of that order within the area of the county, twenty-eight of which are connected with the New London Association of Congregational Churches and Ministers. This Association is the direct descendant of the Colonial Association, a clear record of which we have as early as 1750. It took its present form during the readjustments in the denomination early in this century. The constitution
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under which it is working was adopted May 10, 1921, and harmonizes with the general modern pattern throughout the denomination. It is now a strong, efficient body, continuously existent through its executive committee and carrying on its united work through this and the standing committees, with an annual meeting in May and a semi-annual meeting in the autumn. The traditional autonomy of the individual church has been sacredly preserved. Never was this scion of its New England ancestry so strong in numbers, organization, material equipment, and social and religious powers. The year 1921 brought into its membership more new members than any year in a generation.
At this writing (1922) the pulpits are filled with strong, united men, all of whom have at heart the whole work in the Kingdom of God in the county, in most cordial relations with all the sister denominations.
IV. THE BAPTIST CHURCHES IN NEW LONDON COUNTY
Second in arrival on the field to begin their heroic struggle for the upbuilding of religion in New London county, came the Baptists from Rhode Island. The border line between the two colonies was greatly confused at the first, but got straightened out when Governor John Winthrop, Jr., brought back from England his new charter for the Connecticut Colony (1662), and Massachusetts graciously gave over her claims in these regions. the Pawcatuck river becoming the boundary. The contest for entire religious liberty soon crossed this Rubicon and asserted itself in the State-Church territory of Connecticut. At first in individual homes and then in groups the work began. The lowering of the original Puritan standards and the incoming of the "Half-way Covenant" into the State-Church parishes led to a real need for the strong assertion of individual conversion, and with this came the necessit for individual initiative along the whole line of religious as well as civil development. These groups of colonial Christians contended for a simple form of faith and practice which they attempted to draw directly from the New Testament records. Each organization formed a complete and autonomous democracy, and was linked by a common belief to all similar bodies, soon forming into free associations of such. A bap- tism (immersion) of faith was required for church-membership and, with more or less insistence, the communion was administered only to such believers. The result in church life brought out a remarkable staying quality. Today (1922) the Baptists have the largest number of churches and of communicants of any denomination in the county, and a very conscientious and vital hold upon the whole religious and ethical life hereabouts.
The beginnings were naturally east of the Thames river. On the very year that the General Assembly of the Colony set off Groton township from New London (1705), the First Baptist Church of Groton was organized at Old Mystic, the venerable "Mother" of all that followed. The story of the Wightmans-father, son and grandson-in establishing the principles for which the denomination has ever stood in this county, is a truly remarkable
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and heroic one. At the first, individuals and families west of the Thames, sympathizing with this movement, connected themselves with this first church. But in 1710 the First Baptist Church, in what was later called Waterford (1801), was organized as the second Baptist church in the Colony. Stephen Gorton was ordained its pastor in 1726, and for a generation went widely over the western part of the county preaching his faith and prac- ticing its rites. Some trouble interrupted his labors, arising out of personal matters and doubtless partly out of disturbances connected with "Separatist" movements connected with the revival enthusiasm of the "Great Awaken- ing". A majority of his church stood by him and seem to have been dis- fellowshipped with him by the other Baptist churches in the vicinity. At any rate, the minority went off and continued the First Church under the leadership of Elder Peckham.
We have record of special contentions throughout the whole of that period before the Revolutionary War against the State-Church system, and the proclamation of religious liberty by these earnest folk, who suffered hardship for their faith at the hands of the Puritan church leaders. They had to share the obliquy of all the Non-conformists (Rogerenes, Separatists. Adventists, etc.), in disregarding many rules and laws and customs of the Colony. This came to a climax about 1748, when a lodgment of the ven- erable Elder Peckham and his intrepid colleague, Green, and many of their followers in New London jail in the winter time, with no fire or bedding and with insufficient food, gave wide publicity to the matter. This local persecution called forth deepest sympathy and a signal protest from the ranks of even their opponents. The president of Yale College issued at once, on hearing of the affair, a pamphlet on "The Essential Rights of Protestants," in which he gave a scorching rebuke to the intolerance of the existing laws and set forth the rights of conscience and the principles of civil and religious liberty. This had much to do with the overthrow of the old and impossible system, and of bringing in the new order more in har- mony with the American ideal. The larger freedom that ensued gave great encouragement to the increasing numbers of conscientious Baptists in the county.
In the meanwhile, in the north-eastern part of the township (Water- ford, later) the second Baptist church had been established (1730), which in later years seems to have been reorganized by the Board of the Con- necticut Baptist State Convention and is sometimes called the "Quaker Hill" church. In 1741 came the North Stonington First, in 1765 the North Stonington Second, in 1767 the Salem Baptist church, in 1769 the East Lyme church, in 1775 the Stonington First, and in 1780 the Scott Hill church in Colchester. The Stonington church has had a long and most honorable career, and is a leading religious force in the eastern section of the county.
The name of Nathan Howard appears as the second pastor of the Old First at Waterford. His rare personality greatly endeared him to the peo- ple. His long illness and sudden death in 1777 brought a grievous blow to the cause he represented. Baptist pastors for the most part in those
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days earned their own livelihood in various occupations, especially in farm- ing. Elder Howard was an expert fisherman as well as a fisher of souls. He discovered in the Sound a prolific fishing ground, ever since a favorite resort. It appears on the mariners' charts as "Howard's Ledge".
In 1775 there began in the First Church at Waterford that remarkable succession of the Darrows. Elder Zadok Darrow had grown up in the church, and in so high a regard was he held that the mantle of the beloved Howard fell on him. In the midst of a general decline of religion in the county, we find this ardent apostle of a vital faith covering in his activities wide sections, being wellnigh omnipresent, like a second Athanasius. The seed thus scattered was to bear abundant fruitage. In his day (1789) was formed the "Groton Conference" of Baptist churches as well as the "Ston- ington Conference". In 1817 came the New London Baptist Association, embracing the churches of that order west of the Thames. In that same year the Groton and Stonington Conferences were merged into the "Stoning- ton Union Association".
Elder Zadok Darrow passed away in 1827, in the 99th year of his age. He was succeeded by his grandson, Francis Darrow, who had been con- verted in the great revival of 1794, and who had been for a long time an assistant to the older man. The strong ministry of the younger Darrow of more than forty years averaged seventeen immersions a year, totaling about seven hundred converts. A large number of these became ministers of the Gospel.
The widespread fruitage of the labors of the Wightmans and Darrows is seen in the rapid organization of Baptist churches all over New London County, beginning with the First Church at Norwich in 1800. Within the half century following, twenty-five churches were founded in territory now included in the county, not to speak of many more outside. This makes up more than half the number and much more than half the strength of the entire Baptists in the county.
In 1804 the Baptists moved into New London proper and established the First Baptist Church, thus making straight the way for its long and growingly powerful service at the heart of things. Mention must be made here of the particular helpfulness of this church in the Great War. At considerable personal sacrifice its building was enlarged and fully equipped and placed at the disposal of the soldiers and sailors at this important cen- tre of war activity. Its pastor, Rev. Charles R. McNally, donned the uni- form and served as Army and Navy Pastor in New London under the auspices of the Northern Baptist Convention and the Connecticut Baptist Convention. The church has since then been active through its pastor, Rev. Chester H. Howe, and its members in the Federation of Churches in New London and vicinity, of which federation Mr. Howe was the first president.
Lebanon (1805), North Lyme (1810), Moodus (1810), Preston City (1815), Chesterfield (1824), North Stonington Third (1828), Packerville (1828), Colchester Borough (1830), Bozrah (1831), Voluntown (1832), and Jewett City (1840), followed in rapid succession. Special mention may
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properly be made here of the long and successful pastorate at Colchester of Rev. B. D. Remington.
That year of 1840 was signalized by the organization of the Norwich Central Baptist Church, which has grown steadily and become a power not only for its own denomination, but for our common Christianity in the county. Of recent years the names of Herr, Wright, Slocum and Purkiss have made the pastorate of that church notable in the State.
In that same year (1840) the Montauk Baptist Church of New Lon- don was founded, and which now worships in its attractive new church in the southern section of the city. The zeal and success of the denomination in New London is evidenced in the founding of the Huntington Street Baptist Church in 1849, which is rejoicing at this writing in the long and fruitful ministry of Rev. Joseph A. Elder (1899-). In close con- nection with the origin of this enterprise is found the name and fame of Elder Jabez Swan, whose remarkable personality became a constituent part of New London tradition. His influence was widely felt throughout the county, as he exercised his evangelistic gifts, sooner or later, in almost every Baptist community. His piquant remarks have come down like prov- erbs in the whole region round about, linking his personality up to the Wightmans and Darrows as outstanding religious influences in the county.
In 1842 came the establishment of the Montville Union Baptist and Lake's Pond, while Niantic (1843), Ledyard (1843), Groton Heights (1843), and Noank (1843), came on in rapid succession, the most of them being the results of special revival interests. The Noank and Groton Heights churches stand strongly up in the list of vigorous workers. The long pastorate of Rev. George R. Atha at the Groton Heights church calls for special comment.
The Old Lyme Church was established in 1846. Stonington Third in 1846, Poquonnock Bridge in 1856, and Mystic Union in 1864. The latter is a strong church and with promising signs of enlarged work. The Grace Memorial (1871) at Norwich, Fitchville (1887), Laurel Glen (1894), and Mt. Calvary (1903), in Norwich, also are the more recent organizations, as well as the Shiloh (Colored) Baptist Church (1894) in New London.
A word should be said at this point as to the Stonington Union Sabbath School Convention, which was founded in 1858 and is still a vigorous expo- nent of the religious life of the Baptist churches east of the Thames river in New London county. The last few years have seen strong and united work within the Stonington Union Association under the lead of a special missionary who works with the pastorless churches in that section.
A roster of the Baptist pastors at this writing (1922) in New London county shows the names of thirty pastors and missionaries at work in these forty-three churches. It is probable that never in the history of the county has there been a more effective body of Baptist ministers serving these organizations. The membership of the Baptist churches of New London county totals 6,173, of whom 4,856 are put down in the last report as "resi- dent members." There seems to be a tendency to co-operate with other denominations in the county wherever practicable. Special efforts are made to this end in the rural districts. Strong men are at the helm, and the future looks bright for the co-operative labors for the religious well-being of the county as far as this earnest fellowship and bring it about.
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V.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN NEW LONDON
Rt. Reverend Chauncey Bunce Brewster, D.D., Bishop of Connecticut. Rt. Reverend E. Champion Acheson, D.D., Suffragan Bishop of Con- necticut.
Rev. J. Eldred Brown, Archdeacon of the New London Archdeanry.
Place
Church or Mission
Communicants
Black Hall (Old Lyme) ..... St. Ann's Mission. 52
Rev. Johnson, Missionary in Charge
Calvary Church
19
Colchester
Rev. Theodore D. Martin, Rector
82
Groton.
. Bishop Seabury Memorial.
Rev. Frederick W .Haist, Rector
Jewett City
Episcopal Mission
Archdeacon Brown in Charge
Mystic
St. Mark's Church.
173
Rev. Jolin Beauchamp, Rector
New London
St. James's Church.
707
Rev. Philip Markham Kerredge, Rector
New London
Pequot Chapel
'Niantic St. John's Chapel. 75
Rev. Johnson, Missionary in Charge
Noank
Grace Chapel 22
Rev. John Beauchamp, l'riest in Charge
Norwich
Christ Church
396
Rev. Richard D. Graham, Rector
Norwich
Trinity Church
277
Rev. J. Eldred Brown, Rector
Norwich
St. Andrew's Church.
200
Rev. William H. Smith, Rector
Poquetanuk.
St. James's Church.
115
Rev. Thomas H. M. Ockford, Rector
South Lyme.
St. Michael's Church.
13
Rev. Johnson, Missionary in Charge
Stonington
Calvary Church
131
Rev. Frederick R. Sanford, Rector
Yantic.
Grace Church
I21
2,382
The reader has noted on previous pages glimpses of the beginnings of Episcopacy within the borders of New London county. It seems clear that it did not spring out of the original Puritan settlers, but grew up gradu- ally and predominantly from newcomers, especially those interested in ship- ping and commerce. These at an early date showed a tendency, both in New London and Norwich, to form social groups of a less austere type than prevailed, whose members craved for themselves and their families the liturgical forms of worship to which they had been accustomed else- where, and particularly in the old country. But still there are notable instances where they did not fail to do their part in honoring religion in
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their new domiciles even in its puritanic form. We find record of the pay- ment by such of the minister's rate and of the rental of pews, as well as other indications of a general goodwill toward their more or less uncon- genial spiritual surroundings. When the time came that they could hon- orably and legally proceed to do so, they began to organize themselves into churches after their own desires. Descendants also of some of the leading founders of the colony (Winthrops, Saltonstalls, Bulkeleys, etc.) are found co-operating in this later development.
It is evident that New England presented quite a serious problem to the Church of England. Boston and Plymouth gave no encouragement except among the British officials and their families. Early efforts to set up Episcopacy in Boston were stigmatized by the unfortunate tyranny of Andros. But King's Chapel was opened in 1689, though under bitter oppo- sition from the Puritan leaders. Newport, Rhode Island, was more con- genial, and in 1698 Trinity Church was founded there, soon followed in 1707 by the famous Narragansett Church. But if New England was to be won back to the Church of England, the Colony of Connecticut must be the key to unlock the door.
The report of Rev. Dr. Bray to the authorities in England as to his investigations in New England and elsewhere led in the very year of the founding of what grew into Yale College (1701) to the establishment of the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Men- tion has been made of the visit of the early New England missioners (Messrs. Keith and Talbot) from this Society to New London in 1702, and of their cordial reception at the hands of Governor Fitz-John Winthrop, and Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall, pastor of the First Church of Christ there. Near to the south-western edge of the Colony, at Stratford, the first Episcopal church was started, with grave opposition, almost leading to a riot in 1706, and fully established in the years following.
In the early struggles to get onto its feet, the Collegiate Institute of Connecticut (Yale), originally situated within the boundaries of New Lon- don county at Saybrook and later moved to New Haven (1716), sought to build up a library. A consignment of two hundred books was sent over from England for this purpose by Sir John Davie, a recent resident of Groton (Ct.) and was followed soon by seven hundred more from an agent of the Institute in London. A few years later, Bishop Berkeley, who was seeking to establish in the Bermudas a college for the education and civiliza- tion of the American Indians and who was residing during the time of futile waiting in Rhode Island, before his return to England, was induced to add his valuable library to the Yale collection (1731). The eagerness with which the instructors and students of the college absorbed the contents of the books, embracing as they did the finest assortment of contemporary litera- ture in England, together with a number of controversial, philosophical and theological books vindicating the Church of England as against the Puritans, proved to be more effective in winning favor for Episcopacy in Connecticut than all the efforts of the Venerable Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. By 1722 the president of the college
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and other principal instructors and a group of most influential Congregational clergymen in the vicinity boldly proclaimed their adherence to Episcopal views, to the consternation of the trustees and the Congregational con- stituency throughout the Colony. Needless to say, resignations were called for, and the college trustees put up bars against a repetition of a like in- vasion. There is no telling what would have happened had the young men been more patient, and thus more deeply inoculated the Congregational ministry of Connecticut with churchly ideals before letting the break come.
One of the students, profoundly affected by this episode at New Haven, was Samuel Seabury, born July 8, 1706, to John Seabury, a deacon in the First Church of Christ in Groton, Connecticut. Young Seabury left Yale at the rupture, followed President Cutler to Boston, and finished his course at Harvard (1724). But he still kept the Congregational connection, and prepared himself for its ministry. We find him soon married to Abigail Mumford, of Groton, Connecticut, and preaching as a licentiate at the North Groton (Ledyard) Church, where his second son, Samuel, was baptized. His wife was daughter to one of the most devout and influential members of the Episcopal church in New London, though living in Groton. The com- bination of the death of this young wife, the strong influences from that side of the family, the formative episode at Yale, the intimacies fostered with Cutler in Boston and Johnson in Stratford, Connecticut, (soon to become president of King's College in New York City), and other powerful adherents of the Church of England, at length induced the elder Rev. Samuel Seabury in 1731 to demit his Congregational ministry. As a widower he went to England, was ordained by the Bishop of London, and returned to America in 1732 as a missioner of the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. He was stationed at New London, and soon married Elizabeth Powell, an ardent Episcopalian lady of the Narragansett, Rhode Island, church.
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