USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Christ church, Hartford, Vol. II, 1760-1900 > Part 2
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" The whole work was executed under the superintendence of Mr. Chamberlain, also a member of the parish; and with a faithfulness and skill which do him the highest honour. No attentions have been spared by the building committee, Messrs. Imlay, Tudor, and Ward, to render the work as perfect as possible. Indeed, the deep foundations and thickness of the walls, strengthened with buttresses in every weak part, and the massive solidity of the structure, seem to insure to it an indeterminate duration, if not assailed by any of those casualties to which all buildings are more or less liable.
" Arise, O God, into thy resting place; thou, and the ark of thy strength. Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces.
" For my brethren and companion's sake, I will wish thee prosperity.
" Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek to do thee good."
(Episcopal Watchman, Jan'y 9th, 1830, vol. 3, page 337.)
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CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
The following is taken from The Church Standard of September 3, 1904.
" A year ago a memorial was completed at Christ Church, Hart- ford, of which no notice has yet appeared, but which merits some description.
"Christ Church is one of the earliest Gothic churches in America. It was consecrated in 1829, a little after Trinity Church, New Haven -- both structures being designed by Ithiel Towne of that city. In the case of Christ Church, however, Mr. Towne based his designs upon some drawings made by the rector, the Rev. Nathanael Sheldon Wheaton, who had just returned from a visit to England. He had made a careful study of York Cathedral and the fruit of this study was a number of suggestions which were embodied in the plans of Christ Church.
" For the time and the place Christ Church was a remarkable edifice. The great square tower, 150 feet in height, is quite in the Gothic spirit and very massively built. The pinnacles and open para- pet about the top, are of solidly constructed masonry. The walls of the nave are three feet in thickness. Mr. Wheaton, tradition says, wrought not a little with his own hands upon the work, some of the grotesques upon the upper part of the tower having been carved by him.
" The designs for the nave were not completed, at first, for lack of funds, but the plans were preserved, and a year ago Mr. George E. Hoadley, a lifelong communicant of Christ Church parish, offered to have them carried out in memory of his brother, the late Charles J. Hoadly, LL.D. The result has been the transformation of the familiar " stone box " nave into a beautiful and dignified Gothic build- ing. The cost of the improvements has been upwards of $12,000.
"The following account of the changes has been prepared by Mr. George Keller, of Hartford, the architect under whose super- vision they were executed :
"'When Mr. George Hoadley engaged me to prepare a design for a memorial to his brother, Dr. Charles Hoadly, his desire was that it should take the form of beautifying the exterior of Christ Church by building decorative pinnacles on top of the old buttresses, and otherwise improving the bare appearance of the upper part of the church where it joins the roof. On carefully examining the ex- terior and some of the old drawings still in existence, I was struck with the familiar appearance of some of the architectural features of the parapet of the tower and the details shown on the old drawings, and then discovered that the architect had studied the design for the exterior of Christ Church from York Cathedral for the parapet on the tower, and that indicated on the drawings is almost a literal copy of details from York Cathedral, although executed in a rather crude manner.
19
HISTORICAL NOTES.
"' With this to guide me, I designed the pinnacles in the style of York Cathedral; but as the old work was of the simplest kind, devoid of any architectural character, it was necessary to introduce an orna- mental cornice under the eaves, so as to tie the whole together, but so managed as to seem a part of the original design, that there should be no incongruity between the old and the new work. This also made it necessary to remove a part of the eastern gables on each side of the tower and rebuild it so as to conform to the cornice on the sides and to repeat the flower ornament used in the tower cornice, which is also introduced in the enriched cornice under the eaves between the buttresses. This ornament being nearer the eye than when used on the tower, is treated more richly, and is adorned with different Christian emblems. One of the ornaments also bears the device be- longing to the Hoadley family.'
" The church was fortunate in having so accomplished an archi- tectural sculptor to execute the work, as Mr. Albert Entress of Hart- ford. He worked in the spirit of the mediaeval church builders, and in carrying out the design of the architect, embodied his own ideas in a thoroughly artistic and appropriate manner."
Another notice gives a more detailed account of the ad- ditions.
"The improvements contemplated are, briefly told, the carrying ont of the architectual plan contemplated when the church edifice was built. Each buttress, now ending at the roof line, is to be sur- mounted by a carved pinnacle of English Gothic type, like those now topping the church tower. There will be twelve of these pinnacles, five on the north side, five on the south side, and two at the top of the buttresses at the extreme ends of the front. The latter two will be about 20 feet in height above the roof line and the others will be two feet less in height.
"In addition to these, there is to be placed on the cornice to the front gable which is pierced by the central tower, an ornamental carved cornice about four feet wide, finished with rosettes and lines similar to those now carved on the upper section of the tower. The pinnacles will be duplicates in design and nearly so in size of those now on the tower, and they will be constructed of the same brown stone, so that a few years hence there will be no evidence that the new work is not identical in date with the church building."
- Hartford Post, July 11, 1902.
The following notice of the Rev. George H. Clark, D.D., is taken from the Hartford Times of April 2, 1906:
" The Rev. George Henry Clark, D.D., some time rector of Christ church in this city, died on Saturday in the 87th year of his age.
20
CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
" Dr. Clark was the third in a family of four brothers, all of whom attained distinction in the ministry. The oldest, Thomas March Clark, born in 1812 and graduated at Yale college in 1831, was rector of Christ church from 1850 to 1854, and bishop of Rhode Island from 1854 until his death in 1903, having been for many years the oldest bishop in the Anglican communion and for four years the presiding bishop of the Episcopal church in the United States. The second brother, Rufus Wheelwright Clark, born in 1813 and graduated at Yale in 1838, was for a long time pastor of the First Dutch Reformed church in Albany, and died in 1886; the third, George Henry Clark, was born in Newburyport, Mass., the family home, November 7, 1819, and graduated at Yale in 1843; and the fourth, Samuel Adams Clark, born in 1822, died in 1875, in Elizabeth, N. J., where he had been rector of St. John's church for nearly twenty years. The descent of the family on the father's side was traditionally from Thomas Clark, the first man to step ashore at Plymouth, and certainly from Nathaniel Clark, one of the settlers of Newbury in 1635, whose wife was Eliza- beth Somerby, granddaughter of Edmund Greenleaf (or Feuilleverte), a Huguenot. On the mother's side the descent was from the Rev. John Wheelwright, brother-in-law of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, the founder of Exeter, N. H., through Colonel John Wheelwright, who did active service in the Indian wars.
"The future bishop, who was first licensed to preach by the Pres- byterians, and had officiated at Newburyport in the only society of that denomination in Massachusetts, had been ordained to the ministry of the Episcopal church before the third brother entered college; the latter, George Henry Clark, studied theology at Alexandria and was ordained by Bishop Eastburn of Massachusetts, February 12, 1846. He soon became rector of All Saints' church, Worcester, Mass., from which parish in 1854 he was called to the rectorship of St. John's church, Savannah, Ga., where he spent several happy years until the approach of the Civil War. In November, 1860, he made an appeal for the preservation of the Union, which was published. In the fol- lowing year his connection with the parish was severed, and he presently came north, making his residence temporarily at Pittsfield, Mass .; but it was too late to get his library and sermons with other movables through the lines, and they were sold by an agent of the Confederacy as the property of an "alien enemy." In April, 1862, he was invited to officiate in Christ church in this city; and in the following June he was elected rector, succeeding his brother after an interval of two short rectorships. In his letter of acceptance he said that nearly a year had passed since in pain and sorrow he had left a parish with which his relations for eight years had been pleasant, and around which clustered the tenderest and most sacred associations of life, but to which he had no expectation of returning. His first wife, Lucia Blake Washburn, had died before he left Georgia. In October, 1865, he married Mrs. Susan S. Perkins, widow of Henry S. Perkins, of this
21
HISTORICAL NOTES.
city, a woman of noble character and great generosity, who died several years ago, and whose death brought a sorrow from which he never recovered. Dr. Clark -he received the degree of doctor of divinity from Trinity college in 1863 -continued as rector of Christ church until 1867, when on "account of his ill health and great nervous de- bility," he presented his resignation; he declared that his connection with the parish had been exceedingly pleasant, and the parish, having in vain asked him to withdraw his resignation, accepted it with reluctance.
" For the thirty-nine remaining years of his life Dr. Clark resided in this city on the corner of Washington and Park streets, devoting himself for the most part to the reading of history and other studies and to the care of his garden. At one time he officiated regularly in St. James's church in West Hartford, and in 1872 he became for awhile a special agent of the Society for the Increase of the Ministry, an institution in which he took great interest, and preached in many places in its behalf. But it is long since Dr. Clark's voice has been heard in church, and indeed for some years the state of his health has not allowed him to appear in public. A permanent result of his historical studies remains in his volume on Oliver Cromwell, published in 1892, with illustrations from old paintings and prints, a careful sketch, highly eulogistic of his hero; he also prepared a paper on Cromwell's letters and read it before the Connecticut Historical society, of which he had become a life member in 1864. A characteristic lecture on John Wheelwright was delivered at Trinity college and elsewhere. In the corporation of the college, to which he was elected in 1862, he was at the time of his death and had been for fourteen years the senior trustee. On the roll of the clergy of the diocese of Connecti- cut, Dr. Clark was the oldest in date of ordination to the ministry, his place being now taken by the Rev. N. L. Garfield of New Haven; in the order of canonical residence, his name stood eleventh. but it would have been fifth had it not been for delay in securing letters of transfer from Georgia, caused by the suspension of intercourse from 1861 to 1865. His two sons by his first marriage survive him - Charles Washburn Clark, a lawyer of Paris, France, and George Henry Clark, Jr., who is in business in Newark, N. J.
" Dr. Clark, like his brothers, was a man of literary skill and of true, though sometimes unconscious, humor. He had not the pulpit eloquence of the bishop and the Albany pastor; but he wrote and spoke with earnestness, and his conversation was pleasant and profit- able. Once, speaking with the writer as to his occupation with his books, he said: 'I am thankful that I have intellect enough to enjoy reading, and not so much as to make me famous.' In fact, in his words and his acts he showed his appreciation of the Horatian verse, though in a man of his ability and profession it could not be literally exemplified : 'Nec vixit male qui natus moriensque fefellit.'"
S. H.
22
CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
The Rev. Samuel Hart, D.D., D.C.L., has kindly furnished the following sketch :
The Rev. Lindall Winthrop Saltonstall, as his name indicates, was of the most distinguished New England ancestry. He was born in Chicago in 1844, and received his early education in that city. For several years he was engaged in business; but having decided to devote himself to the ministry, under strong convictions of duty, he entered the Virginia Theological Seminary and passed thence to the Cambridge Divinity School, from which he was graduated in 1877, with the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. He was ordained to the Diaconate in Brooklyn, Long Island, on the 27th day of May, 1877, by Bishop Littlejohn, and to the Priesthood in the following year by Bishop Benjamin H. Paddock of Massachusetts. His first parish, and in fact his only parish before he came to Hartford, was that of St. Mary's Church, Dorchester, Mass., which he served for thirteen years. In October, 1891, he was elected rector of Christ Church, and presently entered upon his duties, in the discharge of which he continued for nearly ten years. He was a man of pleasing personal appearance, a good reader and preacher, and of earnest convictions. In 1892, he married Mrs. Jasper of Boston; and her death after three years cast a lasting shadow over his life. After his resignation in July, 1901, he took a trip abroad for the benefit of his health, which had been seriously impaired; and in the next year, he was for several months in temporary charge of All Saints' Church, Worcester, Mass. He did not enter upon another rectorate, but passed his summers in the south and his winters in Boston and Lakewood, with an occasional visit to Hartford. In May, 1904, while in this city as the guest of Mr. Joseph G. Wood- ward at the time of a special celebration of the Grand Army of the Republic, having witnessed the parade with much interest on Thursday and dined quietly with a friend on Friday, it was found on Saturday inorning the 21st, that he had died in the night; his death was caused by heart disease, with which he had known himself to be affected for some little time; and it had come to him quietly, so that he lay with a peaceful expression on his face. The funeral service was held in Christ Church on the afternoon of the following day (Whitsunday), and the burial was on Monday in Forest Hill Cemetery, near Boston. Mr. Saltonstall was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati and a chaplain of the Military Order of Foreign Wars. S. H.
Reverend James Goodwin, eldest child of Rev. Francis and Mary Alsop (Jackson) Goodwin was born in Middletown, Connecticut, February 10, 1865. He was at St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, from 1878 to 1882. In the latter year he entered Trinity College, graduating with honors in
.
Very emerly yours. Jantes Godwin
23
HISTORICAL NOTES.
1886, and was the class poet. In 1889 he was given the degree of M.A. He was at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1886-7, and the General Theological Seminary, New York City, completing the course in 1890, and receiving the degree of S. T. B.
He was ordained to the Diaconate by the Right Rev. John Williams, D.D., LL.D., of the Diocese of Connecticut, in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Middletown, June 4, 1890, and advanced to the Priesthood by the same Prelate in the chapel of St. Luke the Beloved Physician, Middletown, September 24, 1891.
He was Assistant Minister of Calvary Church, New York, from May to October, 1890. He went to England and took a post-graduate course at the University of Oxford in 1890-1. From August 1891 to August 1895 he was Priest in charge of Saint Barnabas Mission, Berlin, New Hampshire.
While at this parish he was married June 13, 1894, to Miss Frances Whittlesey Brown of Hartford, Conn. In August, 1895, he became Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Nashua, N. H., from which he was called to the Rectorate of Christ Church and took charge April 27, 1902.
RECTORS OF CHRIST CHURCH.
MENZIES RAYNER,
PHILANDER CHASE,1
July 1801 - Oct. 1811 Dec. 1811 - Mar. 1817 JONATHAN M. WAINWRIGHT,2 April 1817 - Dec. 1819 THOS. C. BROWNELL, D.D., LL.D.,3 Dec. 1819- Feb. 1821 NATHANIEL S. WHEATON (Asst.),4 Jan. 1820 - April 1821 NATHANIEL S. WHEATON, .
HUGH SMITH,4 . .
GEORGE BURGESS,5
PETER S. CHAUNCEY,4
THOMAS M. CLARK, D.D.,6 .
RICHARD M. ABERCROMBIE,4
GEORGE H. CLARK, D.D., .
ROBERT MEECH, .
WILLIAM F. NICHOLS,7
FLOYD W. TOMKINS, JR., .
April 1821 - Oct. 1831 April 1832 - Oct. 1833 Nov. 1834 - Oct. 1847 Feb. 1848 - April 1850 Mar. 1851 - Mar. 1855 Feb. 1856- April 1862 June 1862- June 1867 June 1867 - April 1874 May 1877- June 1887 Jan. 1888 - May 1891 Dec. 1891 - July 1901
LINDALL W. SALTONSTALL, JAMES GOODWIN, . April 1902 -
I. Later he received degrees of D.D., and LL.D., and in 1819 was consecrated Bishop of Ohio.
2. He received the degree of D.D. in 1823 and of D.C.L. in 1852 - Consecrated Bishop of New York in 1852.
3. Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut.
4. Afterward given degree of D.D.
5. Consecrated Bishop of Maine in 1847.
6. Consecrated Bishop of Rhode Island in 1854.
7. Later he received degree of D.D. and consecrated Assistant Bishop of Cal- ifornia in 1890.
25
HISTORICAL NOTES.
The following clergymen have also been connected with the parish :
HENRY M. MASON.
SILAS TOTTEN, D.D. THOMAS W. COIT, D.D., LL.D. JOHN WILLIAMS, D.D. LL.D.
EDWARD GOODRIDGE.
CHARLES H. B. TREMAINE.
JOHN T. HUNTINGTON.
WILLIAM M. CHAPIN.
ROBERT HUDSON.
WM. H. MORELAND.
JOHN H. McCRACKAN.
ALLAN E. BEEMAN.
J. J. BURD. ROBERT HARRIS.
CHARLES A. HENSELL.
JAMES P. FAUCON.
3
RECORDS.
All additions and corrections are printed in italics.
.
BAPTISMS.
Baptisms by Rev. Roger Viets, Missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts, and Rec- tor of St. Andrew's Church, Simsbury, now North Bloomfield, Connecticut.
At Hartford, Jany 16th, 1764.
A male child of Timº Phelps, named William.
St. Andrews Ch Symsb. August 26th, 1764.
A male child of James Mookler of Hartford, named William. A male child of William Smith of Hartford, named John.
Hartford, Jany 27th, 1765.
By private baptism, a female illegitimate child of Nancy, servant of Mr. Knox, named Sarah.
At Hartford, Sept 8th, 1765.
A male child of Nehemiah Clarke, named Oliver Mendez. At Hartford, November 24th, 1765.
A female child of Hezekiah Collier, named Martha.
A male child of Hezekiah Collier, named William.
A male child of Hezekiahı Collier, named Daniel.
A female child of Hezekiah Collier, named Margaret. A female child of Hezekiah Collier, named Katharine.
A female child of David Bull, named Katy.
A female child of David Bull, named Sally.
A male child of William Gardiner, named James.
At Hartford, Feby 11th, 1766.
By private baptism, a male illegitimate child of Margaret Curtis, named Jolin Phillips.
At Hartford, March 2nd, 1766.
A male child of Thomas Burr, named James.
At Hartford, April 13th, 1766.
A male child of William Smith, named William. At Hartford, May 18th, 1766.
A male child of Eleazar Pomeroy, named Samuel William. Hartford, July 13th, 1766.
Dorothy Martin, an adult.
Hartford, July 17th, 1766. A female child of John Walker, named Martha.
30
CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
Scotland, June 14th, 1767.
A male child of James Mookler of Hartford, named John. Hartford, March 10th, 1768.
Private. A female child of Timothy Phelps, named Sarah.
Private. A female illegitimate child of Rebecca Cadwell, named Mary.
Scotland, July 10th, 1768.
A male child of William Smith of Hartford, named George.
Hartford, January 25, 1771.
Private. A male child of Timothy Phelps, named Enos. Hartford, July 24th, 1774. A female child of Niel McLean, named Hannah.
A male child of Niel McLean, named Hugh. Hartford, October 12th, 1774.
Private, in sickness. An adult named Mary Andrus. Scotland, June 25th, 1775.
A male child of William Smith of Hartford, named Robert. A female child of of Hartford, named Mary.
Hartford, July 10, 1800. A male child of George Lee, named George Jannings.
Hartford, July 14, 1800.
A male child of Theodore Wadsworth, named Theodore.
A male child of Theodore Wadsworth, named Harry.
A male child of David Colville, named David.
A male child of David Colville, named Timothy. A male child of David .Colville, named James. A female child of David Colville, named Rachel.
A female child of David Colville, named Susanna.
A female child of David Colville, named Lucy.
A female child of David Colville, named Ruth. Mary Hurlburt Blinn, an adult.
Abigail Merrills, an adult.
Rodney Wadsworth, an adult.
A male child of Jas. Wadsworth, named Ariel Brace.
A male child of Jas. Wadsworth, named William.
A female child of Jas. Wadsworth, named Katy.
A female child of Jas. Wadsworth, named Anna Cadwell. Hannah Johnson, an adult.
Arena Pease, an adult.
Sally Johnson, an adult.
A male child of Shadrach Johnson, named William.
A male child of Shadrach Johnson, named Joseph.
A female child of Shadrach Johnson, named Bathsheba.
A female child of Shadrach Johnson, named Hannah.
A female child of Shadrach Johnson, named Maria.
31
MARRIAGES, BURIALS, CONFORMISTS.
MARRIAGES.
Marriages by Rev. Roger Viets. At Levi Jones' Hartford, Dec. 16, 1764. Julius Jones to Elizabeth Dickinson, both of Hartford. Hartford, Jany 31st, 1767. Niel McLean to Peggy Kelly, both of Hartford. Scotland, July 21st, 1784. Zephaniah Webster to Huldah Drake, both of Hartford. Scotland, July 29, 1784.
William Burr and Widow Lydia Olcott, both of Hartford. Scotland, Sept. 10, 1784. John Hibbart Taylor and Ann Wright, both of Hartford. Scotland, January 25th, 1785.
Peleg Hill of Saybrook and Mary Sloane of Hartford. Scotland, March 6th, 1787. Clark Gibbs and Mary Olmsted, both of Hartford. Marriage by Rev. Ambrose Todd. Sept. 13, 1798, Edmon Stanley and Salley Jeffrey, Hartford.
BURIALS.
Buried by Rev. Roger Viets. Hartford, June 9, 1766, William Gardner. 66
July 17, 1766, Martha Walker.
CONFORMISTS.
Decr 31st, 1764.
Hezekiah Collier of Hartford.
William Adams
William Jepson
66
Gideon Bunce
66
]
Nathaniel Cobley of Weathersfield.
[
32
BAPTISMS from Records of Christ Church, now Church of the Holy Trinity, Middletown, Conn.
Date.
Name.
Oct. 20, 1765. William Pratt, son to - Pratt at Hartford.
Aug. 17, 1766. Thomas Green, son of Thomas of Hartford.
Aug. 19, 1770. Four infant children at Hartford.
Dec. 24, 1775. Eunice, infant daughter of George and Sarah Burr of Hartford.
Jan. 28, 1776. Ruth, infant daughter of - Trial of Hartford. .
Aug. 15, 1776. Mary, infant daughter of William Adams of Hartford. . June 26, 1777. Lavinia, daughter of David Bull of Hartford .
Sept. 27, 1777. Betsey, infant daughter of Robert Brainthwaite of Hartford.
Sept. 27, 1777. Thomas Joslin, infant son of Thomas Hildrup of Hartford.
Sept. 27, 1777. Polly, infant daughter of William Trial of Hartford.
Dec. 26, 1779. Thomas, infant son of George and Saralı Burr of Hartford.
April 13, 1781. Albrait, son of Albrait Blackwood.
Nov. 14, 1781. William Henry, infant son of William Imlay of Hartford. Rhoda and Charlotte, children of Albrait Blackwood, Hartford.
Feb. I, 1783.
Feb. I, 1783. James, infant son of Jacob Cole.
Aug. 24, 1783.
Sally, infant daughter of George and Sarah Burr.
Mar. 10, 1785.
Elizabeth Mackey, infant daughter of Jacob Odgen, Hartford. John and Richard, sons of Wm and Mary Imlay, Hartford.
June 22, 1786.
May 6, 1787. Richard Butler, adult.
May 6, 1787. Ann, inft. daur of Richard and Lucy Butler.
Mar. I, 1789.
Richard, infant son of Richard and Lucy Butler.
May 8, 1791. Walter, infant son of Richard and Lucy Butler.
Sponsors. Dr. Jepson, Mr. Mookley and Mrs. Walker, . wife of Mr. John Walker. Ye parents with Peleg Sanford. .
The parents.
The parents with wife of Ashbel Burnham. The mother, Mary Adams, sister to Mr. Adams and Hilton of Albany. The mother, Wait Plum & his wife. . The parents with ye wife of Wm Adams. The parents with John Townley. The parents, etc.
The parents and Stephen Ranney.
The father, John Horlits and ye wife - Whitebread.
The parents and wife [of] Jacob Cole. The parents and Albrait Blackwood. The mother, Wilm Joyce --- Joyce. The parents and sister.
Father, Stephen Ranney Senr. and his wife, the grandparents. Father, Stephen Ranney Senr. and his wife, the grandparents. Father, Stephen Ranney Senr. and his wife, the grandparents.
.
.
.
CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
Feb. 23, 1794. George Stephen, infant son of Richard and Lucy Butler, Hartford.
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