USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Christ church parish and cathedral, 1762-1942 : an historical sketch > Part 4
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In the 1860's rapid northward expansion began to raise imposing homes along the road to Windsor and on the lower part of Albany Avenue. Father Fisher began a mission in that district about 1864, and three years later Mrs. William Mather gave land for an Episcopal chapel. So began Saint Thomas's Church, organized in 1870 with twenty-four members, many of whom had belonged to Christ Church. Contrary to Dame Rumor, it was not a "spite church," a dugout for the disgruntled, for some who remained with Christ Church contributed to the building, intended as a memorial to Bishop Thomas C. Brownell. After a hard tussle with financial troubles, due to the panic of 1873, Saint Thomas's
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attained prosperity, especially from 1889 to 1903, with the beloved George R. Warner. Later, in spite of gallant efforts, the parish declined as old members steadily removed to new parts of the city and their former homes filled with Jewish immigrants. In 1921-23 Saint Thomas's dissolved and reunited with the mother church.
Three other churches in the city owe their lives in part to Christ Church. Saint Monica's Mission for the Negro folk at first worshipped in the old chapel, although its inspiration came from the Reverend James W. Bradin of Saint John's, about 1904. After meeting in two other places, including Saint Thomas's, the mission settled at its present home on Mather Street. Saint Andrew's, Lenox Street, began about 1905 as a community church and Sunday School, including many who were not Episcopalians. As the "Albany Avenue Mission," it received assistance from Christ Church. In 1910 it became an independent parish under the pastorate of the Reverend John H. Jackson, then superintendent of the Open Hearth Mission on Grove Street.
That mission also owed much to the social conscience of Christ Church, and especially to the Reverend James Goodwin, who promoted it long before he became rector. Formerly it was sheltered by the building that now serves as the church of Saint Paul's Italian Mission. The latter started in 1910 and was organized in 1913 to meet the spiritual needs of unchurched Italian people, and always has enjoyed the interest and financial assistance of Christ Church. It was the latest scion of the many-branched family tree that began its astonishing growth in 1762. The old church now stands surrounded by a swarm of offshoots, which from time to time have claimed her tender care, and have more than a merely legal right to call her their cathedral.
V. THE CLERGY
The pioneer pastor was the Reverend Thomas Davies, who cele- brated the first public services early in 1762. He graduated from Yale in 1758 and soon sailed to Great Britain for Holy Orders. As he was a native of Litchfield County, the Society gave him that vast region as a mission. Christ Church owes to him everlasting gratitude for his extra hardship in crossing the hills to visit the little flock here.
Throughout the colonial period the parish depended upon occa- sional services by priests from other towns. One was Roger Viets, mis- sionary in Simsbury, Granby and other places, whose personal record book is one of the treasures of the Diocesan Archives. Covering the years from 1763 to 1800, it contains entries for services in Hartford between 1764 and 1775 - baptisms, marriages, communions and funerals. His
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first celebration, with six communicants, took place in the old court- house on March 2, 1766. He was among the most valiant soldiers of Christ in the colonial missions, for the Church's sake enduring persecu- tion, imprisonment and exile. His parish was practically all Hartford County beyond the Talcott Mountains, and he made frequent trips into western Massachusetts. He was a Loyalist, and after the Revolution migrated to Nova Scotia, where he died in 1811. In 1800 he returned for a short visit to his beloved Simsbury, saw his old friends and performed a few services.
Other priests gave Hartford as much care as their vast missions allowed. There was the Reverend Doctor Samuel Peters, the brilliant, witty and rather eccentric pastor of Saint Peter's, Hebron. In 1764 he preached at Hartford, Hebron, Coventry, Mansfield and Bolton. Now and then came the missionary at Middletown, Abraham Jarvis, who in 1797 became the second Bishop of Connecticut. In 1770 the Reverend Ebenezer Dibblee, pastor of Saint John's in Stamford, came to Hart- ford at the earnest request of the Churchwardens, and on Trinity Sunday preached "to a numerous congregation whose attention and be- havior was good; the principal part being dissenters . " He forgot that in Connecticut Episcopalians were the dissenters. The Reverend Mr. Winslow of Stratford and the Reverend Jeremiah Leaming of Nor- walk also served from time to time. The latter nearly became our first bishop, being the first man proposed at the historic Woodbury meeting in 1783.
During the Revolution services evidently were very irregular or ceased entirely. After the peace of 1783, fourteen priests in the state were overwhelmed, by the care of more than forty parishes, some of them far more important than Christ Church. Ministrations were infrequent until the building was ready in 1795. In July the parish engaged a lay- reader - Calvin Whiting, a graduate of Harvard in 1791 and a candi- date for the ministry. He received £50 "lawful money" and his board from June 1, for reading prayers and sermons, eking out his living by keeping a boys' school in a building south of the church. He died in the following autumn and was buried in Center Church cemetery, where his monument still stands.
For several years efforts to obtain a settled pastor were fruitless, because of the parish's poverty and the shortage of clergymen. In Decem- ber, 1799 the wardens and vestrymen were empowered to employ tem- porary supplies for three months, until they could find a priest who would be willing to settle. For a time the vestry conducted a dangerous dalliance with the Reverend Ammi Rogers of Ballstown, New York. He was in Hartford in October, 1800, performing services and preaching a
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few Sundays. Bishop Jarvis, who couldn't bear him, probably put a stop to the performance, which was only too likely to become a farce or a tragedy. After a career of rare rascality, Ammi was deposed from the ministry. The few parishioners, who knew what the church had escaped, must have heaved a sigh of gratitude and relief, and the rest were just as happy for not knowing.
They finally located a superior man - the Reverend Menzies Rayner of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. In July, 1801 he accepted the magnificent offer (for those times) of six hundred dollars a year. After forty years Christ Church at last had found a leader. Mr. Rayner was formally in- ducted at the consecration, November 11, 1801, and served for nearly ten years. He resigned in October, 1811, to take charge of Saint Paul's Church in Huntington, where he remained until 1827.
Menzies Rayner, born on Long Island in 1770, was one of the most brilliant preachers of his day, having made a reputation as a Methodist circuit rider around Hartford. Like many men of his stamp, he was liable to revision of views. While rector of Christ Church, he provoked a surmise that he was "infected" with the doctrine of universal salvation. In Huntington he openly accepted Universalism, and did the honest thing by resigning the Episcopal ministry in a dignified letter to Bishop Brownell. How much trouble the Church would have been spared, had all dissenters so behaved! After ministering to Universalist congrega- tions in Hartford and Portland, Maine, he died at New York in 1850.
Whatever his doctrinal views, his rectorship virtually set the parish on its feet. He was considered a good pastor and a distinct asset to diocesan affairs, in which he took an active part. In 1802 he was elected a member of the Standing Committee. He made the first parochial report of Christ Church in 1812, and its encouraging note of progress undoubtedly was due to his own hard work. In that year the Diocesan Convention met at Christ Church for the first time - a sure proof of the parish's growing importance. The regular communicants increased from only six in 1801 to thirty-four in 1811. There were fifty-eight confirmations in 1808 and sixty-two three years later.
Rayner's successor was a man of even more distinguished char- acter and ability. The Reverend Philander Chase, one of the greatest early leaders of the Church in America, came to it while reading a Prayer Book as a student at Dartmouth College. In 1805 he became the first pastor of the newly-founded Episcopal Church in New Orleans, which then was practically a foreign city to Americans. In October, 1811, almost immediately after his return north, he was invited to preach in Hartford, and on June 23, 1812, was formally instituted as rector of Christ Church.
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His pastorate of only about five years brought many improvements and a great increase in numbers and spiritual grace. By 1815 there were one hundred communicants - almost triple the number when Rayner left. Chase was a pastor without frills - bold, sound and uncompro- mising - and probably seemed a bit crude to some of the more refined people. Even they respected him, however, and he acknowledged his "uncommon felicity" in Hartford, and his special pleasure at the increase of communicants. His farewell sermon, on March 2, 1817, must have been written with more genuine regret than most such compositions.
He was not the man to remain tied to an eastern city parish. Some- thing in the great West spoke directly to him, perhaps because Vermont and New Hampshire were still practically on the frontier when he was growing up there. It was only natural that he became Bishop of Ohio, the Church's first diocese west of the mountains. For fourteen years he lived as a backwoods bishop, in a log house, doing much of his own farm work, journeying far and wide and bearing hardships that would have broken a man of less resolution and physical strength. Under his care a few feeble parishes, planted largely from Connecticut, grew into a prosperous diocese, while Ohio rose from a frontier territory to a com- monwealth of a million souls. In 1831 he resigned, after creating Ken- yon College virtually single-handed. After a few years of richly-earned rest, in 1835 the Diocese of Illinois summoned him to begin his hard work all over again. In 1852 he died, full of years and honors, one of the few Eastern leaders in the Episcopal Church who really have understood the West.
His removal left an aching void, which was hardly filled by lay- reading until the arrival of a promising young deacon, Jonathan May- hew Wainwright. He came from an instructorship at Harvard College, where he graduated in 1812. Bishop Roger Viets Griswold of the Eastern Diocese * ordained him a deacon on April 13, 1817, and on the following Sunday he preached for the first time in Christ Church. Bishop Hobart of New York ordained him a priest on August 16, and on October 18 he was settled as rector. He was the first priest ordained in the old church.
Mr. Wainwright was a gentleman of high culture and genial man- ners, especially liked by the young men in Hartford, who made him a leading member of their literary club. One of his chief interests was edu- cation of the young, and he established the Sunday School in 1818. In December of the following year he accepted a pressing invitation to be assistant minister at Trinity Church in New York City. That step set him on the road to becoming Bishop of New York - the second rector of Christ Church to become a bishop.
*Including all New England except Connecticut.
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His parting advice was to call, as rector, Bishop Thomas C. Brown- ell, consecrated in October, 1819. Lack of episcopal salaries then com- pelled bishops to be rectors of important parishes which could support them. He accepted, with the Reverend Nathaniel Sheldon Wheaton as assistant to take half the services. Both served one fourth of the time at Saint John's, East Windsor. The bishop resigned in November, 1820, to teach at the General Theological Seminary, then located in New Haven.
Almost automatically, in April, 1821, the parish invited his assistant to become rector. Doctor Wheaton, a graduate of Yale, was born to wear the gown of a college president. He resigned in 1831 to become president of Washington (Trinity) College, which he promoted with the cordial support of the parish. In 1823 he sailed for Great Britain to solicit aid for the infant college, leaving the Reverend Henry M. Mason to conduct the services in his absence. Doctor Wheaton's supreme achievement was the present church, which bears the marks of his keen and intelligent interest in Gothic art. He supervised all details of con- struction and even labored with his own hands, making models for the stocco ornaments and chiseling some of the grotesque little faces that peer here and there from the stone. His resignation produced genuine regret, but also a backward glance of true joy for the church's growth in the past twelve years.
The sixth rector was the Reverend Hugh Smith, elected in 1831, installed in 1832. He graduated from Columbia in 1813, received Holy Orders from Bishop Hobart, and came here from a pastorate in Augusta, Georgia. Although a man of brilliant talents, he did not satisfy some of his new parishioners, and resigned in September, 1833. His later career included instruction at General Seminary, and eleven years as rector of important Saint Peter's Church in New York City.
His famous and greatly admired successor was the Reverend George Burgess, of whom it is said that "Few men ever came into a parish and captured the hearts of the people so quickly .. . " He accepted an unanimous call on November 1, 1834 and remained thirteen years, the longest rectorship up to that time. It was crowded with events showing a powerful and rapid growth, including erection of the old chapel, the creation of Saint John's, completion of the tower, and many improvements to the interior.
Doctor Burgess was widely known as an excellent preacher, and was reputed to prepare sermons with such energy and ease that he gen- erally wrote many in advance. He took part in civic affairs, and against opposition favored establishment of the Hartford Public High School. Increased offerings reduced the debt, while a more intense spiritual
THE RIGHT REVEREND FREDERICK GRANDY BUDLONG, D.D., S.T.D. SEVENTH BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT
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life increased the communicants, in spite of the growth of Saint John's. His departure was attended with "the profoundest sorrow and regret." He resigned in October, 1847, to become the first Bishop of Maine - the parish's third rector to attain the episcopate.
In December the church invited the Reverend Peter S. Chauncey of Rye, New York, who accepted and was instituted on May 18, 1848. His health was so uncertain that the parish granted him a leave of absence, and he resigned as of Easter, 1850. He would not reconsider, and the people accepted his decision with "most affectionate gratitude." They had the same high regard for him as those whom he served at Rye for fourteen years. From 1851 until his death, nearly sixteen years later, he was rector of Saint James's Church, New York City. He was a graduate of Columbia and General Theological Seminary, and was held in the highest esteem as a gentleman, teacher and pastor.
The Reverend Thomas March Clark of Boston accepted the rector- ship in January, 1852. His brief tenure was filled with important events, and his preaching was so popular that only his election as Bishop of Rhode Island, in 1854, eased the pressure for enlarging the church. The wardens and vestry accepted his resignation with the remark that he had "strengthened the walls of our Zion." He was the fourth rector to become a bishop, and his episcopate of half a century was one of the longest in the history of the Episcopal Church.
Almost at once a call went to the Reverend Richard M. Abercrombie of Clifton, New York. He accepted in December, 1854, and remained until June, 1861. His pastorate was darkened by his wife's death, which apparently injured his health. Like some other rectors, he had to contend with the reputation of a very brilliant predecessor, but he left the name of a kind and conscientious pastor of sterling qualities. Evidently he was one of those solid, faithful ministers who often do more to build up a parish than people believe.
His successor was the Reverend George H. Clark of Pittsfield, Massa- chusetts, a brother of Bishop Clark and formerly rector of the prominent Saint John's parish in Savannah. It was his lot to serve during tense days of civil war, and the almost equally dangerous aftermath, when furious political passions often divided parishes and even denominations. Despite establishment of other churches, the rector's burdens grew so that in 1866 the Reverend Robert Meech came as assistant minister. Ill health forced Doctor Clark to resign in March, 1867, although the parish was anxious to keep him.
Mr. Meech was soon invited to succeed, but did not accept until February, 1868. He also felt the need of assistance, which was given by the Reverend Edward Goodridge, and the Reverend C. H. B. Tremaine,
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who later became the first rector of Saint Thomas's. The rector came when Christ Church was beginning to be an old downtown parish, with difficult problems of maintenance and missionary work. The offspring were growing more rapidly than the parent, as families moved to the outskirts and joined other parishes. The loss was a constant concern, and the parish was slipping into debt. That situation probably influenced the rector's resignation in April, 1874.
It was not improved by a long vacancy until 1877, during which the Reverend John T. Huntington conducted services. Deeply worried by financial conditions, the parishioners finally made a supreme effort and extinguished the debt. The resulting more hopeful attitude prompted a call in March, 1877, to the Reverend William Ford Nichols, rector of Saint James's, West Hartford.
He accepted, and began one of the most fruitful pastorates in the parish's history. The year 1879 witnessed a great celebration for the fiftieth anniversary of the consecration. Bishop Clark of Rhode Island preached the sermon, and Mr. Charles J. Hoadley delivered an historical address which is indispensable to a knowledge of the parish's early history. Due largely to the rector's labor and influence, by 1882 the parish again was prosperous and confident, with increasing attendance and no debt. Growing pastoral cares again required an assistant, the Reverend Robert Hudson, who came in December, 1882. No previous rectorship had seen so many improvements and additions to the fabric. Mr. Nichols encouraged the introduction of a vested choir. He resigned in April, 1887, and seldom has any parish accepted a resignation more unwillingly. In 1893 he became Bishop of California - the parish's fifth rector in the episcopate.
The Reverend Floyd W. Tomkins, Jr., of Calvary Church in New York City, was chosen rector in November and assumed his duties on January 1, 1888. The Reverend Allen E. Beeman, minister in charge during the vacancy, remained as assistant. In his rather brief rector- ship Mr. Tomkins had three other assistants: the Reverend Messrs. J. J. Burd, Robert Harris and Charles A. Hensell. The church was en- riched by several fine memorials. The rector resigned as of May 1, 1891, and during the ensuing vacancy services were conducted by Mr. Hensell, who left in March, 1892.
In October the parish had called the Reverend Lindall W. Salton- stall, and in the following April James P. Faucon was selected for the increasingly important office of assistant. He remained longer than any other curate up to that time, serving both Mr. Saltonstall and his suc- cessor. This pastorate lasted until 1901 and was marked by gifts to the parish funds, and the first detailed report on endowments in 1894. The
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minutes were indexed, and in 1895 Doctor Gurdon W. Russell published his monumental source history of Christ Church, a work of fairly appall- ing toil. The parish was becoming more conscious of its place in the com- munity, and proud of its long history. It was also aware that in the future it would be an endowed institution, engaged in social service and ministry to all people.
That ideal was earnestly promoted by the Reverend Doctor James Goodwin, who served as rector from 1902 until his death in 1917. He clearly realized that the old parish days were going, and that if Christ Church was to live, it must become like Saint George's in New York. There Doctor Rainsford had taken over a dying downtown church and made it thrillingly alive by creating a neighborhood center for worship and all kinds of social activities. The idea rapidly spread throughout the Church in America and revived many a church among the unburied dead. In Hartford it was encouraged especially by Rector Ernest deF. Miel of Trinity Church, who as assistant at Saint George's had absorbed Doctor Rainsford's spirit.
Rector Goodwin encouraged using the parish rooms as a community center, until there could be a more adequate building for the varied parochial life. He favored the establishment of local missions, and was a good friend to Saint Paul's Italian Church, Saint Monica's and Saint Andrew's. The spirit of his administration foreshadowed the cathedral, as a house of prayer for all, a social-service agency and a community center. The cathedral was the inevitable unfolding of a growth that had been felt for many years and was hastened by his contagious enthusiasm.
Dr. Goodwin served as beloved rector of Christ Church for fifteen years, and his death caused sorrow and regret throughout the com- munity. His tact, genuine friendliness, quick sympathy and democratic ways, his enthusiasm for parish work, and his simple and direct eloquence in the pulpit were qualities and attributes which had made his labors as rector a success in the true sense and made him greatly loved. "He made goodness attractive by practicing it gracefully."
In a Memorial Address made by Bishop Brewster on January 8, 1917, he said: "A man's influence is as much out of control as his shadow. That goes with him where he goes and he cannot make it more or less. So personal influence flows forth from an inner life. Like the fragrance of a violet, the grace of an elm, the shade of a beech tree, the heat from the sun - so personal influence must proceed naturally from the person's being. The influence we exert depends upon what sort of persons we really are. Personal influence depends upon character, and character depends upon the depth and strength of convictions, the earnestness of faith, the intensity of love - the faith that looks unto Jesus, the love that yearns
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to do His Commandments, to follow Him loyally, and to purify one's self as He is pure. So it is with him who is in all our thoughts today." .
Someone once said - "More religion is caught, than taught." How true this is to those who had the privilege and joy of Dr. Goodwin's pastoral guidance and friendship! They know that their lives were enriched and deepened by the inspiration of that rare and lovely person- ality, and are deeply grateful.
Without ancient traditions, cathedrals of the Episcopal Church in America tend to reflect the personalities of their deans. Our first dean, Samuel R. Colladay, was fortunate in having had experience at the cathedral in Salt Lake City, followed by two years of running Christ Church simply as a parish. The latter burden alone was a heavy one, for when be became rector in 1917, there were more than a thousand communicants. At his retirement in 1936 there were over fifteen hundred, and the baptized persons exceeded twenty-two hundred. The number of people, to whom the cathedral ministered in various ways, would push the figure far into the thousands.
Dean Colladay perceived that one of his first and most important tasks would be to increase the endowment, without which the cathedral could not meet its increasing obligations. During his pastorate the endowments for various purposes more than doubled. He established the All Saints' Fund, made up of small gifts, as a memorial to the many devout souls who have passed from the parish into eternal life. The offerings on All Saints' Day swell this fund, and Dean Colladay used to give it all gifts for services at funerals. It now amounts to thousands of dollars, and the income supports parish work.
The Dean earnestly desired to make the cathedral a center of missions and community service. How he succeeded is remembered in many insti- tutions, and in several smaller parishes and missions of the Hartford Archdeaconry. He labored incessantly to implant the ideal of the cathed- ral as a house of prayer, instruction and worship for all people - not as a rival but as an inspiration to other parishes. The thing closest to his heart was deepening spiritual life, through many services of Holy Com- munion and an intense spirit of worship. Never before had there been so many memorials of the passion - three on Sunday and at least one every weekday, year after year. All anniversary services were con- scientiously observed. Distinguished preachers, including many from abroad, were invited to occupy the pulpit.
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