USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Hartford's First Church > Part 5
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made his hearers' "hearts burn within them." If such preach- ing did not crowd the Church, it helped it grow strong in other ways, which was no small achievement at a time of waning church-going throughout the land.
It is possible that the Congregational communion lays too much stress on preaching. The worship of God, which is really the chief business of the Church, is sometimes neg- lected for pulpit oratory. But sermons, too, can represent worship, and Dr. Potter's were of this kind and showed him to be a true "son of the prophets" and a worthy suc- cessor of the many great preachers who preceded him.
The Vesper Services were initiated by Dr. Walker in 1891 under a vote of the prudential committee "to counter- act the tendency to neglect church-going," and were con- tinued throughout Dr. Potter's ministry. They were usually well attended, at least before the advent of Sunday con- certs and other secular entertainments. On Sundays near Christmas, and on Palm and Easter Sundays the attend- ance at Vespers sometimes reached twelve hundred or over in a Meeting House designed to seat only nine hundred and sixty. This is ample evidence of the appeal the Minister made to all sorts and conditions of men; and another is the printing, mainly through voluntary contribution, of no less than sixty-six of his sermons.
Young men and women, students at school and college, heard Dr. Potter gladly. Yale, Harvard, Williams, Cornell, Wellesley, Vassar all welcomed him from time to time in their college chapels, and he frequently preached at Smith, Amherst and Mt. Holyoke, often at two on the same Sunday. As a lecturer he was also much in demand. The Hartford Seminary students have heard his lectures on homiletics three times a week since 1919. He also gave a course on "Problems of the American Church" at Chicago Theological Seminary. In 1912 he held a lectureship
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at Teachers College of Columbia University, and the lectures he delivered there were printed by the Uni- versity as a book entitled, "The Common Faith of Common Men."
Such a wide hearing naturally led to many calls from other churches, but he steadfastly refused them, although at least two churches were especially urgent in their efforts to secure him as Pastor. These were the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas in New York City and the First Congrega- tional Church in Los Angeles. Dr. Potter seriously consid- ered the latter call, but decided against it, partly because of the loyal manner in which his own Church both collect- ively and individually urged him to stay. The strain of making this decision was great, and he suffered a serious nervous breakdown as a result, but was back in the pulpit the same year, after a long vacation. A call in 1907 to be dean of the Yale Divinity School should also be mentioned, as well as one to the Harvard Church in Brookline.
Before leaving the subject of preaching, a word should be said in tribute to Dr. Potter's occasional sermons to the children of the congregation. These preceded the regular sermon and were admirably adapted to his young hearers. The writer remembers especially one inspired by the warn- ing signs of "soft shoulders" beside newly made highways. The application to children who shirk their share of home duties and responsibilities was well brought out, and with a kindly spirit of perfect sympathy with his hearers.
But preaching is only part of a minister's office, perhaps the smallest part in the complicated organization of a modern church. The pastoral duties are vital. Dr. Potter labored as faithfully here as in fulfilling his duty as a preacher, and he had a devoted following among his flock. Many came to him in trouble, sure evidence of his gift of sympathy, and he visited unremittingly those especially in
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need of his ministrations, making from four hundred to six hundred and fifty pastoral calls a year. Many a lonely, sick or sad soul has been cheered and comforted by his presence, and now as Honorary Minister many of those same persons still count on seeing him and having his advice and comfort.
A pastor is also responsible for the conduct of the many activities of a Church outside the Meeting House. Here again Dr. Potter was effective in furthering the in- terests of the Sunday School, the various clubs and "guilds," and the missionary societies, so that they prospered and grew. Another valuable service to the Church's life was the giving of lectures during the Autumn and Lenten Schools, which had come to replace the earlier Thursday evening meeting. These lectures, on missions and other topics, were always interesting and useful, while an occasional reading of a great poem was an unusual feature. Dr. Potter's one hobby is poetry. He loves beautiful verse, and reads it remarkably well, so that his interpretations of such poems as Noyes' "Watchers of the Sky," selections from Dante, and Masefield's "Good Friday" have been a real privilege to listen to.
The financial problems of such an organization as the "First Ecclesiastical Society" were of themselves of serious import, and we had a Minister equal to his portion of the task. His exertions, inspired by a far-seeing appreciation of the Church's needs, were to a large extent the cause of a rapid growth of its endowment. In 1900 the endowment consisted mainly in the "Fund of 1802" represented by the building north of the Meeting House, and by five or six special funds. By 1928 this had grown to the impressive number of over fifty special funds for the immediate needs of the Church and Sunday School, not counting the funds devoted to Warburton Chapel. So that, in spite of the loss
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of many generous supporters, the Church has not only carried on its historic work, but has actually made steady gains in usefulness to the community. At the same time, also inspired by the Minister, we have been able to main- tain our honorable position as the third church of our denomination in America from the point of view of dona- tions to missions and other philanthropic enterprises.
Outside of the ministerial office Dr. Potter's activities were, and still are, numerous and important, and honorary degrees conferred upon him by Union, Rutgers and Williams Colleges in 1907, 1915 and 1927 were well deserved. In Hartford he was a trustee of the Hartford Theological Seminary from 1902 to 1928 when he became its dean. He has been president of the Connecticut Bible Society since 1904, president of the Connecticut Institute for the Blind since 1907. He was president of the Consumers' League from 1913 to 1930, and also held that office in the Uni- versity Club. He served for nine years on the Juvenile Com- mission, to which he was appointed by Mayor Hooker, and has long been a director of the Charity Organization Society.
Beyond the borders of the state, Dr. Potter's activities include a ten years term as trustee of Union College, and he has served since 1912 on the board of Mt. Holyoke College. But undoubtedly the most important of his many posts of responsibility have been his three positions as president of the Congregational Home Missionary Society (1915-1921), as Moderator of the National Council of Congregational Churches (1923-1925), and as president of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions, since October 1925. No one before him has ever held all three of these important offices, and his being so hon- ored is ample testimony to his undoubted executive ability, a rather rare commodity among clergymen.
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The duties of directing the American Board called Dr. Potter to India during the winter of 1925-26, to inspect and report on the missions supported there by the Board. He left in October and was gone until the following spring, the pulpit being chiefly supplied in his absence by the Reverend Nehemiah Boynton. On this tour he was accom- panied by a party of commissioners consisting of the Rev- erend William E. Strong, secretary of the Board, and Mrs. Strong, Dr. Charles E. Jefferson of New York, and Miss Amy Welcher of Hartford. The party spent three months in India where they saw many interesting persons and places but were mainly occupied with the extremely laborious task of visiting innumerable schools, colleges, hos- pitals and churches in many of which Dr. Potter preached to native congregations. Joined by Mrs. Potter they returned in the spring by way of Japan where they made further visits to mission stations under the Board's direc- tion. Such a trip was of the greatest value to the Board, and on his return Dr. Potter was enabled to advance the cause of missions by addresses on India in many churches and before various Congregational Clubs.
In closing, I cannot do better than quote from the "minute" adopted by the Church in accepting Dr. Potter's resignation on June 11, 1928.
"By putting emphasis upon the personality of Jesus of Nazareth as embodying the highest concept and example of human life as it is associated with divine relations in spir- itual experience, and by avoiding the pitfalls of purely theo- logical discussion, he has made himself a sane and healthful leader of religious thought of both the old and the young in his Church and congregation, and an inspiration to growth in Christian living for us all."
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John Milton Phillips
John Milton Phillips, D.D., was called to the pastorate of the Church January 3, 1930. He accepted the call and entered upon his duties in March, and was installed by the Church by the assistance and approval of a Council called for the purpose on April 30, 1930.
Dr. Phillips was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1889, the son of William S. Phillips, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His college course was taken at Illinois College where he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1912. His professional training was received at the School of Theology at Boston University. During his col- lege course he served as a preacher on a circuit of Meth- odist Churches in the vicinity of the college. During his sem- inary course he was Assistant Minister in the Central Con- gregational Church, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Upon completion of his preparation for the ministry he served from 1915-1920 as Pastor of the Park Avenue Congrega- tional Church at Arlington Heights in Massachusetts. In succession he served as Pastor of the Central Congrega- tional Church of Lynn; of the Franklin Street Congrega- tional Church of Manchester, New Hampshire, and of the First Congregational Church of Akron, Ohio. During his pastorate in Arlington Heights he was married in 1917 to Eleanore Sinclair.
His vigorous preaching and effective leadership in the work of these Congregational churches drew to him the attention of this Church and the call to him to enter upon its pastorate was unanimous and enthusiastic. He has under- taken his work with the cordial appreciation and coopera- tion of the people of the Church, who look forward gladly
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to the continuance of his ministry among them as they shall receive his interpretation of the Christian gospel, his chal- lege to the Christian service and his ministry to the Chris- tian experience.
Dr. Phillips' ministry has been recognized by the de- gree of Doctor of Divinity granted him in 1929 by his alma mater, Illinois College and in 1930 by Northland Col- lege. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Boston Seaman's Friends Society and of the Commission on International Relations of the General Council of Con- gregational and Christian Churches for which he wrote in 1931, "The Peace Primer," a notable contribution to the pamphlet literature available for use in the education of youth in the movement for world peace.
The seventeenth Minister of the Church leads its life into its fourth century with the affection and confidence of the members of the Church and its congregation and with the cordial good will of the community. In generous as well as genial fellowship he has responded to the welcome of his colleagues in the ministry and offered his service freely for their common tasks. His predecessor in the pastorate rejoices with his people in the contagious enthusiasm, the courageous resourcefulness and the brotherly spirit of John Milton Phillips, a twentieth century Puritan, a prophetic Great Heart, who discerns the signs of the times and leads steadily on toward the achievement of the timeless values of the Kingdom of our Lord.
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CHAPTER IV The Meeting Houses
AROUND the Meeting Houses of this Church the affec- tions of the people have gathered through all of the his- tory of its three hundred years. The affection in which we now hold the fourth Meeting House built in Hartford in which our worship has been held for one hundred and twenty-five years is a symbol of the affection which has been successively given to these shrines of the spirit where- in our fathers have worshipped.
The first house was that built in Newtown immediately upon the arrival of "Mr. Hooker's Company" who pro- ceeded thither by order of the Court from Mt. Wollaston. It was a small building thirty-six feet in length by twenty- three feet in width and stood near what is now the inter- section of Dunster and Mt. Auburn Streets, and a stone in the building which until recently occupied the spot bore the inscription, "Site of the First Meeting House in Cam- bridge, erected in 1632." Near it was the house built for Thomas Hooker which stood for many years in Harvard College Yard. It served the community during the few years of their sojourn in Newtown. The sessions of the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were sometimes held within its walls and there were gathered
Hartford's First Church
also the messengers of the churches in the famous synods of 1637 and 1649, after the removal of the original col- ony to Hartford and the development of the community which succeeded it in Newtown. In 1649 this primitive house gave way to a more adequate or at least more sub- stantially built edifice for the Newtown or Cambridge con- gregation.
"Mr. Hooker's Company," upon arriving in the Con- necticut valley, undertook at once to provide a common house which might serve as a Meeting House for the Church and also as a place of assembly for the people of the community on all civic or other occasions. This house stood very near to the southeast corner of the lot east of the Old State House. It was probably about the size of the one which they had left behind them in Newtown. It was built of logs and covered with a roof of rude boards. To us it would seem a most uninviting place of worship or even of assembly, but to the first colonists of the town it was doubtless a haven of refuge from their own dwell- ings which must have been even more rude and plain, and in it they found both fellowship and inspiration which enabled them to bear with the hardships of those first years in the new settlement.
In 1638-40 the second house in Hartford was built upon practically the same location as the first. This was a much more adequate structure built of frame covered with substantial boards and a roof of the same material. The old house of meeting which had served the first years of the settlement was given to the Minister, Mr. Hooker, and was used as his barn. Glass windows gave more adequate light to the new house and the seats were more serviceable for the uses of the congregation. A simple cupola or embryo steeple surmounted its roof and in this was hung the bell
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which is thought to have been the second bell used in this country for church purposes, the first being that at James- town, Virginia. The congregation had brought it with them from Newtown, prizing it too much to leave it be- hind.
While the congregation used this Meeting House, at any rate in its earlier years, the men who were its mem- bers served as guards each Sabbath and Lecture Day in order that the foes of the community, the unfriendly In- dians of the region, might not take advantage of these op- portunities to make a surprise attack, even though the In- dians of the immediate neighborhood were disposed to be friendly. In 1644 a gallery was placed in the Meeting House on one side and in 1660 and in 1664 other galleries were placed, so that the house through most of its history had galleries on three sides. Some adornments were provided for the pulpit in the form of "a plush cushin, a green cloth and silk for the fringes and tasseles of said cushin." The Meeting House had no arrangements providing heat or artificial light. Even the use of foot stoves developed grad- ually and met with disfavor, presumably because they made worship too comfortable.
It served also as the Court House, the Town Hall and the meeting place of the General Court of the Colony. So through ninety-nine years this Meeting House served the Church and its community. It was the second house in Hart- ford and the third house of the Church.
As early as the beginning of the year 1726 a movement is recorded in the records of the Ecclesiastical Society look- ing toward a new Meeting House to take the place of the house of 1640, which by this time had served for eighty- six years. The project was complicated first by the sugges- tion that the Second Church, which had separated from
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the First in 1670, be united with the First Church and that the new building serve for the reunited congregation. There was no tangible result from this proposal, for by this time it was probably clear that the town was destined to be large enough to require the use of two meeting houses and strong enough to maintain two churches. The project was further complicated by difficulties as to the location of the new Meeting House. Mrs. Abigail Woodbridge, the widow of Timothy Woodbridge, the honored former Minister of the Church, desired that it should be located on the east side of Main Street and offered a lot for that purpose. This lot was about where the Morgan Memorial now stands, but a considerable number of the congregation were dis- satisfied with that location and indicated that they would not subscribe to the cost of the new building if it were to be placed there. The matter was laid before the General Court of the Colony and there was much discussion, some of which was rather heated, concerning this matter. At last it was decided that the Meeting House should be built on the southeast corner of the Burying Ground on the west side of Main Street. Mrs. Woodbridge was offended by this action and for a time withdrew from the fellowship of the congregation and worshipped with the Second Church. Later she was reconciled to the decision as to the location of the Meeting House and returned to the fellowship of the First Church. She had borne witness to her loyalty to the Church by the gift of a silver cup for use in the Communion Serv- ice. This cup, bearing an inscription to the effect that it was her gift, has had a curious history, having been sold by the Church in 1804 and having been purchased and returned at the time of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary by an interested member of the congregation. It is preserved now as one of the prized possessions of the Church and
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has its place upon the communion table at each returning observance of the Lord's Supper.
The Meeting House of 1740 was a much more adequate building than those which had preceded it. It served the congregation well for sixty-seven years. It had a steeple with a spire. It had the chaste beauty and strength of the pre-Revolutionary Meeting Houses like those in Wethers- field and Farmington which providentially remain to us. On July 31, 1737, Daniel Wadsworth, the Minister, recorded in his diary, "This was ye Last time I preached in ye old meeting house," and on August 2, "This day ye people began to pull down ye old meeting house, took down ye pul- pit, seats and bell, and carried ye pulpit into the State House." He also records "upon ye weather Cock that was taken off of our old meeting House was this date, 1638. Whence I suppose our old meeting House stood ninety- nine years." The new building was completed in the late fall of 1739, and on December 30, was dedicated with a sermon from the text, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord." Mr. Wadsworth enters it in his diary "Lords Day. Haggai 2:9. I preached on this text all day. This was ye first Sabbath wee met in ye New Meeting House." It stood upon the ground occupied by our present Meeting House with its side to the Main Street, fifty-six feet in length and forty- six feet in width. The pews were square and from time to time there was the usual difficulty with reference to the ordering of the congregation for their use. The pulpit was graced with a canopy and sounding board, a cushion and a new hour glass, which must have been of a somewhat elab- orate design as the Society was willing to spend five pounds, ten shillings and one penny for it in those frugal days. In this Meeting House the Church and its congregation lived
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through the stirring days of the Great Awakening and the period of the Revolution. Here Daniel Wadsworth, who was Pastor during its building, completed his ministry of fifteen years. Here Edward Dorr fulfilled his entire min- istry of nearly twenty-five years, and here served Nathan Strong through the period of the Revolution and the estab- lishment of our national life.
In 1804 the Society voted to appoint a committee to consider the building of a new Meeting House. The deci- sion was favorable toward such a project. In 1805 the third house of worship in Hartford was removed and work was begun upon the building of our present Meeting House. The town had given permission to the Church to use some- what more of the Burying Ground for its location, and tradition has it that its western end, with its pulpit, is lo- cated over the grave of the first Minister. The cost of the Meeting House is shown by the records to have been $32,- 014. A detailed record of all expenses incurred was kept by the treasurer of the committee, Peter Gallaudet, and this faded and yellowed record book is at the present time one of the treasured possessions of the Church. The build- ing was completed without debt and dedicated in 1807. It is said to have been modeled upon the pattern of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields in London. Mr. Daniel Wadsworth, a member of the congregation, grandson of the Reverend Daniel Wadsworth, was the leading spirit in its construc- tion and is credited with having been the amateur archi- tect of its design. Mr. Wadsworth was doubtless familiar with the Church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields as he had traveled in England and very likely had a vivid impression of that Church which he used in his plans for the new building in Hartford.
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This Meeting House has served the First Church for one hundred and twenty-five years. It is built of brick and is seventy-nine feet in width and one hundred and fourteen feet in length. Some of the timbers of the original Meeting House are said to have been included in this fourth Meet- ing House. It was given a slate roof, a porch, and a steeple one hundred and eight-five feet in height over its eastern end. This steeple encloses the belfry in which was placed the old bell of the Church. This bell had been recast in England in 1727 and included in its metal materials of the original bell brought with the Church from Newtown in 1636. It had been placed in the belfry of the third Meeting House in 1739. In 1841 the bell was injured or developed flaws in its metal, and after an experiment with another bell which was unsatisfactory, it was sent to West Troy, New York, to the celebrated Meneely Foundry, where it was recast, with the inclusion of added material, and re- turned in 1850 to its place in the belfry. Its weight is re- ported to be three thousand four hundred and ninety pounds, and it bears cast in its metal the inscription, "Holiness unto the Lord." Until recent years it was connected with the clock in the steeple and sounded out the hours in the heart of the city. At present, this connection has been outworn, and the bell is used only for the purpose of sending out the call for Sunday morning worship. While the bell was absent from Hartford to be recast in England in 1727, a flag was used on the State House adjacent to the second Meeting House yard for the purpose of calling the people to worship. The Second Church, through its Society, contributed to the ex- pense of the recasting of the bell as it was considered a useful instrument for the purposes of both churches. We are told that when the third Meeting House was removed
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and the new house was built, the bell was temporarily hung in the tower of the building then used by Christ Church. So this bell, which contains in its material the original bell which came with the colonists from England, symbol- izes more completely than any other material thing, both the continuity of the history of the Church and the happy relations which the Church has enjoyed in Christian fellow- ship with other churches of the town and city.
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