USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 56
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2 The price of Mr. Bolles for the lot was £75, but he threw in £25, as his contribu- tion toward the church.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
It was the highest elevation of a granite ledge, offering on its rounded summit a peerless platform for a church.1
The sum raised by subscription for building the sacred edifice, was £1,267, 12s. 6d. . Of this sum, Thomas Shaw gave £400 in labor and lumber. Very few of the subscriptions were in cash ; some gave labor, some building materials, board of workmen, dry goods, groce- ries, &c. The house was built in 1786, and the pews sold at auction January 19th, 1787, for £143, 16s. That part of Union Street which passes by this edifice was opened about the same period. The first preaching in the house was the execution sermon of the Indian girl, Hannah Occuish, December 20th, 1786.
Rev. Henry Channing was ordained pastor of the church May 17th, 1787. He had been a tutor in Yale College, and was recom- mended to the society by President Stiles, of that institution, who preached the ordination sermon. His salary was fixed at £140 per annum. In 1788, by means of a second subscription of £500, the meeting-house was painted and put into complete order.2 It was then considered a structure of more than ordinary elegance; the dimensions were seventy feet by fifty, with twenty-eight feet posts. The narrow, high pulpit, was overshadowed by a sound-board of ap- parently terrific weight, which was sustained by an iron rod, undoubt- edly of great strength, but not of sufficient size to dissipate all anxiety from the minds of beholders.
A parsonage or glebe-house and land, with house and land for the use of a sexton, were presented to the society in 1787, by Thomas Shaw. The parsonage was on Main Street, and had once before been ministerial property, being originally a part of the Liveen legacy to the society, but afterward a Latimer homestead. The house was built by Col. Jonathan Latimer, and conveyed by him to his son Capt. Robert Latimer, in 1767. The latter enlarged it to double its original size, but removing afterward to Middletown, sold the place to Shaw, who made a free gift of it to the society. It was occupied for a parsonage about fifty years, but the distance from the church rendering it inconvenient for the pastor, it was relinquished.3
1 This situation is now familiarly called Zion's Hill, a designation which is believed to have originated at a Sunday-school celebration in 1830.
2 Two of the subscribers on this list of 1788 are living in 1852, viz., John Coit, of New London, and George D. Avery, then of New London, but since of Oxford, New York. They were both pew-holders in 1790.
3 The house is still extant, and was sold by the society in 1850, for $2,200.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Rev. Henry Channing was a native of Newport; graduated at Yale College, in 1781, and was tutor of that institution from 1783 to 1786.1 A revival of religion in the congregation, followed his set- tlement at New London. About eighty persons became members of the church within two years after his settlement. His ministry con- tinued nearly nineteen years.
On the 21st of February, 1806, Mr. Channing sent a letter to the society committee, asking for a dismission from his charge. The reasons he assigned were the insufficiency of his salary to meet the enhanced prices of the times, the indifference and neglect with which his complaints on that subject had been treated, forcing upon him the conclusion that his ministerial services were no longer acceptable, and finally, the inefficiency of his labors during the last seven years, to counteract the evidently declining state of religion and morals in the place.
The society concurred with Mr. Channing in calling a council, which convened May 20th, 1806, at the house of Gen. Jedidiah Huntington, and voted a dissolution of the connection.
This measure was an unexpected one, as no obstruction to the reg- ular harmonious intercourse between the pastor and the congregation had taken place. Dignified courtesy on his side, had been met with respectful reserve on theirs. Nevertheless, a disagreement in faith and doctrine existed, which must in the end have led to disruption. Mr. Channing was a Unitarian, perhaps had always been one, but this was not known or suspected at the time of his settlement. It was now no longer a surmise or a secret. His lips had been for some time watched ; no admission of the divinity of Christ ever issued from them. The form of covenanting and profession of faith was expressed in vague and general terms; he avoided the customary doxologies, and dismissed all worshiping assemblies with apostolic ascriptions of praise and glory, as in I. Timothy, i. 17. Most of his congregation were aware of his sentiments, though little was said about them. A general indifference in respect to doctrines prevailed.
William Ellery Channing, the nephew of the Rev. Henry, was in the family of his uncle at New London, for a considerable time, pur- suing his education under his tuition, and it is probable that he first imbibed from his instructor and relative, those views and doctrines
1 Mr. Channing married, September 25th, 1787, Sally McCurdy, of Lyme, They had nine children, four of whom died in infancy.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
of which he was afterward the eloquent champion. After being licensed to preach, he occasionally occupied the pulpit of his uncle ; and at his ordination in September, 1799, over the church in Fed- eral Street, Boston, the New London church assisted, by invitation, and were represented by their pastor, Rev. Henry Channing, and delegate, Gen. Jedidiah Huntington.
During the nineteen years of Mr. Channing's ministry, the admis- sions to the church were one hundred and eighty-nine ; baptisms, five hundred and seventy-five, of whom fifty-six were adults, and several by immersion : marriages by him, three hundred and forty-six.
Mr. Channing's services closed in May : on the 14th of July, the society voted to call the Rev. Abel McEwen to the pastoral office. He accepted the invitation, and was ordained October 22d, 1806-ser- mon by Rev. Timothy Dwight, president of Yale College.
With Mr. McEwen's ministry, Dwight's Psalms and Hymns were introduced, and a new form of church covenant was adopted, express- ing the doctrines regarded as orthodox, with distinctness and perspi- cuity. A session-house was also very soon provided. Before this period all conference meetings, and in general, religious lectures, had been at private houses.
Rev. Abel McEwen, D. D., is a native of Winchester, Ct. He graduated at Yale College in 1804, and has been Socii of that insti- tution since 1826. At the close of this history in 1852, he has nearly completed the forty-sixth year of his ministry. Number of members in his church about two hundred and fifty.
In 1848, the society came to the determination of building a new house of worship, on the site then occupied. As a preparatory meas- ure, therefore, the old house must be removed. The last service in this venerated building, was held Sept. 30th, 1849 : the sermon by the pastor from Psalm cii. 14.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
CONGREGATIONAL MEETING-HOUSE. 1786-1850.
This edifice was taken down, and in the course of the year 1850, a granite church-the stone partly quarried from the foundation, and partly from another ledge about one hundred rods distant-was erect- ed on the spot, at a cost of about $43,000. The architect was Leo- pold Eidlitz, of New York. The main features of the design belong to the most ancient Gothic style; the arches are semi-circular, the recess for the pulpit, semi-octagonal, and the side windows double, with a broad column in the center. The architectural design and proportions of the building, with the open, airy appearance of the campanile or bell-tower, and the light and graceful spire, harmonize well with the elevated position and color of the stone.
A second Congregational church was organized by a colony of nineteen members from the first church, April 28th, 1835. A church had been previously built and dedicated April 23d. Rev. Dr. Baldwin, then of New York, but afterward president of Illinois Col- lege, preached the dedication sermon. The cost of the edifice when completed, was about $13,000 ; the land for the site was a gift from T. W. Williams.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Rev. Joseph Hurlbut supplied the pulpit for nearly two years.
Rev. James McDonald was installed Dec. 13th, 1837 ; dismissed, Jan. 7th, 1840.
Rev. Artemas Boies, previously of the Pine Street Church, Bos- ton, was installed March 10th, 1840. IIe died, after a short illness, Sept. 25th, 1844. He was the first pastor of any denomination, that had deceased in the place, since the death of Bishop Seabury, in 1796.
Rev. Tryon Edwards, previously of Rochester, N. Y., was in- stalled March 6th, 1845.
This church numbers, in 1851, about one hundred male and two hundred female members.
Episcopalians. The Episcopal society assembled for the first time after the burning of the town, April 25th, 1783. William Stew- art and Jonathan Starr were chosen church-wardens, both of whom had held the office before the fire. The great and interesting object before them was the erection of a new church ; or, as it is expressed in the record, "the reestablishment of our sacred dwelling."
The site of the old church was wanted by the town for the pur- pose of widening the street or Parade, but the society liesitated to re- linquish it on account of the interments that had been made in the ground. All traces of graves, however, had been obliterated by the fire and rubbish of the ruins, and an exchange was ultimately effected with the town, by which the church-lot was thrown into the highway, making a part of State Street, and a new site was procured by the society, on a portion of the old Edgecomb homestead in Main Street, which by the opening of Church Street, simultaneously with the erection of the church, became a corner lot. On this spot the second Church of St. James, which may be called the Seabury church, in distinction from the first, or McSparran church, was erected. Bishop Seabury had become an inhabitant of the town, and the church was commenced and built under the expectation that it would be occupied by him. The foundation stone was laid July 4th, 1785, and the house dedicated by Bishop Seabury, Sept. 20th, 1787. The dome and bell were not added till 1794.
The interments in the old church-yard upon the Parade, had been very few, and those principally of persons belonging to the families of English residents, or recent settlers in the place. Most of the na- tive Episcopal families are known to have been gathered to their
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
fathers in the ancient burial-ground. At several different periods since the beginning of the present century, human bones have been unearthed by workmen employed in grading State Street ; a few only at a time, but indicating that they had struck into one of the graves in the cemetery of the old Church of St. James.
Samuel Seabury, second son of Rev. Samuel Seabury, was born in Groton, Nov. 30th, 1729 ; graduated at Yale College in 1748, and in 1750 went to Scotland for the purpose of studying the science of med- icine ; but changing his design and turning his attention to theology, he was ordained in 1753, a minister of the Church of England, and returned to America as a missionary of the " Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts." He preached a short time in the prov- ince of New Brunswick, from whence, in 1756, he removed to Ja- maica, Long Island, and in 1766 was transferred by the society to Westchester, N. Y., where he kept a classical school both for board- ers and day scholars, and officiated as rector of the parishes of East and Westchester. He had at the same time considerable practice as a physician. In the Revolutionary contest he was a royalist ; and in November, 1775, was arrested at his house by an armed force, car- ried to New Haven, and kept for some time in durance. He was subsequently released and allowed to return to his family.1 In 1777, he was appointed chaplain to the " king's American regiment," which was raised in Queen's county, N. Y., by enlistment of royalists.2
In 1784, he went to England, bearing the recommendation and re- quest of a number of Episcopal clergymen in Connecticut and New York, that he might be appointed Bishop of Connecticut. He ap- plied for consecration to Dr. Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury ; but that prelate, doubting his authority to consecrate a bishop out of the bounds of the British empire, and requesting time for deliberation, Dr. Seabury, impatient of delay, proceeded to Aberdeen, and made a similar application to the prelates of the Scotch church. He was successful in his suit, received Episcopal consecration, Nov. 14th, 1784, and returned to America as Bishop of Connecticut. In New London, where he had passed his early days, and among the people of St. James' Church, the ancient flock of his father, he found a pleas ant and congenial home. His salary was " £80 per annum, half the contribution," and the use of the parsonage.3 His diocese afforded
1 Hinman's War of the Revolution, p. 548.
2 Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents in Queen's Co., p. 427.
3 Society Record.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
him some additional income. In 1790, he was elected Bishop of Rhode Island, this diocese being united to that of Connecticut.
Bishop Seabury died Feb. 25th, 1796, and was interred with great ceremony and solemnity in the second burial-ground, where his ceno- taph is still to be found, the remains from beneath having been since removed. He was succeeded in his pastoral office by his son, the Rev. Charles Seabury, who had previously been preaching in Jamai- ca, L. I., but was invited to New London immediately after the death of his father. His ministry commenced in March, 1796, and contin- ued eighteen years. In 1814, he was invited to Setauket, L. I., and his connection with the parish of St. James being ecclesiastically dissolved, he removed thither in June of that year.
Since that period the pastors have been :
Rev. Solomon Blakeslee, from 1815 to 1818-three years.
Rev. Bethel Judd, 1819 to 1832-twelve years.
Rev. Isaac W. Hallam, 1832 to 1834-two years.
Rev. Robert A. Hallam, previously pastor of the Episcopal church in Meriden, Ct., was called to the rectorship of St. James, in 1834, and assumed the charge Jan. 1st, 1835. He is the eighth rector of the church.
In 1846, the society decided that the interests of the parish re- quired larger accommodations, and passed a vote to build a new church. This has resulted in the erection of a beautiful Gothic edi- fice, of New Jersey freestone, at the corner of Huntington and Fed- eral Streets. The corner-stone was laid Nov. 3d, 1847, Bishop Hen- shaw, of Rhode Island, officiating on the occasion. The church was consecrated June 11th, 1850, by Rev. Thomas C. Brownell, Bishop of Connecticut. It is a noble and massive structure, based upon a solid pile of masonry, and if assailed by no enemy but time, will probably endure for ages. The style is cruciform, that is, having a wing or recess upon each side. The tower is in the corner. The interior length is one hundred and eight feet ; width of the nave, forty-four ; across the transept, eighty ; height of the tower and spire, one hundred and fifty-six. Architect, Upjohn, of New York.
This church, in completeness of design and architectural elegance, holds the first rank among the ecclesiastical edifices of the state. It is also a gratifying fact that the society is unincumbered with any debt for its erection ; the whole cost, which was upward of $60,000, being entirely covered by successive subscriptions.1
1 The contributions for the first Episcopal church in New London, built in 1730,
595
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
A monument is erected in this church to the memory of Bishop Seabury, by contributions from the dioceses of Connecticut and Rhode Island. His remains were removed from the burial-place, and de- posited in the tomb underneath this monument.
Methodists. In the year 1789, Jesse Lee, a distinguished preacher of the Methodist denomination, came through Connecticut, and laid the foundation of Methodism, not only for this state, but for all New England. His first sermon in New London, was preached at the court-house, Sept. 2d, 1789 ; he was here again in June, 1790, and both times was cordially received by members of the Baptist denom- ination. In 1791, Bishop Asbury visited the city, and preached also in the court-house.1 Class meetings were commenced at the house of Richard Douglas, who, together with his wife and daughter, were some of the first converts to Methodism in the place. The New London circuit was instituted in 1793, and a society was formed con- sisting of eleven persons, in October of that year. The next spring, their number was considerably enlarged, and preparatory measures were taken toward the erection of a meeting-house or chapel. An eligible site was chosen, on what was then called Golden Hill, where an area of twenty-six and a half square rods was purchased for £45.
The trustees of the society were Richard Douglas, Daniel Bur- rows, George Potter, Peter Griffin, Isaiah Bolles, Luther Gale, and John Shepherd. These were the founders of the Methodist church in New London. Most of them were previously members of the Baptist church. Messrs. Burrows and Griffin were subsequently ordained, and became local preachers.
The same year the class was joined by Jacob Stockman, from the Congregational church. These with their wives, and a few other zealous and discreet females, formed the base and central portion of the society.
In July, 1795, the Methodist conference met at New London,2 at the house of Daniel Burrows ; Bishop Asbury presided, and eighteen other preachers attended. Amos G. Thompson was that year upon
amounted to £550, and this was the whole cost of the building, excepting the pews, which were built by individuals. The difference of expenditure in that church, and the church of 1850, vividly illustrates the progress of society.
1 New London Gazette.
2 Ibid.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
the New London circuit ; an engaged and engaging preacher, who, some four years later, embraced Congregationalism, and was ordained over the church in Montville.
The female members of the society discarded all ornamental attire, and appeared in the plain cottage bonnet and strict simplicity of dress which marked the Methodist women of that day.' New things al- most invariably meet with some opposition, and many absurd reports were circulated respecting the Methodists. The class meetings were regarded with doubt and suspicion, and stigmatized as dark meetings, or secret societies. It was a strange thing to see young women cast- ing aside their feathers, their ribbons, and their high, airy looks, and the young men their shoe-buckles, hat-bands, and jolly manners, and both classes moving about in such demure simplicity. These pecul- iarities marked them out for censure or ridicule.
Their house of worship was not erected without many struggles and reverses. Their first attempt to raise the necessary funds was made in 1793, but their chapel was not built till 1798. It is stated in the journal of Asbury,2 that the frame was raised on Monday, July 16th, and the house dedicated the next Sunday. Asbury and Jesse Lee were both present, and preached on the occasion. The dedica- tion sermon was by Lee, from these words : "This day is salvation come to this house."
The chapel was occupied for two years in an unfinished state, un- plastered and unglazed. It was completed in 1800. In April, 1808, a session of the New England Conference was held in it, Bishop Asbury presiding. This meeting of the conference, and a subsequent visit from Jesse Lee, in July, excited much interest, and a remarka- ble revival followed. Many persons were affected in the way which has been called losing their strength; that is, falling down and remain- ing for a longer or shorter time, apparently lifeless. This was not a state of distress caused by conviction of sin, but was understood to be a condition of indescribable rapture, in which the physical powers were prostrated by an excess of devout emotion. At one meeting, in New London, Elder Washburn, who presided, states that twenty persons fell to the floor, and lay helpless from one to five hours. He adds the following special case :
1 During the week before the sitting of the conference, seventeen Methodist bonnets were made by one milliner-all of the same pattern, a diminutive model having been brought by a circuit preacher from Middletown, in a snuff-box.
2 Quoted in Stevens' Memorials of Methodism, p. 370.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
" One young lady, whose reputation stood high both in the church, and among those who were without, was insensible fifty-two hours ; and when she recovered, and sat down at a table to take some refreshinent, declared that she felt no difference in the state of her appetite, from what she ordinarily felt when she rose in the morning and sat down to breakfast."1
At Norwich, similar effects were produced; two young persons fell to the floor and lay there seventy hours, the meeting being kept up the whole time, and persons continually coming and going.2
These scenes were not dissimilar to some that were exhibited at the period of the great awakening, in 1741 and 1742.
The meeting-house or chapel of the society proving unserviceable, and its bounds becoming too narrow, it was sold and removed in 1816. A new one, on the same site, was dedicated, by Bishop George, June 18th, 1818.3 In 1819, the number of members was three hundred and twenty-one.4 This, on the whole, must be regarded as the most flourishing period of Methodism in New London. It was made a station, and for several years had a resident minister. Since that time its fortunes have fluctuated : it has had periods of declension and of revival and increase ; it has been a station, and then dropped ; reappointed and relinquished again.
In 1838, three hundred and seventy-seven members were reported ; but divisions existed among them, which, in 1840, led to an open rupture. The church was rent in twain. One party, including the trustees, withdrew from the conference, disclaimed its authority, and called themselves Independent Methodists. This party kept posses- sion of the chapel. The other division of regular Methodists, held their services one season in the conference-room of the First Congre- gational Church ; and the next in the court-house. But subsequently, under the leading of Rev. Ralph W. Allen, they erected a church in Washington Street, which was dedicated December 8th, 1842. By a decision of the civil court in 1849, this society has also obtained possession of the old church. They are now proprietors of two chap- els or houses of worship, though they have but one congregation. The number of members reported in 1851, is two hundred and nineteen.5
1 Stevens' Memorials of Methodism, p. 415.
2 Ibid.
3 Gazette.
1.
4 Stevens, p. 372.
5 Minutes of Conference.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
The ninth annual session of the Providence Conference, was held in New London in April, 1849.
The seceding or independent Methodists, after keeping together for a few years, gradually relinquished their public services ; but in 1850, a few of the remaining members united with other Christians, in establishing a Bethel meeting, under a Methodist preacher. This society having purchased the Union school-house in Huntington Street, and fitted it for a house of worship, constitute the tenth wor- shiping assembly in New London at the present time, 1852.
Baptists. The church which now bears the designation of the First Baptist Church of New London, was constituted in February, 1804, by a colony of about fifty members from the Waterford Bap- tist church, most of whom resided within the limits of New London. Jonathan Sizer and Henry Harris were chosen the first deacons.
The position chosen for their house of worship, was a platform of rock, on a summit of the ledge that runs through the central part of the city. It was commenced in 1805, and was occupied nearly ten years in an unfinished state ; the beams and rafters left naked, and with loose, rough planks for seats. The interior was then finished, and the whole edifice has since been enlarged and improved.
Rev. Samuel West, the associate of Elder Darrow, was the first pastor of the church. After a ministry of ten years, he was dismissed at his own request in January, 1814.1
Rev. Nehemiah Dodge officiated from 1816 to 1821, and remained in the church till 1823, when he was excluded, on the ground that he had embraced Universalist principles. They have since been served by ten other pastors, making twelve in all. Rev. Charles Willett is the present minister.
In 1847, under the ministry of Rev. Jabez S. Swan, the members of this church amounted to six hundred and twenty-five, probably the largest church ever known in New London county. It has since colonized and formed another church. The number of members re- ported in 1850, is four hundred and five.
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