USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > Cromwell > History of the First church in Cromwell, 1715-1915; > Part 6
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"Without it is brick with six pillars in front; within, stairs, of course, go up and down in the porch; though as regards the down, the basement is unfinished. The house fronts the east; the desk is at the west; no window in the west; four long ones each side only (blinds to be). The desk is neat, indeed, low, small, white - sofa fitted thereto; two large astral lamps, with cushion twice the size of the Bible; crimson damask; no drapery or tassels. Fronting it four chairs, hair seats, seven dollars apiece - no center aisle. The aisles and all about the platform, desk, carpeted, Turkey carpet - backs of seats quite low; doors still lower -" and so the letter goes on, ending: "A new church is not an every day concern; besides, in a village like ours, there is so little of incident we make much ado about that little." The Rev. Dr. I. P. Warren of Portland, Me., who formerly taught in the academy, said of the building that it was a church edifice in the best style of that day.
Mr. Dudley mentions twice in his "History of Cromwell" gifts from The Benevolent Society, but no mention whatever is made of the Sewing Society. On the other hand, in the Church Records the Sewing Society is mentioned as early as 1848, and nothing said of the Benevolent Society. However, in the Benevolent Society there was an element tending to- wards practical work, such as sending clothing to missionaries, helping the less fortunate ones in the community and caring for the church. And out of this Benevolent Society and the Sewing Society was evolved the Ladies' Aid Society.
All through these early years the meetings were not held in the basement of the Church, but in the homes. Can we not easily imagine these good women walking up the road to Mrs. Horace Hubbard's home or stopping at the house of Mrs. Harriet B. Savage, or at one of the numerous Wilcox
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, CROMWELL, CONN. 51
families, or perhaps meeting at the ever hospitable homestead of the Savages, next door?
The first time the Ladies' Sewing Society is mentioned in the Church Records is as follows:
ANNUAL MEETING OCT. 30th, 1848. DEACON ISAAC SAGE, MODERATOR, ANDREW F. WARNER, CLERK.
VOTED AS FOLLOWS: "Whereas the Ladies' Sewing Society have raised funds by the holding of a fair for the purpose of painting the Meeting House and have appointed a committee of young men to superintend the same, therefore, resolved that the clerk be directed to return thanks of this Society to the ladies for their generous efforts in behalf of the interests of the Society and that they have liberty to go on in such manner as they shall deem expedient to expend so much of their funds as they shall think necessary for that object, subject to the general supervision of of the Society's Committee."
A fair was again held in 1849 for the purpose of raising funds for finishing the basement of the church.
Thanks are given the ladies in 1856 for "carpeting the Meeting House," and to Miss Mary Ann Lattimer for the pulpit cushion.
Seven years passed before the records show that a request was granted that the ladies of the congregation be permitted to rebuild or remodel the pulpit.
Then came the Civil War. The basement rooms were used at times for the ladies and young girls to meet in to roll bandages, scrape lint and knit stockings, and around these years, before and after the war, were the girls and young women of the day, who, if not then members of the Sewing Society, later became members.
Here they are:
Emily, Margaret and Lizzie Allison, Libbie and Sarah Baldwin, Sarah Baisden, Ellen Bowers,
Georgia Eastman,
Mary Edwards,
Amelia, Alice and Lizzie Hubbard,
Laura Hutchinson,
Celestia Hubbard, Addie Hicks, Kate Kirby, Mary Pelton, Elizabeth Pease, Emily Russell,
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Kate, Mary and Julia Ranney,
Nellie and Lizzie Ranney, Mary and Annie Sage, Sarah and Julia Stevens, Marion Wilcox, Cora Wilcox.
From this number there are with us today Mrs. Pierson, Mrs. Noble and her sister Mrs. Newton, Mrs. Gunn and Miss Amelia, Mrs. Calef, Mrs. Greaves, Mrs. Coe, Miss Sarah Savage and Mrs. Adams. The others are no longer living or perhaps are too far away to come back for this reunion.
Again a few years intervened according to the records before these active women were cautioned as to incurring any expense on account of the Church Society, but asked (and allowed) to make such repairs in the basement of the church as they might deem expedient.
In 1874, the church was cleaned, frescoed and carpeted by this same society.
In 1885 the women of the church are asking permission to remove the "slip-doors." (Should not this generation put them back?)
And in 1887 permission is given the ladies "to build on to the west end of the church an addition of wood for the organ, also to remove the eight seats near the west end of the church. These seats were called the "Amen Pews." Many of you will remember that in these seats sat Miss Ursula Smith, Mr. Abiel Geer, Mr. and Mrs. John Baker and Mr. Elisha Sage.
About this time the Carol Club was formed, and I speak of this because all the members belonged to the Sewing Society, as it was then, and on account of the new pulpit. Julia Waters conceived the idea of the club and the original members were Julia Waters, who married Marion G. Bryce of Pittsburgh; Lucy Savage, Carrie Savage, who married George S. Butler; Jennie Hanscom, afterwards Mrs. George W. Hanmer of Brooklyn; Sarah Wilcox, later Mrs. Edward Wright of Hartford; Bertha Smith, who married Wm. H. Stevens of Hartford. Later Mary Waters and I were asked to join. The object of the club was to sing Christmas carols, going about the town the night before Christmas. (Perhaps it was fortunate that Christmas came "but once a year.") But our talents were not confined to our songs for one winter we gave some unforget- able charades, musicals and other entertainments and earned enough money to buy the pulpit which now gives way to a more fitting one. I know each member here today is glad to put aside the old pulpit for the new one in order that this
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detail of the interior of the church may correspond to the building, which, as has been said before, was of the best style of its time.
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In 1891 the Ladies' Aid Society was formally organized. The records do not give the names of the officers for the first year nor of the members. Through these first years of the organization the names of the members, directoresses and officers recur constantly upon the books in one capacity or another. You will recognize many of the members of today in the following list of those interested in the early years:
The second year the names of the officers only were recorded, and they were:
Pres., MRS. BEAUMONT, Vice-Pres., MRS. GEO. WILCOX, Secretary and Treasurer, MISS EMEDA SAGE.
DIRECTRESSES
Mrs. Chas. Frisbie, Mrs. H. G. Marshall,
Mrs. A. N. Pierson, Miss Sarah Topliff,
COLLECTORS
Center District, Mrs. McDonald and Miss Topliff,
West District, Mrs. Wright,
South District, Mrs. Meilliez,
North District, Miss Sadie Noble and Miss Alice Fawthrop
Nooks, Mrs. Pierson, No. W. District, Miss Emeda Sage
The names of the members for the next two or three years were the familiar ones of that time and today.
Mrs. Mary Bliss,
Mr. Geo. Wilcox,
Mrs. Susan Mckinstry,
Mrs. Dr. Hallock,
Mrs. J. Robinson,
Mrs. Frank Hallock,
Mrs. Martha Baisden,
Miss Susie Hallock,
Mrs. Maria Ranney,
Mr. and Mrs. Hulbert,
Miss Sarah Cannon,
Mrs. Baldwin,
Miss Gussie Cannon,
Dr. E. Baldwin,
Mrs. McRae,
Mrs. McDonald,
Mrs. Bulkeley Edwards,
Mrs. Andrew Botelle,
Miss Ella Ward,
Mrs. Gillum,
Mrs. Thomas Noble,
Mr. E. Coe and Miss A. Coe,
Mrs. Caleb Pease,
Miss M. Waters,
Mrs. T. Lyons,
Mrs. Edw. Jones,
Mrs. E. Bailey,
Mrs. Milks,
Miss Mary Sage,
Mrs. Geo. Smith,
Mr. Beaumont,
Mrs. Joseph Wilcox,
Mr. Fred Wilcox,
Mrs. Jerry Hubbard,
Miss Hattie Wilcox,
Mrs. Prior,
Mrs. Leverett Wright,
Mr. Robert Griswold,
Mr. Charles Frisbie,
Mrs. Barbour,
Mrs. Mary Griswold, Mrs. Andrus,
Miss Katie Simpson,
Miss Sara Savage,
Mrs. Agnes Kirkpatrick,
Mrs. Wheelock,
Miss M. Savage,
Mrs. Sellew,
Mrs. T. Binks,
Mrs. Maitland,
Mrs. J. Edwards, Mrs. H. Taylor,
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Miss Lucy Savage,
Mr. and Mrs. S. V. Hubbard,
Miss Carrie Savage,
Miss Amelia Hubbard,
Mr. Marshall,
Miss Alice Hubbard,
Miss Hattie Hubbard,
Mrs. Gunn,
Miss Nellie McPherson,
Mrs. Sibyl Penniman,
Miss Lillie Gay,
Mrs. Clarence Penniman,
Mrs. J. K. Sage,
Miss Jennie Hanscom,
A few figures will suffice to prove the interest and good will and what has been accomplished in the organization of today.
At the Annual Meeting in 1893 the first mention was made of a Parish House and a committee appointed to confer with the Mission Circle in regard to working for the benefit of this fund. In 1896 Miss Susan Treat gave $50.00 towards this fund. January 1, 1915, the fund amounts to $1,344.29.
Miss Sarah Topliff, always an active member, left the society $300.00 in her will.
The continued interest of Julia Waters Brice in the society was shown by her generous gift of glass for our table.
In 1904 the ladies built a new chimney in the Southeast corner of the church.
In 1908 the expense of renovating the church was $2,532.97. Of this amount the society gave $600.00.
With the exception of a few times, when $50.00 was given each year, $75.00 has been given yearly to the Music Com- mittee.
Monthly suppers are an established method of earning money besides bringing together the people for a social evening.
It would take too much time to relate in detail the work done. To the memory of a few let me say this, that we must be ever grateful for the example set us by Mrs. Harriet B. Savage, who served for years as president of the Benevolent Society while carrying on her household duties; for the example set us by Mrs. Ralph B. Savage, who served as presi- dent of the Sewing Society when bringing up her large and splendid family; for the example set us by Miss Sarah Top- liff and Miss Emma Savage, who used often to take their brooms and dust-cloths and come to this building that it might be swept and garnished, not because they had to, but because they loved to keep it clean and spotless. When we think of the workers in the past is not this organization well named, and should it not ever be to this church a Ladies' Aid?
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Again, "the Old Fashioned Choir" rendered an appropri- ate selection entitled :- "May Bells and the Flowers."
The Rev. Dr. Hazen, pastor of the North Church, Middletown, was then called upon for words of greeting. Good and gracious were the words of cheer and congratulation which he brought us from the mother Church of this parish.
Many a reminiscent letter was received from friends and members in various parts of our country. From these the pastor gave brief citations. One of the most helpful of these letters as a witness of the worth of christian character was received from Mr. C. A. Butler, of West Orange, N. J. He wrote:
Through some friend, I lately received a copy of the "Hartford Courant" announcing the approaching 200th anni- versary of your parish.
When sixteen years of age, in 1848, under the pastorate of Rev. George A. Bryan, I was baptized and received into the church on profession of faith.
The Rev. William S. Wright was at that time principal of the academy which I attended, and his Godly counsel was the means of my conversion. His memory I still cherish with affection.
I remember distinctly the character of Rev. Zebulon Crocker through his pastoral visits to the family of my uncle, Sylvester Butler, who was highly respected, and his son, my cousin George H. Butler, who was for many years a Deacon, and was held in high esteem, dying in your parish at more than fourscore years of age. Uncle Sylvester's wife, "Aunt Anna," was devoted to good works on every hand. She also attained long life, widely known as a friend "indeed."
The added influence of these individuals, their examples and their works upon my early and later life are precious recollections that have never faded.
Uncle Sylvester always had family prayers every morning before the day's work began, at which the household and guests, if any, attended, humbly and reverently, and allow me to add that I adopted this custom and practice, still unbroken for fifty-six years of my married life.
Uncle Sylvester and family were always much interested in the missionary work, and uncle frequently in his prayers petitioned for the time to come when "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," (Hab. 2-14), which hope has been fulfilled in my day.
I was confirmed in the Protestant Episcopal Church at St. George, New York, by Rev. Stephen Tyng, D. D., Rector,
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in 1857. Dr. Tyng was a great advocate and promoter of the Sunday School, under whom I became a teacher there and for thirty-three years thereafter continued in different New York and Brooklyn parishes as voluntary teacher of large Bible classes and superintendent. The last Sunday School to which I was appointed as superintendent continued for eight years, under three rectors, and by removal elsewhere I most reluctantly resigned, leaving a thoroughly equipped Sunday School with twelve officers, seventy-six classes, each with a teacher, and a membership of about six hundred; hence I have the best of reasons for faith in the Sunday School work.
I am writing this letter on June 13th, my eighty-third anniversary birthday - my wife at seventy-six, having been married nearly fifty-six years. The fact of prolonged life, together for such a long period in times like the present, is almost as remarkable as living at all.
Being in business in New York for sixty-three years has afforded me rather unusual opportunities to travel on busi- ness in forty-two different states, and to marvel more and more at this country's expansion in greatness and power. Besides I can recognize that righteousness, religion and truth are more than ever manifest and immeasureably increasing in a country whose living patriots are still invincible, whose buried martyrs are not forgotten and its ministers of God honored and revered.
The closing song of this much blessed service was again the Memorial Hymn beginning:
"On this glad day we sing Thy praise, And feel Thy presence ever near; Oh crown us with Thy richest grace, And fill our lives with love and cheer."
The Anniversary Reception was held in the church parlors at 5 o'clock. The Pastor and his wife, Rev. and Mrs. Homer W. Hildreth, Deacon and Mrs. Edward S. Coe, and Deacon and Mrs. Edward C. Bailey received the many friends and members of the church who attended.
The parlors were beautifully decorated and the collation served so graciously by the members of the Ladies' Aid Society was much enjoyed.
The concluding exercises of the Bi-Centennial were held in the evening at seven-thirty. The organ selections of this service were from the Seventh-Sonata by Alexander Guilmant, and were "Entree" and "Finale."
The pastoral reminiscences of the Rev. F. M. Hollister,
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of Mystic, were much appreciated. "O God, Beneath Thy Guiding Hand" was the hymn-prayer that made us ready for the impressive message of the Moderator of our National Council, the Rev. Dr. Charles R. Brown, New Haven, His inspiring appeal was for "The Church that Stands Four Square." He said in part :
When John had his vision on the Isle of Patmos he saw a Holy City, an ideal social order. It was not a stationary ideal, it was moving. It was coming down out of heaven from God. It was coming down out of the realm of fancy into the realm of accomplished fact.
Not away yonder in the skies but here on this common earth there was to come an order of life that would have in it the glory of God, causing it to shine like a cluster of jewels. Here on this earth was to come an order of life into which the kings of the earth, the mighty ruling forces of society, would bring their glory and honor. Here on this earth was to be worked out an order of life into which nothing would enter that would defile or work abomination, or make a lie. It was a magnificent ideal, not static but dynamic, not stationary but moving, coming down out of heaven from God, out of the realm of vision into the realm of spiritual achievement.
This ideal social order stood four-square. It faced in every direction; it fronted squarely and directly on every conceivable human interest and activity. It stood there with three gates on each side, "on the east three gates, on the west three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates." It was openly inviting all these varied human interests to come in and receive interpretation and illumination at the hands of the spititual forces there resident. It stood there solid, symmetrical, four-square, facing all the winds of influence that might blow, ready to send out its own beneficent influence on every field of human effort.
Now I take it that this may well represent the ideal Christian church. It, too, must be an open, hospitable place, calling upon the kings of the earth, the mighty ruling forces of human society, to bring their glory and honor into it. It, too, undertakes to fill this entire life of ours with divine glory so that it will have no need of the sun or the moon to lighten it. It undertakes to interpret and illuminate all the various interests and activities of human life by the spiritual forces which it embodies. And to do this it must in like manner stand four-square, facing upon all there is.
I wonder how far our own Pilgrim churches have measured up to that comprehensive ideal? When I study their history
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I find that these four fundamental interests have been faced and met.
I. THE INTEREST OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.
This is one of the primary fundamental interests of our Christian faith. The title which Jesus received most com- monly and most willingly was that of "Master." He called his followers "Disciples," that is to say, "learners" or "pupils" in the mode of life He came to introduce. He was in the habit of saying, "I am the Truth; and ye shall know the Truth; and the Truth shall make you free" - free from all that would hurt or hinder their growth and usefulness. The redemption of those men would be like an educational process in spiritual nurture and culture.
When Jesus saw the multitude He opened His mouth not to scold them, not to flatter them - "He opened His mouth and taught them" what they needed to know. When He finished, the people were astonished at His doctrine because He taught them as One having authority of immediate, first- hand knowledge of spiritual reality. He was ready to stake the future of His cause on the slow, patient, but irresistable processes of spiritual education. He believed that His fol- lowers could go forth and by instruction and persuasion, by the power of moral appeal and right example build a kingdom of thought, feeling and purpose against which the gates of hell could not prevail.
Now the Congregational church has from the first had this interest of Christian education upon its heart. The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620. They were compelled like the apostles of old to work in hunger and cold, in weariness and painfulness, in perils of savages and in perils of the wilder- ness. Yet, in exactly sixteen years from the time they landed on that bleak coast, they, out of their penury, founded Harvard College, which abides to this day as the leading university on this continent.
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The men who have given of their best to the great interests of Christian education have been master builders in the rearing of that ideal social order which is to stand four-square.
The real work of education grows every year more vital. The campus abuts more directly on the market-place and the polling place. The highest buildings look off with unobstructed view upon the farm and the factory, the mill and the mine, the home and the church. They were built in the first place to minister directly to all the main forms of everyday life.
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You will occasionally find people, some of them on the campus and some of them off the campus, to whom knowl- edge is nothing but a statement. It is a statement to be written out and printed in a book for other people to read. "Here is knowledge," they say, "rear it, study it, memorize it if you will, and in the day of examination you will be saved."
You will find others to whom knowledge is nothing but a tool. It is a tool which can be set to dig or to build, to heal or to plead, to teach or to preach, and thus made to yield a financial return. "Here is knowledge," they say, "master the use of it and it will put money in thy purse."
You will find others to whom knowledge is nothing but a picture to be framed and hung on the wall. "Here is knowledge,"they say, "learn to admire it as a man of culture; read Browning twice in the week; give a tithe of your time to the Atlantic Monthly and you will be numbered with the élite." The abstract, the commercial and the decorative ideas of knowledge all have their turn at the bat, and they all fail to score when the game is written up because they deal only with that which is secondary.
The primary office of knowledge is to make people alive; alive at more points, alive on higher levels, alive in more interesting and effective ways. The school enters the com- munity saying, "I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. This know and thou shalt live." It undertakes to send out into the highways and byways young men and women who are alive to their finger tips - alive all the way up, and all the way down, and all the way in. It would make them alive in their hearts with noble sentiments and fine purposes as well as in their heads; alive in their souls with a sense of the deeper and more enduring values as well as in their hands trained to profitable tasks. The school at its best is the competent and willing servant of life at its best.
When Bronson Alcott was living in Concord he strolled one day into the village school. He was invited to address the school. He stood up, looking at the children with that genuine interest he felt in whatever was human-and I suppose the ordinary schoolroom would yield as many bushels of pure, unadulterated human nature to the acre as any field to be named.
He presently burst out, "What did you children come here for?" They looked at each other, whispered a little, giggled a little, feeling rather tickled on the whole at being inquired of, instead of being preached to. Finally, one of the bolder spirits raised his hand and said, "We came to learn."
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"To learn what?" Mr. Alcott asked. Again the children meditated and recalled, perhaps, the particular aspects of their experience at school which had impressed them most, and the answer came back, "To learn to behave."
"You have it right," the philosopher said. "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings," out of the utterances of those simple, direct, childlike minds which say just what they think, the world adds mainly to its store of knowledge. The children had come there above all else that they might learn to behave, wisely, nobly, usefully.
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II. THE CAUSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.
The first three words Jesus uttered were, "Come, Follow, Abide." "Come unto Me and I will give you rest. Come unto Me and I will give you Eternal Life." This invited the movement of the life toward that which is central and funda- mental.
"Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men." Follow Me and I will make you the servants of life. This indicates the further movement of the life not on lines identical with His, but parallel.
"Abide in Me and ye shall bring forth much fruit." This indicates the more intimate dynamic relation of the life to Him, not provided for in the idea of coming or following. "Come, Follow, Abide" - these were His first three words, but there was a fourth and last word. Just before He left His disciples He said, "Go." This provides for the expression of that quality of life gained by coming, following, and abiding in concrete action and service. Go! Go everywhere! Tell everybody ! Go into all the world and tell the good news you have received to every creature! And lo, I am with you in that great work even unto the consummation of your highest hopes. It was the great task of world-wide Christian missions which He there laid upon their hearts.
The Congregational church has made a splendid showing on that side of our four-square life. Those young men of prophetic mood held their haystack meeting at Williams College and it led to the organization of the American Board of Foreign Missions. They knelt down saying, "We can do it if we will." They rose up saying, "We can do and we will." * * * * * * *
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