USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > History of the Second church of Christ in Hartford > Part 18
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This call was accepted, and Mr. Vanarsdalen was duly ordained as Pastor of the Church and Society, December 27, 1832. The Rev. Dr. Hawes preached the ordination sermon, which was printed. The committee of the Church and Society, at whose request it was published, proposed "to devote any profit which may arise from the sale of it, to the Orphan Asylum in this city."'
1 The Orphan Asylum grew out of the Female Beneficient Society, to which allusion has been made. Under this society, which was incorporated in 1813, female orphans only were cared for. In 1831 measures were taken to establish an orphan asylum for boys, and for several years union services of the churches were annually held in its behalf, with a sermon and collection at each service. In 1836 a building on Washington Street was occupied by the asylum, and the girls, under the care of the Beneficient Society, attended the school exercises there. In 1865 both insti- tutions were combined under a new charter, and, in 1878, the present building was occupied. For many years the boys of the orphan asylum have attended the South Church and its Sunday-school.
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Mr. Vanarsdalen was a man of good abilities, pleasing address, and poetic temperament, and entered upon his minis- try under favorable auspices. He was unmarried and fond of society, and soon found himself in a somewhat trying popularity. But his pastorate was of brief duration and uneventful. In 1836 he tendered his resignation on the plea of ill-health, and it was accepted by Church and Society, not, however, without warm words of commendation on their part, concerning his "amiable manners, high talents, and exalted worth." The people seem to have been really very fond of him, but he had never found Connecticut congenial, and departed, leaving little more than his name behind. His pastoral relation was declared dissolved by an Ecclesias- tical Council, March 22, 1836.
As an example of the way in which the "Buckingham property " was gradually alienated, the vote of the Society in 1836 may be instanced, by which the lot south of the Parsonage was advertised to be leased for a term of 999 years.
The same year died Mr. Flavel Goldthwaite, organist and leader of the choir, who seems to have been greatly esteemed by the people of the congregation.
In 1832 the Church was represented in a council con- vened at the North Church for the dismission of its pastor, Rev. Samuel Spring, and, a little later, in another council, convened in East Hartford, to install the same person over the church there. Dr. Spring was settled over the North Church, Hartford, in 1827, in East Hartford in 1833, where the remainder of his life was spent. He died in 1877, uni- versally beloved and lamented. In 1833 the Second Church was invited to be present, by pastor and delegate, in a council called for the ordination of Horace Bushnell as pastor of the North Church. This great man, whose fame is in all the churches, had but this one pastorate. He was twenty-six years the minister of the North Church, and in the years thereafter, until his death, was the minister of mankind at large, in a most memorable way.1
I Life and Letters of Horace Bushnell, by his daughter, Mrs. Mary B. Cheney.
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History of the Church
In 1832 was organized the Free Church, which occupied the old "Baptist Meeting-House," on Market Street. Rev. E. P. Barrows, who had gathered the congregation, was suc- ceeded by Rev. Horatio Foote, who soon gave way to Rev. William C. Walton, at whose death, two years after his settlement, Rev. Charles Fitch became Pastor. A new sanctuary was built on Main Street, known since its aban- donment as the Melodeon. In 1837 Rev. Isaac N. Sprague was settled, and the Free Church became the Fourth / Church, and entered upon a period of great prosperity.
In 1833 the Talcott Street Church (Congregational, and composed of colored people) was organized. In 1831 the First Baptist Church, whose Pastor was then Rev. Gustavus F. Davis, D.D., completed and occupied a new house of wor- ship on Main Street, known, since the removal of the Society from it, as Touro Hall. Shortly after it was thought best to establish another Society, and the South Baptist Church was organized, October 21, 1834. Its first Pastor was Rev. Henry Stanwood, during whose ministry the first meeting- house was erected, on the southeast corner of Main and Sheldon Streets.
On the 17th of June, 1830, the first Roman Catholic Church in Connecticut was dedicated in this city by Bishop Fenwick. It was the old Episcopal meeting-house removed from its original site to a small lot on the north side of Tal- cott Street. Rev. James Fitton was the first Pastor, suc- ceeded in 1837 by Rev. John Brady. It is an interesting tradition that the Rev. Dr. Matignon, a French refugee and a Roman Catholic priest, traveling from Boston to New York, in 1813, and finding it necessary to spend Sunday in Hartford, was hospitably entertained by Dr. Strong, and invited to preach in the First Church on the evening of the Sabbath day.
In 1830, a Unitarian Association was organized, a consti- tution adopted, and officers chosen, but no attempt to estab- lish a church or society was made until 1844.
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In the year 1834, this Church was called to take action, for the first time, on a case involving its relations to churches of other denominations. Samuel Humphrey and his wife re- quested letters of dismission and recommendation to the South Baptist Church. The application was referred to a committee, which, after consideration, made a report recom- mending that " the request be not granted." The chief rea- sons adduced for the support of this recommendation werc, that "we ought not to dismiss our members to churches not in doctrinal unison with us ;" and, that the " Baptist Church have not adopted principles adverse to the use and traffic in spirituous liquors." Strange as it may seem, this report and recommendation were adopted, and the re- quest of Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey was refused. They were received into the Baptist Church, and this Church voted their suspension from communion and church privileges.
Three years later the Church evidently reviewed this whole matter with deliberation, for the vote of suspension against Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey was formally rescinded, and they were declared to be dismissed, and the clerk of the Church was directed to send them the evidence of such dis- mission. Moreover, in the preamble to this vote, the South Baptist Church is particularly specified as " in all points es- sential to salvation an Evangelical church." Another vote passed at the same meeting, December 21,- 1837, completely and generously recognizes other "Evangelical churches, sound in all points essential to salvation, though not in fel- lowship with us," and establishes the rule of granting letters of dismission to all such churches. It is gratifying to find that the illiberality of the Church's original action on this question was evidently not according to the mind of the Church, and that it was speedily and totally repudiated.
During the three years and three months of Rev. Mr. Vanarsdalen's ministry, forty-four persons were added to the Church. In 1830, Elijah Porter Barrows and J. Hubbard Wells were elected deacons, and in 1831, George Corning and Zephaniah Swift were chosen to that office.
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The Theological Institute of Connecticut was chartered in 1834, the outgrowth of a theological division and contro- versy among the Congregationalists, in some respects resem- bling that of the previous century between the old and new lights. The chief exponents of the conflicting systems and parties were Dr. Nathaniel Taylor, D.D., Professor of Theology in Yale Divinity School, and Dr. Bennett Tyler. The Pas- toral Union of Connecticut was the foundation of the Sem- inary which was located at East Windsor, and more recently transferred to Hartford, where it is known as the Hartford Theological Seminary. The once notable controversy has long since passed away, leaving scarcely an echo of its great battles in the air.
In 1823, the act incorporating Washington College passed both houses of the Legislature, and in 1824, buildings were erected where the State Capitol now stands, and the college was formally opened. In 1844, the name of the college was altered to Trinity, and in 1871, the college sold its grounds to the State, and removed to its present commanding site.
In the month of May, 1836, the Rev. William Patton of New York, was unanimously and repeatedly invited to settle here, but his services were not secured.
In February, 1837, the Rev. Oliver E. Daggett was unanimously called by the Society and Church to become their pastor. The salary offered was twelve hundred dol- lars. The call was accepted by Mr. Daggett on the condition that the Society should supply the pulpit at their own expense five Sabbaths in each year. He was ordained and settled here, April 12, 1837, but there is no record of the Council that convened on that occasion. Mr. Daggett began to preach in the Second Church in June, 1836, as a temporary supply, and continued his services until his settlement as pastor.
During the year 1838, the Church and Society were in a flourishing condition. Mr. Samuel A. Cooper was employed as organist and director of music, at a salary of four hundred dollars, and it was believed that this action would "ensure a
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style of singing equal to that of any church in the city." Nevertheless, the committee say that the singers "are all young and inexperienced."
It must be acknowledged that for many years the Society had done its best to secure instruction in music for its young people, and probably most religious societies in New England had done likewise. Their idea was to develop musical cul- ture in their own parish and among their own people, and not merely to pay professional singers to do the singing for them. That idea has somehow become disregarded in later years.
Previous to the year 1838, the only chapel, or lecture room, was in the western part of the basement of the Church. Another room was now prepared and furnished just over the vestibule of the Church, and directly in the rear of the choir gallery.
That same year a memorable revival occurred in Hart- ford. "It came upon the churches like a gradual, mighty wave, not undesired nor unsought, but unexpected, till it lifted us all and bore us up for some five months." The records of the Church show that committees were appointed for Parish visitation and personal religious ministration. That year one hundred and seventy persons were received into the Church, and of these one hundred and ten came on profession of faith, at one communion season. The religious interest abated, but Vrevived again in 1841, when some thirty were received on profession of faith. When Dr. Daggett left the Church, in 1842, it had four hundred and six members, and more than half of these had united with the Church under his ministry.
In October, 1839, A. W. Butler being Clerk of the Church, a committee appointed in reference to procuring communion furniture made a report, and the Church voted to empower the same committee "to procure six silver cups and three silver platters agreeable to the pattern presented by said committee, causing such inscriptions to be engraved thereon as they shall deem expedient, and that they be authorized to obtain subscriptions for the aforesaid object."
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At the annual meeting in 1840 this committee made their report. Three silver plates and six silver cups had been purchased at a cost of one hundred and ninety-one dollars, of which sum one hundred and one dollars had been raised by subscription, and the balance by the avails of old silver belonging to the Church. No one now knows what that last phrase described. On the new furniture had been inscribed, "Second Church of Christ, Hartford, Ct., Jan., 1840," and on one of the plates is inscribed as following :
"The silver plate marked as above, was purchased in part by subscription, and in part by the avails of other silver plate, the property of said church viz.
One Tankard marked
The Gieft of Mr John Ellery Late of Hartford To The South Church In Hartford Who Departed This Life November ye 10 1746 Aged 34 Years
Two Cups marked
The Dying Gift of Mr Richard Lord to the Second Church of Christ In Hartford
Two Cups marked
The Gift of J. R. to ye South Church in Heart ford Two Cups marked S C"
This report was accepted and recorded, but it was a " verbal report," and the clerk no doubt made as good a record as he could. It leaves some serious questions in great doubt. Here is mentioned for the first time in the records since William Stanley's will was copied therein the tankard given by John Ellery about 1746. It was like the one given by William Stanley in 1786. Was that among the " old silver plate " disposed of at this time, or had it previously dis- appeared, or did it vanish at a still later date, when, without any recorded vote or action of the Church, certain officers of the Church converted some "old silver " belonging to the Church into a spick and span new silver-plated communion service ? William Stanley's flagon still survives transmuta- tion, but the one given by John Ellery, most ancient of all, is gone, and of it only an "inscription," engraved on quite another article, remains. And what of that gift of "J. R."
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(Joseph Richards), and of Richard Lord's "dying gift"? And who was the donor to whom belonged the initials "S. C. "? Alas ! that such memorials should have been allowed to perish, or to exist only in comparatively modern forms. For whenever and however the changes were made, it, is certain that of all the old silver given to it, the Church now has nothing older than the furniture of 1840, except the beautiful flagon or tankard donated by William Stanley in his last will and testament of 1786.1
In 1842, July 23d, Dr. Daggett sent a communication to the Church, requesting the brethren to unite with him in calling a council with reference to his dismission. This re- quest was made "in view of the disaffection which I learn prevails among some of you toward your pastor." A reso- lution was offered at the Church meeting to the effect that Dr. Daggett's request be complied with, and the resolution was negatived, eleven voting for it and sixty-six against it.
At this time one thousand dollars were contributed an- nually for benevolent societies, and yet the pastor's salary was so far in arrears that interest on the unpaid portion amounted to over twenty-five dollars. Dr. Daggett re- mained another year, but in June, 1843, renewed his request for a council to dismiss him. In his communications to the Society and Church he spoke freely of the " pecuniary embar- rassments" of the Society as justifying his action.
1 [It may be added here that the silver furniture mentioned in the foregoing re- port of 1840 was for many years entirely lost sight of and forgotten, strange as that may seem ! About the year 1861 occurred the transaction alluded to above, by which a silver-plated communion service was procured with the avails of some "old silver." The pastor was then newly-settled, and knew nothing of the transaction for years after. Nobody seemed to know much about it. Twenty years later my curiosity was excited by reading the foregoing Church record of 1840, and I began to inquire and search for the missing silver cups and plates. Such veterans in the Church as Deacons Stillman and Webster could give no information. They remem- bered the furniture, of course, but thought it had been exchanged. Talking one day of the matter with the late Deacon Charles Gillette, then President of the First Na- tional Bank, I was told by him that in the vault of said bank was an old and curious wooden box, which had been there many years, but of the ownership or contents of which nothing was known by the officers of the bank. It was decided to overhaul and examine that box, and when the screws had been drawn and the lid removed, lo ! snugly and securely packed therein were the cups and plates described in the above report of 1840! How the silver-plated ware went out of use will be related hereafter.]
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History of the Church
The reports of the Prudential Committee of the Society | for the years 1840-44 reveal a condition of things difficult to explain. Not all the cheerful and eloquent exhortations of Mr. S. L. Loomis, then chairman ; not all his appeals to local feeling and pride in what he was pleased to call the " Eden of Hartford," availed to elicit the requisite interest and money. The "Old South," which he alternately flat- tered, coaxed, and scolded, did not respond. An evil spirit had entered that " Eden " which he glowingly depicted.
"It must be conceded," said he, "by all, that the South Side is the Eden of Hartford. Here we have a fine soil, pure water, and as pure an atmosphere as sweeps over the hills of any country ! these, with the rare inducements that landscape and water scenes present, invite the attention of those who are seeking pleasant residences !" With great fervor of such ardent but irrelevant rhetoric the argument was pressed, with little effect.
In 1841 the same committee report : "It fills the minds of your Committee with unpleasant, torturing apprehen- sions, that while this section of the town has increased in population, during the last two or three years, more rapidly than any other section, there has been no addition, in point of numbers or wealth, to our congregation." The great amount of "uncollectable " pew-rents is spoken of as "humiliating," and "the strange propensity among some of the members to double and twist" is mentioned with some- thing akin to disgust.
In 1843 the same committee report a deficit for the past year, and say "there is something revolting in such a pic- ture." So run the annual reports of that period, from gay to exceeding grave. In his final request for dismission Dr. Daggett plainly intimated that the difficulty in the Society was not inability but indisposition to meet and repair their ill-fortune, and his view of the case was as just as the re- buke he administered was merited.
It is not pleasant to write thus of this Society, but it is necessary to tell the painful truth. There were noble men
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Linsley-Vanarsdalen - Daggett - Clark 219
in it then, to say nothing of the women of the Church, men like D. F. Robinson, A. W. Butler, Charles Webster, P. D. Stillman, Samuel Dodd, John B. Corning, and others who might be mentioned, and whose names are familiar. They did what they could, though most of them were men of limited means, but they could not do all that was requisite. There was wanting some inspiring and commanding person- ality to accomplish just what Mr. Loomis's rhetoric aimed at but failed to accomplish. But there was still an "un- hallowed leaven " in this Society, an evil spirit of discontent and faction, which made mischief continually, and brought discredit upon a living and faithful church. In no other way can it be explained, that the remarkably fruitful minis- tries of Drs. Linsley and Daggett were of so brief duration. The pastoral relation of Dr. Daggett to this Church was dissolved by a council, June 23, 1843.
It fell to Dr. Daggett to bury one of the saintliest men who has ever been named in the annals of this Church, - good Deacon Thomas Tileston, who departed this life in 1837. Not long ago, Mrs. D. F. Robinson, who, as Anne Seymour, joined this Church in 1820,1 prepared a paper which was published in the Hartford Courant, in which much about Deacon Tileston was written, and from which the following quotations are taken : -
" In his early manhood he was the subject of a remarkable religious experience. He fell into a trance, and for three days showed scarcely a sign of life, barely enough to deter his friends from performing the last sad rights of burial. When consciousness was restored, his first utter- ance was, 'Praise God.' From that hour, he has often asserted, not a shadow of doubt or fear clouded his hope of salvation. When asked if he would tell what he saw while in this condition, his reply was, 'The vision was indescribable, but real, and what I saw has firmly fixed in my mind the truth of all that we are taught in the New Testament concern- ing the hereafter.'
" For many years previous to the great revival of 1820-21, Deacon Tileston was the strength of the Church. He was much more of a
1 This venerable and remarkable woman departed this life in 1892, universally honored and lamented.
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power among them than Dr. Flint, who, with his remarkable gifts as an orator and his high attainments as a scholar, combined a fine person and elegant and dignified manners. On Saturday afternoon the Deacon might be seen with a basket full of refreshments for the invalids or food for the needy, and a soul full of consolation for the sorrowful and afflicted ones."
It is but a few days since, that the present writer was conversing with one who united with the South Church in 1827, and who, for sixty-three years, has walked in uprightness therein, with the honor of all his brethren, Mr. Charles Boardman. In the course of the conversation Deacon Tileston's name was mentioned, and my venerable brother's voice trembled with emotion and the tears came into his eyes as, after a moment's enforced silence, he spoke of that "most godly man." "The memory of the just is blessed."
Oliver Ellsworth Daggett was born in New Haven, Jan- uary 14, 1810, the son of David Daggett, who was an eminent lawyer and a former United States Senator, and Chief Jus- tice of Connecticut. He graduated at Yale College in 1828, studied in the law-school at New Haven, and was admitted to the bar in 1831. Not long afterward he decided to devote himself to the work of the Christian ministry, and entered the Divinity school, where he studied for two years. He married Elizabeth, daughter of William and Mary (Marsh) Watson, of Hartford, and had four children. He was settled here, as has been stated, in 1837, and, in 1844 was called to the Congregational Church in Canandaigua, New York, where he remained until the autumn of 1867. He then accepted a call to Yale College, where, for three years, he served in the Divinity professorship and pastorate of the college church. From 1871 to 1877 he was pastor of the Second Congregational Church in New London, after which time he resided in Hartford, preaching here and there as occasion was offered. During the summer of 1881 he preached frequently in this Church, where he was ever cordially welcomed, in the absence of the Pastor. On the first day of September, 1880, shortly after midnight, he sud-
OLIVER ELLSWORTH DAGGETT
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denly and peacefully passed away from earth, at his resi- dence in this city. The Sunday previous he had preached in the South Church, and thus ended his long and useful ministry in the sanctuary where he was first settled as pastor. His funeral was attended, September 4th, at the South Church in Hartford, and the services were conducted by the Rev. William Thompson, D.D., the Rev. S. G. Buck- ingham, D.D., and the Rev. W. W. Andrews. Selections of Holy Scripture were read from Dr. Daggett's manuscript Manual for such occasions, and Rev. Mr. Andrews pro- nounced a tender funeral discourse. On the afternoon of the same day funeral services were held at the North Church in New Haven, and Dr. Buckingham made an address. Not long after his death the addresses made at these services and various obituary notices, together with personal tributes, were gathered and printed in a memorial pamphlet.
Dr. Daggett was a most lovable character. A few extracts from the numerous testimonies published in the memorial will suffice to show in what estimation he was held, and how affectionately his memory was regarded. Rev. W. W. Andrews said :
" He was eminently a Christian gentleman, in whom sweetness of spirit and dignity and affability of manner were shown forth in the pul- pit and in pastoral and social life."
Dr. Buckingham said :
" He possessed naturally good judgment, a discriminating intellect, rare literary taste, fine social qualities, a noble bearing, a beautiful eye, and a witching voice, all of which he cultivated diligently with reference to his work as a pastor and preacher. He had the wonderful faculty, or spiritual grace rather, of appreciating whatever was good in other sects."
Rev. T. L. Shipman (Father Shipman) said :
" You do not often meet his like in a summer's day. Coming out of church one evening where he had preached, a brother said to me, ' Why cannot we preach like Mr. Daggett?' I replied, ' We can't take off our spectacles like him.'"
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