USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > History of the Second church of Christ in Hartford > Part 19
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Dr. Burton said :
" I find myself continually and greatly missing Dr. Daggett . and he was a man to make an impression wherever he might be . he was so affable and brotherly, and conversational, and intellectual, and I had planned for him a long-protracted and blessed old age."
It may be briefly added that Dr. Daggett was no less highly esteemed for his singular and manifold abilities than loved for his refinement and beauty of character. Though unassuming, he was inevitably prominent among his clerical brethren. Like his predecessor here, Dr. Flint, he was fa- mous for his musical voice and for the impressive manner in which he read Scripture or hymns, and for the reverence of demeanor with which he conducted all religious services. He possessed a poetic temperament, and composed many verses, some of which were printed in a volume after his de- cease. In public discourse he was thoughtful, suggestive, and elaborate. It is rare that so many graces and virtues of mind and character and person are combined in one man.1
In 1843, the Rev. Joseph H. Towne of Boston was invited to settle here, but declined the invitation.
In 1844, earnest endeavors were ineffectually made to induce the Rev. Adam Reid of Salisbury, Conn., to become the pastor of this Church.
It may be mentioned that in 1838, the Hartford Library Association and the Young Men's Institute were organized, followed in 1841-42, by the Wadsworth Atheneum. Late in 1839, the railroad from New Haven to Hartford was opened, and to Springfield in 1844. Not until 1848 could one go from Hartford through to New York by railway.
In 1841, St. John's Episcopal parish was organized, and a Unitarian Society was also organized here in 1844. Its sanc-
1 Dr. Daggett, who enjoyed hearing or telling a good story, often spoke of Dr. Hawes's fondness for exchanging pulpits on rainy days. A rainy Sabbath morning was quite likely to bring a message from him proposing an exchange. Some of the South Church people who were glad to hear him, thought it a " very singular Prov- idence which always orders it to rain whenever Dr. Hawes preaches at the South Church."
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tuary was built in 1845, and stood where now is the Charter Oak Bank.
Rev. Wm. Patton came to the Fourth Church in 1846, and Rev. Dr. Turnbull to the First Baptist Church in 1845.
In the year 1843, the sum of three hundred and twenty- nine dollars was raised by subscription in this Society for the purpose of repairing and painting the interior of the Church edifice, and a better spirit began to prevail in the parish. The report of the Society's committee shows that Mr. Virgil Corydon Taylor was then organist and choir leader. It also shows a new readiness on the part of members of the congre- gation to unite in endeavors for the welfare of the Church and Society. Evidently the South Church had seen its darkest days, and was beginning to emerge from its difficulties and embarassments.
In April, 1845, the Rev. Walter Clarke of Canterbury, Conn., was unanimously called to the pastorate of this Church and Society. The salary offered him was twelve hundred dollars. He accepted the call, and was duly installed here on the fourth of June, 1845. Rev. Edward Hooker, D.D., of East Windsor, preached the installation sermon, Dr. Hawes offered the installing prayer, Dr. Noah Porter of Farmington gave the charge to the pastor, and Dr. Bushnell extended to him the right hand of fellowship.
Dr. Clarke came to this Church at a favorable time, when its prospects were fairer than they had been for many years. But he contributed greatly to its growth and unity and wel- fare. He was an able preacher, a sagacious pastor, and not only harmonized the existing discordant elements in the par- ish, but gathered about him new and strong men, and in- spired them all with confidence and energy. The report of the Society's committee for 1846 shows a great improvement in the financial condition of the parish, and congratulates the Society on their very favorable prospects.
Twenty-four persons were received into the Church that year, among whom was Seth Terry, formerly of the First Church, and afterwards a member of the North Church, and
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one of the remarkable men of Hartford for many years. He was elected deacon of this church in 1847, and continued in the office until his death in 1865.
Early in 1847, the Society adopted measures for building a new lecture room, and in the autumn of the same year the work was completed. It is that western part of the present edifice which fronts on Buckingham street, and forms a tran- sept to the main building. It was built in two stories, fur- nishing chapels on the first floor, and commodious Sunday- school room on the second floor. The excellent plans for this building were drawn by Mr. Joseph Camp of Hartford. The new building was dedicated on the evening of Septem- ber 14, 1847, and the Pastor preached "an interesting and appropriate sermon on the occasion." The cost of the chapel, including the ground on which it was built and the furni- ture of it, was somewhat over four thousand dollars, a fourth part of which sum was raised by subscription, and the resi- due was provided by adding to the debt of the Society, which was thus raised to about nineteen thousand dollars.
In 1848, one hundred dollars was appropriated to hire "a female singer in the choir," and a special grant of five hun- dred dollars was made to the pastor.
In 1850, the "Old Parsonage House " on Main street, was finally sold for forty-two hundred dollars. Dr. Linsley was the last of the ministers who occupied it.
The annual report of the Society's committee, in 1853, signed by H. F. Sumner, Peter D. Stillman, and James Ash- mead, begins as follows:
" Our present annual meeting is marked by the absence of many of our early friends and liberal supporters of this Society, who, within the last year, have withdrawn themselves to a new field of usefulness.
The withdrawal thus referred to was for the purpose of uniting with others from the several Congregational churches of the city to form the Pearl Street Church, whose beautiful house of worship was dedicated in 1852. Among the strong
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men who thus withdrew to join the Pearl Street Church were D. F. Robinson, Deacon A. W. Butler, Newton Case, Nelson Hollister, and John B. Corning. Their departure was a great loss to this Society, but one which was incurred with grateful recognition of their past services and of their present purposes. A Presbyterian Church had meanwhile been organized in the city, and the Roman Catholics had erected the edifice known as St. Patrick's Church. In June, 1851, the Church voted approval of the recently organized Young Men's City Missionary Society, and recommended the members of this Church and Society to contribute for its support. In 1851 furnaces were introduced into the Church, and oil lamps gave way to gas in 1852.
About this time the Society united with the trustees of the Stanley estate in securing an act of the Legislature au- thorizing the sale of that part of said estate lying on the Wethersfield road, and in due time the property aforesaid was sold to Colonel Samuel Colt for the sum of six thousand dollars. Subsequently similar action was taken with respect to other portions of the Stanley estate, and thus the entire estate was gradually disposed of.
A new bell was hung in the steeple of the Church in 1852, at an expense of three hundred and forty dollars.
In 1853 extensive alterations of the sanctuary were made, by which the audience-room was considerably enlarged and improved, and put into substantially its present form and arrangement. The cost of these alterations, including suit- able furniture and various repairs, was abont fifteen thou- sand dollars. Five thousand dollars was raised by subscrip- tion, and new scrip or stock was issued, to the considerable increase of the Society's standing debt.
In 1853 the First Baptist Society erected their present house of worship, and in 1854 the South Baptist Society completed their new sanctuary. The Church was in a flourishing condition throughout Dr. Clarke's pastorate. Peter D. Stillman was chosen deacon in 1852, and continued in the office until his death in 1880. Lucius Barbour, Dr. A.
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W. Barrows, and Thomas H. Welles were chosen deacons in 1858. Mr. Barbour resigned in 1865, Dr. Barrows in 1873, and Mr. Welles died in the service in 1887.
In 1852 seventy persons, and in 1858 seventy-five per- sons, were added to the Church. Several somewhat painful cases of discipline occurred during Dr. Clarke's ministry here -some of them for offences against morality, and others for departures from the faith. Having had occasion to carefully peruse the records of the Church's disciplinary dealings in many and various cases, and under the superin- tendence of several pastors, it may not be impertinent to re- mark here that the former usage of spreading the report of such proceedings on the pages of the Church Book is open to serious objections. It has been justly condemned and abandoned in this Church. But the present writer would gladly testify that the records of this Church show that in all such cases of discipline the officers of the Church have ever exhibited a most kindly, considerate, patient, and for- bearing spirit. They have ever chiefly sought the reforma- tion and restoration of offenders, and never their injury or exclusion. It is a pleasant privilege to bear this testimony. Even those who were "cut off " for "departures from the faith " were most kindly entreated, and action was not taken against them until they had explicitly declared their aban- donment of christian belief and of covenant engagements.
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One other thing must be mentioned here, and that is the unfortunate attitude maintained by this Church for many years to the North Church and to its pastor, Dr. Bushnell. It matters not that other churches in Hartford maintained the same attitude. For many years none of Dr. Bushnell's Congregational brethren in the city would exchange pulpits with him, or unite with him in any general work for the common welfare. It is to the credit of the South Baptist Church that its pastor, Dr. Murdoch, was willing to be in fol- lowship with him. The rector of Christ Church, Rev. Thomas M. Clark, was also his warm friend. There is no need to review the situation at that time. The facts suffice. In due
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time Dr. Hawes's large-heartedness triumphed over all other considerations, and he yielded to Dr. Bushnell's move. ment of brotherly love upon him; and these two great, good men had sweet intercourse in their declining years, and beautiful it was to behold their dissimilarities dissolving in substantial and spiritual agreement. But the South Church, much to the grief of many of its members, pursued Va policy of non-intercourse and exclusion towards Dr. Bush- nell until the year 1860. How cordially his reappearance in the pulpit of this Church was then welcomed many will re- member. Thenceforth he frequently preached here, and during two vacations of the pastor his services as a preacher were sought and secured. Early in the year of 1859 Dr. Clarke announced that he had received a call to the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church in New York city, and had ac- cepted the same, subject to the decision of an ecclesiastical council, and asked the Church and Society to unite with him in calling a council for the consideration of the case. This request was complied with, and the council convened Jan- uary 28, 1859. The North Church was not represented in this council, although Dr. Bushnell had resigned its pas- torate. The council declared the dissolution of Dr. Clarke's pastoral relation to this Church and Society, accompanying this action with resolutions warmly commending their re- tiring brother for his ability and faithfulness. The Church put upon their records an expression of their great respect and affection for Dr. Clarke, with whom they reluctantly parted. Under his ministry of almost fourteen years great changes occurred in this city, which need not be particularly specified. The South side of the city had outgrown a cer- tain kind of rusticity, and become greatly improved in all respects. The city, which in 1840 numbered about thirteen thousand people (including East and West Hartford), in 1860 had a population of nearly thirty thousand, not counting the people of East and West Hartford. The Hartford Hospital had been opened, Trinity Church had been organized on
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Asylum Hill, and the City Missionary Society had been or- ganized.
Rev. Walter Clarke, son of Warner B. and Abigail A. Clarke, was born in Middletown, Connecticut, April 5, 1812; removed with his family to Farmington, 1837; taught in Waterbury ; began to study law; taught in Mobile, Alabama ; studied one term at Yale Divinity School, 1840 ; settled at Canterbury, Conn., May 18, 1842, whence he came to Hartford in 1845.
His first wife was Mary A., daughter of Cyrus Clark of Waterbury, and she died in Hartford, February 4, 1849. In 1850 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Dea. Seth Terry of Hartford. He had one daughter, by adoption, and a son, Rev. Samuel Taylor Clarke. He was installed as pastor of the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church in New York city, February, 1859, and became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, February, 1861, where he died, May 22, 1871. His burial was in the North Cemetery of this city.
On the Sabbath evening after his burial, the pastor of the South Church closed a discourse on the text, "Well done, good and faithful servant," with the following words :
" My text and topic were suggested by the somewhat sudden death of my predecessor in this pastorate, Rev. Dr. Walter Clarke. I am not competent to speak of his life and labors except in the most general way, for I did not know him. But his death demands some special notice in this Church and from this pulpit. Thirteen years have wrought great changes in this Church and congregation, but a goodly number still remain who knew him and loved him. Many of you were brought as little children to receive baptism at his hands. Some of you were roused by his preaching and guided by his counsel to a knowledge of the Saviour. Some of you he joined in wedlock. His words of consolation and holy prayers have ministered to your afflictions. For fourteen years he was your pastor, faithful, industrious, and successful Here his name became known. His influence steadily and rapidly grew, and was felt far and wide among the churches of this State. Two precious revivals were experienced during his ministry here, and his labors were all the while fruitful.
" Here then, in this sanctuary, where for so many years he preached
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the Gospel, and ministered at the altar, as is most fitting, we reverently pronounce his name, and pay a tender tribute to his memory, and affectionately and sadly say farewell to his earthly presence. Were it practicable, we would that his silent form might be laid in this place where he served so long, for the last funeral rites, ere it is committed to the final resting place. Once again, and no less solemnly and power- fully than of old, would he, being dead, speak to us all. He was a ser- vant of God. He was a good and faithful servant. That in the last hours of life he had no other rest or stay than the grace of God, is evident from his repetition with failing breath of that well-known line,
' Simply to thy cross I cling !'
- gazing earnestly, meanwhile, upon a picture of the cross. Of his own work he would doubtless have said, ' It was very imperfectly done.' Of it we say, 'It was well done.' We believe that he waked up into life eternal to the music of the Master's welcome -' Well done, good and faithful servant.' Such service let us strive to render. May they who on earth survive us, and He who ever liveth in Heaven above us, say of us when we also depart, 'Well done, good and faithful servants.'"
In 1859, after the dismissal of Dr. Bushnell from the North Church, the Rev. Charles D. Helmer came there to preach. The same year the South Church and Society gave him a unanimous call to become their Pastor, which call Mr. Helmer declined.
In October, 1859, the Church and Society voted unan- imously to extend a call to Edwin Pond Parker of Belfast, Maine, to settle with them as their Pastor, offering him a salary of two thousand dollars, and generously granting him full permission, should he accept the call, to relieve himself of undue labor, during the first year, by such means as should seem to him desirable. The call was accepted, and the time fixed for his ordination and installation was January 11, 1860, at which time he was duly ordained and settled in the ministry here.
CHAPTER VIIII
REV. EDWIN POND PARKER, D.D., 1860
THE ECCLESIASTICAL COUNCIL, invited by letters missive from the Second Church of Christ in Hartford, with a view to the ordination of Edwin Pond Parker as pastor, convened at the chapel of said Church, Jan. 11, 1860, at eleven o'clock, A. M. The First, North, Fourth, and Pearl Street Churches of Hartford, and the churches in East and West Hartford, Wethersfield, Newington, and Springfield were represented. Drs. Walter Clarke, Samuel Harris, and R. G. Vermilye were also members of the Council. The Rev. Messrs. B. B. Beardsley, E. J. Hawes, Thomas Childs, C. Little, G. D. F. Folsom, and the Rev. Dr. E. A. Lawrence, being present, were invited to sit with the Council. Rev. Dr. Spring of East Hartford was chosen Moderator, and Rev. M. N. Morris of West Hartford, Scribe. The usual course was taken, and the Council finally voted, "that we approve of Mr. Parker, and that we will proceed to ordain and install him pastor of the Church, at seven o'clock in the evening."
The services of ordination and installation were held at the appointed hour in the church. Rev. N. J. Burton read the Scriptures, Rev. G. N. Webber offered prayer, Dr. Samuel Harris (whose daughter the new pastor had recently married) preached the sermon, Dr. Hawes offered the ordaining prayer, Dr. Clarke gave the charge, Rev. Mr. Drummond gave the right hand of fellowship, Rev. Mr. Colton offered
1 For several reasons it seems best that the foregoing history should be supple- mented by a chapter containing some account of the course of events in the Church and Society during the writer's pastorate of more than thirty years' duration. Many of the facts which have come within the field of his pastoral observation and experience might escape the attention or perplex the study of another. The indul- gence of the reader is craved for the inevitable personal element in this chapter.
Edwin Roud Parker
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the concluding prayer, and the pastor pronounced the bene- diction.
The scenes and discussions in the Council during the theological examination, and the controversy which ensued must, however, be noticed, for the case possesses some historic interest.
For many years Connecticut had been the battle-ground of contending theological parties - Taylor versus Tyler, New Haven versus East Windsor - with pastors like Drs. Hawes, Bacon, Spring, Dutton, etc., prominent among those who were suspected and accused, by their opponents, of gradually departing from the old foundations of orthodoxy. The ministers and, through them, the churches were divided in their sympathies and attachments. Dr. Hawes, for instance, and, presumably, his Church, were counted among the ad- herents of the New Haven theology or school. Dr. Walter Clarke and his body guard in the Second Church were very pronounced for the opposite school. The long, bitter, and trying controversy occasioned by Dr. Bushnell's utterances and publications had still further complicated matters, and intensified existing suspicions and antagonisms. Into this condition of things the pastor-elect of this Second Church had come, at the age of twenty-three years, fresh from Bangor Seminary, and a total stranger to Connecticut's theological controversies and ecclesiastical politics.1
1 The Hartford Courant, June 29, 1892, editorially notices a pamphlet entitled "Family Records, Parker -Pond - Peck, by the Rev. Edwin Pond Parker, D.D., Hartford, Conn.," and says :
"These records show that although Dr. Parker was born in Maine and came to Hartford in 1860, yet Connecticut was his real home. He is the direct descendant, in the seventh generation, of William Parker, an original householder of Hartford, who had his lot on what is now Trumbull street, and removed to Saybrook in 1649, where the family remained for one hundred and twenty-five years, and where branches of it still remain. Again, through his grandmother, Mary Peck of Wood- bridge, Conn., daughter of Lieutenant Titus Peck, Dr. Parker is directly descended from Henry Peck, one of the first settlers of New Haven.
" Moreover, through his mother, who is the daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Enoch Pond, Dr. Parker was related to the late Dr. Oliver Ellsworth Daggett, a former Pastor of the Second Church of Hartford, over which he himself is settled, and also, remotely, to Dr. Joel Hawes."
This Family Record, to be found in the Historical Society, also shows that Dr.
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Unconscious of holding any heretical opinions, and with- out any experience of ecclesiastical councils, the candidate appeared before the august body which had assembled for his examination, and read a written statement of his theo- logical beliefs. This statement contained no intentional reference or allusion to the question of future or continued probation, for up to that hour the candidate had never seriously considered that question.
The reading of this statement was followed by a pro- tracted and, to the candidate, a perplexing oral examination. The doctrines of the Trinity, Inspiration, and Depravity were brought into the examination, and many questions asked to which qualified answers were made. But in some way and for some reason, the then novel question of a possible probation after death, for some people, was brought into the examination, and at that point the trouble began.
To the searching questions put to him the candidate found himself unable to give satisfactory answers - tinwill- ing to affirm that, in all cases, probation terminates with this life. The excitement of the hour was subdued but intense. Many members of the Council were surprised and grieved. A few were shocked and set in opposition to further proceed- ings. For, driven to bay, the candidate had finally and explicitly declared, as the sum and substance of all that he held on the question, that "God would give every man a fair chance !"
In this declaration, that most courteous and kindly Christian gentleman, Dr. Vermilye, found the "true explana- tion " and " source of all the young Pastor's difficulties." It was regarded as "a most unfortunate expression " ! The ex- amination was finally concluded, and the vote of approval was not quite unanimous.
Parker, son of Rev. Wooster Parker, was born at Castine, Maine, Jan. 13, 1836 ; graduated at Bowdoin College, 1856, and at Bangor Seminary, 1859; and married, Nov. 1, 1859, Lucy M. Harris, daughter of Rev. Samuel Harris, D.D. Of their eight children two died in infancy. The others, viz., Harris ; Lily Pond, wife of Morris Penrose ; Lewis Darling ; Mary Elizabeth, wife of Fred. C. Billings; Burton ; and Robert Prescott, are now residents of this town, of which their ancestor, William Parker, was an original settler. See also page 97.
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Sitting in that Council, not as having been called thereto, but by irregular invitation of it, were several ministers, one of whom was pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Hartford, and somewhat locally celebrated for his skill as a controver- sialist, and also for his extreme theological conservatism. He also had the reputation of being quick and cager to note and report any supposed signs of theological unsoundness in the Congregational churches of the vicinity. From his peculiar standpoint and watch-tower, the case seemed alarm- ing and well deserving a wider publicity. His report of the case was published in the New York Observer, and that excel- lent paper blew its trumpet loudly to warn all Zion. Then followed a lively public discussion. The Independent pro- nounced the report of Dr. Childs, "a calumnious article." The Congregationalist denounced it. The Recorder approved it. Drs. Hawes and Spring prepared several letters in de- fense of the Council, which were published in the Observer. Dr. Samuel Harris published an article in the Recorder. Dr. Childs replied to his opponents with characteristic subtlety and skill. Dr. Vermilye made public his view of the matter, in his dignified and gentlemanly way. The "young pastor " wrote one bubbling letter to the Observer, for which he re- ceived considerable cold editorial comfort ; and so the battle raged awhile. The older heads began to see that the real object of assault was not the comparatively insignificant " young pastor," but the Congregational Council, and partic- ularly such representative members of it as Drs. Hawes and Spring ; and, in due time, the "young pastor " himself per- ceived that his little soul was not in great peril among these theological lions, since they much preferred to devour each the other. All this fiery literature was soon gathered up and published in a pamphlet, now exceeding rare, entitled "The Hartford Ordination." The same year, 1860, was published another pamphlet, touching the whole matter, by " a clergy- man of the Protestant Episcopal Church." That same year occurred the " Manchester case," which was, in some respects,
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