USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > The early history of the First church of Christ, New London, Conn. > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18
319
MINISTERS FROM THE CHURCH.
zeal I seem to have for the rugged piety of New England Congregationalism. My pivotal decision for Christ, which resulted in unmistakable conversion, I owe to the Huntington Street Baptist Church, but my early Christian development was strongly im- pressed with the First Church seal. For it was that Church which initiated me into the work of soul sav- ing, which is now such a passion in my ministry. Pardon me if I add that I owe positive gratitude to Dr. S. Leroy Blake, the present pastor, for the in- spiration of his godly missionary zeal, which, ever since I knew him first, has been a sheet anchor to my Christian life."
28. JAMES HUNTER was born in Scotland. He first came to New London in connection with the Sal- vation Army, in whose work he developed great spir- itual power. He joined this Church in 1889, by let- ter from the Church in Brooklyn of which Dr. T. De Witt Talmage was pastor. He was educated for the ministry at Hartford Theological Seminary, which he entered in 1889; at Edinburgh University, and at Yale Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1892. He entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church at Devil's Lake City, North Dakota, the same year. At this writing he is in California.
THOMAS DOUGLAS was born in Waterford, March 29, 1807. He graduated from Yale College in 1831.
320
EARLY HISTORY OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
He studied two years at Andover in the class of 1837, intending to enter the ministry. But his health com- pelled him to relinquish this purpose, and he removed to California, where he resided at San Jose, and was teacher and farmer. Later he removed to New .Jersey, and then to New London, where he died January 27, 1895, aged almost eighty-eight years.
There are others who, though they did not enter the ministry directly from this Church, are yet more or less closely identified with it through their family connections. One of these is REV. JOSHUA COIT, the Secretary of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. He was baptized by Dr. McEwen, in this Church, in 1832. His father afterwards became a member of the Second Congregational Church. But the roots of the religious life of his family are in the First Church. For it descended from John Coit, who came to New London with Mr. Blinman in 1650, through his second son Joseph, who was a deacon of this Church. Mr. Coit was born in New London, February 4, 1832. He graduated from Yale College in 1853, and from Andover in 1856. After studying two years in Germany at the Universities of Halle and Berlin, he was ordained, October 13, 1860, as pastor of the Church in Brookfield, Mass. He was pastor of the Lawrence Street Church, Lawrence,
321
MINISTERS FROM THE CHURCH.
Mass., from 1874 to 1883, when he was called to his present position.
DWIGHT W. LEARNED, Ph. D., D. D., is a son of Rev. Robert C. Learned, who was a son of this Church. Dr. Learned was never a member of it, but his family connections are still in it. He can be claimed as a grandson of the First Church. He was born in Canterbury, October 12, 1848. He grad- uated from Yale College in 1870. He received the degree of Ph. D. from his Alma Mater in 1873, and the degree of D. D. from the same institution in 1896. He was ordained, and went to Japan as a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. in 1878, to be con- nected with the Doshisha in Kyoto, as a professor in its theological department at the opening of that in- stitution. He is still in Japan.
JOHN CALVIN GODDARD was a son of Deacon James E. Goddard, and is therefore a grandson of this Church. He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., September 18, 1852. He fitted for college at the old Bartlett High School from which he graduated in 1869. He entered Yale the same year and gradu- ated in 1873. He writes "I went to Texas for health and engaged in business there until 1878, when I entered the Chicago Theological Seminary, gradu- ating in 1881." June 23 of that year he had charge, from the beginning, of what was then called the
322
EARLY HISTORY OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
Western Avenue Branch of the First Congregational Church of Chicago, but which has since been known as The Covenant Congregational Church. From this charge he came to his present field of labor, in Salis- bury, Conn., where he was installed October 14, 1884.
Writing of his connection with this Church he says, "I was a Sunday school boy and an attendant of the old First Church for five or six years discontin- uously prior to entering college, and certainly re- ceived my strongest religious impressions under its roof. I think I owe as much to the prayer meetings of the old conference room as anything, and well re- member one occasion when Deacon Crump and myself made up the entire meeting, which he conducted throughout. It was due to the helpful influence of a member of the First Church, Dr. Robert McEwen, that I was confirmed in my choice of the ministry."
If to those who have entered the ministry were added the names of the men who have gone from this Church, and its families, into the other learned pro- fessions, to occupy conspicuous places, the list would be a long one. Those whom a church raises up, and sends forth to their life-work, are among its fruits. Through them its influence widens out to touch broader fields than its own immediate parish; widens out to touch a world and help lift it. In this way this
MINISTERS FROM THE CHURCH. 323-324
Puritan mother, and pioneer of all the Churches of every name in Southeastern Connecticut, has con- tributed her share to the world's advancement, and has brought strength and blessing to Churches of other names and polity, some of whose most efficient members had their early training in this fold. " By their fruits ye shall know them." Judged by these, the record of this ancient Church is one which it need not blush to own; and what it has done for the kingdom in these more than two hundred and fifty years of life is only a pledge of what it may be ex- pected to do in the future, if the coming men and women are as loyal to God as the founders were.
325
INDEX.
Adams, Rev. Eliphalet, 3; baptized ; Boundary disputes, 242-244.
Governor's son, 261; sermon on Governor's death, 262.
Adams, Dea. Prgau, 273.
Adams, Rev. William, 296.
Aliender, Rev. John, 310; Thomas, 315.
Rev.
Altar set up in the wilderness, 31.
Andros, Sir Edmund, 110, 113, 114, 147, 199. 244.
Anniversaries of Church, time for, 6. Antientest Buriall Place, 37. 64, 72, 99, 143, 270, 271, 274.
Arnold, Dea. John, 278, 282.
Avery, James, 26, 41, 43, 46, 55, 66, 73, 74, 120, 121, 158.
Avery, Rev. John, 297, 298.
Bailey, Lydia, 42, 128, 156, 157. Baptists in Groton, 221.
Baptized children, relation to Church, 168-170.
Barn meeting house, 68, 69, 70, 73.
Barnett, Rev. Thomas, 192, 193.
Belcher, Dea. William, 29).
Bell, the first, 199; presented by Win- throp, 210.
Blinman, 10; in Gloucester, 25, 60; men who followed him, 25-30, 66; in Pequot, 1, 13, 62; various items about. 33, 35, 36, 43; involved in controversy, 41, 46, 50; came to America, etc., 52, 55, 56, 57, 59; trouble in Marshfield, 58, 59; testi- mony to, 59-61; man of peace, 60, 75, 77; why he left Gloucester, os, 63; contract with, 63; grants of land to, 63-66; where his house stood, 65; Bliuman meeting house, 70-73; his ministry acceptable, 74; sent to Boston, 15; preached in Mystic, TS-80; to Indians, 81; ended his own ministry and left New Lon- don, 67, 82; called to Newfound- land; at Bristol, England, 83; let- ters, 84-88; his children, 89, death, 55, 90.
Bradstreet, Aun, 148, 149, 294. Bradstreet, Gov. Sinon, 30, 147, 148. Bradstreet, Rev. Simon, 2, 34, 33, 41; his call, 120; arrival in New Lon- don, etc, 120-123, 121, 125; salary increased, 124, 136; administering sacraments ; additions, etc., 126-131; baptisms by, 128; no half-way cove- pant, 129, 157; no marriages, 151; Bradstreet meeting house, 131-136; his decline. 186; journal, 133-142; death, etc., 142, 143; remembrances, marriage, children, etc., 144-146; his grandfather, father and mother, 147-149; letters, 149-153.
Bradstreet, Rev. Simon, Jr., 145, 146, :293.
Brewster, Jonathan, 23, 24.
Brewster, Rev. Nathaniel, 110. Brooks, Dea. Thaddeus, 282.
Bruen, Obadiah, 3, 25, 20, 44, 46, 47, 55, 61, 62, 65, 66, 98, 100, 161.
Bulkeley, Rev. Gershom, birth and ancestry, 95, 96, 98; contract with, 99-102; jeft Church voluntarily, 102, 111 ; move to ordain, 103; signs of uneasiness, 104, 110; efforts to keep him fail, 105; reasons for going, 105-110; what Dr. Chapin said of him, 109, 115; went to Wethersfield. 111; medical skill. 112; in politics, 109-115; what Dr. Chauncey said, 113; his will, death, etc., 116-118.
Bulkeley, Rev. Peter, 29. 96, 97; his widow, 98, 99, 122.
Cape Ann Lane, 33, 62, 67.
Caulkins, ILugh, 44, 45, 66,; 69, 160, 275.
Chapell, Rev. F. L., 315.
Chapinan, Dea. Oliver, $78. Charter, the, 9, 12, 114, 244, 246.
Churches, nine oldest, 54; permitted by legislature, etc., 39.
Cleaveland, Dea. Wm. P., 284.
326
INDEX.
Coit, Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall, 311; [ Hooker, Rev. Thomas, drafted Con-
John, 27, 44, 46, 66, 160; Rev. John Caulkins, 309; Dea. Joseph, 27, 202, 270; Rev. Joseph 295; Rev. Joshua, 320; Rev. Thomas Win- throp, 309.
Coggshall, Dea. W. H., 286.
Connecticut, planting of, etc., 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 242, 244.
Contribution box, not new, 121.
Cotton, Rev. John, 10, 11, 12, 162.
Crump, Dea. W. C., 288.
Curfew, its beginning, 211.
Daughter, first of the Church, 138; second, 220, 221.
Davenport, Rev. John, 10, 12, 21, 131, 163, 164.
Deacons' meetings. 13, 92, 292.
Denison, Capt. George, 26, 44, 74, 78, 80, 92, 158-160, 202; General married Bradstreet, 145.
Dorchester Church, 10, 22, 49.
Douglas, Rev. Nathan, 204; Dea. William, 41, 43, 105, 119, 120, 123, 124, 130, 141, 158, 268, 209; Dea. William, Jr., 270; Dea. William, third, 275.
Drum to call to meeting, etc .. 68, 71. 70.
Dudley, Ann, 143, 148, 149, 294 ..
Elliot, Rev. John, 81, 119; Rev. J. E., 314.
Exodus from England, reasons for, 16.
First Church, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6; emigrated from Gloucester, 10, 33, 50; first records, 41, 42, 126; not formed in Conn., 39, 40; first list of members, 41; where and when organized, 47- 52; number in order of formation, 53, 54; early parish, 95 ; early mem- bers, 154-161.
Fosdyke, Dea. Thomas, 2.3.
Founders, character of, 29, 30, 228.
Frink, Dea. Andrew, 287.
Goddard, Dea. J. E., 290; Rev. J. C., 321.
Gratuity voted the Town. 210, 231. Green, testimony to Puritans, 17.
Green, Dea. Timothy, 272, 274; Dea. Timothy, the second, 276.
Half-way covenant, 75, 108, 110, 129, 162-174, 206, 207.
Harris, Dea. Joseph, 274; Rev. Wil- liam, 308.
Hempstead, Dea. John, 274; Joshua, 157.272, 274.
Hewitt, Rev. Nathaniel, 302.
Hill, Ruth, 42, 128, 156, 160.
stitution of Conn., 9; democratic spirit and reasons for not remain- ing in Mass., 11, 29: led Church from Cambridge to Hartford, 10, 20, 48; his constitution the begin- ning of democracy, 21; an able divine, 97; views on baptism, 131, 163-165.
Hough, Deacon William, 41, 141, 156, 269.
Hunter, Rev. James, 319.
Huntington, Dea. Jedediah, 219; Rev. Daniel, 300; Rev. Joshua, 293,; Rev. Thomas, 308.
Hurlbut, Rev. Joseph, 307.
Jones, Rev Elisha C., 313.
Laud, Archbishop, 16, 56.
Learned, Rev. Dwight, 220; Dea. Ebenezer, 235; Dea. J. C., 289; Rev. R. C., 313.
Legacy, Liveen, 213-215.
Lester, Andrew, 27, 44, 66, 160.
Luffer, Dea. Henry, 291.
Manwaring, Dea. Robert, 276.
Marshfield, 35, 55, 57-59, 02.
Mather, Rev. Cotton, 262; Rev. In- crease, letters to, 149-153; Nathan- iel, 28; Richard, 49.
MayHower, the compact of, 11
Meeting House, the first, 70-74; the Bradstreet, controversy over ad- justed, 132; finished, 193; burned, 208, 209; the Saltonstall, 209, 210.
Meeting House Hill, 37, 64, 65, 67, 68. Miner, Dea. Clement, 24, 127, 271;
Thomas, 23, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 78, 79, 90, 91, 92, 99, 109, 125, 127, 139, 155, 156, 158, 159, 160, 265, 266-288. Morgan James, 41, 41, 120. 121.
New Haven planted, 10, 21; half-way covenant in, 164.
Newman, Rev. Antipas, 91. 92.
Noyes, Rev. James, 138, 239.
Oakes, Rev. Edward, 191.
Otis, Dex. Asa, 286.
Palfrey, 107, 110.
Park, Robert, 25, 66, 68, 69, 160; Dea. Thomas, 25, 44, 66, 136, 159, 266; Dea. William, 120, 121, 266.
Parish Way, 76, 166, 167.
Parson, the early a farmer, 64; in politics, 232-234.
Peck, Dea. Stephen, 254.
Pequot planted, 10, 13, 15, 66, 67.
Perkins, Dea. Elias, 283,
Peters, Rev. Thomas, 12, 13, 32, 37.
Plumbe, Dea. John, 271.
Prentis, Dex. A. F., 289.
327
INDEX.
Puritanism, 12, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21. Puritans, 22, 23, 30, 36.
Richards, Rev. George, 313; Dea. Guy, 281.
Rogerenes, 137, 138, 175-190 ; at pres- ent, 189.
Rogers, Bathsheba, 177, 178, 183; James, 41, 99, 137, 175, 176, 182; John. 137, 177, 178, 180, 181, 182, 183,
184, 186, 188, 212, 213; Samuel, 157. Ross, Rev. John, 306.
Rice, Goodman, 156, 160.
Salary by subscription, 198.
Saltonstall, Gurdon, 3, 30; called, 193; joined the Church, ordained, etc., 195; ancestry, 196, 197; acces- sions under, 201-206; baptisms, half-way covenant, etc., 206-208; marriages by, 208; collision with Rogerenes, 212; strict discipli- narian. 216, 217; complaints against, etc., 218-220; as a preacher, 222-227; chosen governor, 230, 232, 236; steps leading thereto, 234-236 : Say- brook synod, 237-239; territorial disputes, 242, 243; opposition to, 249; attendance on official duties, 250 ; letter to people of New Lon- don, 252, 253; his will, 253; where he lived, 254-259; his family, 260; died, 261; encomiums, 262-264. Seats assigned in Church' 198. Services between Blinman and Bulkeley, 93.
Shepard, Rev. Thomas, 49. Smith, Dea. John, 268.
Stanton, Thomas, 91, 139, 158, 160.
Starr, Dea. Cortland, 287; Dea. Geo.
E., 290; Dea. W. H., 288; Rev. W. H., 314.
Stoddardean plan, 172.
Taxes burdensome, 248.
Thanksgiving appointed, 141; omit- ted, 140.
Thomson, 81.
Thompson, Rev. William, 308.
Tibbets, Dea. J. W., 287.
Tinker, Rev. C. P., 317; John, 63, 93, 94, 292.
Town, the parish, 94, 95.
Trumbull Dr., 1, 15, 22, 6, 89, 113, 243; J. H., 107, 110.
Unitarianism began, 171, 173.
Warham, Rev. John, 10, 75.
Wilcox, Dea. J. IL., 290.
Winslow, Edward, 13, 56, 57, 58.
Winthrop, John, Jr., secured charter, 9, 15; free spirit, 10, 12: ancestry, 14; first governor on soil of Coun., 15; letter about settling New Eng- land, 18; a Puritan, 19; his con- temporaries, 20-25; letter to his
son, 91; Davenport, writes to, 163. Winthrop, John, Sr., 17, 19.
Yale College removed from Say- brook, 239, 242.
York, Duke of, 110, 243 .;
4190
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.