USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > East Haven > The evolution of an old New England Church, being the history of the Old stone church in East Haven, Connecticut > Part 10
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40 The first Monday in May was training day for the East Haven Militia. The militiamen would assemble on the sidewalk south of Hemingway's tavern and "at the first stroke of the bell in the steeple" of the Old Stone Church, they would begin their march to the Green. "Upon arrival of these warriors on the Green, they were drilled after marching and counter- marching, then stacking their arms a respite for an hour was given to refresh these brave troops for the long march down South End road, through Mew's Lane to Morris Avenue, which led up to the stone meeting-house and by the residence of the Reverend Stephen Dodd, where they halted; then Captain Hotchkiss, leaving his company in charge of Lieutenant Andrews, waited on the parson, who appeared and made his annual military address ; when over the drum and fife struck up Yankee Doodle and the company escorted the Reverend and the Captain to Hemingway Tavern, where after a blessing from Mr. Dodd, all sat down to a bountiful repast; when half over the good parson made his exit home and then came the 'Tug of War,' which was generally kept up until a very late hour." See C. H. Townshend, A Pictorial History of "Raynham," pp. 41-2.
CHAPTER V.
THE LAST THREE QUARTERS OF A CENTURY.
The intensity of the "Taylor-Tyler Controversy" had grad- ually lessened as the years went on and was all but forgotten, although the two principal contestants continued to occupy their respective positions as leaders of the liberal and reac- tionary parties. When the East Haven parishioners began to seek a pastor to succeed Mr. Dodd they, having approved the conservative theology of Dr. Tyler, chose to have a young man who subscribed to their views and would preach the doctrines in which they believed, rather than a disciple of Dr. Taylor from the Yale Divinity School. Their attention was called to Daniel William Havens,1 who had been graduated from Yale College in 1843 and from the Theological Institute of Connecticut in 1846. Accepting the invitation to supply their pulpit temporarily, he entered upon the work in January, 1847. On the 2d of May the church, concurring with the decision of the Ecclesiastical Society on April 26, "voted that we do invite Mr. Daniel W. Havens to settle in the Gospel ministry over this Church, provided that he agrees to the Doctrines, Rules, and Regulations as professed and practiced in this Church."2 Mr. Havens immediately dispatched his answer accepting the offer.
1 The Rev. Daniel Havens was born in Norwich, Connecticut, on January 24, 1815. He was licensed to preach by the New London Association in 1845. During the last three months of his senior year in the seminary he supplied the pulpit for the Exeter Society, Lebanon, Connecticut. On July 21, 1847, he was married to Miss Elizabeth M. Hemingway, of Brooklyn, New York, by whom he had three children, Edith Elizabeth, born August 26, 1848; Bertha Morris, born October 29, 1850; and William Hervey, born March 30, 1852. See Record of Class of 1843, Yale College, p. 53.
2 The committee appointed "to wait on Mr. Havens" consisted of Dr. Bela Farnham, Ruel Andrews, Deacon Amos Morris. See Church Records, Vol. I, pp. 35-6; also Ecclesiastical Society Records, Vol. II, p. 228.
REV. DANIEL WILLIAM HAVENS
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THE LAST THREE QUARTERS OF A CENTURY
"To the Congregational Church and Society in East Haven, Connecticut.
The notes of the Church and Society in East Haven of the 26th, April, and 2nd, May, extending to me a call to settle with them in the Gospel Ministry, having been transmitted to me, I herewith acknowledge their receipt and signify my accep- tance of the high and holy trust therein proffered to me. Per- mit, me therefore, to express the heart-felt prayer, that the consummation of this solemn engagement may be hallowed by the spirit of all grace,-that its results may be a continuation of the same harmony of feeling which has marked its com- mencement ;- be eminently blessed by the great Head of the Church to the prosperity of Zion ;- to the highest spiritual welfare of God's people in the promotion of true and fervent piety, and to the assured salvation of many undying souls.
DANIEL W. HAVENS."3
Norwich, May 6, 1847.
A joint call was issued by the Church and Ecclesiastical Society to the Consociation for the ordination of their new minister, the ordaining council to meet on July 16, and if in their judgment the candidate was sufficiently prepared and of sound doctrines the solemn service with the laying on of hands should follow on the same day. The program of ordination was as follows: Introductory Prayer by Rev. R. S. Storrs; Sermon by Rev. H. P. Aims; Ordaining Prayer by Rev. Timothy Gillett; Charge to the Pastor by Rev. Stephen Dodd ; Right Hand of Fellowship by Rev. B. Hart; Concluding Prayer by the Rev. E. Wright.4
In the same year that Mr. Havens began his labors in the Old Stone Church the theological atmosphere, which had become somewhat clear and serene, was greatly troubled by the publication of a series of discourses on Christian Nurture, by the Reverend Horace Bushnell, pastor of the North Congrega- tional Church in Hartford. Bushnell, a native of Litchfield
3 Church Records, Vol. I, p. 36.
* Church Records, Vol. I, p. 37.
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THE EVOLUTION OF AN OLD NEW ENGLAND CHURCH.
and a graduate of Yale in the class of 1827, experienced a most vivid religious awakening in the revival of 1831, and in conse- quence decided to enter the Christian ministry. Matriculating in the Yale Divinity School he became a pupil of Dr. Taylor. After his graduation in 1833 he was called to the pastorate of the first and only church in which he served. The publication of Christian Nurture, in 1847, brought him into great promi- nence as a thinker and religious leader. Stoutly maintaining that the child of Christian parentage should "grow up a Christian, and never know himself as being otherwise," he broke with the older Edwardeans who believed that salvation came only through a conversion. Such revolutionary doctrine aroused a storm of opposition from every quarter, particularly from Dr. Tyler of the Theological Institute of Connecticut. Bushnell's next work, God In Christ, was published in 1849, --- a treatise dealing with the Trinity and the Atonement.5 So thoroughly antagonistic was his position in holding that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are not "three distinct conscious- nesses, wills, and understandings," and that the Atonement is a force or influence, in the life of Jesus, reconciling the world to God, that ministerial associations began to consider the expediency of trying him for heresy. The Fairfield West Association protested against his unorthodoxy and filed a com- plaint before the Connecticut General Association in 1852, but nothing further was done. Fearing adverse action by the Hartford North Consociation, Bushnell's church, standing solidly behind him, withdrew its membership and ceased to be an adherent of consociated government.
Such radicalism as Bushnell preached certainly did not meet with approbation in East Haven, and when the North Church in Hartford withdrew its membership from the Consociation the youthful pastor in the Old Stone Church felt constrained
5 Bushnell's principal later works were Nature and the Supernatural, 1858; The Vicarious Sacrifice, 1866; and Forgiveness and Law, 1874.
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THE LAST THREE QUARTERS OF A CENTURY
to preach on the wisdom of the Saybrook Platform and Consociationism.6
The Mexican War had taken place in 1846-8, the treaty of peace being signed almost six months after Mr. Havens began his ministry ; and during the following year began the rush to the California gold fields which had been wrested from the vanquished. The war with Mexico had been largely brought on by the pro-slavery party and was considered an affair of President James K. Polk and his southern constituency. New England would have nothing to do with it. Reverend Nicholas Street had been an ardent Federalist, and those who followed him in the pastorate were equally solicitous for the success of the Whigs. Mr. Dodd's admiration for Henry Clay and Daniel Webster knew no bounds, and Mr. Havens was most profuse in his devotion to Abraham Lincoln.7 Poli- tics were preached from the pulpit so there was no mistaking the party affiliations of the pastors. Ever since the advent of William Lloyd Garrison the slavery issue grew in prominence until it became the paramount problem before the nation. No community could remain indifferent; no individual could fail to have an opinion on the subject. New England developed strong abolitionist sentiments, so that by the time of the elec- tion of Abraham Lincoln it was solidly in favor of emancipa- tion.
East Haven was very decided in its sympathy with the reform, and the pastor of the Old Stone Church, a Whig and later a staunch Republican, frequently expressed his convic- tions from the pulpit, the parishioners heartily approving his attitude and encouraging his anti-slavery efforts. So strong were the sentiments against slavery that when the Republican party was formed in 1854, to take the place of the Whigs in
6 Consociationism-an unpublished sermon-by D. W. Havens, now in the possession of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.
" Unpublished Sermons by D. W. Havens, now in the possession of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.
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THE EVOLUTION OF AN OLD NEW ENGLAND CHURCH.
leading the opposition against the Democrats, the communi- cants of the Old Stone Church speedily gave their allegiance to the inchoate organization, supporting Fremont in the elec- tion of 1856, and Lincoln in the elections of 1860 and 1864. During the Civil War many of the young men from the parish enlisted in the services of their country.
Mr. Havens possessed a considerable amount of practical administrative ability as well as academic erudition. His incumbency in the pastorate stands out saliently as a period of expansion, growth, and improvement in equipment. If Mr. Street is credited with having built the Old Stone Meeting House, and he certainly is entitled to such credit, Mr. Havens deserves the distinction of having improved and modernized it. His building program, which he successfully carried out, included a complete remodeling of the church edifice, the pur- chase of a suitable parsonage, and the erection of a new build- ing, known as the Chapel, to the east of the sanctuary. By persistent and untiring effort, by subtle ingenuity and sound statesmanship, he led his people in taking the first step toward bringing the church from the rural classification into the urban.
In May, 1850, the work of "remodeling, repairing, and refurnishing" the meeting house, both internally and exter- nally, began. Says Mr. Havens in his Centennial Discourse, "When the work was finished, nothing was left of the ancient structure but the solid walls, and even these had undergone extensive alterations. The upper tier of windows was lowered, the doors and windows on the east end filled up, as well also the doors on the south side and in the tower, and the window behind the pulpit, on the north side; new frames and windows were inserted, and the building brought into that shape and style it now presents. The change of the interior was even more sweeping. The west end was pierced with doors, one on each side of the tower; the pulpit was placed at the east end, changing the front from the south to the west; new galleries were built, and the walls, upon which the plaster was originally
THE LAST THREE QUARTERS OF A CENTURY. 113
laid without lathing, were furried out and covered with hard finish."8 The work was completed in October, at a cost of about $6,000. The alterations and improvements having been so extensive, it was decided to rededicate the building to the service of almighty God. The Reverend Joel Hawes, D.D., of Hartford, delivered the address at the exercises on October 16, 1850.
Nine years later the old steeple was removed and a new and larger one put in its place, the summit of the spire reaching skyward one hundred and twenty-six feet. The interior of the church was redecorated, the floor recarpeted, the seats were recushioned, new lamps were provided, a new pulpit built, and an iron fence was placed around the church yard.9 After the improvements had been made there arose the problem of heating the building. In the early days the meeting house was not heated at all, even in the coldest weather. Little foot- stoves containing hot coals were used by the women and chil- dren, but they could do no more than keep one's feet from freezing. About 1825 wood-burning stoves were used for the first time, and in 1840 they were supplanted by coal-burners. Twenty-eight years later, 1868, the stoves were removed and, there being no basement to make a furnace practicable, steam heat was introduced. The Old Stone Church was the first meeting house in the state of Connecticut to be heated by steam.
After the renovating and remodeling of the meeting house was completed, Mr. Havens turned his attention to the project of erecting or buying a suitable house to be used as a par- sonage. A manse had been built for Mr. Hemingway in 1706 and given to him as a free gift; in it he lived throughout his ministry, and in it he died. Mr. Street, Mr. Clark, and Mr. Dodd had each built his house without aid from the Ecclesi- astical Society. Mr. Havens, upon entering the work, had to rent a house, and because dwellings were few he had to move five times in six years. To relieve their pastor's embarrass-
8 D. W. Havens, pp. 46-7.
9 Ibid., p. 49.
-
II4
THE EVOLUTION OF AN OLD NEW ENGLAND CHURCH.
ment of continually moving about as though he were a Bedouin of the desert, the Society, in 1853, bought the former home of Mr. Haynes Hemingway. But when the children came the parsonage proved too small, and in a short time was badly in need of extensive repairs. In 1873 the house built by Rev- erend Saul Clark and used by him during his ministry in East Haven was purchased, enlarged, and remodeled, costing in all about $8,000.
The church had long been in need of a social room or chapel in which prayer meetings, committee meetings, and social gatherings could be held. The people keenly felt their incon- venient circumstances and had frequently expressed their determination to work hard for the money with which they would erect a building; they rightly believed it would aid them quite materially in the parish work. An agitation to build such a structure had been started during the dark days of the Civil War, but conditions were not conducive for so ambitious an enterprise. A special meeting of the Ecclesi- astical Society was held on May 6, 1870, "to consider the expedience of building a chapel," but, after much discussion, it was "voted to indefinitely postpone the consideration of matters concerning" so elaborate an improvement.10 The need, however, was too imperative for a very considerable procrastination, so another special meeting was held on March 18, 1872, at which definite steps were taken to "procure an estimate for building the Chapel separate from the Church."11 Two weeks later, March 26, another meeting was held and it was "voted informally to build a chapel 43 x 30 feet, the same to be detached from the Church," but when the actual "formal" vote was taken on October 24, the majority decided "that the question of building a Chapel be laid upon the table." Over a year passed before the matter was brought up again. On December 6, 1873, it was "voted that the Society build a
10 Ecclesiastical Society Records, Vol. III, pp. 4-5.
11 Ibid., p. 23.
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THE LAST THREE QUARTERS OF A CENTURY.
Chapel of wood, and when built to build the same upon the Society's ground east of the Church," but at the regular annual meeting, which was held on December 29, better judgment prevailed and the former vote was rescinded. The building committee which had been appointed and instructed to build a chapel of wood consisted of Samuel F. Bradley, Joseph I. Hotchkiss, Samuel F. Russell, and Ephraim S. Chidsey; the same committee was now ordered "to wait upon the Chapel Association, and if they are willing to unite with the Ecclesi- astical Society of East Haven in building a Chapel that the Committee be instructed to proceed forthwith to build said Chapel."12
The chapel, made of cut stone and of the style of architecture to harmonize with the church, was completed in the summer of 1874. At its completion, just one hundred years after the erection of the church, the Centennial was appropriately observed. On Wednesday, September 16, the celebration took place,13 the program having been thoroughly arranged many months before. Mr. Haven's Centennial Discourse, delivered at the morning session, was published in 1876.14
1ยช Ibid., p. 32. 13 "I. IO o'clock A. M. Meeting for Religious Services, and Delivery of Historical Discourse.
II. I. o'clock P. M. Collation.
III. 2 o'clock P. M. Meeting for Reunion.
IV. 7 o'clock P. M. Old Folks Concert.
V. 8: 30 o'clock P. M. Reception at the Parsonage."
Those taking part in the religious services were the Reverend Messrs. Owen Street (grandson of Reverend Nicholas Street, of East Haven), Burdett Hart, Leonard Bacon, D.D., O. E. Shannon, and D. W. Havens ; those speaking at the "Meeting of Reunion" were Messrs. Edward L. Hart, John G. North, Charles H. Fowler, Joseph C. Farnham, Joseph D. Farren, Samuel T. Andrews, Reverend Professor George E. Day, D.D., Reverend Owen Street, Reverend S. S. Joscelyn, and Reverend Leonard Bacon, D.D. In the pamphlet are also the addresses of Reverend Owen Street, Mr. Edward L. Hart, Mr. John G. North, Reverend S. S. Joscelyn, and Mr. Charles H. Fowler. There is also an appendix containing a copy of the Declaration of the Association of the County of New Haven, Connecticut, Concerning the Rev. Mr. George Whitfield, February 19, 1744-5.
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THE EVOLUTION OF AN OLD NEW ENGLAND CHURCH.
It was early in the pastorate of Mr. Havens that the Sunday School was introduced in East Haven. Instruction in the tenets of the Christian religion had been given in a more or less systematic way ever since the New Haven Colony was established. And the same was true throughout all the Puritan colonies of New England. The Massachusetts General Court in 1642, and the Connecticut Code of 1650, provided : "That all masters of families do, once a week at least, catechize their children and servants in the grounds and principles of reli- gion." Augmenting the home instruction was a similar instruction given by the minister. In some places the children met in the church between the services of worship on Sunday, but in most communities they assembled on Saturday afternoon to be taught their catechism. However, one must remember that in those days secular education was permeated with reli- gion; the Bible was taught every day, and biblical passages filled the text books. In fact all education from the most elementary grades through the college was of a religious character.
A few Sunday Schools were in existence in America before the Revolution, but they were quite different from those which began shortly after, and they were so few in numbers that it was unusual for a church to maintain one. Reverend Joseph Bellamy of Bethlehem, Connecticut, began a Sunday School in 1740, continuing it until his death in 1789. It was his own school, fashioned after his own ideas, but a most effective institution in training the youth in the fundamentals of Calvin- istic Christianity. Its curriculum was exclusively religious, and the method of instruction was that known as catechizing. In Washington, Connecticut, as early as 1791, the officers and leaders in the church caused the children to assemble on the Green between the Sabbath services during the summer months, there to receive instruction in the Bible and Westminster Cate- chism.
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THE LAST THREE QUARTERS OF A CENTURY.
The modern Sunday School movement, however, began during the early days of the industrial revolution in England. Robert Raikes, a newspaper editor, happened to walk through the poorer sections of the city of Gloucester and was astonished at the poverty and illiteracy all about. He had been interested in prison reform, and upon beholding the numerous children, the progeny of the poor laboring people, he felt that a system of education should be inaugurated whereby they could be trained in the rudiments of knowledge. Thus by education he would be striking at the very roots of social evils and greatly reduce the number of convicts in the prisons. The instruction was not to be primarily religious, but secular, although the curriculum was to include the Church of England Catechism. "The children were to come soon after ten in the morning, and stay till twelve; they were then to go home and stay till one; and after reading a lesson they were to be con- ducted to church. After church they were to be employed in repeating the catechism till half-past five, and then to be dis- missed, with an injunction to go home without making a noise ; and by no means to play in the streets."15
In July, 1780, Raikes gathered a number of children together in the home of Mr. King, in St. Catherine Street, where Mrs. King had been employed as the first teacher, her salary fixed at Is. 6d. per Sunday.16 All the teachers were paid at first, but as the movement expanded amid the increasing approba- tion of the clergy, it became more popular, and teachers volun- tarily gave their time and talents to it. Queen Victoria summoned Mr. Raikes to interview her, and upon publication of her hearty endorsement, the fashionable ladies of England entered into the work with enthusiasm.
The Sunday School came to America in 1790, although Bishop Asbury organized one at the home of Mr. Thomas Crenshaw, in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1786, which lived
15 S. Turner, Sunday Schools Recommended, Appendix, p. 41.
16 A. Gregory, Robert Raikes, p. 72.
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THE EVOLUTION OF AN OLD NEW ENGLAND CHURCH.
but a short time. In December, 1790, the Sunday School project was discussed in Philadelphia, and in the month follow- ing, January, 1791, the "First Day" or Sunday School was organized to teach the poor children of the city the truths of religion, the teachers receiving remuneration for their services. Other Sunday Schools soon followed,17 and by 1809 a Sunday School movement was organized in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The first local Sunday School union was formed in New York, in 1816, the second in Boston in the same year, and the third in Philadelphia in 1817. The American Sunday School Union, developing from the local unions, was formed in 1824, and in the following year it began to determine the Sunday School curriculum and publish the Sunday School lessons. In 1832 the different denominations began to publish their own study material. The International Uniform Lessons appeared for the first time in 1872,-the greatest single step in Sunday School progress ever made. The lessons were the same for everybody in every school in every denomination.
Sixteen years later the Reverend Erastus Blakeslee, of Spencer, Massachusetts, not being satisfied with the uniform lessons, devised a system of graded instruction with corre- sponding study material, for use in his own parish. In a short time other parishes in Massachusetts borrowed his lessons; and soon they were in use in neighboring states. In 1908, the International Sunday School Association ordered its committee to arrange and publish a series of graded lessons. It was another great step in the advancement of the Sunday School movement. The graded lessons, providing different biblical and extra-biblical material for study according to the mentality of the pupils, is strictly in harmony with the most advanced methods of pedagogy.
The modern Sunday School met with considerable difficulty in winning favor in New England, for the Congregation-
17 M. C. Brown, The Sunday School Movement in America, p. 232; also H. C. Trumbull, Yale Lectures on the Sunday School, p. 123.
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THE LAST THREE QUARTERS OF A CENTURY.
alists and Presbyterians were its strongest opponents.18 Very slowly it made its way into the old and established parishes. Due to the vision and foresight of Mr. Havens, it was intro- duced in the Old Stone Church about 1850. Early in his ministry he tentatively organized the young people into classes to meet on Sunday for biblical instruction, and finding the system so practicable he made it a permanent organization.
Mr. Havens' ministry was exceedingly constructive and pro- gressive. A profound and versatile student, a godly man of more than usual talents and vision, a preacher of superior forensic abilities, he made the three decades of his pastorate shine forth in glowing colors. Having an intense liking for the study of history, he frequently delivered illuminating sermons on themes of historical interest. During his leisure moments he compiled a History of East Haven, which was never published, the manuscript now being in the possession of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. His building program was so ambitious and successfully executed that his incumbency was comparable only to that of Mr. Street. And it is a peculiar coincidence that both men labored during periods of national anxiety, when the war cloud hovered low over the country. The subsequent years of reconstruction were similar, too, in the unfortunate effects on the loyal ministers. The purchasing power of money had so depreciated that the good men were unable to live on their meagre salaries. As Mr. Street was compelled to petition for relief, so was Mr. Havens, although in the latter case relief was not forth- coming. Under the circumstances there was no alternative for the embarrassed minister but to tender his resignation; this he did on June 18, 1877, and with a heavy heart departed from the only parish he knew. For the next ten years he preached in the Presbyterian Church, in Holton, Kansas, after which he lived in retirement with his son in Meriden, Con- necticut. While visiting friends in East Haven he passed
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