USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > The fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church of Hartford, Connecticut, March 21 to 28, 1915 > Part 2
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The Puritan Churches of our country would commission me to say one word for them. You have not failed them through these fifty years. Many a lonely frontier church upon the plains, many a hidden work among the hills, has had the help of your gifts and your prayers. Many a man, fighting his battle on the other side of the world, bearing his witness in the darkness of the multi- tudes of paganism, has had the strength for his arm furnished, the food for his lamp supplied, by your faith and love. The service you have rendered to all our churches was fitly sealed and crowned and symbolized by the notable sermon your min- ister preached at the meeting of the American Board upon the Pacific Coast. " The sermon was like himself, human, catholic, spiritual, brotherly -an interpretation of the life of one of the great
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missionaries of the Church Universal, who ren- dered his service in the ministry of the Church of England. So your ministry among our churches has been personal and human and brotherly. You have sent forth young men to serve at home and abroad. You have inspired personal contacts with concrete tasks, and wherever the Puritan Churches are, there the name of this church and of its be- loved minister have been known and have been blessed.
It is my joy to speak for the whole fellowship of the Church of Christ in Hartford. The spirit that has been cherished in this meeting-house, the message that has been proclaimed from this pulpit, the ministries that have gone forth from this threshold-these have been limited by no sectarian bonds, they have been confined to no denomina- tional channels. They have leaped over the bar- riers of our ecclesiastical fences, they have burst through the conventions which the long years have established, for they have been dynamic with the catholic spirit of the blessed Master of all men, and have sought everywhere to find fellowship with all those who have cherished His name and shared in His spirit. There is a Church of Christ in Hartford which is larger than the sum of all its separated congregations, just as it is greater than the number of any one of its sundered divisions. It is constituted of all those who have caught some- thing of the message of the Man of Nazareth; it is made up of all those who find the hope of their hearts given them in His revelation of the good- [ 23 ]
ness and the love of the eternal God. It includes all who have been quickened for the common ser- vice by His Spirit, who have prayed for the com- ing of His Kingdom, and cherished the hope of His radiant appearing therein in their hearts. These all have rejoiced in the witness and the ser- vice of this church and of its minister. These all do now give thanks for the help which you have given them. These all offer prayers to-day that are beyond the prescriptions of all their rubrics, and exceed all the words of their lips, prayers that for your minister at evening-time there may be light, that for you together through the future there may be increased blessedness in increasing service, and that for him to whom there has now worthily come the privilege of succession in this ministry and this leadership there may be given the continuing and increasing presence of the Spirit that has guided you unto this present.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH DEACON ATWOOD COLLINS
To obtain the proper setting for the story of the founding of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church it will be necessary to throw on the screen a different Hartford and another Lord's Hill. Forget, if you please, the streets solidly built up with houses, the sidewalks, the asphalt and mac- adam pavement, the electric lights, and the trolley and motor cars that now make up our daily mov- ing picture.
If we are to go back to 1860, we must eliminate all the things that mark the progress of our city of Hartford in population from approximately 29,000 to 100,000. We must strike out also the inventions of the intervening years, which have added comfort and luxury to the conditions of living. Our railway station and tracks were then on the ground. The grade crossing was guarded by gates, manipulated by veteran tenders. Asylum Street was not then the artery of travel that it is now, but, even then, there were traffic incidents. Horses occasionally ran away then as now, and for the passenger to the excitement of the meteoric ride there was added the chance of contact with a moving train. The streets to the west were then roads, and not the good roads of modern parlance. To quote from a paper on the topography of Hart- ford by the late Major John C. Parsons: "As a general rule, in new settlements the better the soil, [25 ]
the poorer the roads. The tenacious clay that un- derlies the loam of Hartford is the most intractable of all material for road-building."
Breasting the easy ascent of Asylum Hill, the avenues diverged as now, but upon a sparsely settled territory. "The Hill in 1860 was compara- tively new ground. The stream of immigration had begun to move that way, but the houses were scattered along the two avenues at wide distances, and on the side streets were few. The American Asylum at Hartford for the Education and In- struction of the Deaf and Dumb, according to the ponderous title which it then bore, will soon cele- brate its centennial on its present site. To this institution we are indebted for the name of the street, avenue and church. The deaf graduates of the school, feeling the name "Asylum" to be a stigma on their class, agitated years ago to such effect that the name of the school was changed by legislative enactment. Despite the sporadic pro- test of residents, the name "Asylum" adheres to street, avenue and locality.
Of the buildings in this particular neighborhood two are mentioned specifically because of their in- timate connection with the beginnings of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church. These two buildings are now only a memory.
One building to which reference is made was a plain and unpretentious schoolhouse, which, with its playground and primary building, occupied the whole of what is now Asylum Place, with addi- tional land to the east. It was a homely frame
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building, of which apparently no one has ever cared to make a picture. But many now living can testify that solid foundations were there laid for education and character. The principal, George Fillow, was a born teacher and discip- linarian, who made a lasting impression on his pupils by a judicious use of ruler and rhetoric.
The other building was a brick dwelling oppo- site the west wing of the American School, the home of Mr. and Mrs. David E. Bartlett, names to be held in blessed memory by the people of this church. Later, in the seventies, this was the first home of many of that choice band of Chinese youth who, at the instance of Dr. Yung Wing, were brought here to receive a New England education. Here they found a Christian home, and, in the sainted lady who presided over that household, a mother's love and care.
These two buildings first sheltered our church in its germinative stage, when its only shape was a Sunday School in the little brown schoolhouse and a neighborhood prayer meeting in the dwelling.
The annual meeting of the City Missionary Society was held in the autumn of 1860. A notable figure in those days was the City Missionary. Father Hawley, as he was everywhere affection- ately called, was on that occasion the principal speaker. He was a man from whom goodness radiated, a genial presence, and, when he spoke in public, his utterance never lacked wit and pathos. What he said then went home to the mind and heart of at least one of his hearers at that annual [ 27 ]
meeting. In the course of his remarks Father Hawley deplored the lack of a Sunday School in the part of the city lying between Albany Avenue on the north and Park Street on the south, and ex- tending from the railroad station to West Hart- ford. He said: "In this district, which I have named, there is no Sunday School. There must be three hundred children or more who are deprived of Sunday School instruction by the distance which separates them from existing schools. People of Hartford, you must not expect me to do all your missionary work. I pray you, do some of it yourselves."
A lady, Mrs. Maria C. Metcalf, lived as far out in the suburbs as Broad Street, and, recog- nizing the fact that she was on the missionary ground indicated by the speaker, forthwith set herself to work on her own initiative. She visited every family in the district named, and induced a large number to attend a Sunday School when it could be organized. As indicating the changes in a locality now thickly settled, we may note that Mrs. Metcalf, in a letter written many years later, speaks of her attention being drawn to boys play- ing all Sunday in a grove near her home. Mrs. Metcalf was then living on the east side of Broad Street, between Farmington Avenue and the rail- road. In a neighbor on Broad Street, Mrs. Joseph Kellogg, a sympathetic helper was found in these efforts for community uplift.
Application was then made to Erastus Collins, who was the chairman of the school district, for [ 28 ]
permission to use the school building. Leave was readily granted. Before the end of November, 1860, the Sunday School was assembled in the schoolhouse. There were forty-nine pupils and seventeen teachers. This Sunday School, of which Mrs. Metcalf was the originator, had to share the building at first with the Sunday School of Trinity Church, then in course of evolution .*
In connection with this project and succeeding problems, it is well to recall existing conditions. The dwellings were scattered at wide distances on the two avenues. On Farmington Avenue there was a large farm, with its barns, where now the Cathedral stands, with its school and bishop's resi- dence. Opposite the Cathedral still stands a re- minder of earlier times in the stone which marks the one mile distance from the center of Hartford. Over the little river to the west was a covered wooden bridge with its approaches planted with willows.
On Asylum Avenue there was at this time but one house on the north side from Sumner Street west to Sigourney Street. On the other side of the avenue in the same limits a frame house still standing opposite our church, it is said, had but one or two neighboring houses on the west. West of Sigourney Street there were perhaps five or six houses on either side to Woodland, with practically
*Mrs. Metcalf was the wife of George Metcalf, who, during the Civil War, was a lieutenant in the Connecticut Light Battery. In the rotunda of the State Capitol is a shattered wheel inscribed with the places and dates of the engagements in which this Battery took part during the Civil War. Lieut. Metcalf lost his life near the close of the war.
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nothing to the north and with but two or three houses to Prospect Hill.
Conveniences for travel on foot or by vehicle were very limited. At this time the grown people of religious proclivities, and a few of the children, attended the down-town churches on the Lord's Day. In the group best known to the writer the family carriage always brought its complement of children. The first line of horse cars did not ap- pear on the Hill until 1863. Prior to this an old- fashioned omnibus was run out to Woodland Street. Later, when the tracks were snowed under, a covered conveyance on runners was put on, with primitive foot-warmers of straw, but the times of which we speak knew not these conveniences for travel. Public carriages were to be had by mail- ing an order to the livery from the central post- office or by sending a messenger to the city. All of the churches of our order were on or near Main Street. Under the circumstances, the old and feeble who were without private conveyances had to forego church privileges.
During a call which Rev. Mr. Calkins of the Center Church was making on his parishioners, Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett, a conversation arose as to the local difficulties in this regard. The discussion of the subject brought out the suggestion from Mr. Calkins that a neighborhood prayer-meeting might be profitable. The idea was accepted, and a prayer-meeting was thus started at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett, and continued at neigh- bors' houses until the organization of the church
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took the audience into the chapel. The first of these meetings probably was held in 1861.
About this time a memorable series of Bible in- struction classes was inaugurated under the volun- teer leadership of Professor Calvin E. Stowe. This was begun at the house of John Beach on Asylum Avenue, and was continued later in chapel and church with great interest on the part of those in continuous attendance.
Professor Stowe, although popularly known as the husband of the gifted author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," was a scholar of repute, and a man of marked force and originality .* He attracted and held his auditors to a degree that accounted for the growth and continuance of this class of Bible instruction. Besides his mental acumen, Professor Stowe was a man of picturesque personality. His skull-cap, flowing white beard and rotund person made him seem one of the ancient prophets to the younger portion of his audience.
Meantime, the Sunday School had grown and prospered.
To trace the beginnings of the church enterprise we cannot do better than quote the words of James S. Tryon, who was elected superintendent of the first Sunday School, in a paper on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the church: "In the beginning this church was created by the necessities of the com- munity. No one agency originated it. In the pro-
*An illustration of the fact that a man may be obscured by a brilliant wife is found in this anecdote. The first house built by the Stowes was back of Capitol Avenue, near the river bank. A work- man engaged upon the structure was asked for whom it was being built. He replied, "For the Widder Stowe."
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cession of events, the Sunday School, the prayer- meeting, and Dr. Stowe's Bible Class were the in- strumentalities. The object attracted all loving Christian hearts, and was greater than any person or than any instrument. The impelling force was divine, and it worked through the agencies named to produce this fair temple for the worship of God."
A meeting of citizens of the Hill was held at the office of J. M. Allen at the American Asylum on February 3, 1864, at which there were present seventeen gentlemen. The names are appended, for though they cannot mean much to the present generation, they should be held in grateful memory by our church. In the order given in the minutes they are as follows: Erastus Collins, Rev. J. R. Keep, John Beach, Samuel Coit, A. G. Hammond, E. K. Root, Henry French, Roderick Terry, J. A. Ayres, David E. Bartlett, Joseph Kellogg, Francis Gillette, Rev. Charles H. Bullard, J. M. Allen, M. Lord, A. M. Hurlbut and J. S. Tryon.
Mr. Collins stated the object of the meeting, to consider the wants of this locality in regard to establishing a Congregational Church on the Hill. He alluded to the great distance from the down- town churches as precluding the women and chil- dren of this locality from attending evening meet- ings, or more than one service on the Sabbath. He spoke also of the loss of interest in the down-town churches because of their being so far away. Unanimous assent was given to the suggestion of a
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new church, and a committee was appointed to report on a site.
At an adjourned meeting held on February 6th, in addition to those named above, there were pres- ent Roland Mather, Joseph Church, William L. Collins, Mark Howard and Olcott Allen. There was considerable discussion as to a site, some favor- ing a location between Spring and Garden streets, others a lot on Farmington Avenue near Imlay Street. It is to be noted that the committee ap- pointed to recommend a site for the new church represented different sections of the Hill in resi- dence and property interests. This committee was Erastus Collins, Samuel Coit, A. M. Hurlbut, Olcott Allen, Henry French and Francis Gillette.
At a meeting held in the schoolhouse Febru- ary 19, 1864, this committee reported on a site on the north side of Asylum Avenue west of Sumner Street. The report was accepted and the com- mittee given power to purchase the lot. A com- mittee was also appointed to solicit subscriptions On to pay for the lot and to build a church. June 29, 1864, the site recommended by the com- mittee was approved. The lot was purchased from Francis J. Huntington, and contained 188 feet on Asylum Avenue, but later 20 feet were sold on the east. The original deed bears date of July 5, 1864. The grantor, Mr. Huntington, had built and then occupied the house on Prospect Avenue and Syca- more Road now owned by T. Belknap Beach.
Prior to the formation of the new society, the advice of the city churches was sought, and their [ 33 ]
approval of the enterprise gained. It was realized that the establishment of the new church would draw away many useful members from the older churches, and there is on file a letter from the North Church, signed by Theodore Lyman as clerk, in which that church declines to send dele- gates to the advisory meeting for the reason that they were too much interested. We can bear them no resentment, for this church afterward gathered in both Christopher C. Lyman and his son Theo- dore. The former will long be remembered for his kindly bearing, generous giving and modest worth, and the latter served for many years as clerk of this church.
The new Ecclesiastical Society was organized at a meeting held at the schoolhouse on June 25, 1864. In the records of that meeting appears the name of C. J. Burnell as clerk, a gentleman who is still an officer of the Sunday School. Articles of associa- tion were subscribed by twenty-nine persons. The names of the first society's committee are of in- terest. They are Erastus Collins, A. G. Hammond, A. M. Hurlbut, Roderick Terry and E. H. Fenn. A building committee for the erection of the new church edifice was elected, as follows: Samuel Coit, William L. Collins, Henry French, Newton Case and J. M. Allen. On November 2, 1864, a committee of five was appointed to recommend a pastor. They were Rev. J. R. Keep, J. S. Tryon, A. G. Hammond, Erastus Collins and John Beach. Evidently the several committees named went to work with hearty good-will, for results were speed-
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ily accomplished, both in proceeding with the building and in securing a pastor.
Those who now are concerned in matters of church finance will have sympathy for the gentle- men on whom devolved the task of raising in that new community $100,000 and more for the lot and church buildings. The subscriptions ranged from sums less than $50 to pledges of $5,000 and $6,000 -the maximum being over $10,000. Articles given included a horse, carpets, plank, a Bible, a communion table, and a lot, which latter was sold for $2,900. The money to pay for the church site, $10,000, was borrowed from the Society for Sav- ings on a joint and several note of individuals, afterward assumed by the society. In the course of the building operations the indebtedness to the bank reached the sum of $40,000, but was later reduced to $23,000, which was styled "the perma- nent debt." The cash received from donations was $87,445.14. Happily, the debt incurred for build- ing did not remain permanent, but was finally ex- tinguished by gift and legacy. A dual pledge was signed by many-first a subscription for a stated sum, and then an engagement to take a pew for five years at $200 per year.
It is of interest to remember that the times in 1864 were not unlike the present in that men's minds were restless over the war in progress. Fif- teen regiments and batteries had rendezvoused in the city of Hartford. Besides the presence of mili- tary camps, there was the frequent pageant of marching troops. The present war affects us in [ 35 ]
many ways, but then the war came close home, when after each battle the lists of killed, wounded and missing were eagerly scanned for the name of a husband, son or brother. As we look back now we can see that prudence might have counseled delay until the times were normal. Nevertheless, the work of the committees went on apace. All who could give gave liberally and repeatedly, and pledged their credit for what it was necessary to borrow, the final debt waiting until the eighties for its extinguishment.
The building committee chose for its architect Patrick C. Keely, who gave us the present chapel and church building. The first entry on the books toward the cost of the church is an item for the architect's plans. The buildings were erected under the very careful and able supervision of Samuel Coit, the chairman of the building com- mittee, and mostly by day work. It is probable that the architect's supervision did not extend to the final details in the original treatment of the interior.
Some items of interest about our architect have been contributed by his son, Dr. William A. Keely, of Brooklyn, N. Y. From these we take the following :
"P. C. Keely was born in Tipperary, Ireland, in 1815. He was educated in his native country and in England. In his early life he was associated with his father in the designing and erection of many noted buildings in both countries. In 1841 he came to America and immediately entered upon his profes- sional career, which continued until his death in 1896. He was the architect of some four hundred ecclesiastical structures of various denominations. In New England he designed all the
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Roman Catholic cathedrals, including St. Joseph's, on Farm- ington Avenue, in Hartford. He was the architect of many famous churches in Canada, among them the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Montreal, with the Jesuit Church and St. Patrick's in the same city. St. Francis Xavier Church in New York, sometimes said to be the finest specimen of Romanesque architecture on the continent, was designed by him. The pic- turesque Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Brooklyn and the Jenkins Memorial Church in Baltimore, a beautiful Gothic structure, may be mentioned as other examples of his talent. Had Mr. Keely had the opportunity that the increased wealth and culture of this country now afford, the designs he made could have been put into complete execution and would stand as a great contribution to the art of architecture. With the means at his command he did perform wonders."
This notice also appeared in The American Architect and Building News of August 22, 1896:
"Among the architects, we have to record the death of sev- eral men of note. Of these the best known was probably Mr. Patrick C. Keely, who is said to have designed and built more than 600 Roman Catholic churches in this country, and to have had plans for fifty of them in preparation in his office at once. Mr. Keely was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1816. His father was an architect, and the son studied and practised with him until he was twenty-five years old, when he came to this coun- try, settling in Brooklyn. He soon found employment, and was thenceforth probably the busiest architect in the United States. He is said to have built every Roman Catholic cathe- dral in New York, except the one in New York City, and he designed many more in New England and Canada, besides a few Protestant churches. Of course, with such an enormous press of work, no architect could devote much time to studying refinement of design, but his work was always skilful and clever, and often very interesting. His best work is probably the Jesuit Church on Sixteenth Street, New York City."
The church building was erected without its steeple, which was given in 1875 by Roland Mather, at a cost of $19,000. The initial cost of the land was $10,000, and of the buildings $106,208.58. The cornerstone of the church was [ 37 ]
laid in May, 1865. The excavation had been made the previous year, and the stone-work was begun vigorously in the early spring of 1865-an item in the Courant of April 3, 1865, reporting that "27 masons, 12 stone-cutters and 32 laborers are now at work upon the new church." The stone- work was under the superintendence of Andrew Brabason. All this work was done by the day, and was well done, as the years have proved. The diary of one of the building committee, William L. Col- lins, mentions with some pride the rich color of the rock-faced Portland stone and the hammer- dressed trim. He speaks also of the cornices and window-casings of stone, showing no woodwork from the outside.
The chapel appears to have been completed by March, 1865, at which time there is a record of a church service, at which Dr. Bushnell preached. We have the record of the first communion service held in the chapel on June 11, 1865, at which twelve members of the Sunday School were re- ceived into the church upon profession. Church services were held in the chapel continuously thereafter until the completion of the church building.
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