USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 52
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Samuel Spring came to the North Church from the pastorate of a church in Abington, Mass., and he retired, after six years of service, against the unanimous wish of his church publicly expressed. Imme- diately after his retirement he became the minister of the Congrega- tional Church in East Hartford, and there the remainder of his active life was spent ; there, as pastor emeritus, his years of final retirement were passed ; there, in 1877, at the age of more than fourscore years he died, and in the cemetery of that village he was buried. He was the son of Samuel Spring, of Massachusetts, a distinguished Congrega-
1 The First and Second Churches are the subject of an earlier chapter.
? See also a sketch of his life, in Sprague's "Annals of the American Pulpit," vol. ii., Trinitarian Congregational.
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tional divine; and the well-known Rev. Dr. Gardner Spring, for a long time pastor of a Presbyterian church in New York City, was his brother. He is remembered in all this region as one of the most admirable of men, intellectually, spiritually, and socially.
Horace Bushnell was a man whose fame is in all the churches, and his twenty-six years of connection with the North Church are the one great title of that church to universal celebrity. He was born in Litchfield, April 14, 1802, and he died in Hartford, Feb. 17, 1876, and is buried in the North Cemetery of that city. His Hartford pas- torate was his first and only one. His people were fond of him and proud of him ; and when he resigned, in 1859, on account of his health, they resisted his entire separation from them by many forms of resist- ance, urging that he should at least retain a formal connection with them, and pledging themselves, in a paper signed by every man of the church, to support him as long as he lived, whether able to labor or not. But he needed a release; and from his dismissal in 1859, to 1876, he gave his strength to the production of certain great works, for a list of which see another article in this history.
Dr. Bushnell was a great writer, but he did not neglect his duties as the minister of the North Church, and his service there was fruitful in many ways. His sermons contained an amount of intellectual and religious material which could hardly be paralleled, and they were put to the people in a manner to make a great and abiding impression. Still, his supreme service to the world was by his books. He was not a scholar ; he was not excessively reverent toward precedents and old opinions ; but he was candid, conscientious, truth-loving, intuitive, massive, and robust, on close terms with God, closer and closer the longer he lived ; and he expressed himself in a diction which was won- derful for its combined strength, opulence, and beauty. In theology he was free, courageous, and even venturesome at times ; so that many were anxious about him for years and years, and some were disposed to make him trouble. He was tried for heresy before one ecclesiastical body, and a prolonged effort was made to get him put on trial before another ; but the first one cleared him, and the second one never could get hold of him, because the three members of his own church needed - according to ecclesiastical law and usage - to make complaint of him to that body could never be found. Through all the channels of public discussion he was diligently debated ; but as time went on, and his constant growth in the grace of God made him continually a more beautiful and beloved figure in the world, and also made it evident that his errors, however erroneous, were not deadly, at least in his own case, the public unrest subsided, and the principal thing that remained was a liberalization of theology in the communion to which Bushnell belonged, and a visible step taken towards catholicity and catholic truth. Dr. Bushnell's church could never be persuaded that he had made any departure from essential Christian truth, and they therefore stood by him with unwavering unanimity. On the other hand, they retained as their own, as they do to this day, the creed of the First Church in Hartford, which they adopted when they emerged from that body.
George N. Webber was called to service in the North Church from a pastorate in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and after leaving Hartford he served as a professor in Middlebury College, Vermont ; as pastor of
ahorace Quithule 1
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the First Presbyterian Church, Troy, New York ; and as a professor in Smith College, Northampton, Mass., where he now is.
George B. Spalding was a pastor in Vergennes, Vermont, when called to the North Church, and since the close of his service in Hartford he has been a pastor in Dover and Manchester, New Hampshire, and in Syracuse, New York. He is still in service in Syracuse.
The North Church is now sixty-one years old, and its career has been a quiet and even one, very like that of other intelligent and stanch churches of the New England Congregational order, except that for twenty-six years it was involved, much to its own satisfaction, in the public fortunes of one of the ablest and most magnetic men and ministers hitherto produced by the Church of God in the United States of America.
Watated. Burton
THE FOURTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
BY THE REV. GRAHAM TAYLOR.
THE FOURTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH was added to its predecessors in 1832. That period is memorable for the general quickening of reli- gious life throughout the land. The churches of this State had been deeply stirred by the fervent evangelistic ministry of Dr. Asahel Nettle- ton. The Rev. Charles G. Finney had just entered upon his remarkable career on that wider field through which he swept with such phenome- nal power. Hartford felt and responded to the deep religious sentiment which so widely prevailed. One form in which it manifested itself in this city was the deeper sense of responsibility felt by church-members for the spiritual welfare of those who neglected the churches or were neglected by them. It aroused some in each of the three churches to put forth personal and practical effort to reclaim them. Those who thus engaged in house-to-house visitation, tract distribution, and the maintenance of religious meetings in destitute neighborhoods soon naturally associated themselves. At first they had no more formal organization than a common purpose and mutual sympathy. When their work outgrew their own time and strength, they united to place a missionary upon the field, and secured the services of the Rev. E. P. Barrows, who led them in their continued labors for two years.
They soon needed a building to hold their audiences, not only be- cause of the large and speedy fruitage of their toil, but also because the people among whom they labored felt excluded from the regular Sab- bath services by the crowded state of the churches, by the high prices asked for seats in them, and by their own circumstances and condition. But it was still simply as " a few Christian friends " that they banded together to purchase " the old Baptist Meeting-House " on Dorr Street,
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
now Market Street. It had been erected, and for thirty-three years used, by the congregation of the First Baptist Church, and still stands on the southeast corner of Market and Temple streets, having long been known as Washingtonian Hall. The purchase was made for three thou- sand dollars, which was subscribed in ten shares of three hundred dol- lars each, by Henry Hudson, Barzillai Hudson, Robert Anderson, John Beach, Silas Andrus, Lynde Olmsted, Peter Morton, D. F. Robinson, Richard Bigelow, and Normand Smith, Jr. These and their associates opened the building in January, 1831, as the Free Church, with a view of gathering in the people who did not avail themselves of the privi- leges of the gospel. Toward the close of that year the mission workers felt impelled to submit to the churches to which they belonged the fol- lowing question : " Whether it was not the duty of some to leave the well-filled houses of worship and form themselves into a new church with the view of providing the means of grace for the neglected and the increasing population of the city ?" A joint report of the three churches answered their inquiry affirmatively. In accordance there- with eighteen members from the First Church, two from the Second, and thirteen from the North were solemnly set apart by these three churches as the Free Church, with religious services at their house of worship, on Jan. 10, 1832.
The Rev. Horatio Foote, who had succeeded Mr. Barrows, became acting pastor of the new church. Robert Anderson and Normand Smith, Jr., were elected its first deacons, and Wyllys King treasurer. By its organization all authority and control over both its temporal and spiritual interests were vested in one body, - the church. But within a year the congregation conformed to the usual method of administration, and the Ecclesiastical Society of the Free Congrega- tional Church was incorporated June 19, 1833. As its name indi- cated, the seats in the church were all free, and the expenses were met by voluntary subscriptions and offerings. It was then widely believed that by thus affording equal privileges to all without any charge what- ever the chief hindrance in gathering in the masses would be removed. Connected as it was with the personal activity of the whole membership in systematic religious visitation and ministration among the people, the plan met with remarkable success. The fervor and efficiency of their first pastor, the Rev. William C. Walton, had much to do with the at- tainment of this result. He left the pastorate of a Presbyterian church in Alexandria, D. C., to respond to the call of the church, in wliose service he continued from October, 1832, until February, 1834, when he died greatly lamented. A church of nearly two hundred members, self- supporting and contributing largely to other benevolent objects, with a new and large sanctuary in course of erection on Main Street, all re- mained to attest the vigor and consecration of his brief ministry. The Rev. Charles Fitch, of western Massachusetts, succeeded to the pastorate June 19, 1834. During his ministry the new edifice on Main Street, opposite Temple, known since its abandonment by the congregation as The Melodeon, was completed and occupied, but by depleted audi- ences. The very feature which it was thought would most commend it to the people began to react against the church. A popular prejudice to the free-seat plan withstood the progress and threatened the very existence of the church. In this crisis Mr. Fitch resigned and was suc-
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ceeded on the 9th of October, 1837, by the Rev. Isaac N. Sprague, who had been pastor of a free church in New York City. Notwithstanding the devotion of people and pastor to the free-church idea, the adherents of which were so closely allied as almost to form a distinct guild among the churches and the ministry, the necessity of radical changes in the organization became apparent. In 1838 the seats were rented in part, and the Free Church became the Fourth Congregational Church. In connection with these changes there was recorded the unanimous desire of the congregation to retain the prominent feature with which they began ; namely, to make it a church for the masses. From the date of these changes, and by means of powerful revivals of religion, in the results of which the other churches of the city largely shared, the Fourth Church gained much in membership and in influence within and
round about the city. Mr. Sprague accepted a call to the city of Brooklyn, and the pastoral relation was dissolved Oct. 6, 1845. He found one hundred and twenty-five in the membership, and left the names of six hundred and thirty-one on the roll.
To the difficult and trying work of the next eleven years the Rev. William W. Patton came at the call of the church from his first and brief charge in South Boston. He was installed Jan. 8, 1846. . Within the first five years of his successful ministry the congregation had so grown in courage and strength as to erect the present substan- tial and commodious church edifice on Main Street, near Trumbull. It was dedicated April 3, 1850, and placed the church in more favor- able position for gaining its share of the church-going people of the city. The congregation grew rapidly in numbers, intelligence, and pecuniary ability ; but the pronounced convictions of pastor and peo- ple upon the great reform movements of the day cost the church years of sacrifice and trial. The struggling and unpopular temperance reform was early and warmly espoused.
The Fourth Church first, and for some time alone among the churches of the city, openly took sides with the Antislavery cause ; and never through all the great conflict for freedom did it waver in its loyalty to liberty nor falter in its allegiance to the rights of the slave. In the closing years of Mr. Patton's pastorate the church again shared largely in the fruits of the great revival which followed the labors of Dr. Finney.
Dr. Patton resigned, Jan. 4, 1857, to accept the presidency of How- ard University at Washington, D. C. The Rev. N. J. Burton was called from Fair Haven, and was installed July 7, 1857. He served the church with distinguished ability for twelve years, and from its pulpit rendered conspicuous service to the national cause during the War of the Rebel- lion. The relation existing between him and the church was dissolved by council, March 14, 1870, and he became pastor of the Park Church of this city. In November of the same year the Rev. C. Maurice Wines, from the Harvard Church, Brookline, Mass., was installed to the sixth pastorate. Upon his resignation in 1874 the Rev. H. D. Northrop became the acting pastor, in which capacity he conducted the church through the five most critical years of its history. Large accessions were received during this period from the union evangelistic meetings, in which the church co-operated, under the leadership of the evangelists Moody and Sankey.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Rev. Graham Taylor, the present pastor, was called from the Reformed Church, Hopewell, New York, and was installed May 14, 1880. The semi-centennial anniversary was celebrated Jan. 10, 1882, and was commemorated by the liquidation of the accumulated indebtedness of years, and by the publication of a historical manual. Impelled by its original impulse and devoted to its first works, the church is ful- filling its evangelistic mission with more thorough organization, larger co-operation, and more widely extended agencies than have been before employed. It reports two hundred and fifty families, three hundred and forty members, and three hundred and fifty in the Sunday school.
Graham Traylor.
OTHER CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES.
BY THE REV. F. S. HATCII.
THE TALCOTT STREET CHURCH, first composed of seven members who came by letter from the Congregational churches in the vicinity, was organized on the 28th day of August, 1833. The Rev. Joel Hawes, D.D., pastor of the First Church, conducted the service, assisted by the pastor of the Second Church. For a time the church was without a settled pastor, and was supplied by several ministers. July 16, 1840, the Rev. J. W. C. Pennington was installed pastor of the church. The present pastor is the Rev. W. W. Mallory. The society owns, free of incumbrance, the house of worship used by the church.
PEARL STREET CHURCH. - The idea of establishing a new Congrega- tional Church in Hartford occupied the minds of several persons, and was frequently mentioned for a considerable time before any formal action was initiated. But on Friday evening, Jan. 17, 1851, twelve gentlemen, well known in local circles, met at the office of the Society for Savings, to discuss the matter. Only one of these citizens, Mr. Newton Case, is now living. It was unanimously agreed that the city required additional accommodations for public worship, and that the time had come when measures should be taken to form a new Congre- tional church and society. Other meetings were held in rapid succes- sion. All the Congregational pastors in the city were consulted, and favored the enterprise ; the only serious question was concerning loca- tion. Several building-sites were proposed. One on the corner of Ann and Asylum streets, known as the Bishop Brownell lot, was favored by some who foresaw the growth of the city toward its western line. The matter was finally settled by the action of several gentlemen who purchased a lot of land on Pearl Street, and held it for the use of a religious society should one be formed.
The first public meeting was held on the 3d of March in the lecture- room of the First Church, and was "numerously and respectably at-
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tended." This gathering favored the enterprise by a unanimous vote ; plans were at once laid to procure money to build a house of worship. Forty thousand dollars was the amount deemed necessary to purchase the Pearl Street lot and erect a suitable structure thereon. Albert W. Butler, a warm supporter of the whole project, and chairman of the building committee, headed the subscription-list with one tenth the amount required, and subsequently loaned to the society, without in- terest, several thousand dollars, that the conditional subscriptions might not lapse.
A building lot and fund being secured, active measures were imme- diately taken to build a house of worship. Several cities were visited and many church buildings examined. The committee at length agreed upon a plan drawn by Mr. Minard Lafever, of New York, which was substantially carried out by the society. The building is constructed entirely of Portland stone, and its spire,1 rising two hundred and fifteen feet from the street, and tapering from foundation to capstone, is the most graceful structure in the city. Besides the audience- room, seating a thousand people, the building has a large lecture-room and parlors. It cost, including the lot, upward of forty thousand dol- lars, and is now valued at about three times that sum.
The corner-stone was laid Aug. 2, 1851, about six months after the first meeting to consider the project. The chairman of the society's committee, the Rev. W. W. Turner, delivered the address, and Dr. Hawes and Dr. Bushnell participated in the service. The address gave the reasons for a new Congregational church in Hartford, and affirmed that the corner-stone was " not laid in strife or contention, in heresy or schism." The building was dedicated Dec. 1, 1852, Dr. Stiles, of New Haven, preaching the sermon.
An ecclesiastical society was organized, according to the laws of Connecticut, March 29, 1851. The church was formed Oct. 15, 1852, ninety-one persons agreeing to the articles of faith. W. W. Turner is the first name appended to the articles. He was the first deacon chosen, and is still retained in that office. The search for a pastor was promptly begun. The Rev. Roswell D. Hitchcock, now Dr. Hitchcock of the Union Theological Seminary in New York, was the first minister called, but he declined and accepted a professorship. The first pastor of the church was the Rev. Elias R. Beadle. He was installed Dec. 1, 1852, and re- tained the pastorate until March 18, 1863. His ministry was remarkably successful, and he was greatly beloved by his own people and through- out the city. The council terminating the pastoral relation did so with great reluctance, and placed upon the records the statement that no reasons for the resignation were assigned by either party.
The second pastor was the Rev. J. L. Jenkins. He was installed April 13, 1864, and retired from the pastorate Dec. 4, 1866. This brief term of service seems to have sprung from some incompatibility between the parties, but the council warmly commended the pastor and gave the church no censure.
The Rev. W. L. Gage was installed Feb. 26, 1868. He remained pastor for more than sixteen years, resigning in 1884. He gave as a reason for this resignation his impression that after so long a pastorate
1 It is shown in the picture of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company's building, given elsewhere.
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a new voice and new methods of work might be productive of greater good. He retired with unanimous expressions of affection from his people and the most hearty recommendations of the council.
His successor, the Rev. William De Loss Love, Jr., was installed May 6, 1885, and is now pastor of the church. The membership of the church is four hundred and thirty-eight.
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ASYLUM HILL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. - At a meeting of the City Missionary Society, held at Pearl Street Church, in October, 1860, Mr. David Hawley, the city missionary, called attention to the fact that the inhabitants of the west part of the city had no convenient church privileges. The following month a Sunday school was opened in the school-rooms of the West Middle district, on Asylum Hill. A weekly prayer-meeting was established soon after, and maintained for more than a year. From these germs the Asylum Hill Church, now one of the strongest religious organizations in the city, has grown up to its present position.
The definite movement for the organization of a church was initiated in February, 1864. A meeting was called to consider the whole ques- tion, and was attended by about twenty heads of families. After prayer and conference together it was unanimously agreed that the time for action had come. The advice of the churches in the city was sought, and they were entirely of one voice in favor of the enterprise. Progress from this point was rapid. On the 25th of June an ecclesiastical soci- ety was organized according to the statutes of Connecticut, and twenty- nine gentlemen signed the articles of association. Officers were at once chosen. J. M. Allen was the first clerk of the society, Erastus Collins chairman of the society's committee, and James S. Tryon treas- urer. Samuel Coit was chairman of the building committee. The corner-stone of the church edifice was laid May 5, 1865, and the building was completed for the dedication June 15, 1866. The ex- cellent organ and the bell were procured subsequently. The stone spire, rising two hundred and thirty feet from the ground, and costing about $20,000 was given in 1875 by Roland Mather, Esq .: it completes one of the most attractive buildings in the city. The entire length of the church and chapel is one hundred and eighty-four feet. The large audience-room contains one hundred and eighty-six pews, and will seat about one thousand persons. The chapel accommodates two hundred and fifty people. The structure is in the Gothic style, and is built of Portland stone. George Kellogg is chairman of the society's com- mittee.
The church was organized the 23d of March, 1865, and duly recog- nized, according to Congregational custom, by the city churches. The Rev. J. H. Twichell was installed pastor December 13th of the same year. He remains pastor, ranking second in order of continued service among the pastors of the city. The church has grown steadily since its organization. It began with a hundred and fourteen members. Its membership is now five hundred and eighty.
THE WINDSOR AVENUE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH is also the out- growth of a Sunday school. This school was organized, June 10, 1864, in a house on the corner of Wooster and Pavilion streets. A weekly
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THE ASYLUM HILL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, ON ASYLUM AVENUE.
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THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
prayer-meeting followed, and, as the numbers increased, clergymen in the city and students of the Theological Seminary preached Sunday evenings. March 23, 1870, a church was constituted, consisting of sixty-two members. Oct. 31, 1871, Frank H. Buffum was ordained and installed pastor. He was dismissed July 11, 1873, to take another charge. His successor, James B. Gregg, was ordained and installed Sept. 29, 1874. During his successful pastorate the church grew and was strengthened ; the debt of the society was also paid. Mr. Gregg, having accepted a call to Colorado Springs, was dismissed in the spring of 1882. The Rev. Charles E. Stowe is now pastor of the church ; he was installed Jan. 10, 1883. The present membership of the church is two hundred and seventy-one. The corporation is known as the Pavilion Congregational Society. It was organized Dec. 10, 1870, and owns the house of worship occupied by the church. This build- ing is constructed of brick, is modern in its form and conveniences, and is particularly well adapted to church purposes ; it was dedicated June 26, 1872.
WETHERSFIELD AVENUE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. - In 1866 a Sunday school was organized in the Wethersfield Avenue School-house. The school outgrew its accommodations, and an edifice for religious services seemed desirable. An ecclesiastical society was formed June 1, 1868. A lot was purchased, and a comfortable church edifice erected, costing about sixteen thousand dollars. It is built of wood, in the early English style, and is sufficient for the immediate wants of the congregation. Religious services were held on Sunday conducted by the Rev. J. C. Bodwell, D D., who was assisted by students from the Theological Seminary. Later the Rev. George E. Sanborne ministered to the people. May 28, 1873, a church, consisting of twenty-three members, was formed, by advice of a council. George W. Winch sup- plied the church for a year, and was succeeded by the first installed pastor, the Rev. E. C. Starr, who was settled May 16, 1876, and dis- missed four years later. The present pastor, the Rev. George Curtiss, began his labors with this people May 7, 1881. The membership of the church is fifty-eight.
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