USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 55
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Bishop Galberry began the cathedral on Farmington Avenue in the summer of 1876, and the corner-stone was laid April 29, 1877. On the following day he left for Rome, where he participated in the ceremonies of the Golden Jubilee, - the fiftieth anniversary of the con- secration, as bishop, of Pope Pius IX., returning to Hartford in Sep- tember. On the 10th of February, 1878, he dedicated the basement of St. Joseph's Cathedral. The parochial school building on the corner of Capitol Avenue and Broad Street was begun by him, but he did not live to witness its completion. He was attacked with a violent hemor- rhage from the lungs and stomach while on his way to New York, October 9, and on the arrival of the train was taken to the Grand Union Hotel, where he expired Oct. 10, 1878. His body was buried in the crypt of St. Joseph's Cathedral. The Very Rev. Lawrence S. McMahon, of New Bedford, Mass., was appointed his successor, and was consecrated in St. Joseph's Cathedral. Aug. 10, 1879.
Father Kelly in 1862 arranged with the committee of the South School district to give the use of the school building and furniture, the committee to pay the expense of the teachers. For a while the arrangement worked satisfactorily. The children were all Catholics, and at first the teachers were also Catholics. As vacancies occurred, their places were filled by Protestant teachers. After the summer vacation of 1865 a young woman was appointed, who, without any in- structions from the committee, began to use the Protestant Bible as a text-book. When ordered by the committee to desist she defied them. She was removed to another school in the district, but refused to go,
VOL. I .- 27.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
raising the cry that this was an attempt to degrade her; and she in- sisted on provoking the children and parents by her extreme zeal, and actually induced the non-Catholics of the district, with scarcely an exception, to sustain her. They ordered the committee to reinstate her, Bible and all; and when the committee refused, they were com- pelled by mandamus, and the consequence was the breaking up of the arrangement with the district. Since then the school has been under the care of the Sisters of Mercy. At first these teachers were brought from St. Catharine's Convent, on Church Street ; but afterward they were provided with a home on Charter Oak Place, where they re- mained till 1875, when they were removed to the house now used as a pastoral residence, and they occupied it until the completion of their present convent, in December, 1880.
Father Lawrence Walsh remained pastor of St. Peter's Church until July, 1876, when he was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Lynch, who was succeeded in January, 1877, by the Rev. Michael Tierney, who remained until May, 1883, when, in consequence of the death of Dr. Hugh Carmody, of New Britain, he was appointed to the charge of that entire city, and the Rev. Thomas Broderick, formerly of New London, was appointed to St. Peter's.
The Sisters of Mercy in 1878 purchased a farm of thirty-three acres at Mount St. Augustine, on Quaker Lane, in West Hartford, and estab- lished thereon a boarding-school for boys under fifteen years of age. The institution now has about fifty pupils, and is in a flourishing con- dition. The Sisters have erected, in addition to the buildings that were on the place at the time of the purchase, a fine three-story school- house with kitchen, refectory, and dormitories, and also an additional dwelling-house for the farmer and his family. Two years afterward they purchased the place in the northern part of West Hartford, on the old Albany Turnpike, famous as the birthplace of the celebrated authoress, Rose Terry Cooke, and here they have established a home for the aged and destitute. This latter place contains one hundred and fifteen acres, and is known as St. Mary's Home. A few old men and some fifteen or twenty old women here find a home and care at the hands of the Sisters. Some are absolutely indigent, but most of them are supported in part by their friends and in part by the labor of the Sisters themselves.
The Sisters of Mercy have charge of the Orphan Asylums and sev- eral of the schools in the county. Besides St. Joseph's Academy for young ladies, in St. Joseph's Convent building, which is also the mother house of the Sisters of Mercy for the diocese, they have charge of St. Catharine's Convent and Asylum for Girls, and St. James's Asylum for Boys, both situated on Church Street, Hartford, and belonging to St. Patrick's parish ; the Sacred Heart Convent of Mercy, at St. Peter's parish, and also the entire parochial schools of St. Joseph's parish, on the corner of Broad Street and Capitol Avenue ; those of St. Peter's parish, on Main Street ; and the girl's parochial school of St. Patrick's parish, on Franklin Street. Since 1866 the boy's school of St. Patrick's has been under charge of the Christian Brothers, the only religious community in the county besides the Sisters of Mercy. The "Sisters" have also a house in New Britain, -St. Thomas's Convent, - and they
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THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
have charge of the parochial schools of the city. They have another house at Thompsonville, entitled " Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Con- vent," and the ladies there too have charge of the parochial schools.
As the limits for this article will not allow a specific mention of even the most important events connected with the establishment of parishes in different towns in the county, I can only mention them by name. New Britain and Windsor Locks were the first places after Hartford to have churches and pastors. The pastor of New Britain soon had churches erected at Collinsville and Tariffville, while Father Smith, of Windsor Locks, followed rapidly with one at Thompsonville, and a few years afterward at Poquonnock. In 1864, besides those already mentioned, there were churches at Bristol, Broad Brook, Farm- ington, Manchester, and Southington ; but these were all mission churches attended to by the priests of the contiguous large parishes. During the past twenty years several of the old churches have been re- built or replaced, and there have been churches established in the fol- lowing additional places : South Manchester, Hazardville, Windsor, Unionville, Rocky Hill, Wethersfield, Glastonbury, East Hartford, Ken- sington, Bloomfield, Plainville.
Thomas The monus
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
OTHER DENOMINATIONS.
BY THE REV. F. S. HATCH.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL. - UNIVERSALIST. - UNITARIAN. - JEWISH. - PRESBYTERIAN. - CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC. - LUTHERAN.
THE first Methodist sermon known to have been preached in Hart- ford was delivered by the Rev. Jesse Lee, the founder of New England Methodism, June 21, 1789. His reception in Hartford was so cordial that his hopes were raised and he visited the town again in March, April, and June of 1790. About that time other preachers entered the field. Freeborn Garrettson, a presiding elder whose district embraced portions of New York, New England, and Canada, preached several times in the court-house, though once " some, called the gentry, be- haved so ill that he broke up the meeting and declined to preach by candlelight." At the October conference in New York a new circuit was established which included Hartford. This circuit was in charge of Nathaniel B. Mills, a young man of twenty-four years.
Sometime during the last three months of 1790 the first Methodist Society in Hartford was formed by the Rev. Jesse Lee. The original members of the church are unknown, but Mr. Winship and Dr. Joseph Lynde, who entertained the itinerants, were undoubtedly among the number. In 1791 Bishop Ashbury visited Hartford and preached in a Congregational - probably the Centre -church. Two or three years afterward Hartford became the head of a new district, with the Rev. George Roberts as its presiding elder. From about this time the inter- ests of Methodism in Hartford began to decline. There was occasion- ally a preaching service in the Centre or South Church, in the "old playhouse " on Temple Street, in a private house, or in a barn ; but not until 1820 were there any signs of active life. In that year a great awakening occurred in connection with the labors of the Rev. J. N. Maffit. More than a hundred persons united with the Methodist Society. In 1821 a chapel was erected on the corner of Chapel and Trumbull streets, and Benoni English was appointed pastor of the church. At that time the membership of the church was one hundred and twenty-eight. In the years immediately following it fell to ninety- one, but in the great revival of 1837-1838 rose again to three hundred and sixty-eight.
In 1860 the society dedicated a new and commodious house of wor- ship on Asylum Street. It has since been refitted, and is still occupied by the society. The Rev. George Van Alstyne is pastor of the church.
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion's Church was organized in 1836 and erected a house of worship in 1857, costing six thousand dollars. The Rev. G. H. S. Bell is pastor of this church, which now numbers a hundred and fifty members.
The South Park Church is the outgrowth of a mission projected in the south of Hartford by the First Methodist Church in 1850. A school-
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OTHER DENOMINATIONS.
house was early purchased and remodelled, and in 1869 a church was organized and a chapel built. The present tasteful church-building, near the South Park, was dedicated in 1875. A new Sunday-school chapel, the gift of William Boardman, is now in process of erection. The membership of the church is three hundred and twenty-five. The Rev. Samuel M. Beiler is pastor.
The North Methodist Church was also started as a mission in 1869. In 1871 a chapel on Windsor Avenue was dedicated, and in 1874 the church also. Financial embarrassments hinder the progress of the society, and the membership is small. The Rev. David G. Downey is now pastor of this church.
The German Methodist Church holds its meetings in Warburton Chapel, and a goodly congregation is held together by Pastor Brock- meyer.
The total number of Methodist church-members in Hartford is not less than seven hundred.
The Rev. Richard Carrique gathered in the State House the first Universalist congregation in Hartford, in 1821. Three years afterward he left his people occupying a building of their own in Central Row, on the site of Central Hall. His immediate successor was the Rev. John Bisbee, whose pulpit eloquence is still a tradition in the denomination. Twelve men have followed him in the pastorate, some of whom are of special mark. The tendency to short pastorates was broken by the Rev. C. A. Skinner, who remained ten years. His successor, the Rev. W. H. Dearborn, was next longest in the pastorate. He was installed in 1877, and still continues in office. The society was organized in 1827 and the . church in 1840, with sixteen communicants. The membership is now about two hundred, while the parish includes a hundred and seventy families. The Sunday school began with the society, and now numbers three hundred and thirty-nine. Abner Church is senior deacon and L. L. Ensworth chairman of the society's committee. Jeremiah Fowler has been clerk of the parish more than forty years and Sunday-school librarian nearly as long. In 1860, during the pastorate of the Rev. Asher Moore, the present house of worship on Main Street, opposite the Cen- tre Church, was built. It is of brick with stone trimmings, seats nearly a thousand persons, and has very spacious grounds. The value of the property is about seventy-five thousand dollars.
On the 13th of April, 1830, at a meeting held at the house of James H. Wells, a Unitarian Association was organized. A constitution was adopted, under the name of the Hartford Unitarian Association, and officers were chosen as follows : J. H. Wells, president ; Hezekiah Huntington, vice-president ; Plowden Stevens, secretary ; Jonathan Goodwin, treasurer ; C. M. Emerson, O. E. Williams, Edward Watkin- son, Joseph Sheldon, and Henry Seymour, committee and directors. The object of this Association, as declared by the constitution, was " To diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Chris- tianity by the purchase and distribution of books and tracts." On the 27th of July, 1844, the First Unitarian Congregational Society of Hart- ford was organized at the house of Dr. Seth Saltmarsh, and James H. Wells was appointed moderator, Seth Saltmarsh, clerk, and T. M. Allyn,
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
treasurer. The declaration of faith submitted to the original meeting set forth belief in one God the Father, in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, in the Bible as a rule of faith and practice, and in liberty of opinion and worship. The first pastor was the Rev. Joseph Harring- ton, Jr., installed April 23, 1846. Among the eminent clergymen who assisted in this service were the Rev. F. D. Huntington, now a bishop of the Episcopal Church, Dr. Robbins and Dr. Gannett of Boston, and Dr. Putnam of Roxbury. In 1852 Mr. Harrington, against the unani- mous desire of his people, resigned, to take charge of a similar work in San Francisco. His successor was the Rev. Frederick Hinckley, who served in the pastorate for three years, resigning in 1856. Reg- ular services were given up in 1858. In 1877 preaching began under the direction of the Rev. Martin K. Schermerhorn, and on the 1st of May, 1878, the Rev. John C. Kimball became pastor, continuing until the present time. Service was originally held in Union Hall; but in a short time the building committee secured a lot on the northeast cor- ner of Trumbull and Asylum streets, and on the 24th of May, 1845, the corner-stone of the new building was laid, the Rev. Henry W. Bel- lows, of New York, officiating. In consequence of embarrassments this property was sold in 1860, and the building was taken down and carried out stone by stone to Asylum Hill, where it was set up on Sigourney Street, and is now Trinity (Episcopal) Church. The organi- zation was kept up and the funds carefully guarded by the committee, - Henry Kellogg, Horace Cornwall, Charles Cheney, Jonathan Good- win, and Milo Hunt. After 1877 the services were mainly held in the old State House ; but on the 3d of April, 1881, their new building on Pratt Street was dedicated as Unity Church and Hall, the pastor preaching the sermon. It is one of the most agreeable audience-rooms in Hartford, seats six hundred and twenty-six people, and is paid for. The society also has an invested fund of about thirty-five thousand dollars. W. E. Dickinson is president of the society ; D. H. Gale, Milo Hunt, and Horace Cornwall, committee, and II. Cornwall, Milo Hunt, and A. F. Tiege, committee of the board of trustees. The society, or church, -for there is but one organization, - numbers one hundred and fifteen members.
The first trace of Jews in Hartford is found in a vote of the town- meeting in 1661 " that the Jews then in town have liberty to reside here seven months." Probably they continued to " reside " in Hartford, but their first meeting-house was delayed until 1847. It was on the corner of Wells and Main streets. Later the congregation occupied Touro Hall, on the site of the present Cheney building. The syna- gogue now owned by them is on Charter Oak Street, and was erected in 1876. It cost about fifty thousand dollars, and is admirably adapted to its purpose. George Keller was the architect. Mr. M. L. Strauss, cantor and reader, still a citizen of Hartford, was prominent in estab- lishing synagogue worship here. The first Rabbi was Dr. Isaac Mayer, who introduced more modern forms of worship. Dr. Solomon Deutsch, the eminent Oriental scholar, was the officiating Rabbi before his resi- dence in New York. Connected with the synagogue is a Sabbath school, a benevolent society for men, one for women, and a burying- ground organization.
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OTHER DENOMINATIONS.
For many years the Presbyterians of Hartford identified themselves with the Congregational churches. Some, however, longed for their own ordinances. These met frequently in private houses for prayer and consultation. One of them, Mr. Robert Calhoun, induced the Rev. Andrew Stevenson, of New York, to visit them. On the 10th of Novem- ber, 1850, he held the first public Presbyterian services in the city, preaching morning and afternoon to good congregations in the Wash- ington Temperance Hall. The Rev. John Little, of New York, also preached for them. In 1850 the presbytery of Connecticut was organ- ized by the (O. S.) Presbyterian Church. `It heard of the services held in Hartford, and at a meeting in New Haven, June 24, 1851, appointed the Rev. James Ely, under a commission from the Board of Mission, to visit Hartford and if practicable gather a congregation. He began regular services on the 13th of July in Gilman's saloon, in the third story of a building on Main Street. In five weeks, more convenient quarters were obtained in the Washington Temperance Hall, and after- ward in Wadsworth Hall, - Main and Welles streets. The Rev. Mr. Ely induced Mr. Thomas S. Childs, a licentiate and a graduate of Princeton Seminary, to take charge of the new congregation, while he endeavored to obtain the funds necessary to sustain the new enterprise. He was so far successful that in May, 1852, the old South Baptist Church, on the corner of Main and Sheldon streets, since remodelled for business purposes, was secured, and the first payment made. The presbytery met in the city on the 4th of November, organized a church of thirty-two members, and ordained Mr. James McMillen, Jr., and Joseph Parks as ruling elders. In the following June Mr. Thomas S. Childs was ordained as its pastor. The young minister was faithful and persevering. He had to contend with many difficulties, in poor health, and with a church burdened with debt. His earnest applica- cation to the Presbyterians of New York resulted in the removal of a large portion of the mortgage on the property. The church continued to increase until 1862, when the introduction of an instrument of music was the occasion of forty-eight communicants retiring and organizing the United Presbyterian Church, which held services in a chapel on the corner of Park and Squire streets. This organization continued until 1869, when most of its members returned. Dr. Childs resigned in October, 1865. In January, 1866, the Rev. J. Aspinwall Hodge, who for eight years had been pastor of the Presbyterian church at Mauch Chunk, Penn., was called, and entered at once upon his work. The church took a new start. The remaining mortgage was soon raised, and an effort was made to repair the building. Mrs. John Warburton, of the Centre Congregational Church, offered to subscribe five thousand dollars if the congregation would erect a substantial building on a more eligible site. The lot on the corner of College and Clinton streets was secured. The chapel was dedicated Feb. 28, 1868, and the church, May 17, 1870. It is built of Connecticut granite, trimmed with Port- land and Ohio stone, at the cost of about seventy-one thousand dollars. Superintending the building and collecting the needed funds became part of the pastor's work. This was nearly completed, when he was prostrated by a sunstroke. After a few months' rest in Europe the pastor returned to his work, which he still continues. There have been no marked revivals in the history of this church except in the winter of
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
1877-1878, when Mr. Moody visited Hartford, but new members have been received at almost every communion. There are at present six ruling elders and two hundred and fifty-three communicants.
The Catholic Apostolic congregation was organized in October, 1868, and the first cucharist was celebrated on the twenty-first of that month. Its peculiarity is the belief that the primitive form of the church, with its ministries and spiritual gifts, was to be permanent ; that it was lost through unbelief and is now restored by the immediate act of God. The growth of the body has been slow, though steady ; but the congre- gation in Hartford is still small, and holds its meetings in a private house prepared for the purpose, No. 21 Spring Street. This congre- gation has been from its organization under the charge of the Rev. S. J. Andrews who is now assisted by the Rev. S. H. Allen and the Rev. G. W. Connitt, George W. Cheney and W. M. Brigham being deacons.
The Lutheran Church of the Reformation was organized in 1880. It owns and occupies the building on Market Street formerly belonging to St. Paul's (Episcopal) Church. It was erected in 1854-1855. Satur- days a German school occupies the basement of the building. The services are in the German language, and the Rev. Edmund F. A. Houtel is pastor of the church.
The Morgan Street Sunday School was organized in 1852, and has a chapel for its religious work. Warburton Chapel was built in 1866, and is controlled by a board of trustees. Its history is a part of the mission work of the First Congregational Church. Harbison Avenue Chapel, occupied for Sunday-school purposes, was crected in 1875. In the same year Elizabeth Memorial Chapel was erected on the grounds of the Retreat for the Insane, for the use of the inmates of that institu- tion. It is a beautiful structure, fitted for its purpose. These build- ings shelter no distinct ecclesiastical organization. On the other hand, the Second Advent Church and the First Spiritualist Society of Hart- ford have organization and regular meetings, but owning no church property their services are held in halls hired for the purpose.
425
THE AMERICAN ASYLUM.
SECTION IV. INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING.
THE AMERICAN ASYLUM.
BY EDWARD M. GALLAUDET, LL.D.,
President of the National Deaf Mute College, Kendall Green, Washington, D.C.
THE American Asylum at Hartford, for the education and instruc- tion of the deaf and dumb, was incorporated by act of the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut in May, 1816, as " The Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons." But the origin of the institution antedates this act.
In the autumn of 1807 Alice, an infant daughter of Dr. Mason F. Cogswell, of Hartford, became totally deaf while suffering from an attack of spotted fever. Only a very limited power of speech remained for a little time, so that the child soon became practically a mute. The father's interest to secure an education for his stricken child was natu- rally very great ; and in 1815, when Alice was nearly ten years old, Dr. Cogswell sought the co-operation of a few of his friends and neigh- bors in an effort to establish a school for deaf-mutes in Hartford.
On the 13th of April, 1815, Ward Woodbridge, Daniel Wadsworth, Henry Hudson, the Hon. Nathaniel Terry, John Caldwell, Daniel Buck, Joseph Battell (of Norfolk), the Rev. Dr. Nathan Strong, and the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet met at the house of Dr. Cogswell, on his invita- tion, to take steps towards the organization of such a school. The meeting was opened with prayer by the Rev. Dr. Strong; and after considerable discussion all agreed that the first thing to be done was to secure the services of a competent person who should visit Europe for the purpose of acquiring the art of instructing deaf-mutes.
Dr. Cogswell. and Mr. Woodbridge were appointed a committee to obtain subscriptions to meet the necessary expenses, and to find a suit- able man who would be willing to undertake the enterprise. So great was the interest excited in the novel undertaking, that Mr. Woodbridge in a single day secured pledges of sufficient amount to meet the ex- pense. And for the person to go, all in- J. B. gallaudet terested were agreed in naming the Rev. Thomas H. Gallau- det, - of Yale, 1805, - who had recently graduated from the Andover Theological Seminary, and was most favorably known in Hartford as a young man of finished education, fine abilities, and high social standing.
Mr. Gallaudet, though at first very unwilling to turn away from his sacred calling, was at length persuaded to devote himself to the mission- ary work (for so he regarded it) which opened to him, and on the 25th of May sailed from New York for Liverpool.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Encountering obstacles, which proved insurmountable, in his efforts to gain in Great Britain a knowledge of the art of teaching deaf-mutes, he proceeded to France, and was cordially received by the Abbé Sicard, the director of the famous Institution for Deaf-Mutes at Paris, founded some years earlier by the Abbé de l'Épée.
Here every facility was accorded Mr. Gallaudet ; and when he was nearly ready to return to America, one of Sicard's pupils - then a teacher in the Paris school, Laurent Clerc by name -offered his ser- vices as an instructor in the school to be established in America. Mr. Gallaudet returned to America in August, 1816, bringing Mr. Clerc with him.
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