USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five. Volume III > Part 12
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Nathan Dikeman, R. E. Hitchcock, E. L. Frisbie, E. C. Lewis, Aner Bradley, J. S. Castle, C. J. Pierpont, Jr., H. P. Camp, J. E. Coer, F. E. Castle, T. R. Taylor, S. P. Williams, J. K. Smith, E. D. Steele, J. P. Merriman, J. W. Smith, Samuel Booth, W. W. Bonnett, F. H. La Forge.
At a meeting held May 24, 1877, it was voted "that the treas- urer be directed to pay the amounts appropriated to Trinity (the new) parish." The treasurer and agent were also authorized to borrow money for the expenses of the parish. A year afterward,
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TRINITY PARISH; ITS CHURCH AND ITS WORK.
at a meeting held May 23, 1878, a communication was received from Trinity parish to the effect that their financial condition and pros- pects were such that they would not need to call for the payment of the sum pledged to them for the coming year. And nothing more under that pledge was paid, a similar notice being given in each of the succeeding three years. The new parish took from the other many young people active in church work, and immediately entered upon a prosperous career. While the old parish was of necessity reduced by this "swarming" process, both in numbers and in strength, the separation was simply the natural result of the growth of the church and the town. It took place with the utmost harmony and good will, and marked no line of varying opinion, ecclesiastical or otherwise.
At a meeting held May 22, 1877, the parish was formally organ- ized and the name "Trinity " adopted. The following officers were elected :
Wardens, R. E. Hitchcock, J. W. Smith.
Clerk, E. T. Root.
Vestrymen, E. L. Frisbie, J. S. Castle, Nathan Dikeman, A. O. Shepardson, E. C. Lewis. S. P. Williams, the Rev. F. T. Russell, E. D. Steele, J. C. White, F. E. Castle.
The Rev. Mr. Russell was requested to take spiritual charge of the parish until a rector could be secured. The building on Grand street formerly used as a Universalist chapel was leased for five years, and the opening service, conducted by Mr. Russell, was held on Trinity Sunday, 1877. The Rev. R. W. Micou was soon after chosen rector, and held the position for fifteen years.
Soon after the organization of the parish, steps were taken with reference to the building of a church, and subscriptions were begun. A list printed about this time, of persons connected with the parish, has the names of 131 heads of families, and seventeen single per- sons, not included in any of the families. In selecting a site for the new edifice, attention was at first directed to the lot on Leavenworth street, owned by St. John's parish, and on July 17, 1880, it was voted to sell this lot to Trinity parish for $7000. But after considerable discussion the lot on Prospect street on which the church stands, was chosen, and was purchased in December, 1881, from C. B. Mer- riman for $16,000. The corner stone was laid by Bishop Williams, May 21, 1883. The first services in the new edifice were held May 18, 1884. On Easter Sunday, 1886, the offertory was sufficient to cancel the remaining debt (about $4000), and the church was con- secrated by the Bishop, May 27.
The building is of Plymouth granite, with broken surface, the caps, sills and belt courses being of the same material, with cut
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
surface. The outside dimensions-the Sunday-school room being included-are about 135 feet by 65. The stone spire is eighty- five feet high, and the sittings number about 530. It is of Gothic architecture, and the architect was Henry M. Congdon. The cost of the church and lot was somewhat over $70,000, of which S. W. Hall's gift, with the accumulations, paid $22,500, G. W. Burnham's gift $10,000, and the parishioners of St. John's about $5000, and the
TRINITY CHURCH, 1884.
remainder was raised by subscriptions in the parish.
Trinity church is a memorial of Mrs. S. W. Hall, and this fact is recorded on a tablet in the chancel :
In memoriam. Mrs. Nancy Austin Hall. Born April 13, 1815. Died February 8, 1868. To perpetuate her memory this tablet is erected by the last will and testa- ment of her husband, Samuel W. Hall, to whose generous bequest this church owes in large part its erection in this year of grace, 1883.
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TRINITY PARISH; ITS CHURCH AND ITS WORK.
A chancel window in memory of S. W. Hall, was contributed by the ladies of the parish. A window in memory of Dr. Clark was con- tributed by the Sunday schools of St. John's church. A window, the gift of Mrs. J. M. L. Scovill, is a memorial of her children, Thomas C. Morton (see page 465), J. M. L. Scovill, Jr., who died July 9, 1862, aged eleven years, and Sarah A Whittlesey, who died December 15, 1877, aged twenty-five years. A rose window commemorates Almon Farrel (see page 412). A part of Mr. Burnham's gift of $10,000 was used in purchasing the organ, and in the north transept is placed a memorial tablet with the following inscription:
In memory of Maria Louisa Brownell, wife of Gordon W. Burnham and daughter of the Right Reverend Thomas C. Brownell, the third Bishop of Connecticut. Born in New Haven, Conn., June 5, 1824, died in the city of New York, October 5, 1883. In her home, loving and beloved. To those without, quiet and gracious. The friend of the sorrowful; the helper of the needy; a steadfast disciple of the Lord. She rests from her labors and her works do follow her.
The eagle lectern, the gift of the Rev. F. T. Russell, is inscribed: " In memoriam Sigourney Russell, obit 1880." The altar cross was given by Mrs. A. I. Upson, "In memoriam Ambrose Ives Upson, died July 7, 1879." The baptismal font, "In loving memory of the Rev. Jacob Lyman Clark, D. D.," is from "the children of Trinity Church." The altar and reredos were the gift of R. E. Hitchcock, who gave also a chancel window, inscribed: "In memoriam Agnes Dubois, wife of Rufus E. Hitchcock, born September 2, A. D. 1831. Entered into rest January 11, 1886." A chancel window, the gift of Mr. Hitchcock's daughter and her husband (Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Northrop), reads: "In memoriam, Rufus Edward Hitchcock, born June 19, 1821. At rest June 18, 1888. First Senior Warden of this parish." The books, altar cloths, clock and chancel furniture are also gifts from various friends, mostly ladies connected with the parish.
The erection of such a church was a great undertaking for a new society, largely made up of young men, most of whom were dependent on their own exertions for all they had, and it was not accomplished without much effort and self-denial. But the rapid growth and the financial success of the parish prove that the free church system is adapted to a congregation of moderate means in a growing manufacturing town. The current expenses were met from the start, although the parish was burdened with an annual rental of $700 for the church building used for the first seven years. The congregation, which now numbers over 400 families, could be but poorly accommodated in the 110 pews of the church, were they rented or assigned to definite families.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
The parish records for the eighteen years 1877-1895, show 901 persons baptized, 508 confirmed, 422 marriages, and 604 burials. The Sunday school has 450 scholars, and in the number of its com- municants (598) the parish ranks ninth in the diocese.
In April 1893 the parish purchased a rectory on North Willow street, which stands on the ground spoken of in the account of St. John's parish in Volume I, as the probable birth-place of the Rev. James Scovil, the first resident rector of the Episcopal church in Waterbury.
BENEVOLENT ORGANIZATIONS.
The Sewing school of Trinity parish was organized in 1877, the . first year of the existence of the parish. It was opened in October, with a membership of fifty scholars, under the manage- ment of Ann Ophelia Sperry, and sessions have been held from that time until the present, every Saturday afternoon from the beginning of October to the beginning of May. Miss Sperry was succeeded in 1880 by Emily J. Welton, and in 1882 Miss Welton was followed by Mrs. F. E. Castle, under whose charge the school has since continued. The present number of scholars is eighty-five, and the average attendance forty-five, and there are nine teachers in charge of classes. The expense of materials is paid from the poor fund of the church and by individual contributions, and the garments when finished are given to the children who have made them.
A circle of "Daughters of the King"* was formed in connection with the Young Ladies' guild of Trinity Church in 1888. The number of members was originally twenty-eight, but has varied from time to time.
Trinity chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew was organized January 5, 1891. The constitution of the Brotherhood was ratified and a charter procured. The chapter has been represented in most of the national and local conventions, and has manifested in many ways its interest in the extension of the kingdom of God among young men. It has at present sixteen members.
THE REV. R. W. MICOU.
Richard Wilde Micou, the sixth child of William C. and Anna D. Micou, was born in New Orleans, La., June 12, 1848. The family is of Huguenot extraction, descended from Paul Micou, a lawyer of Nantes, France, who settled in Virginia soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
* See note on p 626.
Riv. Mein
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TRINITY PARISH; ITS CHURCH AND ITS WORK.
His college education was much interrupted by the disturbed state of the South during the civil war, but he spent three years at the state universities of Georgia and Alabama, and afterwards studied at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where in 1868, he took the highest honors in the classics, under Professor John Stuart Blackie. His theological training was carried on at the University of Erlangen, Bavaria. He was ordained to the diaconate of the Protestant Episcopal church at Sewanee, Tenn., June 12, 1870, by Bishop Green of Alabama, and was advanced to the priesthood in his first parish, at Franklin, La., November 15, 1872, by Bishop Wilmer. In 1874 he took charge of St. Paul's church at Kittanning, Penn., and in July, 1877, accepted the call to the rectorship of Trinity church in this city, and took charge of the parish seven weeks after its organization.
Mr. Micou served from 1883 to 1891, with the exception of one year, as a member of the board of education, in which position he pursued a course calculated to win the gratitude of all who desire thoroughness and consistency in public instruction. He was con- spicuous for his faithfulness as a school visitor and as a member of the committee on text-books and teachers during the entire period.
In June, 1892, Mr. Micou accepted a call to the professorship of systematic theology in the Philadelphia Divinity school. The Church Standard spoke of him at that time as follows:
He finds himself in so thoroughly sympathetic accord with the faculty, and is so fully satisfied of the large usefulness which lies before the school, that he has resolved to cast in his lot with them. Professor Micou is in the prime of life, and although he is a scholar of distinction and a man of mature thought, still retains all of the vigor of youth, and will enter on his work with great enthusiasm.
In May, 1872, Mr. Micou married Mary Dunnica, of New Orleans. They have had six children, four of whom are living.
THE REV. F. D. BUCKLEY.
Frederick Dashiels Buckley was born at Fishkill, N. Y., in 1855. He received his early education at the East Greenwich (R. I.) academy, and graduated at Trinity college in 1884. He studied theology at the Berkeley Divinity school, and was ordained deacon June 1, 1887, and priest March 23, 1888. He was rector of Grace church, Stafford Springs, from 1887 to 1889, and of St. Andrew's church, St. Johnsbury, Vt., from 1889 to 1892. He officiated for the first time as rector of Trinity church on October 1, 1892.
On June 16, 1887, he married Nellie A. Partridge of Providence, R. I. They have two children.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
CONNECTICUT BAPTISTS IN THE LAST CENTURY-A "FEEBLE FOLK," BUT ZEALOUS-ORIGIN OF THE WATERBURY CHURCH-A PEOPLE WITH- OUT A HOME-EARLY MEMBERS-TWO OF THEM ORDAINED-THE CHURCH DIVIDED INTO TWO-THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE; ITS SIM- PLICITY-DEACON PORTER'S MINISTRY-A MEETING-HOUSE AT THE CENTRE-FINANCIAL TROUBLES-THE SERIES OF PASTORS AND "SUPPLIES"-THE BANK STREET BUILDING-THE NEW HOUSE OF WORSHIP OF 1883 - IMPROVEMENTS IN 1895 - BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES-THE SECOND CHURCH-THE GERMAN AND SWEDISH CHURCHES.
T HE Baptists of Connecticut were a scattered and feeble folk long after the Congregational and Episcopal churches were well established. The Congregational order, in fact, was established by law from the first, so that wherever there was a town (and no town could be organized until it was able to support a minister) there was also a Congregational society to the mainte- nance of which all taxpayers were obliged to contribute; while the Episcopal church, backed by the powerful nation to which the colonies themselves owed allegiance, had not long to wait in secur- ing its proper religious privileges. But Baptists, whose very belief was regarded as an accusation against both the established Congre- gational and the Episcopal churches, found scarcely more favor in New England than in the mother country. Their doctrine, that before the law there should be equality of religious privileges for all denominations, and that no man ought to be compelled to support a religion he did not believe in, prevailed from the first only in the Baptist state founded by Roger Williams. It was not formally accepted in Connecticut until 1818, when the new consti- tution was adopted, and was even then for many years subject to much limitation in practice. Both before and after the formation of the Baptist church in Waterbury, Baptist ministers in Connecti- cut were imprisoned for holding meetings contrary to law and "for drawing people away" from the regular ministers and from "the ecclesiastical societies to which they belonged."
Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the Baptists seldom or never included in their number the leading men or the wealthy men of any town or community, nor that they first began
1
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THE BAPTIST CHURCHES.
to gather in the outskirts rather than in the centres of the towns. The Baptist church in Waterbury was originally formed of mem- bers dwelling in the outskirts of several towns, and had places of meeting in the outskirts of at least three of these towns. But the Baptists of these early days, if not prominent nor influential, were at least an earnest and conscientious people. In fact nothing but conscientious convictions could make a man a Baptist in the cir- cumstances of those times. Besides the doctrine of religious liberty, which they persistently advocated, that which chiefly distinguished them as a religious body was the conscientious and particular application of a principle then held by all Protestants in a general way, the principle of the supreme authority of the word of God in all matters of religious faith and practice.
The fact has already been mentioned in Volume I (page 406) that there were three Baptists in Waterbury as early as 1769. "They are so noted in the rate-book for that year, their names being James Blakslee, Jacob Richmond and Daniel Cole." They are recorded as excused from paying taxes to support the church of the "standing order" on the ground that they contributed an equal amount to the support of some Baptist church. These men with their wives, and perhaps others who had no taxable property, were probably connected with the Baptist church in Southington, Wallingford or Meriden. In the last quarter of the same century there were three men living within the limits of the town of Waterbury who had adopted Baptist sentiments, but there is no traceable connection between these and the others. Their names were Zenas Brockett, David Frost and Isaac Terrell. They lived in the eastern part of the town and were members of a church whose place of meeting was twelve miles distant, in the town of Walling- ford. They were men in whom the religious sentiment was strong and deep; and for several years it was their custom, and the custom of those who afterwards joined them, to go at least once every month to meet with the church to which from conscien- tious convictions they adhered, generally making the twelve-mile journey on foot. By these men arrangements were made for meet- ings to be held in the vicinity of their homes in Waterbury. These meetings resulted in the conversion of several persons, who joined the Wallingford church, and who to the number of about twenty, including the three persons above mentioned, were dismissed from that church in 1803, to form a church of their own in Waterbury.
The little church thus formed was for twelve years without a pastor, and for fourteen years without a house of worship. And it well illustrates the earnestness of its religious character when we
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
say that it maintained its regular weekly worship with unwavering fidelity, generally through the gifts of its members alone, and gradually increased in numbers during this long houseless and pastorless period. Occasionally, however, it had the benefit of preaching from Baptist ministers who from time to time visited it to administer the ordinances. Its meetings were held alternately at the house of Enoch Frost in Waterbury (the present Doolittle place), the house of Truman Sanford in Wolcott, and that of Samuel Potter in Hopeville. Meetings were also held occasionally at the house of Nathan Platt in Plattsville, and of Ahira Collins in Bethany, none of these five places being less than two miles dis- tant from the centre of any town.
The Baptist church in Waterbury was thus founded by simple but earnest laymen, men of limited education, but who could at least read their Bible and were fully capable of thinking for them- selves. And they proved to be men of such substance of character and strength of purpose as to be able to act consistently and persist- ently according to their convictions, under circumstances of much discouragement and involving much personal sacrifice. Besides the three men whose names are above mentioned and who were especially prominent during this period of the church's history, the following were also its earliest members:
Abigail Brockett. Polly Bronson. Ahira Collins and wife. Benjamin Farrel and wife. Enoch Frost.
Jesse Frost. Huldah Hine. Rebecca Brockett Judd. Appleton Lewis. Deacon David Pardee and wife.
Thomas Payne. Jeremiah Peck and wife .*
Nathan Platt and wife.
Enoch Platt and wife.
Samuel Potter and wife.
John Russell. Stephen D. Russell and wife.
Truman Sanford and wife.
Aner Terrell.
Jesse Wooster and wife.
The names of the three original members, Deacon Zenas Brockett, David Frost and Isaac Terrell, deserve to be repeated in this list. Of Deacon Brockett it is remembered that he was most exemplary in character and deportment, a peculiarly devout man and well versed in scripture. Of David Frost it is known that he was scru- pulously conscientious in his business transactions, and so firm in his devotion to the principles of religious freedom that he persist- ently refused to pay tithes in support of a church whose practices he could not approve, and always allowed his property to be taken instead.
* It is not known whether this Jeremiah Peck was a descendant of the Rev. Jeremiah Peck who was pastor of the Congregational church more than a hundred years before.
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THE BAPTIST CHURCHES.
In 1815 the church selected two of its members, Jesse Frost, son of David Frost above mentioned, and Samuel Potter, son-in-law of Deacon Brockett, to be ordained as its pastors. As they had no place of worship, and no private house large enough to accommodate the expected congregation, the ordination services were held in the open air near the residence of Samuel Potter (beyond Pearl lake), and were conducted by Baptist ministers from New Haven, Meriden, Southington and Roxbury.
Two years later, a considerable number of converts having been gathered in the southeastern part of the town, where Elder Potter resided, the church which now numbered nearly a hundred commu- nicants was divided. Sixty of its members were dismissed to form what was known as the Salem and Woodbridge church (or, as it would now be termed, the Naugatuck and Bethany church, for Woodbridge included Bethany). Elder Potter became pastor of the new church, leaving Elder Frost in sole charge of the other.
Soon after this division the Waterbury church determined to build a meeting-house. The site chosen was the cross-roads beyond where Rutter's tannery now stands, about two and a half miles east- ward from the centre of the town. Having so recently lost the greater part of its numbers and wealth, its remaining members did not deem it advisable to incur great expense in providing them- selves with a house of worship. They contented themselves with a plain, wooden structure, consisting simply of frame, roof, floor, clapboards and windows, the whole costing probably not more than $200. The furnishing was a table and chair, and benches without backs made of boards laid on blocks of wood. There was no paint or plaster, and no chimney. The men depended for warmth in winter on honest, all-wool "homespun;" the women had sometimes the addi- tional resource of portable foot-stoves filled with coals at the hearth of the nearest neighbor. Yet the church prospered in this very primitive structure more, doubtless, than it would in a better one burdened with debt .*
In 1827 Elder Frost died, and the care of the church, which now numbered about forty members, devolved upon Deacon Timothy Porter, who had been licensed to preach about a year before. He filled the place of pastor and preacher for about eight years, not asking or expecting any compensation for his services. This was
* It is perhaps worthy of note as an illustration of the times that after the "raising " of this building, at which, as was customary on such occasions, there was a large gathering of the people who came to render voluntary assistance, the assembled company adjourned to the adjacent meadow (now owned by Charles Frost) for a game of baseball, and that certain excellent old ladies were much scandalized that prominent Baptists, among them Deacon Porter, should show on such an occasion so much levity as to take part in the game.
43
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
a period of much prosperity to the church, and its membership was more than doubled during the eight years. The baptisms were per- formed by ministers called in from abroad, usually in the river just below the bridge at Rutter's tannery.
But the meeting-house, although two and a half miles from the centre and so uncomfortable as compared with the church edifices of the wealthier societies of the town, had now become too small for
MUCH ORD HTD
THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, 1835, FRONTING ON SOUTH MAIN STREET.
the growing congregation, so that in summer the meetings had fre- quently to be adjourned to a neighboring grove. After anxious deliberation it was decided to build a new house of worship and to locate it at the centre. This was undoubtedly a wise decision .* But the building of a suitable house of worship at the centre of the town was a great undertaking for a church of so limited means, and
*The Salem and Woodbridge church, although originally much stronger than the Waterbury church from which it had separated, actually died out because of its remoteness from every possible centre of population.
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THE BAPTIST CHURCHES.
involved sacrifices on the part of its members which have rarely been paralleled in the history of church building. It was known from the first that every dollar that could be raised would be needed, and in order that there might be a general confidence that each would do his part and no one attempt to throw his share of the bur- den upon the rest, the members signed a written agreement, bind- ing themselves to submit their property to assessment as it was entered in the grand list of the town, with such modifications as might be made by a committee of their own number. It was found, however, that this arrangement would not give the church credit with contractors, and accordingly four men possessing the largest means of any in the church, but none of them wealthy, came forward and gave their personal obligations for the debts in- curred.
The building was completed in the autumn of 1835, at a cost of about $7500 .* But in the meantime one of the four men who had signed the obligations had withdrawn his name and support, and the ultimate responsibility for the whole indebtedness rested upon Timothy Porter, Alfred Platt and Enoch W. Frost, each of whom had a large family to support, and whose combined prop- erty at this time if taken by legal process, would scarcely have equaled the amount expended, and for which their obligations were given. There were three successive assessments upon the members according to the basis agreed upon, amounting in all to about thirty-three per cent of their property as it appeared on the grand list, or to more than $300 for every $1000 listed, and to over $100 for every person whose head alone stood in the list. But the number of the members who were unable to pay their assess- ments was unexpectedly large, and there were unforeseen troubles, involving the title of the church to its property, which necessitated a suit in chancery and a petition to the legislature for corporate rights. These proceedings involved trouble, delay and expense, and when the financial crisis of 1837 swept over the country it found the little society struggling under a burden of debt which it was utterly unable to carry. After some years of ineffectual effort it was decided to seek assistance from other and more fortunate Bap- tist churches; and Deacon Porter, sometimes accompanied by E. W. Frost, visited several of the churches of the state to set forth the situation of the Waterbury church and its claims upon their charitable sympathies. About $700 was raised by such means, which
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