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 17
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JAMES R. AYRES.
James Russell Ayres was born in Pound Ridge, N. Y., Septein- ber 20, 1819. He received a common school education, and spent one year at an academy in Paterson, N. J. He served his appren- ticeship in Bedford, N. Y., learning the trade of jeweler and watch- maker, resided a year at Stamford, and from 1841 to 1848 worked at his trade at Peekskill, N. Y. He came to Waterbury in January, 1849, and lived here twenty-three years, his integrity and genial disposition winning him many friends. His was the leading jew- elry store in the city for many years. He erected and occupied the building at 56 Bank street, which is now owned by his heirs, and became an owner of real estate in the Abrigador. Ayres street, in that section of the city, bears his name.
In 1872 he removed to a farm in Orange, near where the Woodmont station now is. In connection with his son, Russell, he was instrumental in directing attention to Woodmont as a place of summer resort. He served there for ten years or more as postmas- ter, and in 1884 was sent by the town of Orange to the legislature.
In religious matters Mr. Ayres was especially active and useful. He joined the Methodist Episcopal church while an apprentice at Bedford. In Peekskill he became a trustee of the church and began to speak as an exhorter. In Waterbury he was a valuable church member, serving from 1849 to 1872 in various official posi- tions. For a time he was a class leader and steward, from 1852 to 1856 was Sunday school superintendent, from 1852 to 1861 church treasurer, from 1853 to 1872 a trustee, from 1852 to 1860 a local preacher, and from 1860 until his death an ordained local deacon. He was one of the band of local preachers who did so much to build up Methodist churches in the Naugatuck valley and vicinity from 1850 to 1870. About 1859 his work for the church at Nauga- tuck was especially valuable, as it was largely through his efforts that their first meeting-house was saved from foreclosure and removed to a more central location, and the society made free from debt. After his removal to Woodmont he preached frequently in the Congregational church at Orange, and supplied at Milford,
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New Haven and elsewhere. In 1880 he was appointed to take charge of the Methodist church at West Haven, which was in debt and in much discouragement. Here, as elsewhere, he gave his ser-, vices free, and under his efforts the society was set well on its way toward permanent prosperity. During the last years of his life he had charge of the chapel services at Woodmont, and sometimes preached there.
On October 8, 1840, Mr. Ayres married Eliza Marshall. They had five children: James Gilbert, who was born September 16, 1841, and died January 7, 1881, leaving a widow, three daughters and two sons; Russell William (for whom see the chapter on the legal pro- fession); Fanny Louise; Alvin Driggs, who was born January 19, 1855, and Charles Rufus, who was born February 17, 1858. The two surviving sons are married, and the youngest has two children.
Mrs. Ayres died July 5, 1879; Mr. Ayres on February 17, 1889. They are buried at Riverside cemetery.
THE REV. HARVEY BROWN.
Harvey Brown, son of James and Lois (Warner) Brown, was born in Waterbury, October 13, 1793. (See Vol. I, Ap. p. 30.) When he was thirteen years of age his parents removed to Schoharie county, N. Y. He was a major in the war of 1812, although at that time only twenty years of age, and did good service for his country. In the Minutes of the New York conference for 1871, the following account is given of his conversion :
The circumstances were peculiar, and not a little characteristic of the man. The Rev. John Bangs, brother of Nathan and Heman Bangs, having at the request of the presiding elder removed a company of disorderly persons from a camp meeting which was being held in Sharon (Schoharie county), they obtained a war- rant for his arrest and brought him for trial before Harvey Brown, then a justice of the peace. The plaintiff having offered on the opening of the court to settle by the payment of seventy-five cents, the legal costs, the defendant at once accepted the terms. The matter ending so unexpectedly, and with apparent good feeling, 'Squire Brown called for liquor (the court being held in a bar-room) to treat the whole company. Mr. Bangs requested the landlord to wait a minute before com- plying with the order, and asked the privilege of offering a prayer. Consent was given. A peculiar solemnity fell on all present and every man's hat was removed. Mr. Brown had fallen into skeptical opinions upon religous subjects, but under that prayer he found " that one of the props of his infidelity had fallen out."
He graduated regularly into the ministry, being a class-leader, steward, trustee, exhorter and local preacher, and in 1829 joined the New York conference. He was stationed successively in Delaware, Jefferson and Charlotte circuits. In 1851-52 he was stationed in
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Jacksonville and Beardstown, Il1. In 1853 he again "located " and did not afterward enter into the regular work of the ministry.
Mr. Brown was the inventor of several mechanical constructions for practical service and obtained many patents,-among them the following : On a machine for sawing barrel staves, on a method for moving cars by an overhead endless cable, on a lamp chimney, a churn, a polygraph and a hydraulic machine. Like most inventors he realized little from his patents, but he was never discouraged nor kept back from his favorite employment.
He was twice married, on January 3, 1814, to Lydia Hoyt, who died in 1839, and on October 29, 1840, to Mary Hunter. By each of these marriages he had several children. He died in New York, December 15, 1870.
THE REV. C. W. CHURCH.
Charles Washburn Church, son of Timothy and Maria Church, was born in Waterbury, September 12, 1839. He graduated from the Wesleyan university in 1864, entered the Methodist ministry, and was stationed at Tariffville, West Suffield, Naugatuck and other places. In 1877 he took up his residence in Middletown, where he became editor and publisher of The Constitution. He remained in this position until 1889, and retained his residence in Middletown for some time afterward. He has also resided in Washington, D. C.
He married Fannie A. Newton, and they have had five children one of whom is the wife of Joseph E. Fitzsimons of this city.
GRACE CHURCH, WATERVILLE.
The Methodist Episcopal society at Waterville, to which the name of Grace church has lately been given, is the outgrowth of a mission begun October 26, 1873, by a "praying band " of the First Methodist Episcopal church. Devotional meetings and a Sunday school, with occasional preaching services, were held in Stevens's hall till 1875, when the present chapel was erected under the direc- tion of the trustees of the Waterbury church. The lot was a gift from Joseph Welton (for whom see pages 31, 32). The building, sheds and furnishings cost about $2500, which amount was provided partly by Waterbury and Waterville subscriptions (most of them obtained by Charles S. Abbott) and partly from the treasury of the mother church. A bell was donated by the Scovill Manufactur- ing company.
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The chapel was dedicated in September, 1875, and was continued as a mission chapel until 1882, when the members of the mother church residing at Wa- terville were organized into a separate society. The first conference re- port of this society showed thirty-one full members and a Sunday school with a member- ship of fifty-one.
Previous to this or- ganization, preaching services were held in the chapel by the Rev. Alfred Northrop and the Rev. James W. Davis, of the Waterbury church, and other local preachers near by. The society has since been favored with pastors un- GRACE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WATERVILLE. der the appointment of the presiding elders, as follows: 1882, J. J. Moffitt; 1883-84, H. G. M'Glauflin; 1885-86, James Shipman; 1887-88, A. E. Thompson; 1889-90, E. L. Fox; 1891, N. J. Hampton; 1892-93, R. H. White; 1894, N. W. Wilder; 1895, W. J. Judd.
The statistics of 1895 show forty-nine church members and 127 in the Sunday school.
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH.
Between 1880 and 1885 there was a rapid increase in the popula- tion of the northeast section of the city, and, as is usual in such cases, opportunities for "mission work " were developed. Members of the First Methodist church became specially interested in the new mission field, and under the leadership of their pastor, the Rev. Dr. W. W. Bowdish, a mission was established in 1886. This mission was formally opened on Sunday, August I, of that year, in a building previously occupied by Oliver C. Abel as a store. On the following Sunday a Sunday school was organized and Charles E. Welch was made superintendent. Afternoon sessions of the Sunday school were held, and were followed by a service of public
46
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
worship, with preaching. In a short time a Ladies' Aid society was organized and a "class" of fifteen members was formed, with William A. Holgate as leader.
The population in that part of the city continued to increase, and the mission, under the painstaking supervision of Dr. Bowdish, prospered to such an extent that a larger place of meeting became a necessity, and it was decided that a chapel must be built. A lot was purchased on Farm street, and a building was erected, measur- ing fifty feet by twenty-eight, at a cost of $3150. This chapel was dedicated March 27, 1888, and the first communion service was cele- brated the following Sunday, April 1. Another "class " was soon formed, under the leadership of W. C. McKinley, who, as a local preacher, rendered valuable services to the young church.
The same month, Edgar C. Tullar, a student at the Centenary Collegiate institute, Hackettstown, N. J., was invited to the pas- torate. Notwithstanding Mr. Tullar's severe illness during the first year of his ministry, followed by an absence of some months in Europe, the church prospered greatly and the congregation grew so large that it became necessary to enlarge the house of worship. The alterations, increasing the number of sittings to 700, were com- pleted and the building rededicated in the autumn of 1889, and at
the dedicatory services the debt of $7000 was reduced one-half .*
During Mr. Tullar's three years of service he received into the church eighty-nine persons on certificate from other churches and 113 on pro- bation, and the number of baptisms was II7. Mr. Tullar was succeeded by the Rev. L. W. Holmes, who during his brief pas- ST. PAUL'S METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. torate was not only active in ministerial work but was officially connected with Wadhams post of the Grand Army of the Republic. His successor, the Rev. Willis M. Cleaveland, was a graduate of Hartford Theological sem-
* At the close of the evening service Dr. Bowdish made humorous reference to his early work in that section of the city, and to his wading through Farm street on one occasion to reach the mission room. "You ought," he said, "to have seen my shoes and clothes in the morning! But God has blessed that tramp in the mud."
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inary and had been a pastor of Congregational churches, but infused true Methodistic ferver and energy into his work in Water- bury. He was succeeded by the Rev. Frank S. Townsend, who in. April, 1895, entered upon the second year of his pastorate of St. Paul's church. The membership of the church at that time num- bered 184, and of the Sunday school, 269.
THE REV. E. C. TULLAR.
Edgar C. Tullar was born in Bolton, February 3, 1864. His father was a soldier in the war for the Union, and received perma- nent injuries from the bursting of a shell at the battle of Antietam. On the mother's death, in 1871, the nine children were scattered, and Edgar found a home with a family in Buckingham. He received his early education in the common school, and afterward attended the Methodist seminary at Montpelier, Vt., and the Collegiate institute at Hackettstown, already mentioned. He was licensed to preach at East Glastonbury in August, 1887. He joined the New York East conference on probation in 1890 and was ordained a deacon in 1891.
Mr. Tullar's pastorate in Waterbury has been referred to above. He went from here to Durham, and after a successful ministry of two years in that place decided to enter college and complete his studies. Since the autumn of 1893 he has been a student at Albion college (Michigan), but has not discontinued preaching.
Of Mr. Tullar's five brothers, two are in the ministry (one of them, Grant C. Tullar, having been licensed to preach by St. Paul's church), and two are residents of Waterville.
On April 21, 1891, Mr. Tullar married Elizabeth V., daughter of Dixon R. Cornell of this city. They have a son, Irving Meredith, born August 29, 1893.
THE REV. F. S. TOWNSEND.
Frank S. Townsend was born April 19, 1857, in East Greenwich, R. I. He graduated from the East Greenwich academy (a "confer- ence seminary" of the Methodist Episcopal church) in 1876, and during the four succeeding years was engaged in teaching and in the study of law. Having decided not to apply for admission to the bar, but to enter the ministry, he became a member of the class of 1884 at Wesleyan university. He was seriously delayed by ill health during his college course, but graduated in 1885 with spe- cial honors in history and English literature. He joined the New York East conference in April, 1885, and was ordained elder in 1889. Prior to his appointment to St. Paul's church he preached at various stations in Connecticut and on Long Island.
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THE CHAPEL STREET CHURCH.
A class meeting of Methodists began to be held in the Simons- ville district early in 1887, with James Smith as leader. The increase of the Methodist population was such as to justify, in the opinion of prominent residents, the erection of a Methodist chapel, and on August 4, 1887, a business meeting was held at the residence of F. D. Brown, at which steps were taken to pro- cure a suitable lot for such a building. A committee was ap- pointed to solicit funds, and an- - other to select and recommend a site for the chapel. The lot on which the chapel stands, measur- ing eighty feet by fifty-six, was purchased October 4, 1887.
At a meeting held February CHAPEL STREET METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 27, 1889, it was voted to call the society "the Chapel Street Methodist Episcopal Church of Water- bury, Conn." W. W. Jerman, F. D. Brown, James Smith, S. C. Gay- lord and Elmore S. Hapeman were elected trustees. The chapel, which was built by the Tracy Brothers, was finished in May, at a cost of about $2000, and dedicated May 30, 1889.
The first preacher employed by the society was Hubert B. Monson, a student at Wesleyan university. His pastorate began June 1, 1887, and was terminated by ill health, July 21, 1889. W. W. Tuckey, another "Wesleyan" student, supplied the pulpit until December 1, 1889, and M. B. Munson, from January 1, 1890, until April. The Rev. E. C. Carpenter became pastor in October, 1891, and retained the appointment until April, 1895, when he was suc- ceeded by the Rev. William J. White. During Mr. Carpenter's pastorate the church increased in membership, and steps were taken toward the erection of a parsonage. It was completed in the summer of 1895, at a cost of about $3000. The membership of the church at that time numbered 105, and the Sunday school and the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor were in a prosperous condition.
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THE PEARL STREET CHURCH.
The Rev. J. B. Smith of Bridgeport, who had charge of the missions of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church through- out the state, organized a society in Waterbury in 1879. For three years the mission made very little progress. The society met in a hall, rented for the purpose on Bank street, and the number of colored people in the city was small. The Rev. S. W. Peaker, who was appointed to the mission, remained but a year. His successor, the Rev. W. B. Bowens, a student from Worcester, Mass., was suc- ceeded after a year by the Rev. Peter Ross. Although Mr. Ross was prominent in his conference, and had at one time held the position of general superintendent of the New York conference, he was no more success- ful than his predeces- sors in infusing life into the little band, and was transferred to an- other station in 1882.
In the spring of the same year the Rev. C. C. Ringgold was ap- pointed to the mission, with instructions from the conference to build a church if possible. Being a man of deter- mined will, he pursued this object with the ut- most perseverance. His THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL ZION CHURCH. (MOUNT OLIVE CHAPEL.) efforts were crowned with success, and early in 1883 he had the gratification of laying the corner-stone of a church edifice in a lot belonging to the society, -the trustees of the property being G. H. Cowell, H. A. Matthews and W. P. Thomas. Mr. Ringgold was assisted in the services of the occasion by several of the city pastors. The church was com- pleted and dedicated in 1883. It cost $1450, and contains sittings for about 200 persons. The same year, at the annual meeting of the conference, the Waterbury mission became the Waterbury station, being placed on the list of self-supporting societies. After three
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years of successful work Mr. Ringgold was transferred to another field and was succeeded by the Rev. J. G. Smith. Mr. Smith remained but one year, at the end of which the Rev. John F. Lloyd was appointed to the charge. Mr. Lloyd was a man of much spirituality and was greatly beloved by his people, but he labored under many difficulties, as he suffered from ill health during the entire two years of his pastorate.
In 1888 he was succeeded by the Rev. Alfred Day, a man of much executive ability. Seeing how greatly the society needed a parsonage, he directed his energies to securing one, and succeeded in erecting a comfortable house in the short space of one year. At the close of his second year of service here, he was transferred to Hartford. His successor, the Rev. S. E. Robinson, was also an ambitious man, eager to labor for the advancement of the church, and it was due to his exertions, during his two years' pastorate, that the lecture room, costing $600, was completed, and the interior of the church renovated and re-decorated.
In June, 1892, the forty-seventh annual session of the New England conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church was held in Waterbury. The meetings were interesting and profitable, and a cordial interest was shown in the proceedings by the people of the city and the pastors of the various churches. At the close of the conference the Rev. G. H. S. Bell was assigned to this charge. Under his ministry the church has been active and prosperous. The number of members has increased from fourteen to forty-seven, and the congregation consists of fully 150 persons. Mr. Bell has also brought about a much needed reform in connec- tion with the Sunday evening services. Formerly on Sunday evenings the congregation was a very mixed and generally a dis- orderly gathering, and the conducting of decorous worship was difficult if not impossible. It is pleasing to note that all annoying disturbances have ceased. Mr. Bell has entered upon his fourth year of service as pastor.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE IRISH IMMIGRATION-A COLONY OF CATHOLICS-MISSIONARY PRIESTS -FATHER SMYTH-THE FIRST CHURCH-EARLY BAPTISMS-FATHER O'NEILE - A PURCHASE OF PROPERTY - A QUESTION AT LAW- FATHER HENDRICKEN - THE PRESENT CHURCH - AN INCORPORA- TION-THE BISHOP OF PROVIDENCE-HIS LIFE AND WORK-FATHER LYNCH'S PASTORATE-FATHER WALSH AND THE LAND LEAGUE- FATHER HARTY-THE CHURCH RENOVATED -FATHER MULCAHY'S VARIED WORK - OFFICES AND HONORS- PARISH INSTITUTIONS- ST. MARY'S SCHOOL AND CONVENT-ST. PATRICK'S HALL - SOCIE- TIES-ASSISTANTS-CALVARY CEMETERY.
M ORE than sixty years ago Catholics came first to Waterbury, -the proverbial "handful," but strong in faith, robust of physique, self-reliant, and confident that the future held much in reserve. They came to stay, to cast their lot with their fellows of other creeds and to assist, as far as they could, in laying deep and strong the foundations of what is now a flourishing city. A few yet survive of the early pioneers to rehearse with pardon- able pride their trials and hardships, their reverses and successes, their joys and pleasures, and to tell of efforts made to secure the occasional attendance of a priest who should administer to them the consolations of their religion, which they prized so dearly.
Numbering now more than one-half of the city's population, manifesting always deep interest in whatever concerns her welfare, zealous in guarding her fair name and in upholding her prestige, the Catholics of Waterbury join willing hands with their Protestant fellow citizens in laboring for the common weal. The interests of the one are the interests of the other. Catholic citizens should not
* In presenting this history of the Catholics of Waterbury, the writer desires to say that he makes no claim to much original research. In the absence of records bearing on early Catholic history, he has been obliged to rely almost exclusively upon the testimony of those who were a part of the stirring events of half a century ago. But as the memory of man is proverbially treacherous, many conflicting statements of cer- tain events were presented, each one claiming the merit of accuracy. The compiler found in this divergence of statement his greatest difficulty. Possessing himself no original knowledge of many of the events referred to, and having but few records at hand to verify the relations, he resorted perforce to the sifting process,- with what success he does not dare to say. If a conscientious examination has enabled him to separate the wheat from the chaff, he is satisfied, as that was the aim of his labor. Should errors be discovered, he can only plead in extenuation the meagre materials at his disposal. It is due to the memory of John A. Moran to say that a few pages of his manuscript, entitled "Catholicity in Waterbury," relating to the early Irish Catholic settlers, have been incorporated into this history. The undersigned expresses his obligations to H. F. Bassett of the Bronson library, and to the editors of the local daily newspapers, whose files have been of incalculable assistance .- JAMES H. O'DONNELL.
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and do not form a separate class in our community. Knowing their duties and grateful for the blessings they enjoy, they have become identified with whatever tends to the advancement of the city's interests. In all good works they emulate their Protestant neighbors, who applaud their zeal, and extend not sympathy merely, but generous practical assistance. United in effort, charitable in spirit one towards the other, scrupulously respecting each other's rights, privileges and opinions, the Catholics and Protestants of Waterbury will constitute an invincible power and are likely to achieve still greater results in the moral, intellectual and com- mercial spheres than have yet been wrought amongst us.
Our nation is justly proud of its composite character, and of the fact that its formative elements have been drawn from such branches of the human family as were most essential to its rapid and lasting development. The different arrivals of the construct- ive elements were generally contemporaneous with our most press- ing needs. This is especially true in regard to the Irish immigra- tion. The nation's development demanded hewers of wood and drawers of water; men of brawn as well as men of brain. These were the factors essential in our population at that time, and poor Ireland, that prolific "Niobe of nations," longing for freedom and emancipation, sent us thousands of her sturdy sons and daughters to aid in building up and developing our new and rugged land. Of this beneficial accretion Waterbury received her share, and it is the growth and development of this class that we here record.
According to the testimony of those who may claim the longest residence here, the Catholic who is justly entitled to be named the pioneer of his race and faith in Waterbury was Cornelius Donnelly, who lived on West Main street near Crane street in 1832 or there- abouts. During the following years others gradually found their way here, until Waterbury embraced within its limits a colony com- posed of the following Irishmen:
In 1837 and earlier: Cornelius Donnelly and family, James Martin and wife, Christopher Casey, John Flynn, John Connors, John Corcoran and wife, M. Neville and sister (later, Mrs. William Moran), Michael Corcoran, William Cor- coran, Timothy Corcoran and wife,* John Galvin and wife, James Byrnes, James Grier.
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