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 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93
We the subscribers, having experienced the inconvenience of attending church in the evening without proper lights, do agree to pay S. B. Minor or the bearer hereof, the sums annexed to our names by us respectively, to purchase lamps for the use of the Presbyterian meeting-house in the First society in Waterbury. The above subscription shall not be binding unless seventy five dollars shall be raised."
Among the little things indicating a forward movement are the purchase by the church in 1833, of a dozen communion eups and a
* The term " Presbyterian," which occurs here, was in very general use as a designation of the Centre gational churches of Connecticut. The " consociation" system, which prevailed in this state, was so elsely allied to Presbyterianism that the adoption of that name is not to be wondered at.
586
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
new communion table and chairs, and the introduction on May I, 1834, of a new hymn book,-the vote upon which reads as follows:
That the Psalms and Hymns selected by Lowell Mason and David Greene, called " Church Psalmody," be introduced and used in the public worship of this church and society, to commence on the first Sunday in June next, provided no objections be made by the society or singers previous to that time.
Mention may also be made of the election of three deacons, Aaron Benedict, Horace Hotchkiss and Edward Scovill. Mr. Scovill declined to serve, but Mr. Benedict held the office until his death in 1873, a period of forty-one years. A matter of more importance, however, than any of these-at least in the thoughts of the men of that day-was the compilation of new "articles of faith" and a new "covenant," which was proposed to the church in Sep- tember, 1831. Six months afterward an "improved " confession of faith was reported; on May 4, 1832, it was unanimously adopted, and "at the communion on the next Lord's day"-so reads Mr. Arnold's memorandum -"the whole church gave their consent to the new articles by rising. This," he adds, "was for the sake of the sisters," who did not then vote at church meetings. In August a printing committee was appointed, and the articles (with abund- ant proof texts), the covenant and a list of church members were published the same year in a small pamphlet, constituting, so far as is known, the first printed manual of the church .*
Mr. Arnold was of course interested in these matters, but it was upon the advancement of the spiritual life of the church that his attention was chiefly fixed. In the phraseology of the time he was a "spiritual" man, and his spiritual preaching bore fruit in a large ingathering of converts. Between September, 1831, and Septem- ber 1834, there were 101 persons added to the church on profession of their faith. But the usual reaction followed; the year 1835, in
* This diminutive pamphlet, of which very few copies are extant, contains thirty-two pages. It was printed at New Haven, by Baldwin & Treadway. The list of church members, on pp. 21-32 is arranged in the following order, which is well worth notice: (1) married couples (48 and 48, making 96 persons); (2) additional married men, 12; (3) additional married women, 47; (4) single men, 18; (5) single women, 44; mak- ing a total of 217. The articles and covenant were used in the public reception of new members until 1878. -The earlier articles and covenant, superseded by those prepared by Mr. Arnold's committee, have never been printed, but may be found in Book I of the extant Records of the Church. This earlier creed is much briefer and less elaborate than that adopted in 1832. It is almost entirely scriptural in its language, and the rigid theological tone of the later articles is wanting. An interesting entry in the records states that "in compliance with the wishes of an individual member of the church," the twelfth article, relating to baptism and the Lord's supper, which like the others had been adopted by unanimous vote, was given up, and the old article substituted for it. "The individual member " was probably one who he'd Baptist views, and it seems to have been through this person's determination that the church was prevented from committing itself, in its creed, to the doctrine of infant baptism. This must have been something of a trial to Mr. Arnold, for the records show that during his ministry candidates were admitted to the church "on their acknowledgement of obligations arising from infant dedication "-a practice which he had apparently introduced.
587
THE FIRST CHURCH FROM 1825 TO 1864.
spite of the minister's efforts, was unproductive, and Mr. Arnold hastened to the conclusion that his usefulness in Waterbury was at an end. He accordingly sought a dismission, which was granted on June 7, 1836.
The same month he was installed over the church in Colchester, where he remained until July, 1849, laboring with much success. After a brief ministry at Cromwell he removed to Middlebury in 1851, and in 1854 he was installed as pastor of the church in Coven- try. Mr. Arnold was twice married, his second wife being the mother of his eldest daughter's husband. Three of his sons were born in Waterbury (see Vol. I, Ap. p. 9). He died at Chester, N. H., July 4, 1865.
Some weeks before Mr. Arnold's dismission a committee of seven prominent men was appointed "for supplying the pulpit." They were not slow in presenting their candidate, and on August 15, the society voted that it was "well satisfied with the public performances of Mr. Henry N. Day, and would wish to retain him as a settled pastor." The salary was afterwards fixed at $750, the call of the church and society was accepted and Mr. Day was ordained and installed November 9, 1836. The ordination sermon was preached by the Rev. E. T. Fitch, professor of divinity at Yale college .*
Mr. Day was then in his twenty-ninth year, and this was his only pastorate. He was born in New Preston, August 4, 1808, and was the son of Noble Day, and the nephew of President Day of Yale college. He graduated at Yale in September, 1828, and was tutor there from 1831 to 1834, pursuing at the same time studies in the theological department. He was licensed to preach, August ;. 1833, and during 1834 and 1835 spent more than a year in European travel. His pastorate in Waterbury was terminated within four years. In a letter written in 1875 to the present pastor of the church he said:
This period in its history was characterized by three interesting revivals .- in the winter and spring of each of the years 1837, 1838 and isto. It was on Sunday morning, October 13, 1839, at a meeting held at the ringing of the first bell, that the church voted to appoint a regular weekly church prayer meeting +
During Mr. Day's brief pastorate eighty-seven persons were received into the church, sixty-five of whom united with it on pro-
* It was voted, October 24, that the thanks of the society be given to Mr. Elisha Steel for the attention he has given to the singing, and request his further attentions so far as is necessary for performing with gre. priety at the ordination.
+ We have already seen that on March 4, 18;1, the church voted to hold a prave: meeting, but it se. an that this did not prove to be a permanent thing,-perhaps, indeed, was not expected to be. In January, 1838, the deacons were authorized to employ some one to light and warm the Academy for evening meetings at the expense of the church but evidently these were not prayer meetings.
588
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
fession of their faith and may be considered fruits of the "revivals" to which the letter refers. But notwithstanding the success of his ministry Mr. Day felt that he was "called in the providence of God to enter another sphere of labor." He was dismissed after the annual meeting of the consociation, October 13, 1840, and immedi- ately entered upon the professorship of sacred rhetoric in Western Reserve college. During his connection with the college Mr. Day was pressed by the necessity of a newly settled country into various pursuits lying outside of his regular work. He was the editor of a religious newspaper, and he took an important part in the construc- tion of several railroads. In 1858 he gave up the professorship and became president of the Ohio Female college at College Hill, Cin- cinnati. After six years of successful labor there, he resigned his position (July, 1864) and removed to New Haven. Dr. T. T. Munger, in an annual sermon preached not long after Dr. Day's death, said of him:
Few of you can realize what it was for such a man, with the highest New Eng- land culture, to put himself into a community like that of Ohio a half century ago. He was leaven indeed, and the West was ready for the working force. He carried Yale college to Ohio, and helped to establish there the New England standard of education and refinement, for he was a teacher of both young men and young women. These influences, exerted in conjunction with those of men like- minded, entered deeply and vitally into the life of the state, and helped to make it what it is-a state marked by the highest civilization west of the Alleghanies.
In New Haven Dr. Day gave himself to study and the preparation of text-books in rhetoric, English literature and mental science. " His last years," said Ex-President Porter, "were noticeably free from labor and care, and yet he was all the while a diligent student and writer, giving the best of his powers to the study of one sub- ject after another, and embodying the results in a volume or an essay." He died on Sunday afternoon, January 12, 1890 .* On April 27, 1836, Mr. Day married Jane Louise Marble of New Haven. Of their four children the eldest, Henry Mills, was born in Water- bury, October 20, 1838.
An important event of Mr. Day's pastorate was the erection of the fourth house of worship. As already stated (on page 60) the third house was erected in 1795, and belonged to a period which the society had in many respects outgrown. Various repairs and alter- ations had been made since 1825, the most important of which was the removal in 1833 of the old-fashioned square pews and the sub- stitution of "slips." As early as 1831 the removal of the building
* A Memorial (36 pp.) was published not long after Dr. Day's death, containing the funeral address and numerous other tributes; also a list of the volumes (nineteen in number) and some of the more important essays which he gave to the public.
589
THE FIRST CHURCH FROM 1825 TO 1864.
from the east end of the Green to a site on North Main street offered by William H. Scovill began to be agitated, and it was accomplished in 1835. The condition of things which followed is indicated by a vote of the society on November 2 of that year:
That a committee be appointed to provide temporary steps to the meeting-house for the ensuing winter, and also to take measures to effect the carting of a sufficient quantity of sand for convenience in front and on each side of it; also a committee to estimate the expense for repairs necessary to be made on the meeting-house.
1142417
At the annual meeting in Janu- ary, 1836, the com- mittee to estimate repairs was en- larged, and the additional task was laid upon it of "estimating the expense of build- ing." This was the first of a long series of votes, ex- tending over a period of four or five years, in rela- tion to the erec- tion of a new church edifice. A building commit- tee was actually appointed in Feb- ruary, 1836, and certain contracts were made, but in April, 1837, opera- tions were sus- pended, and in January follow- FOURTH HOUSE OF WORSHIP OF THE FIRST CHURCH, 1 4 . 19 1915 ing, repairs were again talked of. That the condition of things had not improved during the three years of waiting may be inferred from a vote passed on the last day of the year 1837-directing the society's committee to "remove the rubbish " from the base- ment story and shut it up. But on the same day a new committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions and ascertain the cost of a
590
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
site. It was at one time voted, almost unanimously, to place the new edifice on the site of the old one on North Main street, but a few days afterward (January 25, 1839), a piece of ground owned in part by Dr. Edward Field and in part by Dr. Frederick Leaven- worth-that on which the present church stands-was selected.
This time the enterprise went forward to completion. In March, 1840, the society voted "to appoint the building committee a com- mittee of acceptance on the newly erected church," and on the 25th the edifice was dedicated, the dedicatory sermon being preached by Mr. Day. On Saturday following, the slips were leased for the ensuing year .* In October stoves were purchased, this time at the expense of the society, and in April, 1842, the society "gave con- sent to the ladies " to "do off the basement, free of any expense to the society,"-after which the edifice must have been regarded as thoroughly finished.
In January, 1841, when the society met to lease the slips for the year ensuing, they appointed a committee to supply the pulpit. The first candidate invited to the pastorate was Isaac P. Lang- worthy. There were thirty-six in his favor, six against him and three who did not vote. In a private letter written a few years ago, which has recently come into the hands of the present writer, the fact of this call and of Mr. Langworthy's refusal of it is referred to,-quite incidentally, but in such a way as to throw some light upon the " situation " at this time. The writer says :
I had a very interesting interview, a few days ago, with Dr. Langworthy of the Congregational library in Boston. Learning that I had lived in Waterbury he gave me a detailed account of his supplying the pulpit of the First church while studying at Yale. It was in 1841, while anti-slavery feeling was at its height, and when the question of giving him a call was raised the pro-slavery members feared that he was too strongly anti-slavery for them. But they soon afterward called the Rev. David Root, and he had not been settled long before he gave them an anti- slavery sermon so fiery that the pro-slavery members felt that they could not endure such doctrine, and he was dismissed in a short time.
The call of Mr. Root, here referred to, took place in May, 1841. A salary of $800 was offered, and a vacation was afterward granted. He was installed July 7, and the three years of his ministry were years of agitation and discord. Dr. Henry Bronson once said to the present writer, “ David Root, as you probably know, was the most elo- quent man that ever lived and preached in Waterbury. His infirmi- ties and eccentricities were almost equal to his abilities in the pulpit. I wish you would give a somewhat extended account of him in your historical lectures, and do him justice." His eccentricities were such
* The later history of the old building has already been related on page 61.
59
THE FIRST CHURCH FROM 1825 TO 1864.
that disturbance might have ensued in any case ; he was by nature an agitator, and his preaching was always of the stirring kind. But the condition of the community in regard to the slavery ques- tion was, as has been suggested, unusually sensitive, and Mr. Root, constituted as he was, and with such views as he held, could hardly have avoided precipitating a conflict. It must not, however, be inferred that he gave any large amount of time and effort in the pulpit to political agitation. He was noted as an evangelistic preacher, and he devoted himself to the distinctive work of the ministry as it was understood at that time-to arousing men's con- sciences and securing their conversion. For a time but little impression was produced, and the condition of the church was made a subject of consideration at church meetings. At one of these, Mr. Root, as clerk of the church, reports "only nine members present, two males and seven females," and at another, "the time was occupied," he says, "in desultory remarks." The pastor was evi- dently discouraged. But the following winter was a winter of " revival," and in May, 1843, a great ingathering of converts took place. Seventy-six persons were received to the church at one time, including nine married couples, and among the thirty men in the list were not a few who were prominent in the community or who afterward became so, such as Charles and G. W. Benedict, Edward Bryan, N. J. Buel, S. A. Castle, Benjamin DeForest, S. E. Harrison, H. W. Hayden, S. H. Prichard, Willard Spencer, T. C. Upson and L. C .. White.
It was on the Friday immediately following this large accession of members that the battle with Mr. Root was formally opened, and it continued, without respite, for more than a year. There was in the society one man at least of Southern birth and training-the Hon. Green Kendrick-and there were men in both the society and the church who were connected with the South by ties of kindred and by business interests. Mr. Root's pronounced anti-slavery views were repugnant to all these, and he had given special offense by refusing to invite the Rev. Abner J. Leavenworth (one of the sons of the First church) into his pulpit because of his owning slaves. The war was conducted in the usual fashion-much talk on the streets and in the homes of the people, and resolutions and counter-resolutions in church meetings. On July 29, the subject was brought forward at a meeting of the society, and in view of the "great dissatisfaction " existing a committee was appointed to confer with Mr. Root in reference to a restoration of harmony or else a separation. The result of the conference was a vote (thirty to fourteen) in favor of terminating the pastorate. Mr. Root at
592
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
first expressed his willingness to leave within a few months, but afterward changed his mind, and gave his opponents considerable trouble in disposing of him. The consociation was convened with reference to his dismission on June 25, 1844, but his pastorate was not formally terminated until August 27. When some one asked him, after his departure, why he had left Waterbury, his reply was that he had grown weary in his fight with "the world, the flesh and-Green Kendrick."
David Root was born in Piermont, N. H., June 15, 1791. He graduated at Middlebury college in 1816, and was engaged in teaching and in reading theology with the Rev. N. S. S. Beman in Georgia until February, 1818. After a period of missionary work he was ordained pastor of the Second Presbyterian church in Cin- cinnati in May, 1821, and remained there until 1832. He was the pastor of the Congregational church in Dover, N. H., from 1833 to 1839. He then served as an anti-slavery agent in Massachusetts for a few months, and preached for a year in Philadelphia, whence he was called to Waterbury. He ceased active service here early in 1844, and on January 1, 1845, was installed over the Third church in Guilford .* After the close of his pastorate there, in 1851, he resided in New Haven, Cheshire, Vineland, N. J., and Chicago, and at different times supplied various churches in Connecticut. During his Waterbury pastorate, at the suggestion of E. E. Prich- ard, Mr. Root made certain investments which proved successful and resulted ultimately in his amassing considerable property. He distributed a large part of this before his death, giving $10,000 in 1853 to Beloit college, $20,000 in 1863 to the Yale Divinity school, and $5,000 in 1866 to the American Missionary association. His daughter Martha having become the wife of Horace White (then of the Chicago Tribune), Mr. Root went to Chicago in 1869, and was in that city at the time of his death, which took place August 30, 1873. He was buried at Guilford.
Various stories have been told illustrative of Mr. Root's peculiar- ities, especially of his avarice and the vigor of his appetite. It is gratifying to know that his avarice bore such fruit as it did in important benefactions to worthy objects. As for his appetite-if the writer may judge from what he once saw at a ministerial din- ner, it was open to criticism; but that, after all, is a matter of little account. The estimate of him given by his present successor in a historical discourse in 1875 may with propriety be repeated here :
* This was a new organization, the result of a bitter quarrel in the old church and a secession. The pastor of the old church was therefore excusable, perhaps, when he suggested that the preacher of the installation sermon should choose for his text the words, " I saw the wicked taking root."
593
THE FIRST CHURCH FROM 1825 TO 1864.
He was doubtless a man of many faults, or at least of inconvenient eccentrici- ties, but I suspect that in order to strike the proper balance before a Waterbury audience little ought to be said of his infirmities and much of his virtues. He was probably a better man than he got credit for being during his stormy ministry in this old, conservative church.
When Mr. Root came to Waterbury he was fifty years of age. The Rev. Henry Bond Elliot, who succeeded him after an interval of sixteen months, came in his twenty-third year. He was born at Woodstock, N. Y., June 21, 1823. His father, Daniel Elliot, was descended on the father's side from John Eliot, "the apostle to the Indians," and on the mother's side from Roger Sherman. He united with the Mercer street Presbyterian church, New York, in 1839, under the ministry of Dr. Thomas H. Skinner, whose daughter Martha he married in 1843. He was licensed to preach by the Third New York Presbytery the same year, and was ordained pastor of a church at Mount Pleasant, N. J., in June, 1844. From Mount Pleasant he was called to Waterbury, and was installed here December 10, 1845.
The society while waiting for a pastor had not been idle. The house of worship had been painted and repaired, the church yard had been enclosed and land had been purchased in the rear for the erection of horse sheds at a cost of $300. In 1842, the income from slip rents had reached $582, and the subscription for extinguishing the debt amounted to $1500. In 1845, the Ladies' Benevolent soci- ety, which came into existence in 1818, was rejuvenated and reor- ganized. Everything was in good working order, and the youthful pastor-elect, in his letter of acceptance, had occasion to refer to the unanimity and the cordiality with which the call was given to him, " notwithstanding the distracting effect of pastoral destitution and numerous candidates." With the success of a ministry thus auspi- ciously begun there was but one thing that interfered-the condi- tion of the pastor's health. This had become so seriously impaired that he was compelled in 1849 to ask for a vacation of several months. That he was, nevertheless, a laborious pastor as well as an able and impressive preacher may be inferred from the addi- tions to the church during his ministry. These numbered 157, of whom fifty-five were men and 102 women. The fact that eighty- two of them were received "on certificate" indicates a rapidly increasing population to draw from, but the reception of seventy- five on profession of their faith, shows how deeply the parish must have been stirred in its spiritual life .*
* The picture brought before us by an entry in the pords, September ais, ot seres nature inin going from house to house as collectors for the American Board at Commissioners for Foreign M .- stops. I one that we are not likely to witness again.
594
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
It was shortly before Mr. Elliot's dismission that one of the most important events in the history of the parish took place-the peace- ful division of the society, or rather the peaceable secession of thirty-two members of the church and the organization of a second church. Although only ten years had passed since the erection of the fourth house of worship, it was found that the congregation was too large to be easily accommodated in it, and after prolonged con- sideration it was decided to organize a new society. The spirit in which the movement was undertaken and the liberality with which it was carried forward are recorded in the records, and are worthy of all praise. The first formal action was at a meeting of the First society on February 10, 1851. Within a few months the sum of $15,000 was subscribed, more than two-thirds of the whole amount being contributed by men who were to remain in the parent soci- ety. The new organization having been properly formed on November 10, it was voted on the 15th that the completed subscrip- tion be handed over to it for the purpose of purchasing land and erecting a church edifice for its use. The history of the Second church and society is narrated in Chapter XXXIV. Suffice it to say here that no secession of the kind was ever undertaken with a more unselfish purpose or carried out in a more motherly fashion. The mother watched over the child with more than parental inter- est, and now, like many another parent, has the pleasure of wit- nessing in her offspring a growth which far outstrips her own.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.