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 5
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On December 30, 1850, Mr. Elliot addressed a communication to the society requesting that the pastoral relation existing between him and them be dissolved. He said: "My reason for this request is drawn solely from the state of my health. It is with the deepest regret that I am compelled to this conclusion, but I perceive no other course open before me." He presented a similar request to the church, and in each case it was granted, almost as a matter of course, and his dismission took place when the consociation met in Seymour, in April, 1851. A year or two afterward he became the pastor of the New England Congregational church in Williams- burgh, N. Y. In 1855, he accepted a call to Stamford, and won for himself there, as his immediate successor in that parish (the present writer) can testify, an abiding place in the hearts of some of the best people. Yielding again to the compulsion of ill health, he resigned in 1858, but in the following year was settled in Columbus, O. He afterward served as "acting pastor" in Brooklyn, N. Y., New Canaan, Litchfield and Stonington. In 1866 he married Joanna, daughter of Obadiah Holmes, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Leaving Stoning- ton in April, 1880, he went westward, to visit friends and to get a
595
THE FIRST CHURCH FROM 1825 TO 1864.
taste of the western type of life. He spent a year in Chicago and another in Cincinnati, taking the place of absent pastors, and two or three years as acting pastor in Troy, O. He returned to New York as his home, and for seven years bore a double burden, the care of an - invalid wife, and the pastoral charge of a "down town " church. He was present at the bi-centennial celebration in Waterbury, November 5, 1891, and made an address which is reproduced in "The Churches of Mattatuck." He resigned his charge of the Allen street church in November, 1894, and removed to Summit, N. J., to the home of a married daughter. His wife died in March, 1895, his eldest son in February and his daughter in May. In a letter dated July 12, 1895, Dr. Elliot says: "This leaves me desolate, but a sharer with my daughter's husband in the care of two little ones." He adds:
I have had many changes, but as I look back over a ministry of more than fifty- two years, I can not see that I was blameworthy for any of them, and conclude that they were ordered by Him who chooses the lot of his servants and sends them wherever he pleases. I have the comfort of knowing that there is no church over which I have ever been placed, which I cannot visit with pleasure, and with assur- ance of a hearty reception. Among them all Waterbury stands foremost in my recollections and my affections.
After Mr. Elliot's withdrawal more than a year elapsed before a successor was found. In August, 1851, the Rev. N. H. Eggleston received a call, but declined it. The pulpit was supplied for some time by the Rev. S. W. Magill, and in August, 1852, the attention of the church was directed to the Rev. William Walter Woodworth of Berlin. The call was unanimous, the salary was $1ooo a year, with a vacation of three weeks, and the expenses of removal were to be met by the society. Mr. Woodworth having accepted this invita- tion, was installed September 29, the installation sermon being preached by the Rev. Walter Clarke, then of Hartford, and the "fel- lowship of the churches" extended by the Rev. Mr. Magill who had by this time become pastor of the Second church.
Even before Mr. Woodworth's arrival in Waterbury the question of "a house for him to live in" began to trouble the society. A committee was appointed to investigate, and to " see if it would be advisable to appropriate any of the society's real estate for that purpose," and in September, 1852, they were directed to sell build- ing lots from the so-called "parsonage lot" at their discretion. This "parsonage lot" (known also as " the little pasture") was a piece of land set apart by the original proprietors of the town for educational and ministerial uses. The First society had held it for the use of their pastor, or had rented it for a small sum, for a good many years past. In 1841, when funds to pay for the building of
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
the fourth meeting-house were greatly needed, it was proposed to sell this land. Judge Bennet Bronson took the ground that the property could not be sold, but offered to take a lease of it himself for twenty years, for $344. His proposal was accepted; but when the lease had run about eight years Judge Bronson died, and by the terms of his will the land reverted to the society, greatly increased in value. While the sale of building lots from this piece of property was under consideration it became necessary that the new Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad company (see page 161) should take possession of a large part of it, and as a result of negotiations extending over several months a sale of the part required was made to the company for $6237. In the meantime three prominent members of the society-Aaron Benedict, P. W. Carter and Philo Brown-had built a house on Leavenworth street, and had given Mr. Woodworth the use of it free of rent. When the transaction with the railroad company was completed, the society by a vote of ten to eight instructed its committee to purchase this house for $6000. The state of the vote indicated a difference of opin- ion as to "whether it was best for the society to own a parsonage or not." Four months afterward (November 5, 1855), they decided this question in the affirmative, whereupon it was voted to use the money in the treasury to purchase the Leavenworth street house for a parsonage. It was occupied in that way until November, 1893.
The beginning of Mr. Woodworth's pastorate was almost con- temporary with the incorporation of the city (page 33). His minis- try may therefore be regarded as belonging to a new era in the life of the community, and there are various indications in the records that such an era had been entered upon. One of these was the vote at the beginning of 1853 to light the church with gas. Another, of no slight importance, was the agreement, May 7, 1855, to commence the second service at two o'clock during part of the year, instead of half-past one the year round. It was the beginning of a series of changes resulting in the entire abandonment of after- noon services. Another was the publication in 1854 of a new man- ual of the church,* and another was the permanent establishment
* A vote to reprint the articles of faith and the covenant was passed in July, 1846, and the various "rules" of the church, having been collected and revised, were adopted anew in December of that year (see at the end of Book III of the records). Nothing was printed, however, and on November 5, 1852, a commit- tee was appointed to prepare a new edition. It contains in its 20 pages, besides the articles and covenant (reprinted from the manual of 1832) and the rules, a brief historical statement, lists of pastors and deacons, and a revised catalogue of members, numbering 361 names. An item which ought perhaps to be mentioned in this connection was the purchase, on August 24, 1854, of two lots in the new Riverside cemetery. Lots 8 and 9 in section I became the property of the society at a cost of $91.40. The body of Charles Goodrich Woodworth (born October 22, 1846) was interred in lot 9 on August 11, and no other burial has since been made there .- Another significant item was the decision, December 29, 1856, to advertise the approaching sale of slips in the Waterbury American,-a first step which cost the society seventy-five cents.
-
597
THE FIRST CHURCH FROM 1825 TO 1864.
(February 1, 1854) of a prudential committee, consisting of the dea- cons and three other brethren, to examine candidates for member- ship and to attend to matters of discipline. It may be added that during Mr. Woodworth's pastorate the society came into possession of a legacy of $200 left by Bennet Bronson for books for a pastor's library. In 1857 the society's committee passed over this sum to Mr. Woodworth, and the books were purchased .* Reference may also be made to the fact that the General Association of Connecti- cut, which met in Waterbury in 1792 and in Watertown in 1772 and 1813, came again to Waterbury in 1853. The controversy with Dr. Horace Bushnell was then at its height, and the walls of the fourth meeting-house rang with the eloquence of the warring champions of two theologies, neither of which, in the light of to-day, seems quite worthy of the effort expended upon it.
On May 2, 1858, twenty-three persons were received to the church on profession of their faith. Two days afterward Mr. Woodworth was dismissed by the consociation from his pastorate. The occasion of his resignation which took place in January, was the condition of his wife's health and the hope of improving it by a change of climate. "I never expect," he said in his letter, "to find a kinder or a more considerate people." On May 9 he preached a farewell sermon, which was published by vote of the church in an edition of 500 copies. +
In 1875, while Mr. Woodworth was settled at Grinnell, Ia., he was requested by the present pastor of the First church to furnish a brief sketch of his life for use in a lecture on the later history of the church. The autobiography was in part as follows :
I was born in what is now Cromwell, October 16, 1813. My father was Walter Woodworth, born in Lebanon; my mother Mary Sage, a native of Cromwell. In my boyhood I learned the trade of a silversmith in Bridgeport, and left it in 1832 to study for the ministry. After graduating from Yale college in 1838, I studied theology; one year by myself, while teaching in Westfield, Mass., one year in the Divinity school at New Haven and one year in Andover, where I graduated in 1841. I was ordained at Berlin July 6, 1842, and remained there nearly ten years.
My ministry in Waterbury was a pleasant one to me. The people were kind. They built for me the parsonage and gave me the use of it in addition to the stipu- lated salary, and other gifts, the value of which could not have been less than $300 a year. I remember especially the many kindnesses of Deacons Benedict and Car- ter. There are others whom I love to remember, but I cannot stop to speak of their worth. There was nothing of very marked interest during my ministry in Waterbury-nothing which would make an epoch in the history of the church. There were conversions from time to time; there were Christian lives and Christian deaths; it was just the ordinary history of a church which has the usual proportion of members who walk with God.
* During the early years of the present pastorate, and before the opening of the Bronsen Blirary, a few volumes were added from time to time, -a communion collection being set apart for this purpose cach yes:
+ " A Conversation Becoming the Gospel . A Farewell Sermon," etc .. E. B Cooke & Co. Printers, as pl
598
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
In January, 1858, I accepted a call to Mansfield, O., but continued to preach in Waterbury, hoping to remove to Ohio in the spring. My wife went to her father's in Hartford to make her last visit before our removal, and died there, March II. Two or three weeks after closing my labors in Waterbury I began my work in Mansfield, but was never installed there. In 1860 I removed to Massachusetts and preached two years in Springfield and nearly two in Plymouth. After a year and a half spent in Painesville, O., I was installed at Belchertown, Mass., May 16, 1866, and remained there until May 4, 1870. I began my work here at Grinnell, May 20, 1870.
Since I entered the ministry I have devoted myself to this one thing. I have published nothing but half a dozen sermons, two or three articles in the New Eng- lander and various articles in newspapers. I have held no office other than that of school committeeman and moderator of councils and associations, except that I am now one of the trustees of Iowa college. I hope that God will per- mit me to live and labor a few years longer for him, that my future work will be better than my past, and that when my task is done he will let me see his face and rest in his love. As long as I live I shall remember the dear church in Waterbury.
Mr. Woodworth lived after this nearly fifteen years. In the autumn of 1875 he was recalled to Berlin, his first parish, and was installed there January 6, 1876. On June 12, 1890, just fifty years after he was licensed to preach, he was thrown from his carriage, and received injuries which resulted in his death two days after- ward.
Dr. Woodworth married three times and was the father of eleven children, three of whom were born in Waterbury. The eldest of the three was Frank Goodrich, for whom see page 560 .*
At the same meeting of the church at which Mr. Woodworth's resignation was accepted a call was extended to the Rev. Zachariah Eddy. He declined it, and six months later the Rev. David Mur- doch, Jr., was called, but without success. On August 9, 1858, the church invited the Rev. George Bushnell to become its pastor; the society concurred the same day, offering a salary of $1300 and the use of the parsonage, and the invitation was accepted. Mr. Bush- nell said, in his letter of acceptance : "I find nothing to make me hesitate except the near prospect of responsibilities whose weight I have felt, and the certainty that I shall be unable to do more than a small part of what a wakeful Christian mind would desire to see done in a community like yours." At the installation on Septem- ber 29, the sermon was preached by Dr. Seth Sweetser of Wor- cester, Mass., and the installing prayer was offered by Mr. Bush- nell's brother, Dr. Horace Bushnell of Hartford.
* After Dr. Woodworth's death a volume was published containing (besides a biographical sketch) a series of sermons which he had prepared for the press on the Lord's prayer, and four or five others. On July 9, 1882, the fortieth anniversary of his ordination, Dr. Woodworth preached a discourse entitled "A Ministry of Forty Years," which contains interesting autobiographical reminiscences. It was published in the Religious Herald of August 17, 1882.
599
THE FIRST CHURCH FROM 1825 TO 1864.
During Mr. Bushnell's ministry in Waterbury the war for the Union was begun and practically terminated, and in his pastoral relation he experienced the anxieties, enmities and troubles of which so many pastors tasted during those trying days. The church and the Sunday school suffered somewhat, as so many others did, from the draft made upon their numbers. Deacon E. L. Bronson, the Sunday school superintendent, reported in January, 1862, that ten former members of the Sunday school were in the army, eight of whom had gone directly from the school, and a year later that four classes had been entirely broken up by enlistments which, during August and September, 1862, took away twenty mem- bers of the school, two of whom were teachers. But besides this the parish was seriously disturbed by differences of sentiment in regard to the war itself and the position which pastors should take, and Mr. Bushnell had the courage of his convictions. In a letter to the present writer, ten years afterward, he said :
I hardly know what to say of my pastorate in Waterbury. The true story, were it written, would require a chapter on antagonisms. I suggest that you pass over the period as lightly as may be. I shall not be disposed to make any com- plaint if you give simply the date of its beginning and its close. Perhaps the vacancy would be more suggestive and more nearly historical than words could be.
Notwithstanding this self-disparagement Mr. Bushnell's pastor- ate was quite as successful as the average of his predecessors .* And if there were "antagonisms" there were also strong friend- ships; so that when, in the early part of 1864, the pastor's health failed, resolutions were adopted, without a dissenting vote, express- ing deep sympathy with him and tendering him leave of absence until November 1, 1864, that is, for a period of five months. But little more than a month had elapsed before Mr. Bushnell felt com- pelled to offer his resignation, to take effect November 1, " for good and sufficient reasons," he said, "which I need not enumerate." On September 22, when the question of accepting it came before the society, the first ballot showed seventeen in the affirmative and the same number in the negative, but it was afterward accepted by a vote of twenty-four to fourteen. The church " reluctantly acquiesced " in the action of the society and declared by a unani-
* The thankful spirit of the parish during dark days, and the things for which thanks were expressed, are worthy of note. On October 31, 1862, the church expressed its thanks to Mrs. Wealthy A. Ives for the gift of a new silver communion service. (The two or three ancient silver cups which at one time it was proposed to sell were fortunately saved from such an ignominy and continued in use, but the twelve white- metal goblets (see p. 585) were superseded and are now kept on a high shelt.) The society at the end of it voted " thanks " to its committee " for their successful effort to free the society from debt." Thanks were also given to John C. Brixgs (organist) and the choir " for the great improvement effected in the church music," and at the same time the committee was empowered " to appropriate necessary funds for instructing the children of the society in singing."
6co
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
mous vote "its unabated confidence " in Mr. Bushnell's "Christian character and faithfulness." Mr. Bushnell was formally dismissed at a meeting of the consociation at Prospect, January 31, 1865. A month before this the Rev. S. W. Magill was dismissed from the pastorate of the Second Congregational church, and the Rev. Elisha Whittlesey installed as his successor.
The main events in Mr. Bushnell's life ought to be added here. He was born in Washington (Conn.), December 13, 1818. He graduated at Yale college in 1842, studied theology at Auburn Theological seminary and the Yale Divinity school, and was ordained as pastor of the Salem street Congregational church in Worcester, Mass., December 30, 1848 (his thirtieth birthday). Soon after leaving Waterbury he was called to the Congregational church in Beloit, Wis., and was installed there on March 1, 1865. After a ministry in Beloit of nineteen years, he resigned his pastor- ate and removed to New Haven, where he has since resided. In 1888 he was elected a member of the corporation of Yale university. He was present at the bi-centennial celebration of the First church, November 5, 1891, and made an address in which he referred in a frank and interesting way to his earlier relations to Waterbury .*
* See " The Churches of Mattatuck," pp. 221, 222.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
A BRIEF ENGAGEMENT WHICH BECOMES A LONG ONE-AFTER THE WAR PROSPERITY-ALTERATIONS IN THE FOURTH CHURCH EDIFICE- BUILDING PROJECT OF 1869-AN ANNULLED SUBSCRIPTION LIST- A CORNER-STONE IN 1873-AN ORGAN COMMITTEE-A DEDICATION IN 1875-GIFTS TO THE SANCTUARY-IMPROVEMENTS AND REPAIRS -A CHRONICLE OF THIRTY YEARS-A LONG PASTORATE AND WHY -GROWTH OF THE FIRST CHURCH-ITS PLACE IN THE COMMUNITY- JOSEPH ANDERSON-MINISTERS "RAISED UP"-DEACONS. FROM THE BEGINNING-SOME BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES.
T HE REV. JOSEPH ANDERSON, Mr. Bushnell's successor, came to Waterbury on February 12, 1865, to fulfil a brief engagement. At the opening of an anniversary sermon preached in 1890 (afterward published in the Waterbury American) he gave the following account of the visit:
Although unable to do full pastoral work I was well enough to preach, and through a friend was invited to supply a pulpit in Bath, Me., whose regular occu- pant was suffering from an affection of the throat. I was spending a comfort- able winter amid Maine snows, and expecting to hold myself free from a pastor's cares for at least a year or two, when a letter came to me, bearing the postmark "Waterbury." It was an invitation from the society's committee of the First church to preach here for two Sundays, and it decided me to turn aside from the direct route to New York, where all my treasures were, and to make my way hither.
How distinctly I recall the moment when I alighted from the train that Satur- day evening; the reserved and solemn greeting of Dr. Robert Crane, chairman of your committee; the walk to his house on North Willow street, and the bitter cold of the night that followed! And how plainly I can see the congregation which assembled that Sunday morning in the old church-my predecessor Mr. Bushnell, seated amidst the people. It must have been the coldest day of the winter; but the greeting the people gave me by their kindly faces and attentive ears was warmer than is the wont of New England assemblies. I had reason to believe that they had received me not only to their pulpit for a day, but to their hearts for days to come; for on that afternoon I was asked to remain three months, and the follow- ing Sunday to remain a year, and the engagement was already practically entered into which still continues.
Before the three months referred to had passed, a meeting was held at which the sentiment of the society found " informal expres- sion," in a resolution to the effect that it was "expedient for the committee to secure the services of the Rey. Joseph Anderson as a pastor." This resolution, the clerk takes pains to say in the
602
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
record, was "passed unanimously, every member present voting." In view of the condition of his health Mr. Anderson refrained from making a definite engagement, but he had already, to all practical purposes, become the pastor of the parish. In the course of the year, however, the feeling grew in the church and the society that an official and more formal engagement should be entered into, and on March 26, 1866, the church voted "that we cordially invite the Rev. Joseph Anderson to take the pastoral charge of this church," and the society concurred, the same evening, offering a salary of $2500 a year, a vacation of six Sundays and the free use of the par- sonage. A memorandum in the church records states that Mr. Anderson accepted the call, but that for various reasons, to be found in his letter of acceptance, he suggested that his formal installation should be indefinitely postponed. This arrangement has been continued until the present time.
Two months after Mr. Anderson's first sermon in Waterbury the war for the Union was terminated by the surrender of General Lee and the Confederate army. The era of peace had opened, and the spirit of peace ruled in the parish. The antagonisms of years were buried out of sight, and the community was ready to enjoy its well-earned prosperity. The war, which had brought sorrow into so many homes, had brought enlargement and success to the manufactories of Waterbury, and the leading men of the commu- nity, a large proportion of whom belonged to the First society, were willing not only to enjoy prosperity but to expend money for the advancement of education, morality and religion. One of the earliest projects of the First society was the building of a new church edifice.
The need of a new church had been felt for some years. During the second year of Mr. Bushnell's pastorate a resolution was intro- duced at an annual meeting of the society, recognizing the "want of seats to accommodate those who desired to attend the services," and appointing a committee of seven to consider the most feasible plan for supplying the want. In February, 1859, they voted almost unanimously in favor of a new church "to cost not less than $30,000," but by the end of the year the building project was abandoned and they were talking about alteration and enlargement. Thus far in the history of the parish the voice of praise. had ascended heavenward on the notes of a "melodeon," and the repairs put upon that modest instrument during 1860 had cost $13. It was now proposed not only to alter the church but to put in an organ, and a year later the committee was authorized to paint it, "one coat," and, if expedient, to shingle it. The following July
603
THE FIRST CHURCH SINCE 1865.
the work of repair was really undertaken, and important changes were made in the interior. The alterations behind the pulpit, which naturally enough always produce an impression upon a con- gregation, were almost sufficient to make the economical brethren feel that they were enjoying a new house of worship.
The next step was taken four years and a half later-at the end of 1866. At the meeting at which Mr. Anderson's acceptance of the society's call was reported, a committee was appointed to pro- cure plans and estimates with reference to enlarging the church "or building a new one." After a year of fluctuation plans for enlargement were presented, providing for sixty-six new pews, but at the same meeting a resolution in favor of a new church, to cost not less than $100,000, was unanimously adopted. A subscription was immediately opened-which in May, 1868, was made binding upon the securing of $80,000-and a building committee was appointed. By the end of October the subscription was completed, and the thanks of the society were voted to E. L. Bronson and S. B. Terry, Jr., for their persevering and successful labor in secur- ing the amount. It was resolved that the society proceed to erect a church, and the building committee was instructed to present plans for the new edifice. It was voted, in February, 1869, to remove the old church to the rear of the lot, to make a place for the new one, and in May plans were presented. They were accepta- ble to the building committee, but it was found that to adopt them would involve an expense of at least $100,000. It was accordingly " Resolved, that we authorize their adoption when a way is pro- vided to meet the cost of building." On May 31 a vote was intro- duced, authorizing the building committee to proceed at once to erect a stone church. The vote was taken by ballot, and the result was, twenty in favor of building and fourteen against it. As a majority of two-thirds was necessary, the motion was declared lost. and the subscribers to the building fund were authorized to with- draw their subscriptions unless the sum of $100,000 was secured by the end of June. On June 30 it was attempted to secure a two. thirds vote in favor of building a church the cost of which should not exceed $85,000, but without success; whereupon the subserip- tions were declared void and uncollectable. The result was a severe disappointment not only to those who had labored so faith- fully to complete the subscription, but to the great majority of the people. A month later, at a society meeting attended by thirteen persons, a vote was secured in favor of remodelling the old church. and on August 5 it was voted to grade the grounds, lower the foun- dation, enlarge the auditorium, build a lecture room, and make such
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