USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Kensington > Two hundredth anniversary, Kensington Congregational Church : organized December 12, 1712. Kensington, Connecticut, June 29th, 30th, July 1st, 1912 > Part 7
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In calling him it was voted to give "for his encouragement the sum of 300 pounds to be paid in wheat at six shillings per bushel, or money equivalent thereto." It is said that this was all lost in the depreciation of Continental money.
In addition, Mr. Upson was to have 120 pounds for his yearly support and salary to be paid in the same way, and a sufficient quantity of firewood for his family use. That the efforts of Josiah Burnham were not without good results is shown by the provision that "the value of money shall be determined by a committee who shall be appointed annually for that purpose."
He accepted what he called the "generous proposal," and on his side was generous, offering to receive the settlement in three parts, to be distributed over three years, also deducting from his salary 20 pounds the first year, 13 the next, 6 the next, until on the fourth year, he would proceed to draw the stipulated salary.
He was a of sensitive spirit, for he writes to his people :- "I have been informed that there are some in the parish who are fearful that by stating the salary in grain, I am put under disadvantage to obtain more than the people intended to give, and consequently, more than is necessary for a maintenance. I hope such will not be apprehensive of danger from that quar- ter, after being informed that I esteem it beneath the character of a Christian to take advantage of the good intention of an honest people." And in all the experience of his 23 years his New England conscience adds, "I am sensible that it is a diffi- cult thing in this day to know what is duty."
On August 6, 1778, he had married his cousin, Livia Hop- kins, the daughter of Joseph Hopkins; and in the grand house built by Mr. Clark, they and their first child lived for a time, Mrs. Clark inhabiting one part of what had been all her own; but afterwards the Upsons had a separate dwelling.
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In some miraculous way, the tiny salary was made to yield enough to buy a lot on the "corner east of the east burying- ground," and to the little house built on that, he took his wife and one child. Only one room was plastered. How the winter winds and summer suns must have made themselves felt through those flimsy walls! It was poor in modern comfort, but how rich it became with the memories of its unvarying, warm-hearted hospitality that was given so unstintingly to all who crossed its threshold!
Through life the influence of Dr. Upson was for just thinking and right acting, for peace and charity towards all. In that chaotic period which followed the Revolution, his pru- dence and tact, combined with high principle, must have wrought much good in the parish. He was honored outside the town, also, serving Yale College as a member of the Cor- poration for fourteen years, and receiving from her the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
I cannot forbear quoting Emma Hart Willard's description of the minister of her childhood. It is a picture of the old time that we like to look at often. She says: "He was one who was wont to be present whenever good was to be done, when rising ambition was to be encouraged, and children and youth to be watched over with parental care-one whose memorable form has been often seen in this house of worship, as with an air at once solemn and graceful, he walked up that aisle to mount the pulpit. Who does not know by these tokens the former beloved pastor of this Society, the Rev. Benoni Upson? The time was when, as the clergyman entered the church the whole congregation rose and stood till he had adjusted him- self in his pulpit. But well do I remember when I was a child at school, if during our play-hour it was said, "There is Mr. Upson !' every urchin of us stopt short in our play, and immediately repaired to the road-side to make a double file for him to pass between, and as he passed we made in heart as well as in gesture, profound obeisance, and the countenance, the polite, yet endearing manner of the good man as he passed, showed that he had for us a father's yearning breast."
He loved the young, and visited the schools often. A test of the Christian character of the two men was made during the ten years when Dr. Upson's failing strength was supported by a younger minister; for a beautiful harmony existed between him and the Rev. Royal Robbins. Dr. Upson did not waver
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in his punctual attendance on Sabbath worship, even when not called by duty to the pulpit, "being for several years of his life the oldest man in the congregation," and Mr. Robbins summed him up as a "valuable friend and counsellor-possess- ing a clear understanding, and ready wit, a most accomplished gentleman." After a pastorate of 47 years his benign presence ceased from earth. Of his eight children, only two survived him, one being Mrs. Charles A. Goodrich. The Rev. Frank G. Woodworth, D. D., president of Tougaloo University (Miss.), who has addressed you at the East Cemetery, is a descendant of Dr. Upson, and a son of the former pastor in Berlin.
In this young man, Rev. Royal Robbins, who came as a colleague, Kensington was to find one of her most illustrious ministers. Like Mr. Burnham, he was born in Wethersfield (October 21, 1787), his parents being Captain Elisha Robbins and Sarah Goodrich of Wethersfield.
In 1806, he was graduated from Yale, taught for two years in Hadley, Mass., and in Wethersfield and Glastonbury. Like Dr. Upson, he spent some time in Newport. This was in order to study law with his uncle, Asher Robbins, a distinguished lawyer. After teaching again at home, he made a final decision for the ministry, and studied theology. His first sermon was preached in the pulpit of Dr. Nathan Perkins, of West Hartford. Among the incidents of this period was that of preaching to the convicts in that strange, half-underground prison at New- gate.
Thus he had gained the varied experience of ten years. after leaving college, before he came to Kensington in 1816.
Another ten years passed as a colleague; and in 1826, at the death of Dr. Upson, he became sole pastor, and thus re- mained for thirty-three years, making a pastorate of forty-three years in all, during which time he built up for himself a monu- ment of lasting admiration and affection. His brother min- isters, his people, the reading public, all regarded him as a rare man, gifted with the pen of a ready writer, gracious and devoted in carrying his Gospel message- a flower of his time.
All his contemporaries speak of his life as one of ceaseless toil. Apparently, he never relaxed the strain of using every moment. His family of eight children and his small salary did not fit well; and thus it came about that his pen was kept busy throughout his pastoral life, and a mass of articles, reviews and books was produced, which added to his small income and
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won for him thousands of readers. The first article, "A Moral Estimate of Paradise Lost," published in the Quarterly Christian Spectator, was afterwards re-published in the London Christian Observer, an unusual compliment. He had excellent literary taste, and his regular contributions to periodicals were looked for with glad anticipation.
He was a friend of Percival, and wrote an excellent memoir of him for an edition of his poems, besides an article about him in "Specimens of American Poetry." His beautiful hymns are well-known to you. "A Legend of Mt. Lamentation," published in "The Token," was widely read, and he contributed much to the work of S. G. Goodrich (Peter Parley) in the Pictorial History of America," and the "Pictorial History of All Nations." But he was best known through the "History of American Literature," of which he was the American editor, and still more important, in his "Outlines of Ancient and Mod- ern History," which passed through many editions and was widely used as a text-book in schools and colleges. This would have given him a competence, had he reserved the copyright.
The intimate connection with the Goodrich family, which was related to both the Upsons and the Robbins, helped to foster and encourage the literary pursuits of Mr. Robbins. Probably to him is owing the Kensington Library Association, founded in 1829; and the widespread influence of such intel- lectual activity must still be felt in other ways. The children developed into men and women of rare charm and nobility of character; and the sons were able to surround the last days. of the parents with comfort. Edward W. Robbins, Yale 1843, the Kensington historian, had great talent as a writer. His Centennial Address should be a Kensington classic. Miss Frances Robbins and her sister, Mrs. Ford, lived to hand down the traditions of the family and to be a blessing to the town. It is regretted that Mr. Harry Pelham Robbins, of New York, a grandson, was unable to be present and speak at the East Cemetery; and the grandson in Boston, who bears the name,, "Royal" Robbins, also was not able to be present.
Rev. Mr. Robbins kept up his scholarly habits of reading- Latin and Greek every day, and was a constant student of the Bible. That home of the Kensington minister, glowing with the graces of mind and heart of parents and children, was recognized as a center of refinement and intellectual zeal, and was famed as such an ideal of cultivated country parsonage
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life as we delight to find in romance and, still more, in reality. It was like the perfume of a flower, not to be described. He was engaged in preparing an Historical Address for the Town of Wethersfield when he was stricken by his last illness.
Painful as were his last days, his patience and fortitude were unfailing, and the consolations of religion with which he had often soothed the dying were his in the Valley of the Shadow.
Most touching were the lamentations of the Wethersfield people when they learned that they could not hear the "honied words" of their favorite son; most complimentary were the tributes to his scholarship and his character from every side.
Dr. Porter, the patriarch of Farmington, wrote, "There was in him such blending of the true, the just, the pure, the beautiful, the fine, the gentle, the humble, that I might as well attempt to describe the light of day as to tell what sort of man he was." A divine of the Episcopal Church wrote of his "deep humility, his beautiful, harmonious character, his consistency, his high-toned integrity, the width of grasp of his views, which allowed dissent from his opinions without alienation. From the placid and peaceful retirement of country life, his spirit went forth with every effort of the busy world around him to advance the glory of God in the salvation of men."
His literary pursuits brought him many scholarly friends from other parts of the country; yet the unvarying testimony of all who knew him as a pastor was that he was "laborious, patient and faithful," pure and disinterested, unselfish and deeply sympathetic. He died March 26, 1861.
Mr. Robbins was the first minister here to seek a dismis- sion; and for a year before his death, he was relieved from active service by the Rev. Elias Brewster Hillard, a native of Preston, graduated from Yale in 1848, and prepared for the ministry at Yale and Andover. He was in Kensington from May 16, 1860 until February 27, 1867. For nearly a century and a half Kensington had enjoyed the lifelong services of her pastors; but since the middle of the nineteenth century, shorter terms have been more usual everywhere. Mr. Hillard brought much energy to his work. He was the war minister of Kensington, and no uncertain notes were heard from his pulpit.
On a certain Sunday morning in April, 1861, he reached the church just as the news of Sumter's fall arrived. Instantly, his prepared sermon was laid aside, and he delivered a stirring address appropriate to the crisis. Throughout the war our
REV. ARTHUR J. BENEDICT
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THE CHAPEL 1888
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flag flew from this church. In the next year, he preached an historical discourse on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the church, and again and again made additions to local historical research. He made valuable contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut, when he supplied a history of the church and a list of his predecessors, with some remarks as to their work and characters. Many improvements were owing to his enterprise. The church and Sunday-school were united during his stay. He was an earnest advocate of Pro- hibition. His book, "The Last Men of the Revolution," pub- lished in 1864 by N. A. & R. A. Moore, is unique. Only seven then survived, each of them more than a century old, and Mr. Hillard before writing the book interviewed them in their homes. In 1867, he left to go to Glastonbury and then Plymouth, and died in Farmington. His daughter, Miss Hil- lard, is carrying on a great educational work at Westover, and another daughter, having been President of Rockford Seminary, now Rockford College, is the wife of Andrew McLeish, Vice President of the trustees of Chicago University.
For a brief year, from July 5, 1868, to June 23, 1869, the Rev. Abraham Chittenden Baldwin, Bowdoin 1827, Yale M. A. 1843, was acting pastor. As he did not reside in Kensington during his pastorate, comparatively little is known of his relation to this church. He was born in North Guilford in 1804. His ministerial career included pastorates in North Guilford and Durham and mission work for the Howe Street Church in New Haven. He died in Yonkers, New York, in 1887, aged 83.
On the day of his departure, the Rev. Alfred Tileston Waterman was installed. He was graduated from Yale in 1855, and spent a year in Union Seminary, graduating from Princeton Seminary in 1860. He made a public profession of his faith in the church of Yale College. He did some home mis- sionary work in Vermont and was active in a good many par- ishes in New England and the West. His service in Kensington was from 1869 to 1874. He was the first to occupy the present parsonage. He was a spiritual man, devoted to the welfare of his people, and in spite of discouraging circumstances, his ministry was very acceptable. His death occurred at Wash- ington, D. C., December 29, 1909.
Of his successor, my Father, the Rev. James Bradford Cleaveland, permit me to say that while a student at Yale, from which he was graduated in 1847, Divinity School 1851,
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he so exerted himself (according to the late John G. North, of New Haven) in behalf of the languishing Temple Street Church and Sunday-school for colored people that by his influence and that of another they were revived, relieved from debt, and encouraged to grow so that they have become the Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church. Always a zealous friend of the slave, he was impelled to write as follows to President Lincoln: "Sir :- Equal to the exigency of the times, your name will hereafter be as conspicuous in the history of this nation as is that of Moses in the sacred history of Israel. Moses is honored as Liberator: that such may be your renowned title on the future page of the republic now so ably presided over by you, is the prayer of millions." This letter was dated Novem- ber 22, 1861; the date of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclama- tion was September 23, 1862.
A descendant of the historian, Gov. Bradford, it was a pleasant task that fell to him to "call to remembrance the former days," as his text expresses it, in his Centennial Dis- course on the history of the Kensington Church, delivered in this pulpit July 9, 1876. The first Church Manual, issued in 1877, was prepared in his time and under his direction. His first pastorate was in Durham, (the scene of Dr. Elizur Good- rich's labors.) After pastorates in South Egremont, where Mrs. Cleaveland wrote "No Sects in Heaven," in Goshen, New Hartford, and Bloomfield, he came hither in 1875, remaining with this church until 1879. His residence was in New Haven at the time of his death, which occurred May 21, 1889. May I quote from the estimate of his character which appeared June 6, 1889 in the Religious Herald:
"In his social relations he was natural, unassuming and original. A dry humor always pervaded his conversation and many of his contributions for the press, and his witty and almost quaint remarks carried with them the impress of a strong personality, yet he never trifled but was intensely candid and sincere. Policy was no element in his character. He could not deceive and he would never compromise with evil. He never shrank from siding with the few as against the many if the few were in the right."
The stay of Rev. Cornelius Morrow was only three years, but his devoted spirit made an impression here as everywhere where he lived. After graduation from Columbia in 1876, and Union Seminary in 1879, he began his ministry here in the
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latter year. Hartford county was not unknown to him, since his uncle, the Rev. Nathaniel J. Burton, had long been one of the distinguished preachers of Hartford. His stay, however, was saddened by the death of his little boy, and by his own illness, which obliged him to resign. In his succeeding parishes, Bethlehem, Danbury, and Norwich, Dr. Morrow won hearts as he had in Kensington, by his inspiring and helpful ministra- tions. Christian Endeavor and Sunday-school work have received an impetus wherever he has been, and his hearers everywhere cherish a lively remembrance of his spiritual preach- ing and teaching. The young man who held his modest course among you has become one of the important factors in the success of Fisk University, where for ten years he has been the College Pastor and the Professor of Philosophy, cheering and uplifting the earnest ones of that down-trodden race. Thus two consecutive ministers of this church have been of notable benefit to the Africans among us.
Rev. Arthur J. Benedict, glorified by the Amherst Records as the only survivor of the Class of 1872 representatives in the Amherst College crew which won in 16 minutes, 32 4-5 seconds, the Intercollegiate boat race in 1872, occupied this pulpit from 1882 to 1889. It was a time of new enterprises. The Christian Endeavor Society was organized with his assistance, and during his pastorate this venerable edifice was repaired and improved (so that it could present the appropriate and attractive appear- ance of today.) The old church in its new dress was re-dedi- cated; and on that occasion Mr. Benedict gave an historical address in which were gathered and preserved many precious bits of local history. An article prepared by him for the Con- necticut Magazine, with much research and judgment, is an accurate and valuable contribution to Kensington history. Mr. Benedict was the guiding spirit of the Harvest Festival from which has grown the great Berlin Agricultural Society.
He has carried New England ideas to the home missionary field, and is now in charge of the Congregational Home Mis- sionary Society and Congregational Sunday School and Pub- lishing Society for southern Arizona and lives in Tombstone, Arizona.
The three years which the Rev. Henry L. Hutchins spent here must have been a happy period in his interesting life. Of Connecticut birth and Yale education, a great part of his experience was in the distant West. Still, immediately after
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his graduation from the Yale Divinity School, he became pastor of the Taylor Church in New Haven, laboring to such effect there for seven years that he returned later in life for a second period of service.
The need of Christian workers called him to East Tawas and Tawas City in Michigan, and thence to Gunnison, on the Pacific side of the Rocky Mountains. There all four of his children died of scarlet fever within one month, and he followed them from a desolate home to desolate graves. Nevertheless he did not relax his efforts in Gunnison, and had built a church and house there when his mother's illness summoned him to the East. It was after some years of faithful missionary work in Massachusetts that he came here, where he did, he said, "the most successful work of his life." He made a map of the parish dividing it into districts for neighborhood prayer meet- ings, which were notably successful, 87 people attending these meetings in one week.
Work in the state for the Bible Society engaged him for some years, and at a meeting in New Haven, he read some re- sults of his investigations in country parishes, which aroused alarmed comment. The incorrect reports in the papers deeply pained him, and it has been suggested that they may have caused his sudden death, three days later. Let his class biog- raphy give his epitaph. "He lived the profession that he made. Both by positive service and by submission to God's will he exemplified the things which he taught as fundamental." He wrote of his life :- "It has been a success in one particular, of proving the power of God in His rich promises and of the Gospel to save. It has confirmed me in a faith in that divine mission of man on earth, and the ultimate glory of God's kingdom."
He was followed in 1892 by Rev. Magee Pratt, an English- man, who, before coming to this country, had espoused the cause of reform, beginning to speak at nineteen, for National Education; and afterwards as first lecturer of the Peace Society, appeared in many English cities and in every reform hall in London. It was a rare experience for a country village to have in the pulpit one who had come from discussing, in the great metropolis of the world, the burning questions of the day. Noteworthy among his efforts in this parish was his work among the Italians. Ten Italians united with this church under his ministry in 1894, two of whom have become ministers of the
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Gospel. Mr. Pratt is passionately fond of flowers and is keenly interested in horticulture. While carrying on his present par- ish work in Granby, he accomplishes much in a literary way, and is heard all over the country through the press.
The Rev. William B. Tuthill, a graduate of Colby Univer- sity, came hither from the Hartford Theological Seminary, after spending a year at Union, and was ordained here in 1897. He spent only two years here, which were happy years for all concerned. The beneficial effect of his forceful upbuilding and strengthening work for this church is still manifest. He had been prominent in his life at college and was president of his class. After pastorates at East Hartford, Conn., and Leomin- ster, Mass., he returned to Maine, where he is now settled over Woodfords, in Portland, one of the most important Congre- gational churches in that state, having the largest Sunday- school of any Congregational church in Maine.
A graduate of Harvard and of Hartford Theological Semi- nary followed him, the Rev. Alonzo Ferdinand Travis, who remained four years, a time during which the much-needed and much-enjoyed church parlors were built, and the Men's Lyceum, a noteworthy organization, was founded. To him, also the years in Kensington were delightful. Now his activity is transferred to the great city, and he is religious director of the 23rd Street Y. M. C. A. in New York, an association of nearly four thousand members. Perhaps, during the peaceful years here, the energy was stored away which is vitalizing New York. [While this publication is in preparation for the press, word is received of his sudden death while bathing, at Green Harbor, Mass., Aug. 6, 1913.]
His successor, the Rev. Edgar H. Olmstead, although born in Michigan and educated at the Tri-State College at Angola, Indiana, and at Oberlin, was simply reverting to the old haunts of his family when he came here, for he is descended from James Olmstead, one of the original proprietors of Hartford, a charter member of the Center Church there. James Olmstead is buried in that historic burying-ground there, land which was originally assigned to his nephew, Richard Olmstead, but was afterwards voted to be used as a burial ground. He went from his first church in Cleveland to Granby, and thence to Ken- sington, where his stay was four years to a day; and he is now continuing his good work in the Congregational Church at Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, Conn. His pastorate here was
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crowned with success in securing a large increase in missionary offerings, and forty-five were added to the church.
Of the present incumbent, who comes of a family distin- guished in the ministry and other professions, let his work in indefatigable and successful labors for this anniversary alone speak for him. His delvings into the musty records of the past have probably made him better qualified to tell the history of this ancient church than any other living historian. More and more does he endear himself to the people of this parish and town. Long may he be here, and let some future bard sing his praises.
Since the Civil War, the terms of service have been short, and the consequent number of ministers has forbidden the pleasure of speaking at length of individuals. But the general statement may be made that the sojourn here among cordial parishioners and beautiful scenery, has almost always been fraught with present and retrospective pleasure; and that all your ministers have lived here with the single purpose of glori- fying God through the extension of his kingdom. It is note- worthy that so many of them have been imbued with the missionary spirit of uplifting the poor and ignorant, and have brought from other fields to this quiet altar, the flame of enthusi- asm for the world's redemption.
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