USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > West Hartford > West Hartford, Connecticut > Part 8
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On October 15, 1915, Rev. Earle W. Darrow became pastor, coming from the church at South Willington, and continued to serve until August 31, 1920, when he left to become pastor of the First Baptist Church of Holyoke, Mass. During his pastorage, the Church made its first decided gain in membership, increasing from 90 to 110.
In September 1921, Thurman A. Varnadore, D.D., became pastor, continuing to January 1, 1922, and was succeeded on May 20, 1922, by George F. Wortley. Mr. Wortley was ordained Oc- tober 25, 1922, and continued to July 1, 1924.
On April 1, 1923, the by-laws of the Church were amended to divide the membership into active and associate classes, the active members to be those received through baptism, by letter from any Baptist church, or on experience if one had been im- mersed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; the associate members to be received by letter from any Evangelical church not of the Baptist denomination. The associate members have equal vote in all church matters with the active members, excepting in the matter of church doctrine.
Following Mr. Wortley's pastorate, Rev. A. B. Coats, D.D., secretary emeritus of the Baptist State Convention, served as acting pastor until the close of 1925. During this period the church was thoroughly renovated. The basement was put in condition to use; modern plumbing was installed, including a new furnace. The entire cost was over $20,000. The year before, a new organ had been presented by Dr. W. H. Andrus, and the church was rededicated on April 3, 1925.
On January 3, 1926, Rev. Ellis M. Gilbert came from the Danbury Baptist Church to become pastor and has continued to serve since that date. At the time he became pastor, the Church had 125 active members and 8 associate. By November 1, 1928,
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
the membership had increased to 183 active and 27 associate.
A daily vacation Bible school was conducted by the Church in 1926, and in 1927 and 1928 was continued under the joint charge of the Baptist and Congregational Churches. On Novem- ber 18, 1928, a branch Sunday school was started at North Main Street near Albany Avenue.
Rev. Franklin Davenport Elmer, a native of West Hartford and son of Rev. Eldridge B. Elmer, a graduate of Brown Uni- versity and of the University of Chicago, was a member of this church in his youth. He has had successful pastorates in Win- sted, Conn., Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and Hamilton, N. Y., where he is pastor of the Colgate University Church. For many years he has been a prominent leader in the National Religious Educa- tional Association.
The Elmwood Community Church. The Elmwood Community Church is in reality the outgrowth of a religious movement in the southern section of West Hartford which began in 1873 when, under the leadership of Mr. George T. Goodwin, a Sunday school was organized in the month of June, in the old South District schoolhouse at the corner of New Britain Avenue and West Hartford Main Street.
The school began with forty members and was efficiently maintained by the earnest corps of teachers and workers who cooperated with Mr. Goodwin in the work. The sessions were held on Sunday afternoons in the schoolhouse until 1876, when it became evident that larger and better accommodations were needed. At that time a lot was purchased on the corner of New Britain Avenue and Grove Street and a building erected known as the Elmwood Chapel. This building was completed and furnished ready for occupancy with all bills paid. The Ladies Aid Society of Elmwood by their services and contribu- tions furnished $2,000 of the sum expended. The session of the Sunday school and other religious services were held in this chapel until the recent erection of the building on Newington Road known as the Elmwood Community Church.
The fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Sunday school was observed with appropriate exercises in the chapel in 1923.
Preaching services have been held in the chapel during the greater part of its history. These have been conducted by pastors of neighboring churches and by students from the Hartford Theological Seminary. Some of those students in addition to their preaching on Sunday rendered helpful service by visiting the homes of the people during the week. Some of them devoted most of their summer vacations to work of this character in Elmwood.
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ELMWOOD COMMUNITY CHURCH
One student who is affectionately remembered by the older people of the community is Rev. Dr. A. Z. Conrad, now pastor of the Park Street Church in Boston, recognized as one of the most prominent and successful preachers in our country at the present day. Another whose work at Elmwood is most grate- fully remembered is Rev. Harry S. Bissell, who afterwards for many years was a successful missionary of the American Board of Foreign Missions in Ahmedneggar, India and who died while in service there. The people of the Congregational church in West Hartford and of the Elmwood Chapel made generous contributions to his financial support in that field. Rev. C. B. Olds, another student of the Theological Seminary who rendered service at Elmwood, became a missionary in Japan. Rev. William F. English, who had charge of the work at Elmwood later, became a professor in the Chicago Theological Seminary.
Rev. James R. Carter was called to preach at Elmwood at a later date and was recognized as an assistant pastor of the Congregational Church at West Hartford, receiving a portion of his salary from that Church. He was successful in his work and was greatly interested in the promotion of the highest interests of the people. He resigned to accept the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Ellington, Conn.
Prof. W. A. J. Myers of the Hartford School of Religious
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
Pedagogy became deeply interested in the work after Mr. Carter's departure, and rendered fine service there. He was convinced that there should be some sort of a permanent religious organization in that section of West Hartford, and in response to his suggestions and efforts a Community Church was organized on March 4, 1921, and Rev. James F. English was called to serve as pastor. Hiram Hurlburt and Thomas C. Brown were elected deacons, William Acker, clerk, and William B. Johnson, treasurer.
Shortly after the formation of the church some of the most interested members began to give serious consideration to the matter of securing a church building. One day as Rev. Mr. English, Mrs. W. H. Mueller, William Acker, William B. Johnson, and A. W. Bradley were holding a conference in reference to the interests of the church, they spoke of the need of such a building and the course to be pursued in securing funds, when Mrs. Mueller suggested that they might start a movement then and there, and proposed to contribute twenty-five cents, all the money which she had with her at the time, as the nucleus of a building fund. From that small beginning the securing of funds went forward successfully, and a site was purchased on Newington Road for the new church.
Mr. English carried forward the work and interests of the church in a spirit of earnest devotion and with marked success until 1925, when he resigned to accept a call to the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Putnam, Conn. He was suc- ceeded by Rev. Charles K. Tracy, who came from a successful pastorate in the Congregational Church in Collinsville and became pastor of the Elmwood Church on Feb. 23d, 1926. Under his pastorate a church building has been erected at a cost of $82,000, with ample provisions for auditorium and conference room and fine accomodations for social and recrea- tional purposes. The church lot has a frontage of 176 feet.
The membership of the church is 301, with flourishing active organizations, including a Sunday school of 225 members, a Men's Club, a Young People's Society and a Missionary Circle.
The Church still retains possession of the chapel and lot on the corner of New Britain Avenue and Grove Street.
The officers at the present time are: clerk, William Mueller; treasurer, Wallace B. Goodwin; deacons, Thomas C. Brown, Henry A. Wolcott, John M. Shaw, William J. Craig, and Harold D. Holden.
The Swedish Methodist Church. This church, which had its first location in Hartford on Hungerford Street, was organ- ized September 3, 1895, with twenty members. The first pastor was Rev. August Syren.
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
In 1920 the present church building, located on the corner of the Boulevard and Lockwood Terrace, was built under direction of a building committee consisting of J. A. Berg, Otto Hjerpe, Herman Engstrom, Simeon Anderson, Herman Lindh, and Albine Engstrom. The cost of the building was $58,900.
The church has had ten pastors to date (1929), changes having been made from time to time in accordance with the custom of the Methodist denomination. The present pastor is Rev. Ludwig Pehrson and the present membership is one hundred fifty-one.
St. John's Episcopal Church. St. John's Church was origin- ally located in Hartford. It was an offshoot of Christ Church, and was organized in 1841 with thirty-seven members. Among those who were interested and influential in the movement were William T. Lee of the firm of Lee & Butler, founders of the present Sisson Drug Company, and Lemuel Humphrey of the well known grocery firm of Humphrey & Seyms.
Ground was purchased as a site for a church building on the east side of Main Street, just south of Wadsworth Atheneum. The first rector was Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, who in later years became Bishop of Western New York. Rev. E. A. Wash- burn, Rev. William Crosswell D. Doane, Rev. Lawrence H. Mills, Rev. Dr. Watson Meir Smith, and Rev. A. Douglas Miller served successively as rectors until 1882. During an interim between the terms of service of Rev. Mr. Miller and Rev. Dr. Smith, Rev. Francis Goodwin of Hartford had charge of the services for eight months. Rev. J. W. Bradin became rector in 1882 and continued until 1918.
In 1864 the Church voted to accept, as a mission, the work which had been organized by the rector in the South Meadows, which was generously supported by Mrs. Samuel Colt, and Rev. H. W. Nelson was called to serve as assistant rector. That mission later developed into the Church of The Good Shepherd. St John's Episcopal Church of East Hartford also began as a mis- sion of St. John's Church of Hartford.
About 1888, the Church felt called upon to give serious con- sideration to the question of a change of location. It was felt that it might be an advantage to remove to some location in the western part of the city. When plans for the erection of the Morgan Memorial were under consideration, it was felt by many that the building should be in close proximity to the Wadsworth Atheneum, and in November, 1905, the St. John's Church pro- perty was sold for $70,000, but the Church was permitted to re- tain the use of it until 1907.
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While the question of the choice of a new site was under consideration, Mr. John O. Enders and his brother, Thomas B. Enders, offered to give a site in West Hartford on the south side of Farmington Avenue just west of the city line. This generous offer was accepted and a building was erected and consecrated in 1909. For the two years prior to that event the church services were held in the Chapter House of the King's Daughters on South Prospect Avenue.
E
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
A fine parish house was added in 1915 and a large addition was made to the church in 1928 and dedicated with impressive and appropriate services on Sunday, December 9, 1928. Rev. Dr. Campion E. Acheson, Bishop of Connecticut, and Rev. Dr. Henry B. Washburn, Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass., having important parts in the service. Rev. William T. Hooper, D.D., became associate rector of the church in July 1917, and in July 1918 was made rector of the Church. Mr. Bradin became Rector Emeritus in July 1, 1918, and died De- cember 12, 1923. At the present time Rev. Walter H. Gray, B.D. is Assistant Rector.
Among the prominent laymen who have rendered conspicu- ous service in the interests of the church, in addition to those al- ready mentioned in connection with its organization, are the fol- lowing: Edwin Taylor, L. J. Hendee, Henry Pease, George W. Woolley, James A. Smith, Judge Pardee, Shiras Morris.
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The brief historical sketch of the church prepared by the Junior Warden in 1922 concludes with these words: "And now in these happy days of Mr. Hooper's active rectorship under his inspiring leadership with a past worthy of being lived up to, may we not with pardonable pride think that this is a grand old parish to belong to."
The Park Street Chapel. The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Emmanuel Church of Hartford, of which Rev. Julius Hulteen, B.D., is pastor, maintains a Sunday school and other branches of their work in a chapel located on the south side of Park Street just east of Oakwood Avenue.
This Sunday school was organized April 5, 1914, with a membership of thirty-three. The chapel was built in 1921 at a cost of $10,700. The present membership of the Sunday school is one hundred fifty-nine. The leaders of the school from the beginning, in succession have been Gottfried Swenson, Frank J. Wilson, Frederick Ellstrom, Gustaf L. Carlson, Bert W. Lind- berg, and Lennart Morander, the present leader.
The chapel is much in use by the ladies for their meetings, by the Boy Scout Troop No. 29, and during the month of July each year by a vacation school. This is one of the vigorous, efficient organizations of the community for the prosecution of church work.
ST. BRIDGET'S CHURCH, ELMWOOD
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
St. Bridget's Church. St. Bridget's Church, Elmwood, was formed as a mission unit of St. Laurence O'Toole's parish, Hart- ford, in January 1917. Services were held in the beginning in the New Departure Manufacturing Co. auditorium. Land was purchased on New Britain Avenue, and the erection of a church began in the spring of 1918. September 16th, 1918, the first Catholic church in West Hartford was completed and dedicated by Rt. Rev. John J. Nilan, Bishop of the Diocese.
August 4th, 1919, St. Bridget's was set off from St. Lau- rence O'Toole's and the corporation of St. Bridget's Diocesan Catholic Corporation of West Hartford was formed with Rev. William F. Odell, the first resident Pastor, and William H. Hoye and Richard J. Dillon the lay members of the Corporation.
The parish numbered at its foundation about 100 adults. and 50 children. Today, in 1928, there are 350 adult communi- cants and 150 children in the Sunday school classes.
This church under the efficient leadership of Father William F. Odell has become an influential and important factor in the religious life of the community and is destined to grow and pros- per as the community continues to increase in population and activities.
The Church of St. Thomas the Apostle. The parish of St. Thomas the Apostle was founded November 4, 1920, and Rev. John F. Callahan was appointed its first pastor.
The first mass was celebrated in a temporary structure erected in seven days - at the corner of Quaker Lane and the Boulevard, on Sunday, November 11, 1920. No formal blessing or blessings accompanied the first mass, which was read by Father Callahan. The temporary structure had sittings for 250, and was filled to overflowing.
The first lay trustees of the parish were Mr. Michael McCor- mick and William Costello. The parish was legally incorporated under the laws of the State as "The Church of St. Thomas the Apostle Corporation, West Hartford."
The first census of the parish revealed 600 souls, men, wo- men, and children.
On this site the parish held Divine Worship until it moved on November 7th, 1926, to its present and permanent location on Farmington Avenue and Dover Road. Here a stone church, Gothic in design, will be erected, of which the founda- tion and basement are already constructed and are serving for the celebration of mass. The present census of the parish reveals about 1500 souls.
The prosperous history of this church thus far, its favorable location, with the completion of its edifice gives promise of its becoming a very large and influential organization under the leadership of Father Callahan, now assisted by Rev. James E. Gorman.
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
SCHOOLS
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The earliest extant records of the Ecclesiastical Society re- specting public schools are for the year 1736. At a meeting of the Society on the eighth day of December of that year, it was voted "That school be kept this year six months by a Master or Masters, and three months by a Dame or Dames, and that it be set up and ordered by the committee chosen for this year, and that the said committee shall, if they think best, set up a school again some time in October next, for the next year, by a Master or Masters." Apparently this vote was, in substance, a repeti- tion of action taken by the people annually, rather than a vote establishing schools for the first time. The Committee to whom the duty of "setting up and ordering" the school was assigned consisted of Isaac Goodwin, Stephen Hosmer, Jonathan Sedg- wick, John Seymour, and John Ensign, representatives of some of the most prominent families in the early history of the West Division.
In 1745 the Society voted "to build three new schoolhouses to take the place of the old ones." The building committee, Timothy Seymour, Joseph Skinner, Jacob Kellogg, John Whitman, Henry Brace, Gideon Butler, Timothy Skinner, Samuel Wells, and Thomas Shepard, was authorized to dispose of the old schoolhouses. There is mention in the records of the destruction by fire of the Old North School, and at a meeting of the Society held after the new schoolhouses had been built, a special commit- tee was appointed to make inquiry as to what disposition had been made of the Old South School.
From these records it is apparent that in 1745 there were old schoolhouses which must have been built and in which schools were held at a much earlier date than 1736. It is also fair to con- clude that the new schoolhouses built in 1745 were located one at the north end of the parish and another at the south end where the old schoolhouses had been, and the third undoubtedly at the center. The people had built their homes, to a large ex- tent, in the central part of the so called "long sections," and schoolhouses located in this way from north to south, would best accommodate the families having children to attend school.
We do not know accurately about the character and general appearance of those school buildings, but the following repre- sentations of schoolhouses that were in existence in the West Division a hundred years ago, and which were then considered old, may serve to give us a good idea of the buildings erected in 1745, if indeed they may not be actual representations of those buildings.
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
The interior arrangement of most of the early buildings was of one type. The single outside door at one end, or in one corner of the building, opened into a small room called an entry, where the boys and girls left their outer garments, caps, hoods, and
CENTER SCHOOL, PROBABLY BUILT IN 1745
tippets or scarfs, and where the common water pail and dipper rested on a shelf when not in use. Opening out of this entry was a dark room where some of the wood for the fire was stored, although the greater part of it, especially at the beginning of the school year, was piled up around the schoolhouse. From the entry usually a single door opened into the schoolroom.
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NORTH SCHOOL, PROBABLY BUILT IN 1745
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
The teacher's desk and chair were on a high platform on one side of the room. The stove was sometimes in one corner, some- times in the middle of the room, with the stove-pipe suspended under the ceiling and extending across to the hole in the chimney. The older scholars sat on benches facing the walls. Slanting shelves attached to the walls served as desks. The younger children sat on smaller benches in the middle of the room. They
DISTRICT SCHOOLROOM
had no need of desks. The only blackboard often consisted of a plain board, three or four feet long, which was painted black. It was portable, and when not in use was stowed away in some corner of the room. When in use for a recitation by an arith- metic class, it was hung on a peg or nail in the front of the room, and removed at the close of the recitation.
In 1780 there were five schoolhouses on or near the Main Street. In addition to the three already named - the North, Center, and South schools - there was one called the South Middle School, located on the south side of the South Middle Road to Farmington, just east of the main street, near what is now known as Thomson's Corner. It was sometimes called the Popple School because of a number of poplar trees standing in that locality.
The other, or fifth school, was the Chestnut Hill School. Its location is not certainly known, but it is fair to assume that it was about midway between the North School and the Center School, and on or near a hill. The Committee having charge of that school at one time was John Whitman, Jun. and the house now owned and occupied by Mr. Frederick E. Duffy was for many
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
years a Whitman homestead. The schoolhouse may have been near the Whitman home. If so, it would be about midway between the North and Center schoolhouses, and on a slight elevation, which might have been called Chestnut Hill. More- over, Mr. Duffy has informed me that at one time, soon after he bought the farm, in ploughing the field south of his home, he turned up, at a point near the street, a quantity of brick, which seemed to indicate that a small building had some time been located there.
The custom prevailed for many years of employing a male teacher or "master" to keep school for the long winter term of six months and a female teacher or "dame" to keep the school for the summer term of three months. During the long fall and win- ter term of six months, it was considered necessary to have a man to manage the big boys and girls; but a woman, and some- times one of the older girls who had been a scholar during the winter term, was considered satisfactory as a teacher of the small- er children during the summer term. There was also a financial consideration, for while male teachers sometimes received as high wages as twenty-five dollars a month, women teachers could be hired at twelve dollars a month. In both cases the teach- er often had the duty and privilege of building the fires and sweep- ing out the schoolroom.
The masters who taught in the winter were sometimes men who pursued other occupations in the summer. Sometimes they were college students who were granted leave of absence for a time in order that they might earn money for the payment of their college expenses. The male teachers often received as a part of their compensation free board, going from home to home, "or boarding round," dividing the time according to the number of scholars in each home. The farmers desired to have the school- master "fare well," and so they often planned to kill their hogs just before the time of his arrival at their homes, that he might have fresh pork to eat. Whittier, in Snowbound, has given a fine portraiture of such a schoolmaster boarding in one of the homes of the district where he was teaching.
Brisk wielder of the birch and rule, The master of the district school Held at the fire his favored place. Its warm glow lit a laughing face, Fresh hued and fair, where scarce appeared The uncertain prophecy of beard. He teased the mitten-blinded cat, Played cross-pins on my uncle's hat, Sang songs, and told us what befalls In classic Dartmouth's College halls.
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
The following account of expenditures for the winter term of the Prospect Hill School in 1853-4 is a good representation of the usual expenses of the various public schools during that per- iod of their history. The teacher in charge at that time was Gilman H. Tucker from New Hampshire, a student at Dart- mouth College on leave of absence. He "boarded round" at the homes of his scholars but spent the week-ends at our home, as my father was the District Committee. Later in life Mr. Tucker served for many years as secretary of the American Book Company in New York City.
Prospect Hill School District, c/o Edwin Hall, Committee, Dr. 1853 Oct. 28 To cash paid for glass and putty $0.31
Nov. 3 To cash paid for lock for desk. . 33
Nov. 11 To cash paid for register . . 33
Nov. 11 To cash paid for latch for door. .08
Nov. 11 To cash paid for extra putty ..
. 06
Nov. 11 To cash paid for setting glass and banking school-
house .75
Nov. 14 To cash paid for broom .
. 16
Nov. 14 To cash paid for nails and matches . .
. 06
Dec. 8 To cash paid for 3 cords of wood
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