USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Rockford > Golden anniversary exercises, historical record and manual of the Second Congregational church, Rockford, Illinois. November 7, 1849. November 7, 1899 > Part 5
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his company was to gain the strongest argument for the immortality of the soul." And the poet, Lowell, learning in Florence that his great friend, the illustrious naturalist, was dead, wove out of sorrow and love a texture of richest wisdom, through which runs the golden hope of immortality. Na- ture rebels at such costly waste as the destruction of her most precious material.
And he is sure to be Somehow, somewhere, imperishable as He, Not with his essence mystically combined As some high spirits long, but whole and free, A perfected and conscious Agassiz.
If there be no life beyond this, man is thoroughly cheated. He be- holds the pine tree fulfilling the end of its being, reaching its perfection on earth. He sees the bird contentedly building her nest or joyously pouring forth her matin song, with no heed or dream of higher realms. But na- ture has not been so kind to him if death is final extinction. He hears the mysterious raptures of music, which, as Dr. Channing and others have felt, sometimes lift us almost into consciousness of immortality. And was music ordained for his delusion ? Some of us know what a lover of good music he was and how much he prized the musical service of the sanctuary, how carefully and intelligently he prepared for it and how greatly he valued those who assisted in the service ! We doubt not that to-day he hears
"That undisturbed song of pure consent, Aye sung before the sapphire-colored tlirone To Hini who sits thereon, With saintly shout and solemn jubilee; Where the bright Seraphim in burning row Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow, And the cherubic host in thousand quires Touch their immortal harps of golden wires."
And we also believe that he who had seen so much of the beauty of earth, who had traveled far and wide amid the noble sceneries of the great west, who had been one of the first to explore the wonders of the Yellow- stone Valley, who had wandered in the Old World by far-famed rivers and mountains, who had been moved by historical battlefields, who had been thrilled by great memories in Egypt and Palestine, in Greece and Italy, who had loved the companionship of great books and of great and heroic men, is now rejoicing in the eternal fields
" Mid solenin troops and sweet societies That sing, and singing in their glory miove And wipe the tears forever from his eyes."
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There is one vital and in this case beautiful part of a man's best and fullest life which has not yet been mentioned. Early in his secretaryship in New York my brother was married to Miss Mary Dewey Jones of Sara- toga, whose father had an important influence over the beginning of Walter's Christian life. You well know how happy and helpful this marriage was, and how dear to him and to the Rockford and Greenwich congregations were his beautiful wife and five beautiful children ! The home, with as sweet affections and divine schooling of the higher nature, was a sphere wherein your pastor and his dearly beloved wife shone together, observed and blessed by a multitude. To his children my brother was not only re- markably devoted but more remarkably just, and they gave to him an affec- tionate loyalty. His noble and beneficent career cannot be understood in its completeness, without our entering, if only for a moment, the sanctuary of his home, which enclosed the sweetest joys of his experience.
The first time I ever saw the Falls of Niagara was in 1867, when Walter Barrows and I were on our way from Olivet to the Yale Theologi- cal Seminary. I remember that we climbed the Tower which was then on Goat Island, and there stood by us, looking down on that supremely beauti- ful scene, Prof. Edwards A. Park of Andover. He was then venerable as well as venerated, and Walter seemed only a beautiful youth by his side. It is one of the strange providences that the venerable man should still be living in the dignity of more than ninety years and that the princely youth has been removed in his golden prime. But Christian faith can say, " It is better since it is God's will for him to depart and be with Christ," and in that life celestial and to be with so many whom he loves and helped on earth he has doubtless for himself and in the sweet companionship of others learned that what he preached on earth is gloriously and everlastingly true.
Standing by the coffin of his brother, the most brilliant agnostic of our generation said, " Life is a narrow vale betwixt the cold and barren peaks of two eternities." Standing here, as it were, by the grave of my brother, let me say that I have no such estimate of life. It may be a narrow vale between two eternities, but looking toward the one eternity the Christian heart exclaims, " My Father from whom I come," and looking toward the other, " My Redeemer to whom I go !" As the tearful mourners gathered - about the bed which was to be the meeting place of Walter Barrows with his Savior, and when with the last breath gone out, we felt the full force of our sorrow, we confronted not hopelessness but the bright angel of assur-
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ance, pointing with shining and steady finger toward " the Land of Pure Delight, where saints immortal reign."
The beautiful island in the Huron waters where he took his last look of sun and sky, of forest and shining lake, was very dear to him and it has become sacred to us. He greatly loved the bright, bracing air, which again and again had brought new life to his overworked body. His early enthu- siasm for adventure and for Indian stories and for the life of the woods is known to his brothers and sister. One of his favorite poems in boyhood was Longfellow's Hiawatha, much of which he learned by heart. The Island of Mackinac was the legendary birthplace of that Indian hero, and, there for ages dwelt the Great Spirit, Gitchie Manitou, the Mighty, and when the Indian god left the island through the gateway of Arched Rock, the legend tells us that the island broke its heart, and across its surface to- day there is a great break in the rocky soil. The fairy isle which Walter loved is girdled with memories of two hundred years of history, reaching back to the early French explorers. La Salle had pushed his adventurous bark by these shores and three miles away on the northern peninsula is buried the body of Father Marquette. There the great chief Pontiac had gathered his warriors in his continental conspiracy. This was the rendez- vous of the fur traders, and there were laid the foundations of the fortune made by the greatest of New York merchants of the early part of the cen- tury. The flags of three nations had floated there at different periods. These descriptions may suggest some of the reasons why the islands pleased the imagination and drew the affections of your former pastor, and I am very glad that from so dear and beautiful a place the beautiful spirit ascen- ded into the lucid and unwasting spheres, "into the ampler ether and diviner air " of the world on high. Near the Seven Pines cottage is Sun- set Rock, where Walter with his dear wife and children used often to go at the closing hour of the day, and where hymns were sung as the heavens were lit up with unusual splendor, great bergs of pearl or bars of crimson illuminating the daffodil skies. And there are those who loved him in Mackinac who have sat there in recent weeks, as the sun went down, and recalled the words of Milton's Lycidas-
"So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, And yet anon repairs his drooping lread, And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore Flames in the forehead of the morning sky. So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, Through the dear might of Him who walked the waves, Where other groves and other streams along,
With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,
. And hears the unexpressive nuptial song.
In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love."
Hist. Rec. 7.
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Memory is sweet, but often it is mingled with deep sorrow. Hope, to us who struggle on amid the trials and griefs of life, is the brightest angel. Hope fills with light the home, which has been made desolate. Hope and loving service will banish the shadows of our grief or gild them with a spiritual splendor. All who knew and loved him stand on the sacred path where Hope and Memory meet. Let us not fail to get the soul-quicken- ing which should come to us from such a brave, modest, just, fruitful, un- selfish, Christian life as that of Walter Manning Barrows. He went down into the river of death trusting in the sure promises of God, having no doubt, as he said to me, of the Savior's interest in him. Had he been able in his last moments to speak what was in his heart he might well have spoken, had he not been too modest to speak of himself, what Bunyan puts into the mouth of Mr. Valiant for truth as he went down into the dark waters : " When he understood it (that his summons had come) he called his friends and told them of it. . Then,' said he, . I am going to my fathers ; and though with great difficulty I got hither, yet I do not repent me of the trouble I have been at to arrived where I am. My sword I give to him who shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him who can get them. My marks and scars I carry with me to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles who will now be my Redeemer.' When the day that he was to go hence was come, many accompanied him to the river side, into which as he went he said, 'Grave, where is thy victory ? ' So he passed over and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side."
GREETINGS FROM THE MOTHER CHURCH, BY FREDERICK HARLAN BODMAN, PASTOR FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
I T is my pleasant duty to convey to you the greetings of the Mother Church. I wish to assure you of her deep interest in this occasion. The feeling of joy and exultation which reigns in you reigns in her. It is with pride that she contemplates you on this your fiftieth birthday. It is with pride that she surveys your varied activities and contemplates your
achievements. But like the mother of young Macaulay who, however much she secretly admired the quality of his precocious effusions, always tempered the admiration which she expressed to him lest he should assume that he had already attained, we feel that we would not be doing our full duty by you, if we allowed you to think that you can safely retire upon your reputation. We will indulge you in a three days' jubilee, but after it is over, we would like to see you gather yourself together and go right in for another half century of work that will eclipse that just drawing to a close.
I remarked that we contemplated you with pride. You will better ap- preciate what was meant, when I remind you that a person seldom does anything notable in this world but what people begin to study him in the light of his origin. They search in his father and in his mother for some- thing that will explain adequately what they found in him. Now we of the East Side are just willing enough to believe that when they begin to study you in the light of your origin. that when they begin to look around for something to explain your enterprise and push, your skill and success, that when they begin to search for something that will fully account for what they found in you, they will find it in us. It is with pride that we con- template you !
Our message to-night is one of hopeful prophecy. The best is yet to be. The future you may face, now you have proved the past.
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GREETINGS FROM THE SISTER CHURCHES, BY ROBERT HENRY POOLEY, PASTOR COURT STREET METHODIST CHURCH.
I T affords me much pleasure upon this high anniversary of the Second Congregational Church to bear you the cordial greetings from the sis- ter churches of Rockford. I believe in various religious denomina- tions to correspond to the multiplicity of tastes and ideas of humanity. I am not praying for the organic union of Christendom. The kingdom of God is an organism and is divine, but the church is an institution and is nine-tenths human. The former is vastly more essential than the latter. Every church may hope to be in the kingdom of God as the many branches center in the tree's trunk. The branches harmonize only in their vital union in the trunk. So with the various churches, they are sisterly, and working out their divine mission by abiding in Christ -God's invisable, vital, earthly kingdom.
Never an organic unity but always a spiritual unity is the right idea of the modern church. The churches are sisterly because they have one common head and vital center. Christ is the bond of union. Things rela- ted to the same thing are related to each other, so that the several denomi- nations bear a sisterly relation and feeling to one another. They are true to Christ when they rejoice in one another's success, and a hearty rivalry may be charitable, generous and kind, while all " desire earnestly the best gifts."
The several denominations are coming nearer together in thought each year, and very much nearer together in feeling and sympathy, and over this we rejoice. " Behold how good and how pleasant it is for breth- ren to dwell together in unity." Perhaps our noble civilization is marked by nothing so strongly as by the growing sympathy between the one hun- dred different denominations of Christendom. All forms of church polity and ecclesiasticism are ephemeral, and are only as the scaffolding around a cathedral. The real church is always within-it is souls and saints.
To-day the thirty churches of Rockford rejoice with the splendid Second Congregational church upon the noble completion of her semi-cen- tennial achievement. Her career has been popular, brave, aggressive and patriotic, commanding respect, devotion and love. We can only wish you a vigorous continuance of your magnificent record, moving on in the van toward the Kingdom of God which is the goal of all history, the "One far off divine event to which the whole creation moves."
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LANSING PORTER, PASTOR 1849 TO 1853. MRS. LANSING PORTER.
HISTORICAL SKETCH . OF SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AND SOCIETY, ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS.
WRITTEN FOR THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION BY DEACON RUSSELL J. HAZLETT.
I N the preparation and presentation of this sketch I have been, and am, burdened with an abiding conviction, freely expressed to the com- mittee, that this service should fall to the lot of some one of the older members of the church; some one who has been in personal touch with all or at least the greater part of its history and who has felt in his own heart the thrill and pulsations of the life and growth of the organization.
With the fortieth anniversary still fresh in the memory of most of those present, with sketches of the history of the church published in each of the various Church Manuals and with the records of the fiftieth anniversary of the First Church current among us, what I present upon this occasion must of necessity be largely in the nature of repetition, or at the best "an old story in a new dress."
There is always more or less of charm about the beginnings of things. To me one of the charms of the Old Book is that its opening words are, "In the beginning." So if I shall go somewhat more into detail as to the organization of the church than have some who have preceded me, I deem it hardly necessary to ask your pardon.
To think of the beginnings of Congregationalism in Rockford is, al- most instinctively, to think of the beginnings of Rockford itself, for the two were almost contemporaneous. We are told that the arrival of German- icus Kent and Thatcher Blake in August of 1834 marks the first settle- ment of "Midway" afterward known as Rockford. Two and a half years later, in February 1837, Rev. John Morrill and family arrived at the new settlement from New England. He found here a Methodist "Class" but no church organization. On May 5th, 1837, less than ninety days after his arrival, he was instrumental in organizing a Congregational Church
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with eight members, three men and five women, of which he was chosen pastor. How much we are indebted to the Morrill family (the Rev. John and his relatives) may be inferred from the fact that five out of the eight original members of the First Church were Morrills.
The new organization soon found itself comfortably domiciled in a large barn on the East side belonging to Mr. Daniel S. Haight situated near what is now the corner of East State and Kishwaukee Streets, and in this commodious temple laid the foundation of that Christian structure which has been such a potent factor in moulding the character and life of this city. A letter before me from the daughter of Mr. Morrill says "The nearest co-laborers in the Congregational or Presbyterian denominations were Mr. Haggard of Linden on the south, Mr. Clark at Elgin on the east, Mr. Kent of Galena on the west and none north in the state. The nearest post office was Chicago." Such was the beginning of Congregationalism in Rockford. During the year 1837 the membership was increased to nineteen, among the accessions being Mrs. Mary Preston, now Mrs. Sel- don M. Church, one of the oldest and most respected members of this com- munion and so far as I can learn, the only surviving member of the first year of the church.
In the summer of 1839, the membership having increased to upwards of thirty, largely from the incoming of people from the East, especially New England, bringing with them church letters, it was decided to build a house of worship, and the larger part of the population being upon the west side of the river, a location was selected at about what is now the corner of South Church and Green Streets. Through the influence of German- icus Kent, who was one of the first two settlers here, friends in New York were induced to furnish part of the money to build the church. The build- ing was erected under the supervision of Kent and Brinkerhoff, who fur- nished the lot and retained the title. The builders, we are told, went into the surrounding forest and cut the timber with their own hands.
This little wooden structure served as a house of worship until 1845; when it was decided to build a brick church on the east side, which was done at a cost of about eight thousand dollars and the little frame church was left unoccupied. The brick church was located where the East Side Engine House now stands.
Under the successive pastorates of Rev. John Morrill, Rev. Cyrus Watson, Rev. Wm. S. Curtis, Rev. Oliver W. Norton, Rev. Lansing
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Porter and Rev. Lewis H. Loss the young church continued to grow and prosper until in October, 1849, we find it with a total enrollment of 287 names.
At this point in the history of Rockford Congregationalism we come to a fork in the road. Forty-three members, among them several of the strongest men and women in the church, believing the time had come when Rockford could support two Congregational churches, and no doubt tired of tramping across the uncanny old bridge which had superceded the ferryboat, asked for letters of dismission that they might form the Sec- ond Congregational Church. Prominent among those who signed the ap- plication for letters were Thos. D. Robertson, Mr. and Mrs. G. A. Sanford, Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Dickerman and Mr. and Mrs. David D. Alling, all of whom have been so closely identified with the growth and prosperity of this church.
Earnest and emphatic was the declaration of the mother church that "we consider such a movement premature and uncalled for at this time." But kindly and loving was her benediction when she found that the chil- dren were determined to go.
Rev. Lansing Porter, who from February, 1844, to April, 1846, had been pastor of the First Church, seems to have been, at least tacitly, agreed upon as the pastor of the new church, for at the first meeting " held at the school-house in West Rockford, on Tuesday, the 30th day of October, 1849, for the taking of the proper measures for the formation of a new church in "Rockford, Rev. L. Porter was called to the chair and W. A. Dickerman was appointed clerk." At this preliminary meeting a committee of three, consisting of Benjamin A. Rose, Dexter G. Clark and T. D. Robertson, were appointed to draft "Articles of Faith, Covenant and Rules of Govern- ment." A committee, consisting of Samuel J. Russell, W. A. Dickerman and Robert Clow, was appointed to arrange for the public organization of the proposed church. On Wednesday, November 7th, 1849, an adjourned meeting was held and forty-one persons holding letters from the First Con- gregational Church of Rockford were present and united in forming the church and adopting Articles of Faith, Covenant and Rules of Government.
[For names of the forty-one Charter Members from the First Church above referred to and statement of those still living, see paper on "Our Charter Mem bers."}
Besides the forty-one from the First Church there were received at this first meeting by letter, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Porter, from First Con
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gregational Church, of Lockport, Illinois, Anor and Eliza Woodruff, from North Congregational Church, Springfield, Mass., Jas. Porter from the kirk of Gamarie, Scotland, and Barbary Porter, his wife, from the kirk of Aberdeen, Scotland. Also Ebenezer Hyde, on confession of faith. This makes forty-seven members present at this organization meeting. It seems prophetic of the wide sweep of this church's influence that at this first meet- ing they should receive members from two towns in Illinois, from New England and from across the ocean. Provision was made for two deacons, one to be elected each year after the first year. Rial K. Town and Alonzo Gorham were elected deacons. They cast lots to see who should serve for two years and the lot fell upon Alonzo Gorham, and he was declared elected for two years and Rial K. Town for one year. T. D. Robertson was the first Clerk and Treasurer, the two offices being combined in the earlier years of the church. Benjamin A. Rose and Samuel J. Russell were chosen mem- bers of the Prudential Committee and G. A. Sanford, W. A. Dickerman and Dexter G. Clark appointed Assessment Committee to estimate the amount to be paid by each member. The Prayer Meeting was fixed for Thursday evening. We see the missionary spirit for which this church has been famous manifesting itself at this first meeting in the adoption of the following :
"Resolved, that a monthly collection be taken up on the first Sabbath of each month, at the public service of the church, to be applied alternately to the support of Home and Foreign Missions."
As has already been noted, Articles of Faith, By-laws, &c., were adopted at this meeting. We could hardly gather a better idea of the singleness of thought, the purity of purpose and the unflinching devotion to Christian duty of these "Fathers and Mothers in Israel " than by carefully considering their first "Covenant," to which all members were asked to assent. Here it is :
" Believing it to be your duty to profess Christ before men, you do now in the presence of God and this assembly seriously and deliberately avouch the Lord Jehovah, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, to be your God and portion forever. You do covenant with Almighty God and with this church to consecrate yourselves, your influence and your possess- ions to the service of Him who bought you with his blood ; to watch over each other in Christian love ; to submit to all the rules and discipline formed in accordance with the Articles of this Church and with the precepts of the Gospel; to keep holy the Sabbath day by devoting the whole of the time to
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the worship of God and religious improvement; to maintain habitually private and social prayer and if intrusted with the charge of a family to maintain daily family worship; to abstain from the use and traffic in intoxicating drinks ; to labor and pray for the purity, peace and extension of Zion and to honor our high and holy vocation by lives of piety toward God and benevolence toward our fellow men. All this you promise and engage."
Evidently to the founders of this church, membership in the Church of Christ meant something practical, and earnest and very sacred.
On Wednesday, November 14th, 1849, at 2 o'clock p. m. occurred the public organization of the church by a Council organized as follows :
Rev. Hutchins Taylor, Rockford, Moderator.
Rev. R. M. Pearson, Grand De Tour, Scribe .-
Rev. Dexter Clary, Beloit.
Rev. Lewis Benedict, Rockton.
Mr. Horace Hobart, delegate from Beloit.
After prayer by Rev. H. Taylor, sermon by Rev. L. Benedict, address to the church and deacons by Rev. D. Clary, and the reading of the Articles of Faith and Covenant which were assented to, the Second Con- gregational Church of Rockford was declared duly organized. November 29th, of that year, a resolution was passed asking admission to the Winne- bago and Ogle County Association ; G. A. Sanford was chosen a delegate, and this church took her place among the sisterhood of churches and began the career which has been in many respects so remarkable and so inspiring.
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