USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume I > Part 19
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first twenty-three years of its life, and not only was the prime pro- moter of the society into one of the most flourishing in the north- west, but became a leading figure of his denomination at large. He was especially opposed to the proposed secession from the general conference of the church, because it refused to consider slavery as a proper subject upon which to take formal action. Just before the fire the location of the church was changed from Washington street and Wabash avenue to the Olivet Presbyterian church, Wabash avenue and Fourteenth street, and Dr. Patterson severed his connec- tion with the society in 1872, a year after the union of the Second and Olivet churches. At this time it stood as one of the most active beneficiaries of the denomination in the city. For the immediate benefit of the church had been spent some $200,000, and for other purposes $150,000. The first mission Sunday school was organized and carried on for twenty-five years by members of this church, Olivet, Westminster and Lake Forest Presbyterian churches had sprung from it, and it had given paternal strength to North, Calvary and Hyde Park churches. Up to the time of the fire the Second Presbyterian church had expended about $175,000 on charities and benevolences, and it has fully maintained its reputation for generosity established early in its history.
The great fire which swept away the church, Sunday school and mission buildings of the First Presbyterian church on Wabash avenue, between Congress and Van Buren streets, caused a removal further south, and a great income of energy and Christian helpfulness. Four years after the erection of the edifice on Indiana avenue and Thirty- first street, the Forty-first Street Presbyterian church was organized and for some years was sustained by the First church.
It was in the parlors of this church that Dr. David Swing was tried by the Chicago Presbytery for heresy, with Dr. Arthur Mitchell, pastor of the church, as moderator, and Professor
DAVID L. SWING. Francis L. Patton, who held the chair of theology at the Seminary of the Northwest (now McCor- mick Seminary), as prosecutor. Westminster and North Presby- terian churches had been organized by certain members of the First and Second, to accommodate the New School Presbyterians of the north side, and just before the fire they had consolidated as the Fourth church. The five years during which Dr. Swing had preached
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to the congregation of the Westminster church had been characterized by a remarkable growth and by a sustained interest in his eloquent and scholarly discourses. His popularity led to the consolidation of the two societies and although the building in which the united church worshiped was destroyed the fire, the enthusiastic supporters of Dr. Swing provided accommodations for the continuance of services at McVicker's theater. There he continued to preach for fourteen months, or until the completion of the new edifice at the corner of Rush and Superior streets, which was opened January 4, 1874.
But the extreme liberality of his teachings made it necessary for the Presbytery to take cognizance of them for the purpose of weigh- ing their orthodoxy. He was therefore arraigned before that body on April 13th of that year, a long list of specifications charging him with having abandoned the fundamental evangelical doctrines and given his support substantially to Unitarianism. The specifications were sustained by witnesses and by Professor Swing's published books and sermons. The defendant admitted the extracts from his sermons and essays, but asked the Presbytery to consider the entire essays or discourses. An attempt made by the friends of Dr. Swing to arrest the proceedings was voted down, although the final verdict of the trial, which lasted over a month, was an acquittal by a decided majority. Professor Patton announced that he would appeal from the decision of the Presbytery to the judgment of the Illinois synod, but the case never came to a re-trial, since Dr. Swing withdrew from the denomination and severed his relations with the Fourth Presby- terian church in December, 1874. The Central church was then organized, preaching was commenced in McVicker's theater in April, 1876, and in the fall of 1880 Dr Swing began his pastorate at Central Music Hall, which concluded only with his death in October, 1894. Like the trial of Dr. Thomas by the ecclesiastical authorities of the Methodist church, six years later, the proceedings against Dr. Swing were conducted without acrimony, simply in the spirit of duty to the denomination. Its spirit was well expressed in the language of Rev. William Beecher, who said he had never attended meetings of that character in which there was less unkind and ungenerous feeling.
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In his broad scholarship and polished and impressive oratory the late Dr. John H. Barrows resembled Dr. Swing, the sharp dis-
JOHN H. tinction in their careers being that the former ac-
complished a great and beneficial work within the
BARROWS. denomination, while the height of Professor Swing's fame and usefulness was reached as an independent preacher. Dr. Barrows served for more than fourteen years as pastor of the First Presbyterian church. In November, 1881, after having en- joyed a thorough theological training at Yale, Union and Andover and spent twelve years in missionary, educational and pastoral work in Kansas and Illinois, Dr. Barrows spent a year in European travel, and then as pastor of the Lawrence (Mass. ) church his remarkable eloquence and learning attracted to him the strong minds of his church in the New England states. His subsequent success in raising from the Maverick church of East Boston its crushing indebtedness called attention to his practical talents in the line of organization and administration, and had great weight in making him one of the re- ligious powers of Chicago, the west and the world. His incalculable service for the First Presbyterian church was concluded in February, 1896, his profound scholarship and nobility of character having so impressed the country that three years before retiring from that special ministry he had been chosen chairman of the general com- mittee of religious congresses of the World's Columbian Exposition. This gathering of religionists from the four quarters of the globe to compare their beliefs in a spirit of brotherly forbearance, if not of love, was largely Dr. Barrows' conception, and, aside from the pos- session of admirable traits of scholarship, charity and balance of character, it was eminently fitting that he should have the honor of organizing and conducting that great Parliament of Religions, which Max Müller pronounced "one of the most remarkable events in the history of the world." Dr. Barrows severed his connection with the First Presbyterian church to develop the two lectureships which had been established through the liberality of Mrs. Caroline E. Haskell- one providing for a course of lectures on comparative religion under the auspices of the University of Chicago and the other of a course on Christianity to be delivered in the chief cities of India. He had been delivering the university courses for two years, when lie re- signed his pastorate to give his entire time to that vast work of
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scholarship, religion and humanity. On his way to the Orient he stopped six months at Göttingen, Germany, to take advantage of the rich theological library of that city; delivered a lecture in French, while stopping in Paris, on "Religion as a Unifier of Mankind," which created a profound sensation in the gay capital, and his stay in India established his standing as one of the foremost exponents of Christianity in the world. Upon his return to this country in 1897 he delivered the Morse lectures before the Union Theological Sem- inary of New York, his "Christian Conquest of Asia". being con- sidered by theological scholars one of the great utterances of the age. Dr. Barrows held the Haskell lectureships until February, 1898, when he accepted the presidency of Oberlin College. In the work of lifting that institution to material prosperity and broadening its scope as an educator, he taxed his strength beyond endurance, and his superb career was closed by death June 3, 1902.
The Presbyterians of the west side obtained their first church in 1847 and it was established largely through the encouragement and support of the First. Thomas Cook, a member of that society, donated a lot on Des Plaines street, which was in the middle of a corn field, and the little frame building, dedicated July 4th of that year, stood there until the congregation erected a stone church on the corner of Washington boulevard and Carpenter street in 1858. The panic of 1857 threatened to crush the enterprise completely, but one of the church members saved it by mortgaging his house for $2,000 to supply the required funds. The building was afterward remodeled and improved, so that when it was sold to St. Paul's Reformed Episcopal church, in the autumn of 1877, it would compare favorably with any in the city. In May, 1878, a magnificent edifice was dedi- cated on Ashland avenue, and the Third church has continued to be perhaps the strongest Presbyterian organization on the west side. The long pastorate of Dr. Abbott E. Kittredge, who was installed about a year before the great fire, was one of the most prosperous in the history of the church. Three churches have been organized from the membership of the Third-the Reunion, Westminster and Campbell Park-and among its mission Sunday schools may be mentioned the Home, Foster and Noble Street.
The greatest claim, however, which the Third Presbyterian church has to local historic distinction is the position which a strong element
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early assumed on the question of slavery, and, with its secession, formed the First Congregational church of Chicago. The majority was marshaled in 1850, and for nearly two years thereafter, by the pastor, Rev. Lewis H. Loss, and Philo Carpenter, who for years had been a pillar of all religious movements in Chicago. He was sent as a delegate from the Third church to the Christian Anti- Slavery convention, which met in Cincinnati in 1850, and both his pastor and himself were leaders in the later movement to unite the New School Presbyterians and the Congregationalists of Illinois into an organization by which they might sever their connection with slave holders and still retain their relations with the general assembly. But all attempts at a compromise failed, and the Chicago Presbytery dropped the names of those members who had refused to abide by what they characterized as a vacillating policy of the general assembly on the slavery question.
The members who were thus severed from the Third Presbyte- rian church by the action of the presbytery and their own volition,
organized the First Congregational church May
FIRST CONGREGATION- 22, 1851, their most distinguished layman being the AL CHURCH. sturdy Philo Carpenter. A native of Massachu- setts, Mr. Carpenter had then been a resident of Chicago for twenty-three years and had amassed a fortune in busi- ness and by wise investments in real estate, the latter of which brought him a large income for years after this period. One of his purchases for which he was long ridiculed was that of a quarter section of land from the government, at $1.25 per acre, which was afterward plat- ted as Carpenter's addition and was bounded on three sides by Madi- son, Halsted and Kinzie. In his later years his property interests were largely on the west side, which partially accounted for his special interest in a Presbyterian church for that section of the city. But in his general support of religion and morality he knew no sec- tional bounds. As early as 1832 he wrote and circulated the first total abstinence pledge in Chicago; so far as known delivered in the log hut of Jesse Walker, the first temperance address in the city. and on the 19th of August, of the same year, was the organizer of the first Sunday school. He was founder of the First and Third Presbyterian churches, before he became the leader of the secession- ists from the latter, which formed the First Congregational church ;
Vol. I-13.
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three years afterward became one of the founders and first treas- urer of the Chicago Theological Seminary and, both in religious and educational matters, accomplished so much of practical and enduring value that a city cannot accord him too much honor which has al- ways been noted for "doing things" almost in a breath with their discussion.
In 1852 (the year following the organization of the First Con- gregational church from the membership of the First Presbyterian)
Plymouth Congregational church was organized.
PLYMOUTH Although both societies were offshoots of the First
CONGREGATION-
AL CHURCH. Presbyterian body, Plymouth was formed not pri- marily because of any disagreement over slavery, but on denominational points. The well-understood differences in church administration between the two sects caused the withdrawal of a number of Congregationalists who had been worshiping at the First Presbyterian church and the organization, December 1, 1852, of the Plymouth Congregational Church of Chicago. The reasons given to the ecclesiastical council which created it include slavery as a consideration, but one only of secondary importance. The desire of Plymouth was "to be united under a church polity which would secure to the majority the right to carry their own acts of discipline and benevolence and that would be free from all ecclesiastical con- nection with the sin of slavery." On the last Sunday of the month following the organization of the society a wooden church, thirty by fifty feet, was occupied on the corner of Madison and Dearborn streets, and in the fall of 1855 was removed to the corner of Third avenue and Van Buren street, where the congregation worshiped regularly until the erection of a new edifice, corner of Wabash ave- nue and Eldredge court, in April, 1866. This remained the headquar- ters of the Plymouth Congregational church until its consolidation with the South Congregational church July 1, 1872. The latter was within a year of the age reached by Plymouth, its nucleus having been formed by various New England families living in the vicinity of the American Car Works, on the lake shore, at the foot of what is now Twenty-sixth street. Its members were, as a whole, connect- ed with that manufactory, its president and several officials being among the number. The proprietors of the company donated a lot on the northeast corner of Calumet avenue, and otherwise contributed
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so liberally toward the founding of the South church than its first building was dedicated in the fall of 1853. It contained sixty pews and was modeled generally on the architectural lines of Plymouth church. At that time the North church was nearly completed and the First Congregational was preparing to build a better house of worship on the west side; so that Congregationalism was flourishing. The history of the South and Plymouth churches run along some- what parallel lines, and in 1872 the former was occupying a large edifice at the corner of Indiana avenue and Twenty-sixth street. A majority of the members of Plymouth had moved to that vicinity and it was thought best that the two societies should unite. Both pastors, therefore, resigned their positions and a consolidation was effected July I, 1872, at which time the services of the new Plymouth church were inaugurated in the South church, under Rev. William A. Bartlett. A few months afterward the edifice formerly occupied by the Ply- mouth congregation at Wabash avenue and Eldredge court was sold to St. Mary's Catholic church. The consolidated society flourished vigorously and was in prosperous condition when Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus, in March, 1887, was called from Brown Memorial Pres- byterian church, Baltimore. He was installed on the 27th of June.
The twenty-one years which Dr. Gunsaulus has spent in Chicago have placed him in the front rank of pulpit orators, organizers, schol-
F. W. ars and litterateurs. The warm friendship which GUNSAULUS. the late Philip D. Armour conceived for him early in his career suggests a parallel between the prac- tical union of their forces in the establishment of moral and educa- tional institutions and the work carried on by Dwight L. Moody and John V. Farwell. Dr. Gunsaulus was ordained a Methodist minis- ter and preached within that denomination for four years, joining Congregationalism in 1879 and preaching in Ohio and Massachu- setts, before going to Baltimore. While pastor of Plymouth church he accomplished wonders in the development of the Armour missions and throughout his pastorate showed a strong and practical interest in the young men of the community. In one of his sermons he drew in general outlines an ideal picture of an institution which should scientifically prepare them for the practical duties of life and make special provision for those in humble circumstances but of moral, ambitious and able characters. After the discourse MI. Armour, in
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his impulsive way, met his pastor and offered to found such an in- stitute as he had pictured, provided he would assume its organization and management. This was the origin of the great Armour Insti- tute, of which Dr. Gunsaulus is still president. Notwithstanding that for years he carried the noted technical school upon his shoul- ders, at the same time he developed a church organization which be- came so strong and broad in its influences that Central church was formed in 1899 and he commenced his notable services at the Audi- torium. This great hall is also filled to overflowing and Dr. Gun- saulus, the preacher and the man, has long been called the Wendell Phillips of this day.
The establishment of the First Baptist church in Chicago in 1833 and the erection of its house of worship as the city pioneer have al-
BAPTIST ready been described. In 1844 a new building was completed on the corner of Washington and La- CHURCHES. Salle, the present site of the Chamber of Commerce, and in r868 was donated to the Second church and re-erected on the corner of Monroe and Morgan, west side. In August, 1843, thirty- four members of the First church formed the Second, being, at their own request, dismissed from the parent organization that they might take a decided stand as a religious body against the institution of slavery. About a week afterward the name was changed to the Ta- bernacle church, but in 1864, after another accession of membership from the First church, it resumed its former name. The old First church has followed the example of the pioneer body of the other denominations and become the mother of many children. The Union Park church originated in large measure with members of the first society who had removed to the west side. In November, 1857, the North Baptist church appeared as an offshoot, and in the following year members of the First who had removed to Evanston estab- lished a society in that village. In 1864 the Indiana Avenue Baptist church sprung from a union of membership of the First and Wabash avenue churches, and in 1868 a large delegation was sent out by let- ter from the mother church to organize the University Place society. In 1868 the Chamber of Commerce offered $65,000 for the site of the First Baptist church, corner of Washington and LaSalle streets. The offer was accepted and of that sum $25,000 was donated to the following churches, which had been formed in whole or in part from
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the membership of the First: Second church ( then in process of formation in the west division of the city), building and fixtures of the former house of worship, $10,000; North Baptist, $6,500; Union Park, $4,000; Berean, $1,000; Olivet (colored), $500. About one-half the cash remaining in the church treasury was devoted to the purchase of the new site on Wabash avenue south of Hubbard court, and in March, 1866, its great building was dedicated. It cost $175,000, seated 1,500 people and was then the largest Protestant church in the west. In this massive and elegant house of worship, in May, 1867, were held various anniversary meetings of the local Baptist churches, making it especially a striking evidence of the sub- stantial standing of the denomination. Although it escaped the great fire, it was laid low by the conflagration of 1874, after which the society transferred its home further south to its present site, South Park avenue and Thirty-first street. The new edifice was dedicated in April, 1876.
In 1879 Dr. Lorimer was called to the First Baptist from the Tremont Temple Baptist church (of Boston), and under his eloquent and practical ministrations the society grew with almost unprecedent- ed rapidity. After the burning of the Michigan Avenue Baptist church in 1881, some two hundred and fifty of the most influential members of the First church joined the former society, and, with Dr. Lorimer as their pastor, formed a new organization, and Dr. P. S. Henson, who faithfully served the original society for so many years, assumed the pastorate. They both, however, eventually returned to the east, where Dr. Lorimer died.
In the support of city missions the First Baptist church has shown marked liberality. Among these are the Shields, on Twenty-fifth, street, near Wentworth avenue; the Bremer avenue, corner of Div- ision and Sedgwick streets; the Ward's Rolling Mills, which became an independent church; the Raymond, on Poplar avenue, near Thir- ty-first street, and the Wabash Avenue Mission, corner of Thirty- eighth street. In addition to the support of these outside enterprises connected with the denomination, with others mentioned and unmen- tioned, the First church has subscribed $100,000 toward the endow- ment of the University of Chicago.
The founding of the old Chicago University was due to Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who, as early as 1854, offered a site for that
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purpose in the southern part of the city to the First Baptist church. At first declined, his offer was accepted some two years afterward and the corner-stone of the building between Thirty-third and Thir- ty-fourth streets, was laid July 4, 1857, but the financial depression stopped the work for a time. In 1858 Dr. J. C. Burroughs resigned the pastorate of the church to accept the presidency of the prepara- tory department of the university, resigning in 1873 to become chan- cellor. The main building was completed in 1865, and Dr. Bur- roughs, Senator Douglas and William B. Ogden (the two last named as presidents of the board of trustees) made valiant efforts to float the enterprise, but its encumbrance of $320,000 was not to be lifted and the property was sold to liquidate the indebtedness in 1885. In May, 1888, the American Education Society was formed in Washing- ton and under its auspices the new university came into being largely through the munificence of John D. Rockefeller and the wonderful powers of organization, persuasion and scholarship of the late Dr. William R. Harper. But the development of the later institution belongs to the educational history of Chicago. The Baptist Theo- logical Seminary, chartered in 1865, was also connected with the old Chicago University, but in the late seventies it was removed to Mor- gan Park, a southern suburb of the city.
The Episcopalians organized in 1834, and by invitation of Rev. Jeremiah Porter, first held services in the Presbyterian church, and later the Baptists threw their house of worship
EPISCOPAL CHURCH. open to them. The Kinzies were strong Episco- palians, and John H. Kinzie fitted up a building (afterward Tippecanoe Hall) where religious services were held for some time. In 1836 he donated two lots at the corner of Cass and Illinois streets, upon which the St. James church was erected and dedicated in the following year (1837). It was a little Gothic struc- ture, sometimes called the "Kinzie church," and its chief interior attraction was a massive mahogany pulpit, whose proportions were suitable for a cathedral. In 1857 St. James erected a large and handsome building of stone, corner of Cass and Huron streets, which was not consecrated by Bishop Whitehouse until May 19, 1864, when all its indebtedness was cleared off. The church property was im- proved before the fire by the expenditure of over $100,000, but church and rectory were swept away, and it was not until four
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ycars afterward that the congregation were able to celebrate their occupancy of even a larger and handsomer building. As early as 1841 it was decided by St. James church that the Episcopalians of the south side ought to be provided with religious services, and for that purpose Trinity church was formed, the first regular house of worship being on Madison street between Clark and La Salle. The church was first occupied in 1844. In 1850 the Church of the Stone ment was organized by the west siders, at Randolph and Canal streets, and in the following year Grace church was formed from the mem- bership of St. James. Rev. Dr. Clinton Locke became its rector in 1859 and served until several years before his death in 1904, which constituted one of the longest pastorates in the religious history of Chicago. Steps were early taken looking to the founding of an Episcopal cathedral, and in 1855 lots were deeded to Bishop White- house for that purpose, but it was finally decided to utilize the Church of the Atonement, corner of Washington boulevard and Peoria street, which had been greatly burdened with debt. This was purchased, enlarged and improved, and after Easter of 1861 was known as the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul.
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