History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 88

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340

USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time > Part 88

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PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS.

Williams. Sunday, November 23, Mr. Wight preached his first sermon in the renovated house, which had then cost $3,800, all of which sum was paid except $400. This gratifying result was due to the persistence and energy of Mr. Wight.

Pursuant to notice given some time previously, a meeting was held on November 27, by those interested in the movement and designing to unite with the pros- pective Church, to consider the feasibility of forming the proposed organization then or in the near future. An adjourned meeting was held on the 7th of Decem- ber, 1856, on which day the Church was organized by Rev. R. W. Patterson, with the following exercises : Scriptural readings and sermon by Rev. Mr. Wight, from Isaiah, xxxii, 9 ; dedicatory prayer, by Rev. E. F. Dickinson ; organization of the Church, by Rev. R. W. Patterson, and address to the Church, by Rev. Harvey Curtis. The original members were Mr. and Mrs. Stephen B. Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim H. Dennison, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ely, Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Pomeroy, Mrs. Caroline E. Wight, R. H. How, E. A. Burbank, and Bradford T. Averill. These were all from the Second Presbyterian Church. The first reg- ular prayer-meeting was held Wednesday, December 10, after which a business meeting was held, at which S. B. Williams was elected elder and Edward Ely deacon, both of whom were ordained on the 20th. On the 12th of the month a call was extended to Rev. J. Ambrose Wight to become pastor, at a salary of $1,300 per year, Mr. Wight remained with this Church until July 31, 1863, when he insisted upon the acceptance of his res- ignation, which had been tendered six months previ- ously. On the 7th of August a meeting of the Church was held, and the resignation reluctantly accepted. Rev. A. Eddy was called September 30, 1863, at a sal- ary of $2,000 per annum, payable quarterly in advance. The call was accepted, and Mr. Eddy preached his first sermon in December. He remained until September 2, 1866, when he resigned. He was succeeded by Rev. Nelson Millard, of Mont Clair, who was unanimously invited to supply the pulpit for six months from Janu- ary 28, 1867, at a salary of $4,000 per annum, payable quarterly. On September 9, he was invited to become settled pastor, at the same salary, payable in the same manner. Mr. Millard resigned in December, 1868. In October, 1869, he was succeeded by Rev. G. P. Nichols, who remained until November, 1870, and was the last pastor of the Church.

On the 2d of December, 1857, two ruling elders and one deacon were elected, the former being E. L. Pomeroy and S. B. Williams, the latter Edward Ely. Mr. Pomeroy was ordained January 13, 1858. On the 2d of November, 1859, the Session was enlarged again by the election of N. S. Bouton as ruling elder, and at the same time Ephriam H. Dennison was elected deacon. Mr. Bouton was ordained November 13: Bradford T. Averill was elected elder November 16, 1859, and or- dained December 18. George F. Ruggles and W. B. Topliff were elected elders April 29, 1864, and ordained May I. January 5. 1866. Dr. Frederick Crumbaugh and O. S. Avery were elected elders, and George F. Ruggles, permanent eller. On the 18th of November, 1869, three ruling ellers were elected-Erastus Foote, Ephraim H. Dennison and Edward Ely. Stephen B. Williams was elected clerk of Session at the time of the organization of the Church, and served until 1864. N. S. Bouton was elected clerk, January 22, 1864, and served until the union of this Church with 'e Second Presbyterian. During the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Eddy, a lot seventy-five by one hundred and eighty feet at the

corner of Wabash Avenue and Fourteenth Street was purchased at Sioo per foot. Upon this lot was erected a two-story brick church, without galleries, at a cost of about $85,000. An organ was added at a cost of about $5,000. The church building which had been bought of the Universalists was sold for business purposes, was moved to Wabash Avenue and Sixteenth Street, and is now used as a store and market house. At the time of the union with the Second Presbyterian, the new brick church was sold to the Wabash Avenue M. E. Church. The Sunday school was organized in January, 1857, with eighteen pupils. The membership and attendance increased with the prosperity of the Church. The school at one time had about four hundred scholars. The superintendents of the school were: S. B. Williams, from 1857 to 1860; William Tomlinson from 1860 to 1861 ; and N. S. Bouton, from 1861 to the time of the union of the two churches, except during 1864, when Gilbert L. Granger served a portion of the year.

THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH was organized Oc- tober 19, 1833, with nineteen members, hy Rev. Allen B. Freeman. With the exception of MIrs. Rebecca Heald, wife of Captain Nathan Heald, and Rev. Isaac McCoy, Dr. John T. Temple was the first Baptist to arrive in Chicago. Dr. Temple, with his wife and four children, reached Chicago about the 4th of July, 1833. For some time after his arrival, he and his family at- tended the Presbyterian services in Fort Dearhorn, but having, through correspondence with the American Bap- tist Home Mission Society, secured the appointment of a missionary for Chicago, and thinking best that the two denominations should at the first begin with separate churches, started a subscription for a building, heading it with one hundred dollars. In a few weeks the build- ing was erected near the corner of Franklin and South

Water streets. It was a two-story frame structure, the upper story for school, the lower for religious purposes, and cost about nine hundred dollars. With the excep- tion of Rev. Jesse Walker's log house at the Point, this was the first house built for religious worship in Chicago. It was designated as the "Temple Building," and was used by the Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists alike until the Presbyterian church was ready for occupancy. When Rev. Allen B. Freeman, with his wife, arrived on the 16th of August, he found the church building ready for use. On the first Sunday after his arrival he preached to the Rev. Jeremiah Porter's congregation, in that minister's absence, at Blackstone's Grove, twenty-eight miles south of Chicago, and from this time until Mr. "Freeman's death these two ministers preached once each month to congregations in some distant village ; on such occasions the two congregations uniting to hear the one remaining at home, until the Presbyterian church was dedicated January 4, 1834. At the time of the organ- ization of the Baptist Church, October 19, 1833, there were about twenty-five Baptists in Chicago, fourteen of whom were present at the church and gave in their names as follows : Rev. Allen B. Freeman and Hannah C., his wife : S. T. Jackson, Martin D. Harmon, Peter Moore, Nathaniel Carpenter, John K. Sargents, Peter Warden, Willard Jones, Ebenezer and Betsey C'rane. Susannah Rice, Samantha Harmon and Lucinda Jack-

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son. One of the other five members was Samuel S. Lathrop.

Rev. Mr. Freeman was a graduate of Hamilton Theological Seminary. During his brief pastorate he was an earnest and efficient laborer, organizing besides the Church in Chicago, four others in as many neighbor- ing districts. It was in returning from one of these

TEMPLE BUILDING.

services at Long Grove, fifty miles south of Chicago, early in December, 1834, where he had preached and administered the rite of baptism, that his horse was taken sick eighteen miles from home. For two nights and one day Mr. Freeman watched with the suffering animal, when it died, and he made the rest of the way home on foot. Overcome by exposure and exertion, he was himself taken sick of typhoid fever and in ten days thereafter, on December 15, 1834, died. Rev. Jeremiah Porter preached the funeral sermon in the Presbyterian church, and was assisted in the services by Rev. Isaac W. Hallam, of the Episcopal Church; Rev. John Mitch- ell, of the Methodist, and Rev. J. E. Ambrose, of one of the country Baptist churches organized by Mr. Free- man. The Chicago Tribune of a not very remote date. contained a communication mentioning-" a little burial ground near the North Branch on the West Side. * * * That little burial ground, as I remember, was about where Indiana Street crosses the river, The little in- closure was a prominent object, on the otherwise unoc- cupied and open prairie, up to 1840 or later. An inscription on one head-stone, or rather head-board, as I well remember it, was that of the Rev. A. B. Freeman, who was the first Baptist minister of Chicago." A picket fence was built around this grave by Samuel S. Lathrop.

At the time of his death the membership of the Church had increased to forty; but by a year from that time, by death and by removals to other churches, it was reduced to twenty.

During the year 1835, Rev. Isaac T. Hinton became the successor of Rev. A. B. Freeman. Mr. Hinton was by birth an Englishman, but came to Chicago from Richmond, Va. He was a very able and highly erteemed preacher, and a very warm-hearted and genial man, Under his ministrations the membership of the Church and the attendance upon religious services con- siderably increased, so much so that they began to need

a larger building. Rev. Mr. Hinton was sent East to solicit aid for the erection of a suitable house of wor- ship, and returned with the small sum of $846.4S. This disappointment nerved the members to active effort for themselves, and soon the foundations of a new house were laid, and much of the woodwork prepared; but on account of the financial crisis of 1837, the building was never completed. Instead, a frame building, which was being used as a temporary workshop, was converted into a church, and with occasional enlargements, served the purposes of the congregation until 1844, during which year a larger edifice was erected. It was a brick build- ing and stood at the southeast corner of Washington

VOSS ENG

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.

and LaSalle streets, where the Chamber of Commerce afterward stood. It was fifty-five by eighty feet in size; there was a basement eight feet high, divided into two rooms, for lecture and school purposes; it had an lonic portico of six columns; the apex of the spire was one hundred and twelve feet from the ground; in the spire were a bell and clock, the clock having five dials, one on each side of the spire, and one inside the church; the total cost of this church edifice was $4.500.

Rev. Isaac T. Hinton remained with the Church until 1842. He was a remarkable man in many ways; ex- ceedingly happy in disposition, of a genial temper, an excellent pastor, and an able preacher. Large congre- gations attended his services. His great forte was preaching on prophecy. In the year 1836, he delivered a series of Sunday-evening sermons in the Presbyterian church, on this great subject. The church although the largest in Chicago, was usually filled to its utmost rapacity: everybody wa- desirous of hearing " Hinton on Prophecy." He taught that the then present order of things would come to an end in 1873, but did not live to see the non-fulfillment of his interpretation of the prophecies, The following extract is from a lecture de- livered by Hon, John Wentworth, Max 7, 1876:

" At the close of service one day, Parson Hinton stid he thought Chicago people ought to know more about the Devil than

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121

WATRAUNNOLS,

SECOND EDIFICE ERECTED BY THE FIRST BAPTIST SOCIETY.

(From the City Hall Tower, looking Southwest.)

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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

they did. Therefore he would take up his history in four lectures; first, he would give the origin of the Devil; second, state what the Devil had done; third, state what the Devil is now doing ; and fourth, prescribe how to destroy the Devil. These lectures were the sensation for the next four weeks. The house could not con- tain the mass that flocked to hear him; and it is a wonder to me that those four lectures have not been preserved. Chicago news- paper enterprise had not then reached here. The third evening was one never to be forgotten in this city; if one of our most emi- nent clergymen, with the effective manner of preaching that Mr. Hinton had, should undertake to tell us what the Devil is doing in our city to-day. The drift of his discourse was to prove that everybody had a Devil; that the Devil was in every store, and in every bank, and he did not even except the Church. He had the Devil down outside and up the middle of every dance; in the ladies' curls and the gentlemen's whiskers. In fact, before he fin- ished he proved conclusively that there were just as many devils in every pew as there were persons in it; and if it were in this our day, there would not have been swine enough in the stock yards to cast them into. When the people came out of church they would ask each other, 'What is your devil?' And they would stop one another in the streets during the week, and ask, 'What does Parson Hinton say your Devil is?' The fourth lecture con- tained his prescription for destroying the Devil. I remember his closing : 'Pray on, brethren and friends ; pray ever. Fight as well as pray. Pray and fight until the Devil is dead !

" The world, the flesh, the devil, Will prove a fatal snare, Unless we do resist him, By faith and humble prayer." "

And quoting from another portion of the same lec- ture:

" He was a man who never seemed so happy as when immersing converted sinners in our frozen river or lake. It was said of his converts that no one of them was ever known to be a backslider. * * * Immersions were no uncommon thing in those days. * * * But recently our Baptist friends have made up their minds that our lake has enough to do to carry all the sewerage of the city, without washing off the sins of the people. It is also claimed for Mr. Hinton that no couple he married was ever divorced. Ile was just as careful in marrying as he was in baptizing ; he wanted nobody to fall from grace."

But notwithstanding Rev. Mr. Hinton's ability and the high estimation placed upon his services, his Church was unable to pay him a salary sufficient to support his large family. not even when he aided them by his own efforts in teaching. So he accepted a call to St. Louis, and preached his farewell sermon in Chicago Septem- ber 26, 1841. The successive pastors of the Church subsequent to Rev. Isaac T. Hinton, have been the fol- lowing : Revs. C. B. Smith, 1842-43: E. H. Hamlin, 1843-45. Miles Sanford, 1845-47: Luther Stone, 1847- 48; Elisha Tucker, D. D, 1848-51; John C. Bur- roughs, D. D., January, 1853-56; W. G. Howard. D. D) .. 1856-59. During the vacancy in the pulpit caused by the resignation of Rev. C. B. Smith, thirty-two of the members withdrew and formed the Second, or Taber- nacle, Baptist Church. This was in 1843. Of the Rev. Elisha Tucker, who was pastor from 1848 to 1851, George S. Phillips, in his book, "Chicago and her Churches," published in 1868, by E. B. Myers and Chandler, said :

"The next pastor was a man of great mental and moral endowments, who, as Byron said of Henry Kirke White, adorned even the sacred functions he was called upon to assume .* * \ man of great energy and ceaseless devotion to the work of the ministry. he won many souls to Christ and the love of all good hearts to him- self. Hlc was a handsome, well-formed man, with a large and lufty forehead, an eye full of sunshine and his whole face beaming with heavenly radiations. The Baptists had never before asso- ciated with their Church a man of such strong personal attractions. eminent talents, and unobstrusive learning and piety. His eloquence in the pulpit was the theme of every tongue, while his social bear- ing and conduct were in the highest degree refined and conciliatory. Ile was not destined, however, to a long course of usefulness in this new and wide field of labor. He worked faithfully and success- fully for two and a half years, when he was seized with paralysis, and cut off in the prime of his life, and the glory of his days. Dur- ing his connection with the Church as many had been added to the membership as in the eighteen years of her previous history."

On October 20, 1852, the church building caught fire from sparks falling from the tobacco-pipe of a work- man, who with others was engaged in re-shingling it, and it was totally destroyed. The next day a meeting was held, and a committee appointed to build a new church. 'The corner-stone was laid July 4, 1853, and the build- ing was dedicated November 12, of the same year. The cost of this building was $30,000. It was also during Rev. Mr. Burroughs's pastorate that the Wabash Avenue Baptist Church was organized, mainly by members of this Church. Dr. W. G. Howard, formerly of the Second Baptist Church of Rochester, was chosen pastor in May, 1856. In the following September Union Park Baptist Church was organized, and in November the North Baptist Church, mainly from members of the First Baptist Church. Dr. Howard resigned his pas- torate in 1859, and removed to New Orleans, having added two hundred and twenty new members to the Church.

REV. ISAAC TAYLOR HINTON was born at Oxford, England, July 4, 1799. His father was the Rev. James Hinton, of Oxford. a Baptist minister. Isaac T. Ilinton was apprenticed to the print- ing business and served at this trade the regular term of seven

YUS

Nau Stinter

years, paying for the privilege one hundred pounds. Ife then started a publishing house at Warwick Square, London, where he also resided. While in this business he wrote, in conjunction with his brother, Kev. John Howard Hinton, of London, a history of the United States, which was published by a Buston firm. He failed in 1831 and came to America in 1832, landing in Philadel- phia in June. During his residence in England he preached occasionally but was not pastor there of any Church, nor in the United States until after moving from Philadelphia to Richmond, Va., which event occurred in September, 1833. At Richmond he was pastor of the First Baptist Church, having a membership of fourteen hundred. He remained in Richmond something over two years when he removed to Chicago, where he became pastur of the First Baptist Church, as the successor of the Ker. Allen B.

PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS.

319

Freeman. During his pastorate, which is quite fully treated of in the history of that Church. he was appointed by the General Con- vention of the Baptists of the United States to write a history of Baptism, which he wrote and took to Philadelphia to be published. This was the first book written in Chicago. From Chicago he moved to St. Louis in 1843, where he had charge of the Baptist Church between three and four years. From St. Louis he removed to New Orleans, in which city he had charge of the only Baptist Church in the city until his death which occurred August 28. 1847. of yellow fever. He was urged by his friends to leave the city, but preferred to share the danger with his Church. No other member of the family died. Mr. Hinton was married in 1822, to Sarah Mursell, of Leamington, England. They had a large fam- ily of children, those now living being the following : Sarah, who at the age of sixty and a widow, recently married a Mr. Condon of San Francisco, where she now resides; Isaac T. Hinton, of New Orleans, who furnished these items for this History; Victoria, married and living near Liberty, Mississippi; William Mursell Hinton, a printer, in San Francisco; Fanny, a widow, and Albert, both of whom are living in New Orleans.

THE TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHURCH was organized August 14, 1843, by members dismissed for that pur- pose from the First Baptist Church. The causes which culminated in this organization were somewhat remote. As early as 1839, while the Rev. Isaac T. Hinton was pastor of the First Baptist Church, a union prayer meet- ing was established, composed of Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists. Meetings were held in various places, and among those prayed for were the slaves in the Southern States. Some of the pro-slavery members considered these prayer meetings abolition meetings in disguise, and opposed all recognition of them in the Church. On one occasion, besides the regular Sunday notices, Rev. Mr. Hinton read one that a prayer meet- iug for the oppressed would be held at a certain place. It was afterward discovered that the notice, as written and handed to Mr. Hinton, read, "A prayer meeting for the slaves," etc. A resolution was adopted by the Church at a subsequent meeting that " Notices of politi- cal meetings should not be read from the pulpit, under any name or guise whatever." The adoption of this

C.B. Smith,

resolution created a great sensation in the Church, and caused a sharp division of its members into a pro-slav- ery and anti-slavery party. The latter had a majority of the members, the former the most of this world's goods. At the next business meeting the question of the reconsideration of this resolution came up, hut be- fore final action was taken, a protest previously pre- pared was presented by the pro-slavery party in opposi- tion to the reconsideration, and letters of dismissal were demanded for the purpose of forming a new Church. The motion to reconsider was thereupon withdrawn, and a compromise effected, Mr. Hinton agreeing not again to present the slavery question in the pulpit. This compromise was not long satisfactory to the aboli- tion members of the Church. Their consciences could not be silenced, nor their sympathies for the slave sup- pressed. Neither were they pleased with the delivery by Dr. L. D. Boone of a series of lectures to prove that slavery was in accordance with the Scriptures, nor were the pro-slavery members satisfied with the anti-slavery utterances of the Rev. C. B. Smith, who succeeded Mr. Hinton in this pulpit in September, 1842. Mr. Smith was never installed pastor. Finding that a strong mi- nority of the members were opposed to him, he gave notice that he could not accept the call extended to him, but that at the end of his official year, during which he

had agreed to supply the pulpit, he should leave the city. A Church meeting was called to make choice of a pastor, at which Mr Smith received a majority of the votes cast and was declared elected. When officially informed of this action, he promptly declined the call and advised union and consolidation. Another meeting was held the next week for the same purpose, and he was again elected by a still larger majority. Being present, Mr. Smith again declined, and stated positively that under no circumstances would he accept the pas- torate of the Church. A portion of those present at the meeting left the church, but when less than a block away they received word that those remaining had re- organized and were voting for a pastor. All within hearing returned and voted with those who had re- mained. The result was that Mr. Hamlin received forty-two votes and Mr. Smith forty. Mr. Hamlin was declared duly elected. It was therefore determined by the friends of Mr. Smith to withdraw and form a new Church. The Tabernacle Baptist Church was organized with thirty-four members who, at a regular meeting of the First Baptist Church, held August 8, 1843, and who were, at their own request, dismissed from the said Church for the purpose, organized the second Baptist Church in the city. These members were John L. Slayton, James Knox, S. H. Knox, S. Dodson, Joseph Hogan, W. H. Sadler, John Flynn, Reuben Tuttle, Vincent H. Freeman, James Launder, William David, William Lawrence, Benjamin Briggs, Edwin Clark, J. M. Hannah, T. B. Bridges; John A. Field, Maria Slayton, Elizabeth Williams. Frances Miles, Roxana Spaulding, Maria Tuttle, Mary David, C. Gould, Catherine Woodbury, Eliza Launder, Betsey Ann Briggs, Sarah L. Freeman, Jane McIntosh, Amelia A. Clark and Charlotte Mizener. The dismission of these members was approved August 10, and on the 13th letters were granted to the following persons for the same purpose: Samuel T. Jackson, Ezra Jackson, Darius H. Paul, John Bell, Lucinda Jackson, Abigail Jackson, Ann Jackson, Grace Flint, Hepsy Ann Flint, Susan Eliza Flint, Mary Merriam, Sarah Reid, Mary S. Merriam, Mrs. Stoughton, Louisa M. Durant, Boletta Hanson, Ann Dorothy Hanson, Crecy Woodbury, Fanny Holden, Sarah Crocker, Elizabeth Johnson, Mary Ann Porter, Jeannette Burgess, Margaret Bur- gess, Ann Shapley, Emily Bridges and Elizabeth Slo- cum. On Monday, the 14th of August, at a meeting held in the First Baptist Church, the following resolu- tion was adopted:

" That in view of the state of this community, and the grow- ing importance of this location and the rapid increase of its popu- lation, we fully believe that the time has come when a second Baptist Church should be organized."

The Church was thereupon organized on that day by adopting articles of faith and covenant. Immedi- ately afterward rules and regulations were also adopted. The following officers were also chosen on the same day: Trustees, Samuel Jackson, Vincent H. Freeman, B. Briggs, H. G. Wells, and William David; clerk, pre

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 88

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340