History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 59

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875

USA > Illinois > Cook County > History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time > Part 59

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An extract from the same authority, on the state of religion in Chicago, is as follows :

" Religion here-ah ! Look at Alton, and see sister churches suffering from the same cause-worldly cares. Yet Alton is ap. parently more spiritual than we are. Your friend Brown (William H ) seems to take the lead among the church. But all are asleep. Mr. Mclain says that in all his travels he never was in a place where money was talked of as here. T'en thousand dollars is con- sidered nothing ! Fifty thousand or one hundred thousand only are named."

Again under date of August 25, 1836, Miss Willard wrote :

"I like everything here but the low state of religion. Rev. Mr. Mcl.ain has returned to Ohio, and we are without preaching in the Presbyterian society. It was a year last June since the sacta- ment of the Lord's Supper was administered here, and it is still neglected."

On December 25, 1836, she wrote :

"We have prospects of a minister at last. Rev. Mr. Blaich- ford from some town near New York City has received a call, has nol accepted it but will preach here this winter. Thirty thousand dollars are subscribed for the erection of a meeting house, which is to be built of marble. It is not calculated by the committee, that it will be finished in less than two years. ..... The building of four meeting houses (Episcopal almost finished) will abundantly oc- cupy the public mind for two years to come."

Again under date of October 9, 1837 :

" I intend to continue teaching but the fine promises of public buildings, etc., made to me before I left Alton, have never been fulfilled, nor is there now any prospect even of a meeting house within two years. Chicago is blest with four spiritual ministers, but the god of this work has blinded the eyes of the inhabitants."

At length, in 1837, the Rev. John Blatchford, who was traveling from New York and unexpectedly detained here, was called and installed pastor in July. Mr. Blatchford remained with the church until August, 1839. During his pastorate the build- ing was removed south of Washington Street. Mr. Blatchford was succeeded by Rev. Flavel Bascom, who commenced his labors in December, 1839, and was installed as pastor in November, 1840. Mr. Bascom had preached once in Fort Dearborn, in 1833, at the request of Philo Carpenter, and when shown by Mr. Carpenter the place selected, on Clark Street, near Lake, he said it would bring the church too far out on the prairie. The building, when moved to its second site, was doubled in length, and, in the summer of 1840, was doubled in width. In 1848 the brick church, which stood at the corner of Clark and Washington streets, was so far completed that in the fall religious services were held in the basement, and in September, 1849, it was completed and dedicated. Mr. Bascom preached the dedicatory sermon from the text, Haggai, xi, 9: " The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts." At his own request he was dismissed in December, 1849, and was succeeded by Henry Harvey Curtis, who began his ministry August 25, and was installed pastor on the 13th of October, 1850. After a successful pastorate of eight years, he retired for the purpose of assuming the presidency of Knox College, Galesburg, Ill., departing from the church June 8, 1858. His death occurred September 18, 1862,

The church building dedicated as above recited in

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October, 1849, cost $28,000. In its erection a debt was incurred which, for some years, greatly embarrassed the society. As the city prospered, business houses so encroached upon the residences that surrounded the church, that the people sought more retired localities for homes. The church itself also became inadequate to accommodate the rapidly increasing congregation, and as a result of all these causes it was resolved, in the autumn of 1855, to sell the lot and the building, pay the outstanding indebtedness, and divide the net proceeds in such manner as to secure the erection of three new church buildings, in the three divisions of the city. This plan was adopted on the supposition that those members living on the West Side would identify them- selves with the Third Presbyterian Church, organized July 1, 1847 ; and that those living on the North Side would affiliate with a new society then in contemplation there, and which was consummated in the organization of the Westminster Presbyterian (afterward Fourth) Church. The property was sold in November, 1855, and a lot on Wabash Avenue, between Van Buren and Congress streets, was immediately purchased by the First Presbyterian Church for its own use. A new edifice was erected, of Athens marble, and of the Nor- man style of architecture, the front highly ornamented with richly-carved work in stone. The main audience room was sixty-three by ninety-seven feet, and fifty feet to the highest point in the vaulted ceiling. This church was dedicated October 15, 1857. The lot cost $16,000 and the building $115,000.

By way of review of the history of the First Presby- terian Church a brief statement as to its work and growth and relations to other Presbyterian churches in Chicago is appropriate. In the early part of 1841, a series of revival meetings was held, which were very suc- cessful in its results, The meetings were conducted by Rev. Flavel Bascom, pastor of the church, assisted by Rev. Mr. Gallaher, an itinerant revivalist. As a result of this revival one hundred new members were added. The years 1843 and 1845 were likewise distinguished by extensive revivals. In April, 1846, there were re- ported to the Presbytery four hundred and fifty-six members, During the next five years the membership declined to two hundred and fifty-four. This was in part owing to the organization of the Third Presby- terian Church ; but only in part, as during this time the population of the city increased from 10,000 to 25,000, and the First Church should on this account have re- ceived considerable accessions to its membership. There was want of harmony within the Church itself. In the winter and spring of 1852, peace having re- turned, "a gentle but precious season of spiritual re- freshing" took place, the Church recovered a portion of what it had lost, and made steady but sure progress un- til the winter and spring of 1857 and 1858, when in con- sequence of a powerful revival "about seventy-five were added on profession, and an impulse was imparted to the spiritual activities of the Church," which was es- pecially perceived in the establishment of mission schools.

The first baptism in the First Presbyterian Church occurred Sunday, November 24, 1833, the subject being the infant daughter of Major Wilcox. The ceremony took place in the Major's house in Fort Dearborn, Mrs. Wilcox not being able to go to church. The little child was four months old. With reference to this baptism, Rev. Jeremiah Porter says in his journal : "The child seemed to smile with joy, after prayer and the applica- tion of the water, as though it were conscious of the act, and I hoped as an evidence that the prayer had

been answered, and that the child's heart had been bap- tized by the Holy Spirit."

REY. JEREMIAH PORTER was born in Hadley, Mass,, in 1804. where bis ancestors had lived for nearly two centuries, Samuel l'orter went to Hladley in 1639, and the house buih by him is still owned by his descendants. The grandfather of Rev. Jeremiah Porter, whose name was also Samuel, married Susanna Edwards, a daughter of I'resident Jonathan Edwards. Ilis father, William l'orter, was a physician and served during the war of 1812, as sur- geon in the Army of the United States, and died in Hadley. Mass., al the age of eighty-four years. Ilis mother, Charlotte (Williams) l'orter, was a daughter of Ilon. William Williams, of Ilatfield, Mass, William and Mrs. Porter were the parents of twelve children, sev- eral of whom died in infancy. Of the six who lived to arrive at man's estate, most of whom lived beyond the threescore years and ten, the eldest of whom died at eighty three, Jeremiah was the youngest. He was educated at Hopkins Academy, under Rev. Dr. Dan Iluntington, father of Hishop F. D. Huntington, of the dio- eese of central New York, and in Lee, Mass., in the family of Alvan Hyde. D. D. At the age of seventeen he entered Williams College, at the beginning of the presidency of Dr. Edward Dorr Griffin. He graduated at the age of twenty-one. and in the autunin of That year, 1825, entered the Theological Seminary al Andover, Mass. At this time he had not decided upon the choice of a pro- fession, but had not a taste for the law or medicine. After two years' study In this seminary, he passed the winter at his father's home. in the spring of 1828, he was induced by Dr. Griffin to accept the position of principal of the Monitorial High School, in Troy, N. Y., and after spending two pleasant years In that school, he was induced by the late llenry A. Boardman. 1). 1)., of Phila- delphia, to accompany him jo Princeton Theological Seminary. N. J. Here for a year Mr. Porter enjoyed the teaching of Drs. Alexander, Miller and Ilodge, and graduated from this institution In 183t. In the spring of that year he was licensed by the Ilamp- shire Congregational Association Jo preach the Gospel, and preached in several towns in that county. But previous to his graduating at Princeton, Rev. Dr. Absalom Peters, of New York, Secretary of the A. Il. M. Society, visited the seminary in search of ministers for the West. Dr. Peters told Rev. Mr. Porter of a wish sent from Fort Brady, Santt Ste. Marie, Mich., for a minister at that place, and asked him if he wouk! listen to that call. To this Rev. Mr. Porter replied, that if Dr. l'eters failed with the gentleman al And- over, to whom he had applied, and considered him a proper man for the place he would go. Dr. Peters soon wrote to Rev. Mr. Porter from New York, to proceed at once to his Massachusetts honte lo he ordained by the same association that had licensed him to preach, and go at once to the " Soo," as the Sault Ste. Marie was then usually called. After being ordained he left by stage toward the West, for a coumry of which he had heard much, but of which he knew little, leaving all his family and kindred be- hind, except one brother who lived at Auburn, N. Y., with whom he spent the first Sabbath of his journey, having reached there from Albany by the newly constructed New York & Erie Canal. Ity the same means he proceedled to Buffalo, then a city of three thousand inhabitants, and into which new life had been infused by the completed canal. Ile then proceedel by steamer to Cleveland, a elty then containing fifteen hundred inhabitants; thence 10 Detroit where he waited several days for a schooner, the last one up that fall, upon which he embarked for Mackinac. Upon arriving at Mackinac he was received into and kindly entertained by the eharming Christian family of Robert Stuart, of the Astor Fur Company, the company being composed of John Jacob Astor, Robert Stuart and Ranisey Crookes. In the family of Robert Stuart, Rev. Mr. Porter awaited an opportunity of going over to the Sault, and while wait- ing preached at an evening service at Rev. William M. Ferry's church. On Thanksgiving Day, November 24, a small bark canoe, sent from the Sault by Mr. Schoolcraft for him arrived, with orders "not to return without Mr. l'orter." A larger canoe, manned by Indians, had started previously, but overtaken by a snow-storm, and delayed until the provisions were eaten up, had returned to re- port to Mr. Schoolcraft. Hence the sending of this small canoe in charge of three French voyageurs with the above orders. Feel- ing that he could not wait to participate in public Thanksgiving serviees at Mackinac, he determined to reach the Sault as early as practicahle, and so, with the three Frenchmen, and a negro on his way to an army officer at Fort Itrady, and with a mess basket pro- vided by his newly-found friend, Mrs. Robert Stuart, he set out in the morning for his destination. Something over three days and nights were occupied in the voyage, forty-five miles coasting on I.ake Huron, and forty-five miles ascending St. Mary's River, rest- ing each night by camp fires on shore, anil pitching their tent one of the nights in snow. At the foot of the falls they found the vil- lage and fort, but landed below both, at the United States Indian Agent's beautiful home, Breaking the ice to land, Rev. Mr. Por-

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ter went directly to Mr. Schoolcraft's house, where he met with a most cordial welcome. Snow then covered the ground and did not disappear until April, 1832. The boat that carried Mr. l'orter also carried up the last mail of the season, and mail was received but three times during the ensuing tive months. At the Sault, Rev. Mr. Porter found n Baptist mission to the Indians in charge of Rev. Abel Bingham. Rev. Mr. Bingham with his family lived in the mission house and had a school-room for a place of worship for the Indians, and such Americans as chose to attend. Invited by Mr. Bingham, Mr. Porter preached in this school-room the first Sunday alter reaching the Sauh, to Indians, officers and soldiers. This was Sunday. December 4. 1831. Mr. School- craft soon had a store vacated, and fitted up with seats and a pulpit, and this building so transformed was used as a church. A Presbyterian Church was at once organized, composed of three men who had been members of Mr. Ferry's church at Mackinac, I'res- byterians; Mrs. Schuoleraft, an Episcopalian, two of her sisters received on confession, and one Methodist woman. Mr. Porter and Mr. Bingham co-operated with each other in religious and moral work, and encouraged by the officers at Fort Brady, enjoyed a re- vival. Dancing which had been indulged in winters previous was given up. The Post Commandment with Mr. Schoolcraft took the lead in furthering temperance, and all the officers and their wives took the temperance pledge, except one family, and before spring all expressed conversion to Christ except this one Lieutenant and his wife. One officer and his wife united with Mr. Bingham's church. Most of the others united with the Presbyterian Church. In the spring of 1832, this church numbered thirty-three, and the Baptist Church about the same number. On account of the breaking out of the Black Hawk War in 1832, one of the companies of soldiers under Captain J. B. F. Russell, was ordered to join General Win- field Scott's army at Mackinac, on its way to Chicago. The l'ost Commarlant, Major De LaFayette Wilcox, was succeeded by Major John Fowle, who in the spring of 1833 was transferred to Fort Dearborn, Chicago, and Mr. Schoolcraft was transferred to the Indian Agency at Mackinac. Thus Mr. Porter's Fort Brady church was broken up, by the removal of its members to other fields of duty, and Mr. Porter considered it his duty to accept the invitation of Major and Mrs. Fowle to accompany them to Chicago, leaving the few remaining members to unite with Mr. Bingham's Baptist Church. On the 4th of May, 1833. Major Fowle with his company and Rev, Jeremialı Porter, left Furt Brady, and spending one day at Mackinac, proceeded up the west shore of Lake Michigan to Chicago, perceiving on the voyage no human habitation between the two points except at Milwaukee, where lived Solomon Juneau, the trader of the American Fur Company, with his Indian wife. On Saturday, May II, the schooner dropped anchor opposite the month of the Chicago River. On Sunday the lake was so rough and Mr. Porter so sea-sick, that he remained on board over that day, and until about noon on Monday the t3th, when he was rowed in the ship's long boat to the mouth of the river, about a mile south of Fort Dearborn, up the stream, and around Fort Dearborn to the junction of the North and South branches of the river, and to Wat- tle's small tavern on the West Side. flere Mr. Porter met many of the business men of the village, who had come there to dine, as it was their boarding house, and among them John Wright, an ac- count of his meeting with whom may be found in the history of the First Presbyterian Church. At this time there were about three hundred people in Chicago, many of whom had fled from the country during the war of 1832, to secure pro- tection in and around Fort Dearborn. Among these was P. F. W. Peck, who invited Mr. Porter to make his temporary lodging place and study in the unfinished loft of his two-story store, standing on the southwest corner of South Water and La- Salle streets. The first building in the rear of this store was the log house of Rufus Brown, where Mr. Porter found table board. From this time forward until Mr. Porter left Chicago, in Septem- ber, 1835, his history is substantially that of the First Presbyterian Church for the same period (q. v.). In that month, having necepted a call to a small new church in Peoria, he immediately commenced his labors there. In the fall of t837, Mr., l'orter attended the Synod of Illinois at Springfield, and there preached the opening sermon, an anti-slavery one ; the Rev. Dr. Gideon Blackburn, a venerable father in the church, acting as a shield to the young preacher against a pro-slavery mob. When the Synod adjourned many of its members went to Alton on horseback, where they held an anti- slavery convention for the purpose of sustaining Lovejoy in war- fare against slavery and for the freedom of the Press. After pass- ing strong resolutions in favor of the objects for which Lovejoy was fighting, the ministers, including Mr. Porter, returned to their homes. This was but a few days before the murder of Lovejoy by a pro-slavery mob. On the first Sunday subsequent to this murder, and doubtless sustained by the excitement consequent upon it, Mr. Porter preached twice to his congregation under a burning typhoid fever. For weeks afterward he was prostrated, and for some time

his recovery was doubtful. About the first of January, 1838, he removeit to Farmington, III., where he remained two years, wit- nessing here as at Peoria a revival and numerous accessions to his church. During these years he labored in revival work with Revs. John Spalding, Flavel Bascom, and Lucien Farnham, at Peoria ; J. J. Miter, at Knoxville, and George W. Gale and Horatio Foot, at Galesburg. L'pon retiring from the church at Peoria, Mr. Porter preached the sermon at the installation of his successor, Rev. John Spalding. In 1840 he accepted a call to Green Bay, Wis., where four years before some of his early friends from Mack- inac had been organized into a church. lle arrived at Green Bay In the summer by way of Chicago and Mackinac. In the succeed. ing winter he was installed and remained pastor of the Presbyterian Church eighteen years. In 1840 the " Presbyterian and Congre- gational Convention of Wisconsin " was formed, composed of the churches of the two denominations. In 1858, after a happy pastor. ate of eighteen years in Green Bay, Mr. Porter asked this convention to dissolve his connection with his church, which request was granted against the wishes of the majority of his church. Attending the Gen. eral Assembly at Chicago that year he was invited to become pastor of the Edwards Congregational Church. Ilere he labored until the breaking out of the war in t86t, observing the results of the city's progress during its first twenty-five years, as depicted in his histor- ical lectare delivered before the Chicago Historical Society in t85g. Four of Mr. Porter's family, a son and three nephews, entered the Union army. and Mrs. I'orter said that if she had a hundred sons, and they prepared to die, she woukl give them all for the cause of their country and freedom. In March following, Mr. Porter was appointed by Governor Richard Yates, Chaplain of United States Vod- unteers, in Colonel J. D. Webster's regiment, Chicago First Light Artillery, in which his son, James W. Porter, and one of his nephews had enlisted. Mrs. Porter thinking she could be more useful near the soldiers, left her place in the Chicago Sanitary rooms to Mrs. Iloge and Mrs. Livermore and went, in t862, with Mr. Porter to Cairo, Ilere she ministered to the sick from Forts Donelson and Henry after Grant's first decided victories, and then aided in caring for the wounded from the battlefields of l'ittsburgh Landing and Shiloh : among the latter one of her nephews, From Cairo Mr. and Mrs. Porter followed the Union army to l'aducah, Ky., to l'ittsburgh Landing, Tenn., to Corinth and to Memphis, where they spent the winter of t862-63 and spring of t863, A " convalescent camp" was established south of and in sight of the city, on the river bluff. Dr. Edmund Andrews, surgeon of Colonel Webster's light artillery, was one of the surgeons in charge, With his approbation Mr. and Mrs. Porter opened the first school for freedmen on the borders of the Mississippi River. Fort l'ickering was, during that winter, a scene of much religious interest, Mr. l'orter preaching regularly at the convalescent camp and occasion- ally at the batteries. As the army proceeded southward Mr. l'or- ter accompanied it to Vicksburg, and after its capture was immedi- ately installed chaplain in the city hospital, and being granted by General Logan the use of the Presbyterian church, preached there- in until the spring of 1864, alternating with Chaplain Joseph War. ren, D. D., who had been a missionary in India, 'Ile then, by order of General Webster, followed General Sherman in his marches toward Atlanta, Mrs. Porter being already with that army with sanitary stores and supplies. Mr. J'orter joined her at Big Shanty. From Kenesaw Mountain Mr. and Mrs. Porter went with the wounded to Marietta, Ga., and remained there in the hospital until the fall of Atlanta. On the Sunday following Mr. Porter preached to the soldiers in hospital at Marietta from the words of David, asking so anxiously after his son Absalom, " Is the young man safe?" his own son having participated in the battle be- fore Atlanta, and no word from him having been received. Ile afterward heard of his safety and of the bravery exhibited by him in that battle. Chaplain and Mrs. Porter. instead of following Sherman to the sea, returned to Chicago, and in the following winter went to Washington to aid In urging President Lincoln to use all his official influence to have the sick and wounded Union soldiers in Southern hospitals sent north to recover or to die and be buried by their friends, While in Washington Mrs. Porter showed to Miss Dix, the earliest mover in the magnificent Sanitary Com- mission, two letters-one signed by five Confederate officers, the other by twenty Confederate soldiers-testifying to the uniform kindness with which they had been treated by Mrs. Porter, while sick in hospital at Marietta, Ga. Mr. and Mrs. Porter then set sail from New York for Savannah, reaching there ten days after that city had surrendered to General Sherman. Here they re- mained until Sherman started for Richmond, when they proceeded by water with General Webster to Wilmington, N. C., and thence to Goldsboro by rail, overtaking General Sherman at that point. They then went to a hospital on the coast at Newbern, remaining there in attendance upon the sick until the surrender of General Lee. Their work at the South being now accomplished, they took a small steamer through the canal to Norfolk, Va., thence to Alex-

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andria and Washington. Logan's corps was then ordered to Lou- isville, Ky. Chaplain and Mrs. Porter, with others of the Sani- tary Commission, reported for duty at that place, and after short and pleasant service once more in Kentucky, Mr. Porter was hon- orably mustered out at Springfield, 111., July 31, 1865. After visiting among friends a few months, Mr. and Mrs, l'orter were requested by the Sanitary and Christian Commission to proceed with sanitary stores, then at Chicago, to three regiments retained on the borders of Mexico to protect the border from any encroach- ments of France under its Mexican emperor. Maximilian. Arriv- ing off the coast of Texas, ten miles from the mouth of the Rio Grande, they landed at Brazos St. lago, and waited for a small steamer from Brownsville to take them to the Rio Grande and up the river to that city. In the night a " norther " struck this small steamer, and as a measure of safety it was driven ashore on the beach of Mexico. There was so little water on the beach that the yawl could not reach the shore, and the ladies on board had to be carried to the shore on the backs of the sailors. Such was Mrs. Porter's entrance into Mexico. This was at Bagdad. C'rossing the river to meet the steamer which had succeeded in entering the river's mouth, Mr. Porter found assembled at Clarksville some United States colored troops, whom he addressed. From that first religious service on the Rio Grande he proceeded on the steamer up the very crooked river one hundred miles to his destination, Brownsville, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Porter and Miss Lizzie Garey. who had accompanied them from Chicago, went into camp at the Soldiers' Hospital, Mr. Porter preaching, and Mrs. Porter and Miss Garcy teaching the colored soldiers in addition to their sani- tary work. Mrs. Porter soon opened a school under the name of the " Rio Grande Seminary " for boys and girls, which had been started by Miss Matilda Kankin, as the Rio Grande Female Insti- tute, some years before the war.

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 59

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas Number of Pages: 875

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875