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All Saints Church Worcester, Massachusetts 1835-1935
Gc 974.402 W89a 1700742
M. L.
6
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01068 4725
ALL SAINTS CHURCH WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
A Centennial history
1835 = 1935
WORCESTER ยท MCMXXXV
1700742
TO
THE GLORY OF GOD
AND TO
ALL OUR SAINTS
WHOSE LIVES OF SACRIFICIAL DEVOTION
HAVE SERVED TO
STRENGTHEN AND PERPETUATE OUR PARISH
THIS MEMORIAL VOLUME
IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED
IN HUMILITY, REVERENCE, AND AFFECTION
[i]
PREFACE
In preparing this CENTENNIAL HISTORY for the people of All Saints Parish, the Committee of Five has tried zealously to compile something more than a reference book, to be used infrequently, with the aid of its index. We hope that many will find it sufficiently beguiling to read it through, and, even at the expense, now and then, of strict churchly dignity or decorum, we have stepped aside into the alluring byways of social history. The fundamental reverence of our task, however, has never been forgotten.
Several years ago the Wednesday Club, in Bishop Hob- son's rectorship, launched the general project of a Parish history and made some progress in the collection of memo- randa. In the spring of this centennial year, the Rector appointed a definite History Committee of three, to which his own name and that of Mrs. Elizabeth B. Wheeler, Parish Secretary, were soon added. Of these five, Eben Francis Thompson has performed the pioneer spade work, unearth- ing and assembling many hidden documents of importance, and starting the task of composition; the Chairman has written the main narrative, based largely on a complete transcript of abstracts of Parish records, covering nearly a full century, typed with painstaking care by Mrs. Wheeler; Clarence S. Brigham has rendered priceless service by sup- plying essential facts wrested with difficulty from the ar- chives of the American Antiquarian Society; he has also read the manuscript throughout; made helpful criticisms, and taken full charge of the illustrations.
The Rector, in the midst of all his centennial tribulations, has graciously supplied the introduction and given the Com- mittee much valued comfort and counsel.
Particularly in matters of omission do we ask the indul- gence of the Parish. Those who find no mention made of
[iii ]
their dear ones will kindly recognize how impossible it is, in a work of this compass, necessarily prepared in haste, to render full justice to all. On behalf of the Committee on the CENTENNIAL HISTORY,
ROBERT K. SHAW, Chairman
All Saints Day, 1935.
[iv ]
FOREWORD
"All Saints is my church!" Did we ever say it with greater thrill than just now? Let your mind run back to that humble gathering in the old Town Hall one hundred years ago when sixteen communicants collected from twelve families, gathered with their friends in the first Episcopal service in this city. What faith and courage they showed when we remember that it took six years before the Parish was finally established. And then as we move through the years and see All Saints rising phoenixlike from two dis- astrous fires, we are filled with gratitude for the loving sacri- fice which is built into this Church. This is, indeed, a Mount of Transfiguration experience for all of us, and like St. Peter of old we find ourselves saying, "Master, it is good for us to be here."
How we need this reinforcement from the past! These are the days that try men's souls. So much of life in which men have placed their trust has collapsed, and we have asked, "Is anything secure?" And here, moving through adversity and handicap, is a continued witness to the living Christ and to the power of His life. Our hands are strength- ened and our convictions reinforced. We have greater confidence than ever in the triumph of the Master once we put our best into His cause. We realize afresh that what God has meant to generations before us, what He has done for them, He can still do for us.
We are deeply grateful to Mr. Shaw for his labor of love in preparing this splendid volume. The fruits of this exacting task are not only an inspiring record of the important facts in the past of this Parish, but also a fine portrayal of the spirit which has marked these hundred years and which we seek to perpetuate. Many who read this HISTORY have had a very real part in the shaping of this past. A flood of memo-
[v]
ries will reinforce the written word. Their feeling for All Saints is such as is possible only for those who have had first- hand contact with the events which we are reviewing. But those who, like myself, have but recently entered into this great tradition are none the less stirred. We find ourselves saying with the Psalmist, "The lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground. Yea, I have a goodly heritage."
It is becoming perfectly clear that the church of tomorrow must have a broader vision and an increasing scope of activ- ity. It must come to grips with the problems of organized life as well as minister to individual needs. Furthermore, it must recognize no narrow geographical limit. The past of All Saints is a fit preparation for this new day. This Parish has rejoiced to exert its influence in business and civics and social activities. This Parish has not simply accepted the community as its field of service but has also made a rich contribution both in the diocese and throughout the general church. May that witness continue.
Professor Royce once spoke of the church as "the blessed community of memory and of hope." It not only links us with the past, but it girds us for the future. What All Saints has been fills us with enthusiasm for what All Saints can be in the years ahead. The peril of a great past is that we will try to live in it, simply indulging ourselves in happy memo- ries. Unless we act upon our heritage, we lose it. We move from memory to hope, from vision to duty, from reinforce- ment to achievement. May we come down from this Mount of Transfiguration not only grateful for all the loving sacri- fices given in the past, but determined the better to labor for Christ's kingdom of justice and trust and love. May He bless us with a vision of His will for All Saints in the years that lie ahead and give us strength and consecration to carry it out.
RICHARD GREELEY PRESTON
[ vi ]
CONTENTS
DEDICATION .
1
PREFACE
111
RECTOR'S FOREWORD
V
LETTER FROM BISHOP DAVIES
1X
LETTER FROM BISHOP HOBSON
X1
...
LETTER FROM DR. MORRIS
X111
LETTER FROM MR. CLARK . XV
CHAPTER I. Genesis and Early Growth I
CHAPTER II. Dr. Huntington's Ministry 37
CHAPTER III. Dr. Vinton and Bishop Davies . 67
CHAPTER IV. Dr. Morris and Bishop Hobson 92
CHAPTER V. The Present Decade
II2
APPENDIX
Rectors or Missionaries . I30
Assistant Ministers, Rector's Assistants 130
Lay-Readers I31
Wardens, Chronologically
I3I
Vestrymen, Alphabetically
I3I
Organists, Chronologically
I33
Choir Masters, Chronologically
I33
Parish Clerks . I34
Parish Treasurers I34
Authorities Consulted
I34
Index .
I36 .
[ vii ]
DIOCESE OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS BISHOP'S HOUSE, LENOX
October, 1935
To the Committee on the Centennial History of All Saints Parish, Worcester
GENTLEMEN :
I am writing to you from the Berkshire Hills and, beautiful as they are in their autumnal glory, there come to my mind some words of Robert Louis Stevenson: "I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scen- ery." All Saints is a great church. Anyone who has any considerable knowledge of the Episcopal Church in the United States knows of All Saints, Worcester. As we ap- proach the celebration of its centennial, I cannot but think, with deep gratitude to Almighty God, of the nobility of its tradition-faith, worship, knowledge, service, righteous- ness-and the glory of its record in witnessing to God and His Christ, in ministering to the souls of men, and in extend- ing Christ's Kingdom.
It seems hardly possible to me that I have been privileged to be connected with All Saints for almost one-third of its history. For almost nine happy years, I was its rector; and for twenty-four I have been its bishop. It has made a con- tribution to my life that I can never forget. As I think back over the years, so many loved and revered faces appear before me, that I dare not begin to mention names; but for this rich heritage of friendship and godly example, we must all thank God!
The philosopher, Rudolph Eucken, wrote, "We not only can be, but we must be Christians; only, however, if we recognize that Christianity is progressive historical develop- ment still in the making." That presses upon us the thought
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of the work still to be done, of the closer approach to God still to be made, and the true citizens of heaven and earth still to be trained and filled with the power of God. Henry Ward Beecher once said that a proud man is seldom a grate- ful man; but when I think of this anniversary and all that it represents, I cannot be but both proud and grateful.
I send to you all the blessing of your bishop and the endur- ing love of an old friend.
Affectionately yours,
THOMAS FREDERICK DAVIES
[x ]
DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN OHIO 223 WEST SEVENTH STREET CINCINNATI, OHIO
OFFICE OF THE BISHOP September 30, 1935
MY DEAR FRIENDS:
You are all my friends because the place which All Saints holds in my affections means that those who are members of the Parish are forever a part of my very life.
From the time when a little group of people, fired with a missionary spirit, started the Episcopal Church in Wor- cester, down through a hundred years, there has been a bond of close fellowship between those who have been members of that family which we call All Saints Church. As I send you these greetings to be included in your CENTENNIAL HISTORY, I must first of all express my thankfulness for the many blessings which have come to me as a member of that family.
Your Historian asks me to speak of what I consider "most worth while" during the years I was with you. That's hard because my mind is filled with a long parade made up of people and experiences-all so truly worth while. Yet at this time when my mind not only turns to the past, but also reaches out into the next hundred years, there emerges at the head of the "worth while" list that great Church School which during the last fifteen years has been such a thrilling adventure for many of us. It is in that Church School that the next century of All Saints is being built.
To mention names of those who have shared, and continue to share, in the development of the Church School would not be fair unless the list were prolonged to include hundreds of officers, teachers, parents, and pupils, who with fine loyalty and great sacrifice have made our School what it is today.
[xi ]
They are a glorious company whose team work has produced results which are bright with promise for the future of the Parish.
My affectionate greetings to all of you. May God bless and direct you in all your undertakings in the days and years ahead, and may the Church School go from strength to strength as it produces courageous leaders and loyal mem- bers to take their places in the future life of All Saints Church.
Affectionately yours,
HENRY W. HOBSON
[ xii ]
THE RECTORY
CALVARY CHURCH IN GERMANTOWN PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
August 29, 1935
MY DEAR MR. PRESTON:
The occasion of the Centennial Anniversary of the found- ing of All Saints Parish is of great interest to me and I take this opportunity to send to you, to the members of the Vestry, and to the people of the Parish my very hearty con- gratulations. May the noble parish life of a hundred years past continue in unbroken service and ever enlarging influence for "the Kingdom of the Lord and His Christ."
Many pleasant memories come to me as I think upon the eight years of my ministry in All Saints Parish, memories of people and of the good work done by them.
In the pursuance of my own special duties I had faithful and loyal helpers as members of the Parish staff, the Rev- erend Charles L. Short, the Reverend Donald K. Johnston, the Reverend Richard A. Kirchhoffer and the Reverend Frederick E. Buck-together with Deaconess Coe and Deaconess Lovell. I remember them all with real affection and gratitude.
It is my earnest prayer that your ministry, so ably begun, may be daily blessed and bring forth fruit in abundance.
Faithfully yours, LEWIS G. MORRIS
[ xiii ]
THE RECTORY ALL SAINTS PARISH 1789 BEACON STREET BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS
October 31, 1935
DEAR MR. SHAW:
The history of All Saints Church always brings vividly to my mind little "Aunt Anna" Nichols and her precious scrapbooks. She looked at the procession of the years from a rare standpoint. She spoke of the "good old days" with intense delight and real wistfulness, for those were the days of her activity in the church of the Master. As with most loyal elderly folk, the past was precious to her beyond power of expression; and she would recount, with spirited enthusiasm, the achievements under former rectors as All Saints grew into its place of spiritual leadership in the community. But, unlike most elderly folk, she did not think that history had been concluded in the past. Indefatigably she went on clip- ping pictures and news items from the daily papers and magazines, pasting in programs of church celebrations and festivities; to her, history was still in the making at All Saints Church. Furthermore, she believed in the future of the Parish she loved so well. She expected more history to be made; expected to go on eagerly gathering the shining spiritual adventures of the future as they came to pass.
This seems to me the heart of a great celebration such as this hundredth anniversary. It is not a dead Christ that All Saints Parish follows, but a living Christ, at work in the hearts of the men and women of today, alive in the worship and work and generous loyalty of the parishioners of 1935. It is this deathless Christ whose presence will make the
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anniversary memorable; will make it not only a grateful recollection of a great past but also a springboard for the eager plunge into a new and more daring following of Him today and down the long years ahead.
Mrs. Clark joins me in sending our warm regards to you all.
Sincerely yours, ALLEN W. CLARK
[ xvi ]
CHAPTER I
GENESIS AND EARLY GROWTH
The triumph of spiritual power over financial, social, and religious depression has been thrice illustrated in the history of All Saints Parish. Nearly one hundred years ago the first diocesan missionary sent here from Boston presented a gloomy report of discomfiture after a year's effort to plant the seeds of Episcopacy in this region. Six years later, however, with the Jacksonian panic past, a new scattering of the seed presaged the rich and early harvest of the Pearl Street Church, well within ten years of the first failure.
Some thirty years afterwards, the burning of this first All Saints paralleled another nation-wide depression, in the middle seventies; a crushing blow presently negatived by Dr. Huntington's superb achievement in the second All Saints. From our personal calamity, three winters past, accompanied by yet another financial collapse of the first magnitude, we have fortunately emerged, by God's con- tinued blessing, into the stately and beautiful third All Saints, whose present condition of availability for worship is a joy and comfort to us all.
The difficulties of missionary enterprise in Worcester County, one hundred years ago, were so great as to seem almost insuperable. Our forefathers brought with them, from England and Holland, what was practically a state church, of which a visible and tangible component was to be found planted on the Worcester Common (as the Old South Meeting-House) for over half a century after the opening of All Saints history. The rigidity, formalism and, one might almost add, the ungodliness of early Puritanism had, indeed, greatly relaxed, but Congregationalism was still pretty nearly an official church, to which most religious-
minded Protestants found no alternative necessary or even justifiable.
The fortress of Congregationalism, however, presented certain loopholes for attack. Such a privileged and in- trenched institution, hoary with the incrusted traditions of two centuries, must always be a target for criticism; some degree of strength was already shown here by Methodists, Baptists, and Unitarians; also, then as now, the community harbored a considerable number of unchurched persons, to whom the tenets or preaching of our church might make an effective appeal.
Incredible as it may appear, irreligion (or at least non- conformity) was prevalent back to the very beginnings of our Puritan history. That honest contemporary chronicler, Thomas Lechford, declares in his Plain Dealing; or, News from New England that in 1640 only about one quarter of the inhabitants of the Bay Colony was within the pale of the church. This astonishing statement, contradicting the prevalent notion that everybody always attended church two or three times every Sunday, in the seventeenth cen- tury, is repeated and believed by our latest popular, but well-reputed historian, James Truslow Adams, in his Foun- dations of New England.
Our own church, here in New England, had to struggle continuously for its very life, especially during the forty years following the Declaration of Independence. Its woes were endless, external, and internal; ecclesiastical and poli- tical; fiscal and multifarious; pentagonal, in fact they might well be called, on the basis of a new derivation meaning five kinds of agony. First, the total withdrawal of all subsidy from England, usually replaced by little or no stipend from American sources; second, the still overweening dominance of Congregationalism, which continued to absorb most of the churchgoing people; third, the persecutions of our clergy as Tory sympathizers, of which good old Bishop Bass, hooted pelted, almost stoned by a mob of "patriots" on the streets of Newburyport, stands as a dark example; fourth, the wrench to conscience, faith, and creed in the grim choice
[2]
between such tragically divided loyalties; and, fifth, the sense of utter discouragement and hopelessness which must have been their lot as they saw the mother churches toppling around them. A little human sympathy from their wonder- ing flocks was about all the clergy had left. Political liberty, to the majority of Americans in 1776, meant the dawn of a new era of glorious nationality, but to the honest presbyter it spelled something akin to chaos of conscience, accom- panied by ruin and starvation.
Massachusetts diocesan history stretches back to Sep- tember, 1784, the date of our Church's first General Conven- tion, at old Trinity, Boston. The five clergymen present from this state and two from Rhode Island set the norm of attendance for all the early conventions; which actually swelled to ten, at the election of our first bishop, Edward Bass, five years later. No bishop, of course, attended, as none yet existed in this so-called Eastern Diocese, which comprised all New England, except Connecticut. The American church, in fact, boasted no bishop at all in Sep- tember, 1784, Bishop Seabury of Connecticut being conse- crated, as our American primate, precisely two months later, by three Scottish bishops, at Aberdeen.
Of the first century of our diocesan history, the opening third, roughly up to the great Bishop Griswold's consecra- tion, should be termed primitive (if not embryonic); the second, from about 1815-1843, the period of parochial development; and the third, comprising the incumbency of Bishops Eastburn and Paddock, that of diocesan evolution.
The episcopate of the first bishop, Edward Bass, is typical of the confusion, inertia, and general weakness of our early church. Born and reared a Congregationalist, he was gradu- ated from Harvard at the age of eighteen, and was con- secrated in London in 1752. For the next thirty-seven years he served modestly and acceptably as rector of little St. Paul's, Newburyport, steering his flock successfully between the Scylla and Charybdis of the Revolution. Quite un- expectedly he was elected bishop by the Convention of 1789, but Bishop White of Pennsylvania, to whom application was
[3]
made by the General Convention, was unwilling to con- secrate him, as his own vows required the presence of two other bishops. Bishop Seabury of Connecticut may not have been considered eligible, as he had been consecrated by Scottish and not English bishops.
Bishop Bass was essentially a quiet country parson, and not a "man of great parts"; he had moreover given offense to some by the undue celerity of his second marriage, which occurred just at this time, at the age of sixty-three, with- in six months of his first wife's death. At any rate, his consecration was withheld and things dragged along during eight dreary years, till at last the essential services were performed at Philadelphia, by the bishops of Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland. The two hundred dollars neces- sary for his traveling expenses was raised by popular sub- scription.
An old man of seventy-one, fitted neither by nature nor experience for this high office, Bishop Bass continued as rector at Newburyport (no episcopal stipend being pro- vided) and assumed his new duties unwillingly. The tardi- ness of age and lack of material resources prevented his ever visiting the Berkshire area, and it is doubtful if he ever even set foot in Worcester County. He died in 1803, after six years in office, and was at once succeeded by Samuel Parker. He was an able churchman, and rector of Trinity, Boston, for thirty years, but died suddenly after only three months in office without discharging a single episcopal duty.
Followed another dismal interregnum of over six years till finally, in May of 1811, Alexander Viets Griswold, of Connecticut, was consecrated as our third episcopal head. Bishop Griswold, whose fortunate and efficient episcopate covered thirty-two years, was one of the great saints of our Church; a man brought up to hard work on the farm, of simple and unaffected piety, not a great preacher, nor born leader of men, but possessing sound judgment and endless Christian charity. His humility and human sympathy are evidenced by the fact that, when at home, he would never allow the maids to bring in firewood or perform other heavy
[4]
chores, which he insisted on doing himself, including the blacking of the family boots.
No outline of his splendid services can be attempted here; full diocesan organization could not yet be effected, but he left one hundred parishes (mostly flourishing) in place of the twenty which he inherited, and a blessed name whose mem- ory the succeeding century has beatified. The account of the laying down of his stewardship is given by a church historian at the 1885 centennial, from which we quote a paragraph:
"Towards the close of the day, duty led him to the home of the Assistant Bishop in Pemberton Square. As he climbed the steps he faltered, he fell, but rose again and reached the door. Just there his heart ceased to beat, and falling across the threshold of his anointed successor, his office was laid down, and his spirit went to be with Christ, which is far better."
Bishop Eastburn's episcopate (1843-72) was character- ized by zeal, persistency, and a development of diocesan organization. His profound interest in the first All Saints will always be a shining memory.
His successor, Bishop Paddock (1873-1891), was a man of middle ground and great tolerance, who gradually removed the friction from the diocesan machinery. Phillips Brooks said of him: "He was not so much a leader as a creator of conditions of advance."
But this is a local church history; so we must descend from diocesan affairs. As we are about to celebrate All Saints' centennial, and always think of ours as the Mother Church of Worcester (city and county) more venerable than any other, we must now practice a little Christian humility, and note that two of our existing neighbor-parishes were established in the decade before our own. Christ Church, Rochdale (formerly Clappville, named from a Joshua Clapp who came from Boston to start a mill there over a hundred years ago), is the oldest living parish in Worcester County, organized in 1823, its modest church consecrated in 1824. Several of its early ministers, during the thirties and
[5]
forties, served also as missionaries or rectors of the infant All Saints.
Second on the honor roll comes St. John's, Wilkinsonville (town of Sutton), whose beginnings were largely due to the zeal of Reverend Daniel Le Baron Goodwin, rector for nearly thirty years, who founded the mission in 1825, and erected their house of worship three years later.
Although Bishop Griswold's episcopate was not a period of diocesan expansion, so to speak, the cause of domestic missions had always lain close to his heart, so that our thriv- ing community of some six thousand souls must long have been a tempting point of attack. (By 1835 he was nearing the close of his full efficiency.) It must have been with high hope, therefore, that the good bishop dispatched young Thomas H. Vail, then twenty-three years old and in deacon's orders, to begin his ministrations here. The first service, on Sunday, December 13, attracted about sixty people, and was held in an upper room of the Town Hall, on the Common; plans for the use of Central Church chapel, Thomas Street, having miscarried. Successive services, attended sometimes by one hundred or more persons, were held during the early months of 1836, but interest flagged, and on January 15, 1837, work at the Worcester mission was temporarily sus- pended, the missionary having then left town "thoroughly discouraged."
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