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OUR CHURCH
ITS HISTORY ITS BUILDINGS ITS SPIRIT
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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
L 3 1833 01808 2617
GENEALOGY 974.402 N48OU
V
OUR CHURCH Its History : Its Buildings Its Spirit
THE MOTHERS' WINDOW Dedicated May Ninth, Nineteen Hundred Twenty-Six
OUR CHURCH
ITS HISTORY ITS BUILDINGS ITS SPIRIT
The Second Church in Newton West Newton, 1926
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE WHOSE LABOR AND SACRIFICE IN THE PAST HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR OUR PRESENT MEMBERS TO ENTER THE EC- CLESIASTICAL HERITAGE AND THERE ENJOY THE FELLOWSHIP, THE BEAUTY, AND THE IDEALISM OF THE SECOND CHURCH OF NEWTON, WEST NEWTON.
Authorized by the Church Committee, Second Church of Newton West Newton June seven, Nineteen twenty-six
For the use of many of the photographs the Committee is indebted to Bachrach, Inc.
THE COSMOS PRESS, INC. HARVARD SQUARE CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
FOREWORD
M OST of us accept the heritage of our present church - its buildings, its personnel, and its spirit - without serious thought of its founders and its long period of honorable history. We seldom think of the hundred and sixty-six years that have made their several and cumulative contributions to our growth.
The editors of this volume, as they have delved into the archives and examined the old documents, have been brought face to face with the personalities of that older generation - men who were subjects of King George III, grew restive under his rule, and finally joined the Revolutionary ranks. But whether as English subjects or as American patriots, they were steadfast in their religious convictions and for- mulated here the polity and traditions to which we are still individually loyal.
These documents of the past are very, very human documents. Evidently a good deal of the carnal and a good deal of the temperamental existed in those an- cient days-as they exist in these more modern times. Indeed, it is just such human touches that make the sympathy closer and the story more diverting.
Naturally most of us will linger longest over the paragraphs that relate to ourselves and to the period in which as actors we conned our little parts. We have lived our recent years intensely, and we feel propor- tionately the quickened pulsations in the current
record. We have been drawn into a very harmonious life, a very harmonious spirit. A knowledge of achieve- ment naturally comes, as we study our church roll and contemplate the architectural beauty of our church home, contrasting it with our first quaint build- ing of 1764 sketched below. But there is something more significant still; there is an understanding of a spiritual triumph-not, of course, completely attained, but clear in its outlines and radiant in its promise.
The Second Church of Newton West Newton, Massachusetts, October, 1926
1
CONTENTS
Foreword
7
Historical Sketch of the Church II
Dates of Interest .
37
Our Pastors
·
38
Chronological Record of the Officers
39
Deacons
39
Clerks .
40
Treasurers
40
Our Tribute to Dr. Park
4I
The Building
49
Memorial and Presentation Gifts
63
The Mothers' Window
69
Our Mothers' Names
74
The Service
81
Holy Communion
89
Appendix
93
Early Minutes of the Church
94
Minutes of the Meeting, 1764
94
Deed Conveying Ground for the Church Building 96
Method of Raising Subscriptions . 96 Minutes of Meeting, March 1, 178I 97
Caterer's Bill IOI Deed of the Cemetery, 1782 IO2
Letter to Selectmen about an Intended Marriage
.
IO3
Letter Concerning the Division of the Town into Two Parishes IO4
Method of Raising Minister's Salary
IO5
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OUR CHURCH HOUSE OF FIFTY WINDOWS BEFORE ALTERATIONS IN 1831
Our Church: Its History, Its Buildings, Its Spirit
The following historical sketch is founded upon the one hun- dred and twenty-fifth anniversary sermon, preached by Dr. Prudden, and revised by Dr. J. Edgar Park and Mr. Charles Swain Thomas.
W THEN the early settlers of New Town (or Cam- bridge, as it is now called) petitioned for more land, the General Court gave them, among other tracts, nearly all of what is now Newton. After some years this large township was divided, the part in which Harvard University stands was called Cam- bridge, and the name New Town was transferred to our present city. It remained "New Town" till a town clerk began to write the name as one word with a 'w" omitted, and it has been Newton ever since.
Needing a church nearer than Cambridge, those early settlers, numbering only forty-three freemen, established public worship in 1654, built a meeting house six years later, and organized the First Church of Christ in Newton in 1664 (now the First Congre- gational Church, in Newton Center).
After one hundred and seventeen years, the resi- dents in this part of the town, now called West Newton, thought the First Church too distant; and so in 1764, though still belonging to the First Church and taxed for its support, they bought of the innkeeper eight rods of land on the north side of Washington Street, opposite Highland Street, for about $12, and built a very plain two-story meeting house, thirty by forty feet in size, without belfry or porch, unpainted within and without, but with an abundance of win- dows in both stories, and furnished with a high pulpit
THE SECOND CHURCH BOOK
and rude benches; and it stood with its side, in which was the main entrance, towards the street.
Here for fourteen years without organizing a church the people gathered for worship, the school teacher (who was usually a theological student) being engaged to preach or read a sermon on Sunday, while they per- sistently and annually, but vainly, petitioned the stubbornly resisting mother church for a share of the town tax to support public worship, and finally ap- pealed to the Legislature, which, in 1778, divided the town into an East and West parish by a line which ran from Watertown to a point a little west of Echo Bridge.
For many years this line was not wholly defined. Mr. Seth Davis, writing in 1847, tells how the dispute as to its location broke out in the midst of a winter- squash yard at the junction of Pearl and Watertown Streets shortly after 1778, and the line passing over a large squash - the large end being east - the parties separated with no kind feelings, after using the nick- names "Squash End" and "Bellhack." Years later "Old Gentleman Ward," as he was called, made a famous reply to two gentlemen from another part of Newton who were bantering him for residing in "Squash End." He replied that the "seeds of that squash were mostly in the end of it." Up to the latter part of the nineteenth century the name "Squash End" for West Newton was still heard among the older inhabitants.
The new parish, therefore, included Nonantum, most of Newtonville, West Newton, Auburndale, Lower Falls, Waban, and all that portion of Waltham south of the Charles River - nearly half of the town- ship, but containing only one-third of the population. For there were but fourteen houses along this high- way from Newtonville to Lower Falls; only one house was between Newtonville and West Newton; only
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CHURCH
four houses were in West Newton, where one writer affirms "there were but fifteen houses in a region two miles square." A tavern stood near the corner of Elm Street, behind the elm tree that fourteen years before this church was organized the landlord brought home on his shoulder and set out to please his wife. South and east were the wooded hills and rocky pastures. North and west were the tilled farms reaching to the river, and up the road a little distance was the school- house.
On October 21, 1781, the very day after Cornwallis surrendered, and before the news could have reached Boston, the people of this parish gathered one Thurs- day on the plot of ground where later our old Wash- ington Street church stood. Can you picture them coming from several directions under the October colors and sunshine, with tanned faces and hard hands, clad in homespun, riding on horseback, men with women behind them, the young people walking, the land sloping more rapidly than now to the babbling Cheesecake Brook, the horses tied to the nearest trees, the wooded hills, the open fields, the crooked and ill- made road? Probably all came who could, for to organize a church in the new parish was an event of universal interest. And when they had assembled in the now seventeen-year-old meeting house and lis- tened to a sermon from the pastor of the church at Brookline, thirteen men, including the pastor-elect, Mr. Greenough, who had preached for six months, stepped forward as their names were called. The twelve who responded probably symbolized the twelve dis- ciples. Some of them lived in what is now Waltham, and along the Charles River towards Nonantum, one near the Pine farm, one in Waban, one north of Au- burndale, and four on the Lower Falls road. Six of them had probably served in the war; two, and per- haps three of them, were over seventy years old; four
[13]
THE SECOND CHURCH BOOK
were about fifty; and five, thirty or under. And stand- ing there they assented to no creed, but covenanted together to form a church of Christ, and devoting themselves to the service of God, they agreed to walk in brotherly fellowship as a church, and signed their names to the covenant.
It was voted: "In order to entitle any person to either of the ordinances of the Christian Scriptures - namely, baptism and the Lord's Supper - he shall make a public confession of religion and dedication of himself to God; and that every person so doing shall be entitled to both ordinances, and may come to them without making any other profession of his faith and belief. The Boston Independent Chronicle reporting the services, adds :- "A remarkable decency and good order were preserved through the whole solemnity."
It is true that, under the strain of theological con- troversies in later days, the church did adopt elabo- rate theological creeds as tests for membership, but in the pastorate of Dr. Park, when the church was in- corporated in 1914, it returned to its earliest practice, and the only creedal test included in its by-laws is now that "this church shall consist of all disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall, upon recommendation of the Executive Committee, be accepted by vote of the church and shall enter into its covenant and subscribe to its by-laws."
The covenant is: "In accordance with your purpose to live a Christian life, you now heartily unite with this church, to share with us its work and worship; covenanting with God and with us to be loyal to it in all things, to attend (so far as possible) its appointed services, to guard its good name, to promote its usefulness and prosperity as God's instrument for the good of men, and to walk with us in love and faithful- ness so long as your relations with us shall continue."
Two weeks from the Monday following this mem-
[14]
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CHURCH
orable assembly day the young pastor (aged twenty- five) was ordained and installed; a week later thirteen women were added; and so the church was formed with twenty-six members, all save two from the First Church, which for seventeen years had fought the existence of a second church, and for twenty years longer continued to dispute with it about the minis- terial wood lot, but sent it as part of the communion furnishings a pewter dish and four pewter flagons.
Its first pastor, and its pastor for fifty years, was Rev. William Greenough, valedictorian of his class at Yale, and later a student at Harvard, from which he received the degree of M.A .- a tall and genial gentle- man of some wealth and great good sense, who dressed in knee breeches and wore silver-buckled shoes and a cocked hat long after that costume was generally abandoned. In the pulpit he wore a white stock and bands and a preacher's gown. He was greatly be- loved and wielded a wide influence, both within his parish and beyond it. His hospitable home was behind abundant lilac bushes and tall elms on the west side of Washington Street, between Auburn and Greenough Streets, where his farm was. For many years his salary was about $266, paid in rye at four shillings, or corn at three shillings a bushel, or pork at three pence and two farthings, or beef at two pence and two farthings a pound, together with fifteen cords of wood; it never was very much more. Indeed, he is said to have given more to the church financially than it ever paid him.
For thirty years he preached in the old building, with its glaring and shutterless windows, its bare walls, its uncarpeted floor and its unpainted seats; and it remained unchanged, except that a stove was secured after eighteen years, and the rough benches gradually gave place to square pews with hinged seats on each side, which those who could afford to pay five pounds
[15]
OUR BEAUTIFUL OLD HOME, BUILT IN 1848, BEFORE THE ALTERATIONS OF 1885-86
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CHURCH
for a "pew spot" bought and built upon. And such pew spots" were not all disposed of till 1804.
Mr. Greenough died in 1831, at the age of seventy- five, four days after preaching his fiftieth anniversary sermon in Squire Davis's schoolhouse on Waltham Street, as the meeting house was being repaired. His body was buried in the old River Street cemetery. He was succeeded immediately by Rev. Lyman Gilbert, who for three years had been his colleague, and was sole pastor for twenty-five subsequent years. Dr. Gilbert was born in Brandon, Vermont, in 1798 and was a graduate of Middlebury College and of Andover Theological Seminary. In a paper con- tributed by Dr. Gilbert for the one hundredth anni- versary of this church, he describes the parish as he found it in 1831, when there were but sixty houses and four hundred and eighty people between Lower Falls and Watertown, and only forty families connected with the church, which had but fifty members. "In the community were counted twenty drunkards, and twenty more occupying a doubtful position." There was a private English school and two one-story dis- trict schools of one room each. "I found no doctor, yet the people were healthy; no lawyer, for the people were peaceable; no ex-minister, for all the ministers were needed in those days; no liberally educated man, for his proper work was elsewhere. The people were farmers, mechanics, and other laborers. Only one piano was in the place. The church was lighted by fifty windows. A bell for the first time had been put up to ring in the coming of the new pastor. My salary was $600, and raised by taxation. In the limits of the parish were two corporations, which have no souls and could not 'sign off.' The two paid about one-third of my salary, but when the law was repealed three years " after, having no souls to care for, they ceased paying.'
But they were "a united and loving people, working
[17]
REV. HENRY J. PATRICK, D.D. Installed, September 26, 1860 Resigned, September 26, 1893
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CHURCH
together to the extent of their ability, and beyond, to maintain the gospel at home, and contribute to the various benevolent objects presented." While Dr. Gilbert was pastor, the new church was erected and nearly paid for by the sale of pews, and the railroad to West Newton was finished.
Dr. Gilbert was succeeded by Rev. Joseph P. Drummond, who was born in Bristol, Maine, in 1824. Mr. Drummond's successor was Rev. George B. Little, born in Castine, Maine, in 1821. These two young men had been classmates at Bowdoin College and were also graduates of Andover Theological Seminary. Both were brilliant men; but each came to West Newton with incipient tuberculosis upon him, and died shortly after coming - the former in the first year of his service, at the age of thirty-three, the latter in the second year of his service, at the age of thirty- six. The council that dismissed Mr. Drummond in- stalled Mr. Little.
After three months, Rev. Henry Johnson Patrick, born in Warren, Massachusetts in 1827, a graduate of Amherst College and Andover Seminary, and D.D. of Amherst, was installed as fifth pastor of the church. He remained pastor for nearly thirty-four years and was pastor-emeritus until the time of his death in 1909. His connection with the church thus lasted for nearly half a century. He became one of the leaders of church life in Greater Boston. Under him the village church became suburban. In later life he lost his sight and called upon his wonderful memory to enable him to preach, recite Scripture, and conduct services of wor- ship for his beloved people. He and Mrs. Patrick lived for many years in Newtonville, patron saints of the church they had done so much to foster.
The council that dismissed Dr. Patrick installed his successor, Rev. Theodore P. Prudden, D.D., who for thirteen years was pastor of the church. Dr. Prudden
[19]
REV. THEODORE P. PRUDDEN, D.D. Installed, April 17, 1894 Resigned, December 30, 1906
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CHURCH
led the church during the difficult years of theologi- cal reconstruction, when the old views were being modified by the new. He was a fearless exponent of the modern standpoint, and taught the results of the scholarship of his day with earnestness and power. He was a man of tender heart, and his sympathy and friendship meant much to those in sorrow. He lived to see the walls of the new church rising, and en- couraged both minister and people with his hearty support in the enterprise. Dr. Prudden was succeeded in 1907 by Rev. John Edgar Park of Andover, Mass., who was born in 1879 in Belfast, Ireland, and is a graduate of the Royal University of Ireland, Dublin, and of Princeton Theological Seminary. Dr. Park resigned in 1926 to become President of Wheaton College.
Let us not forget that for thirty-one years this was the only church of any kind in this half of Newton; and for sixty-eight years it was the only church, save St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Lower Falls, and that it has contributed of its members to form St. Mary's Church, in 1812; the church in Waltham, in 1820; the Unitarian Church in West Newton, in 1848; the church at Auburndale, in 1850; the Methodist Church at Newtonville, in 1863, and at Auburndale, in 1864; the Baptist Church, West Newton, in 1866; the Central Church at Newtonville, which grew out of a prayer meeting appointed and regularly attended by Dr. Patrick, in 1868; and finally the Church of the Messiah at Auburndale, and St. John's Church, Newtonville, in 1898. In territory which was once its sole parish, there are now scores of churches. When it was founded there were in Massachusetts only the following number of churches: Roman Catholic I, Universalist 3, Quaker 6, Episcopalian 11, Baptist 68, Congregationalist 330. Unitarianism appeared the next year, and Methodism nine years later.
[21 ]
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OUR FORMER CHURCH HOME ON WASHINGTON STREET, VACATED IN 1916
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CHURCH
Since that first building, reared one hundred and sixty-two years ago (in 1764), it has had but two new meeting houses, but it has made frequent enlarge- ments and improvements. In 1812 the primitive structure was moved back, lengthened fourteen feet, and adorned with porches, a belfry, larger galleries and a richer pulpit. Nineteen years later (1831) it was turned around facing the street, its galleries removed, and it was furnished with more modern pews. The next year its first small vestry was made in the basement.
In 1848, when it was sixty-seven years old, the new church, with graceful spire and basement vestry, was built, and the old church, some of the timbers of which are in the present city hall, became a town house.
In 1885-1886 the church was again moved back, its graceful spire removed, and transepts added and the commodious parish house built in front. Again, in 1894, the auditorium was extended from the pillars outward and fitted with new pews and furniture; and in 1898, the large assembly room became a complete chapel and Sunday School room.
In December, 1908, a meeting of the congregation was held upon the recommendation of the church committee, at which the question of rebuilding the church was mentioned. It was felt that for reasons both of economy and dignity the time had come to plan for a new church. The suggestion was well re- ceived, and the congregation pledged itself by a rising vote to support the movement heartily. The sum of $37,500 was raised at Easter, 1909, for this purpose, and an Easter offering was devoted annually to this new church building till, on October 1, 1916, it was dedicated, free of all debt. The old church building became a part of the city property. A map had been constructed showing the location of every family in the parish and the new site on the side hill above the railroad station was found to be the geographical
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A GENERAL VIEW OF THE PARISH HOUSE, SPIRE, CHURCH, AND GROUNDS
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CHURCH
center of the parish. Many hundreds of individuals contributed to the building. A plan of the spire was circulated and contributions of the cost of a stone or a pinnacle came in just in time to make it possible to build the spire, also, before the dedication. The ladies of the parish held a memorable fair on the site of the new church which realized the cost of the fur- nishings. At one of the offerings for the building fund the following circular was distributed in the homes of the people.
"In the early years of the Twentieth Century, a Rew Church was built in dest Retton, Mas sachusetts by the People who called themsel bes Congregational, which has been Justly Famed eber since as one of the Most Beautiful Churches in the Country.
y "Many Reasons have been given for its Wonder ful Beauty. But an Old Document from the pear 1911 has been recently Discovered which Explains the whole Matter.
y "It is therein Stated that this Church was not bu ilt to Order by a Few Men, as so many ready-made Churches of that Time were, but that Every Man, Mom an and Child in the Whole Parish helped to Build the Church, there not being a Single One who Leaned back and said "Let the Others do it!"
I "Everyone Rich and Poor, Doung and Old alike brou ght of their Very Best. Three great Caster Sundays were held as Festivals of Generosity upon which Che n the Alost Liberal surprised themselves and the More Prudent Ones bloomed out into Glorious Prodigality of Cheerful Giving.
y "Out of the Generous Lobe with which these people lobed their Rew Church before it was Born, there came to light this World-famed Sanctuary, built not so much of Wood and Stone as out of the Lobe and Self-sacrifi ce of a Mihole Generation.
y "That is why in our Prayers we thank God for the Carly Twentieth Century. That is why we Journey eben from Japan to say our Prayers within it, and aft er these Many Dears amid the Multitudinous Ruins of Later Churches it still Remains and will Ever Remain a Top Foreber."
Extract from "The Early Chronicles of the Twentieth Century" (Tokio, 2131 A. D.)
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CORNER STONE DEDICATION. DR. PARK, DR. PRUDDEN, MRS. PATRICK, SEATED, AND MR. H. B. DAY, AT RIGHT
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CHURCH
The church for long did not grow rapidly. From 1781 to the end of Dr. Patrick's ministry in 1893, 1,022 members joined it; while under the pastorate of Dr. Prudden 209 united. After that the suburb grew rapidly and during Dr. Park's leadership more than 1,000 members were added. Its membership on the day of the acceptance of Dr. Park's resignation was exactly 1000.
This church has always been progressive. It was a pioneer in the custom of reading the Bible without comment as a part of worship, it having been voted at the first business meeting "that a portion of Scripture be read in public on each part of the Lord's Day." It was a pioneer in church music, being among the first to adopt singing by note, which many other churches opposed because their fathers had sung in another way, and before it was eight years old it voted fifty dollars for the improvement of psalm singing. It was a pioneer in having a choir, in using a bass viol and other new musical instruments, and in adopting congregational singing, in which for years it greatly excelled. It was a pioneer in the custom of having separate communion services. It has progressively used as musical instruments, a pitch-pipe, a bass viol, a violin, a flute, a melodeon, a small reed organ, a pipe and reed organ, a small pipe organ, and an organ which, having been purchased of the First Congrega- tional Church, Manchester, N. H., after twenty years of use, was set up here in 1876, and remained in use till 1916.
The church was among the earliest to establish a Sunday School, which met for the first time at nine o'clock on Sunday morning, with thirty children to start with, in the spring of 1819 in a little schoolhouse on Waltham Street, opposite the Davis school. After two or three years, the church authorities were con- vinced that it was a good thing, and allowed it to
[ 27 ]
A GENERAL VIEW OF THE CHAPEL, WHERE THE CHURCH SCHOOL IS HELD
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CHURCH
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