USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Annals of King's Chapel from the Puritan age of New England to the present day > Part 26
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THE MINISTRY OF HENRY WILDER FOOTE.
Bay previous to 1700 ; the blue flag with the crescent raised on Fort Sullivan by Moultrie in 1775 ; the Pine-Tree flag of New England; the yellow field, with the coiled rattlesnake, - a flag often carried by the Patriots, and a favorite ornament on their drum-heads ; the rattlesnake flag, with the motto, 'Don't tread on me,' used by Paul Jones ; a pine- tree flag, with rattlesnake coiled at its roots, - the flag hoisted by the Massachusetts State cruisers ; the Beaver flag, used by the merchants of New York before the Revolution ; the Grand-Union flag of 1776 ; and a Revolutionary flag of Rhode Island.
"The portraits, escutcheons, and flags were connected by a double garland of laurel.
" The reading-desk was enveloped in a British flag ; and the front of the organ loft was draped with large banners, representing the Lion of St. Andrew on a yellow ground, the pre-Revolutionary flags of New England, and the British Union Jack.
" On the restored Governor's pew was placed the ancient crown from the top of the organ. In front of the pulpit hung the carved tablet bear- ing the Royal Arms of England which formerly hung over the door of the old Province House, and is now in the possession of the Massachu- setts Historical Society. On the communion-table, beneath the windows of Munich glass which the late Mr. John Amory Lowell gave to the church, was spread the church silver, - embracing various pieces given by members of the parish in the last century, the beautiful memorial pieces of President James Walker, and the rich communion service formerly belonging to the New North Church, which was, on the dis- solution of that ancient parish in 1873, bought and presented to King's Chapel by members of our congregation."
The service was attended by a crowded congregation, in which State and Church were fully represented, - the State by its chief magistrate and a large number of past and present mem- bers of the judiciary and legislative departments; the Church, by distinguished and honored clergymen and laymen of various denominations. The music consisted of several chants admir- ably rendered, a version of the Twenty-third Psalm from Ma- ther's " Psalterium Americanum," sung to " York Tune," taken from an American music-book of 1712, and hymns written for the occasion by Oliver Wendell Holmes and William Everett. An " Address of Welcome" in behalf of the church was de- livered by William Minot. Addresses were afterward made by the pastor, by Governor Robinson, by President Eliot of Harvard University, a child of the church, and by several clergy- men, among whom were the Rev. Dr. Phillips Brooks, rector of Trinity Church, - which was at the outset a colony from King's Chapel,- and the Rev. George A. Gordon, pastor of the
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Old South Church, which enjoyed the hospitality of the Chapel during the period when its own place of worship was defaced and desecrated by the occupancy of the British troops, and until it could be repaired and renovated. Dr. Holmes also, who has been for many years a worshipper at the Chapel, read a poem1 full of the spirit of the day. Loving tributes were paid to the memory of Drs. Freeman, Greenwood, and Peabody, and among the felicities of the day was an address by Dr. Pea- body's son, Professor Francis Greenwood Peabody, endeared to the older worshippers in the Chapel for his own sake, for his father's sake, and for the name which his father gave him. Grateful mention was also made of a long line of those who had regarded the Chapel as to themselves the special "house of God and the gate of heaven," and whose names are still held in enduring honor, - of
"James Jackson, whose benignant presence fully shared with his sur- passing science and skill the conquest of disease and suffering ; William Minot, than whom no man ever had more entirely the confidence, respect, and reverence of the whole community, who told the secret, the open secret, of his life when on the margin of the death-river he said, ' I have no hope but in my Saviour, - through him alone I have a trembling, yet confident, assurance of heavenly happiness ;' Charles Pelham Curtis, long a most efficient officer and care-taker of this church, in which he was loved and honored, and but one of a family largely and still identified with the Christian worship, work, and cherished fellowship of King's Chapel ; Thomas Bulfinch, by both parents the rich inher- itor of ancestral virtues, an accomplished scholar too, whose modesty would have veiled the light of his pure and sweet life, had it not been kindled from that central sun whose rays a meek and lowly spirit cannot hide ; John Amory Lowell, toward whom there seemed a perpetual gravitation of trusts of the highest moment, that would have weighed down almost any other man, but which only brought out into the clearer relief his wisdom, his fertility of resource, and his unsurpassed fidelity ; Samuel Atkins Eliot, walking in his uprightness in sunshine and in shadow, who could no more have swerved from the right than the stars from their courses; Joseph Coolidge, than whom this church had no more loyal and no more worthy member, his heart-home always here in distant sojourns and in far-off lands ; George Barrell Emerson, the pioneer of reformed and truly Christian education, whose school was always a sanctuary, and its training no less for heaven than for earth ; Francis Cabot Lowell, who in blended dignity and grace, in transparent purity of soul and of life, presented all the traits that go to make up that highest style of man, the Christian gentleman ; Edward Pickering, meet representative of a family illustrious equally for public service and
1 This poem, and the inscription on 1895 to Dr. Holmes' memory, are printed the monument erected in the Chapel in on pp. 626, 627, 629, post.
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for private worth ; Joshua Thomas Stevenson, who in the stress of ar- duous official duty and weighty responsibility found time and heart for hardly less arduous work in the hospital, whose interests, in pure phi- lanthropy, he made his special charge ; George Tyler Bigelow, so admirably fitted to preside in a court on whose integrity not a momen- tary cloud has ever rested ; . . . and Charles Francis Adams, whose name will gain new lustre with the lapse of years, and whom posterity will regard as having borne at least as important a part in our country's second birth as his grandfather in the conflict through which it first struggled into life." 1
The entire service was all that could be desired; and the volume which records it, and contains with the Addresses the three historical Sermons, is precious not only as a valuable contribution to the church history of Boston, but no less so for its wealth of thought and sentiment on a high plane of literary excellence and devotional feeling.
Mr. Foote placed great stress on the memorable events of the Christian year as adapted to impress each its appropriate associations with the mission and work of Christ, and to call forth corresponding sentiments, resolves, and purposes to be embodied in the lives of the worshippers. For nearly twenty years he held a daily afternoon service in Passion-week, beside the Thursday evening Communion and the full morning service of Good Friday. He prepared, with the aid of Mr. Tufts, the organist, books of Christmas and Easter carols for the children, which, with appropriate prayers and responsive readings, formed the special afternoon service on the Sunday before Christmas and on Easter Sunday.2
It was in accordance with Mr. Foote's earnest desire, and with his cordial co-operation, that the midday Wednesday ser- vice was begun in King's Chapel in 1884. This has been renewed each subsequent winter, under the direction of the Suffolk Conference of Churches, and has been attended with growing interest and undoubted benefit.3
Mr. Foote rightly attached great importance to the hymno- logy and the music of the church, and for several years occu-
1 This list Mr. Foote could undoubt- edly have made much longer, yet even then incomplete. It would be made longer now, but for the fear that some names, signally worthy of remembrance, might be omitted. It is for this reason alone that the list, given at the two hun- dredth anniversary, as confessedly im- perfect, is not amplified.
2 The Christmas carol service was first held in 1865 ; the similar Easter service, in 1866.
8 In 1872 Mr. Foote held for three months a daily vesper-service, which was well attended, but could not be made a permanent institution without efficient and systematic aid from other ministers.,
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pied much of his leisure in collecting the best hymns for public worship, equally from among those which have a just prescrip- tive claim to be retained in use, from the hymns of the Ancient Church in their English versions, and from the choicest new hymns by living or recent authors. The Hymnal long in use in the Chapel, compiled by Dr. Greenwood, was undoubtedly the best of its time; but it was out of print, and so far super- seded in other churches that there seemed to be no sufficient reason for reprinting it. Mr. Foote had nearly completed his Hymnal, to which loving hands have added what was necessary to fit it for publication, and which has its value greatly en- hanced by the labor of his brother, Arthur Foote, in selecting and adapting tunes, many of which, favorites in English churches, have taken the place of tunes more familiar than congenial to the lovers of sacred song in this country. The book came from the press in April, 1890, and was adopted by the Proprietors at their meeting on Easter Monday.
In the charities of Boston King's Chapel has always held a foremost place, both as regards individual donations and the appropriations from funds collected for such uses. Mr. Foote, like his predecessor, took the lead in every philanthropic move- ment, and especially in those forms of charity which involve personal sacrifice and service. It is impossible to specify the various modes of benevolent activity which had their initial impulse or essential and constant furtherance in and from the Chapel. The members of the congregation have largely sub- sidized the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, and it was at one time proposed to that Fraternity to surrender the Bulfinch Street Mission to the entire charge of King's Chapel, - a pro- posal which was declined, probably on sufficient grounds. A large amount of Christian work has been performed in connec- tion with various North End missions, by the Employment Society of ladies connected with the Chapel, and in not a few enterprises for the relief of suffering, for the secular and reli- gious instruction of the unprivileged classes, and for the reform- ation of reclaimable wrong-doers. Miss Damon, who has been singularly successful in missionary labor, was employed in that service by the King's Chapel Society under the special direc- tion of Mr. Foote, at first in Boston proper, and afterwards for a series of years in East Boston. The support of the North Bennett Street workrooms was due, at the outset, mainly to King's Chapel, as has been, in part, the maintenance of dis- trict nurses for the poor.
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The charities rendered necessary by the War of the Rebel- lion had no more earnest advocate than Mr. Foote, and no more generous contributors than the members of his Church. Large subsidies were furnished for Miss Dix's work among the sufferers during the war, for the relief of the refugees at St. Louis, for a fair held at that city under Dr. Eliot's auspices, and for the Western Sanitary Commission. For several years King's Chapel maintained two or three teachers of freedmen, and sent well-stocked Christmas boxes to Aiken and to various other places in like need. The Hampton School has had no more generous or constant contributors than members of the Chapel congregation. Of this institution Mr. Foote was one of the trustees, and always, when he was able, attended the annual meetings of the Board. The beautiful and admirably furnished hospital 1 was due solely to his beneficent enterprise, and his name is cherished there as second to that of no one of the benefactors who have aided General Armstrong in that pre-eminently Christian work. In a sermon preached in the Chapel, Dec. 24, 1871, Mr. Foote said : -
" If I should begin to count the ways in which this Church has given to good objects, outside the church doors and as individuals, there would be no end. I wish to bear this public record, because there is probably no Christian church in this community more misjudged in this matter. Yet I must frankly say, that a part of our reputation is our own fault. There is no other Church which I know of, which tries so anxiously to hide its own light under a bushel. If it is good to show that we are not confined to our Church in interest, it is also good to work in it and through it."
For two or three years Mr. Foote had been liable to frequent returns of the old bronchial trouble, and with it there were symptoms, not at first alarming, but undoubtedly debilitating, of heart-disease. But he was for the greater part of the time able to perform the stated duties of his office, with the added labor which it was always his joy to render in every good cause, till December, IS88. From that time he was severely ill, some- times in apparent convalescence, but from month to month becoming more feeble, and for a considerable portion of the time regarded as in imminent danger. In April there were some favorable symptoms, and arrangements were made for his removal to his seaside residence at Magnolia, in the hope that
1 A memorial tablet to the memory of on the walls of this building by members Mr. Foote's eldest daughter was placed of this congregation. See p. 628, post.
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a change of air might give permanent relief. While prepara- tions were in progress with this end in view, he became more severely ill, and died on the 29th of May, 1889. During his illness he received every possible token of affectionate sympathy from his Parish and from more friends than could be easily numbered. His sufferings were severe for a part of the time ; but through the whole season of pain and infirmity he mani- fested in full the sweetness and power of the religion to which his life had been consecrated. He was tenderly loved and sin- cerely mourned by Christians of every name and creed, and is remembered by the entire community as having been second to no man of his time in the service of sacred truth and evangelic righteousness.
FONT PLACED IN THE CHANCEL IN 1867.
Faithfully your friend Henry W. Foote
MEMOIR OF MR. FOOTE.
ENRY WILDER FOOTE was born at Salem, Mas- sachusetts, June 2, 1838, - the second of six chil- dren, three of whom died in infancy. His descent, on father's and mother's side alike, was from the sturdy New England stock, which braved the dangers and hard- ships of our early settlement in defence of strong conviction and earnest thought; nor was it without a fair degree of culture.
Pasco Foote, his paternal ancestor, came from England to this country in 1634, and was one of the first settlers of Salem ; while his maternal ancestor, William White, was one of the founders of the town of Haverhill. Henry's great-grandfather, Caleb Foote, was prize-master in a privateer in the Revolution- ary War; was captured and imprisoned two years in England, and died in the West Indies, May 19, 1787. A journal kept during his service in the navy and subsequent imprisonment was printed in 1889, and is full of interest in its quaint portrait- ure of a life of energetic and patriotic devotion. His son, Caleb Foote, was born July 15, 1778, and was lost at sea. The Hon. Caleb Foote, third of the name and Henry's father, was born Feb. 28, 1803, and now survives at Salem in a vigorous and honored old age. He was early apprenticed in the printing- office of the "Salem Gazette," a paper of excellent standing in Salem, and afterward became editor and proprietor, giving to the paper great abilities and a discriminating judgment, which rendered it valuable, not only as a vehicle for the current news of the day, but for its careful selection of articles of scien- tific and literary importance. He also at different times served the State with credit as a member of the Governor's Council and of the Legislature. Oct. 21, 1835, he married Mary Wilder, the second child of the Hon. Daniel Appleton White and Mary [Wilder] White, of Salem. Daniel Appleton White was a man of rare literary attainments, and widely known and respected. He was born in Methuen, Mass., in 1776, graduated at Harvard College in 1797, was for some years a member of Congress,
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afterward Judge of Probate, and in all the positions which he filled eminent for his breadth of view, his scholarship, his conspicuous ability, and for his attractive social qualities. His house was open, in the generous hospitality of the day, to a wide circle of men distinguished in political and literary quar- ters; and his interest in the religious questions and controver- sies of his time gave him an extensive acquaintance and most intimate relations with profound scholars and teachers of the Liberal faith.
With such an ancestry, combining in rare degree ardent love of liberty, unusual literary taste, high aspirations for religious truth, and quick and ready sympathies, it was not strange that at a very early age Henry manifested great decision of character, a love for books, a strong abhorrence of meanness or deceit, and a frank, open, merry nature. His manner was tender and affectionate, and his considerate thoughtfulness of others and happy disposition rendered his childhood one of great sweet- ness and promise. A diary of his mother yet remains, faithfully kept for many years, in which she recorded in touching phrase her pride in the boy's youthful growth, her ardent satisfaction as she watched his development, and her constant anxiety that his every instinct should be pure and truthful. It is not per- missible to quote here words too sacred for the public gaze, but they present a delightful picture of that happy home life. We follow in the mother's words her prophetic hopes and fond affection ; we witness the gradual unfolding of a precious life ; and as we read, the thought comes to our mind how uncon- sciously her pen reproduced her own beautiful character in the portrayal of qualities of mind which had adorned her own rare womanhood, with something added of the sterner stuff befitting a manly life to come of active and extended influence.
As the boy matured, and habits of reading and study were slowly acquired, no pains were spared by both father and mother to guide and encourage. The home was made the centre of influence and affection ; instruction was given, but nothing was lacking of healthy, childish amusement. Children's tales and histories were read together by the fireside, poetry was com- mitted to memory and repeated, selections from religious books and the best of modern authors were studied and discussed, the boy's youthful enthusiasm and interest were stimulated and fostered, and he was led by gradual steps to the acquisition of correct taste and judgment.
At the age of eight Henry entered the Hacker Grammar
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School in Salem; and the result of these home influences was early shown in his uncommon powers of application, and in an ability to concentrate his thoughts, unusual in one so young. After a few years at this school, he was placed in the Fiske Latin School in the same city, in which he was fitted for Harvard College under the excellent instruction of Mr. Oliver Carlton, entering the latter institution with great credit in the summer of 1854.
He was a thoughtful boy, usually quiet and somewhat retiring, sensitive by nature, and not easily excited unless upon questions of moral right and wrong; remarkably even-tempered, but of such joyous temperament that the love and confidence of his schoolmates were quickly gained. With it all was great fixity of purpose and determination; the stream flowed quietly but strongly, with few ripples upon the surface, but ever moving on with steadily increasing power.
While at school, much of his leisure time was spent in his father's printing-office, poring with boyish delight over the mass of books and papers naturally accumulating in a place which was of itself a small library of current literature. He familiarized himself with setting type, with all the processes of old-fashioned printing, and to a certain degree with the names and personality of the public men of the neighborhood fre- quenting what was in those days a sort of literary headquarters. Doubtless by this experience his mind was broadened, and he acquired a deeper insight into human character and into the motives which influence men's actions. It is difficult now to realize the importance of the local editor of a prominent paper at that time in such a place as Salem, especially when, as in the case of Caleb Foote, he represented in a large degree the culture and social importance of the town. The printing-office was the centre of a large political and literary influence. From its presses went forth a power far beyond that exerted by the numerous local journals of the present day; and the columns of the newspaper were the means of imparting information, of guiding conduct, and of extending knowledge. The telegraph and the steam-engine had not then made the newspaper chiefly a vehicle for the news of the world, with its unhealthy sensational disclosures and trivial personalities; it was a real moulder of public opinion, and a powerful controller of public thought and taste.
At the age of twelve, for the sake of obtaining a coveted collection of coins, Henry undertook to deliver the "Gazette "
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upon one of the largest routes of the city; and for three years, through all seasons and all weather, he devoted the early hours of the morning, with his accustomed zeal and energy, to the laborious task. His father writes of this period: " He entered at the age of twelve upon the duties of a carrier of his father's newspapers, and continued them for three years. They occu- pied about two hours in the early morning, obliging him to leave the house in winter at five o'clock, in summer at four; and he never once, whatever the weather, shirked the hardships of the business, or neglected to answer on the instant the stroke of his alarm-clock. It was the verdict of all in the printing- office that the paper never had a more faithful and efficient carrier." In after life Henry was fond of dwelling upon the value of this experience, upon the habits of punctuality and method he thus acquired, the knowledge he obtained of the life of the poorer classes, and upon the depth of sympathy it aroused in his heart for struggling manhood. Things like these, trivial in themselves, often leave a lasting effect upon an impres- sionable and receptive nature; and we have his own testimony to his appreciation of their value.
The antislavery movement was at its height during his boy- hood and later youth; and Henry, impressed by his parents' teachings, and proud of the patriotic achievements of his an- cestors, entered zealously into all the discussions of the day, devoted himself with all the ardor of his nature to the defence of human rights, and became a deep student of the political and moral bearings of the great contest. This love of country and interest in all that concerned its intellectual and moral growth increased with his years; and, midst all his engrossing duties, a large part of his time was always given to instilling patriotic duty, and to helping forward efforts to elevate and dignify the nation's life. His profession later seemed to him to forbid active participation in political life; but he was a close observer and clear thinker, and regarded American citizenship as a sacred trust. A partisan he could not be. Parties were to him but convenient instruments for conducting the affairs of the country, and the only guide to personal action was ever to secure in the highest degree the real welfare of the country by honest meth- ods and through agents worthy of trust.
Beginning his college life in 1854, his extensive reading and classical knowledge easily gave Mr. Foote a high rank in his class. Whatever he undertook he worked out thoughtfully, with a genuine love for study. His rare mental poise and the
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enthusiasm of his nature made him beloved and respected by all who knew him. At this time his mother wrote of him : " Harry came home to spend Christmas. I did not know there could be such unalloyed felicity got out of life as he succeeds in getting. He looks all the time as if he had that minute heard some crowning piece of good news." This is a sunny picture of the young collegian, yet just as true in after years ; for the happy, winsome manner never left him, however great the cares and anxieties of life.
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