USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Dorchester > Fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of St. Mary's parish, Dorchester, 1847-1897 > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
It is impossible to speak of the influences which have developed our Church in the last fifty years without thinking of him after whom you have named your Club -the man who did more than any other to clear the Boston atmosphere of its misapprehension of the true character of our communion, and who led multitudes out of religious indifference, agnosticism, materialism and sin into the
N
108
Fiftieth Anniversary
light of her divine teaching. It is true that by the power of his genius, by the fascination of his manhood, by the purity of his character and by the warmth radiating from his loving heart, Phillips Brooks unconsciously drew men close to himself, but only to find him a door through which they passed into a vision of God, humanity and the Church which met the deepest needs of their intellect and heart. It was' in and through the teaching of the Church which he so nobly served that he saw this vision for himself and made it real to others. His loyalty to the Church was based on a deeper appreciation of its character than could find ex- pression in any boast of its pedigree. In his apostolic proclama- tion of Christ for the world and for the individual soul; in his conception of the Church and its doctrines as constituting the nobliest voice through which that proclamation could be made, men saw the proof of its apostolic lineage. Too loyal to use her name as a defiant shibboleth, by what he was and what he taught and practiced he commended the Church's spirit to the people of our city with a fullness which poured life not only into his own, but also into all our Parishes, as the same tide that fills the widest harbor fills the smallest inlets of the sea.
It was natural that such a man should have been condemned by some for what they called his unchurchliness and by others accused of unsoundness in the faith. Within the large toleration of our Church there must always be found those who fail to recognize ecclesiastical loyalty apart from denunciation of non-Episcopal Christianity, and who cannot recognize our doctrines unless ex- pressed in terms of their own narrow interpretation of them. It was impossible for Brooks to satisfy such tests. His loyalty was too deep and sure to need the support of a discourteous treatment of other communions, and his conception of the Church's formu- laries as the expression of universal world-encircling truths could not seem familiar to those who were unable to look beyond their limited interpretation of them. As a child fails to recognize its familiar rubber ring when a strong hand expands it to its utmost circumference, so there were many honest Churchmen who failed to recognize in Phillips Brooks' expansion of the Church's doctrines their own shrunken conception of them which they called Ortho-
109
St. Mary's Parish, Dorchester
doxy. It was the case of men of narrow perception honestly fear- ing the larger interpretation of a spiritual genius as heresy. Between them it was but a question of the size of the circle of divine truth within which he and they lived together.
As we think of the influence of Phillips Brooks's ministry in thus developing the Church of his love in the city of his love, what more loyal hope for her future can we cherish than that all her members may be inspired by his lofty belief in man's spiritual possibilities, his large hope for man's eternal destiny, and his earnest insistence on the comprehensive character of the Church of Christ ?
The Chairman : - In all that has been said about St. Mary's Church, there was one large element in its life which has not been emphasized perhaps as much as it deserves, - and that is the mis- sionary character which has always been revealed in her life and thought. We are interested to learn that St. Mary's has sent out, as you have heard to-night, two Clergymen who are doing strong work, - two young men in one family ; and there were two young women in that same family also, who went ont to do distinctly missionary work. We have with us this evening the Honorary Secretary of the Board of Missions, and it is a great pleasure to. me to be able to introduce to you Mrs. Twing, who will speak to us, perhaps, of her recollections of St. Mary's.
ADDRESS OF MRS. A. T. TWING. [MARY A. EMERY. ]
Although I cannot plead entire unfamiliarity with public speak- ing, this is the first time that I have ever been called upon to make an after-dinner speech. Probably it is because. I am one of the two or three persons present whose memory stretches back to the Services and Sunday School in Lyceum Hall, and to the consecra- tion of the old St. Mary's Church. I remember well being held up, as a child, upon the seat of the pew, and watching with great interest my father walking in the procession. A later memory is that of the early meetings of the Ladies' Aid Society, when it was held at my mother's house, always a very interesting time to us
IIO
Fiftieth Anniversary
children. Afterwards I had my own share to take in that same society, and my own personal interests in the other work of the Parish. It became the Ladies' Aid and Missionary Society under the rectorship of the Rev. Mr. Mills, who, when he came to us, seemed to open wide the windows of our Parish life, teaching us to look far out into the outside world around. It was he who led us to realize that the Parish to which we belonged, and which we so dearly loved, was only a part of that great Church, the Holy Catholic Church, in which we said we believed whenever we repeated the Apostles' Creed. He invited Missionaries, and the. representatives of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, to address us and to lay before us the needs of distant fields ; and , he himself followed up their appeals by instructing us in our duty as a people and as individuals regarding them.
It is a pleasure to me to come back to you to-day, after many years of absence, to look into so many familiar faces, to take so many dear friends by the hand, to listen again to the voice of the first Rector of this Parish, who baptized me in my earliest child- hood, to meet once more the second Rector who was so dear to us as children ; but the memory of Mr. Mills is very precious in our family, for to him we feel we chiefly owe our interest in the wider work of the Church at large. In its early days St. Mary's used sometimes to be called, by those who were not so happy as to belong to the Parish, " the Mutual Admiration Society." We were indeed a very happy people ; perhaps we thought too much of our- selves or of each other; but from Mr. Mills's lips, and from his example, we learned a lesson of unselfishness, and of care for those other sheep outside the fold, never to be forgotten.
In the years that have gone by since the days of his ministry among us, I have been permitted to see the work of the Church in all parts of our own country, from the lumbering regions of Maine to the mining camps of California, from the Indian Missions of Minnesota to the Missions to the negroes of the far-distant South, and even beyond the borders of this land of ours, far away into China and in Japan. Not only there, but everywhere that I have been -in Ceylon, in India, in Egypt, in Palestine, in Greece, in the more familiar parts of Europe, wherever English-speaking
III
St. Mary's Parish, Dorchester
people are to be found - there always may be found also the Ser- vices of the Book of Common Prayer, as we use it ourselves or as it is used in the Mother Church of England, translated into many other languages, and dear to many different peoples and tribes of dusky hue, who have been turned from darkness to light by the labors of our own Missionaries or those of the English Church. And it is because I have there seen realized the vision of greater and more glorious things than can be seen even in the most success- ful Parish life, that I look back to-day with gratitude to the teacher who first opened that vision to my mental gaze, and to the early days of that Parish whose Fiftieth Anniversary we are now cele- brating.
Before me are many unfamiliar faces, but they are friendly to me because we have all belonged to the same Parish home. May this larger vision of the Church of Christ be always ours, and may we all meet again in that brighter home above, where alone that vision shall at last be perfectly and forever fulfilled.
The Chairman : - I remember the last time that Bishop Brooks was at my house, that he said to me, "There is nobody who is so interested, or ought to be so interested, in a Church as the Senior Warden ; " one who has given, perhaps as no one else, his life, time and money to the work of the Church where he is interested. We have with us to-night our former Senior Warden, who has been for forty years a member of the Vestry of St. Mary's Church. It is a great pleasure and privilege to me to be able to introduce Mr. Bradford, and ask him to say a few words to us this evening.
ADDRESS OF MR. MARTIN L. BRADFORD.
Mr. President, the remark that Bishop Brooks made in regard to Wardens was eminently applicable to the Senior Warden who preceded me, with whom I was associated as Junior Warden a great many years, the late John P. Clapp, who for one year acted as Junior Warden, and then for thirty-six years filled the office of Senior Warden during the ministry of no less than five of the six Rectors who have ministered to this Parish during the last fifty years. Of him it may be truly said he always upheld the hands of
-
112
Fiftieth Anniversary
the Rector. We might well speak of him as the father of this Parish, and so regarding him, we may then say that St. James's, Roxbury, is the mother of the Parish, for Col. Clapp and his wife were members of St. James's Church. When this Church was started he was one of its first organizers, and from the very begin- ning until his death he labored for its welfare.
But there have been other men who have served St. Mary's faithfully as Wardens. There was Mr. James Jenkins, whom Mr. Drown spoke of. He was a very ardent, earnest man. He labored faithfully the few years he was in St. Mary's, and was very active in promoting the first enlargement of the Church. A disaster over- whelmed his business, and in 1857 or 1858 he went out west to begin life anew in Oshkosh. There he became a very active Churchman. He was the right hand Layman of the Bishop of Wisconsin, and many times represented that Diocese in the General Convention. He was a typical Northwestern Churchman.
Mr. William W. Page served many years as Junior Warden and as Superintendent of the Sunday School, and in other ways was a faithful worker. Mr. Daniel B. Stedman, Jr., was with us, serving fourteen years as Warden, and also in that most thankless of all Parish offices, the treasurership; for the Treasurer is always abused by every debtor and every creditor of the Parish. He does a great deal of hard work, and receives no pecuniary compensation for it, but only abuse from every side. But patiently, faithfully, Mr. Sted- man labored, as other members of the Parish have done in that capacity. Some of those here present can testify to the reality of those experiences ; and Mr. Albert A. Chittenden has given faith- ful service as Junior Warden, Vestryman and Treasurer.
And then always behind these have been the body of earnest, faithful Vestrymen. Mr. Drown has spoken of the character of the men who constituted the Vestry in his day. It is a good de- scription of those who have followed from that day until now ; and there is this that may be said of the influence of Col. Clapp as Warden and presiding officer of the Vestry : He was a wise coun- sellor, a truly godly man, a man who was always for harmony and peace, and I think that characteristic has belonged to this Parish. There have been, of course, differences, as there always will be.
+
-
MARTIN L. BRADFORD.
113
St. Mary's Parish, Dorchester
Where live and earnest men are at work on anything that they are interested in, they cannot always be of one mind, but quarrels there were none, and very little gossip. The influence of Col. Clapp has, I think, extended down through the years, and that has been the character of the successive Vestries.
I need not speak of the present officers of the Parish. You know them and their character. The Parish is in good hands, and will go on, I have no doubt, in the future, to increased usefulness in this community.
The Chairman, - I have 'pleasure in introducing to you Dr. Clarence J. Blake of Boston, to whom we are indebted for the beau- tiful prayer desk recently placed in St. Mary's Church.
ADDRESS OF DR. CLARENCE J. BLAKE.
Mr. Rector, members of the Club bearing the name of him who inspired men to live, and who dying urged into earnest life thou- sands of men who might not have lived so well or earnestly with- out him ; friends - may I say Dorchester brethren ? - members of St. Mary's Parish : I stand here your debtor, to thank you for giving me the opportunity of replacing in your church the memorial to my grandfather, the Rev. James Blake Howe; the memorial placed in the first St. Mary's Church by my father and my dear mother, the Rev. James Blake Howe's daughter, and destroyed by the fire which destroyed the first church.
Dr. Blake then gave a very interesting account of some of his ancestors, early settlers of Dorchester, and of family alliances between them, from which sprang some of the former members of St. Mary's in its earliest days, and then closed with these words : -
I go back with you, friends of St. Mary's, Dorchester, back to the old Dorchester settlement, to the people whose sinew is in St. Mary's Church, men and women who were not afraid to die, and valued life only so long as it ran between those two parallel lines of honor and service. (Applause.)
1
114
Fiftieth Anniversary
The Chairman : - I am going to ask Mr. Henry A. Clapp, as our last speaker, to say something to us.
ADDRESS OF MR. HENRY A. CLAPP.
Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen, --- It is a matter of no importance to you at all, but as I stand here it oceurs to me that my own little life has been almost exactly contemporaneous with that of this great Parish. It is many years since I have been actively associated with its membership; but if the years were twice as many, if it were possible I should be speaking to you now at the age of eighty instead of fifty, it must be that I should look upon you and upon such an occasion with peculiar emotion, and that as a man I should feel towards this Church as I can never possibly feel, I suppose, toward any other.
Perhaps the few words that I shall say in the next moment would not have been spoken were it not for what Mr. Bradford has said, and what I have to say will have no meaning to two-thirds of you ; but the other third to whom I speak, whose eyes I look into now, will understand how sincerely I utter myself when I say that my feeling as a son towards this Parish is peculiar. You are one living entity. The Parish never dies. You made and kept my father Warden of your Church, - associated with Mr. Bradford, with Mr. W. W. Page, and with Mr. Daniel B. Stedman, junior, -- for thirty-seven years. He was not a great man at all. He was not a man of exceptional force, perhaps not even of moderate force. He was simply a good man, gentle and sweet, one in whom there was no guile; and he had a certain power, which I should not have ventured to characterize, myself, but for Mr. Bradford's words, - something of that heavenly wisdom with which the Lord often inspires His obedient children when they are not possessed of intellects of the first order. But my feeling toward you is peculiar. You made him happy. If he had had his choice, he would rather have been Warden of St. Mary's Church than Emperor of the Russias. Though I never heard him say the words, I know that for year after year his large, tender soul was filled with joy and gratitude that he was allowed by you to have the privilege of ministering in his own humble way as one of the
115
St. Mary's Parish, Dorchester
servants of your Parish. For that, accept my sincere and most grateful thanks.
This Parish covers the period in Massachusetts from the begin- ning of the Episcopal revival till now. I am a little disposed to take issue with my dear friend, the Rev. Mr. Browne, on his sta- tistics ; but whether his statistics for the last twenty years are right or not, I 'can answer for the facts as they were fifty-one years ago. Before St. Mary's Church was begun there were in old Bos- ton (excluding South Boston) and in Roxbury and Dorchester, exactly eight Parishes of the Episcopal Church, with a membership of 1,600 or 1,700 communicants. There are twenty-three to-day, with a membership of more than 10,000. Just before St. Mary's Church was organized, the beautiful, loving and sagacious Bishop Griswold ministered as the chief pastor of the New England Dio- cese, which included Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Mas- sachusetts ; and now Massachusetts alone, under the lead of our noble chief pastor, is the third Diocese in the whole United States of America. What the changes have been in the last twenty or thirty years I am not sure about. Do not be afraid that I am going into history. I am not ; I simply desire to present to you the fact that when the old Parish was formed and begun worshiping in Lyceum Hall, the community was just beginning to be ripe and ready for the Episcopal Church. I do not deny or disparage the value of the great Puritan teachings, but we all know how much the Episcopal Church was needed by the State of Massachusetts. It was weak, it is strong; it was scorned, and to-day it has the reputation, and the advantages and disadvantages, of being the most fashionable Church in the eastern part of Massachusetts. But when it came into Dorchester - a fact which is not known to all of you - it came into one of the most simple, bucolic and rustic communities that you could imagine. Dorchester, fifty years ago, was marked by a singular rusticity and curious puritanic stiff- ness. The old hostility of the Puritans existed there as in very few places in New England. Both because of the strong Puritan tradition and the association of the early Episcopalians with the Crown, the old prejudice was strong against the Episcopal Church, so that it was not introduced without trouble, without opposition.
116
Fiftieth Anniversary
I remember that at a time about ten years after Mr. Drown be- came Rector, when the Parish was beginning to flourish, when there were, I think, seventy couples who were recognized as heads of families in the Church, Mr. Bradford or some gentleman said, "Let us take a census of the seventy couples in our Parish, and see how many of them were brought up in the Episcopal Church." It was done ; and of that seventy, it was found that just two couples had been brought up in the Episcopal Church, - that is, that three-fourths or four-fifths of the entire number were con- verts to the Episcopal Church; and the same experience is frequently repeated to-day. It has been the Church that has con- verted this end of Massachusetts without strife, without deliberate effort. Never was there a stronger testimony to what was needed by the people. It was offered with humility and simplicity, and, when it was fairly understood, was accepted with eagerness.
I will mention one thing more in the few minutes that remain to me. There are but three present in the room, and but few now living, who remember the Services in the old Lyceum Hall. Those three present are Mrs. Twing, Mr. Stimpson and myself.
Mr. Clapp then described the appearance of the old hall ; related the various secular purposes, for amusement and otherwise, to which it was put during the week, and mentioned various people who were conspicuous in the work of the Church in those early days. He spoke of the curiosity excited by the appearance of the Clergyman in his official vestments, and then said :-
That was Dorchester in 1847 ; what it is now you know. Surely there has been a great gain. Episcopacy has not been crammed down the mouths of our people. They have asked for it and taken it.
Then came the change, to which I wish to devote one minute. We went to the site on Bowdoin Street, -- and with that, all my associations are, so far as a child's could be, of a sacred sort. As I speak to you now, however, in my mind 1 step without the walls of the church, and some of you can go with me. It was a beauti- ful situation ; it is beautiful no longer, but then it was fair exceed- ingly. On Sunday afternoons when the congregation was dismissed
117
St. Mary's Parish, Dorchester
- many of the more sensitive would remain, to look upon the view to the West, and the weary Rector would pause to refresh his eyes with the fair landscape. The eye could sweep away through that long sloping valley up to the heights of our lovely Blue Hills. As I recall it now, I think of the words of the Psalmist, and know how they have come to some of you many times, especially in days of weariness, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." It was an ideal lot for a Parish Church, and the sunlight lay upon it in those golden afternoons like the very smile of God. You have gone now to a better place for your work, and your Church is grounded once more upon the granite rocks which make the ribs of Dorchester. Her foundations are on that granite, and though you do not have exactly that same view of the noble hills which once came to the parishioners of St. Mary's, you have it all in your hearts, the same view in the spirit, the same life of the soul. "As the hills stand about Jerusalem, even so standeth the Lord round about His people from this time forth for evermore."
The Chairman : - The hour is now so late that we cannot stay longer, but I am sure we all agree it has been good for us to be here.
ST. MARY'S PARISH IN THE DIOCESE.
CONTRIBUTED FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES.
Parishes in Diocese.
Years
Compared.
Sittings in
Parishes
Reporting.
Rank of
No. of
Communicants.
Parishes
Rank of
St. Mary's.
Scholars.
Parishes
Reporting.
Rank of
St. Mary's.
Pew Rentsand Not including
Parishes
Rank of
St. Mary's.
Without the
Parishes
Rank of
St. Mary's.
the Diocese.
Reporting.
Rank of
Parish Property.
Reporting.
Rank of
St. Mary's.
63
1850
216
45
61
36
40
54
36
$50 00
44
39
62 1852
....
60
61
34
393 42
47
17
61
1854
....
60
60
34
30
52
45
724 09
13
74
IS6O : 500
126
73 20
67
67
33
1, 143 00 :
52 9
56
16
$193 50
53
23
5
1861
I $67
700
175
19
14S
76 20
15.107 24
65
I
1,358 21
59
7
97
1872
254
25
9
159
94
9,733 32
7
1,079 75
So
12
113
175
208
107
IS
145
IOI
30 :
10,576 92
96
20
492 66
93
117
1877
213
115
25
105
112
54
5,307 05
113
22
293 80
105
33
120
ISSO
160
119
41
116
117
47
6,038 29
III
15
413 60
106
25
170
ISSS
575
175
102
40
98
156
S3
28,807 05
14S
20.90
136
90
$54 So
117
70
187
IS90
135
59
138
166
73
112
156
77
4,656 11 .! 160
32
147
45
300 SI
39
133
32
195 : 1892
, 285
154
150
ISO : 07
12S
172
79
9,970 07 . 176
1 5
55 00
154
25
59' 00
146
25
32,900 00
145
34
194
1894
505.
166
25
200
56
J57
ISI
5S :
5,278 02 176
31
$42 48
154
1 4
273 00
126
35
50,000 00
.
....
20S
1897 + 505 | 172
23
276
196
43
173
IS6
50
7,137 00 202
20
286 oo |
177
53
250 39
165
37
50,000 00
174
33
From 1861 the first column of " Contributions for Religious Purposes " includes " Parochial Objects " only, and " Objects without the Parish " are placed in a separate column. From ISSS the first column includes " All Parish Expenses." and that headed . " Without the Parish " includes "Diocesan Objects." but no: "Objects beyond the Diocese," which are thereafter separated.
Value of
Parishes
St. Mary's.
$6,800 00
9,500 00
69 : 30
74
31
586 06
-
29,000 00
$2
S6
:
IS
12ยบ
32,900 00
: 300
141 0%
Reporting.
Objects beyond
Parishes
St. Mary's.
St. Mary's.
Reporting.
Sunday School
Taxes (until
1888).
Reporting.
Parish.
.. .
94
S3 .
ISS
119
St. Mary's Parish, Dorchester
NOTES.
The foregoing Table gives the Rank of the Parish of St. Mary's in the Diocese as shown by Parochial Reports to the. Convention at different periods during the half century of its existence, in the number of Com- municants, the Contributions for Religious Purposes, etc., as stated in the headings of the several columns.
The form of Parochial Reports has been changed several times during the fifty years, and the reports rendered by the Parishes have been always more or less irregular, and incomplete.
It will be seen by reference to the Table, that in no year has the same number of Parishes reported on any two items, except only that in the year 1892, out of 195 Parishes 1544 reported both on Sittings and Diocesan Ob- jects, each of the other items being reported on by a different number.
COMMUNICANTS, EASTER DAY.
A record kept of Communicants on Easter Day, shows the following numbers present : --
1855, 35 ; 1860, 57; 1862, 80; 1864, 122; 1870, 147; 1879, 134; 1889, 98; 1892, 150; 1895, 169; 1897, 199.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.