USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 2 > Part 23
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 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
From the time of the founding of the First Church in 1630 and for more than one hundred years, to 1748, the longest interval that elapsed without the founding of a new church was thirty years. On an average every decade saw a new Congregational church established. It is astounding to note the con- trast between the first one hundred years and the next half-century. Not one new Congregational church appeared from 1748 until Park Street Church was
* EDITORIAL NOTE .- Attention is called to the treatment of Congregationalism in the following article by Dean Sperry, which dwells more on contemporary phases of this great religious movement. Dr. Conrad traces the history of his denomination from the point of view of its origin, its traditional doctrines, its social influence, which was so strong in the nineteenth century, and certain of its religious activities. Dean Sperry groups it with other churches having a similar form of government and emphasizes development, rather than continuity, of doctrine. The reader will understand that Dr. Conrad speaks for the conserva- tive Congregationalists, who have changed comparatively little since the early period, while Dean Sperry represents a larger group of churches, in and near Boston, which, while seeking to maintain the evangelical spirit, reflect modern liberal tendencies.
Reference may also be made to Mr. Mead's article, in which he pays tribute to several of the leading figures in Boston Congregationalism, as well as in the other Christian churches.
592
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
organized in 1809. Indeed, there was an absolute loss during that period of sixty-one years. At the beginning of the nineteenth century only two of the sixteen churches continued to be Congregational. The Unitarians had cap- tured and appropriated all the rest.
Nevertheless the history of Congregationalisin in Boston before and since that date is a record of magnificent achievement in civic, educational and religious lines. The gradual unfolding of the public school system was insti- gated by Congregationalists. Harvard College was a product of Congre- gational thought and purpose. The legislation of the state after the War of Independence was instigated almost entirely by leading Congregational min- isters for decades. Boston Congregationalists were intensely active in the antislavery movement and the first and perhaps most notable address of William Lloyd Garrison was given in Park Street Congregational Church. Andover Theological Seminary had its inception in the hearts of Boston Congregation- alists in the first years of the nineteenth century. This is equally true of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which has been one of the mightiest agencies in the spread of the Gospel of Christ in all the world. For one hundred and twenty-five years it has been engaged in the propagation of the Gospel. It would be impossible to overestimate the great influence of this tremendous organization, which owes its very existence to Boston Congregationalism.
Boston Congregationalists, again, organized the American Education Society, in 1815, which was formed in Park Street vestry. The American Home Missionary Society, now having headquarters in New York, had its real organization in 1826 at a meeting of the Friends of Home Missions with a group of Boston Congregationalists. In 1826 the first meeting to consider temperance reform was held in the Park Street Church vestry, which resulted in the organization of the American Temperance Society. In October, 1824, through the action of Boston Congregationalists there was formed a Prison Discipline Society. The first Foreign Mission Press was suggested and started by a Boston Congregationalist. In 1849 a group of Boston Congregation- alists met in Park Street Church and Charles Sumner gave his great address before the American Peace Society on "The War System of Nations." Boston Congregationalists were among the first in the United States to further the interests of the Sunday School movement. One of the very first meetings ever held for this purpose was held in 1817 in Park Street Church. It will be seen that the Congregational Church in Boston has been a powerful factor in shaping the religious and social activities which have done so much to further the interests of the kingdom of God in America. The Congregationalists also originated, abetted and supported every great moral reform movement that has ever been carried on in the city. This church may well point with pride to what her influence has accomplished for the public welfare. Congrega- tionalism is so interwoven with each and every unfolding of our civic life that we cannot think of Boston historically without at the same time recognizing the profound contribution made by Congregationalism.
Forty-one Congregational churches came into life during the nineteenth century. Twenty-six of them were on the territory of old Boston and fifteen
.
593
CONGREGATIONALISM
on territory now a part of the City of Boston. The membership of the thirty-four Congregational churches now in Boston is approximately eighteen thousand. A list of the Congregational churches with the dates of their organization appears herewith:
First Church .
1630
Salem Street Church .
1827
Second Church .
1669
Mariners' Church
1830
Brattle Street Church
1699
Central Church
1836
New North Church
1714
Maverick Church
1836
New South Church.
1719
Free Church.
1840
Federal Street Church
1727
Garden Street Church
1842
Hollis Street Church.
1732
1737
Messiah Church.
1844
Samuel Mather Church.
1742
Church of the Pilgrims.
1844
School Street Church.
1748
Leyden Church.
1845
First Church in Roxbury.
1632
Payson Church.
1845
First Church in Charlestown
1632
Shawmut Church.
1849
First Church in Dorchester
1636
Edwards Church.
1857
Second Church in Roxbury
1712
Church of the Unity.
1860
Third Church in Roxbury
1770
Springfield Street Church
1860
Park Street Church.
1809
Oak Place Church.
1860
Union Church .
1822
E Street Church
Phillips Church.
1823
Chambers Street Church. .
1861
Green Street Church
1823
Salem and Mariners' Church.
1866
Bowdoin Church.
1825
Olivet Church.
NEW DISTRICTS OF BOSTON
(Churches Founded Since 1800)
Second Church, Dorchester ..
1808
Central, Jamaica Plain. 1853
Brighton Church.
1827
Emanuel, Roxbury
1857
Village Street, Dorchester
1829
Trinity, Neponset.
1859
Winthrop, Charlestown.
1833
Pilgrim, Dorchester .
1862
Eliot, Roxbury
1834
Highland, Roxbury.
1869
South Evangelical, West Roxbury
1835 Walnut Avenue, Roxbury.
1870
Bethesda, Charlestown.
1847 Church of the Hollanders, Roxbury .. .
1873
Boylston, Jamaica Plain. 1879
1827
1650
Berkeley Church.
Old South Church .
1835
Mount Vernon Church.
1844
West (Lynde Strcet) Church.
1876
The last fifty years of Congregational activity in Boston have been more notable than any other period in Congregational history. Of course, the two interests of major importance have been missions and evangelism. The great missionary enterprise, under the American Board, continued to expand with remarkable rapidity from 1880 until 1920, though naturally the World War materially interfered with this phase of our activities. Every year saw some new Mission Station opened and manned and the older centers of mis- sionary activity, like China, Japan and India, underwent a radical change on account of the new stress on social welfare. The Congregational Church in Boston has also taken the initiative in every extensive evangelistic movement which has occupied the entire city. Among many others there have been three very successful evangelistic movements headed by Congregationalists,- the Chapman-Alexander Campaign, the first Gypsy Smith Campaign and the Billy Sunday evangelistic work, occupying six weeks.
5.94
FIFTY YEARS of PROTEIN
Another great feature of Boston Congregational work in the past fifty years has been the part it has played in developing international good will and world peace. This denomination has been second to none; indeed, it has been foremost in seeking organic church unity, world peace and international fellowship. In philanthropic effort, the church has been second to none in its promotion of the larger activities, like the Near East Relief, headed by Doctor Barton, a Congregationalist of the American Board. Few organizations in this city are more extensively or intensively engaged in philanthropic work than the Congregational City Missionary Society. The denomination has not been indifferent to the importance of church extension work in and about the city. Accordingly the Congregational Union was organized, having as its purpose the promotion of the interests of the weaker churches and the establishment of new ones.
A ministers' meeting has been maintained by the denomination every week during the past fifty years. For several years the New England Congress, comprehending all New England, was maintained. It was organized in Park Street Church and headed by the pastor of that church at the beginning. Congregationalism, true to its traditions, has been enthusiastic in the develop- ment of religious education in the churches. This denomination has also been eager and aggressive in the support of Vacation Bible Schools. Congrega- tionalists furnish the presidents of the Lord's Day League and the Evangelistic Association of New England. Both of these institutions are taking a prominent part in promoting real religion. A strong Congregational Club has been maintained.
It becomes evident, therefore, that Boston Congregationalism is not weakening in its zeal in good works or in its administrative ability. We have touched upon only a few of the high points in Congregational activity during the past fifty years in the City of Boston, but they will indicate something of the scope of the work being done by representatives of this great denomination in Boston.
THE UNITARIAN, UNIVERSALIST AND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES
By the Reverend WILLARD L. SPERRY
The churches of these three denominations may be treated together in so far as they all share a common church polity; the local and individual church being the center of ecclesiastical authority for its own members. There has been no impairment of this principle of church government or actual encroach- ment upon it. But it is fair to say that during the last half-century emphasis, in each instance, has been laid, not upon the rights of the individual church, but upon the fellowship of churches within each communion. There is a far stronger sense of denominational unity and a much more adequate organization to further the common denominational concerns of the individual parishes than there was fifty years ago. In basic principle, however, these churches continue to stand in the oldest church tradition of Boston and New England,
1
1
595
UNITARIANS, UNIVERSALISTS AND CONGREGATIONALISTS
that of congregational church government. It must be admitted that the developinent of the "social consciousness" and the spread of a general culture which is increasingly "standardized" is not for the moment best served by this highly individualized type of church, yet increasing suspicion of a stand- ardized society bids fair to open a new opportunity to churches of this polity.
The last half-century has seen the rapid extension of Greater Boston. Many of the churches which fifty years ago were in residential districts of Boston proper now find themselves in business areas of the city and the church situation has changed accordingly. With these three denominations, as with others, the record of their history in the municipal area proper is misleading unless supplemented and corrected by statistics from the surrounding suburbs. The record for Greater Boston would give a much more accurate and adequate picture of the several situations than is to be had from the following figures, which are confined to the municipal unit.
UNITARIANISM
In 1880 there were in the City of Boston thirty parish churches, all the offspring of the First Church in Boston, founded in 1630. In the intervening fifty years four new churches have been started in the city, but a number of the churches, separate in 1880, have been united for the sake of greater economy and efficiency. There were in 1930 in the City of Boston eighteen Unitarian churches, with a membership of 7,191. This constituency of about 7,000 persons has been practically uniform over the last half-century. Within a twenty-mile radius of Boston these figures rise to 30,000.
The American Unitarian Association celebrated its one hundredth anni- versary in 1927, and at that time moved into its new headquarters at 25 Beacon street, an attractive building, just west of the State House, built in the Bul- finch style to harmonize with the State House itself.
The outstanding denominational figure during the period is the Reverend Samuel A. Eliot, D.D., for more than a quarter of a century the President of the American Unitarian Association, now minister of Arlington Street Church. Doctor Eliot has also served at various times as President of the Boston Federa- tion of Churches and the Massachusetts Federation of Churches. His distin- guished father, President Charles W. Eliot, LL.D., of Harvard University, though the citizen of a neighboring community, should be mentioned here as of Greater Boston and as having been during his long lifetime a staunch sup- porter of Unitarian principles and an active friend of Unitarian causes.
Among the parish ministers of this denomination who have strongly marked the religious life of the city special mention should be made of the following men : Reverend Edward Everett Hale, Reverend Minot J. Savage, Reverend Brooke Herford, Reverend Stopford Brooke, Reverend Howard N. Brown, Reverend Paul Revere Frothingham. Most of these inen are not now living and all have completed their active ministry. Reverend Samuel McChord Crothers, a Cambridge neighbor, added much to the literary as well as the religious tradition of his denomination and of the greater Boston, and Pro- fessor Francis Greenwood Peabody, who makes his home in Cambridge, has
-
. 596
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
been one of the two or three forces in America requiring the re-reading of a purely private piety in the terms of the social gospel.
UNIVERSALISM
It is the distinction of this denomination that, while it may not have converted other liberal bodies to its particular tenets, it has leavened them all,' and has thus multiplied itself more clearly in the general Protestant community than as a separate sect.
In 1880 there were ten Universalist churches in Boston; in 1930 there are six, with a membership of 789.
The historic Second Church, under the leadership of the Reverend A. A. Miner, D.D., was an active center of various civic movements, Doctor Miner himself being one of the temperance leaders of the city and the Commonwealth. His successor, Reverend Stephen H. Roblin, D.D., carried this leading Univer- salist parish of the city through many vicissitudes, and after a disastrous fire and facing a changed constituency, the Church rebuilt at the corner of Boyl- ston and Ipswich streets, erecting the beautiful Church of the Redemption, one of the finest Gothic churches in New England.
The Shawmut Avenue Church was during these years one of the first to develop a full "institutional" program, adapted in detail to the new conditions of city life. This church was later merged with the Beacon Church in Brook- line. The Reverend George L. Perrin, its minister, was the first Universalist missionary to Japan, and after his return to Boston founded and managed until his death the great Franklin Square House, a residential center for working girls. Tufts College, which is described in the article on Education in this volume, was also a Universalist foundation.
Meanwhile much of the strength of this denomination, as it existed in municipal Boston in 1880, has been transferred to the suburban communities.
CONGREGATIONALISM
There were in Boston, in 1880, twenty-seven Congregational churches with a membership of 9,795. There are, as of 1930, thirty-four churches, with a membership of 18,677. Congregationalism therefore has nearly doubled its membership in the city during the half-century.
Of the twenty-seven churches existing in 1880 five have disbanded, four have united to form two resultant parishes; meanwhile, fourteen new churches have been started.
The Congregational House has been built at 14 Beacon street, to house all the local headquarters and many of the national headquarters of the denom- ination, as well as the Pilgrim Book Store and a hall for ministerial and other meetings.
Of the outstanding figures in Boston, the most distinguished has been the Reverend George A. Gordon, D. D., whose long ministry at the Old South Church in Copley square almost coincides with the half-century in review. His name has always been linked with that of Phillips Brooks as one of the two
597
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
outstanding preachers of Boston in recent years. He did much to liberalize the tlieology of the whole Congregational denomination throughout America, and his pulpit was a constant vindication of high and courageous thinking upon religion. His name must do duty for the names of many of his colleagues in the Congregational ministry of Boston who during these fifty years came increasingly to the principles which lie announced.
With one or two notable exceptions, which are treated elsewhere, the Congregational churches of Boston, as of the country at large, have abandoned the Calvinist position which they very generally held in 1880 and have swung over to a more liberal interpretation of Christianity, which accords better with the advance of modern knowledge, while maintaining in its essential temper the evangelical tradition.
Each of these denominations is represented in Boston by an ably edited and well known religious journal. The Christian Register speaks for the Unitarians, the Congregationalist for Congregationalism and the Christian Leader for the Universalists. All three are published in Boston and cir- culate throughout the country.
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH By the Reverend LEWIS O. HARTMAN
To two ancestors of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, more than to any other individual or pair of individuals, probably, is due the establish- ment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The personages referred to are Wesley's two great-grandfathers. Though not related to each other through ties of blood, by a singular coincidence they bore the same name - John White. Both likewise were Oxford University men. Reverend John White, a clergy- man of the Church of England, was Wesley's great-grandfather on his father's side. Of him a distinguished authority says :* "About 1624 he [Rev. John White] and some of his friends projected a new colony in Massachusetts, in New England, and, after surmounting many obstacles, secured a patent." In the "Dictionary of National Biography"t also, we read of this John White:
"Through his exertions the Massachusetts Company, of which Sir Richard Saltonstall was a chief shareholder, was formed. John Endecott was sent out as governor. Francis Higginson and Samuel Skelton were chosen and approved by White as ministers, and sailed for the Dorchester colony on 4 May 1629 in the George Bonaventura."
Of the other John White, Wesley's maternal great-grandfather and a distinguished member of Parliament, the "Dictionary of National Biography"t says:
"The first charter of the colony of Massachusetts was procured probably under his advice, and was perhaps actually drafted by him
* "Life and Times of Rev. Samuel Wesley, M. A.," by L. Tyerman, page 51.
t "Dictionary of National Biography," edited by Sidney Lee, Volume LXI, pages 59 and 60.
598
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
also. His name appears among the members of the company at meetings held before their embarkation, but he did not himself emigrate."
Approximately a century later - in the year 1736 - Charles Wesley, another great-grandson of the two John Whites, and a brother of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was driven into the port of Boston by severe storms while on his way back to England from Georgia. This dignified graduate of Christ Church College, Oxford, remained more than a month in the city and preached repeatedly in both Christ Church and King's Chapel. George Whitefield, another Oxford graduate, closely identified with the Wesleyan movement from its beginnings, became the flaming evangelist of early American history. He preached in Boston as early as 1740. In 1772 Richard Boardman, one of John Wesley's first missionaries, and in 1785 William Black, founder of Methodism in Nova Scotia, held services in Boston. In 1787 Freeborn Garrettson, "a veritable bishop in fact though not in form," discovered in this city three persons who had been members of a "society" that had been organized by Boardman. Garrettson preached several times in Boston on this visit and again in 1790.
But the inost conspicuous figure in the early history of Boston Methodismn was Jesse Lee, the Virginian. On Sunday, July 11, 1790, he stood under a great elm near the Frog Pond on Boston Common and preached a sermon so powerful that his hearers afterwards proclaimed that "such a man had not visited New England since the days of Whitefield." Under Lee's persistent campaigning and careful organizing genius, Methodism began to take form and increase in power in New England.
Bishop Francis Asbury, called the "chief founder" of Methodism in America, entered Boston on June 23, 1791. With some discouragement, however, he later recorded in his Journal his impressions of this visit, remarking upon the city's lack of hospitality to him.
Since the pioneer days of Lee and Asbury the Methodist Episcopal Church throughout New England has steadily grown in numbers, in influence, and in power for Christian service. In what may be deseribed as Greater Boston, there are now 126 churches, manned by 129 ministers, with a total lay member- ship of 40,000, and 123 Sunday schools with a total enrollment of 38,948.
In Boston proper there are three Methodist Episcopal churches - First Church, sometimes called the "mother of bishops," because of the number of its former pastors who have been elected to the episcopacy; Tremont Street, known throughout the Methodist world as the "eradle of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society," since that powerful national organization was founded there; and Copley, the "old Edward Everett Hale church," recently acquired by the Methodist Religious Society in Boston.
The headquarters of New England Methodism are located in the Wesleyan Building, Copley square, Boston, a structure owned by the Boston Wesleyan Association, the publishers of Zion's Herald. Here are housed the offices of a number of Methodist organizations and societies - the Bishop's office; the World Service office; the editorial and publishing offices of Zion's Herald;
.
1
-
REPRESENTATIVE BOSTONIANS -CLERGYMEN AND EDUCATORS BISHOP PHILLIPS BROOKS REV. EDWARD E. HALE
PRESIDENT CHARLES W. ELIOT
ARCHBISHOP JOHN J. WILLIAMS PRESIDENT WILLIAM F. WARREN
600
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
the library of the New England Methodist Historical Society; the Boston depository of the Methodist Book Concern; the offices of the Boston Missionary and Church Extension Society, the Board of Stewards and the Preachers' Aid Society of the New England Conference, and the Ministers Mutual Life Insurance Company; the publication office of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, the depot of supplies of the New England Branch of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, and the New England headquarters of the Woman's Home Missionary Society.
In the field of education New England Methodists have been dominated by the spirit of their founder, John Wesley, fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and today point with pride to the accomplishments of Boston University, chartered in the year 1869. Largely as the result of the influence of Gilbert Haven, afterwards editor of Zion's Herald, the institution was founded by three far-seeing Methodist laymen, Isaac Rich, Lee Claflin and Jacob Sleeper, who gave generously to the cause, under the leadership of that distinguished educator, William Fairfield Warren.
The university has been from the start nonsectarian and co-educational. Its charter provided that "no instructor in said university shall ever be required by the trustees to profess any particular religious opinion as a test of office, and no student shall be refused admission to or denied any of the privileges, honors or degrees of said university on account of the religious opinions which he may entertain." Plans for a new group of buildings on Bay State road overlooking the Charles river have been drawn and the president, Daniel L. Marsh, and the trustees are endeavoring to raise funds for the project.
During recent years New England Methodism has had a remarkable growth in institutional work. Under the New England Deaconess Association there have been developed in the last three and one half decades a general hospital of the first grade, the Palmer Memorial, a hospital for incurable diseases, and a school of nursing, all located in Boston and operating now under the name "The New England Deaconess Hospital."
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.