History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 37

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 37

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ROMAN CATHOLICS .- The parent Catholic Church

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in Salem was that of St. Mary. The first Roman Catholic services in the town were held in 1806 by Rev. John Cheverus, of Bostou, the first Roman Catholic bishop of Massachusetts, and subsequently services were held occasionally by the bishop and Dr. Matignon during the intervening years till 1811, when services were held in a school-house on Hardy Street, by Rev. John O'Brien, who afterwards became pastor of the church in Newburyport. The first set- tled pastor was the Rev. Paul McQuade, who was here from 1818 to 1822. It was in 1821, and during his pastorate, that St. Mary's Church was built on the corner of Mall and Bridge Streets. This is supposed to have been the first Catholic Church built in Essex County, the church in Newburyport not being built until 1848. Before that year (1848) Catholics came even from Newburyport, and of course from the nearer and adjoining towns, to the church in Salem, Bishop Cheverus sometimes walking from Boston to Salem to preach and celebrate Mass. The land on which the church was situated was deeded to Bishop Cheverus by the president, directors and company of the Marblehead Bank, " for the use and benefit of a certain number of persons in Salem, who have or are about forming a Roman Catholic Church and society in said Salem." This church was built by subscrip- tions of citizens of Salem, some of whom were not Catholics, but entertained a kindly feeling towards the principal Catholics of the place, among whom were the late John Simon, Francis Ashton and Mat- thew Newport, representing, respectively, the three Catholic nationalities, French, Italian and Irish. The largest contributor was probably John Forrester, father of Simon, the great merchant of those days, who was himself of Irish birth, but a Protestaut in religion. The following is a partial list of the clergy of this church: John Mahoney, 1826 to 1830; William Wiley, 1830 to 1834; John D. Brady, 1834 to 1840 ; James Strain, 1841 to 1842; Thomas J. O'Flaherty, 1842 to 1846 (died March 29, 1846) ; James Conway, 1846 to -; T. H. Shahan.

When the Church of the Immaculate Conception was built on Walnut Street in 1857, the Church of St. Mary ceased to be occupied, that parish be- ing merged in the new one, and in 1877 the old church was torn down, and the land on which it stood was sold by decree of the Supreme Judicial Court, on the 20th of December, 1882, the terms of the deed by which the bishop acquired his title preventing the conveyance of an unquestionable title to another purchaser without this authority from the court. The line of pastors in the Church of the Immaculate Conception includes the names of Rev. Thos. H. Shahan, Michael Hartney and William H. Hally, with those of Rev. Charles Renoni, James Quinlan, Wm. J. Delahunty, Mat- thew Harkins, Wm. A. Kennedy, James J. Foley, Martin O'Brien and Thomas Tobin as assistants. The rapidly increasing needs of the Catholic population

had already called so urgently for enlarged church accommodations, even before the church in Walnut Street was crected, that in 1850 the Church of St. James was opened on Federal Street, though not ded- icated until January 10, 1857. Its first pastor was Rev. Thomas Shahan, and he was succeeded by Rev. William Daley (who died in Rome), and Rev. John J. Gray, the present pastor. The Rev. J. Healy, Michael Masterson, William Shinnick, D. J. Collins and John Kelleher have been assistant clergy- men in the parish since its organization. Two large schools, of five or six hundred pupils each, are carried on by sisterhoods of Notre Dame, connected with the two churches of the Immaculate Conception and St. James, respectively. An asylum for orphans and also, secondarily, for the aged and infirm, is main- tained on Lafayette Street, by a sisterhood of the Gray Nuns of Montreal, and has at present about seventy children in its care.

The French speaking Catholics of Salem, having become numerous, were gathered for worship in their own tongue in 1872, in the Church of the Immaculate Conception. There were about ninety families at that time. In 1873 they bought the old Seamen's Bethel on Herbert Street, and took the name of St. Joseph's Church. Rev. George Talbot was appointed the first pastor. He was succeeded by Rev. Ol. Boucher, and on the appointment of the latter to the rectorship of the French Church in Lawrence, Father Talbot resumed the charge of St. Joseph's. Rev. J. Z. Dumontier succeeded him early in Janu- ary, 1878. In September, 1878, Rev. Octave Le Pine was appointed pastor, and on the 13th of July, 1879, the present pastor, Rev. F. X. L. Vezina was given charge of the congregation ; Rev. Joseph O. Gadoury is his assistant. On the 26th of August, 1881, as the congregation had much increased, the old building on Herbert Street was found inadequate, and the Lus- comb estate, on Lafayette Street, was bought, and steps were taken to build a new church, which was done in 1883, and services were held in it in March, 1884. In April, 1886, the Elwell estate adjoining was bought for a parsonage. The French congrega- tion represents a population of about two thousand five hundred souls at present.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL .- Organized Methodism in Salem dates back to 1821, when a church was formed. In 1822 Rev. Jesse Filmore became its first pastor. The next year, 1823, a church was built in Sewall Street, the same that is now occupied by the Wesley Chapel congregation, and which is about to be re- placed by a more substantial structure immediately in its rear, fronting upon North Street. This church did not unite with the General Conference till Feb- ruary, 1835. Mr. Filmore had resigned his pastorate in 1832, but became pastor of the church again in 1835, and yet again in 1840, remaining till 1844.

The following names are to be found upon its roll of pastors previous to the formation of a second

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Methodist Church, in 1841: Joseph B. Brown, 1832- 33; Jefferson Hamilton, 1833; T. C. Macreading, 1834; Aaron Waitt, 1834-35; J. W. Downing, 1835- 38; T. G. Ifiler, 1838-39.

Trouble seems to have grown out of the ownership of the church building by the pastor, who had erect- ed it, and, as its owner, had a more potential voice and vote in its affairs than ordinarily falls to the pas- tors of churches, and involved relations between pas- tor and people not found to be conducive to har- mony.

This modest and not very ancient house of wor- ship has sheltered, at different times, and for longer or shorter periods, a great variety of worshippers, passing under uncongenial denominational names, resting here in turn temporarily on the road to larger and more permanent holdings elsewhere, or- on the road to further ecclesiastical transformation, or-on the way to extinction.

SECOND METHODIST .- In March, 1841, a second Methodist congregation was formed by members withdrawing from the first, who built a meeting- house in Union Street (afterwards occupied by one branch of the Second Advent Church). Rev. N. T. Spaulding was the first pastor, and among the earlier of his successors were Joseph A. Merrill, David K. Merrill, Horace Moulton, Phinehas Crandall, David L. Winslow, John W. Perkins; some of them, how- ever, for very short periods-from less than a year to two years. The difficulties in the Sewall Street Church continuing, the church in Union Street gradu- ally absorbed into itself the members of the former, and it became extinct. Meantime, its own pros- perity and increasing wants made a removal neces- sary, and the church on La Fayette Street, corner of Harhor Street, the present bome of the society, was built in 1851, and dedicated January 5, 1853. Its roll of pastors since it has occupied its present place of worship is as follows: Luman Boyden, 1851-53 ; A. D. Merrill, 1853-54; Daniel Richards, 1854-56 ; John A. Adams, 1856-57; Austin F. Herrick, 1857- 59; John H. Mansfield, 1859-61; Edward A. Man- ning, 1861-62; Gershom F. Cox, 1862-64; Loranus Crowell, 1864-67 ; S. F. Chase, 1867-69; D. Dorches- ter, 1869-72 ; J. S. Whedon, 1872-74; George Collyer, 1874-77; Daniel Steel, 1877-79; George W. Mans- field, 1879-82; William P. Ray, 1882-85; T. L. Gra- cey, 1885-87.

During the winter of 1871-72 the advisability of organizing another Methodist Church was consid- ered by the La Fayette Street Church, the result of which was that the old Methodist meeting-house in Sewall Street was purchased and re-dedicated, May 24, 1872, and a new society was formed, taking the name of Wesley Chapel, and Rev. Joshua Gill, ap- pointed by the New England Conference its pastor, first held Sunday services therein May 26, 1872. Thirty-five persons bringing certificates from the par- ent church were constituted the new church. The

following pastors have been successively in charge : Rev. Joshua Gill, 1872-74; William J. Hambleton, 1874-77; William H. Meredith, 1877-80; Charles F. Rice, 1880-83; Willis P. Odell, 1883-86; Thomas W. Bishop, 1886 -. Mr. Bishop is the present pastor. The church has enjoyed the services of devoted and capable pastors, and has had a large and substantial growth. Under the ministry of Rev. Mr. Odell the need of more room and better accommodations be- came so pressing that the enterprise of building an- other church to meet the wants of the society was taken up with spirit and harmony, and an encourag- ing subscription list was started with an assurance of final success. The work has gone forward in the hands of his successor, and the plans are perfected for a new church on North Street, which is to be of brick, with terra-cotta trimmings and a handsome tower, and which will have sittings for a thousand persons, its appointments in all other respects being designed to answer all the needs of a large and in- creasing congregation. By legislative enactment the church was authorized in 1886 to change its name to WESLEY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

THE INDEPENDENT CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY IN BARTON SQUARE .- In the autumn of 1819 the North Church pulpit becoming vacant by the death of Mr. Abbot, that society invited Rev. Henry Col- man, pastor of a church in Hingham, to become its minister. The invitation was not unanimous, and was declined. Later, a portion of the First Parish de- sired that Mr. Colman should be invited to become a colleague with their minister, Rev. Dr. Prince, but failed to persuade the society to take the action they advocated. In 1824 these friends of Mr. Colman in the North and First Parishes withdrew from their re- spective churches, and organized the Independent Congregational Society in Barton Square. A church of brick was built and dedicated in December, 1824. Rev. Henry Colman was installed February 16, 1825, and resigned December 7, 1831, on account of ill health. Mr. Colman had been pastor of the Third Church in Hingham thirteen years, and had taught a school there ; from 1820 to 1825 he taught a school in Boston. After leaving Salem he engaged in ag- riculture at Deerfield, Mass., and was employed by the State from 1836 to 1842 to investigate its agri- cultural condition and resources. In 1842 he was sent to Europe in pursuit of the same purpose, and the results of his observation were embodied in two octavo volumes. He also published reports upon agriculture and silk culture, and two volumes upon European life and manners. Visiting Europe a second time, for the benefit of his health, he died at Islington, England, August 14, 1849. He was born in Boston September 12, 1785, and graduated from Dartmouth College, 1805. Mr. Colman was an independcut thinker, and did not always follow the conventional roads as a theologian and preacher, a fact in which lay, doubtless, one of the causes -

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though not the sole cause-of the want of unanimity in the North and First Churches in desiring him for a minister.

Mr. Colmau was succeeded by Rev. James W. Thompson, who was installed March 7, 1832, and remained in this ministry twenty-seven years, till March 7, 1859. Mr. Thompsou had been settled in Natick before his settlement in Salem, and left his church here to take charge of the Second Church in West Roxbury (Jamaica Plain), of which he continued the sole or senior pastor till his death, September 22, 1881. He was born in Barre, Mass., December 13, 1805, and graduated from Brown Uni- versity, 1827. The society increased and prospered during his pastorate. The church building was en- tirely reconstructed iu its interior, galleries were added and a commodious vestry of brick was erected in connection with it, at the rear, to meet its increas- ing wants.

Dr. Thompson was succeeded by Mr. Augustns M. Haskell, who was ordained January 1, 1862, and re- signed May 2, 1866. Mr. Haskell was chaplain of the Fortieth Massachusetts Regiment in the Civil War, from September 11, 1863, to November 5, 1864, and after his Salem ministry became the pastor of Unitarian Churches in Manchester, N. H., and West Roxbury (Boston), Mass., successively. He is still pastor of the latter society, He was born January 24, 1832, in Poland, Me., and graduated at Harvard College, 1856. Mr. George Batchelor followed Mr. Haskell, being ordained October 3, 1866. He re- signed after sixteen years of service, November I, 1882, to take the pastoral charge of the Church of the Unity, in Chicago, Ill., which he was obliged by ill health to relinquish after two or three years. Mr. Batchelor was born in Southbury, Conu., July 3, 1836, graduated at Harvard College 1866, having completed a theological course at the Meadville School previous to his course in college. Rev. Ben- jamin F. McDaniel was installed pastor January 7, 1883, and resigned at the end of four years of service, January 1, 1887. He had been, before his Salem ministry, pastor of churches in Hubbardston, Mass., and Exeter, N. H., and left Salem to take pastoral charge of a church in San Diego, Cal. He, like a predecessor named above, did good service in one of the Union armies during the Civil War.

CENTRAL BAPTIST CHURCH .- As mentioned before, in the sketch of the First Baptist Church, a colony from that church was dismissed and commissioned by it, in 1825, to establish a second church of its order in the lower part of the city. It was duly organized January 19, 1826, under the name of the "Second Baptist Church," having its house of worship and chapel, on St. Peter's Street, ready for occupancy prior to its organization, though the dedication was delayed till June 8, 1826. In 1855 its name was changed, by a legislative act, to the "Central Baptist Church in Salem."

August 23, 1826, Mr. George Leonard was or- dained its first pastor. He was compelled, by fail- ing health, to resign his ministry, which had opened with much promise, January 19, 1829. Mr. Robert F. Pattison was ordained September 9, 1829, but within six months asked and received a dismission, February 12, 1830. In October, 1830, Rev. Cyrus P. Grosvenor was installed pastor, and remained with the church till November 1, 1834. Mr. Grosvenor became warmly engaged in the anti-slavery agitation, just opening, and which disturbed the peace of many churches, and broke the pastoral tie in not a few cases. It may be presumed to have had its share of influence in interrupting the harmony of the relation between Mr. Grosvenor aud his people.

Mr. Joseph Banvard was ordained pastor of the church August 26, 1835, and continued with it till March, 1846; and this period was manifestly one of increased activity, harmony and growth. Rev. Benjamin Brierly was installed Mr. Banvard's suc- cessor in September, 1846. His brief pastorate ended August 25, 1848. Mr. William H. Eaton followed him, and was ordained August 16, 1849. His society reluctantly consented to his dismission, in November, 1854. The next pastor was Rev. Daniel D. Winn, who came in October, 1855, and was dis- missed by his own desire, December 23, 1866. Dur- ing Mr. Winn's ministry the meeting-house was remodeled at a large cost. Early in 1867 Rev. S. Hartwell Pratt succeeded Mr. Winu, and resigned his charge October 21, 1870, to become pastor of the newly-formed Calvary Baptist Church, organized largely by his influence and under his direction. In January, 1872, Rev. David Weston, D.D., was settled in charge of the church, but heing the same year elected professor of ecclesiastical history in Hamilton Theological Seminary, N. Y., he resigned, to the sin- cere regret of his church, September 27, 1872. April 8, 1873, Rev. W. H. H. Marsh succeeded him, and remained seven years, to 1880. Rev. Charles A. Towne, the present pastor, took charge of the church in 1881.

THE CROMBIE STREET CHURCH .- On the 16th of February, 1832, one hundred and thirty-nine members of the Howard Street Church-the minister of that church, the Rev. William Williams, one of them- withdrew from it, with the purpose of organizing a separate church. They held their first meeting for public worship in Lyceum Hall February 19, 1832. The same day the Sunday-school, composed of their children, met at the same place. On the 6th of the next April they organized themselves into a re- ligions society, and took the name of the "Lyceum Society." The purchase of a brick building ou Crombie Street, now their house of worship, then known as the Salem Theatre-which had been occu- pied as a theatre-having been effected, at a meeting held in the office of Hon. Rufus Choate, on the 29tlr of August, 1832, a committee was chosen to make

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the required changes in the building to adapt it to its new uses. These changes accomplished, the pulpit was in the centre of the western end, the choir-gal- lery was opposite the pulpit. Over the pulpit was the inscription, " Love the truth and peace," with the date of the church's institution-May 3, 1832-and that of the dedication of its house of worship-November 22, 1832; below were the names of the pastor and the architect. Between the lines, right under that in- scription, " Love the truth and peace," we may pre- snme that the recent emigrants from Howard Street read another inscription, invisible to the eye of flesh : " The end of our prayers, the desire of our hearts ; for which we have left home-a house in contention, divided against itself." The church took the name, "The New Congregational Church " on the 8th of May, 1832, and on the 17th of September of the same year, adopted the title, which has been permanent since, of the "Crombie Street Church." In 1851 the pulpit was carried to the opposite (the eastern) end the floor, which had sloped upward from the front, was bronght to a level, the pews were reversed, the brick vestry was built in the rear and the walls and ceiling were painted in fresco; nine years later, in 1860, the organ was carried to the rear of the pulpit, to stand as it now does, the congregation claiming to have been the first in Salem to dispense with choir- singing, which it did in 1850, and for which the pres- ent position of the organ was deemed better adapted.

The first in the line of pastors has been already named-Rev. William Williams. He was born in Wethersfield, Conn., October 2, 1797; graduated at Yale College 1816 ; ordained pastor of Howard Street Church July 5, 1821. His ministry continued from November 22, 1832, to March 1, 1838. The new meeting-house was dedicated the same day that Mr. Williams was installed. After resigning his charge in Salem Mr. Williams was settled in Exeter, N. H., for a few years, after which, in 1842, he returned to Salem, and having studied medicine with Dr. Abel L. Peirson, of this city, established himself in the practice of medicine, in which he became successful. He died in 1860. Rev. Alexander J. Sessions, born in Warren, Mass., August 13, 1809, and graduated at Yale College in 1831, was the next pastor, settled June 6, 1838, and continued till August 22, 1849, when he resigned, and has since been the pastor of churches in Melrose, Scituate and North Beverly. He is still living in Beverly. The third pastor was Rev. James M. Hoppin, born in Providence, R. I., Janu- ary 17, 1820; graduated at Yale College 1840 and settled as pastor of Crombie Street Church March 27, 1850. Mr. Hoppin remained till May 16, 1859. He has since been a professor in Yale College-first, of homiletics and pastoral theology and later of the history of art. December 29, 1859, Rev. Joseph Henry Thayer was settled as the fourth pastor of the church. He resigned this charge February 19, 1864, to accept the position of associate professor of sacred

literature in the Theological Seminary at Andover, which office he continued to fill until 1882, when he resigned. He was appointed the next year lecturer on Biblical theology in the Divinity School of Har- vard University, and on the death of the eminent scholar, Ezra Abbot, professor of New Testament criticism and interpretation in the Divinity School, Professor Thayer was appointed to the same place, which he still holds.

During the Civil War Mr. Thayer asked leave of ab- sence from his parish to become chaplain of the For- tieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers for nine months. His term of service was from September 17, 1862, to May 15, 1863. He was one of the American members of the company of New Testament revisers and translators in England and America, who brought out the Revised New Testament in 1880, and with their co-laborers who had given similar revision to the Old Testament, a revised translation at a later day of the whole Bible. Mr. Thayer was born in ,Boston November 7, 1828, and graduated at Harvard College 1850.

The fifth paster was Rev. Clarendon Waite, whose short term of service fell between the dates of April 10, 1866, and December 3d of the same year (less than nine months). Being advised by his physicians that he could not expect the health requisite for the min- istry, he withdrew from his profession, and in just about a year afterwards died on a journey to a new field of labor to which he had been called (that of professor in Beloit College, Wisconsin). Mr. Waite was born in Hubbardston, Massachusetts, December 12, 1830, graduated at Brown University, Providence, and had been seven years pastor of a church in Rut- land, Mass., before coming to Salem. Rev. Hugh Elder, the sixth pastor, was born in Dunfermline, Scot- land, March 26, 1838, and graduated at the University of Edinburgh 1863. He preached to the society and was invited to become its minister before the settle- ment of Mr. Waite, which invitation he declined. Af- ter the death of Mr. Waite he came again to preach ; was called again to the pastorate, accepted and was ordained January 28, 1868. He resigned at the end of August, 1884, to accept the position of pastor of the college church connected with Airdale College, in Brad- ford, England. The present pastor of the church, Rev. Louis B. Voorhees, was installed April 15, 1885. He was born June 10, 1847, in Rocky Hill, N. J., and graduated at Princeton College 1868. He had been pastor of churches in North Weymouth, in Worcester and in Grafton previous to his settlement in Salem.

It needs but a reference to the fact that four of the seven pastors of this church have received ap- pointments to positions in educational institutions of the higher class to show that it has been favored with a line of scholarly men for its ministers. Better than that, they have been, as a whole, men devoted to the service of the people outside the church as well as in- side, thus helping the church to which they minister-

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ed to make an honorable history among the churches of the town.

SECOND ADVENT .- A religious movement of con- siderable extent grew out of the preaching of Wil- liam Miller, the prophet of the millenium, who, for about ten years (from 1833 to 1843), stirred many com- munities to a high piteli of excitement with predic- tions of au early return of Christ to the earth; the time was definitely set ; wheu it had passed unevent- fully another was set. After several such predictions had successively failed, though many lost faith and abandoned the body identified with the great expec- tation, others, still sanguine that it was no more than an error of time, and that a small one, settled into a belief that the Lord would appear soon to set up his kingdom ; and the latter have become a permanent sect. Mr. Miller never preached in Salem, as we can learn ; but a large gathering of his disciples, and of the curious to hear the exposition of his belief, was held in North Salem, in camp, in 1842. Preachers con. tinued to set forth the millenial doctrine according to Mr. Miller from time to time, and on July 23, 1848, a church was formed, which, with intervals of suspend- ed services, has continued to the present time. In- deed, it has at times divided into two sects over con- troverted points turning chiefly on the state of the " dead " between the body's dissolution and resurrec- tion. Sunday services have been maintained in two places of worship at the same time for a while. At present the society worships in its own church in Herbert Street. It has changed its place of assembling several times; has been in Sewell Street (old Meth- odist meeting-house), in Union Street (Second Meth- odist), Holyoke Hall, 199 Essex Street, Hardy Hall, Washington Street. One of its sections, when there were two passing under the same name, met in a chap- ei in Endicott Street. The pastorates of this church in both branches have been mostly short. Several, however, have continued for a period of a few years each. Rev. Lemuel Osler, Francis H. Berick, Rufns Wendell, Charles E. Barnes, George W. Sederquist, Frederick Gunner (Endicott Street) have at different times ministered to the society. The present pastor is Rev. George F. Haines.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 37

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538