History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 136

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 136

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For nearly two years the Rev. George H. Gould, D.D., supplied the pulpit in connection with the testing of candidates by preaching. During this period the new church, so long desired and so long delayed, was erected on the old site. As already remarked, it was a more beautiful though less capacions edifice than the old one. The cost was thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars. A new organ of fine quality and appearance added to the attractions. The dedi- cation of the house took place on Sunday, the 10th day of October, 1880, on which occasion the sermon was preached by the Rev. Henry A. Stimson, the pastor-elect. On the 14th, Mr. Stimson was duly installed. He was a graduate of Yale, and came to his new charge from a highly successful ministry in Minneapolis. His ministry in Worcester was dis- tinguished by remarkably energetic parochial work. The young were especially soon made to feel of how much church work they, too, were capable. The print- ing-press was brought into play, and a Sunday bulletin

was issued every week. The service of song was extended and enriched. And by the plan of free seats on Sunday evenings the poor had the gospel preached to them. Large congregations rewarded these efforts, large additions to the church followed. In the midst of, perhaps because of, this marked success Dr. Stimson received a call from the church in St. Louis of which the lamented Dr. Constans L. Goodell had been pastor, and he decided it to be his duty to accept the call. His dismission, much to the sorrow of his people, took place in June, 1886. The present pastor, Rev. William V. W. Davis, was installed as his successor on the 15th of April, 1887. He was a graduate of Amherst in the class of 1873, had his first settlement in Manchester, N. H., and was called to Worcester from the Euclid Avenue Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, Ohio. Within the first year of his ministry one hundred members were added to the church. The present membership is five hundred and thirty-four.

Salem Street Church .- This church was the result of a joint contribution of men and means from the Old South the Calvinist and the Union Churches. The rapid growth of the city from 1840 to 1848 had im- pressed the pastors and brethren of those churches with a conviction that the time had come for the organization of a fourth church of their way. Meas- ures were accordingly taken in 1847 for the erection of a church edifice. Meanwhile the persons enlisted in the new enterprise held preliminary meetings, adopted a creed and covenant, and on the 14th of June, 1848, were recognized as a church in a formal manner. Of the one hundred and thirty-three who constituted the membership, eighty went out from the Union Church, thirty from the Calvinist Church and the rest mostly from the Old South. The new church had its place of worship in the city hall until the 12th of December, 1848, when the new house, which had been erected on Salem Street, was dedi- cated. The cost was somewhat less than twenty- eight thousand dollars ; the money was collected out of the three sponsorial churches. On the day fol- lowing the dedication occurred the ordination of the Rev. George Bushnell, and his installation as the first pastor of the church. The sermon on this occa- sion was preached by his brother, the Rev. Horace Bushnell, D.D. Mr. Bushnell was a graduate of Yale in 1842, and had his theological education at Auburn and New Haven. He prosecuted his minis- try with great satisfaction to his parishioners for nine years, and then found it prudent, because of impaired health, to withdraw from pastoral labor. By accept- ing the position of superintendent of public schools in Worcester he hoped to regain his health. How- ever, after nearly a year of this labor it seemed expe- dient to lay down his pastoral charge, and he was accordingly dismissed on the 27th of January, 1858. Prior to this date the church had taken action at sundry times to provide a new pastor. On the 23d

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of June, 1857, a vote was passed by a small majority to call the Rev. Merrill Richardson, of Terryville, Ct. ; then at the same meeting the matter was indefinitely postponed. On the 9th of November, by a nearly unanimous vote, a call was extended to the Rev. Eli Thurston, of Fall River, which, however, was de- clined by him. On the 21st of December the church again voted to call Mr. Richardson, and the society concurred in the call. To this action, however, there was serious opposition, which found expression before the council convened to install him. The council, nevertheless, while giving respectful heed to the re- monstrants, of whom there were forty-eight, pro- ceeded with the business before them, and on the 27th of January, 1858, Mr. Richardson was installed as pastor of the Salem Street Church. After this un- toward beginning he went forward with his ministry for twelve years. Then, on the 27th of September, 1870, he was dismissed at his own request, because his eyes had failed him for purposes of study. " When he came there was a storm, but when he went away there was a clear sky." In two months after, he was settled over the New England Congregational Church in the city of New York ; and in two years after that he became pastor of the church in Milford, Mass. His death occurred in December, 1876. It was said : " He gave the church uniting power, and a certain healthiness of spiritual life." It was said again : " He was a warrior and a child; he was rough and gentle." And again it was said : " He sought to pro- duce everywhere the peace of God in Jesus Christ." But it was also said by the late Judge Chapin, a leader of the Unitarians and at one time president of the American Unitarian Convention : " Mr. Rich- ardson is a good enough Unitarian for me." These testimonies are all to be considered in forming an estimate of the minister who won the Salem Street pulpit with so much difficulty, but who, having won it, kept it undisturbed till he chose to give it up.

On the 8th of March, 1871, the Rev. Charles M. Lamson, of North Bridgewater, received a unanimous call from both church and parish. In his letter of acceptance he said that be viewed it as " a call to a work rather than to a place," and in this spirit he pros- ecuted his ministry. His installation took place on the 3d of May. In June he was appointed chairman of a committee to revise the church standards and to prepare a new manual. On May 1, 1872, the creed as re-written by the committee was reported and unanimously adopted. It would be a just description to say that it was the old creed liberated from the old straitness, and some might think from the old straight- ness, even. Entire harmony and deepening affection between Mr. Lamson and his people, increasing in- fluence within the city and widening reputation without, marked his ministry from the beginning to the end. After more than fourteen years of service he felt admonished by the state of his health to ask a dismission. Very sorrowfully his people yielded to

his wish, and on the 28th of September, 1885, his dis- mission was declared in a result of council, which expressed in tones of rare encomium the appreciation of his clerical brethren. After a year and more the Rev. Isaac J. Lansing, of Brooklyn, N. Y., was called to the vacant pulpit. The call was unanimous, save for a single vote. Mr. Lansing was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Hle was content with its doctrines, but dissatisfied with its polity. le dis- liked its three years' limitation of ministerial labor. He preferred the Congregational permanency. The call to Salem Street was opportune and he at once signified his acceptance. The installation took place on the 11th of November, 1886. The loss of Mr. Lam- ' son, and the loss of members because of that loss and also because of their nearness to other churches had greatly reduced the prosperity of the Salem Street Church. To the work of its recovery and en- largement Mr. Lansing brought all his methodist energy and forth-putting. He devised liberal things, all of which, however, he could not at once bring to pass. But a debt of five thousand dollars was paid off, and the meeting-house was renovated and re- seated at an expense of about eight thousand dollars more. Once more it was filled with an old-time con- gregation. In August, 1888, a unique departure was initiated. At its own motion and its own cost, with- out aid from the parish treasury, the church deter- mined to provide an assistant minister for service over and above and outside of the pastor's proper work. This plan was carried into effect on the 18th of October, by the engagement of the Rev. William W. Sleeper. Several definite lines of activity were contemplated. The new minister, a thoroughly edu- cated musician, was to take in hand the musical train - ing of the congregation. He was to have a large Bible-class of the young men. He was to act as a missionary in the highways and hedges. And he was to do service at funerals and minister consolation to such as had no pastor to call upon. At the opening of the year 1889 this new and varied work was in suc- cessful progress ; while, as an important reinforcement for its more pronounced success, the church had in that year secured the services of Prof. Benjamin D. Allen, who for thirty-four years had been the organist of Union Church.

Summer Street Mission Chapel .- This church had its origin in the benevolent heart of Ichabod Washburn. To provide " the benefits of moral and religious in- struction and restraint for a pretty numerous class of persons, living in Worcester," was his aim. Accord- ingly he had erected, at his own expense, and caused to be dedicated in the spring of 1855, a Mission Chapel on Summer Street in that city. At the same time he made provision for the free ministry of the gospel to all who should resort to the chapel for such a privilege. The first minister employed in this ser- vice was the Rev. William T. Sleeper, then the city missionary. His term of service closed with the close

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of the year 1856. Rev. Samuel Souther, a graduate of Dartmouth in 1842, followed him and remained until 1863, when he enlisted as a private in the army of the Union and gave up his life on the battle-field. Under his ministry an Industrial School was organ- ized in December, 1857. In 1864 the Rev. Henry T. Cheever, a graduate of Bowdoin in 1834, succeeded to the ministry of the Mission Chapel. Through his inspiration a movement was begun for the formation of a church, and on December 23, 1864, eighteen persons constituted themselves the "Church of the Summer Street Mission Chapel," by the adoption of a Confession of Faith and a Covenant and the elec- tion of deacons and a clerk. On the 22d of January, 1865, the church was received into the fellowship of the churches by public " services of recognition held by a council in Union Church. On the 3d of April the church "constituted itself a religious society " or parish, " according to the statutes of the Common- wealth, under the name of " The Society of the Sum- mer Street Mission Chapel." In March, 1866, Deacon Washburn executed his will and made ample provi- sion therein for the perpetual maintenance of this charitable foundation. The Mission Chapel estate was devised to the Union Society, in trust, " for the purposes and trusts declared in the will, and no other." In addition, the sum of twenty thonsand dollars was given for defraying the expenses of main- taining a minister and public worship, and a further sum of five thousand dollars to maintain the Indus- trial School connected therewith. By the decease of Deacon Washburn on the 30th of December, 1868, these gifts became operative. Mr. Cheever continued to be the minister of the Mission Chapel until the Ist of April, 1873, when Mr. Sleeper was appointed to his place by the joint action of two deacons of the Union Church and two of the Mission Chapel Church, in accordance with the provisions of the will. On the 26th of January, 1886, the trustees voted that it was expedient to sell the Summer Street property and locate the church elsewhere. This action was in harmony with the views and wishes of the Mission Church and its minister. But it was strenuously resisted by the former minister, Mr. Cheever, and by the widow of Deacon Washburn, on the ground that it was in violation of the letter and intent of his will and in defeasance of the object which he had at heart. The question went up to the Supreme Court by petition of the trustees for leave to sell and was decided in their favor.1 The founder of this important charity began his life in Worcester as a workman for daily wages. At the close of his life he left an estate of more than half a million of dollars accumulated by his own industry and rare sagacity. The bulk of this great wealth he devoted

to the good of his fellow-men. All along the path- way of his life he was setting up monuments of his munificence, while his testamentary gifts for school and church and hospital far exceeded those of his life-time or those of any previous benefactor of the city.

Plymouth Church .- The beginning of this church was in 1869. More than twenty years had passed since the last church of this faith and order had been organ- ized. In that time the city had grown from sixteen thousand to forty thousand inhabitants. The churches were crowded ; it had become difficult to obtain seats ; some, even, through failure to do so, had gone into the Methodist fold. Under these circumstances, fifteen young men met together in a private room to confer respecting a new church. They had acted together in the Young Men's Christian Association, had thus become acquainted with each other, and said it would be a good thing if they could have a Young Men's Christian Association church. They formed a nucleus around which other young men gathered. Soon the circle of interested persons widened and came to include older men and men of substance. Then the enterprise rapidly gathered headway. The first meeting was held on the 15th of April, 1869. On the 29th it was announced that Mechanics Hall had been secured for public worship during one year. Forthwith a subscription of three thousand three hundred and forty dollars was made by sixty-three persons to defray the current expenses ; and within a week or two the sum was raised to about three thou- sand eight hundred dollars. A Sunday school em- bracing more than three hundred was at once begun, and on the second Sunday in May public worship was held in Mechanics Hall with preaching by Rev. Dr. E. B. Webb of Boston. On the same evening a meet- ing was held to take measures for organizing a church. A committee was charged with the duty of preparing and presenting a creed and covenant. When the time came for action thereon difficulties were encountered. Among others, the Rev. George Allen, who had. pro- posed to become a member of the church, rose and gave his voice against the adoption of any creed what- ever. Failing to convince the meeting he recalled his letter of recommendation and withdrew from any further connection with the enterprise. At a subse- quent meeting the articles of the creed as reported were largely changed and then adopted. The question of a name came up. Edward A. Goodnow, the largest giver, and many others were in favor of making it a free church. * Mr. Goodnow, therefore, moved that the name be the "Free Congregational Church," and to make it free he subsequently subscribed one thousand five hundred dollars a year to pay for the hall. His associates, however, were not yet prepared for the measure, and instead of that name voted that the name be "Sixth Congregational Church." Meanwhile, a society had been organized by the name of the Plym- outh Society, and the church afterwards made its

1 The writer is authentically informed that it is the purpose of Mrs. Washburn to contest the sale at the proper time on the ground that such sale would destroy "the testamentary lien of the Industrial School on the Mission Chapel."

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own name conform to that. On the 7th of July a council assembled in the Old Sonth meeting-house to assist in organizing and recognizing the new church. With a recommendation to amend the 4th article of the creed they proceeded to the performance of their functions. Of the one hundred and ninety-four persons proposing to be of the church, one hundred and twenty-seven were then present and were duly constituted the Sixthi Congregational Church. A week later fifty-one of the remainder were received into the membership. Four deacons having been elected; and a communion and baptismal service having been presented by Mr. Goodnow and his wife, Catherine B. Goodnow, on the 5th of September the church celebrated its first communion. From that time onward a great variety of preachers occupied the pulpit until April, 1870, when the Rev. Nelson Millard, of Brooklyn, N. Y., received a call to become the pastor. The call was declined on the ground that continuous preaching in so large a hall would canse too serions a strain on the physical powers of the preacher. On the 26th of October a unanimons call was declined by the Rev. William J. Tucker, now the distinguished professor at Andover, perhaps for the same reason. A practically unanimous call of the Rev. B. F. Hamilton met with the same fate. Mean- while the future pastor of Plymouth Church, the Rev. George W. Phillips, of Columbus, Ohio, had been heard in its pulpit for the first time at Christmas in 1870. After this experience had been repeated at intervals through the following year, he accepted a call and was installed on the 28th of December, 1871. A condition of his acceptance was that the society should build a church edifice. Accordingly funds and a site were the next things in order. In April, 1872, the site was fixed by a vote to build on the ground where the church now stands. This action split church and parish in two. The soreness of the wound however, was soon assuaged, and both halves continued to live as two wholes with a two-fold prosperity and nsefulness. Fifty-six members received a peaceable dismission and straightway with others proceeded to organize a church in the more sonthern part of the city. The load became heavier on Plymouth Church but the sturdy shoulders under it did not succumb. On the 26th of April, 1873, the corner-stone was laid ; on the 19th of April, 1874, the chapel was dedicated for use; and on the 29th of April, 1875, the entire edifice was done and dedicated. It is a structure of granite, with perhaps a larger seating capacity than that of any other church in the city, having seats for the comfortable accommodation of fourteen hundred persons. Its cost, including recent decorative improve- ments, has somewhat exceeded one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In 1881 sixty-six thousand dollars of this cost still rested as a debt upon the Plymouth property and people. It was determined to obtain relief from the inenbus by effecting, if possible, a large reduction of this debt. Suddenly, in the month

of April, Edward Kimball, of Chicago, the good genius of debt-burdened churches, appeared before the congregation to assist. While the matter was thus in hand, Edward A. Goodnow sent in a written proposition that if the debt were not merely reduced but extinguished he would make a gift to Plymouth of an organ and a chime, each to cost five thousand dollars. Under this incentive, coupled with Mr. Kim- ball's inspiration, the effort was redonbled, the debt was extinguished, and chime and organ were put in place, at a cost to the giver of nearly eleven thousand dollars. The chime was made a memorial of his deceased wife, for whom the church had before held a special commemorative service, by the inscription on the principal bell-In Memoriam Catherine B. Goodnow. After a successful pastorate of more than fourteen years Dr. Phillips, at his own request, was dismissed on the 10th day of May, 1886, and immediately settled as pastor of the important church in Rutland, Vt. On the 30th of June, in the same year, Plymouth Church and Society extended a unanimous call to the Rev. Arthur Little, D.D., of Chicago. The call was declined, and the church remained without a pastor until April 7, 1887, when the Rev. Charles Wadsworth, Jr., of Philadelphia, was installed. In May of the next year he resigned his office on the ground that he had accepted a call to a Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. The church was quite unreconciled to this sudden bereavement, but yielded to it under protest. However, the council called to dissolve the tie advised against it. This led to a reconsideration which resulted in a cordial re-establishment of the old relation. As the year 1888 wore on, however, the church was admonished by the failing health of its reinstated pastor that if it would keep him something must be done for his relief. Accordingly, in January, 1889, the parish voted to have, and provide for, a pastor's assistant. In this matter the Ladies' Benevo- lent Society had taken the initiative by assuming an obligation to pay one-half of whatever salary the parish should fix upon. By way of further relief, the pastor's annual vacation was doubled and a large addition made to his salary. In making these anxious and liberal provisions Plymouth Church felt justified by the magnitude of the work npon its hands. With the costliest church edifice of its order in the city and the largest church membership and no church debt and a constituency "rich and increased in goods," it was in a position both to devise and to execute liberal things.

Piedmont Congregational Church .- In the sketch of Plymouth Church it was stated that fifty-six members of that body were dismissed for the purpose of forming a church in the southern part of the city. This was the origin of Piedmont Church. The first steps were taken at an informal meeting held on the 3d of May, 1872. On the 10th of the same month it was resolved to organize a parish and purchase a lot on the corner of Main and Piedmont Streets. On the

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16th the lot had been purchased and fifty-nine per- sons had signed an agreement to become a religious society. On the 23d the associates assembled under a warrant and organized the society according to law. On the 30th the name of "Piedmont Congregational Church " was adopted. The corporate name, how- ever, continued to be the "Seveuth Congregational Church in Worcester." On the 6th of June by-laws were adopted whereby "any person " proposed and elected by the major vote might become a member of the society. On the 14th the first subscription was made among those present at the meeting, and a sum of fifteen thousand dollars was pledged. Plans were adopted August 23d, and by September 20th the sub- scription had increased to twenty-four thousand dol- lars. Meantime, on the 2d of June, the first public religious service had been held in the Main Street Baptist Church. In the same place a council was organized, on the 18th of Septem- ber following, for the purpose of constituting the church. The confession of faith, covenant and all preliminaries being found satisfactory, the church was duly constituted by the council. The sermon was preached by the Rev. George H. Gould, D.D., who remained as acting pastor from that date until 1877. In October ground was broken for the church foundation, which, by contract, was to be finished by the 1st of June, 1873. In due time the basement was completed and occupied for public worship during the period in which the superstructure was being finished. On the 1st of February, 1877, the audi- torium was ready for occupation. It has a seating capacity of one thousand one hundred and twenty. The building is one of the largest church edifices in the city, and through improvements, chiefly of a decorative character made in 1888 at a cost of ten thousand dollars, is one of the most attractive. The original cost of land and construction has been set at one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. A fine organ, the gift of Clinton M. Dyer and wife, was placed in the organ-loft in 1884, at a cost, including a complete apparatns for blowing it by water-power, of about six thousand five hundred dollars. With the completion of the building came the first and only pastor, Rev. David O. Mears, D.D., who was installed on the 3d of July, 1877. Under his ministry church and parish kept pace with the most progressive. His reputation went abroad beyond Worcester, so that several doors were opened to him elsewhere. In 1885 he was invited to take the presidency of Iowa Col- lege. This, after careful consideration, he declined as he did also the pastorates of several important churches to which he had been invited.

Park Congregational Church .- The beginning of this church was a Sabbath-school gathered by a woman. To Lydia A. Giddings the praise is due. Along with and reinforcing her activity came that of the city missionary, the Rev. Albert Bryant. This was in the autumn of 1884. Presently a council ad-

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 136

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1464

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464