USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Church of Our Savior, Protestant Episcopal, in Longwood, Massachusetts > Part 2
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For the first thirteen years of its history, or until 1881, the church secured its financial support by the sale and rental of pews. In 1881, it became a free church under the rectorate of Reverend Reginald H. Howe, D.D. On
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THE CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR
April 22, 1889, the vestry voted to use the pledge sys- tem of offerings, and in November 1911, the corporation accepted the system which has remained in vogue ever since-namely, the envelope system, every communicant receiving in December a package containing one envelope for each Sunday of the following year, and pledging to contribute a certain sum per week. The present rector, Reverend Henry McF. B. Ogilby, extended this system by adopting the custom of making the first Sunday in December (Advent Sunday) a gift day, when each com- municant should place upon the offertory plate, as a part of the act of worship, a pledge towards the support of the church for the ensuing year.
The edifice at the time of consecration was far more simple than it has since become. It was minus the pres- ent transept and choir room, which were added some years later; the pulpit was on the southeastern side of the nave, just opposite its present location; the baptis- mal font stood near the pulpit; the small choir had seats where the font is now located and the first small organ, a gift from Mrs. Amos A. Lawrence, was located in the lower part of the tower, now called the sacristy. The altar stood on the floor of the nave and on the same level. The Sunday School assembled at great inconven- ience in the pews of the Church.
In the early years of the ministry of the first rector, Reverend Mr. Tomkins, the membership of the Church seemed very much like a single family. Each household had its pew and a part in the work and life of the par- ish. Áll were bound together by ties of blood or friend- ship and the church was very much like a family church. The donors, as long as they lived, and their kindred, were deeply interested in its welfare and always were
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(Photo by the Frizell Studio, Dorchester )
RIGHT REVEREND WILLIAM LAWRENCE, D.D., LL.D.
THE ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH
very free with their time and their means to promote its well-being.
Commodore George P. Blake, one of the first vestry- men of the Church, died May 24, 1871. The Church records show that the following resolution was adopted at the time of his death:
RESOLVED: That the Church of Our Saviour and its Vestry have lost one of their earliest friends and a most true and kind and sympathizing supporter of all the interests of the Parish. He was one of the original founders of our Parish. The cross on the altar is a memorial to him.
One very interesting fact shown by the records is that on June 29, 1872, the rector, wardens and vestry signed a certificate for one of its members as a candidate. for admission to Holy: Orders. Thus began the ministry of one destined to become a great leader in the Protestant Episcopal Church and one of the most useful and influ- ential of its Bishops-Right Reverend William Law- rence, D.D., L.L.D., son of one of this Church's found- ers, long Bishop of Massachusetts, builder of the Church's ministerial pension system, and often referred to as "first citizen of Massachusetts." Bishop Lawrence is one of a very few who at this writing remember the early begin- nings of the Church and the laying of the cornerstone. At the service March 18, 1928, commemorating the Six- tieth Anniversary of the first service held in the Church, he delivered the address and related many reminiscences of those early days. It is a source of justifiable pride to all members of the Parish of The Church of Our Saviour that one should have gone from its portals to accomplish in the Church at large, the vast constructive achievements as- sociated with the name of Bishop William Lawrence. ..
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CHAPTER II
COMPLETION OF THE CHURCH GROUP
ITS DEBT TO THE LAWRENCE FAMILY AND OTHERS
FOR years following its construction the edifice of The Church of Our Saviour stood by itself on the lot where it was built, the surroundings being rather rough with underbrush in the rear and a wooden stable nearby. For twelve years church organizations were obliged to hold their meetings in the parlor of a house opposite the Church, in a cottage on Colchester Street or in the home of some member. In 1880, at the earnest suggestion of Reverend Doctor Howe, then rector, the first parish room was built from designs by Cabot and Chandler. It was a small structure located between the church edifice and what is now the rectory. After its completion it was so continually in use that many wondered how they ever carried on without it. It was so placed that eventually it could form a part of a completed plan of church struc- tures, including a rectory. Five years later, in 1885, Mrs. Amos A. Lawrence, wife of one of the two brothers who built the church, had constructed and presented to the parish the present commodious rectory. This generous gift inspired others and soon a cloister was built, a gift from Mrs. Eugene R. Knapp. This connects and simpli- fies the group of buildings which, as Dr. Howe once said, "for beauty of position and design and for convenience is unique among the churches of the Massachusetts Dio- cese." The rectory was designed by Arthur Rotch of
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COMPLETION OF THE CHURCH GROUP
Rotch and Tilden, of Boston, who also designed the Cloister. The building material was largely stone. It contains fourteen rooms, open fireplaces, and all modern conveniences, including separate entrances from the rec- tor's study into the vestibule and cloister. The corner- stone, containing various records, was laid May 10, 1885. It was first occupied, December 23, 1885, by Reverend Doctor Howe and his family who had previously resided in a rented house on Monmouth Court. A service of benediction was held January 20, 1886.
In 1913 the parish room was enlarged and redecorated at a cost of nearly $8000.
The present parish house, built in 1921 around and above the old one, was a product of the enterprise of Reverend Henry Knox Sherrill, now Bishop of the Massa- chusetts Diocese, whose service as rector was limited to less than four years. Under his preaching congregations grew in size rapidly. The Church School also drew addi- tional pupils and the need for better accommodations for school and assembly purposes became imperative.
In 1893, following the passing of Mrs. Amos A. Law- rence, her children, as a memorial to their mother, built the transept to the Church and equipped it with altar and prayer desk, for week-day services. As a part of the memorial they also built the choir and robing room, and the organ chamber ready for a new Hutchings organ which was installed in 1899 at a cost of $5000 of which sum $3000 was given by the Guild. The organ has elec- tric and pneumatic action and two consoles and key- boards. The small one, connected by cable, stands in the transept and makes the organ available for week-day services. The memorial transept and robing room were designed by Sturgis and Cabot. The beautiful altar and
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THE CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR
communion rail in the transept were designed by Clipston Sturgis. They have a beauty and simplicity which grow upon one the more they are studied.
The generosity of members of the Lawrence family in the creation of this house of worship and its acces- sories, and the indebtedness of all present and future members to their beneficence, are so conspicuous that they justly are entitled to special and separate mention in a history of the Church.
Here is the remarkable record:
In 1868, church edifice given by William R. and Amos A. Lawrence, as a memorial to their father Amos Law- rence; memorial tablet by the same; also the first organ given by Mrs. Amos A. Lawrence. In 1873, crimson altar cloth given by Mrs. W. R. Lawrence. In 1879, large silver alms basin given by Miss G. M. Lawrence as a thank offering. In 1880, silver spoon for communion service given by Mrs. F. W. Lawrence as a thank offer- ing. In 1885, the rectory given by Mrs. Amos A. Law- rence. In 1886, real estate given by Amos A. Lawrence, the income to be used for repairs on Church buildings and for charities; the same year a white altar cloth by Mrs. F. W. Lawrence. In 1888, a memorial bronze tab- let by Mrs. Wm. R. and Mrs. Amos A. Lawrence. In 1891, a green altar cloth given by Mrs. F. W. Lawrence. In 1893, transept, choir and robing room, also organ chamber by the children of Mrs. Amos A. Lawrence as a memorial to their mother; the same year a fund of $2000 for organ repairs by Mrs. Wm. R. Lawrence. In 1893, an iron cross in the transept by the children of Sarah E. Lawrence, wife of Amos A. Lawrence. In 1896, two side windows by Mr. F. W. Lawrence; window de- signed by Burne-Jones, a memorial to Mrs. Robert
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(Photo by the Alfred Brown Studio, Brookline)
MRS. AMOS A. LAWRENCE From the portrait by B. E. Porter Reproduced from Memories of a Happy Life, by permission of the author
COMPLETION OF THE CHURCH GROUP
Amory (Mary Appleton Lawrence). In 1902, iron vases for the transept by Mrs. F. W. Lawrence, also in 1902, a window in the sacristy given by Mrs. F. W. Lawrence as a memorial to Mrs. Wm. R. Lawrence. In 1904, church porch remodelled and improved by Mrs. F. W. Law- rence as a memorial to her husband. In 1906, a funeral pall given by Mrs. Frederic Cunningham (Hetty Law- rence); two or more checks from Bishop William Law- rence, one of them a substantial sum as a beginning for the Church Endowment Fund, and finally, a new Church steeple, to replace the first one which was taken down in 1918 because of crumbling cement, paid for from a fund established by Mrs. William Caleb Loring, a sister of Bishop Lawrence, and daughter of Amos A. Lawrence -a fund provided for the benefit of Episcopal Churches.
In a subsequent Chapter of this history, what is be- lieved to be a complete list of the gifts and memorials to the Church is presented. That all future members of the church may better realize how rich is their heritage and how slowly it has accumulated through the years, some of the more important gifts are here mentioned. It should be remembered that such of these as were not actual memorials were the result of much labor and sacrifice by members of church organizations.
In 1879, the first choir stalls were built. In 1880, stained glass windows were installed in the parish room as a memorial. In 1881, the chancel and parish room were redecorated. In 1882, the chancel floor was tiled by the Guild. Other gifts were: door entrance to the transept given by Mr. Henry Howard as a memorial to Mr. Alonzo P. Howard, for many years a warden; central chancel window and memorial lectern and corono by Mr. Wm. H. Lincoln; two processional crosses, one for
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THE CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR
all seasons and one especially for Lent, by Mrs. Henry N. Bigelow, in memory of her husband; tablet to the memory of Samuel L. Bush, a warden in the early life of the Church, given by the parish; window near the clois- ter door, a memorial to Mrs. Samuel H. Gregory, given by members of the Parish; small window over the clois- ter door, given by George H. Carnes, a memorial to his mother; tablet on the south wall by Miss E. C. Cleve- land, a memorial to her mother who was a sister of Bishop Doane; memorial tablet to Mrs. R. H. Howe, designed by Ralph Adams Cram, located on a pillar near- est the pew she occupied for forty years, given by her husband; Sunday School library and hymnals by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Russell; a thank offering window given by Mr. John Wales, and a bronze memorial tablet to Mr. Wales by his family; pictures of the Bishops of Massachusetts by the Guild; pictures for the parish room by Mr. G. P. Bingham; memorial window to Grace E. Wells by her brother, Mr. Wellington Wells; unique baptismal ewer and table by Samuel B. Dean; picture of the second rector, Reverend Frank L. Norton, by Rev- erend E. J. Dennen, then of Lynn, now archdeacon; six- teen framed pictures for the choir room by Mr. George H. Carnes; memorial cloister by Dr. Augustus Thorndike; memorial cross on parish house by Mrs. D. B. Stedman ; placina in memory of Mr. J. Tudor Gardiner; credence table in memory of Reverend R. H. Howe, by the vestry ; tablet on the South wall to Reverend R. H. Howe by his children; $2000 for the endowment fund by Elizabeth Huntington; picture of the first rector, Reverend Elliott Tomkins, by his brother Reverend Floyd Tomkins, D.D .; litany desk by Philip S. Parker, in memory of his par- ents; eucharistic candlesticks for the altar, a memorial,
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COMPLETION OF THE CHURCH GROUP
by Mr. Paul Hubbard; similar candlesticks for the tran- sept by Mr. B. K. Hough; memorial window by Mrs. Chas. F. Wentworth to her husband; Bible for the lec- tern by Miss Sarah E. Whittemore, a thank offering; also chancel books; cross on the new spire by Mrs. S. C. Payson, a memorial to her parents.
The list here given does not include many small gifts by individuals and a long list of furnishings of various kinds and repairs paid for by the Guild. Mention of these will be found in the Chapter devoted entirely to gifts and memorials.
Two brass vases upon the altar table were given by Miss Sarah E. Whittemore as a memorial to the first rector, Reverend Elliott D. Tomkins, who served the parish during the first six years of its life and has been described as a man of singular devotion, humility, earnest- ness and evangelical fervor. A Bible used on the lectern for over half a century was a gift of the second rector, Reverend Frank L. Norton, D.D., depicted as an enthusi- astic youth, a brilliant preacher and of a genial and af- fectionate nature. The church has no memorial to him unless the communion service can be deemed such a memorial, for it is said that it was at his suggestion that many members of the Church contributed silver articles of tender associations which were melted and then moulded into the beautiful silver service through which the givers and all who succeed them bring their sacred memories to the altar and to the Lord. The Bible which he gave was replaced a few years ago by a new one, the gift of Miss Sarah E. Whittemore in gratitude for sixty years of membership in the Church. Miss Whittemore was a member of the first class to receive the rite of con- firmation in the Church.
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CHAPTER III
AMOS LAWRENCE
GREAT CHRISTIAN MERCHANT AND PHILANTHROPIST FOR WHOM THIS CHURCH IS A MEMORIAL
AMOS LAWRENCE, in whose memory The Church of Our Saviour was built, was one of the great philanthropic business men of Boston in the first half of the Nine- teenth Century. Although that city could justly boast of not a few such merchants in that period of its his- tory, it is doubtful if any other exercised so great and beneficent an influence, through his character, his gifts and his descendants, as did the subject of this sketch. Born in Groton, Massachusetts, April 22, 1786, he was a direct descendant of John Lawrence of Wisset, Suffolk County, England, who probably came to this country in the Governor Winthrop Company in 1630, settled first in Watertown and soon thereafter removed to Groton. His father, Samuel Lawrence, was a son of Captain Amos Lawrence, and an officer in the Continental Army, serv- ing in the battle of Bunker Hill, in which he was slightly wounded, and in Rhode Island as an adjutant under General Sullivan. In July, 1777, he was given a brief furlough that he might marry the young woman of his choice, Susanna Parker. After his military career he resided in Groton, filling numerous high places by the suffrage of his fellow townsmen. He manifested a deep
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(Photo by H. E. Kinsman, Williamstown)
AMOS LAWRENCE
From the portrait by Chester Harding in the Williams College Art Gallery
AMOS LAWRENCE
interest in education, which interest was transmitted by inheritance to his children and grandchildren. He par- ticipated in the founding and support of a seminary in Groton, which now, because of gratitude to him and his sons, bears the family name, Lawrence Academy.
Being a member of a company of "Minute Men," on the morning of April 19, 1775, Captain Amos Law- rence was called upon by General Prescott, a neighbor, to summon his men as the British were coming from Boston. He rode the general's horse seven miles in forty minutes and in three hours the company was on the march, reaching Cambridge the next day.
The subject of this sketch, who evidently was named after his grandfather, always regarded his mother with the deepest love and veneration. She was a woman well fitted to train a family for those troublous times. A hard worker, as all mothers had to be in those days, she spent many hours daily at the hand-loom and spinning- wheel, preparing clothing for her children. It is said that among the earliest recollections of her children was of her form bending over their bed in silent prayer when about to leave them for the night. It is doubtful if any children ever forget the prayers of a sainted mother at their bedside. Many great men of former generations in this country were reared under such influences.
Of the several children born to Susanna Lawrence, Amos was not very strong, and in early life suffered fre- quent sicknesses. He was always busy with books or tools. Sent into the pastures to watch cattle in the evening, he was accustomed to study the stars, for, as he wrote years later to a son, "the heavens are impressive teachers of the goodness of that father who is ever near to each of his children." He received much inspiration
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THE CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR
in early life from tales of heroism in the Revolutionary War told by old soldiers entertained by his parents. After attending the Groton Academy for a season, he served for a short period in a Dunstable store and then was ap- prenticed to a Groton merchant, James Brazer, where he remained seven years until he became of age. In that store he learned to transact business and also learned self-control. Great quantities of rum and brandy were sold there and it was customary each day, at 11 A.M., to serve some mixture of these to clerks and customers. Soon finding that the desire for these potions became pressing as the hour approached, Amos resolved to dis- continue the habit altogether, and became a total ab- stainer for life, enduring with patience all the ridicule which such decision invited. He also became a total abstainer from tobacco. Years later, writing to a college student, he said:
Take this for your motto at the commencement of your journey, that the difference of going just right, or a little wrong, will be the difference of finding yourself in good quarters or in a miserable bog or slough, at the end of it. Of the whole num- ber educated in the Groton Store for some years before and after myself, no one else, to my knowledge, escaped the bog or slough; and my escape I attribute to the simple fact of my having put a restraint upon my appetite. .. . To the simple fact of having started just right am I indebted, with God's blessing on my labors, for my present position, as well as that of the numerous connections sprung up around me.
In another letter he wrote:
After leaving school and going into the store, there was not a month passed before I became impressed with the opinion that restraint upon appetite was necessary to prevent the
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AMOS LAWRENCE
slavery I saw destroying numbers around me. Many and many of the farmers, mechanics and apprentices of that day have filled drunkards' graves, and have left destitute families and friends.
The principle of total abstinence which he adopted as a clerk in Groton he maintained to the end. In a let- ter to a son in 1830 he wrote: "At a large meeting of merchants and others, it was resolved to make an effort to prevent the licensing of such numbers of soda-shops, retailers of spirits, and the like, which have, in my opinion, done more than anything else to debase and ruin the youth of our city. It is a gross perversion of our privileges to waste and destroy ourselves in this way. God has given us a good land and many blessings. We misuse them and make them minister to our vices. We shall be called to a strict account. Every good citizen owes it to his God and his country to stop, as far as he can, this moral desolation."
On April 29, 1807, having become of age, Mr. Lawrence went to Boston with only twenty dollars of capital and accepted a clerkship. Soon after he was offered a partner- ship but refused it because he did not approve of the principles on which the business was conducted and was justified in his refusal a few months later by the failure of the firm. Then he rented a small store at the corner of Cornhill and Washington Streets and began the long business career in which, despite the many vicissitudes encountered by all business men, he accumulated what in those days was considered a good fortune which he administered with conscientious regard to what he be- lieved to be his duty to God and his fellow men. He conducted all his business affairs on the principle of strict rectitude. He believed that by industry, economy
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THE CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR
and integrity, he could succeed. The promptness and exactitude which he himself practised he demanded of others. His family physician, Dr. George C. Shattuck, once wrote of him: "He did not need great strength; for sagacity and decision supplied every other lack. Supply and demand were as familiar to him as the alphabet. Ac- cumulation followed his operations and religious princi- ples regulated the distribution of the cumbrous sur- plus."
In one of his letters Mr. Lawrence wrote: "On the first day of January, 1808, I had been but a few days in business; and the profits on all my sales to that day were $175.18. The expenses were to come out and the balance was my capital. In 1842, the sum had increased to such an amount as I thought would be good for my descend- ants; and from that time I have been my own executor. How shall I show my sense of responsibility? Surely by active deeds more than by unmeaning words. God grant me to be true and faithful to His work!"
On June 6, 1811, Mr. Lawrence was married to Sarah Richards, daughter of an early manufacturer of wool combs, whom he had first met at the Groton Seminary and who was a friend of his sisters. Three children were born of this union and with his young family about him Mr. Lawrence spent some of the happiest years of his life. The early death of his wife of consumption in 1819 was a crushing blow, coming after one of his own long ill- nesses. His letters following that sad event are replete with expressions of his deep grief, but also of profound faith in the goodness of God. To relieve his mental dis- tress he took several journeys about the country. In April, 1821, he took for his second wife Mrs. Nancy Ellis, widow of Judge Ellis of Claremont, New Hampshire,
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AMOS LAWRENCE
and established a new home. It was due to the tender and faithful ministration of this good woman that Mr. Lawrence was able to endure long years of invalidism. Her care undoubtedly prolonged his life. Two children were born of this second union, Mary Means and Robert Means. The second Mrs. Lawrence survived her husband for fourteen years, passing away on November 27, 1866.
Mr. Lawrence always displayed great interest in public affairs, but had no desire to hold political office. In 1821, he served one term in the Massachusetts legislature, but preferred business to politics. He enjoyed making money for the good he could do with it. In 1848, his brother Abbott, whom he had taken into partnership on Janu- ary 7, 1814, came within a few votes of being nominated for the Vice Presidency. A little extra effort and expense would have brought him the nomination in which event he would soon have been president instead of Millard Fillmore who succeeded to the office upon the early death of General Zachary Taylor. In reply to an appeal for a political contribution Mr. Lawrence wrote:
If my vote would make my brother Vice President, I would not give it, as I think it lowering his good name to accept office of any sort, by employing such means as are now needful to get votes.
When Abbott was offered a place in President Taylor's cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, his brother urged him strongly not to accept it and heartily congratulated him when he declined the office. (Abbott also declined the offer of the Secretaryship of the Interior.) However, he approved his acceptance of the ministry to England and in a letter to a London clergyman he related some facts in Abbott's career and said:
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THE CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR
He now fills the only public station I would not have pro- tested against his accepting, feeling that place cannot impart grace. My prayers ascend continually for him that he may do his work under the full impression that he must give an account to Him whose eye is constantly upon him, and whose "well done" will be infinitely better than all things else.
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