USA > Massachusetts > History of the Diocese of Massachusetts, 1810-1872 > Part 22
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
The diocesan Board of Missions took charge of the Episcopal society in Danvers for a year or so. By 25 May 1860, however, Cal- vary Church was built and paid for, and on that date Bishop East- burn consecrated the building. 69 It was still a day of small affairs in
married John R. Lee, one of our first vestrymen . . . '. Nichols, Grace Church, p. 11. Mrs. Wildes served as organist at Grace Church (p. 10).
67. JM, 1860, p. 58. The first officers of Grace Church were : Benjamin Shreve, sen- ior warden, John Calef, junior warden, John R. Lee, Henry F. Shepard, Samuel Pitt- man, Jr., John S. Jones, George D. Glover,
David P. Ives, vestrymen, and Charles S. Nichols, clerk and treasurer. Nichols, Grace Church, p. 8. ... among members of the [subsequent] vestry, two families have been represented by three genera- tions .. . ', viz., Fabens and Tuckerman.
68. Essex Institute Historical Collections xc (Apr. 1954), p. 168.
69.JM, 1861, p. 13.
223
CHAPTER XVII
the Episcopal Church. It was not surprising, therefore, that the cost of the land and of the wooden church built upon it totaled but $5600.70 Joseph Adams and Edward D. Kimball, merchants doing business in Salem but residents of Danvers, gave the site for the church valued at $1200, while they, with other parishioners and "friends in other parishes of the Diocese', contributed $4400, the cost of the church.71
From some of the reports of Calvary Church to the annual dioce- san convention of 1871 came sidelights of value. In 1863 the junior warden, Francis Peabody, noted that the parish had 'suffered' be- cause of 'the enlistment of many of its members as soldiers'. 72 That men of an age eligible to join the armed forces also were members of the young Episcopal society, and that they were 'many', was not a circumstance common to other parishes of the diocese. In 1870 the rector of Calvary, the Rev. Samuel J. Evans, reported that, thanks to the 'Ladies', the parking problem had been successfully dealt with, by the building of 'suitable accommodations for persons coming to church in vehicles .. . '.78 Again by 'the praiseworthy exertions of the Ladies', gas lighting made the holding of evening services more practical.74 The report of the Rev. Mr. Evans for 1871 stated that 'A movement in the direction of erecting resi- dences for the accommodation of persons doing business in Bos- ton, it is hoped, will tend to the increase of the members of this
70. JM, 1861, p. 13; William F. Gavet, Historical Sketch of St. Peter's Church, Sal- em, Massachusetts (n.p., [1908]), p. 18. Bishop Eastburn cited his constant fear of 'Romanizing tendencies' in the Episcopal Church in reporting his consecration visit to Danvers. He said: 'Wherever our be- loved Church is planted, it is sure of bring- ing rich benefits with it; provided, at the same time, that the Lord Jesus Christ be faithfully proclaimed from the pulpit, and the worship be kept free from those worse than puerile and pitiable superstitions, which have been introduced here and there into our protestant fold to its great injury and dishonor.' Annual address, JM,
1861, p. 14.
71. JM, 1861, p. 13; Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. XC, no. 2 (Apr. 1954), p. 154. The pop- ulation of Danvers in 1860 was 5110. The Celebration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the . . . Town of Danvers . . . June 15, 16, 17, 1902 (Boston, printed by vote of the Town, 1907), p. 222.
72. JM, 1863, p. 72.
73. JM, 1870, p. 95.
74. Ibid. The 'mother' parish of Calvary Church, St. Peter's, Salem, first lighted its church by gas on Christmas Eve, 1856. Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. xc, no. 2 (Apr. 1954), p. 161.
224
THE DIOCESE OF MASSACHUSETTS
Parish.'75 Railroad service had made possible a home in a village for the 'commuter' who had a job in downtown Boston.
A third 'daughter' parish of St. Peter's, Salem, and but slightly younger than Grace and Calvary, was St. Peter's, Beverly. It re- ceived a visit from Bishop Eastburn for consecration on 4 Septem- ber 1865.76 The rector of St. Peter's, Salem, who succeeded the Rev. George Leeds in October 1860, was the Rev. William Rollins Pickman. Pickman came to Salem from the Diocese of Missouri.77 Bishop Horatio Potter had ordained him deacon in New York and there, some nine months later, Pickman married Mrs. Frances J. Davis.78 As early as August 1862 Pickman started holding church services in Beverly in the usual 'hall'. In this project he got help from three young men, Charles H. Bates, William Summers, and William G. Wells, all of Salem.79 Organization of St. Peter's, Bev- erly, took place on 12 September 1864. A year later a building seat- ing 250 persons was consecrated by Eastburn. The first rector was none other than the Rev. William R. Pickman, who had resigned his charge at St. Peter's, Salem, 20 June 1865, because of . . . un- fortunate circumstances, which alienated the majority of his par- ishioners and his rectorship [thus] was brought abruptly to a close'.80 The importance of St. Peter's lay in the fact it was a 'free
75. JM, 1871, p. 100; D. Hamilton Hurd, compiler, History of Essex County Massachu- setts (Philadelphia, 1888 [1887], 2 vols.), I, 508; Harriet S. Tapley, Chronicles of Danvers (Old Salem Village) Massachusetts, 1632-1923 (Danvers, 1923), p. 158.
76. JM, 1866, p. 18.
77. JM, 1861, p. 26.
78. Burgess, no. 2549, under date of 1 July 1855. Among the MSS of St. Peter's Church, Salem, at the Massachusetts Dio- cesan Library are some notes about Pick- man and other rectors. One such note states that Pickman was married in New York City on 10 Apr. 1856. Another entry signed by G. R. Curwen reads, 'note "The Bishop's [Eastburn's] wife [Mary Jane Head] is a sister of Mrs. Benj. Pickman [who] is a brother of the Rev. Wm. Raw-
lins Pickman"'. George Rea Curwen (1823- 1900) 'was a life-long member of St. Peter's Church, serving it as vestryman and lay reader'. Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. Lxx (Oct. 1934), p. 374.
79. Charles S. Bates was for many years the senior warden of St. Peter's, Salem. William G. Wells later entered the Episco- pal ministry in Connecticut, was received into the Diocese of Massachusetts in 1872, and became rector of St. Peter's, Beverly, in Jan. 1873. Gavet, St. Peter's, p. 19; JM, 1873, pp. 32, 82-83; 1864, pp. 83-84.
80. The proprietors of St. Peter's, Sa- lem, asked Pickman to resign, as '. . . very serious domestic difficulties and differ- ences had arisen in family of Rector which had become public and a subject of scandal within and without the Parish and our
225
CHAPTER XVII
church', and the expense of the church building was met wholly by gifts, and not from the sale of sittings.81 The contributors, unlike, for example, the single large giver of St. John's, North Adams, were many. Of underlying importance was the original contribution of the diocesan Board of Missions. One of the critical times in the life of an infant parish established as a 'free' parish, was the period prior to its having its own church building. Pickman had bolstered St. Peter's, Beverly, by inducing St. Peter's, Salem, 'to turn all its Missionary contributions to the support of the Mission at Beverly . ' 82 Other benefactors reported by Bishop Eastburn at the con- secration of St. Peter's were George B. Pearson, senior warden of the parish, who gave $3500 including the land (valued at $1500), Beverly townsmen who provided $4000, and 'summer residents in Beverly ... and others'.83 St. Peter's first rector, Pickman, stated that the cost of the church and land was "about $11,500'. Then he added, 'Of this [amount], $9000 have been furnished by the Par- ishioners; the remaining $2,500 was given by persons outside of the Parish and residing for the most part in Boston. To the noble- hearted Rector [the Rev. F. D. Huntington ] and benevolent lay- men of Immanuel [sic] Church, Boston, St. Peter's, Beverly begs hereby to acknowledge its obligations of gratitude.'84
The origin of one other parish in a township contiguous to Salem resulted from the missionary efforts of the first rector of Grace Church, Salem, the Rev. Mr. Wildes. The town was tempo- rarily known as South Danvers, now Peabody; the mission became St. Paul's Church. 85 Outside of one or two families resident in South Danvers who attended Grace Church, Salem, there were in
whole Community'. MSS, St. Peter's, Sa- lem, Massachusetts Diocesan Library; Gavet, St. Peter's, p. 19.
81. JM, 1865, p. 85; 1867, p. 79.
82. Board of Missions Report', JM 1864, p. 47; 1865, p. 42. The work of the diocesan Board of Missions for Danvers and Beverly was carried out through its regional agent, the Eastern District Mis- sionary Association. In 1864, this associa-
tion reported 'adopting' a mission at South Danvers. JM, 1864, p. 47.
83. JM, 1866, p. 18.
84. JM, 1866, p. 78.
85. South Danvers was set off from Dan- vers and became a town in 1855. In 1868 its name was changed to Peabody. Cook, Historical Data, pp. 23, 53, 89; JM, 1924, pp. 91, 137.
226
THE DIOCESE OF MASSACHUSETTS
1863 no other known Episcopalians.86 The diocesan Board of Mis- sions 'adopted' through the Eastern District Missionary Associa- tion the town of South Danvers as a missionary station 'for future operations'. Regular services dated from 29 May 1864; Wildes him- self reported the following year that 'With but two exceptions, the service at South Danvers, since the last May, has been held by the Rector of Grace Church'.87 Although St. Paul's parish was not or- ganized until 1874, and the parish not in union with the annual convention of the diocese until 1924, yet the work of the Rev. Mr. Wildes of Grace, Salem, endured. The report of St. Paul's stated in 1876 that 'We have built a neat little church at the cost of $1,400, which is nearly paid for. The land cost $2,020, and is not paid for.' 88
In 1872 the number of communicants listed in the parishes in and near Salem was: St. Peter's, Salem, 198; Grace, Salem, 109; Calvary, Danvers, 74; St. Peter's, Beverly, 42; while the first re- port from St. Paul's Mission, Peabody, listed 15 communicants. For this same year, 1872, the communicant figure for the Church of Our Saviour, Longwood, was seventy.89 The cost of the four new churches in Essex County totaled about $30,500; the cost of the stone structure at Longwood was some $50,000.90 Both the several parishes in Essex County and the one parish in Norfolk were ex- amples of how parishes spread during Bishop Eastburn's last years.
The church in Longwood, built by Dr. William R. Lawrence and his brother Amos A., was a church building in search of a religious society. About a dozen years after Amos A. Lawrence had set up his home in the Longwood district of Brookline, 91 William T. Eus- tis of Boston wrote to him,
86. In 1865 the comparative figures of p. 119; 1875, p. 154.
population for Salem's adjacent townships mentioned above were: Beverly, 5942; years of consecration of the churches; they Danvers, 5144; South Danvers (Peabody), 6051. Manual for ... General Court [Mass. ], 1872, p. 178. JM, 1864, p. 85.
87. JM, 1865, pp. 86-87.
88. JM, 1953, p. 37; 1876, p. 125. There were seats for 150 in the church and for 20 in the choir. JM, 1876, p. 125.
89. JM, 1872, pp. 80, 81, 90, 92; 1872,
90. These figures appear in JM for the
are listed either in the annual address of the bishop or in the individual parish re- port.
91. William Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence, etc. (Boston and New York, 1888), p. 60. The Lawrence family moved to Longwood on 25 Sept. 1851.
227
CHAPTER XVII
The subject of a Church to be located in Longwood is an important one; and in my judgment the time is not distant when a movement should be made. The establishment of an Episcopal Church might bring in some Uni- tarians, [but] I am so imbued with the old Pilgrim element that I prefer to wait a little longer in the hope that we may be able to establish a good, sound, orthodox Church in Longwood on the Congregational platform and that even you may return to your first love.92
Dr. William Lawrence, who had already had the experience of or- ganizing Episcopal parishes and building churches, shared with his brother Amos the thought of building a church or chapel at Longwood.93 Again, single large gifts for new Episcopal societies were not unusual, as exemplified in Burnett's gift of St. Mark's, Southborough, Alvah Crocker's gift for Christ Church, Fitchburg, Mrs. Sibley's gift of St. John's, North Adams, and in the gift of B. T. Reed of money for the establishment of a school of theology at Cambridge. Amos A. Lawrence's one-time business partner, R. M. Mason, gave the money for St. John's Chapel, Cambridge, a little over a year after Amos A. and William Lawrence had presented the diocese with the Church of Our Saviour in Longwood.
Ever since 1832 when the standing committee of the diocese had been the scene of party differences, more and more Episcopalians had become, and were becoming, more aware that a complete ad- herence to the Book of Common Prayer was not inconsistent with a ritualistic rendering of its various forms of worship. The founders of the Church of the Advent, Boston, in 1844, had succeeded in carrying out a mild addition of ritual to the prayer book, but this parish was virtually unique in its form of services in the Diocese of Massachusetts. 94 That ritualism could have an intellectual basis,
92. 'A. A. Lawrence Letters', vol. XXVII, no. 135. William T. Eustis, Boston, 5 Dec. 1864, to A. A. L.
93. William Lawrence had helped with St. John's, Jamaica Plain, and Emmanuel parish, Boston, 'A. A. Lawrence Letter Books', vol. v, no. 122; supra, p. 174.
94. 'Ritualism' became in the later 19th century to be confused with the term 'High Church'. From both a parochial and diocesan point of view (including both
Bishops Griswold and Eastburn and the majority of the members of the standing committee), the Hobartian interpretation of 'High Church' had but a token repre- sentation in the Church in Massachusetts. 'Ritualism' on the other hand had stirred the minds of clergy and laymen, who showed in the first place curiosity con- cerning it, and then either attraction to it or repulsion from it.
228
THE DIOCESE OF MASSACHUSETTS
and that it could intensify the form of worship set forth in the Book of Common Prayer, except 'among the masses', was a question of doubt with most Churchmen in Massachusetts.95 That ritualism, indeed any innovation in the usual interior furnishings of the Epis- copal churches of the diocese, was strange to clergy and laity was evidenced in a letter written 28 March 1868 by the rector of St. Paul's, Brookline, Francis Wharton, to his fellow townsman Amos A. Lawrence : 'You asked me last evening about the credence table, and I hastily answered that I had never seen one before. I now be- lieve I have once or twice in Boston.'96 The subject of ritualism, or "Romish usages' as Bishop Eastburn termed it, came before general convention which met in New York City in October 1868.97 On the basis of the pastoral letter issued by the House of Bishops, Bishop Eastburn faced his diocese with the pronouncement that the 'ex- travagancies in Ritualism, recently introduced .. . ' sprang largely from individual clergymen who were somewhat unmindful of their ordination statements of intention.98 In brief, then, the subject of
95. Writing from Paris, 3 Dec. 1865, Dr. William R. Lawrence said in a letter to his brother Amos A., 'I cannot but con- sider the immense advantage which the Romish Church has over ourselves, in all that concerns the attractions presented outwardly for the fostering of devotion among the masses. So long as people have hearts and eyes and ears, so long must they be influenced by such attractions .. . '. 'A. A. Lawrence Letters', vol. XXVIII, no. 173.
96. 'A. A. Lawrence Letters', vol. XXXI, no. 145. It should be mentioned in Whar- ton's defense that his early training was in the law. He was ordained in 1862, aged 42, and shortly after became rector of St. Paul's, Brookline. Muller, ETS, pp. 19-20; JM, 1963, p. 15.
97. The diocesan convention of 1868 named, as usual, eight deputies to general convention and eight substitutes. Listed as present at general convention were the Revs. Frederic D. Huntington, S. P. Park- er, James Mulcahey, William H. Mills,
and Cyrus F. Knight; the lay deputies were Messrs. A. A. Lawrence, B. R. Curtis, J. B. Stebbins, George C. Shattuck, M.D., and Joseph Burnett. The only member of the diocesan standing committee listed at general convention was Dr. Shattuck. JM, 1868, pp. 168-170; JGC, 1868, pp. 4 157-160.
98. JGC, 1868, p. 267; JM, 1869, pp. 28, 29. After condemning the trend toward belief in transubstantiation, the Bishops' Letter continued, 'We would at the same time, deprecate most earnestly those extra- vagancies in Ritualism, recently intro- duced, which tend to assimulate our wor- ship to that of a Church, not only alien, but hostile to our own. And we must also urge you to remember that the reverent obedience to that Bishop, and other chief Ministers, promised by the Clergy at their ordination, would, if faithfully rendered, prevent these evils.' Pastoral Letter of the House of Bishops, to the Clergy and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, A.D. 1868 (Hartford, 1868), pp.
229
CHAPTER XVII
ritualism occupied the minds of many of the clergy and laity in the diocese. Also, ritualism, which always had had some basis in the rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer, was to be merged with it in the sense that 'usage' or 'tradition' became a usual way or manner in conducting the prayer book services. By the time that Amos A. and Dr. William R. Lawrence planned to build a church, the change in 'interior arrangements and furnishings' from the Ortho- dox or 'established' Church of Bishop Griswold's time, at least in the Episcopal churches, was marked. The position of the altar as the focus of attention for the congregation meant that the reading desk was placed at right angles to the altar. In this position, the minister when reading and praying had his back neither to the altar nor to the congregation. In his reports of consecrations of churches, Bishop Eastburn had complained of this 'arrangement' in a few buildings, but had not pressed his objections to the point of non-visitation as he did in the instance of the Church of the Ad- vent, Boston. As far as the over-all architecture of churches was concerned, it is clear that Eastburn favored a 'Gothic' type of build- ing of the Upjohn type, rendered in stone rather than in wood.
Stone, of course, was the material that Alexander R. Esty, the architect of the Church of Our Saviour, used.99 The interior of the church as consecrated by Bishop Eastburn on 29 September 1868 was unlike the church today, as there were then no choir stalls and fewer memorial stained-glass windows.100
Bishop Eastburn could not record the laying of the cornerstone of the Church of Our Saviour as the building of the church had al- ready started. In fact the standing committee, together with the
8-9. A brief account of the 'ritualism' con- troversy appears in Edward C. Chorley, Men and Movements of the Episcopal Church (New York, 1946), pp. 376-380.
99. Herbert H. Fletcher, A History of Our Saviour, etc. (Brookline, 1936), pp. 8, 13; JM, 1869, p. 26.
100. Most church buildings which have been, and are, in use today for the Episco- pal societies which built them before 1872, have changed their interiors noticeably.
Heating and lighting changes would 'at once reveal a difference, while the change of organs and choir galleries would be a second alteration. Churches representing the colonial tradition, e.g., Christ Church, Boston, St. Mary's, Newton Lower Falls, and Christ Church, Cambridge, reveal less of a change because of their conformity to early established canons of New England architecture. Fletcher, Church of Our Sav- iour, p. 14.
230
THE DIOCESE OF MASSACHUSETTS
bishop, only gave its assurance that the diocese would accept the church, when built and paid for, on 17 April 1867, before which date work on the building had begun.101 Had not the standing committee or the bishop consented to the formation of this new parish in Brookline, the Lawrence brothers were prepared to offer the church 'to some other (Evangelical) denomination'. 102
The motives which prompted Dr. William Lawrence and Amos A. and the difficulties they faced in regard to forming a religious society in Longwood appear in many letters to Amos A. from his friends and from his brother William.103 The need of a church or chapel developed from the slowly growing residential portion of Brookline known as the Cottage Farm section or Longwood.104 By 1860, ten years after Amos A. Lawrence had moved there, David Sears had built a church variously known as 'Christ Church', 'The Apostolic Catholic Church of America', the 'Gospel Church', or just 'the Sears Church'. 105 Amos A. Lawrence asked David Sears to change the services to provide for the Episcopalian residents of Longwood, but Sears refused.
Sears had also successfully prevented the rector of St. Paul's, Brookline, Francis Wharton, and under him the Rev. Abbott Brown of New York, from holding services at a schoolhouse for the convenience of Longwood families. Even some members of the ves- try of St. Paul's, Brookline, of which Amos A. Lawrence was a member,106 stated their objection to another Episcopal society in Brookline, indicating to Bishop Eastburn that a second society would injure St. Paul's financially. Amos A. Lawrence answered this
101. JM, 1867, p. 41; Fletcher, Church of Our Saviour, p. 8. Bishop Eastburn called the gift of the Church of Our Sav- iour 'an edifying example of the consecra- tion of wealth to the glory of Christ, and the highest good of men'. JM, 1869, p. 26.
102. Fletcher, Church of Our Saviour, p. 8.
103. 'A. A. Lawrence Letters', vols. XXX and XXXI.
104. David Sears named the section Longwood 'after the place on St. Helena where Napoleon died'. Lawrence, Law-
rence, p. 60. The population of Brookline in 1865 was 5262, and in 1870, 6650. Man- ual for ... General Court [Mass. ], 1872, p. 181.
105. Fletcher, Church of Our Saviour, p. 7; Harriet F. Woods, Historical Sketches of Brookline, Mass. (Boston, 1874), p. 402. David Sears had written a Book of Wor- ship for use in his chapel; A. A. Lawrence termed the congregation of the chapel "the "Searsarian Church." ' Lawrence, Lawrence, p. 238.
106. Lawrence, Lawrence, pp. 233-234.
231
CHAPTER XVII
objection by pointing out to the bishop that the members of the vestry who so addressed him 'enjoy an aggregate income of not less than $100 M', while fifteen members of St. Paul's 'render to from [$]325 M to 255 M .. . '.107 Realizing that the church building would be offered to another Christian society, the bishop and standing committee accepted it at once for the Church in Massa- chusetts.
Having obtained the approval of the bishop and standing com- mittee, Dr. William Lawrence went to Swampscott for the sum- mer, and in September 1867 to Amherst, Massachusetts, and to Saratoga Springs, New York. Amos A. Lawrence went to Europe. The rector of St. Paul's, Brookline, wrote Amos A. in Europe to say that 'I hope you will go to some of the real ritualistic churches in England, so as to let us know how things really are'.108 At the same time Dr. William Lawrence was writing to his brother with the new church at Longwood foremost in his mind.109 On the sub- ject of unreserved 'sittings', he wrote, 'I do not believe we can carry on a strictly free church, but we can lease seats, leaving all unoccu- pied ones free to all comers. Your idea of an open pew at the end, would be a good one if you could choose your neighbor, and if the communion of the Saints could be made a fixed fact . . . '.110 The whole idea of a Church at Longwood was a doubtful experiment, according to Dr. William Lawrence's letters.
On 14 January 1868 the Rev. Elliott D. Tomkins, rector of St. John's Church, Northampton, Massachusetts, agreed to become
107. Notes on church at Longwood, A. A. Lawrence Letters', vol. xxx, no date. See also A. A. Lawrence 'Memorandum' of Apr. 1867 (op. cit., no. 114).
108. 'A. A. Lawrence Letters', vol. xxx, no. 203, dated Longwood 1 July 1867.
109. 'Those who build churches', wrote William to A. A. Lawrence, 'do not expect to receive back their money. Pews, parti- cularly in new churches, do not sell at their cost.' 'A. A. Lawrence Letters', vol. Xxx, no. 164. Saratoga Springs, 20 Sept. 1867. 'I have in my mind put down the
cost of [a] church as we are to build and furnish it without tower at $40,000. I do not regret that we have commenced it, and hope it will prove a success.'
110. 'A. A. Lawrence Letters', vol. Xxx, no. 212. Lynn, Mass., 13 Aug. 1867. Five weeks later Dr. W. R. Lawrence wrote to Amos A. that 'We visited the Church [Grace ] at Amherst, Mass., and found it a "gem." ' 'A. A. Lawrence Letters', vol. XXX, no. 164. Saratoga Springs, 20 Sept. 1867.
232
THE DIOCESE OF MASSACHUSETTS
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.