USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > One hundred years of Mount Vernon Church, 1842-1942 > Part 2
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8 See Appendix B.
9 His salary was $2000 per year.
10 Twenty-two came from the Bowdoin Street Church, nine from the Essex Street Church, three from the Park Street Church, two from the Old South Church, one from the Salem Street Church, one from the Central Church, one from the Eliot Church in Roxbury, one from the First Church in North Yarmouth, Maine, one from the Evangelical Church in South Brookfield, one from the Theological Seminary in Andover, one from the Presbyterian Church in New Rochelle, New York, one from the East Parish Church in Bradford, one from the First Church in Natick, and one from the First Congregational Church in Lowell.
In the Records of Park Street Church, under the date May 27, 1842, is the record: "Daniel Safford, Eliza Ann Safford, Geo. F. Homer were dismissed and recommended to an Ecclesiastical Council about to be convened for the purpose of forming a new Con. gregational Church in this city."
11 The Reverend William Jenks, editor of Comprehensive Commentary, was graduated from the Boston Latin School and from Harvard in 1797. He was the first minister to sea- men in Boston.
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MOUNT VERNON CHURCH
Roxbury, the First Congregational Church in Charlestown, the Winthrop Church in Charlestown, and the First Church in Cambridge.
The church first elected Dr. Kirk to its membership, so that he could take part in drawing up its creed and "be a better exponent of modern thought," and then formally called him to the pastorate, ratifying all previous action.
The first great obstacle was the new body's confession of faith, pre- pared by Dr. Kirk, which had been unanimously adopted by the proposed members of the new church. Members of the Council considered it too rhetorical, too liberal, and an attempt to be original. It was not heretical but "the ring of the old formulas had not yet lost their music in dogmatic ears, and many of the fondly cherished phrases were missing."12
After the Council had cut it into pieces with their criticisms, the scribe returned what remained of this "attempt at originality." Then the Council adjourned for an hour or more to await the action of the church. The church voted at once to adhere to their original confession, asserting that "they would not change it at all."
Among the five appointed by the Council to confer with them was Lieutenant-Governor Samuel T. Armstrong, deacon of the Old South Church, who advised them not to make any change in "the phraseology of the paper."
The church reported back to the Council their decision. The Council graciously threw their criticisms into the waste-basket and voted to or- ganize upon the original confession of faith13 prepared by Dr. Kirk. Thus the church was left alone in its supreme authority.
The public service of installation was conducted in the afternoon of the busy day, June 1, 1842. "The Introductory Prayer was given by the Reverend George W. Blagden; the Sermon by the Reverend Thomas H. Skinner; the Installing Prayer by the Reverend Justin Edwards; the Charge to the Pastor by the Reverend H. Winslow; the Right Hand of Fellowship by the Reverend Silas Aiken; the Address to the Church by the Reverend Nehemiah Adams; and the Concluding Prayer by the Reverend John A. Albro."
At a meeting of the "brethren" held that evening, Thomas Adams, Daniel Safford, Julius A. Palmer, and Marshall S. Scudder were chosen deacons of the church. On Saturday evening, June 4, 1842, the following persons were chosen as the Prudential Committee of "The New Congre- gational Church": George W. Crockett, William W. Stone, John Slade, Jr., James W. Kimball, Roland Cutler, Charles W. Scudder, John Mason,
12 David O. Mears, Opus Citum, p. 171.
13 See Appendix C for Confession of Faith.
5
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MOUNT VERNON CHURCH
and Samuel D. Warren. It was voted that the clerk of the church, George F. Homer, be added to the committee.
The church held its first public religious service the next day, on Sun- day, June 5, in the Old South Chapel in Spring Lane, which was "gener- ously tendered for their use by the Old South Society." At this service "the Lord's Supper was administered, and several infant children re- ceived the ordinance of baptism." The Friday evening prayer meetings were held in the vestry of the Central Church.
On June 19, public worship was commenced in the Lecture Room of the Masonic Temple14 on Tremont Street. Here the church held its serv- ices until December 31, 1843. The church building on Somerset Court [named Ashburton Place in 1845] was dedicated "to the worship of Almighty God" on January 4, 1844, just six months from the day the corner stone was laid. Dr. Kirk preached the dedication sermon on "The Unrivaled Glory of the Cross."
Among other things Dr. Kirk said:
A young religious society, by the services of this night, is taking its position more prominently among the public institutions of our community. And the occasion calls upon us to unfurl our banner, and declare to the world our dis- tinctive sentiments, and to show where our dependence lies, what are our resources, our aims, and our hopes; in a word, the type of our Christianity. In- spiration has furnished us a motto, to utter and to unfold which be my de- lightful task now, and to the end of life. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The church was called "The New Congregational Church" until June 23, 1843, when the church voted to assume the name of "Mount Vernon Congregational Church." The church was on Somerset Court and was of course not named for Mount Vernon Street, as some historians have in- correctly inferred. The origin of its name is thus given by Dr. Kirk:
I have often desired to explain the title of this church. It was given in def- erence to me, I believe, and I will give you my reason, as it involves what may be of importance. I do not like to call a church by a street. I do not believe a church lives in a street; it lives in the house of God. "Ashburton Street Church" does not please me. I did not like to call it by a mere number-that is too cold; and I named it, just as you name your children, from fancy ; not from Mount Vernon Street, but because it is a pleasant and euphonious name, and simply for distinction. As for naming it after a saint, I do not believe in that, nor after a sinner either. Then there is what we call "the Chapel." I tried hard to keep the phraseology. It is not a "vestry"-we do not change our vestments.
14 The United States Court later occupied the Masonic Temple.
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MOUNT VERNON CHURCH
I preach there just as much as here; therefore it was called "the Chapel." These are minor matters, but what I have said explains to some people what has seemed inexplicable before.15
On September 7, 1843, the "Proprietors of the new meetinghouse in Somerset Court," pursuant to a "warrant duly issued by a justice of the peace," met to organize themselves as a Corporation-under the general laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts-by the name of the Mount Vernon Congregational Society. The following persons, together with the treasurer, John Slade, Jr., and the clerk, George F. Homer, were ap- pointed the Prudential or Standing Committee of the Society: George W. Crockett, John D. Gardner, Roland Cutler, Freeman L. Cushman, James W. Kimball, Edward S. Tobey, and J. B. Hansen.
From this beginning in 1842 until the present time, Mount Vernon Church has had only six settled ministers-Edward Norris Kirk, Samuel Edward Herrick, Albert Parker Fitch, James Austin Richards, Sidney Lovett, and Carl Heath Kopf-a remarkable record of long and loyal service.
15 David O. Mears, Opus Citum, p. 178. Also Dr. Kirk's sermons testify his admira- tion for George Washington. The name of Washington's home in Virginia, Mount Vernon, certainly suggests distinction. The mansion, built in 1743 by Washington's brother, Lawrence, was named after Admiral Vernon of the British Navy.
2 The Ministers
For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many .- SAINT MARK, X: 45
THE REVEREND EDWARD NORRIS KIRK, 1842-1874
T HE Reverend Edward Norris Kirk was born in New York City on August 14, 1802. His father, George Kirk, a storekeeper, came to this country at the age of eighteen from Kelton, a parish in Kirkcudbright- shire, Scotland. His mother was Mary Norris of Welsh and Irish ancestry. Edward was her only son, but there were three daughters. At the age of ten, Edward lived with an uncle and aunt, Robert Voorhees and Sarah (Norris) Voorhees, in Princeton, New Jersey.
In the fall of 1817 he was enrolled in the sophomore class of the Col- lege of New Jersey (now Princeton), from which he received the B.A. degree in September, 1820. The College also gave him the M.A. degree1 in 1825. In October, 1820, he commenced the study of law with Peter W. Radcliff and John L. Mason in New York City, which he continued for eighteen months.
According to his manuscript Journal, on May 27, 1822, Dr. Kirk "commenced a new life" and "put on the new man."2 After this conver- sion and determination to lead a more serious life, he decided to devote his life to the ministry. He entered Princeton Theological Seminary in November, 1822, and was graduated in 1826. Amherst College gave him the honorary degree of D.D. in 1855.
On October 10, 1823, he placed himself under the care of the Second Presbytery of New York, from which he received the license to preach in July, 1826. In August he became an agent of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and for two years served in the middle and southern states.
In May, 1828, he accepted the request to supply the Second Presby- terian Church in Albany, during the illness of its pastor. "Intensely
1 This practice was a common one. If a man continued in scholarly work, such as teach- ing school or graduate study, his Alma Mater frequently gave him the M.A. degree a few years after his graduation with the earned B.A. degree.
2 This Journal was found in the church attic. Referring to his conversion, he cites Paul's Epistle to the Colossians, III: 10 "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him."
7
8
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MOUNT VERNON CHURCH
evangelistic, plain-spoken, sometimes denunciatory, always uncompro- mising, his preaching was not acceptable to a fashionable congregation which included Martin Van Buren, Benjamin F. Butler, and William L. Marcy, and he was soon summarily dismissed."3 Some of his sympathizers then organized the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Albany, of which he was installed the minister on April 21, 1829, having been ordained six months previously, at the Second Presbyterian Church of New York City. He continued in Albany until his resignation, because of ill health, in 1837.
During this period, he became well known as a promoter of revivals, and a lecturer in behalf of missions, temperance, and the anti-slavery movement. He also prepared young men for the ministry. In 1833 he united his class with that of Dr. Nathaniel S. S. Beman of Troy, and es- tablished the Troy and Albany Theological School at Port Schuyler.4
From 1837 to 1839 he travelled and studied in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Italy, and Switzerland, where he frequently preached and lec- tured. After his return to the United States, he became secretary of the Foreign Evangelical Society, which later became the American and For- eign Christian Union, and conducted revivals in the large cities of the East. He refused many calls to pastorates5 already established, but in 1842 consented to become the minister of the "New Congregational Church" (now Mount Vernon Church) which was to be organized by forty-six prominent citizens of Boston and vicinity on condition that he "become the pastor."
He continued the active ministry at Mount Vernon Church until 1871, when the Reverend Samuel E. Herrick was called to be his associate minister.6 Dr. Kirk was Minister Emeritus until his death in 1874.
He was considered one of the outstanding preachers of the city, and his church became "an aggressive agency of evangelism and reform." In 1846 he was allowed a leave of absence to attend the Evangelical Alliance in London.7 In 1856 he was granted another leave of absence to establish the American Church in Paris.8 Throughout the Civil War he was a fiery supporter of the Union.9 In 1865 he was elected president of the Ameri- can Missionary Association. He was president of the Board of Trustees of
3 Article on Edward Norris Kirk, written by Harris E. Starr for the Dictionary of American Biography, edited by Dumas Malone and published by Scribners.
4 The school, which was later located in Troy, was discontinued in 1837.
5 There were three calls to Boston churches: the Salem Street Church, the Union Church, and the Pine Street (Berkeley Street) Church.
6 Amherst College possesses Dr. Kirk's letter to Dr. Herrick in 1871.
7 See Chapter V.
8 See Chapter V.
9 See Chapter VII for the Civil War period.
Edw. M. Kal.
From Life of Edward Norris Kirk, D.D .. by David O. Mears. Published by Lockwood, Brooks and Company, Boston, 1877
S. E Ifirmato
Photograph by Josiah Johnson Hawes
₹
Jamar anti Rubach
9
THE MINISTERS
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary from 1858 to 1874, and president of the Board of Trustees of Wellesley College10 from 1870 to 1874.
Among his published works are about thirty occasional sermons and addresses, two volumes of sermons, a volume of Lectures on the Parables, a translation of Gaussen's Théopneustie, which was a treatise on the in- spiration of the Scriptures, and several short works published by the American Tract Society.
During his last years he became almost entirely blind. He was active, however, in ministerial meetings and led an interesting discussion on re- vivals only four days before his death11 in Boston on March 27, 1874. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery.
THE REVEREND SAMUEL EDWARD HERRICK, 1871-1904
The Reverend Samuel Edward Herrick was born in Southampton, Long Island, on April 6, 1841. His father was Captain Austin Herrick, the master of a whaling ship, and his mother was Mary W. (Jagger) Herrick. The coat of arms in the old graveyard in Southampton connects the family with the ancient Herricks of Leicester, England, of which family were Sir Nicholas Herrick and Robert Herrick, the poet.
Dr. Herrick was graduated from Amherst College12 in 1859, at the age of eighteen, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1863. He was the minister of the Presbyterian Church in Wappinger's Falls, New York, from 1863, the year of his ordination,13 to 1864, when he became the minister of the Broadway Congregational Church in Chelsea, Massa- chusetts. Here he continued until 1871, when he became the associate minister of Mount Vernon Church. After Dr. Kirk's death in 1874, Dr. Herrick became the minister. Four years later, in 1878, he received the honorary degree of D.D. from Amherst College.
With vision, wisdom, and respect for the compatibility of science and religion, Dr. Herrick led his church from the old Calvinistic belief to- wards the new belief based on scientific discoveries. His people were not bound by old dogmas, and their spiritual experience was strengthened
10 See Chapter VI for both colleges.
11 The resolutions passed on the death of Dr. Kirk were burned in the office of the clerk on Federal Street in 1879. Dr. Kirk was a bachelor and lived with his two unmarried sisters. See his will in the Suffolk Probate Office. His sisters were Mary Ann Kirk, Isabella Jane (Kirk) Center, and Harriet Norris Kirk. He had a niece, Mary Keep of Lockport, New York; a grand-nephew, Edward Kirk Keep; and two grand-nieces, Mary Gertrude Keep and Sarah V. Keep.
12 After his graduation from Amherst, he accepted a position as principal of a high school in Orange County, N. J. Upon his arrival, he found that the sick principal had decided not to resign. Notwithstanding the bitter disappointment, he accepted an offer "to teach a school in the rural district among the hills."
13 He was ordained on October 13, 1863.
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MOUNT VERNON CHURCH
by his intellectual approach to religious controversy. He was often praised for his tolerance of other faiths, and he wanted his church to stand for religion and not primarily for creed. It is significant that his graduation essay at Amherst College was Science: A Teacher of Religious Truth. He had great confidence in Christian progress and was optimistic that before the close of this century "the whole world would be Christian."
He was recognized as a great scholar and a preacher to thoughtful men, an enthusiastic Latinist, and a rigorous thinker who valued serious and thoughtful criticism. He owned a large and valuable library of rare books and first editions. He was regarded by collectors in New York and Lon- don as one of the world's best experts in antiquarian lore. Mr. Newton F. Mckeon, the director of the Amherst College Library,14 which after Dr. Herrick's death received a large portion of his collection, has recently re- corded: "Dr. Herrick was an exceedingly discriminating collector, well ahead of his times."
In addition to many printed sermons and articles, Dr. Herrick was the author of Some Heretics of Yesterday,15 an appreciation of twelve heretics from Tauler in the thirteenth century to Wesley in the eighteenth cen- tury. The study included among others Wiclif, Savonarola, Melancthon, Knox, and Calvin.
On his birthday, on April 6, 1864, Dr. Herrick married Sophia Wood- hull Foster, a beautiful and gifted woman who was "the support and in- spiration of his whole life." She was a woman of "great charm, brilliant intellect and keen sense of humor, with a deep spiritual nature and a steadfast faith."16 Mrs. Herrick died in 1930. Their daughter, Miss Mar- garet Foster Herrick,17 has been devoted to Mount Vernon Church since the day she first entered it in 1871, a little girl then three years old.
On April 12 and 13, 1896, the twenty-fifth anniversary of his ministry was celebrated with an historical sermon, a special communion service,18 and addresses by eleven leading ministers and citizens, including Dr. George A. Gordon of the Old South Church, Dr. Alexander McKenzie, Dr. Edward Everett Hale, and General Francis A. Walker, the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who had been a friend and classmate at Amherst.
Dr. Herrick's letter of resignation was read by Dr. George A. Gordon
14 The Amherst College Library owns his graduation essay, five of his own scrap-books dealing with his life, five scrap-books collected by him about interesting people, and many valuable books from his private collection.
15 Published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company in 1884.
16 Appreciation, written by Miss Alice M. Hawes, printed in Sunday calendar, March 16, 1930.
17 See Appendix J for Miss Herrick's reminiscences.
18 The impressive Communion service, repeated each year in the "Upper Room," on the Thursday preceding Easter, was written by Dr. Herrick.
11
THE MINISTERS
at the service on Sunday, January 11, 1903. The Church and Society were reluctant to accept the resignation. He continued as minister,19 but the Society engaged several ministers to supply the pulpit including the Reverend Edward C. Moore and the Reverend William W. Fenn of Har- vard University, a former member of Mount Vernon Church. Dr. Her- rick contined to preach occasionally and on the day he died, December 4, 1904, although suffering from a cold, he read with much satisfaction (at the morning service), a letter from the Reverend Albert Parker Fitch ac- cepting the call to become his Assistant Minister. He died that evening. The funeral service was held on December 7. He is buried in Quogue, Long Island, where he and Mrs. Herrick had a summer home.
Dr. George A. Gordon preached the memorial sermon on December 18. "He was honored wherever he was known," Dr. Gordon said, "as a man of eminence and nobility, worthy in gifts, accomplishments and character of the best traditions of his great vocation."
THE REVEREND ALBERT PARKER FITCH, 1905-1909
The Reverend Albert Parker Fitch, the son of Henry Hubbard Fitch and Elizabeth Anne Frances (Smith) Fitch, was born in Boston on March 6, 1877. He grew up in the Walnut Avenue Church in Roxbury. He re- ceived the A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1900, the B.D. de- gree from Union Theological Seminary in 1903, and the D.D. degree from Amherst College in 1909 and from Williams College in 1914. He became an honorary member of the Harvard Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in 1911. He married Flora May Draper of Brighton, England, in 1903.
He was ordained to the Congregational ministry on April 9, 1903. Be- fore coming to Mount Vernon Church in 1905, he had been the minister of the First Church in Flushing, Long Island, for two years. In November, 1904, he accepted the invitation to become "associate pastor" with Dr. Herrick, on or after February, 1905, at which time he would be released from his responsibility towards the church in Flushing. After Dr. Her- rick's death in December, 1904, Mount Vernon Church extended a call to Dr. Fitch to become its minister. He was installed on January 24, 1905, and continued his ministry at the church until 1909.
In these four years, Dr. Fitch maintained the best traditions of the Mount Vernon Church pulpit. Under the enthusiastic leadership of this young minister-he was only twenty-eight years old-and his charming English wife, the reorganized Young People's Society of Christian En- deavor rapidly increased its membership. With the advantages of foreign
19 See Appendix D for an appreciation of Dr. Herrick.
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MOUNT VERNON CHURCH
travel and study at Oxford, Dr. Fitch had a scholarly background, and he expressed himself forcefully and eloquently.
In 1909 he became the president of Andover Theological Seminary, Cambridge, resigning in 1917, to become professor of the History of Re- ligion at Amherst College. Here he continued until 1923. He was a mem- ber of the faculty of Carleton College in Minnesota from 1924 to 1927. He was minister of the Park Avenue Presbyterian Church of New York City from 1928 until his resignation, because of poor health, in 1933. From 1919 to 1920 he was also Beecher Lecturer at Yale University.
He is a member of Delta Upsilon, the Academy of Political Science, and the National Institute of Social Sciences. Besides numerous articles and sermons, he is the author of several books of fiction and non-fiction, including College Course and the Preparation for Life, Religion and the Undergraduate, Can the Church Survive in the Changing Order, Preach- ing and Paganism, and None So Blind.
Dr. Fitch20 is living at Chester Gardens, Englewood, New Jersey, from which on December 13, 1941, he sent, in his own handwriting, the fol- lowing letter :
To those still in the church whom Mrs. Fitch and I know I send warmest greetings ; as well as best wishes for you all.
ALBERT PARKER FITCH
His gracious wife adds this greeting:
I wish that Dr. Fitch could express to you his own message for the one hun- dredth celebration of the Mount Vernon Church to tell you what his ministry in this beloved Church meant to him, but the illness that came to him ten years ago makes this impossible, so that for him and for myself I want to express the gratitude there is in our hearts for the deep spiritual joys we had in the years of service we were in the Church. May the Church go forward in ever increasing strength in the labor of your minister together with the work of all its members. Together all things can be accomplished.
FLORA DRAPER FITCH
THE REVEREND JAMES AUSTIN RICHARDS, 1909-1918
The Reverend James Austin Richards, son of James Forsaith Richards and Ellen Augusta (Brown) Richards, was born in Andover, Massachu- setts, on March 27, 1878. He was graduated from Phillips Andover Academy in 1896, and from Harvard University in 1900. The next year, he took graduate work at Harvard, and worked in a church extension
20 See Appendix E for an appreciation of Dr. Fitch.
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THE MINISTERS
project of the Shepherd Memorial Church in Cambridge. In 1904, he received a diploma from Union Theological Seminary, and, in May of that year, he was ordained.
The next year, he was associate minister at the Bedford Park Presby- terian Church of New York City. He was minister of the United Congre- gational Church in Newport, Rhode Island, from 1905 to 1909. From 1909 to 1918 he was the minister of Mount Vernon Church.21 Under his leadership and that of Mrs. Richards, the church went from strength to strength. The Young People's Society responded with enthusiasm to his helpful suggestions.
From 1918 to 1928, he was minister of the Winnetka Congregational Church, a community church in Winnetka, Illinois. For the last fourteen years he has been the minister of the First Church in Oberlin, Ohio.
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