USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > The First Evangelical Congregational Church, Cambridgeport, Mass. > Part 4
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A glance at the names of the church will exhibit the feebleness of the enterprise. Somewhere it may be written that somebody heard that a wall was building, and said, " What do these feeble folk ? even that which
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they build, if a fox go up he shall break down their stone wall." We believe that they prayed, " Hear, O our God," and we know by the records "that they built the wall, for the people had a mind to work." How much oppo- sition they encountered, and how much mockery they endured, let those narrate who write the acts of other men. Ours is the more gracious task, to write of their work.
The first meeting, held April 18, 1827, was to consider the expediency of erecting an Evangelical Congregational meeting-house. It was at Dr. Chaplin's, and after dis- cussion. "the opinion was unanimously expressed that such a measure is expedient." The meeting was adjourned until the 20th of the same month. At this second meeting " Dr. Chaplin. was moderator, Samuel Barrett clerk. William Fisk, F. Faulkner, Jr., and Dexter Fairbank were appointed a committee to examine and provide a suit- able place for the location of a meeting-house, and to make other necessary arrangements ; Messrs. Richardson and John Dudley, a committee to take a plan of a house by examination or otherwise, and to make a general es- timate of the expense ; Messrs. Chaplin, Fairbank, and F. Faulkner, Jr., a committee to draw up a subscription paper and solicit subscriptions; Messrs. Chaplin and Bar- rett, a committee to make a communication to the Baptist Church, in the name of this meeting, of our intention to erect a meeting-house, and to request their co-operation and prayers." The meeting adjourned, subject to the call of the chairman. For celerity and despatch this movement wellnigh surpassed many which in our days are denominated " Western," or its synonyme, " fabu- lous." All this was done in two days. Eleven days
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after, the meeting was called by the chairman, when a plan of a meeting-house was presented, discussed, approved, and adopted. Messrs. Chaplin, Faulkner, Fairbank, Fisk, Richardson, Dudley, and Wyman were appointed a Build- ing Committee with full power. The site of the house was not so readily determined. The meeting failing to agree, a committee was raised, consisting of Messrs. Chaplin, Wyman, and Faulkner, with full power to pur- chase a lot. Two significant minutes, under date May 28, here occur, suggesting to our minds that this child had as yet no name. " Messrs. Chaplin, Faulkner, and Fair- bank were appointed a committee to receive a deed of trust of the land lately purchased of Messrs. Fisk to hold as joint tenants until further order of the -. Squire Livermore was chosen Treasurer, and authorized to pay all demands against the " ..
August 30 .- At Mrs. Bisco's, a meeting was held to take into consideration measures preparatory to the organiza- tion of an Evangelical Congregational Church. "The house of worship being nearly completed," September 20 was fixed as the date for its dedication. Messrs. Chaplin, Fairbank, and Barrett were appointed a committee to call the Council. Messrs. Lyman Beecher, Chaplin, Fairbank, and Barrett were chosen a committee to provide a confes- sion of faith ; and Dr. Chaplin was instructed to invite the examining committee of the Hanover Street Church, Boston, " to examine those who are to constitute the church about to be organized."
September 5. - The confession of faith and the cove- nant were accepted by the meeting, and the proprieties of the occasion were carefully attended to. The final words of this introductory chapter were said. A vote of thanks -
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to the Baptist Church for the use of their meeting-house for ten months, an invitation to Rev. B. Jacobs and his church to attend the dedicatory services, and a vote of thanks to Dr. Beecher for the "weekly lecture he has kindly preached to us since December, 1826, and a request for the continuance of the same in our new house of worship," - these items, with the appointment of Messrs. Chap- lin, Hubbard, and Barrett a committee to present the names and testimonials of the future church and their request to the Council, constitute the closing record of the
The first, or organizing and dedicatory, Council met at Dr. Chaplin's. It was called by letters missive from a company of believers wishing to be formed into a Chris- tian church, and was composed of pastors and delegates from eight different churches :-
Hanover Street, Boston, Rev. L. Beecher, D. D., Brother Geo. E. Head.
First Charlestown, Rev. Warren Fay, Brother Wm. Birchmore. Union, Boston, Rev. S. Green.
Park Street, Boston, Rev. E. Beccher, Brother S. Hubbard. Medford, Rev. Aaron Warner, Brother Nathaniel Jacquith. Groton, Brother J. Rockwood.
Dorchester, Brother Henry Gray.
Green Street, Boston, Deacon Daniel Colby.
Lyman Beecher, D. D., Moderator ; Edward Beecher, Scribe; Warren Fay, Assistant Scribe.
A letter missive, requesting the Council to assist in organizing a company of believers into a church of Christ and in dedicating a house of worship, was read. The forty-six applicants presented their testimonials and themselves. The confession of faith presented by the
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company of believers was approved by the Council, as were also the proceedings of the candidates. Then, ad- journing to the new meeting-house, by the one service the church was organized and the meeting-house dedi- cated. Rev. Aaron Warner offered the introductory prayer. Rev. Edward Beecher read selections of Scripture; Dr. Lyman Beecher offered prayer and preached the sermon ; Rev. S. Green recognized the church and gave the right hand of fellowship; and the Rev. Warren Fay offered the concluding prayer. The Council then returned to Dr. Chaplin's, and was there dissolved. Eight days after this, somewhat in accord with the patriarchal period, at a meeting of the church a vote was taken christening with its name, "Evangelical Congregational Church in Cambridgeport."
In our desire to present a continuous statement of this first stage in the work, we have left all reference to the house till now. The site was purchased of Messrs. Rufus and William Fisk for the sum of $ 800. I think even higher mathematics have not yet found a name which would characterize the shape of the lot. It fronted on Norfolk Street. Partly because I have not a blackboard at command, and partly because I am not skilled in the art of delineation, I will not attempt a drawing here. Yet the description in the deed may enable you to attempt to shape it, and I think with no fear of becoming idola- ters, for no model for it can be found amid shapes above, beneath, or around.
"Beginning at the northwesterly corner of the premises, - at a stake and stone, - at the intersection of Norfolk Street and an unopened street called Washington, and running south- easterly, bounded northeasterly by said unopened street one
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hundred and thirty-six feet, then turning and running south- erly one hundred and twenty-seven feet, then turning and running westerly ninety-four feet, then turning and running southerly two hundred and two feet to a stake and stones on Austin Street, then turning and running westerly and bound- ing southwardly on said Austin street three feet, more or less, to the corner of said Austin Street and Norfolk Street, then turning and running northwardly on said Norfolk Street two hundred and seventy-nine feet to the point of beginning."
If this gore, commencing with three feet on Austin Street, was typical of the career of the church, we must have reached the grand expansion to the southward and eastward, as to-day we contemplate this church, the Pil- grim Church and the Chapel Church, as the present di- mensions from that small beginning.
On this site the first meeting-house was built, and there, fifty years ago, were gathered our fathers and mothers in the faith, providing for us who came after them. The house was complete on the day which we commemorate. It would be exceedingly pleasant and profitable could we trace the steps by which that preliminary work had been accom- plished. But, the highway of records not having been cast up, we can only pick out the grass-grown path of tra- dition, and leave much to the imagination of each to sup- ply. From traditions which I deem authentic I gather that the first talk of such an enterprise was informal, but not in vain. Five men - Dr. J. P. Chaplin, Augustus Richard- son, F. Faulkner, Jr., Dexter Fairbank, and John Dudley - met. At that meeting Dr. Chaplin said : " If money enough cannot be raised to build a meeting-house, I will build one in my garden and hire and pay a minister my- self." Of these five men but three were, at the time, church-
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members, although all were thoroughly convinced that this new way was not merely the old way revived, but the right way. Dr. Chaplin and Francis Faulkner, Jr., are credited with contributing $1,000 and $ 500 respectively, and, in concert with Dr. Beecher, securing donations from Han- over, Old South, and Park Street churches in Boston. One gentleman is said to have given one tenth of his possessions for this object, and Mary Parks, a lady en- tirely dependent upon her own efforts for a living, gave $ 100 out of the $1,000 which she had saved from her small earnings. From these two tithes we may justly sur- mise that one of Dr. Beecher's lectures was founded on Malachi iii. 10, "Bring ye all the tithes into the store- house," and that he made a deeper impression than others coming after him have made with the same passage of Scripture.
We cannot tell who officiated at the " raising at sun- rise." At that time " the corner-stone " was not the cere- mony at this stage of the work, but "the raising" was. Religious ceremonies were observed. On this occasion the foundation timbers were laid, and a floor was put down. When the good people came to the spot in the morning, great was their surprise at the tokens of liberality that shrank from revealing its author which appeared in the new and golden carpet that had been spread during the night. Still unknown are the names of these generous men of Nicodemus habits who donated and spread the brimstone on which those saints walked unharmed that morning. But it is evident that they continued to be prospered, and also to be generous, for in the same modest and unobserved manner they carpeted anew, for every returning Sabbath, not merely the two shorter walks
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leading from Norfolk Street to the entrance of the church, but the long one from Austin Street also.
This original meeting-house on Norfolk Street was evidently built by self-denying labor and gifts. It con- tained sixty-four pews on the main floor, arranged on the one centre and two wall aisles and the cross aisle running in front of the pulpit. There was an end gallery contain- ing two rows of five pews each. The bell now in the tower of this meeting-house was hung in the small cupola which was framed into the building. This bell, and the Bible, used until within a year in the vestry, are all that now exist of the original house and furniture. Tradition says that soon after the house was dedicated a platform was built on a level with the tops of the pews at the right of the pulpit, and a small organ set up for the use . of the choir, who occupied seats on this platform. This was soon exchanged for a better one. The time soon came when more room was needed. Under date of Janu- ary 12, 1837, we find: " Voted that Messrs. Fisk, Fairbank, and Houghton be a committee to take into consideration the matter of enlarging the meeting-house, and report at an adjourned meeting. January 26, 1837, the Committee . presented a plan, and estimate of expense of the proposed alteration of the meeting-house," and "Voted that . . . demand that the meeting-house be enlarged, and that the society be invited to meet with the church to confer with them on the subject." No further record of this matter appears, until, under date of October 29, 1837, we find : " Voted that the new pews be appraised on the principle that regulated the original appraisal." Hence we conclude that the first enlargement of the meeting- house took place in the year 1837. It consisted in the
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removal of the walls between the vestibule and the audience-room, the vestibule being about one fourth of the depth of the house. At this time the tower was built to afford a vestibule. The building of the tower involved a difficulty. The original church was placed on the extreme westerly line, designated by the conveyance made by Messrs. Fisk. This line was determined by the range from their house on Norfolk Street to their store at its junction with Main Street, between which signals rather than sounds summoned the gentlemen to their place. Hence " the restriction " in the deed was removed. We find it recorded under date of 1839, or two years after the enlargement was completed.
In May, 1840, is the following record :-
" Whereas all the desirable pews in our meeting-house are now occupied, and, whereas several more pews are called for, Voted that Messrs. Valentine, Alden, Safford, and Dallinger be a committee to secure funds for putting in side galleries, for painting the meeting-house and vestry, and paying the debt incurred by the former enlargement of the house, and that a meeting of the pew-holders be notified to act with us in this vote."
This committee report in January, 1841, when an effort is inaugurated to pay the debt incurred in doing the work contemplated in its appointment. Hence we con- clude - for not a scrap of any society's record, nor sub- scription paper, nor any traces of the payment therefor on the church treasurer's record can I find - that the last enlargement of the Norfolk Street Meeting-house was made in the year 1840.
The second organ was exchanged for a third, and this
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" was set up in the end gallery, and here the choir sat from this time forward. This third organ, having been sold to the Baptist people, and by them to the North Avenue Congregational Society, is still in use in their house of worship.
In the meeting-house, enlarged for the last time in 1840, and the chapel, " finished in 1846," the church met for its various purposes until, in June, 1852, this edifice complete was dedicated to God. So that just one half of the fifty years have passed during the occupancy of this house.
The old vestry or chapel was sold and moved away to Columbia Street, where it was converted into a school- house, in which Susan Dimond (Mrs. Wmn. W. Meriam) conducted a private school. The old church was sold to four gentlemen, who converted it into Washington Hall. It was consumed by fire in 1854. It was the product and the occasion of many a battle. Peace to its ashes !
VESTRY.
Up to January, 1835, no allusion is made to any devotional or business meeting (except the preaching service in the meeting-house) otherwhere than at pri- vate houses. Annual meetings, meetings for discipline, meetings to call ministers and councils, hitherto had been at the house of Dr. or Mrs. Chaplin, or Deacon Barrett. Under the above date the annual meeting is at the vestry. This single record settles the year 1834 as the probable date of the completion of the first vestry. For although, of the forty-two recorded meetings, not one was held there
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from that date until October, 1837, it seems very prob- able that it was used soon after its completion for this purpose. Fifty-two meetings are recorded between Oc- tober, 1837, and October, 1841, and of these one each was held in the vestry in 1838, 1839, 1840, and 1841 previous to October. Under that date a formal vote changes the evening for prayer-meeting from Saturday to Friday, and the place from private houses to the vestry. Exactly what the vestry was used for it may be difficult for us who use the audience-room for Sabbath-school purposes to con- jecture.
Precisely what occurred at this date to require the change may be inferred from the fact that during the year previous sixty-six had united with the church, of whom fifty-one had been by profession of faith. The vestry henceforth is the place for social, business, and devotional meetings. Under date of February 2, 1846, we find a communication from the society recorded. One signifi- cant sentence occurs : " That the society assume the debts unpaid for finishing the chapel and improving the grounds around it." This meeting is recorded as held at the chapel, not the vestry. Tradition says that at this time the first vestry was taken down and a new one put up, but the above sentence is all the written confirmation of said fact that we can find. Mr. Charles Valentine bought the first steep-roofed little vestry and removed it to his factory, and the saying is still current that, in response to the in- quiry-raised, when Mr. Valentine suggested and urged this new meeting-house, " What can be done with the old one " it was said, " Brother Valentine will buy it and move it down by the side of the old vestry." There are those who distinctly remember the lesser building with pointed
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roof and windows, and also the second and less angular chapel with which most of those who worshipped there are so pleasantly familiar.
THE CHURCH OF SEPTEMBER 20, 1827.
THE original church consisted of forty-six members. Their names are familiar to but few of those gathered here to-day. But as the name of each soldier who fought for our privileges ought at times to be spoken by those whose liber- ties were purchased with his labors, sufferings, and death, so we may well tarry to-day while we snatch from obliv- ion's closing hand each of these names of precious memory.
DR. JAMES P. CHAPLIN was unconsciously building his monument of enduring and increasing worth when labor- ing so devotedly to found the church and erect the meet- ing-house. At an age in life, engaged in a profession, endowed with qualities of mind and heart, associated with a class of people, and possessed of property and reputation, that enabled him to command great influence and great resources, he did command them all in this enterprise. It was thoroughly under way. He not only labored and gave, but he endured much. His neighbors and his pa- tients did not agree with him in his devotion, and they made known their opposition. When the work of inaug- urating the enterprise was done, six months before a pastor was settled here, he died, October 12, 1828. The first funeral that was attended in the church which he had labored to build was his, and the minister who attended his funeral was Dr. Lyman Beecher. He died on Sunday, and was buried on Thursday. The following Sunday
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morning Dr. Enoch Pond preached, and in the afternoon Dr. Beecher came over and preached a funeral sermon from the text, " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."
MRS. WILLIAM J. HUBBARD, his daughter (Eliza O.), died in 1832. MRS. HANNAH CHAPLIN, his wife, died in 1838. MRS. JOANNA NEWCOMB and MISS MARTHA GARDNER (sis- ters of Mrs. Chaplin) died respectively in 1840 and in 1848. In labors and gifts and zeal for this church this family all continued steadfast until they were called hence.
DEXTER FAIRBANK was associated with Dr. Chaplin. in his Institute, and was quite zealous and active. In a letter just received from him he says : " Not having much else to do, I was the man to solicit and collect the money. We never owed anything a great while, and so I had something to do in this way." He and his wife Lucretia were among the original members of the Second or Austin Street Church, formed in 1842. Their antislavery con- victions were very strong, and they, who had begun with this, cast their lot with the projectors of that enterprise. Subsequently they removed to New York, and are now living in Elizabeth, N. J.
SAMUEL BARRETT was a teacher in a classical school in Cambridge. A native of Quincy, a graduate of Harvard College, he entered Andover as a student of theology. He abandoned the preparation for the ministry because of " timidity, sensitiveness, and lack of confidence in his gifts." For thirty years he was a teacher of one of the public schools in Boston. A polished scholar, his in- timacy with God's Word was a matter of note. Having been Superintendent of the Sunday school for six months before the church was formed, he was also the first per-
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manent officer of " the company of believers." Before they were organized as a church, he had been their Clerk and Treasurer. In 1835, he was elected Deacon by the Church. In all the four offices he set a good example. As Superintendent his long service is his fitting praise. The records in his handwriting and over his signature are a model in their way. The accounts from the very first, kept with no erasures and no fixed-up balances, and au- dited on the page where they were kept, not on a flying sheet, make one feel comfortable in these days, when even audited accounts and approved balances are proving thin coverings of unfathomable frauds. "The good degree which he purchased to himself " is the best evidence that can be given to prove that he " used the office of Deacon well." He held all the offices, except Superintendent, which he resigned in 1842, until 1846, when he transferred his church relation to Boston. He died in Middleboro' in April of this year, aged nearly seventy-six years. His wife and five of his eight children, two sons and three daughters, survive him. His wife, though not one of the original members (she united by letter from Middleboro, in 1834), took a deep interest in the church, as extracts from her letters will show .*
- FRANCIS E. FAULKNER, JR., was the man who had a talent for singing. His conversion, regeneration, justification, and sanctification are all associated with church music. He sang in the choir at the Old Brick Church. On the morning of the day in which he was converted, one of his daughters asked his permission to attend the Baptist Church. He replied, "No." The other, not knowing of
She attended worship here, October 6, 1877.
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this refusal, soon presented the same request, and gave the same reason, namely, to witness immersions there. He gave a reluctant consent, adding, "You and your moth- er are going crazy." The daughters went as they desired, and the parents went together to the Unitarian Church, the mother sitting in her pew and the father in the choir. He had previously been very much excited in opposing the religious interest of his wife and children. This morning he stopped short during the singing of a hymn, under the pressure of his feelings, dropped his book, and would sing no more. A friend met him and inquired if his family were well. " No," said he, "they are all sick with the Beecher fever." He and his wife walked home together. She feared even more intense op- position when he arrived home, but he went immediately to his room, and at dinner was very quiet and very tender. In the afternoon the whole family went to church together, the father strangely silent, the mother in earnest prayer. " He was bathed in tears during all the service. Return- ing home, he went into a retired room, and she followed him, spoke a few words to him, and came out. He re- mained, and, reading from his Bible the parable of the prodigal son, in prayer he gave his heart to God. As he came from that room, it was evident to us all from his countenance that a change had been wrought in him." The entire family went to the Baptist Church that evening. The next morning he prayed with his family, and henceforward at home, at church, and amid the scenes of daily life his devotion to Christ was observed of all. He urged people to become Christians. Hitherto very parsimonious, he now gave $500 towards building the proposed meeting-house. Astonished as were the people
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at this gift, they were not less so as he came into the next prayer-meeting at Dr. Chaplin's, and there opened his mouth in testimony. How long he continued to praise the Lord, the many traditions of " his faltering, but persistent and triumphant lead at every meeting " have made familiar even to those who never heard him. He died in 1853; his wife, Eunice, in 1855; his daughter Eunice L., in 1838, and his son William E. (uniting with the church in 1834, after graduating at Harvard College and with the gospel ministry in view), in 1841. His daughter Louisa G. (Mrs. Harmon Griffin) is still living in New York City.
WILLIAM J. HUBBARD, a lawyer, married Eliza, daugh- ter of Dr. Chaplin, and began at the beginning of this enterprise his career of honored usefulness in the church. Active and efficient in meetings for devotion and counsel and instruction, he was very highly esteemed while he remained here, but in 1835 he united with the Central Church, Boston, under the pastoral charge of the intimate friend of Dr. Stearns, Dr. Rogers.
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