USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > Trinity's first century, 1844-1944 > Part 3
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
30
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
FINANCIAL AFFAIRS
As stated, the original cost of Pynchon Church, includ- ing land, but not including furnishings and organ, was $4,390. In April of 1845 the debt was $5,000. Fifty feet on the western end of the lot had been kept vacant for the purpose of eventually building a parsonage there. This was never done, though there was a tenement in the rear of the vestry that was used by the sexton. A house on 10 Court Street, next door to the home of William Rice, was rented for the parsonage. In 1849 the vacant lot was sold for $950 and the income applied on the debt. By 1851 this had been reduced to $1,300 but before it was fully paid off important renovations to and enlargement of the church added $4,000 more expense and in 1855 the debt was reported at $5,340. In 1865 it was $3,000. Meanwhile there had been considerable agitation for the building of the new church, subscriptions had already been circulated and sizable amounts collected. So in Septem- ber of 1865 the Trustees paid off the $3,000 debt on the old church with money collected for building the new one. Bluntly, Pynchon Church never knew a single day without a debt or without a deficit in current expenses, a situ- ation to be considered by those who yearn to "get back." Yet it should also be added that regular collections were taken for benevolence and there is a record of an order to the treasurer to pay $5.00 to an improvident widow.
The total income for the pastor in 1850, including an estimated parsonage allowance, was set at $577.30, though collections fell short. It was broken down as follows:
Table expenses
$170.00
Fuel
40.00
House Rent (estimated)
130.00
Traveling expenses
5.30
Disciplinary Allowance
232.00
$577.30
With eggs at 17c a dozen, butter at 14c a pound, poultry at 8c a pound, pork at 5c a pound and men's suits at $6.50, one may evaluate that salary with lessened sense of shock.
31
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
TEMPERANCE
The Pynchon Street Methodists were strong temperance people. Their approach was practical and direct. One of the innumerable committees wrestled with Brother Austin Pease but was unable to persuade him to "discontinue the sale of strong beer which he sells, contrary to the wishes of the brethern of the Church." He was allowed to with- draw. Another committee confered with Brother Dun- ham "in reference to his leasing a portion of his building for liquor selling." He agreed to serve notice to the rascals. When they invoked their legal rights the Pynchon Official Board provided lawyers to break the lease. Brother F. L. Gunn was told, "the Board feels he should give up the sale of ale." Brother Elwell agreed to give up the sale of ale if the Church felt that in vending it he was "doing injury to the cause of Christ." All of this was a marked change from the earlier days when young William Rice ran a General Store and Hotel in Wilbraham, and an admirer testified that he would respect Mr. Rice, for "he never diluted the whiskey." There has also been a marked change since.
Hear the conclusion of the whole matter: there were back-sliders, trouble-makers, fault-finders, hypocrites, in- different, super-sensitive members, quitters, tight-wads, people who would not pay and who would not attend or who misbehaved when they did attend, people to whom the church was merely another organization, in 1844 just as there are in 1944 and will likely be in 2044 A.D. And there were devoted, loyal, consecrated, hard-working, gen- erous, sacrificial Christian saints who gloriously served the Kingdom and loved the Church as the House of the living God, in 1844 just as there are in 1944 and will likely be in 2044 A.D. The first group provided the problems, the second group provided the remedies. The first group created nothing and would long since have been forgotten with no works which "do follow them" were it not for some curious researcher digging around through ancient and faded tomes. The second group was composed of those
32
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
who are remembered and loved and honored, whose "works do follow them" and who, of course, alone are in the minds and memories of present-day Christians who wistfully yearn to recapture the heritage of our fathers.
Naturally the records of the Trustees, Stewards and Classleaders are filled with problems, for it was the bus- iness of those Godly men to deal with problems. Deal with them they did-frankly, directly, fearlessly. The victories needed no extended discussions. The Doxology was sung a thousand times, but never recorded.
THE CHURCH GROWS
Pynchon Church did grow stronger and more influential every year. In 1851 the rooms in the vestry had to be en- larged. New classes were constantly added- in West Springfield, at the Watershops. In 1860 the nucleous of the old Asbury Chapel society which had joined in the Pynchon Street project returned to reconstitute themselves as a separate station and would soon build on Florence Street. The church absorbed that loss and continued to grow.
In December 1863, during the heat of the Civil War, the prelude to the Church Extension Society in Springfield was formed, with all the local Methodists uniting in order to co-ordinate the expansion of the work. David Smith and L. H. Taylor represented Pynchon Church in this movement which was called, "A Committee on the State of Methodism in Springfield."
One of the new classes begun in 1864 was known as the North Main Street Class. It was to exist for many years under the leadership of Cyrus Atwood, and become a powerful factor in the future influence of the Trinity Methodist Church on Bridge Street.
There were thirteen appointments of ministers to Pynchon Street Church during the twenty-five years of her existence, exactly the same number that later served Trinity on Bridge Street for fifty years, four less than serv-
33
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
ed Grace. There were actually, however, only eleven Pynchon Street ministers since two of them, Jefferson Hascall and Mark Trafton, were each appointed a second time after a ten year interval. Five of them were of suffi- cient stature to be honored by election as delegates to Gen- eral Conference, four of them, Jefferson Hascall, Mark Trafton, Fales Newhall and William R. Clark, occupy niches in New England Methodism's mythical Hall of Fame.
George Landon was the second pastor, appointed in June, 1845, at the Lowell Conference by Bishop Waugh.
Rev. Mark Trafton 1847-49 and 1857-59
REVERENDS MARK TRAFTON, ISAAC SAVAGE AND J. D. BRIDGE.
In 1847 the Annual Conference settled down to a con- sistent April date and Bishop Hedding appointed Mark Trafton to Pynchon Street Church. He was thirty-seven years old, an exceedingly handsome man with a great shock of black, wavy hair which extended in modish side- burns down into a turned-up collar, but did not hide the modeled chin, the clear-cut, chiseled features. His eyes
34
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
Rev. Isaac A. Savage 1849-51
Rev. Johnathan D. Bridge 1851-53
were frank, penetrating. In later years his hair and beard were snow-white, giving him a striking appearence. Mark Trafton spent seventy years in the New England Confer- ence, a record unbroken to this day. In 1854 he was elected to Congress. He died on March 8, 1901, just five months short of ninety-one years of age, and is still remembered as a beautiful old patriarch by many yet living.
During his first appointment in Springfield, he was elected a delegate to the first General Conference after the division of Methodism, in 1848. Ten years after his first appointment here he was appointed again by Bishop Baker in 1857, serving until 1859.
In 1876, on the occasion of his thirty-sixth pastoral move he said, "We have often moved twice in the same Church, and in one case we occupied three different houses in one year."
Toward the end of his career he wrote a narrative of his protracted itinerancy called, "Scenes In My Life." In it. are many vivid recollections of his pastorates in Pynchon Street Church.
In 1849 Annual Conference met in Springfield and was presided over by Bishops Hamline and Hedding. Isaac A.
35
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
Savage, thirty-four years of age, was given the Pynchon Street Station. He served two years and three years later on February 16, 1854, his career was cut short by death, at Holliston, Massachusetts.
J. D. Bridge was appointed by Bishop Janes at the New- buryport Conference in 1851. He was thirty-seven years old and one of the most promising men in the Church. He led the New England delegation to the 1848 General Con- ference, went directly from the pastorate in Pynchon Street to the presiding eldership of Worcester District, but death halted his rapid rise on July 25, 1856, at the early age of forty-four years.
Rev. Fales H. Newhall 1853-55
REVEREND FALES NEWHALL
Fales Newhall was only twenty-six years old when Bishop Janes, at the Ipswitch Conference, appointed him to his first station at Pynchon Street Church. He was born in 1827, studied at Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham and at Wesleyan College, and was teaching in Wilbraham when he took his first charge. His work was so successful, the congregations so large, that it was necessary in the
36
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
spring of 1854 to enlarge the church by an addition of twenty feet. This was done, together with considerable improvement in the appearance of the building at a cost of $4,000.
Though he never ceased to be a preacher of Christ's Gospel, after ten years in the itinerancy Fales Newhall was invited to become a member of the faculty at Wesleyan College in Middletown. Until 1871 he held a full pro- fessorship in the chair of "English Literature and He- brew", wrote part of the volume on Genesis and Exodus in Whedon's famous Commentary. In 1873 Ohio Wesleyan University, in Delaware, Ohio, elected him to the pre- sidency of that great institution, but ill health prevented his taking office. Dr. Newhall died on April 6, 1883 at the age of fifty-six.
""As a preacher he was singularly attractive. The audience felt the temper of the man as well as the message he deliverd. His auditors felt the charm of his child-like simplicity, the warmth of his heart, the persuasiveness of his personal magnetism. But whatever this noble man said was emphasized by what he was. The man was in- variably greater than his utterance."
His son, Rev. William Rice Newhall, was named after Dr. William Rice, who was himself the son of Pynchon Street's original layman. He was pastor of Grace Church in 1907 after having had a notable career as the principal of the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham.
Like the Rice's, the Newhall name is still prominent in the membership of Trinity Church, for valued on the rolls are the names of his grandson and namesake, Fales New- hall, and his granddaughter, Miss Lois M. Newhall.
(1) Page 277, "History of the New England Conference", by James Mudge
37
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
Rev. Nelson Stutson 1859-61
Rev. Justin S. Barrows 1861-62
STUTSON, BARROWS, MCKEOWN, CLARK AND HILLS
Nelson Stutson was thirty-six years old when he was appointed to the Pynchon Street Church by Bishop Ames in 1859. He had entered the effective ministry relatively late and this was his first charge. He lived only ten years after leaving Pynchon Street for he died on April 16, 1871 in Springfield, at the age of forty-eight. During his pas- torate Pynchon Street entertained the Annual Conference of 1860. At one of the Official Board meetings it was vot- ed to invite the preachers to bring their wives, but the next meeting of the Board rescinded that motion and instead appointed a committee to approach the Railroads on the proposition of issuing free return tickets to the members of the Conference attending.
The preachers during the Civil War were J. S. Barrows and Andrew Mckeown. Rev. Barrows had entered the ministry in 1855, and was thirty-two years old when he was stationed at Pynchon Street just one year. He died on February 25, 1905 when he was seventy-six years of age.
Andrew Mckeown was thirty-nine when appointed by Bishop Janes at the Westfield Conference. For two years
38
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
Rev. Andrew Mckeown 1862-64
Rev. William R. Clark 1864-67
he labored in the expansion of the church, lessened the debt, built a chapel in the northern section of the city, above the depot. He was a delegate to General Confer- ence in 1876, and died in Watertown on December 11, 1893 when he was seventy years old.
When William R. Clark came to Pynchon Street Church in 1864 he was the oldest "new preacher" the church had yet had, forty-four. To this time the average age had been thirty-four. He was born in Greenfield in 1822 and died on June 18, 1905 at the age of eighty-three, and like Trafton and Barrows is still remembered by some of those now living. He established another record in Pynchon Street in that he was the first pastor to serve for three consecutive years. He, too, had been a student at the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham. During his long and distinguished career he filled with great acceptibility our best pulpits, served one term as presiding elder, was elected on the delegation of four quadrenniums to General Conference, was alternate on another, and was prominent in the establishing of Boston University.
1"He was a model minister of the Gospel. Scholarly, eloquent, dignified, tender, modest, and in every way most
(1) Page 129, "History of the New England Conference", by James Mudge
39
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
Rev. Chas. D. Hills 1867-70
lovable. Few men have ever lived who so impressed them- selves upon the New England Conference, very few were so gratefully listened to when important questions were under debate. The aroma of his saintly life will long remain among us."
William Clark was probably more responsible than any. other pastor for the decision to build a new church. Dur- ing the summer of 1866 1 "with a zeal worthy of more and better results" he succeeded in raising a subscription of $25,000 for that purpose. But there was considerable dis- harmony and so many secessions from the church that his work did not bear immediate fruit. During the same year the celebration of the Centenary of American Methodism was held and over $6,000 raised by subscription for bene- volent purposes. It is interesting to note that the third largest giver to that fund was Rev. William Clark, himself, whose salary could scarcely have been over $600 a year. Horace Smith of the Smith & Wesson Company gave $5,000 of the total, David Smith gave $200 and Pastor William Clark gave $150.
In the front of the subscription book used for that cam-
(1) From Mayor Winchester's address at the dedication of Bridge Street Trinity Church.
40
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
paign H. W. Hallett, the treasurer, wrote:
"This book to be retained with the records of the church until the second Centenary of Methodism A.D. 1966!
We all within our graves shall sleep a hundred years to come;
Who will then act in our stead?
What will a hundred years bring?"
It was, too, during his pastorate that the North Main Street Class was organized, under his leadership. During this period he was given a six weeks "vacation" to visit and labor for the soldiers in the army as a member of the Christian Commission.
Charles D. Hills was the last of the Pynchon Street ministers and the first of the pastors to Trinity on Bridge Street. He was appointed by Bishop Scott at the Annual Conference held in Waltham in 1867. He was young, supplying in Northampton, knew the difficulties that Pynchon Street was in for, and would heartily have pre- ferred a less explosive first regular charge. 1"When the elders told me that they must transfer me to. Pynchon Street, Springfield, I burst into tears, and told them that my people had given me a donation party, and among the gifts was a barrel of flour, with the promise of another when that was gone. They promised to let me stay, but the exigencies of the case demanded my change to Pynchon Street Church."
Reverend Hills knew considerably less than half of what was in store for him in the way of trouble, and nothing at all of the final victory.
(1) From his address at the Trinity Jubilee, as quoted in the Springfield Republican.
41
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
Horace Smith Benefactor and Trustee.
THE LAYMEN
Among the laymen who served the church in later years were men markedly dominant in the life of the city. In addition to those already named there were Horace Smith, of Smith & Wesson Company who served several terms as chairman of the Board of Trustees, donated the land on which the Bridge Street Church was to be built and con- tributed handsomely to the building fund; Milton Bradley of Milton Bradley Company, both a Steward and Trustee of great influence in the councils of the church; Dr. William Rice, son of William Rice, Esq., city librarian and one of the outstanding personalities in Springfield's his- tory; Lucius Ladd, clerk of the Common Council of the city, associated with King, Norton & Ladd, commission merchants, who was secretary and treasurer of the Board of Trustees and provided for posterity an amazingly com- plete and meticulously accurate record of its proceedings; Dr. Horace Jacobs, one of Springfield's outstanding phy- sicians; S. B. Hollister, of Hollister & Co., wholesale paper merchants; Willis Phelps, railroad contractor; Lewis H. Taylor, of the Union Printing Co .; Charles C. Taylor, manufacturer of paper boxes; Charles A. Winchester,
42
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
M
Prominent Methodist Clerics in Trinity's Early Days Standing, Joseph Scott, S. F. Upham. Seated, Mark Trafton, William Rice.
mayor of Springfield, and for whom Winchester Square is named; Alfred N. Mayo of Dickinson & Mayo Co., dealers in paper and metal stock; Franklin L. Gunn of Gunn & Merrill Co .; M. W. Bridge, treasurer of Hampden County; Cyrus W. Atwood, with the Samuel Bowles Co .; John L. King, of the King, Norton & Ladd Co., all three of these partners officially connected with the church; and many others, the majority of whom would be inherited for distinguished service by either Bridge Street Trinity or Grace Churches.
Three of the orginal laymen of Pynchon Street Church, who helped organize it in William Rice's office in 1844, were active when the move into new churches took place, David Smith, Henry Chapin and Albert Gowdy. Four of the others had died, four had moved from the city or worshipped elsewhere.
43
4 THE CHURCH IS SPLIT
W E are told the Lord uses even the wrath of men to praise His Name. Time and again the patient years of history have revealed the wise purposes of God at work in what, at the time, seemed to be black disaster. It was a schism that gave us Protestantism. It was a split with the . Church of England that gave us Methodism. Both Luther and Wesley were secessionists, though the latter would deny it. Few great churches but must look back some- where in the record to a period of bitter strife-the back- lash of the very passion and intensity which makes for greatness.
Trinity is no exception. She had her civil war and it was violent. What caused it? What happened? Seven- ty-five years have now passed, and what is the verdict?
In Curtis P. Donnell's comprehensive study of "Spring- field's Churches," published in connection with the 300th anniversary of the city, he described the split in Pynchon Street which eventually lead to the establishment of Bridge Street Trinity and Grace Churches, in these words:
"The Pynchon Street Church was split wide open by one of the most unusual dissentions in the entire story of Springfield's churches. The question was one of the loca- tion of a new and larger church. Some wanted to move to South Main Street and others wanted to move to Bridge Street.
"Finally, in 1867, the dissenters, numbering twenty- nine, withdrew and organized as the Central Methodist Episcopal Church. .. . eventually building a church and
45
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
dedicating it on Janaury 19, 1875. At the same time the name was changed to Grace Church.
"The majority of the Pynchon Street Church had gone ahead in the meantime with the erection of a new church on Bridge Street, dedicated December 1, 1869."
Mr. Donnell was justified in saying that. All the pub- lished accounts, all the thumbnail historical sketches printed in innumerable anniversary booklets, all the news- paper accounts through the years have presented that explanation. Why? For it is not true. Disagreement over the location of the new church building was not the real reason. Why, then, has that report persisted ?
Because the real reason, as is usually the case, was per- sonal friction. Blood was hot, and since, naturally, there had been differences of opinion about the new building site, the early recorders of events were glad to let that explain things. The damage was done and there was no sense in jabbing at the wound. The next generation copied the early reports and thus they have come down to our day.
But this is a history. The truth is not only demanded, it is much more interesting and significant.
1
CENTRAL CHURCH BEGINS
Lewis H. Taylor led the revolt. He was an energetic worker in the church, a prominent man, a liberal giver. For many years he had been a faithful steward, class leader and trustee-always present, always dependable. He had many friends. In 1866 he was the superintendent of the Sunday School.
Mention has been made of the continuous difficulties in the music situation, the frequent turnover of choristers and organists. Somehow the Sunday School and the choir lined up in a series of concerts. The authority of manage- ment was divided between the pastor, William Clark, and the Sunday School superintendent, Lewis Taylor. Be- tween them was the choir. Explosion!
The facts are clear. In the hitherto unpublished histor-
46
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
ical record of Central Church (afterwards named Grace) are found these words:
"The church originated as follows: Rev. W. R. Clark was at the time pastor of Pynchon Street church, and L. W. Taylor was superintendent of the Sunday School. Some difference of opinion arose as to who held the authority in Sunday School concerts. It led to a division in the church, some supporting the pastor, others Brother Taylor."
An original letter is preserved which was written to pre- siding elder Sherman on January 2, 1867. It reads:
"Dear Brother: Inasmuch as there is in the Pynchon Street Church, of which we are members, conflicting opin- ions growing out of the course pursued by the pastor, Rev. W. R. Clark, in the matter of management of the Sunday School concerts, and these opinions have led to hard feel- ings to the extent that certain of the brethern do not feel at home in the church .... " Then follows a request to organ- ize under the name of the Central M. E. Church.
Several names are signed to this and other letters, the first name in each case being that of Lewis H. Taylor, and the penmanship of the letters is unquestionably in his hand.
As to the proposed building site on Bridge Street, Lewis H. Taylor was down for $5,000, the second highest gift in the church. As a member of the Board of Trustees he is on record as not objecting to Bridge Street, and he was 1"The first one to suggest that as a very good location and more central than any other." He voted to purchase the Stearns Square property if the City Council would sell it, which it wouldn't, but which was next door to the property finally secured and certainly far from the "below State Street" area. When the final Bridge Street site was in hand he voted for employing an architect and getting to work at once. All this was before the Sunday School concert affair. The sudden dislike for a Bridge Street location arose just afterward. Then for nearly six years after leav- ing Pynchon Street church the group worshipped in var- ious halls downtown, never going very far, "south of State Street."
(1) Page 8, Trustees Records
47
TRINITY'S FIRST CENTURY
Numerous efforts were made to persuade the Central Church people to return. The first was a letter to Brother Taylor from the Stewards, dated August 3, 1866, consist- ing of a resolution "that we hereby cordially invite Brother L. H. Taylor to reunite with the church, and labor with us in advancing the cause of Christ." As late as 1868 and again in 1869, official pleas were sent imploring the Cent- ral people to return to the home church, stunned by this blow on the very eve of the large project of building a new edifice.
In reply came this letter:
"Dear Brethern and Sisters: We, the subscribers, desirous of doing what we can for the Redeemer's cause in the earth, for the salvation of men, and for ourselves, be- lieve that it will be best for us and the cause to associate ourselves together in church fellowship as Methodists and organize a new church in the city below State Street. And we desire that whatever there may have been in the past that was unpleasant, that has made us feel that we cannot as well work together in the common cause in the Pynchon Street Church, may be forgotten and so far as we may have been to blame for such feelings, that it may be forgiven."
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.