USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Walks & talks about historic Boston > Part 33
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The Dlo South Church
The first edifice of the Old South Society was erected in 1669 on the corner of Washington and Milk Streets. This site was originally the garden of Governor Winthrop, ad- joining his house which stood on Washington Street di- rectly opposite School Street. The Church worshipped in the old wooden building until 1729, when that was taken down and the present brick structure was erected. There are more historical traditions and associations centered in that old brick house of worship than in any other church building in America. If Faneuil Hall is the "Cradle of Liberty," the Old South may well be called the "Sanctuary of Freedom."
Tablet. OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE
On this site was built A. D., 1670, in the garden originally granted to John Winthrop, the first Meeting House of the Third or South Church, in which Benjamin Franklin was baptized on the day of his birth, January 17th, 1706.
The present structure was built in 1729.
Here were held many of the Town Meetings from 1761 to 1775.
Here Otis, Adams, Hancock and Warren helped to mould public opinion.
Here on March 6, 1770, after the Boston Massacre, by unanimous vote the Town People demanded the removal of the King's Regiments.
December 16, 1773, was held the meeting which preceded the Destruction of the Tea.
Here were delivered from 1771 to 1775 the Annual Orations By Lowell, Warren, Church and Hancock,
which kept the memory of the Massacre fresh in the minds of the people. This Building is a Landmark
When Faneuil Hall could not contain the crowd of liberty loving Americans, they adjourned to the Old South Meeting
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House. It stands by the side of Old Faneuil Hall as a forum of free speech. Here was uttered the prayer, the efficiency of which piety and faith do not doubt, for the deliverance of New England from the formidable French Armada that threatened its destruction in 1746. In the old pulpit such great divines as Thatcher, Willard, Sewall, Prince, Hunt-
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Old South in Revolutionary Times
ington, Wesner, Blagden and Manning, have stood and preached the Word of God, and by their lives illustrated the sincerity of their preaching. That great apostle of Chris- tianity, George Whitefield, preached in its pulpit. Benjamin Franklin, who was born directly opposite the church, was baptized at its font, and worshipped in this church during his
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residence in Boston. Its walls have resounded with denun- ciations of British tyranny, and with stirring appeals to patriotic action by such leaders as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Josiah Quincy, Wm. Molineaux and Dr. Joseph Warren. As one writer has said, "The great Town Meetings in the Old South Meeting House proved more than a match for the British Parliament. Here Otis, 'that flame of fire,' protested against the imprisonment of seamen and other op- pressive measures of the mother country." On the Fifth of March, 1775, the fourth anniversary of the Boston Massacre, Dr. Joseph Warren delivered a great commem- orate address from its pulpit. There is quite a little history attached to this event. The day came on Sunday, and the patriots decided to have their celebration on Monday. There was a large force of British soldiers in the town and more on their way, for it was the time of the Boston Port Bill. There were fortifications everywhere and the citizens were treated as residents of a conquered town. The Governor did all he could to crush the spirit of the people, but they were adroit and worked in secret. An order went forth pro- hibiting the calling of town meetings. The people evaded this order from time to time so they called no new meeting, perplexing the Governor, who did not dare to take a bold stand and break up a meeting while in session. When the time drew near for this celebration of the Fifth of March, the rumor went out, "that any making an ovation at that time, and especially anyone making any reflection upon the royal family, was liable to arrest and capital punishment." This threat failed to frighten the patriots, who selected as the orator of the occasion that brave and gifted leader, Dr. Joseph Warren. On Monday morning the people met at Faneuil Hall, where they had voted to have the oration, but the crowd was so great they adjourned to the Old South. Dr. Warren was then living on Hanover Street, where the American House now is, and a committee waited on him asking him to give the oration at half past eleven that morning.
Behind the pulpit in the Old South were the leaders of the people, ready to act as a body guard to Dr. Warren should there be an outbreak on the part of the British soldiery. Forty of these British red coats were present, sitting in front of the pulpit and on the steps. They were given this prominent position by Samuel Adams, the leader
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of the day, and it was a stage setting worthy of a master in the theatrical art. Adams knew that they had threatened to break up the meeting, so with great politeness he placed them where they could be closely watched by the audience and every movement noted. Meanwhile the church was packed to its utmost capacity. At last Warren arrived, and having arrayed himself in the gown worn by orators of that time, he started to enter the church, but so great was the crowd around the entrance it was impossible to squeeze through without causing a disturbance, which might have proved disastrous, so delicate was the situation. Some of his friends procured a ladder and by means of it he entered an open window back of the pulpit, and in a moment more he was facing his audience. It was a spirited and courageous speech, in which he boldly defended the citizens of Boston from the charge of rebellion-they only asked their rights as British freemen. As he was talking the British soldiers coughed and hemmed and tried to interrupt him by all sorts of noises, but he kept on. One historian describing the scene, says: "While he was speaking and exhorting the people to stand fast by their colors, a young officer who was upon the pulpit stairs, took a handful of bullets out of his pocket, and held them up for the orator and anybody else to see. It was as much as to say, 'Talk as much as you please ; we have these, and they will say the last word.' Warren saw him; he merely dropped his handkerchief upon the bullets and covered them with it, and went on with his oration." Only a few weeks later this great and gallant man laid down his life at the Battle of Bunker Hill. On that memorable night, December 16, 1773, a large audience had gathered in the Old South to hear the report of the committee appointed to interview the Consignees of the tea of the East India Company. The report was adverse to the patriotic demands. It was then that Samuel Adams arose and uttered those fateful words: "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country." Immediately the war whoop sounded at the church doors, and a band of men dis- guised as Indians, made a bee line for Griffin's Wharf, fol- lowed by a large portion of the audience, and the Boston Tea Party was that night written in the nnals of American history.
During the occupation of Boston by the British in 1775 and 1776, they desecrated the sacred edifice by using it as
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a Riding School and they set up a bar within its walls for the sale of intoxicating liquors. They destroyed the val- uable library of the pastor, using the books to kindle their fires with. Standing next to the church was the old frame house of Governor Winthrop. This they tore down and used the material for fuel. From the side entrance on Milk Street they ran out a long pole and over this the British cavalrymen leaped their horses. In 1782 the church was refitted for public worship. In August, 1863, the yard of the church was used as one of the recruiting stations for volunteers in the Union Army. A tent, for enlistments in the Forty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment, was set up in the yard, where is now the entrance to the subway. The sur- geon had his quarters in the tower, where he made the physical examination of recruits.
The active pastor of the church during the Civil War was the Rev. Jacob M. Manning, D. D., one of Boston's most eloquent and patriotic pastors. Many Bostonians, now liv- ing, can recall his timely and helpful sermons during the great struggle, especially those delivered on Fast Days and Thanksgiving Days. It was the writer's privilege to hear him on several occasions, and one sermon, especially, made a deep impression on his mind. It was from the words, "Speak unto the Children of Israel that they go forward." It was during that very dark period of the Civil War when the Union cause was meeting with such terrible reverses, and a deep gloom spread over the hearts of the loyal North. In the light of subsequent events, his words on that occasion sounded prophetic. Throughout his pastorate he sustained the patriotic traditions of the Old South. When the Forty- third Massachusetts Regiment was recruited he entered that regiment and served as its chaplain during its term of nine months. In the same Military Department, and in the same brigade was the Rev. Andrew L. Stone, D. D., of Park Street Church, who was the chaplain of the Forty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment.
These two reverend gentlemen, pastors of the leading Congregational Churches in Boston, rendered most effective service. They were with the Army on the expedition to Goldsborough in December, 1862; a full account of which is given by John S. C. Abbott, the historian, in an article en- titled "Heroic Deeds of Heroic Men," published in Harper's Monthly Magazine of December, 1864. They helped and en-
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couraged the men on the march, assisted the ambulance corps in bearing off the wounded from the field of battle, and ministered to the wounded and dying. Always carrying themselves as true Christian gentlemen, they won the love and respect of the men. At Kinston, Chaplain Manning had the sad privilege of ministering to Elbridge Graves, of the 45th Massachusetts Regiment, a member of his own church, who received his death wound in that battle. It was by rare good fortune that this revered and valuable landmark was saved from destruction in that great Boston fire of 1872. How it was saved was told very graphically in a Boston paper, a few years ago, and I quote from it: "It was due to the efforts of the Kearsarge Engine Company of Ports- mouth, New Hampshire. At half past one that fateful Sun- day morning, the captain of the night watch of Portsmouth, received a telegram from Mayor Thomas E. O. Marvin of Portsmouth, asking for assistance. At five minutes past two an alarm was sounded at Portsmouth, and a large detail of firemen to accompany the Kearsarge Engine, a practi- cally new steamer, to Boston. A large detail was made, as it was necessary to draw the engine by hand, as a horse dis- temper was prevailing at that time throughout New England. They arrived in Boston at 4.45 A. M. and at once proceeded up Washington Street. Not knowing that the call was for out of town service, the men came dressed in their working clothes, in some cases overalls and jumpers, and their nonde- script appearance caused a shout from the crowd, "Look at the Haymakers." The Kearsarge was stationed at a Reservoir on Court Square, and a line of hose ran through Court Square, City Hall Avenue. School Street and Washington Street to the Transcript Building. The steamer played through 1,000 feet of hose, and word was given to reach the roof of the Old South, which the steamer Kearsarge did, causing a round of cheers from the Boston firemen and citi- zens. This extinguished the blaze on the roof, after several other steamers had failed to reach it. After the fire the Old South was closed as a place of worship and for a short time it was occupied as a Post Office.
The Old South Congregation moved into its new and ele- gant edifice on the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston Streets, which is now known as the "New Old South." The old bell that called so many generations of church goers to worship hangs in the tower of the new edifice.
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May the Old South Meeting House stand for generations yet to come, in the busy mart of trade, an inspiration and an object lesson to the youth of Boston, and of all America!
Old South Church, 1916.
In 1876 the old church property had a high value for busi- ness purposes, and the church considered the question of selling it, in which case the building would have been torn down, and another great historical landmark would have van-
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ished and have become only a memory. This alarming pros- pect aroused the public spirited citizens of Boston, who pro- tested against it, and Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a stir-
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سلمة فـ
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New Old South Church, 1916.
ring appeal, reminding one of another appeal of his, written in his youthful days, when it was proposed to destroy the historic frigate, the Constitution.
"Woe to the three hilled town When through the land, the tale is told,
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The brave Old South is down.
Here while his brethren stood aloof The Herald's blast was blown;
That shook St. Stephen's pillared roof And rocked King George's throne! The spire still greets the morning sun,
Say, shall it stand or fall?
Help, ere the spoiler has begun, Help each, and God help all!"
The help came and sufficient funds were raised to save it from destruction.' This fine old specimen of Colonial Church Architecture still remains with us and fulfills Whittier's prophecy :
"So long as Boston shall Boston be, And her bay tides rise and fall, Shall freedom stand in the Old South Church And plead for the rights of all!"
Within its walls may now be found many articles of great interest to the visiting stranger, whose pilgrimage would not be complete until he had stood within its walls, his mind reviewing all the memorable scenes that had been enacted there, looking up into the gallery where the majestic form of Washington once stood, and feeling a thrill of patriotism through his whole being.
The present pastor of the New Old South Church, Rev. George A. Gordon, D. D., has shown himself to be especially adapted to this field of labor, and every Sabbath the large audience room is well filled to hear his plain and powerful preaching, and his labors have been very successful in win- ning the attention of thoughtful men and women and of the young people of this city.
Dr. Gordon is possessed of a clear and logical mind. with great powers of argumentation, and is perfectly fearless in his enunciation of what he conceives to be the truth, and he oc- cupies a foremost position among the preachers of Boston.
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Park Street Church and its former pastor, Rev. A. L. Stone, who was Chaplain during the Civil War.
Park Street Church
This church edifice is in the heart of the down town dis- trict of Boston, on what is known to Bostonians of fifty years or more ago, as "Brimstone Corner." It stands on the site of the "Old Granary," of Colonial and Revolutionary days. In that "Old Granary" were made the sails of the famous frigate "Constitution." The Park Street Church edifice is one of the most beautiful and symmetrical specimens of New England Church architecture of earlier days. Its location is most commanding and for over one hundred years it has stood as one of the great landmarks of Boston. Under its shadow many thousands of people pass daily as they enter or emerge from the subway station directly opposite on the Common. For many years the building was painted all uni- form in color, as were many other venerable buildings in the city, but recently it has been restored to its original appear- ance, and the result of the architect's work has been most pleasing. "The color and texture of the old brick work is remarkably fine and mellow." An architect, speaking of the restoration says: "The feature has been the vividness with which the return of the walls to brick red, has thrown the fine detail of the building into prominence. When it was painted all uniform in color, one missed the deftness with which the windows were placed in slightly recessed arches, and the pillars and emblatures were made to outline the two bays to right and left of the tower. Now these parts of the design are restored to their original values, and the building seems to have a grace and dignity which are entirely new to beholders of this generation."
The Park Street Church was organized in 1809. Nine members of the "Old South," which was then the only Evan- gelical Congregational Church in Boston, came out from the parent church, under the promptings of a revival meeting. It was begotten in a revival and has enjoyed many in its history. The church edifice was erected in 1810. The church has had a long line of able and distinguished men as pastors, among them E. D. Griffin, S. E. Dwight, Edward Beecher,
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H. Lindsley, Silas Aiken, A. L. Stone, W. H. H. Murray, J. L. Withrow and Dr. Gregg. The present pastor, Rev. Dr. A. Z. Conrad, is a very able preacher and one of the leaders in the denomination in New England. He is an earnest and devoted pastor and in full accord with all reforms for the uplifting and benefitting humanity. Perhaps the Rev. Dr. A. L. Stone was the most widely known in the list of her pastors. He occupied the pulpit during the period of the Civil War. He was extremely patriotic, a most fluent and eloquent speaker, and exerted a great influence in Boston, especially among the young men. During his pastorate, he obtained leave of ab- sence from the church and served as chaplain of the Forty- Fifth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, in its campaign in North Carolina. The Park Street Church has been the mother of several churches and has always been noted for its zeal in missionary enterprises. Its donations to foreign missions for a long period of years amounted to $4000 annually, and frequently exceeded that amount. It has a fine and capacious audience room, and here anti-slavery agitators, temperance reformers and other pleaders for good and charitable objects, have gathered and proclaimed their views without let or hindrance. It has been a forum, in many respects like the "Old South" of early days, for the inaugura- tion and encouragement of great movements. It was one of the first places of public worship that opened its doors to William Lloyd Garrison, in those early days of the anti- slavery struggle, at the very time when that great reformer was mobbed and dragged through the streets of Boston, with a rope around his neck and his life in imminent peril, at the hands of a howling, infuriated mob. It was at a children's celebration held in Park Street Church, July 4th, 1832, that our national hymn, "America," written by Rev. Dr. Samuel F. Smith, was first sung. We have alluded to the service of Rev. A. L. Stone, as chaplain, in the 45th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War. After that service he gave a very interesting address on "War, the Romance and the Reality." The closing sentences of that address are remark- ably fine and eloquent, showing the beauty of his rhetoric and are eminently worthy of preservation. He said: "My own faith in the victorious issue of our cause never for a moment faltered. I never believed that God put the fate of this great nation into the hands of rebels, nor that instead of a broad, free republic, he meant to rear here on the ruins of the Re-
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public and the neck of the African, a column of despotism. When the war broke out there stood on Shackelford Island, off the coast of North Carolina in the midst of a thinly scat- tered and disloyal population, a tall flag pole on which, before the days of treason, the Stars and Stripes had been given to the breeze. Of course the sacred banner was torn down and the new ensign fluttered in its place. But the pole was sur- mounted by a carved and gilded eagle. That was too national an emblem to be suffered to remain. An expert climber reached it and brought it down, and it was ignominiously buried in the ground. Scarce was the ceremony ended, when there was heard the rush of lordly wings, and a live eagle came sailing over and alighted on the desolate staff. The marksmen brought out their rifles and bullet after bullet was sent aloft at the kingly visitant. But he only plumed his wings in contempt, or rose a few feet into the air, and then definantly resumed his perch, until the riflemen, with reason superstitious, forbore to fire. Then the royal bird spread his pinions again and rose in slow gyrations to the topmost bough of a monarch pine near by, a hundred feet higher in the air than his gilded counterfeit had shone. So shall it be with our own eagle of empire and destiny. Its symbols may be desecrated and profaned. Itself may be the target of treason's murderous aims. But out of the tumult and out of the smoke of unnatural war it shall soar unharmed, with a broader sweep and to a lordlier height in the serene blue of heaven."
Like a little green valley surrounded by high hills is the "Old Granary Burying Ground." It adjoins the church building and extends along Tremont Street, northerly to the Tremont Building. Here lie buried many great and mighty men of the past. Men, who counted not their lives dear to them if they might save this country to freedom and pass it down, a priceless heritage to coming generations.
Here are the graves of John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Robert Treat Paine, three signers of the Declaration of In- dependence ; Paul Revere, the hero of the midnight ride ; John Phillips, the first Mayor of Boston and the father of Wendell Phillips; Richard Bellingham, William Dummer, James Sullivan, Christopher Gore, James Bowman and Increase Sumner, all Governors of Massachusetts; Thomas Cushing, Lieutenant-Governor; Samuel Sewall, Chief Justice of Mas- sachusetts ; John Baily, Samuel Willard, Jeremy Belknap and John Lathrop, Ministers of the town of Boston.
The Baptists in Boston The First Baptist Church.
It is evident that there were a few Baptists in early days in the Bay Colony, for the Puritan leaders took extreme measures to stamp out the "heresy," as they termed it. The Puritan idea was a theocracy, modelled after the ancient Jewish order, in which the State should be absorbed in the Church. Religious intolerance drove many of them from the mother country, and soon after landing on these shores they set up a little hierarchy of their own.
They drove Roger Williams, the Baptist, into exile. They deposed Henry Dunster, the Baptist, from the presidency of Harvard College. They imprisoned Thomas Gould a man of spotless character, the first pastor of the First Bap- tist Church, and the sufferings he there endured brought about his early death. The beloved Rev. John Clarke, a Baptist, an eminent scholar, statesman and divine, was seized by the Puritan magistrates, while in the discharge of his pastoral duties, was imprisoned in a Boston jail and fined thirty pounds for preaching the gospel. Mr. Obadiah Holmes, a prominent Baptist, was fined thirty pounds. Re- fusing to pay the same, he was imprisoned for two months, and, after a prayer meeting, taken out and publicly whipped. In 1665, the First Baptist Church was formed very quietly, holding their meetings secretly, after the manner of the Early Christians in the days of the Roman persecution. Four men were baptized and joined the church the first day of its history. Every one of these four men suffered severely, because of their faith, at the hands of the Puritan authorities. In 1668, the Great and General Court of Massachusetts was so angry at the bravery and steadfastness of these Baptists that they issued an edict of banishment against each and every one of them, but these despised ones kept right on in the even tenor of theiri way. Being reviled, they reviled not again, and the edict was never carried into effect. In 1678, they built a very unpre- tentious House of Worship on Sheafe Street on land do- nated by two of the members. Soon afterwards the General
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Court ordered the doors nailed up, forbidding worship there, posting the order on the church doors. A facsimile of this notice may be seen in the vestry of the present First Baptist Church of this city. A few weeks passed and the Baptists withdrew the Puritan nails, opened the doors, and quietly resumed worship there. Since that day, 238 years ago, whatever other persecutions the Baptists may have suffered, they have been allowed to hold their regular ser-
Rev. A. K. De Blois, D. D., Present Pastor.
First Baptist Church Berkeley St. and Commonwealth Ave.
vices without interference from the civil authorities. The pulpit of that church has been filled by able and scholarly men, deep thinkers and devoted Christians. Such men as Winchell, Wayland, Hague and Neale were young and vig- orous when they assumed the pastorate, and they exerted a great and abiding influence on the men of their day and generation. Dr. Samuel Stillman was pastor of the church from 1764 to 1807, during all those stormy and eventful days preceding and during the Revolution; and was the most widely known and the most highly venerated of any preacher in New England. Such men as John Hancock and
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