USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > A history of All Saints Church, Littleton, New Hampshire : 1875-1950 > Part 1
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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 03283 1122
GC 974. 202 L73h Varney, Elizabeth Jackson. A history of All Saints Church, Littleton
A History of
All Saints Church
Littleton, New Hampshire
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1875 - 1950
GIEN
ALL SAINTS CHURCH IN 1903
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
All Saints Church - Three-quarters of a Century By ELIZABETH JACKSON VARNEY
November 19, 1950 marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the consecration of All Saints Church. This is not a long period in these times of an ever increasing life span, but long enough to make it impossible for us to learn of the beginnings of the church from the lips of any of the courageous souls who were active in planting it in what then was a rather thinly settled region where other denominations had become well established.
Interest in the services of the Episcopal Church had stirred a few Littleton people before 1859 when the Reverend J. H. Eames, the rector of St. Paul's, Concord, had been a summer visitor in the vicinity and had held an occasional service. Histories of churches of this denomi- nation sometimes begin with a lament for the banning of its services in the early days of the state and liken its problems to those of the Puritans who came to America "for freedom to worship God". By the time the first services were arranged for in this town, intolerance must have all but disappeared for it was conducted in the Congregational Church at five o'clock on the afternoon of Sunday, August 29, 1859 at the invitation of the deacon of that church. In preparation for it, Mr. Frank Weller organized a quartet to furnish the music, and a few people "among them Henry L. Tilton, Eleanor Merrill, Emily G. Thayer, John Farr, Jr. and James R. Jackson" had practised reading the responses sufficiently to make the service proceed smoothly. Considering that some of these families were among those then prominent in the activities of the Congregationalist group, it appears that a brotherly and Christian spirit was abroad.
A decade later, an informal organization of the church was made. This was in 1869, after the war years. Services were then held during the summer months in Union Hall, a large convention hall in the rear of the building then situated where the stores of Workshop Cards and Newberry's now are and which served the purposes for which later the town hall was built. By this time Bishop Niles had succeeded the ageing Bishop Chase. In 1872, Bishop Niles himself came to hold a service and this time it was the Methodists who generously loaned their church for the occasion. From that day until his death, the new mission always received constant and tender care from this beloved bishop. The writer, who was a member of the last class he confirmed in his over thirty-years tenure, remembers him as an imposing figure with a deep voice and
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the voluminous bishop's sleeves of the day and as one able to inspire both love and respect for the authority of the church. On his annual visitation, it was his habit to catechize the Sunday school following the morning service. It is not surprising, in view of his persistent interest, that the teachers of the day taught thoroughly during the year and that those who learned can still repeat the catechism. No one was too young to begin memorizing it and on one occasion, Miss Brackett kept one of the five year old pupils of her kindergarten class to recite it privately to the Bishop. The little girl talked glibly of renouncing "the debbil and all his works, the pomp and vanity of this wicked woild, and all the sinful lush of the flesh," to the great delight of the Bishop. Modern psychology may hold it error for a child to repeat by rote what is beyond its comprehension, but at least the seeds were planted in fresh soil, to sprout and blossom later.
Source material about the activities of the group whose aim was to have an Episcopal church is almost non-existent. It is fortunate that there survive two copies of an advertisement for a summer sale by the "Ladies of All Saints Episcopal Society" that give an interesting picture not only of the ways and means employed for raising money for building the new church, but also of the spirit that animated the little group that dared so large an undertaking.
These "ads" were arranged in the form of a miniature newspaper, carrying a masthead entitled "THE LITTLE ADVERTISER" Vol. 1, No. 1" and "Vol. 1, No. 2" with the dates August 13 and 14, 1874. Patterned after the regular newssheets of the day, a large part of its pages was devoted to advertising, jokes, poetry and an editorial on the front page. The essentials, however, were also included and from it we learn that the fair was to be held two days and two nights in Union Hall "for the purpose of raising money for an Episcopal Church". The advertisements of local business houses making columns of side borders of the sheets must have included every merchant in town, regardless of church affiliations, and have swelled the receipts for the church fund.
Tables at the fair bore many of the same articles that raise money for church fairs of the present, such as "ladies handwork, a table for children filled with dolls of several nationalities, animals from every clime, a variety of things dear to the hearts of children, a collection of choice flowers, ice cream, iced coffee, and lemonade". At that time the Oak Hill House, Thayers and several other hotels were filled with summer guests who stayed through the entire summer and from many of these "summer people" the ladies received assistance in their efforts. The attraction for the first evening was the "vocalist, Mrs. H. M. Smith of Boston". The second edition of "The Little Advertiser" notes that the reporter had neither the space nor the ability to do justice to the eminent artist (though admitting her tones did not have great power). He also notes that one of the most attractive features of the entertainment was the Art Gallery (apparently of "living pictures")
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presided over by Mrs. Major Farr, assisted by Master George H. Bingham. Master Bingham, then aged ten, was later to become a justice of the United States Circuit Court.
The paper sold for five cents a copy; admission to the Hall was fifteen cents in the afternoon, twenty cents at night, children under twelve years paying ten cents. It is interesting to compare the prices that helped to erect a church with those charged to help sustain it seventy-five years later.
The receipts of the fair were added to the building fund. Contribu- tions increased, until, on July 22, 1875, the cornerstone was laid. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hartshorn had given the land. One can sense some- thing of the deep affection they held for the church when it is realized that they were giving part of their home property, on which stood their home, which is the present rectory. In 1875 it was still down on the corner of Main and School Streets on the site of the now Knights of Columbus Home, where it had been erected about the year 1832.
The consecration was held on a Friday in the following November. Bishop Niles officiated, assisted by the Reverend Howard Hill and the Reverend James B. Goodrich, the latter the first and well-beloved pastor. Bishop Niles preached the sermon and then followed a celebration of the Holy Communion.
We can visualize the scene. That year snow had fallen early in November. The grounds had not been levelled and graded, but the clergy and those who had labored so faithfully for its erection, must have gazed with pleasure on the new building with its graceful design, its sanctuary and transepts, its leaded windows with panes of soft and harmonious shades. Not all the appointments, of course, were complete at the start. Gradually, through coming months and early years, were added altar vessels, a rest for the prayer book, a thirty-inch brass altar cross, chancel furniture and prayer books and hymnals. The ladies "sub- scribed among themselves the money for the first dossal." By 1883 the interior appointments were entirely complete in time for the first Har- vest Home Festival to be held in the vicinity. This service excited curi- osity and interest and the church was crowded at both morning and evening services.
Twenty years later, the appearance must have been much the same as in the early days. Rectors had succeeded Mr. Goodrich and now the scholarly Dr. Waterman was reading the services. The congregation looked up at the same cross on the same altar, but there was a rood screen and a sentence had been placed over the chancel; a red carpet covered every inch of the chancel, and the aisles of transepts and the nave. A very fine red carpet it must have been, for the minutes of the Guild record that at one meeting it was voted to use the left-over pieces in the vestibules "for the carpet was a special weave"-the inference being that none of it was to be wasted by thrifty New England parish-
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ioners. Oil lamps in double brackets of bronze were spaced along the side walls, casting a rosy, mysterious glow over the worshippers.
At both services on Sunday there would be gathered the same families in the same pews. Without fail, Mrs. Bowman and Mrs. Quimby were in the front pew on the right, and ranged behind them on either side were Tiltons, Binghams, Bronsons, Moffetts, Cummings, Greens, Hatchs, Jacksons, Nourses, Glodes and many other faithful, including Miss Brackett, Miss Mary Bellows and Mrs. Cyrus Young. The pews would grow more crowded yearly as the younger children came along and were old enough to sit through the long services. From that group Mrs. Glode still continues at the age of eighty nine to be in the place she has occu- pied for sixty five years, with two of her children and her granddaughter beside her.
Mr. Chauncy Green and Mr. Henry L. Tilton always passed the plate, and it seemed to the little children a glorious moment when their tall figures strode toward the altar, the congregation bursting into "Praise God from whom all blessings flow" with a will.
All of which is getting ahead of the story of the earliest communi- cants, of whom there were eleven when the consecration was held. They were Miss Anna Brackett, Mrs. Caroline Tilton, Mrs. Charles Hodgman, Mrs. Lucy Hartshorn, Mrs. Francis Hodgman, Mrs. Elizabeth Lovejoy, Mrs. Ellen B. Farr, Mrs. Caroline Farr and James Ready.
When the first resident pastor, the Reverend Anson R. Graves took charge of the mission in 1877, he found the church entirely paid for. During his pastorate, the house at 54 Pleasant Street was purchased for a rectory. No stories of church gatherings there are to be found, but there is a record of one event which occurred within its walls that had a rather unusual story. This was the marriage there of Elbridge C. Young and Mary Emma Chase on November 15, 1879, the first marriage of local people in a local Episcopal Rectory. Neither was an Episcopalian, al- though Mr. Young's step-mother was a faithful communicant. For fifty years Mrs. Young continued to attend her church elsewhere but at the age of seventy three became interested in the Episcopal church and re- ceived the rites of baptism and confirmation. From that time she had an untiring devotion to it and was rarely absent from what was to become her regular place at its services for the remaining years of her life.
On the first meeting of the Anniversary Committee, which was held in the living room of the Rectory, it was suggested that a history of the parish be written. Mr. Harold Hampson, leaning back in his chair and surveying the length of the room, remarked, "If only these walls could talk, what a story they could tell!" This was aptly put, for the house has been almost as much a part of the parish as has the church itself. The former Rectory, on Pleasant Street, was kept only a few years. Both the original location of the present one at the corner of Main and School
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Streets, together with the deep interest of its owners, Mr. and Mrs. Hartshorn, combined to make it the probable meeting center for the parishioners before 1875. It is reasonable to suppose that both Bishop Niles and Mr. Goodrich may have stayed in it when coming to town to go over the plans for the church or to hold services in Union Hall. It was a central location for most of the church families of the day. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hodgman had only to step across the road from their home on the site of the present public library; Mr. and Mrs. Henry L. Tilton were a short distance away in the Tilton House; Mr. and Mrs. George A. Bingham were in the Bingham Homestead on School Street and above them were Mr. and Mrs. George Farr in the Oak Hill House. Miss Anna Brackett, Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey Green and Mrs. Elizabeth Lovejoy on West Main Street and farther away were Mrs. David Moffett, who was Miss Daisy Bronson's grandmother, and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Moore whose descendants still gather within "these walls". There were others, too, among the first families of our history, who, together with all who have followed them, have so shared the charm of the lovely old home through the years that it has seemed to many to be a kind of personal possession and an integral part of church life.
It was moved to its present location when Mr. Ira Parker planned to build his house, which is now the Knights of Columbus Home. This was about 1884 or 1885. Mr. and Mrs. Hartshorn continued to live in it on its present location until they deeded it to George A. Bingham, Henry L. Tilton and Isaac Peck (the Rector) on July 1, 1887. These repre- sentatives of the church in turn deeded it to the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. The purchase price was three thousand dollars. Of this Mr. and Mrs. Hartshorn gave two hundred and the people had a rectory fund of two thousand dollars ready for the occasion. Within a short time the mortgage was discharged.
The original house was only the front part. The rear portion was added at some time -- when, this writer has not been able to ascertain, but probably when the Hartshorns moved it back from Main Street. Two years after it had become the rectory, there occurred the first of those general renovations that have taken place periodically ever since. The Reverend Lucius Waterman had succeeded the Reverend Isaac Peck. Stoves were removed from the rooms and a central hot-water heating plant, a gift from the Rector, was installed. Dr. Waterman also donated a gravel path to the front door and the grounds were turfed. The ever-ready parishioners turned to and painted and papered the down- stairs rooms. It was a new rectory, but an old house.
Apparently during the next ten years, no repairs were made. Towards the close of the pastorate of the Reverend Edgar Davis in 1898 the house had deteriorated to such an extent that it became necessary for him to move his family to an apartment in the Boylston Block, which stood on the site of the present theatre. In 1899, the parish welcomed back its first minister, the Reverend James B. Goodrich and his family. The
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Executive Committee took steps to make drastic changes and repairs. A Building Committee reported to the Annual Meeting of that year in a somewhat apologetic vein: "The cost of repairs has far exceeded expec- tations. One defect remedied has disclosed another, until a bill has been run up which your committee has never dreamed of. The amount expended has been $3055.66 ... It is now practically a new house."
There had been a general overhauling of the structure-of the found- ations and roof, of windows that had settled and of doors that had lost their latches. Unfortunately, probably many of the colonial details were abandoned at this time. Some of the additions were the brick work about the fireplace, a new mantel, a colored glass window in the hall (colored glass being dear to the hearts of mid-Victorians) the bay window in the dining room and the one in the study (the latter two being gift from The Helping Hand Club, the very active 'teen age group of the day) ; a soap- stone sink and tub in the kitchen (ultra modern for the times) and sheathing in the study. A linen closet, also, was added in the upstairs hall.
The opinion voiced by that Building Committee that the expenditure would benefit future generations, has proved to be true. Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich had three daughters living at home, and his successor, the Reverend Dr. Phillips filled its rooms with six growing sons and daugh- ters. Except for occasional repairs necessary in any home, none of importance were made again until 1922. Then, the Reverend John A. Chapin, living alone in the large house, regretting that there was no place for social activities of the church, suggested that it might be a good plan to convert the first floor into a parish house while he could occupy the upper floor. This plan was acceptable to Bishop Parker and to the parish. Two lavatories were added near the kitchen. From year to year some gifts of furnishings made the rooms more convenient. When Miss Emma Minard left town about 1912, she gave some of her house- hold goods, a few chairs, crockery dishes and cooking utensils, a kitchen table and two antique drop leaf tables. The Guild purchased silver and sewed cases for it at meetings. Miss Lorena Lovejoy left to the Guild her mother's antique mahogany bureau, on which the guild placed an inscribed brass plate in Miss Lovejoy's memory.
Then commenced many joyful occasions for the parish as it gathered in its own rooms. Mr. Chapin organized a lively group of boys into a chapter of the Order of Sir Galahad. Mr. Bertram Hadley's church work began in that organization. Guild meetings, services during Lent, and both parish and public suppers were held there. The three down- stairs rooms had a seating capacity of over one hundred if an expert set the tables.
One parish supper in particular is recalled, when Bishop Dallas was present to tell about his recent attendance at the Lambeth Conference in 1930. The tables were filled to capacity and the overflow of children was
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seated on the floor of the study, dinner plates in their laps. Everyone was listening intently to the absorbing story of Anglicans gathe: ed together from all the corners of the globe and feeling as if he had shared the experience in person, when the telephone bell rang in the study. Long d'stance was calling the Bishop. There was general relief when he said he would take the call after he had finished his story. On its completion, and while enthusiasm was still high over its glowing details, it was like a dash of cold water to have him announce that the message was to inform him that Holderness School was burning down. Londoners could not have been more excited at the famous burning of the Bridge.
Later came periods when the upstairs apartment was not occupied by a clergyman. From October 1923, when Mr. Chapin transferred to Laco- nia, until July 1924, the church was without a settled pastor. In this period Bishop Parker took the services for five Sundays, Mr. VanNess filled in as lay reader at others, while the Rev. Laurence F. Piper arrived once each month to celebrate the Holy Communion. Mr. and Mrs. Tre- vor Mooney, who were occupying the apartment at the time, acted as hosts to the visiting clergy. From February through May of that year, Bishop Parker sent a young English youth who was a student at Bishop's College, Lennoxville, P. Q., to serve as lay-reader. He was a thorough churchman, and his informal talks, given in an unfamiliar English accent, attracted large numbers to his services, and many of them were from other local churches. In Canada a vested clergyman on the public streets is not uncommon, but locally consternation prevailed at the sight of this tall young man striding about town in his cassock on Sunday afternoons as he went the rounds of his calls on the sick.
And again from June 1927 to April 1928, a period of almost a year between the pastorates of the Reverend Harry R. Pool and the Rever- end T. David Harari, the house was vacant. Except for the short pastor- ate of the Reverend Harris B. Thomas for a year in 1931, it continued not to be used for a rectory for nine years. The Reverend Sheafe Walker, following Mr. Thomas, made his home in Concord, coming to Littleton for week-ends and Holy Days and other special occasions. When the Reverend Richard P. McClintock took on the duties at All Saints, he added them to those of his home parish which was St. Paul's, Lancaster. During the two years that the Reverend Allen J. Holly was in charge, he made his home with Mr. and Mrs. William Wallace.
It was natural for the parish to put on new courage when the Reverend Harvie A. Zuckerman, who had been living at Oak Hill expressed a desire to move into the Rectory. For the first time in many years, the parish could experience the satisfaction of having the Rector and his family in their rightful home. Great preparations immediately got under way. The parish rooms were reconverted to household use. Every room was again papered and painted, new electric outlets installed, an extra bathroom built into the front of the second floor, treads removed and the winding stairway restored to its colonial pattern and a garage
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door placed in the rear of the cellar, part of which was converted into a heated garage.
The use of the parish rooms was not missed because they were still available whenever they were needed for parish purposes. Annual meet- ings and parish suppers became very pleasant and intimate affairs, with the parish in groups of four around small tables in the living and dining rooms. And Mrs. Zuckerman must have hurried on Sunday mornings to get her family off to church on time and to leave tables set up in the downstairs rooms for the use of the Sunday school, which met there during the hour of the church service under the supervision of Miss Agnes Glode.
Mr. and Mrs. Weber are no less generous in turning over their home to accommodate church people. When they came, the upstairs rooms in the rear and the little room off the kitchen were reserved for the use of the Sunday School. In 1949 groups of the men met weekly to spend an evening papering and painting these rooms, while the guild ladies fur- nished curtains and pictures to make them more attractive to the children.
Today the building stands in excellent condition, with another new heating plant and good foundations, the beauty of its colonial pattern as attractive as it was nearly one hundred and twenty years ago down on the corner lot. It has long been the home of faithful pastors and their well-loved families, and a second home to members of the parish through succeeding generations.
Never in the church's history could the work of preserving the church and rectory have succeeded without the unfailing and boundless interest taken in them by the ladies of All Saints Guild. Informally organized as a society before the church was built, the formal organiza- tion under the present name was made under the direction of the Rev- erend Edgar F. Davis and Mrs. Davis in 1896. From that day a clear picture of its activities can be seen from its record books, all of which have been carefully preserved. The first entry in Book 1 states the object of the organization-"To sew for the parish; the ultimate object to meet the financial requirements of the church; to visit the strangers and the sick, to entertain and make attractive the social features of the parish."
At its first meeting in February 1896, the ladies, losing no time, "worked on surplices." Until the late nineteen twenties, meetings were held each week of the year; then they were changed to once in two weeks and about ten years later, with life growing more complex, they were held only once each month. Work on the surplices in 1896 came to a successful conclusion and we can imagine the happiness of the ladies as the choir of boys and men marched in a processional for the first time, wearing the newly completed vestments on Easter Sunday of that year.
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The records of these early meetings reflect their merry and friendly nature, and the will to discourage selfishness by voting: "Any woman bringing her own work shall be fined five cents."
Those were the horse-and-buggy days when entertainment could not be found in moving pictures and radios, so there was little difficulty in raising funds by putting on entertainments for the public. The group tackled these projects with energy. It held a first anniversary party with an entertainment and dance in Rounsvel Hall (now the top floor of the Eames Block at 53 Main Street) ; it held a "Longfellow Evening" at Miss Brackett's home; it sewed some costumes and hired others from Boston for a "Bluebeard Party"; it divided itself into five groups of ten each (a young man from the parish added here and there to a section) which gave entertainments throughout the year to increase finances and to furnish jolly times for all who attended.
Sometimes church societies emphasize finances as a yardstick for measuring success. This kind of rule cannot be applied to All Saints Guild, for its spirit and energy have always increased with decreasing receipts. However, it is of interest to learn that in its first year it earned $204.50 but in less than three years, that amount was realized at its summer sale alone and its contribution to the expenses of the church soon approached one thousand dollars a year.
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