USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The Old stone church; the story of a hundred years, 1820-1920 > Part 11
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Appropriate addresses were given by the Reverend Dr. H. C. Haydn, assisted by the Reverend Chas. S. Pomeroy, D.D., pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church. With them in the pulpit were the Reverend James Shaw, D.D., of Windham, Ohio, stated clerk of Cleveland Presbytery; the Reverend James A. Skinner, of the Westminster Church, and Mr. James M. Hoyt, an intimate friend of the deceased. The venerable pastor emeritus, the Reverend Dr. Samuel C. Aiken, was present, but was unable to participate in the services. It had been expected that the Rev- erend Frederick Brooks, D.D., Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Cleveland, and brother of the famous Bishop Phillips Brooks of Boston, would be present, but it was not then known that a most
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tragic death had overtaken this talented Cleveland minister while visiting his brother in Boston.
Following the funeral a memorial service was held Sunday morning in the Stone Church, at which time Dr. Haydn delivered the discourse contained in the "In Memoriam" volume, copies of which are in the archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society and in the Public Library. This address gave a keen delineation of the life and character of Dr. Goodrich, and to Dr. Haydn's eulogy is due the greater portion of the following tribute to the clergyman who during a pastorate of sixteen years had won such a place in the hearts of Cleveland citizens.
The blood of noble ancestry that flowed in the veins of Dr. Goodrich is not to be undervalued. Early associations such as fall to the lot of a few were his of necessity. The best that the schools could do for any man they did for him. Worldly competence that cushions so many hard places and rounds so many angles, and unlocks so many otherwise bolted doors, came to his help. More than all a deep religious spirit, under the inspiration of the Gospel of Christ, imbued by divine love and chastened affliction, lent an unfading charm to his life and character. Nothing but the most culpable neglect and abuse of the rarest opportunities could have prevented his becoming a man of most symmetrical character and transcendent usefulness. How well he improved these opportu- nities, not lying supinely upon them or trusting in them for success, but turning them to the noblest ends, multitudes are rising on every side to tell.
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He was a laborious man, making rigorous weekly preparations, with rare facility for work and ability to enter sympathetically into other callings than his own. He had a fine vein of humor that made him a delightful companion. Knowing men there was great tact, sterling common sense, and sound judg- ment in approaching them. Many times it was said of Dr. Goodrich that he never made mistakes, some- thing that he of course would never allow, but his friends felt that it was in large measure true of him, since he was remarkably free from blunders of indis- cretion, and was wise in speech and happy in the art of expressing his thoughts.
Although born and reared a Congregationalist, Dr. Goodrich came to be an intelligent, earnest Presby- terian, and the growth of the denominational in- interest in Cleveland owes much to him.
The Christian ministry is generally recruited from the middle or more humble classes of society rather than from the families of the well-to-do, but there are marked exceptions that may prove the rule. To such a consecrated pastor as Dr. Goodrich ample resources gave a better command of time and of every facility for usefulness in his chosen calling. It put him in helpful relations with every good cause, and gave him influence with men as a citizen. He was a bountiful giver and his substance was not hus- banded on his own manor, but allowed freely to over- flow other fields. Unostentatiously and in ways known only to God, he ministered to the needy and to the cause of Christ. Brethren in the ministry,
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students in college and seminary, men and women struggling to help themselves, could testify to his generous and effective sympathy.
As a preacher Dr. Goodrich was not scholastic, not brilliant, and never sensational. His sermons were models of finished composition, symmetrical and com- plete, and in delivery faultless. He was not dis- tinguished by an occasional great effort among scores of inferior ones, but the sermons were uniformly good. He was preeminently an experimental preacher, drawing from the full refreshing waters of the gospel; while Christ was the central theme of all his sermons.
Not many printed discourses of Dr. Goodrich are extant. A few to be found in the Western Reserve Historical Society are: "Sermon on Christian Morals in Social Life," March 13, 1859; "Christian Necessity of War," April 21, 1861; "Special National Thanks- giving" [at the turning-point of the Civil War], August 7, 1863; "The Child of God Comforted in Death," delivered at the funeral of Mrs. Mary E. Carson in 1867; "Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. John Delamater, LL.D.," April 2, 1867, and "Lessons brought from a Mother's Grave," August 29, 1869, after the return of Dr. Goodrich from the funeral of his mother who had passed away at New Haven, Conn., seventy-seven years of age.
Dr. Goodrich above all was a pastor, and in developing the working energies of the church, in reconciling differences and promoting harmony and brotherly love, in ministering to souls in trouble, and as an adviser and guide for men, he had few equals.
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If the long, fruitful pastorate of the Reverend Samuel Clark Aiken, D.D., in the Stone Church of Cleveland, was in marked providential harmony with the "period of establishing," both in civic and re- ligious affairs, then surely the Reverend William Henry Goodrich, D.D., a highly cultured minister and able citizen, must have been brought to Cleveland as providentially at the critical "period of improving," both in religious and civil matters.
Born and reared in the university atmosphere of New Haven, Dr. Goodrich early became interested in Western Reserve College, popularly denominated "The Yale of the West." During his pastorate he was not only a trustee of Western Reserve College, but also a warm friend of the Reverend Henry L. Hitchcock, D.D., president of that institution of higher learning. The two men walked together in mutual counsel and helpfulness, preaching and train- ing future ministers. They loved as brothers and un- selfishly labored to strengthen the institution in which so many Yale traditions were conserved. President Hitchcock died a year before Dr. Goodrich was taken, but at the service held in memory of the latter, Presi- dent Carroll Cutler, Dr. Hitchcock's successor, spoke of the close friendship that had existed between the two noble men. When Dr. and Mrs. Goodrich came to Cleveland there were three little children in the family: Mary Prichard Goodrich, who died Novem- ber 19, 1875, at the age of twenty-three years; Julia Webster and Frances Louisa Goodrich, both of whom are living, the latter prominently connected with
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work under the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions in the South, with residence at Asheville, N. C. In Cleveland two children were born, Ellen Chauncey Goodrich, who died June 9, 1903, and the Reverend Chauncey W. Goodrich, D.D., formerly pastor of the Bolton Avenue Presbyterian Church of Cleveland, but at present pastor of the American Church in Paris, France. The widow, Mrs. Mary Prichard Goodrich, passed away September 24, 1911. As this review is made of the enriching influence of this second pastor of the Stone Church, one cannot but feel that the loving and skilled ministry of Dr. Goodrich caused that now venerable church organiza- tion to approach more perfectly the poetic ideal:
Framed of living stones, cemented By the Spirit's unity; Based on prophets and apostles, Firm in faith and stayed on Thee. May Thy church, O God, Incarnate, Grow in grace, in peace, in love, Emblem of the heavenly Zion, The Jerusalem above.
VII. FIRST PASTORATE OF THE REVEREND HIRAM COLLINS HAYDN
1872 - 1880
The surname of the third pastor of the Old Stone Church, the Reverend Hiram Collins Haydn, D.D., LL.D., must be distinguished from the German Haydn as well as from the Dutch Heyden, for it con- nects his ancestral line with the English Haydens who abode originally in a town that occupied a plain on a hill. At first the name of the place was Highdown, or a "high level." Then it was written Heydon but pro- nounced Highdon.
The name of the town was applied to the leading family, the moral characteristics of whose members are interesting. Such was their attachment to local- ity that for two hundred fifty years they resided in the same place, until one branch moved to London. Foremost in zeal for religion they became builders of churches, founders of schools and promoters of chari- ties. The law was the next favorite occupation of the English Heydons, who were ever loyal supporters of government and faithful knights in the time of war.
The American line began with William Hayden, who, born in England, died at Kenilworth [Clinton], Conn., in 1669. The third pastor of the Stone Church belonged to the eighth generation of this Connecticut Hayden's descendants. That this American family
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was also attached to locality is proven by the numer- ous descendants of William Hayden around his old farm in Windsor, Conn. Their love of religion was likewise marked.
The reason why the name of the Stone Church pastor was written without the letter "e" was due to the fact that a Connecticut ancestor having had trouble with his mail, in a region where Haydens abounded, began to write his name "Hayd-n," and then the natural elimination of the hyphen made the name "Haydn."
The Reverend Hiram Collins Haydn was born December 11, 1831, at Pompey, N. Y. His parents were David Ellsworth and Lucinda Cooley Haydn, the mother a person of marked sweetness of character and deeply religious. Of the six children born Hiram was the eldest of the four, two boys and two girls, who grew to maturity.
The family resided upon a hillside farm not easy of cultivation, but of beautiful prospect. In a red schoolhouse at the base of the hill, the children re- ceived the rudiments of an education in the four and a half winter months allotted for schooling. In his early teens, before modern farm machinery had been invented, Hiram took his place with the men, logging, ploughing, mowing, cradling, and as early as twelve years of age he "earned his keep." His education was then transferred to Pompey Hill Academy, over two miles away. Either afoot or on horseback the lad journeyed to school, after having risen before day- light to care for the farm stock. One winter he
INTERIOR OF THE OLD STONE CHURCH
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counted it great fortune "to chore for his board" in the village near the Academy.
The winter of 1850 brought a great epoch in this youth's life. A powerful revival was "prayed into being" in the old First Presbyterian Church of Pom- pey, N. Y. A record in Dr. Haydn's handwriting runs :
The announced conversion of a companion of mine was a summons to me to seek my "soul's salvation." I gave myself up to the divine influences about me. The teaching of the period was Calvinistic and the guidance was chary of encouraging human effort. The attitude was rather that of waiting for the movement of the Divine Spirit and the revelations of the Divine Will in experience. It is enough to say that after long tribulation I arrived at the beginning of a religious experience. It was a great change, for whatever else I had been, I was far from a wholesome religious life. I had for years lived in the fear of death; the Millerite teachings had affrighted me, and the Calvinistic discussions had impressed me that I could not do anything, if I would, and that everything an un- regenerate man could do was sin, but I was ill at ease and my joy (?) at the prospect of facing the issue in a revival was sincere. I was in my nineteenth year, and for the first time in my life it dawned upon me that God might have something for me beyond the life of the farm. It is scarcely conceivable what a widening of the horizon was now experienced. I was regarded by our townsfolk as a good scholar, and with several others it became a question - should we enter the ministry? To this I was encouraged. My father had no objections, though the help he could give me was less than $100.
Thus until twenty-two years of age the son of a hill- side farmer labored faithfully until, with very meager
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financial support, he sought higher education by entering Amherst College in the autumn of 1853 as a sophomore by no means well prepared. It was his first leave-taking from home; his first glimpse of the outside world.
He once wrote by way of reminiscence :
A green boy was I, though in my twenty-second year, as I strolled up Broadway to get a glimpse of the first World's Fair on this side of the sea. From close work on the farm to close work at books was a trying experience. I passed the homesick stage, and found fellows of like mind in my class, men as poor as I was.
One of these classmates was the Reverend E. P. Goodwin, D.D., who became a Congregational minis- ter of prominence in Columbus, Ohio, and then in Chicago, Ill. He was Dr. Haydn's roommate first at Amherst College, and then at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Of his college course Dr. Haydn many years later modestly wrote:
How it was that I came to the rank of Phi Beta Kappa, to be on the editorial staff of the college magazine, class poet, and prize essayist ($25), I scarcely know. In the essay I took the ground that the advance of civilization and knowledge was not detrimental to poetry, my con- testant taking the opposite view.
After graduation from Amherst College in 1856 young Haydn first planned to attend Andover Theo- logical Seminary, but during the six weeks' vacation granted Amherst seniors prior to commencement he returned home, there to suffer an attack of measles, the ill effect of which continued to be a "thorn in the flesh" throughout life. Having returned to graduate,
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a relapse caused serious eye trouble, and for two months he could not read. In the meanwhile New York City was sought as a place where employment could be found in case student life were out of question, but a physician to whom was committed the physical welfare of the Union Seminary students brought such relief that the grateful patient entered Union instead of Andover Theological Seminary. Edwin P. Goodwin again became his roommate; while Arthur Mitchell, destined to become the fourth pastor of the Stone Church, was a classmate, but as the latter resided in New York City acquaintance was confined mainly to the lecture room.
It was the day of Professor Edward Robinson, noted for his Palestinian explorations; of Professor Henry B. Smith, the acute Christocentric theologian; of Professor Thomas Skinner, and of Professor Ros- well D. Hitchcock, who was in the early day of his pulpit power. In addition to such a faculty the students had the opportunity of hearing Henry Ward Beecher, William Adams, Stephen Tyng, Joseph P. Thompson of the Broadway Tabernacle, and George B. Cheever, the "Anti-slavery Thunderer."
During seminary days young Haydn had regular mission work, first in Dr. Bethune's church in Brook- lyn, and then in the Thirteenth Street Mission con- nected with the Washington Place Church, of which Dr. Potts was pastor. For such service a student was allowed two dollars per week. The summer vacations brought work among the Mohegan Reservation In- dians along the River Thames in eastern Connecticut,
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consisting of teaching a common school five days a week, visitation of the people and the conducting of Sunday services. The compensation for the vacation work was one hundred dollars.
During his summer vacation experiences the stu- dent became acquainted with Norwich families, and there he first met Miss Elisabeth Coit, who afterwards became his wife. The summer service likewise intro- duced him to the neighboring parish of Montville, Conn., his first pastorate after graduation in 1859 from Union Seminary.
The Montville Church was badly run down. An annual income of four hundred dollars had met the minister's salary, the congregation having raised one hundred dollars to pay the incidental expenses. The new minister's salary of eight hundred dollars seemed, therefore, an impossibility, but it was raised; also additional funds sufficient to effect a thorough reno- vation. After a year and a half at Montville, the eye affliction returned. The father of Miss Elisabeth Coit suggested a trip to Europe, not only for rest, but also for consultation at Lausanne with a distinguished oculist. The outcome of the proposition, however, was the marriage May 1, 1861, of the Reverend Hiram C. Haydn and Miss Elisabeth Coit. The wed- ding trip extended as far south as Rome and Venice and then through Switzerland to England by way of the Rhine, Brussels, Antwerp to London; from Glas- gow to Belfast, Dublin, Chester, and Liverpool, whence the homeward voyage began.
After home had been regained, a new parish was
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accepted January 1, 1862, at Meriden, Conn., a large congregation, critical and accustomed to experienced ministers. Furthermore it was war time. Soon after having become settled in the parsonage the young wife passed away, leaving a baby daughter five days old. The Coits took the little one to their home, while the desolate parsonage received the care of the be- reaved pastor's sister. In order to regain strength a western trip was taken up the Great Lakes to Supe- rior City and thence to Chicago.
On January 7, 1864, the Reverend Hiram C. Haydn and Miss Sarah J. Merriman, of Meriden, Conn., were married, and the motherless daughter was brought to the parsonage. At Meriden the son Charles was born in November of 1865, and soon after the Meriden pastorate was dissolved. For six months the St. Johns- bury Church was supplied during the absence of the pastor, when through the recommendation of the Reverend E. P. Goodwin, D.D., the chum of college and seminary days, and then pastor of a Congrega- tional Church at Columbus, Ohio, the Reverend Hiram C. Haydn accepted a call to the Congregational Church at Painesville, Ohio, a beautiful place of five thousand inhabitants, many of New England stock. The church was a strong one for Ohio and made especially attractive by reason of the attendance of the one hundred young ladies from Lake Erie Semi- nary.
During the first winter the Reverend E. P. Good- win, D.D., of Columbus, Ohio, assisted his Paines- ville friend in a series of special meetings, which not
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only added to the church over one hundred members upon confession of their faith, but also prompted the construction of a chapel and parsonage.
In this happy pastorate the Reverend Hiram C. Haydn not only became a trustee of Lake Erie Semi- nary but also of Western Reserve College, then loca- ted at Hudson, Ohio. Acquaintance with many promi- nent religious workers in Cleveland, only thirty miles away, was also formed. During the fourth year of the Painesville pastorate, members of the church having learned of the proposed trip of Dr. Goodwin to Egypt and the Holy Land, presented their minister with a purse in order that he also might become a member of the touring party.
He sailed January 1, 1870, for London, to begin what he asserted to have been
The most profitable five months educationally of my life, and I have never ceased to be grateful to God and to my people for the opportunity.
Later Dr. Goodwin recommended his college and seminary classmate to the Pilgrim Congregational Church, St. Louis, Mo., then worshiping in a chapel with a new church edifice already enclosed. Dr. Haydn resigned the Painesville charge and went to St. Louis, but without having formally accepted the flattering call. He proposed five months' trial of the field, but at the end of that period for a number of reasons settlement was not considered advisable.
Opportunity to supply the Second Congregational Church of San Francisco, Cal., at once presented it- self, with the possibility of visiting the wonders of the
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Pacific Coast. The San Francisco Church urged the acceptance of a call, but this was declined and the traveler returned to attend the State Congregational Conference at Marietta, Ohio, where as retiring mod- erator he delivered the opening sermon.
From Marietta Dr. Haydn went by request to Oberlin to occupy for a Sabbath the pulpit long filled by Charles G. Finney, who was closing his famous pastorate. The result of this visit was a unanimous call, to which was attached a long list of college stu- dents' names. Some Oberlin "Perfectionists," how- ever, sent letters to Pompey, N. Y., where Dr. Haydn went after having visited the college town, making inquiry regarding the prospective pastor's attitude toward things that they held especially dear. At the same time the First Presbyterian Church of Cleveland was considering Dr. Haydn as a possible associate of Dr. Goodrich. Without having preached to the Cleveland congregation, Dr. Haydn received a unanimous call. The Oberlin opportunity with its student life appealed strongly, but the Cleveland invi- tation was accepted, and the last Sunday morning of August, 1872, Drs. Aiken, Goodrich, and Haydn united in the communion service, while the installa- tion service was held in the evening.
Dr. Haydn's earliest Cleveland home was on Case Avenue [East Fortieth Street], the first residence in those days on the west side of the street south of Prospect Avenue, then considered the outskirts of the city. There Professor Howell M. Haydn was born. Although an associate pastor Dr. Haydn was practi-
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cally in sole control of the Stone Church from the time of installation. He deemed it fortunate that for two years Dr. Goodrich was considered the nominal head, since it gave time for the junior pastor to grow into the place, and the new relationship was cemented by the mutual grief over the great common loss when two years later the senior pastor died. It was the peculiar duty of Dr. Haydn to conduct the funerals of both Dr. Aiken and Dr. Goodrich, the former in extreme old age, the latter in the prime of life.
The first pastorate of Dr. Haydn in the Stone Church continued from 1872 to 1880. The six stated supplies served the congregation during the period of municipal "settling." The pastorate of Dr. Aiken was co-existent with the period of civic "establish- ing;" that of Dr. Goodrich with the period of "im- proving," and now Dr. Haydn's two pastorates, sep- arated by the four years' service of the Reverend Arthur Mitchell, D.D., were to extend through a marked period of civic and ecclesiastical "enlarging." This characteristic was not as prominent in the first settlement of Dr. Haydn as it was in the second pas- torate, but the era of an Enlarged Presbyterianism and of a Greater Cleveland could be discerned during the earlier eight years.
In 1872, the year that Dr. Haydn came to the Stone Church, East Cleveland was annexed, the territory between Willson Avenue [East Fifty-fifth Street], and Doan's Corners, now Euclid Avenue and University Circle. The East Cleveland of today was then known as Collamer, and prior to that as Euclid. The second
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year of Dr. Haydn's pastorate, or in 1873, Newburgh, once larger, healthier, and more prosperous as a farm district than Cleveland, was annexed. It had become a small city, a great industrial community around the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company. For a number of years after annexation, or until the influx of Slavic mill-workers at the time of the great strike of 1882, much of the territory between Cleveland and New- burgh remained sparsely settled.
In 1871 a Board of Park Commissioners had been created, when few dreamed of the park and boulevard system now so highly appreciated.
A member of considerable prominence in the Stone Church, the Honorable Richard C. Parsons, who served in Congress in 1873, introduced the first bill in behalf of breakwater protection to lake commerce. For years the improvement of shipping facilities at the port of Cleveland was a leading issue in con- gressional campaigns, but with all that the Govern- ment has done the facilities have not kept pace with the demands of the local port of entry; hence the diverting of extensive coal and iron ore business to the neighboring ports of Ashtabula, Fairport, Lorain, and Huron.
Dr. Haydn's first Stone Church pastorate was pros- ecuted under the stress of the great national panic of 1873. While the financial crash precipitated by "Black Friday" was in measure an aftermath of the exhaustive Civil War, it was also accompanied by wild land speculation. Suburban farms at a distance from the city brought as high as one thousand dollars
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