History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 129

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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Among them were John Vaughan, long the libra- rian of the Philosophical Society, who had once been the protégé of Dr. Franklin in Paris, and who enter- tained here so many distinguished foreign guests as to help the city to its reputation for hospitality ; Ralph Eddowes, who had quitted the city of Chester after a brave but faithful struggle against the usurpations of a municipal ring ; James Wood, a merchant, and father of the late Catholic Bishop Wood; the latter was himself christened by James Taylor, another original member, a lay preacher, and Scotch merchant, who kept for a time the " Manchester Store" at 18 North Third Street; William Turner, who migrated hither to retrieve his fortunes after bankruptcy, eventually paid all his old debts, and left a competency; and William Young Birch, from Manchester, a bookseller and stationer in Second Street, near Chestnut, who, in 1800, went into partnership with Abraham Small in the bookselling and publishing business, and accu- mulated a large fortune, of which he left two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the Pennsylvania Insti- tution for the Blind, besides other public bequests. The other original members were William H. Smith, Ralph Eddowes, Jr., Peter Boult, Samuel Darch, Josiah Evans, John Eddowes, Thomas P. Jones, Thomas Astley, and Rev. William Christie, who seems occasionally to have occupied the pulpit. Dr. Priestley, who settled at Northumberland, was among those whose names were added later. Thus began the first declared Unitarian society in America.

Inconspicuous and unpopular, the society found no place for years in the lists of city churches, perhaps because it had no abiding place. Its services were held at times in the hall of the University, in the Lombard Street Universalist Church, in a hall once owned by the guild of carpenters, and at several periods in a room in Church Alley. There was no

legal incorporation till 1813, when it took the name, "First Society of Unitarian Christians." In 1824, when a new charter was taken out, the word " Congre- gational" was inserted to express a recognized affinity with sister-churches in New England, which bore that name.

In 1808 and later, several members acquired a title to lots on the northeast corner of Tenth and Locust Streets, which they conveyed to the society as a site for a house of worship and for a burial-place. In March, 1812, the corner-stone was laid, and on the 14th of February, 1813, the society dedicated an oc- tagonal brick church large enough for three hundred persons. At a later day the bell and belfry of this building were transferred to the public school-house on Locust Street near Twelfth, and the iron tongue, which once rang out the fire-alarm, or called the little company of Unitarians to their simple service, or to share in that sacred communion which the late Thomas Bradford satirically called " John Vaughan's supper," now summons the children to their daily lessons. The present church edifice, Doric in style, with seats for eight hundred persons and a vestry in the rear, was built on the same premises in 1828.

For twenty-eight years there was no settled min- ister. The society was occasionally favored by the presence of distinguished preachers from New Eng- land, but the main dependence was on the lay preaching of Ralph Eddowes and James Taylor, and the reading of printed sermons by John Vaughan.

In August, 1824, came William Henry Furness, born in Boston, 1802, and graduated from Harvard in the class of 1820. After hearing him four times, the society gave him a unanimous call. He was ordained Jan. 12, 1825, and during his remark- able ministry of fifty years the society became strong, numerous, and influential. Between 1840 and 1861, some dissatisfaction was caused by the decided stand taken by Dr. Furness against negro slavery, then supreme alike in state and church. But he was never a popular agitator ; his love of the true, the beautiful, and the good led him toward quiet studies, the promotion of gentle humanities and the fine arts; so that both his preaching and his personality have been powerfully felt in the direction of good-will, intelligence, and refinement. A scholar of fine taste, he has produced many beautiful hymns, besides several translations from the German ; but he has found the love-work of his life in a study of the gospels and the character of Jesus, developing in a succession of books a theory at once rational and rev- erent.1 The venerable patriarch resigned his pas-

a native of Connecticut and graduate of Dartmouth, who had been ex- pelled from the "Universal Baptiste" for denying the deity of Christ, and whose mind was rapidly moving toward deism, was desired to become the minister of this society, but the influence of Bishop White is said to have prevented their procuring of any suitable hall, and the society soon became invisible.

I Rev. Mr. Furness published in 1836 " Remarks on the Four Gospels," which he expanded into a large work in 1838, entitled "Jesus and llis Biographers." He is also the author of " A Life of Christ," " Domestic Worship," "Julius and Other Tales from the Gernian, '"Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth," 'The Veil Partly Lifted and Jesus becoming Visible," " Unconscious Truth of the Four Gos- pels," besides hymns and other devotional pieces io verse, translations from the German, and a volume of "Gems of German Verse." Ile

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

torate on the 12th of January, 1875, the fiftieth anni- versary of his ordination; but he continues, in his eighty-third year (1884), to be hale and hearty, and delights the people by the vigor of his occasional discourses.

Rev. Joseph May, the present incumbent, a son of Samuel J. May, late of Syracuse, N. Y., and educated at Harvard, was installed Jan. 12, 1876. He has a fine standing among his brethren, and is a man of original qualities and genuine ability. Under his ministry the society has taken a new departure by the purchase of lots on the north side of Chestnut Street below Twenty-second, where a handsome church edifice, with a Sunday-school building at- tached, is now in course of erection, probably at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars.

The Unitarian Society of Germantown, now the Twenty-second Ward of the city, came into legal existence July 7, 1866; the following names be- ing signed to the applica- tion for a charter : E. W. Clark, Atherton Blight, George Nichols, J. H. Withington, R. V. Sal- lada, James A. Wright, H. T. Hoyt, Conyers Button, A. W. Harrison, Philip S. Justice, and James Tra- quair. Their declared ob- ject is "to meet for the worship of the Almighty Father in the simplic- ity of the faith of Jesus Christ." Their meetings were held in Langstroth's Hall till 1869, when they had completed a pretty Gothic church, on the cor- ner of Chelten Avenue and Green Street, at a cost of thirty thousand dollars, to which was added, in 1880, an elegant building for parish uses, costing about ten thousand dollars more. The first settled minister was Rev. William W. Newell, since master of a prepara- tory school in New York. Rev. Silas Farrington, now of Manchester, England, succeeded him in 1868, and Rev. Charles G. Ames was in charge from 1872 to 1877. Rev. Samuel Longfellow followed, but resigned in 1882 to become the biographer of his poet-brother. Rev. John H. Clifford, the present pastor, was installed Feb. 10, 1883. Through all these changes the society has maintained a healthy

growth, and was never more flourishing and active than now.

The Spring Garden Unitarian Society, a young and promising enterprise, dates from May 29, 1881, when ninety-five persons, meeting in the hall of Spring Garden Institute, signed the following cove- nant : " In the freedom of truth, and in the spirit of Jesus Clirist, we unite for the worship of God and the service of man." The petition for a charter, granted June 18, 1881, was signed by Joshua G. James, J. Peter Lesley, Susan I. Lesley, Samuel Sartain, Hector McIntosh, Alice Bennett, M.D., A. C. Rembaugh, M.D., Julia A. Myers, Rudolph Blankenburg, Anna Wise Longstretli, and Charlotte L. Peirce.

The society is the outgrowth of a series of Sunday evening meetings in the hall of Spring Garden In- stitute, begun in Novem- ber, 1876, by Rev. Charles G. Ames, with the coun- tenance and support of the neighboring Unita- rian societies, and kept up with more or less regu- larity till the nucleus of the audience fixed itself in an organization. The church building with lot, on the southeast corner of Broad and Brandywine Streets, was bought of the New Jerusalem Society for twenty-five thousand dollars, and was first oc- cupied March 12, 1882, though its use on Sunday mornings was conceded to the Swedenborgians till November.

REV. WILLIAM HENRY FURNESS.

The society has contin- ued under the ministry of Mr. Ames, and its covenant membership has nearly doubled, though including less than half the congregation. Probably no religious society in the city is more thoroughly identified with the system of co-operative charity, some thirty-five members being officially connected with various institutions of undenominational benevo- lence.

THE CONGREGATIONALISTS.

From a very early period there have been in this city large numbers of persons who were trained in the polity of the first churches that were formed in New England by the Puritans, and very naturally they have desired to worship in accordance with their early education and their associations. It is difficult to decide as to which was the first example of Congre- gationalist in this city. The Universalist Church on Lombard Street, above Fourth, was founded as an

edited for three years The Diadem, a Philadelphia annual ; has been con- tributor to the Christian Examiner, and is the author of a number of pub- lished sermons, many of which are in support of the anti-slavery cause, in which he took great interest.

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RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

Independent or Congregational Church. The pres- ent Chambers Presbyterian Church, at Broad and Sansom Streets, was founded in 1820 as a Congre- gationalist or Independent Church. In 1836, Mat- thias B. Denman, Lemuel Coffin, Henry C. Blair, James W. Boyd, Dr. William K. Brown, Dr. James H. Briscoe, William S. Charnley, Joab Brace, Jr., Thomas Elmes, Archelaus Flint, Joshua P. Haven, David W. Prescott, Henry W. Safford, Joseph Sea- ver, Sabine W. Colton, Martiu Thayer, Edward S. Whelen, and Ilancock Smith founded the First Con- gregational Church, and elected Rev. Dr. John Todd pastor. During the early part of the year they met in a well-furnished room on the northeast corner of Eighth and Chestnut Streets. In a short time they purchased a lot at the northeast corner of Tenth and Clinton Streets upon which to erect a church. The corner-stone was laid Sept. 6, 1836, and the church was dedicated Saturday evening, Nov. 11, 1837. Dr. Todd, though a great Biblical scholar and a sound theologian, was not an attractive preacher, and the church struggled on through many difficulties, but was finally, in February, 1842, sold by the sheriff, and purchased by Hosea Kellogg for the First Pres- byterian Church.

Several attempts were afterward made to establish a Congregational Church in the city, but without suc- cess until the winter of 1863-64, when the desire took permanent shape. On the 5th of April, in pursuance of a public notice inviting " New Englanders and all others interested in the formation of a Congregational Church in Philadelphia," a meeting was held at the house of James Smith, 210 Franklin Street. Careful and serious deliberation was held respecting the need of such an effort, the encouragements for the under- taking, and the difficulties to be met and overcome. It was concluded to form a Congregational Church in this city, and necessary steps were at once taken for giving effect to this decision. Concert Hall, on Chestnut Street, above Twelfth, was engaged for ser- vices on Sunday, and clergymen were engaged to conduct public worship. The first public services were held on Sunday, May 15, 1864, and were con- ducted morning and evening by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, of Brooklyn.

A confession of faith and covenant having been adopted as its religious and doctrinal basis, the formal organization of the church in accordance with the simple methods of the denomination took place on Monday, May 30th, in the parlors of Mr. Smith. After a brief address and prayer by Rev. Newton Heston, of Brooklyn, he read the confession of faith and covenant, to which those who were to compose the church gave their individual assent. The distinc- tive act by which the church was constituted was the adoption by these persons of the following minute :

" We whose names are hereto subscribed do solemnly adopt the Con- fession of Faith and Covenant just read as the expression of our Chris- tian faith and our sacred pledge to each other and to our Saviour ; and

by this act we do constitute ourselves a church of enyet under the name of the Central Congregational Church of Philadelphia"

This action clothed the body with all the essential , powers and rights of a church, competent for all ap- propriate Christian work. Thus constituted, however, it was without recognized standing or vital union with other churches of the denomination. With the view of securing this fellowship, and in accordance with Congregational usage, an ecclesiastical council was called, composed of clerical and lay delegates from prominent churches in different parts of the country. This council met on the Ist of June, and, after considering the doctrinal basis of the church, the reasons assigned for its formation, and its pros- pects of usefulness, approved the action already taken, and by public services welcomed the church to mem- bership in the denomination and commended it to the confidence and Christian fellowship of the churches at large.

The Sunday services continued to be held at Concert Hall, conducted by clergymen from abroad, and the weekly prayer-meetings were held at the house of Mr. Smith, conducted by members of the church. In September Rev. Edward Hawes, of Waterville, Me., accepted a call to the pastorate, and by advice of a council was publicly installed Oct. 25, 1864. Mr. Hawes had become widely known by his labors in raising funds for the United States Christian Com- mission, and by his personal service among the sol- diers at various points at the South. His ministry here was continued for nearly nine years, and until a substantial church building had been completed and the church itself established on a basis of assured success. In 1873 he resigned his charge and accepted a call to the North Church in New Haven, Conn.

In the spring of the next year Rev. James R. Dan- forth, of Newton, Mass., accepted a call from the church, and was duly installed its pastor on Thurs- day, June 18, 1874. At installation services it is cus- tomary for some minister of the denomination to express the fellowship of the churches. On this occasion there was a departure from the usual pro- cedure, and the fellowship of the churches, not the Congregational Churches only, but of the brother- hood of evangelical churches, was expressed in ad- dresses by representatives of different denominations. Rev. George D. Boardman, D.D., conveyed the greet- ings of the Baptist Churches. Rev. R. D. Harper, D.D., spoke in behalf of the Presbyterians, and Rev. R. M. Hatfield, D.D., on behalf of the Methodists.

Public services were held at Concert Hall until July, 1865, and during the remainder of that year in the hall at the northeast corner of Broad and Arch Streets. In April, 1865, the church purchased the lot of ground at the northwest corner of Eighteenth and Green Streets, and at once made preparations for the crection of a building. The corner-stone of the chapel was laid with appropriate religious ceremonies on Monday, June 12th, and the building was dedi-

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

cated on Sunday, Jan. 7, 1866. The walls of the main structure were erected in 1871, and the com- pleted church was dedicated on Sunday, June 2, 1872. It is of the Gothic style of architecture, and built of graystone trimmed with brownstone.

The ground on which the Central Congregational Church stands was purchased for $24,000; the cost of the chapel and of such part of the main building as had to be put up with it was $38,000; and the cost of the main edifice, including the furnishing, was $50,000; making a total cost of 8112,000.

CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.

From the very first an efficient Sunday school has been maintained by the church. It was for eleven years under the able and judicious superintendence of Nelson F. Evans, who is now the president of the Young Men's Christian Association. On his resigna- tion, in 1880, William H. Wannamaker was chosen his successor.

Rev. James R. Danforth, the pastor of the Central Congregational Church, was born in Jersey City, N. J., Aug. 8, 1839. His studies preparatory to college were pursued in the Lyceum, then taught by Hon. William L. Dickinson, whose recent death Jersey City still mourns, and at the grammar school of Columbia College, in New York, then under the headship of Charles Anthon, LL.D., the finished classical scholar.

After finishing his preparatory studies he entered the University of the City of New York, but was obliged by ill health to intermit his studies for sev- eral years. Resuming his college course at the West, he graduated in 1865 at Beloit College, Wisconsin. His theological studies were pursued at the Congre- gational Seminaries of Chicago and Andover, he having graduated at the former in 1868.

In the summer of that year he was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in Woodstock, Ill.

Under the labors of pastor his health gave way after a few months, and he resigned his charge and spent a year in travel in Europe, and two years in study in Germany, chiefly at the University of Leipsic. Shortly after his return, in 1872, he accepted a call to the charge of the Central Congregational Church of Newton, Mass. After a short pastorate at that place he accepted a call from the Central Congre- gational Church of this city in May, 1874.

The church, under Mr. Danforth's ministry, has had a steady and healthful growth. Soon after en- tering on his pastorate here, seeing that the debt of thirty thousand dollars, which remained on the church property, was a serious hindrance to the success of his work, he began an effort which has resulted in the almost total extinguishment of the debt.

Mr. Danforth has always been a close student and an accurate scholar. After completing his theological course of study he was invited to a college professorship, a position for which, by his tastes and his education, he was well fitted. As, however, he regarded the Christian ministry as his proper calling, he declined this invitation. From the bent of his mind and his training, the style of his preaching is scholarly and logical rather than rhetorical.

Mr. Danforth is one of the State secretaries of the American Congregational Union, and a mem- ber of the executive committee of the American Missionary Association.

Trinity Congregational Church at Frankford has for its minister Rev. E. N. Yelland.

THE GERMAN REFORMED.

So many Germans, we are told, immigrated to Penn- sylvania during the first fifty years of the eighteenth century, that the proprietaries were rather alarmed, but the peaceable habits and steady industry of the new-comers soon reassured them. The Germans made settlements on what was then the frontier, in valleys now among the richest and fairest in the State; others settling in or near Philadelphia engaged in business or manufactures. Germans ill-treated in New York province and elsewhere removed to Pennsylvania. Thus the number of religious sects, and also of divers dialects, were materially increased. Herr von Beck, in his "Reise Diarium," dated Philadelphia, June 6, 1734, says, "Here are some of all religions and sects." His list contains Lutherans, Reformers, Church people, Presbyterians, Quakers, Catholics, Dunkers, Mennonists, Sabbatarians, Seventh-Dayers, Separatists, "Bohemisteir," Swenkfelders, "Tutch- felders," and " Well-Wishers." Nearly all the Ger- man colonists were Protestants, and were pretty evenly divided between the two great doctrines, the Reformed (or Calvinistic) and the Lutherans (or church of the Augsburg Confession). The first Bible printed in America was Luther's version.

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RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

The first congregation of the Reformed Church in Alsentz was succeeded by Rev. Christian Foehring, who officiated from 1769 to 1772, when Rev. John Pennsylvania is thought to have been formed in 1726 by John Philip Boehm, at Whitpaine township, in . Gabriel Gebhard became pastor, and served until 1774. Philadelphia County (now in Montgomery), sixteen Rev. John William Ingold then took charge of Whit- paine and Skippack, or Worcester Church, and preached for a year at Boehm's old church. He had assumed this charge at the request of the congrega- tion, without authority from the Coetus; and having trouble about his salary he left the church. The Rev. John H. Weikel was the next occupant of this pulpit, which he took in 1776. A new German Reformed Church was built in 1762, about a mile from Boehm's church, known as "Wentz's church." It was erected by the exertions of Rev. John Philip Leidich, and was dedicated Nov. 13, 1763. This church was generally under the control of the ministers of Boehm's church. miles from Philadelphia. This rests upon the state- ment of Rev. Michael Schlatter, 1 who, in his journal, writing in 1746, says that Boehm had been preaching to large assemblies for twenty years. In another portion of his journal Schlatter calls Boehm "the oldest German minister in these regions." Boehm was a schoolmaster, not then licensed to preach, but there being no regular minister he felt called upon to lead in divine service according to the best of his ability. Boehm reminds one of the pious and gentle Mennonite schoolmaster, Christopher Dock, who was teaching and preaching on the Skippack as early as 1718. In 1729 an application was sent to the Classis of Amsterdam and the Synod of North Holland for The church at Skippack was organized almost as soon as that at Whitpaine. It was the work of pious Palatines, as they were called. The famous Upper Palatinate province lay on both sides of the Rhine, and had Manheim for its capital. Marshal Turenne desolated it with fire and sword in 1674, and thence flowed the first notable German emigration to Amer- ica, beginning in 1680 or 1682. Mennonite Palatines founded Germantown. The later arrivals were many of the members of the Reformed Church, and the particular colony that founded the Skippack settle- ment consisted of one hundred and nine Palatines that arrived at Philadelphia in the ship "William and Sarah," Capt. Hill, from Rotterdam and Dover, his ordination. The early dependence of the German Reformed Churches upon the Dutch Church in Europe is a singular fact. It lasted until 1792, when the French conquest of Holland interrupted communica- tion. To Boehm's request the Classis and Synod replied, acknowledging his former acts, and said that, " according to the custom of the church, he must be confirmed or ordained by the ministers of New York, with a declaration that he receive the Heidelberg catechism and all the formula, engaging strictly to regulate his ministry in accordance with them, and submit himself to the ecclesiastical ordinances of the Synod of Dordrecht." The Whitpaine church was then organized, meeting in Rev. Mr. Boehm's house on the 27th of September, 1727, under charge of until, in 1740, a church was constructed. "It was of stone, small in size, but built with remarkably heavy walls, constructed of stone and mud mortar, as no lime could at that time be procured. The pulpit was high up, in one corner." In 1750 the congregation contained thirty-six communicants. Mr. Boehm re- mained in charge until his death, May 1, 1749. "He was buried in the inside of the church, still called after his name, and his resting-place is in the south- east corner of the present church, covered with an arch, which was built in 1818. His funeral sermon was preached May 7, 1749, at the church in German- town, by Rev. Michael Schlatter, who once a month visited the congregation at Whitpaine." In his journal, under date of June 25, 1751, he reports Whitpaine as "without a supply," and it remained so until 1760 or 1762, when Rev. George Alsentz left the Germantown Church and took charge of Boehm's old church at Whitpaine, serving other churches also in the neighborhood. He was pastor there when he died, in 1769, and he was buried in the old graveyard of the Reformed Church at Germantown. Rev.

Rev. George Michael Weiss (or Weitzius), who was sent out by the Upper Consistory or Classis of the Upper Palatine. Mr. Weiss soon went to Skippack, in the county of Philadelphia, about twenty-four miles distant, where he was accompanied by a por- tion of his emigrants. Here they built a log church, in the erection of which Rev. John Philip Boehm is said to have assisted. Mr. Weiss sent back to the consistory of the Palatinate information of the great spiritual wants of the Germans in the province. The latter laid the state of the case before the Synods of the Netherlands in 1728, and an effort was made to send out assistance. In 1729, Rev. Mr. Weiss, in company with Elder J. Reif, went to Holland to collect money, Bibles, and tracts for use in North America. The Synods of North and South Holland and the Classis of Amsterdam were solicited, and valuable contributions obtained. After Mr. Weiss returned to America he went to the province of New York, and he became pastor of a church at Rhine- beck, near Albany. He came back to Philadelphia in 1732. It is probable that Mr. Weiss was suc- cceded at Skippack by the Rev. Johannes Henricus Goetschiey, who came to Pennsylvania about 1729, and had a very extensive circuit, preaching also at Old Goshenhoppen, New Goshenhoppen, Folkner, Swamp, Oley, and other places in Philadelphia and

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 129

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992