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HISTORICAL CATALOGUE
OF THE MEMBERS OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IGAN PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
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10.5.00
Library of the Theological Seminary, PRINCETON, N. J.
Purchased by the Mrs. Robert Lenox Kennedy Church History Fund.
Division
BX6250
Section .. PqF5 K5
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FIRST BAPTIST MEETUN . HOUVE ITS LENGE MI. ERECTED AJ 177
LIBRARY OF PRINCETON
OCT 5 1909 % THEOLOGICAL SEM Y
HISTORICAL CATALOGUE
OF THE MEMBERS OF THE
FIRST £ BAPTIST CHURCH IN PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
COMPILED AND EDITED BY HENRY MELVILLE KING Pastor Emeritus
WITH THE VALUABLE AID OF
CHARLES FIELD WILCOX
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OCTOBER 1, 1908
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TOWNSEND, F. H., PRINTER PROVIDENCE, R. I. 1908
PROVIDENCE, October 20, 1908.
At the regular quarterly meeting of the First Baptist Church, held in the vestry this evening, it was announced that the manu- script of the Historical Catalogue, which has been in preparation for several years, is now completed, and a committee was appointed, consisting of the following persons, Henry M. King, Pastor Emeritus; William H. P. Faunce, President of Brown University; Professor William C. Poland, Clarence H. Guild, William C. Burwell, David W. Hoyt, William A. Gamwell, Miss Sarah C. Durfee, and Miss Alice W. Wilcox, who were authorized to proceed with the publication of the Catalogue and to make such arrangements as are necessary to ac- complish that important object.
WM. A. GAMWELL,
Church Clerk.
OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY
OF THE
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
In June, 1636, six persons made a settlement in this place, and called it Prov- idence. Roger Williams, who had been banished from Massachusetts because of his religious and political beliefs, was the leading spirit, and from him the place received its name in devout recognition of God's providential care over him during his journey through the wilderness. Other persons of kindred spirit soon joined this little company, seeking freedom from Puritan intolerance. They came at first from Salem, where they had been under Roger Williams' ministry, and subsequently from Boston, that here, on lands purchased from the Indians and beyond hostile jurisdiction, they themselves might enjoy, and also offer to all men "distressed of conscience," the priceless boon of soul-liberty. They were Separatists, and were breaking away from the ecclesiastical order in which they had been educated; but they were not lawless. They sought not license, but liberty to follow the path of truth in all things as God was re- vealing it to them in his Word, to the supreme authority of which they bowed.
During the year 1637-38 their new convictions were sufficiently matured to demand organized expression in church-fellowship .* Ezekiel Holliman, one of their number, in the absence of any scripturally baptized person in this new world, was deputed to baptize Roger Williams, and then he in turn baptized Mr. Holliman and "some ten more." These twelve or more persons constituted the first Baptist church in America. ; They adopted no articles of faith, and the church has remained without formal creed or covenant. Their Jordan of baptism was their ecclesiastical Rubicon, and at the same time their pledge and sign of a new fellowship.
Roger Williams was a graduate of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and had been a minister of the Church of England. He was educated in all the knowl- edge of his time. He was the first pastor of the little church, and Mr. Holliman was his assistant. In a few months, however, he withdrew from the church, having been led to believe that, owing to the corruption in Christendom, the rites of the Church had become invalid, and that there was no proper administrator, and no proper church, and, indeed, that there could not be, without a new apostolate to re-establish the institutions of primitive Christianity. But he
* See Appendix A.
t See Appendix B.
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THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
cherished to the end of his life his faith in the scripturalness of the distinctive views and practices of the church which he planted.
He continued to live in Providence, laboring for the enlightenment and con- version of the Indians, whose confidence he had won in Plymouth and always retained, and for the peace, the prosperity, and the perpetuity of the State which he was instrumental in founding. In its interests he paid two visits to the mother country at his own charges, both of which were successful. He died in 1683, being probably about eighty years of age, and "was buried with all the solemnity the colony was able to show."
After the withdrawal of Roger Williams from the church, there seem to have been three or four ininisters who held the pastoral office conjointly, constituting a plurality of elders, whose terms of service it is impossible to determine def- initely. They were members of the church when Mr. Williams withdrew, or united soon after. Chad Brown, who may be called the second pastor, was or- dained in 1642, and died in 1665. He was the ancestor of a numerous and in- fluential family, whose influence has been strongly felt in the commercial, edu- cational, and religious life of the community. Thomas Olney, an original mem- ber, was for a time pastor, though the date of his ordination is unknown. He seceded from the church about 1652 on account of a division of opinion in re- gard to the imposition of hands. At the beginning, and for many years, this was the prevailing sentiment in the church. Roger Williams is known to have held it. It did not entirely disappear until after the beginning of the 19th cen- tury. Mr. Olney questioned the necessity of the practice and organized a new church composed of those who were in sympathy with him, and was its pastor until he died, in 1682. His church survived him a few years during the pastor- ate of his son.
William Wickenden was ordained by Rev. Chad Brown. He possessed a mis- sionary spirit, and was one of the first to preach Baptist doctrines in New York in 1656, for which crime he was first fined, and then banished. He died in 1669. Gregory Dexter, who came to Providence in 1643, also served as pastor of the church, and continued his ministry until his death, in 1700, at the age of ninety years. These were all men of strong characters, and competent leaders of the church, which was still small. They served the church conscientiously, without compensation, giving to its spiritual oversight such time and strength as their secular occupations permitted.
Pardon Tillinghast was the sixth pastor of the church. He was admitted to citizenship in Providence, January 19, 1646, at the age of twenty-four. Hav- ing united with the church, he was subsequently ordained, and continued in the pastoral office until his death, in 1718. He, too, gave his service without sal- ary, though he declared that "the laborer is worthy of his hire," and that the church ought to support his successor. He himself was a man of some means, and erected at his own expense, in 1700, the first meeting-house occupied by the church, and in 1711 deeded it to the church. The deed is on record in the City Hall. In it the church is called a Six-Principle church. Up to this time public worship had been held in the homes of the people, or in pleasant weather,
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THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
under the trees. This house stood in what was then the north end of the town, near the corner of Smith street and North Main street, and was used for worship until 1726, when it was replaced by a larger one built on the same site. The second house was about forty feet square.
The next year after Mr. Tillinghast's death, Mr. Ebenezer Jenckes, who was born in Pawtucket in 1669, was ordained as pastor at the age of fifty, and died, after serving the church seven years, August 24, 1726. He was the first native- born pastor.
He was followed by Rev. James Brown, grandson of Chad Brown, who was born in 1666. He held the pastoral office about six years, and died October 28, 1732, aged sixty-six years.
In 1733 Mr. Samuel Winsor, born in Providence in 1677, was ordained pastor, together with Mr. Thomas Burlingame, who was born in Cranston in 1688, and who was for a time Mr. Winsor's colleague. Mr. Winsor died No- vember 17, 1758. Mr. Burlingame died January 10, 1770.
June 21, 1759, Mr. Samuel Winsor, Jr., born in Providence, November 1, 1722, was ordained pastor. In May, 1771, Mr. Winsor withdrew from the church with a number of persons, who insisted on the imposition of hands as prerequisite to the communion of the Lord's Supper, and also because "singing in public worship was very disgustful to him." Singing as a form of worship was at that time introduced. They organized a Six-Principle church in John- ston, three miles distant. At that time the Six-Principle element was in the minority, and the church had on its roll of members only 118 names.
In the following July (1771) the Rev. James Manning, born in Elizabeth- town, N. J., October 22, 1738, a graduate of the college at Princeton in 1762, and president of Rhode Island College, which had been located in Providence the previous year, was elected pastor. He did not formally relinquish the office, though his services seem to have been intermittent, until April, 1791, when he preached his farewell discourse. He died July 29 of the same year. The pastor- ate of President Manning, who was the first educated pastor since Roger Wil- liams, gave a character and influence to the church which it had not had be- fore. There were received into the church during his ministry 283 members, and in 1791 the church reported a total enrollment of 159.
During the ministry of Dr. Manning, in 1774, the Charitable Baptist Society was incorporated, the chartered body which holds the title to the church prop- erty. In February of that year it was resolved to vacate the house of worship which had been occupied for nearly fifty years, and to build upon the present site "a meeting-house for the public worship of Almighty God, and to hold Com- mencement in." The building of this, the third house, which is still in use, began June 1, 1774. It was dedicated May 28, 1775, midway between the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. It is eighty feet square, and is modelled after Saint Martins-in-the-Fields in London, which was designed by James Gibbs, a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren. It cost £7,000, of which £2,000 was raised by a lottery authorized by the State, according to the custom of the time. The spire is two hundred feet in height. In the interior an upper gallery for many
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THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
years occupied the west end of the house, and was set apart for the use of slaves and other colored people. It was removed in 1832 to make room for an organ. In that year the old-fashioned square pews were exchanged for the present ones, and the lofty pulpit and sounding-board were taken down. The present pulpit and the recess in the rear for the open baptistery were introduced in 1884. The bell, weighing 2,500 pounds, was made in London, and bore at first the quaint inscription:
" For freedom of conscience the town was first planted; Persuasion, not force, was used by the people: This church is the oldest, and has not recanted. Enjoying and granting bell, temple and steeple."
The bell has been cracked three times in ringing, and recast in this country. It now bears the date of the origin of the church and the name of Roger Wil- liams, "the first pastor and the first asserter of liberty of conscience," and the following declaration: "It was the first church in Rhode Island, and the first Baptist church in America."
January 1, 1788, the Rev. John Stanford, born in Wandsworth, England, October 20, 1754, then, and afterwards, of New York, accepted the call of the church to serve as minister for one year, to assist President Manning. He was subsequently elected pastor conjointly with Dr. Manning. He continued with the church, however, only until September 26, 1789, there having come to the knowledge of the church some error of conduct prior to his coming to America. His subsequent life in New York was one of honor and usefulness.
Mr. Jonathan Maxcy, born in Attleborough, Mass., September 2, 1768, and graduated at Rhode Island College in 1787, was licensed to preach by this church April 1, 1790, and was ordained pastor of the church September 8, 1791. He served the church but one year, resigning the pastoral office September 8, 1792, to accept the presidency of the college at the age of twenty-four. He filled the office of president for ten years. He was the president of Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., 1802-04, and of the South Carolina College from 1804 to 1820. He died at Columbia, S. C., June 4, 1820.
In 1792 Nicholas Brown, 2d, the great benefactor of the church and college, contributed to the society £2,000 "to buy a lot and build a parsonage." The lot was secured, and the parsonage erected on Angell street. This dwelling was occupied until 1873 by Pastors Gano, Pattison, Hague, Granger, and Caldwell. It was then rented until 1884, when it was torn down to give place to a new and modern parsonage, which has been occupied by Pastors Brown and King. It is now leased to a college fraternity.
The Rev. Stephen Gano, M. D., son of the Rev. John Gano, was born in New York, December 25, 1762, during his father's pastorate of the First Baptist Church in that city, and was ordained there August 2, 1786. He had previously studied and practiced medicine, and served as surgeon in the revolutionary army. He was taken prisoner, put on board a prison-ship, bound in chains, and bore the scars until his death. He was invited to preach for this church August
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THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
18, 1792, and became a stated supply, though he was practically pastor from that date. He presented his letter, and became a member of the church July 4, 1793. He was formally elected pastor March 1, 1796, and continued in the office until his death, August 18, 1828, having ministered to the church nearly thirty-six years. The sermon at his funeral was preached by the Rev. Daniel Sharp, D. D., of Boston, pastor of the Charles Street Baptist Church.
Dr. Gano's long pastorate was distinguished by several remarkable revivals, the most remarkable in the entire history of the church. The whole number of accessions during his ministry was 988. In 1805 there were added 134 mem- bers by baptism and letter; in 1812, 104 members; in 1816, 94 members by bap- tism alone; and in 1820, 147 members by baptism alone, which brought the total enrollment of the church up to 648, a number not again reached until 1901. During this pastorate five new churches were formed in Providence and the immediate vicinity, largely by its members, viz .: the Second Church (now the Central), the Pawtucket Church, the Pawtuxet Church, the Third Church and the Fourth Church, thereby reducing the enrollment in 1828 to 491 mem- bers.
The Rev. Robert Everett Pattison, born in Benson, Vt., August 19, 1800, and graduated at Amherst College in 1826, was chosen pastor January 25, 1830, and entered upon his duties March 21. He resigned his office August 11, 1836, that he might take the presidency of Waterville College, Me., to which he had been elected. During Dr. Pattison's pastorate of nearly six years and a half 260 members were received, and the church reported, in 1836, 549 members, though many had been dismissed to strengthen the younger churches.
The Rev. William Hague, born January 4, 1808, in Pelham, West Chester County, N. Y., graduated at Hamilton College in 1826, and at Newton Theolog- ical Institution in 1829, was then pastor of the First Baptist Church in Boston, and was elected pastor of this church June 1, 1837, and began his duties June 25. Dr. Hague, like Dr. Gano, was of Huguenot ancestry. The church commem- orated the second centenary of its foundation November 7, 1839, and the pastor delivered a valuable historical discourse. Dr. Hague was absent in Europe for nine months in 1838-39, and the Rev. Handel G. Nott supplied the pulpit. The pastor resigned his office August 20, 1840, and was dismissed to the Federal Street Baptist Church in Boston, of which he became pastor. Dur- ing Dr. Hague's ministry 135 persons were added to the church, but not enough to make good the losses by dismission and death. The enrollment in 1840 was 540. Dr. Hague subsequently served numerous prominent churches in the de- nomination, and after a life of great usefulness died in Boston August 1, 1887.
September 24, 1840, the Rev. Robert E. Pattison was invited to resume the pastorship of the church, and accepted the call December 10. He resigned his office March 10, 1842, and concluded his service on the first Sunday in April, having been elected one of the secretaries of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions. Dr. Pattison's brief second pastorate added 53 members to the church, and the number was reduced to 530. He filled the office of Missionary Secretary for four years, and gave the balance of his long life to the work of
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THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
education in connection with denominational institutions, collegiate and the- ological. He died in Saint Louis in the summer of 1874.
The Rev. James Nathaniel Granger, born in Canandaigua, N. Y., August 8, 1814; graduated at the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution in 1838; was then in charge of the Washington Street Baptist Church in Buffalo, and was elected pastor of this church September 12, 1842. He accepted the call of the church in October, and commenced his labors November 13, 1842. He died January 5, 1857, at the early age of forty-two years. Dr. Granger was absent from October 16, 1852, till May 4, 1854, being one of a deputation to visit the missions of the American Baptist Missionary Union in India. The Rev. John Calvin Stockbridge performed the duties of pastor for one year after Dr. Gran- ger's departure. The Rev. Francis Smith then supplied the pulpit till his re- turn. The Rev. William Carey Richards, ordained in New York, July 8, 1855, was appointed assistant to the pastor June 1, 1855, and resigned October 1, 1855. Dr. Granger's funeral occurred January 8, 1857, at which Prof. Alexis Caswell, D. D., delivered the address. On Sunday, January 18, President Wayland preached a discourse in commemoration of Dr. Granger's "Charac- ter and Services." The address and discourse were published, and were a fit- ting tribute to an honored minister.
Dr. Granger in his ministry to the church of more than fourteen years was permitted to welcome 296 members. The church contributed of its members to form the Jefferson Street Church, which was organized in 1847, and near the close of Dr. Granger's pastorate a large and influential number were dismissed to form the Armory Hall Church, (afterwards the Brown Street, which later united with the Third Baptist Church, constituting the present Union Baptist Church), and the church reported in 1857 to the Warren Association 410 mem- bers.
After the death of Dr. Granger the Rev. Francis Wayland, D. D., who for twenty-eight years had been the distinguished president of Brown University, was invited to supply the pulpit and perform pastoral duties. He commenced his service in March, 1857. On January 4, 1858, Dr. Wayland was elected pastor, but declined the office. He, however, continued his labors until the first Sunday in June, 1858. They were months of great spiritual blessing to the church. Dr. Wayland died September 30, 1865, in the 70th year of his age.
The Rev. Samuel Lunt Caldwell, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Bangor, Me., born in Newburyport, Mass., November 13, 1820, graduated at Waterville College in 1839, and at Newton Theological Institution in 1845, was elected pastor March 9, 1858. He accepted the call May 25, and entered upon his duties Sunday, June 13. He resigned his pastorship August 28, 1873, to accept a professorship in the Newton Theological Institution. After a service of five years at Newton he was called to the presidency of Vassar College, and filled the position for seven years. Dr. Caldwell's pastorate of this church continued a little more than fifteen years. He welcomed 253 members. But the church suffered many losses by death, and in 1873 reported 390 members. After his pastorate he still retained his membership in the church and his official con-
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THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
nection as fellow and secretary of the corporation of Brown University, and died in Providence, September 26, 1889, widely esteemed and greatly beloved.
The Rev. Edward Glenn Taylor, D. D., pastor of the Coliseum Place Church in New Orleans, La., was elected pastor December 10, 1874, and began his duties Sunday, April 18, 1875. He was born in Philadelphia County, Penn., graduated at Lewisburg University in 1854, and at Rochester Theological Seminary in 1856, and was ordained in Terre Haute, Ind., in 1857. He had also held pas- torates in Cincinnati and Chicago. Dr. Taylor closed his pastorate of this church November 30, 1881, and was dismissed to the Mount Morris Baptist Church in New York. He had pastorates also in Newark, N. J., and Buffalo, N. Y., where he died April 10, 1887. Dr. Taylor served this church six years and a half. They were years of much spiritual ingathering. Under his earnest, evangelistic ministry there were added 317 members, and the roll was increased to 547. The Roger Williams Church was brought into being largely through his labors, and also the Mt. Pleasant Church, though this last church was not or- ganized until 1883.
The Rev. Thomas Edwin Brown, D. D., pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Rochester, N. Y., accepted the call of this church, and began his labors February 5, 1882. Dr. Brown was born in Washington, D. C., September 26, 1841, and graduated from Columbian University in 1861. He became pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Brooklyn, N. Y., in November, 1862, and pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Rochester in November, 1869. He closed a faithful and successful pastorate in Providence July 31, 1890, and was dismissed to the Memorial Baptist Church in Philadelphia, of which he became pastor. From that church he was called to a pastorate in Franklin, Penn., and is now the esteemed pastor of the Baptist Church in New Britain, Conn. Dur- ing Dr. Brown's ministry of eight years and a half in this church he was per- mitted to welcome 167 members. Many were dismissed to join churches nearer their residences, notably the new Mt. Pleasant and Branch Avenue churches, leaving the church at the close of his ministry with 480 members.
The church observed its 250th anniversary on Sunday, April 28, 1889. A sermon appropriate to the occasion was preached by the pastor, Dr. Brown, and the special historical discourse was delivered by Dr. Caldwell, a former pastor. At the evening service addresses were given by the Rev. E. G. Robinson, D. D., president of Brown University; the Rev. George Bullen, D. D., president of the Rhode Island Baptist State Convention and pastor of the First Baptist Church in Pawtucket; the Rev. Augustus Woodbury, D. D., pastor of the Westminster Unitarian Church; the Rev. J. G. Vose, D. D., pastor of the Beneficent Congregational Church; and the Rev. C. A. L. Richards, D. D., rector of the St. John's Episcopal Church. The published sermons and ad- dresses make a volume of great historical value.
The Rev. Henry Melville King, D. D., was called from the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Albany, N. Y., and entered upon the pastorate of this church July 1, 1891. He was born in Oxford, Me., September 3, 1838, graduated at Bowdoin College in 1859, and at the Newton Theological Institution in 1862,
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THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
in which Institution he served for a brief time as instructor in the Hebrew language. He was pastor of the Dudley Street Baptist Church in Boston from April, 1863, to January, 1882, and of the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Albany from January, 1882, to July, 1891. He closed his pastorate of this church on Easter Sunday, April 15, 1906, and was elected pastor emeritus.
Dr. King's ministry with the church continued for fourteen years and nine months, and there were added to it 634 members. Notwithstanding the large number of removals by death among the aged members during this period, the church numbered at his resignation 734. The Wayland Chapel was purchased in 1892, and supported by the church for thirteen years, in which a Sunday School was carried on, and much of the time a preaching service.
Rev. George Richard Atha was invited to be pastor's assistant in 1903, and served the church with fidelity for three years, laboring especially at the Way- land Chapel. He graduated at Brown University in 1895 and at Newton Theo- logical Institution in 1898, and was pastor in Fall River, Mass., from 1898 to 1903. In September, 1906, he accepted a call to Groton, Conn., where he is still pastor.
The present pastor, Rev. Elijah Abraham Hanley, D. D., was called to the pastorate of the church June 11, 1907, and assumed the pastoral care the fol- lowing September. The past year has been one of marked progress under his earnest leadership. He was born in Indiana, May 26, 1871. He graduated at Franklin College in 1895; was assistant in rhetoric in Brown University, 1895-1896, a graduate student in the University of Chicago, 1896 to 1901; and pastor of the East End Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1901 to 1907.
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