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THE FIRST CENTURY
of
CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
1952
Gc 974.502 P948prc 2026502
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REYNO CE HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00076 3406
GEN
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1217's
THE FIRST CENTURY of
CENTRAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH R.I.
1852-1952
PROVIDENCE 1 9 5 2
T HIS book was written and edited as a part of the One Hundredth Anniversary Celebration by the following members of the Church:
MARGUERITE APPLETON
HERBERT N. COUCH, Chairman of the Committee
GURNEY EDWARDS
ROBERT H. GEORGE
GEORGE L. MINER
CHARLES W. PARMALEE
Printed by Halladay Inc.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD-Rev. Arthur Howe Bradford, D.D., Litt. D. Page
1
INTRODUCTION AND TRANSITIONS-Herbert N. Couch, Ph.D.
PART I.
A Venture of Faith, 1852-1883
7
Robert H. George, Ph.D.
PART II. The Period of Growth, 1884-1902 . . 21 Marguerite Appleton, Ph.D.
PART III. Maturity, 1903-1917 .
37
George L. Miner, A.B.
PART IV. Here We Stand, 1918-1952
61
Gurney Edwards, A.B., LL.B.
CONCLUSION
. 92
2026502
LIST OF PLATES
Opposite Page i
. Rev. Arthur H. Bradford Minister of the Church, 1918-1952
Facing Part I
. The Chancel Drawn by Mrs. Gladys W. Murphy
Following Page 4
. The Window of Labor, on the north side of the East Transept, the gift of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Wilkinson.
Opposite Page 57
. The Windowof Light, on the wall of the East Transept, the gift of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Clark Sayles.
Following Page 64
. The Window of the Heavenly City, on the wall of the West Transept, the gift of Mr. Francis W. Carpenter.
+
In this book it has been possible, through a gift from the late Mrs. Edward H. Rathbun, to reproduce in color three windows-the Labor Window, also the gift of Mrs. Rathbun, and the windows in the East and West Transepts. All the stained glass windows of the Church were designed by Mr. J. A. Holzer, a native of Alsace-Lorraine, and were made by the Duffner Kimberly Company of New York.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/firstcenturyofce00unse
REV. ARTHUR H. BRADFORD Minister of the Church, 1918-1952
FOREWORD
T HIS little book belongs to the celebration of the One-Hundredth Birthday of the Central Congregational Church.
When a little child has a birthday party the light of candles on a birthday cake shines in happy faces all about. The children present are jolly and gay. Laughter and cries of joyous excitement are heard as candles are blown out, the cake is cut and gifts are given and received.
Birthday parties for grown-up people are different; more different as the years pass. The gay and jolly mood of childhood may be recaptured. Faces of men and women in the candlelight may be just as happy as the faces of four-year olds in care-free celebration. Nevertheless, there is a difference. Grown-ups are conscious of the passage of the years. The fact may not be mentioned, but they are quietly conscious that their birthdays will not go on forever. Gaiety is tempered by growing thank- fulness for the gift of life, by deepening faith that the Giver of life may be trusted for all the unknown future.
The birthday party of a church is different from any other party what- soever. It has, or should have, the jolly abandon of spirit so natural to little children. In it, also, is the reverent gratitude of mature people who have learned to value life as a precious gift. But there is something more.
The "something more" in the birthday party of a church is not due to the fact that the church is an institution. Other institutions may celebrate their birthdays with bold assertion of pride in their achievement. They may rightly say, though in terms of courteous consideration of others,- "See how we have done better than our competitors! Come to our party! There will be a cake with one hundred candles. Share with us as we re-
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FOREWORD
joice that our institution is now so big and strong, so capable of becoming yet bigger and stronger."
That is all right for other institutions. It would be out of character for a church. When a church realizes that it is a hundred years old it sees that fact against the background of eternity. The life of a church cannot be measured in years. There is a timeless quality in the life of every church. Its purpose is "to live the eternal life in the midst of time, by the strength and under the eyes of God."
Pride of achievement, however, is not out of place at the birthday party of a church. Thankful its people may be for what those who have gone before have done; thankful, too, for what they themselves may have been enabled to do. But all their pride and joy will be tempered with humility.
Phillips Brooks tells us that "the true way to be humble is not to stoop till you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that shall show you what the real smallness of your greatest greatness is."
As we celebrate the One-Hundredth Birthday of our Church we "remember Jesus Christ" and, in his presence, we pray to be humble of heart. Mindful of his desire that his followers should become like little children, we rejoice to be jolly and gay, with the light of a hundred birth- day candles shining in happy faces all round the family table. Yet, we would not forget that our Christian ideal is infinitely above all our ac- complishment. We would always remember that our years are set in the eternity of Him who is from everlasting to everlasting.
The pages which follow tell the story of a century in the life of our church. The story has been written with painstaking care and earnest
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FOREWORD
devotion by five of our church members. To them and to the editors of this volume is given the gratitude of our whole Fellowship of Faith.
Now, by way of a Prayer for our Birthday Party, let me suggest these lines, taken from a "Prayer for Success", written by Robert Louis Stevenson: "Lord, behold our family here assembled. We thank Thee for this place in which we dwell; for the love that unites us; for the peace accorded us this day; for the hope with which we expect the morrow. . . . Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. ... Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavours. If it may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another. As the clay to the potter, as the windmill to the wind, as children of their sire, we beseech of Thee this help and mercy for Christ's sake." Amen.
ARTHUR H. BRADFORD
The Parsonage
November 16, 1951
INTRODUCTION
W HAT are the features which should characterize an historical sketch of the first hundred years of a church's existence? A record of growth, a chronicle of faithful en- deavor by generations of devoted members, a listing of projects commenced and carried to completion, an appraisal of the impact of the church upon its adherents and upon the community? These are obvious answers. But how are they to be most effectively accomplished, and how may the ful- fillment of the task contribute to the spirit of the Centennial Anniversary itself, which is an augury of future service and not a serene contemplation of the past?
The observance of a century of growth inevitably invites a different attitude from that with which one approaches an appraisal of one-half or one-quarter of that time, significant though these anniversaries are. After a quarter century of speeding years, men and women who were present and active at the birth of the church, now grown more dignified and grave but stoutly denying any suggestion that old age had begun to take its toll, pause to look back on their achieve- ment with a mingling of pride and humility; they address themselves to the tasks of the future; they examine the bul- warks of the fortress; and they give thought to the training of younger apprentices for duties which one day will be theirs. After fifty years younger men are in positions of responsibility, but the church is not wanting in the counsel of those who knew the early years of work and faith, and
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INTRODUCTION
the continuity of effort is attested in the vigorous service of men and women whose earliest Christian experiences were within the same religious body.
But when a full cycle of a hundred years has rolled around, the problem takes on new aspects and new dimen- sions. Not a single face is seen in the pews that was there at the church's birth; the torch has passed to other hands; the present and the future alike are entrusted to those who have learned their lessons of faith from men and women who built nobly in their own confidence in things to come. "Old men plant trees the fruits of which they will never see," observed Cicero in a philosophic essay On Old Age. The Church now embraces within its own experience and record every phase of the pageant of life-the merry heedlessness of childhood, the gay insouciance of youth, the serious pur- pose of maturity, and that larger vision of age, which builds on the faith of things unseen. Names are not forgotten; they are cherished in an inscription on a memorial window whose beauty ministers to all, recorded in the book of remembrance, cherished in the hearts of those who were once privileged to work with men and women who thought nobly and toiled bravely, and revivified many a time in the persons of young scions of older families who now assume the leadership of the youth organizations within the church. And to mingle with the old familiar names the inclusive welcome of active Christianity constantly adds new ones, names whose origins go back to other states and other lands.
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INTRODUCTION
It was not the dearth but the richness of the records that embarrassed those who undertook to bring into compass a consecutive story of the growth of the Church for a hundred years. In the end the method of treatment was solved by compromise and by the latitude granted to the different committee members who assumed responsibility for a por- tion of the story as to whether they should approach their task from a personal or an impersonal point of view. The body of factual material, gathered and preserved by con- scientious scribes and faithful archivists remains in secure keeping, but the Committee has kept in mind the objective of the Anniversary itself, that is, the creation of a mood of courage and optimism for the future, not a static record of the past.
The purpose of this historical sketch is, therefore, to present through the record of the Church a still larger picture, that of a religious community, evolving and developing as a vital part of the growth of American life during the last half of one century and the first half of another. Our Church has grown and gathered strength through wars and depressions, through economic and social upheaval; it has clung fast to the faith of its founders and at the same time has developed the elasticity that welcomes change; it has benefited by the diversity of its membership no less than by the unity of its fellowship.
One hundred years ago Providence was a more sober, or, perhaps one should say, a more somber city than it now is.
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INTRODUCTION
Neither motor cars nor buses, dance halls nor moving pic- tures, golf or television were present to lure youth and their elders from the paths of orthodox Sunday worship. Thus it is, perhaps, that, as Professor George tells of the founding of the new society, the word "orthodox" creeps early into his narrative, both in the official wording of the charter and in the mood of those who fostered the origins and ministered to the needs of the new religious body during the first three decades of its life.
The Window of Labor, on the north side of the East Transept, the gift of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Wilkinson.
Y
Il LOVING MEMORY RENRY W WILKINSON AUG. 20 1835 -IDAY 6~1898
THYBOR
IR LOVING MEMORY ARRA REED WILKINSON AUG 30"1836 - OCT 5'1916
G.W.M
PART I A VENTURE OF FAITH 1852- 1883
By ROBERT H. GEORGE ,
A VENTURE OF FAITH
O N April 24, 1852, following the organization meeting of March 18, the first service was held in the base- ment Lecture Room of the new Central Congregational Church on Benefit Street. The new society and the new structure were the result of the desire of a zealous group of church-goers to have a church in Providence in closer prox- imity to their homes on the growing East Side than the meet- ing houses then existing west of the river. Attempts were made to satisfy this desire in 1836 and again a decade later. Both were frustrated, but the undaunted projectors per- severed. In 1850 they obtained a charter for their "orthodox society", and by March of 1851 they had raised the sum of $44,000 "for land and building a house of worship". Added funds were required almost at once, for no one contractor was willing to undertake the construction of the new edifice and even in the mid-nineteenth century actual expenses ex- ceeded estimates. Supplementary subscriptions bore testi- mony to the industry of Mr. John Kingsbury and others of the founding fathers, and though the cost of the new building amounted to nearly $59,000, it was dedicated on September 28, 1852 free from debt.
The new church was a sober sandstone structure flanked by truncated towers whose wooden steeples had been elim- inated from the first plans, doubtless in the interest of econ- omy. Yet, as its designers intended, it was marked by "as much simple beauty as was consistent" with the size and
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shape of the Benefit Street lot and the need to provide a spacious "audience room" on the first floor and a "lecture room" and Sunday School rooms in the basement. The desire and need to make full use of available space had forced the architect to thrust aside plans for a church with a single steeple and may have been responsible for fronting the church directly on the sidewalk.
The raising of funds and the building operations were paralleled by the perfection of the new group's religious foundations and the provision of a pastor. Articles of Faith were developed in meetings held in the house of Mr. William J. King in March, 1852, and in that same month the organiza- tion of the Church was completed at a Council held in the Beneficent Church. Its membership at that time consisted of eighty-two persons, whose "full and regular standing" was duly certified by letters testimonial. Even earlier, in the previous September, the Rev. Leonard Swain, of Nashua, New Hampshire had been approached by those seeking a "Pastor and Teacher". He had then indicated his willingness to accept, but the invitation by the Church was of necessity delayed until its formal organization, and his letter of ac- ceptance bore the date of April 3, 1852.
At the time when this letter was written Leonard Swain was a comparatively young man of thirty-one. He had early made it a condition of his acceptance that the Church should be free from debt. Such a stipulation was born not so much of a desire to avoid assuming a burden, as of a wish to require that his new parishioners should give this tangible evidence of their Christian zeal. But his formal acceptance made it
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clear that he required much of himself. It was motivated by a stern sense of duty to accept an opportunity to do more "for the great ends of Christian ministry". This duty he strove mightily to perform throughout the period of his pastorate. He laid upon others the injunction to work in the Lord's vineyard and he steadily observed it himself. Those who knew him testify to the fervor of his prayers, and bear tribute to his simple and urgent appeal to his hearers to con- secrate their lives to the Christian purpose, and to accept Christ as their master. His inaugural sermon was on the sobering and stimulating text: "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it". His last sermons, "written for the impenitent of my congregation", merely reaffirm the life-long purposes of the devoted pastor of a flock. They constitute a personal plea that men attend to the salvation of their souls, that they be real Christians in char- acter and in influence, that they "decide for Christ today" since their decision here and now "will be the very sentence" pronounced upon them by Christ "when He shall sit upon the throne of judgment". This pressing Calvinistic concern for duty, this demand that men accept and follow the Master, seems to have been the very essence of Dr. Swain's spiritual character. The Church benefited from it, and, though voiced in terms which a later age would rate as austere, his parish- ioners came to appreciate the exalted truths their pastor stressed, and to love the man who on occasion castigated them.
Devotion, a sense of duty, and a goodly measure of aus- terity naturally mark the early history of what was popularly
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styled "the two horse carriage Church". Its deacons were indefatigable. Among their number John Kingsbury is said to have made it a practice to call upon each church family each year, and Mr. William J. King was the devoted Superin- tendent of the Sunday School for the long space of twenty- two years following his assumption of that office in 1852. The deacons supported a resolution passed at the first annual meeting of the Church which deserves full quotation.
Whereas, the solemnity of Public Worship requires silence, order and reverence, therefore
Resolved, that we will strive to enter and leave the House of God in silence, to keep our children under our particular care, and to pre- vent them, as far as it may be possible, from leaving the house during divine service; and to avoid leaving our pews, or to make preparation to leave them, until the benediction has been fully pronounced.
Even more purposeful and austere was Article 12 of the By-Laws of the Church adopted on May 18, 1852.
In the view of this Church, the manufacture, sale or use of in- toxicating beverages, attendance upon the theater or the circus, the practice of dancing, of travelling upon the Sabbath for business or pleasure, and of visiting the Post Office upon that day, are incon- sistent with a correct Christian Profession.
This was no set of empty phrases as items in the records of the Church in its early decades testify. Confession of offense, or imputations against the character of individuals led to investigations by Committees composed of deacons and others. "Admonition" was a mild penalty; "suspension" was obviously more rigorous; "termination of relations with the Church", often described by the blunt word "excom-
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munication", was the more usual punishment, although a letter of repentance written eight years after sentence had been delivered might lead to restoration of membership. Nevertheless, social gatherings in the homes of members of the congregation were a feature of the early life of the Church.
Early in its history the Church sought to enrich its serv- ices with music. At the first meeting of the Church on March 20, 1852, "Temple Melodies" was adopted for use as soon as funds might be raised, and six years later "after a somewhat protracted discussion", it was voted that con- gregational singing be adopted, with the congregation facing the pulpit rather than the choir loft. The treasurer's accounts record payments for blowing the organ and for singing.
The Sunday School was established at once and flour- ished. In 1853 it reported a total membership of 288. In 1855 it had 370 including a band of devoted teachers who, we can well imagine, faced the usual problems provided by ever lively youth.
That same Sunday School is found contributing its offer- ings for the support of a missionary, an action which reflects the prevailing interest of the Church in Christian Service. The name of Miss Nancy Marsh became inseparable from that of the City Mission, and as early as 1853 the Church treasurer reported total contributions of over $4,000 for such benevolent purposes as Missions, Western Colleges, and the Colored Shelter. Scanty records tell of the substantial pro- ceeds of "special collections" or of "monthly concerts" being devoted to "the poor of the Church", the American Board,
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the Home Missionary Society, and Yale College. In Dr. Swain's pastorate these gifts of money were supplemented by the gifts produced by the newly established Sewing Society, which thus early began its work of packing mis- sionary boxes "in behalf of our Western Home Missionary". Worthy causes were thus receiving appropriate support. It is interesting to note that only a few new beneficiaries appear in the days of the Civil War. Among them were the National Freedmen's Association, and the Sanitary Commission, an organization which provided medical supplies and nursing care for the wounded. In 1861 $10.00 went to provide books for the Rhode Island Second Regiment, and later, in 1867, a collection of twenty times that amount was placed at the disposal of "destitute Southerners". Civilian aid for the Armed Forces did not then develop on so large a scale as in later emergencies, and apparently the Church, as an or- ganization, did not play so active a role as it was later to do.
Dr. Swain must have been gratified at the steady growth of his Church. As has been noted, it listed a membership of eighty-two at the time of its organization in March 1852, but twenty-seven more joined before the year was out. In 1857 membership had increased to 206, in 1862 it stood at 318 and in 1867 at 373. The ratio of men to women favored the ladies by the pretty constant figure of rather more than two to one.
Unhappily Dr. Swain's bodily strength did not match his abounding spiritual energies. In 1860 the Church, observing his ill health, made possible a five month's holiday in Europe, but the hoped-for recovery did not prove permanent, and in
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May 1868, after a six month's leave of absence, he informed the Church that "my physicians tell me that my work as a settled pastor is done". His letter of resignation was a most moving one, thanking God for the "outward prosperity", "the unusual harmony", and "especially for the spiritual increase in numbers and in strength which has been graciously vouchsafed to us". At the insistence of the Church he re- mained as nominal pastor, but the first minister's probity caused him to insist that any successor during his lifetime should not be a mere associate but "the pastor". Still exhibi- ting his care for his congregation Leonard Swain died on July 14, 1869, and his bereaved Church appropriately marked "his singular perception of duty" and "his unreserved con- secration to Christ and His service" and voiced its gratitude for the privilege of associating with one who "has left us with a memory of a life almost faultless and worthy the imitation of every Christian minister and brother".
From 1868 until January, 1872, Central Church was with- out a minister. Mr. William J. King served as its permanent chairman while committees, assisted by a day of fasting and prayer on the part of the congregation, sought a permanent pastor. Dr. George H. Gould filled the pulpit for the better part of a year during the period of search, but on December 11, 1871 the Church voted to call another young man to its service in the person of the Rev. George Harris, Jr. of Auburn, Maine. He was only twenty-seven years old, well trained, and one whose genuine humility was accompanied by a genial sense of humor. It was this latter, and rare, com- bination which led him later to declare that the Church had
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failed to obtain an eminent man, and finally determined to take a young man without a reputation on the strength of a single sermon "which showed promise of better things". That promise was fulfilled in the course of a pastorate which covered the eleven years from February, 1872, until the end of 1882.
The period of Dr. Harris' pastorate was marked by lively theological controversy within the Protestant community, but, although he was himself a skilled theologian, his accent was on religion rather than on theology in a dogmatic sense. He himself insisted that he not merely allowed but encour- aged differences of opinion and that in his day "the pulpit has been untrammelled and so has the church". However, he was quick to add that "the exercise of spiritual liberty has served to bind us together as one". In such a Protestant and, we may say, humanistic spirit he preached from the pulpit and taught in the Sunday School of which he was Superin- tendent for two years. And we may be sure that he exhibited the same spirit in his personal contacts. They were many and intimate, for he was correct in his declaration that he was one who "relished human companionship".
In keeping with such a humane spirit an effort was made to modify the rigorous and explicit prohibitions of Article 12 of the By-Laws. It failed because of the lack of the three- quarters majority required for its passage. Dr. Harris later observed that those who voted against the amendment prob- ably thought that "so gay a church should not have too much freedom". It is interesting in this connection to note the two cases of discipline under the old article which have come to
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