USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > A history of Grace Church in Providence, Rhode Island, 1829-1929 > Part 6
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"In the interior the nave is separated from the aisles by a double range of seven clustered pillars, with fillets, capitals and bases, exhibiting moulding of great boldness and strength of profile.
"The pillars are two feet four inches in diameter, and the inter- columniations measure fourteen feet two inches from center to center. The roof rises to the height of about sixty-two feet above the floor, and consists of a series of arches resting upon corbels and ornamented with cusps and feathering. In each aisle are seven lancet windows, each window divided in two bays by a mullion-the border of the lights and the spaces between the heads of the lights and the arch over them being filled with stained glass of various colors, and the rest of the window of brown enamelled glass. In the chancel is a group of three windows, of which the central one is much larger than the other two, and all are filled with rich stained glass, disposed in symbolic designs drawn by the architect.
"The screen for the entrance, the organ, and the chancel, the pews, the reading desk, and the pulpit are made of Black Walnut, richly carved. The chancel screen is particularly rich, the upper part of the design exhibiting a beautiful series of interlaced round- headed arches. The Communion Table and chairs, are of the same material and in strict keeping with the rest of the church. The organ was built by Mr. Erben of New York and is a most excellent instrument. There are one hundred and eighty-two pews measuring eight feet long by two feet ten inches in width."
The pews in the new church were now ready to be offered for sale. In accordance with the plan which had worked so satis- factorily in 1832 the pews were officially valued, and the right of selection was sold at auction in the form of a premium on the fixed valuation. In the old church the values had ranged from
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seventy-five dollars to three hundred and fifty dollars, mostly two hundred dollars and upwards. In this "new and splendid edifice" the values began at forty dollars but ran to seven hundred dollars, the average valuation being a little under $400.
The sale began on Thursday, June 4th, and met with so little success that it was adjourned till Saturday, the 6th. Even then only fifty-eight1 of the one hundred and eighty-two pews were sold, at a total of about thirty-two thousand dollars, not enough by some five thousand dollars even to pay for the building, the improvements to the lot, the new organ, and the other appropriate furnishings. There were staunch friends at hand, however, a few of them of considerable means. Under the leadership, apparently, of William T. Grinnell, a man of enthusiasm and self- sacrificing loyalty, a group of men bought up nine pews at a cost of $5,875, deeded to William T. Grinnell as Trustee. This gave the Corporation enough ready money to meet its bills, though not enough to meet the original mortgage to Amasa Manton for the purchase of the land, nor the later mortgage to that gentleman and others by which the foundations were laid and the building started.
Of the fifteen most highly valued pews, five were not sold at all. Of the remaining ten, Amasa Manton took one for himself and one for his son Walter; his sons, Edward E. and Robert, bought two others; Elisha Dyer, Jr., William T. Grinnell, George H. Hoppin, William Grosvenor, Isaac Hartshorn, and the executor of the Larned Estate purchased the remaining pews that were valued at seven hundred dollars each.
Bishop Henshaw states that at the services there were "brethren from seven other dioceses," and that there were public services in the new church that afternoon and morning and afternoon of the day following. One week later, June 9th, the Diocesan Con- vention met in the beautiful new edifice. In his Convention Address on that occasion Bishop Henshaw said of the Consecration, "This large house was crowded with an attentive congregation, and the sacrament of the Eucharist was administered to a great number of devout communicants." And of the whole enterprise he said, "The erection of this large and expensive edifice . . . . was an undertaking requiring much of energy, liberality, and faith."
The disappointments of this sale of pews mark the beginning of a period of years of financial anxiety and stress for Grace
1 The Treasurer's report for 1847 shows that only fifty-four of these were paid for.
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Church that can hardly be exaggerated. If Bishop Clark is to be taken literally there was at one time danger that the new edifice would "go under the auctioneer's hammer" and be "alienated from our Communion." No doubt, before the mortgages were paid off four years later, the patience of Amasa Manton and the other friends of the Church to whom the money was owed must have been sorely tried and quite possibly threats were made, though Mr. Manton and the others contributed generously to the final settlement. Bishop Clark wrote in 1859, "Owing to the commercial embarrassment which then existed and the removal by death of some [possibly Amory Chapin and Samuel Larned] upon whom much reliance was placed, the parish soon found itself in a state of great pecuniary embarrassment, from which it was relieved by the extraordinary liberality of certain persons, who had already contributed very generously to the church."
In another place, the migration westward,-especially the gold rush of 1849,-is mentioned as contributing to the difficulties that beset the parish. The textile industries of Rhode Island had been hard hit by the decreasing duties, especially of the Tariff of 1846. Local political conditions following the Dorr Rebellion of 1842 and the national uncertainty caused by the declaration of war on Mexico in May, 1846, less than a month before the sale of pews, added further to the anxieties of Bishop Henshaw. Never- theless, he courageously declared in his report to the Convention of 1847, "Thus far he [the Rector] sees no cause to regret that the present church (which is of nearly double the size of the former) was built upon so large a scale."
With over one hundred pews unsold the Rector and others thought the time opportune for the carrying out of a cherished intention to provide free sittings for those who felt unable to pay for pews. As Bishop he welcomed the consecration in September, 1846, of St. Andrew's Church in this city as a free church.1 While he expressed doubts as to whether with all seats free services could be maintained in worthy fashion, he spoke in no uncertain terms of the importance of providing suitably for democracy of worship of rich and poor together. He believed that this end could more safely be attained by having a considerable number of pews in every church free. This method he later introduced into several of the new churches in his diocese. But, as with his
1 This Church organization, in which Bishop Henshaw was greatly interested and of which his son was for many years rector, now, as All Saints' Church, occupies the stately edifice erected as a memorial to Bishop Henshaw.
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earlier plan for Sunday offerings, he first won over the vestry of his own church and began the reform there. In the report to Convention in 1847 he says,
"Within two weeks after Easter, the sum of Eight Thousand Dollars was subscribed, (the one half by two benevolent indi- viduals1 of the parish) and has been invested in forty-two pews in Grace Church, containing two hundred and six sittings, which are to be free forever. The Rector is happy to report that these free pews have been, and continue to be, well occupied."
The spiritual affairs of Grace Church after the consecration of the new building progressed with increasing satisfaction and fresh zeal. The Rector was a man of tireless energy and un- stinted devotion to the cause of his Master. On the occasions of his rare Sunday visitations to the southern parishes in his diocese and on his annual trip of twelve days to Maine, which until the fall of 1847 was under his episcopal care, the Sunday services were maintained, sometimes by young deacons or priests working under his fatherly supervision, sometimes by exchange with the rectors of other parishes. As Bishop Clark wrote, "No parishioner had occasion to complain of his neglect and no parish duty was ever slighted." The holy days of fast and feast were scrupulously observed. Lent especially was a season of frequent services and marked spiritual activity. It was the Bishop's custom to make most of his visitations, especially those on the Island and in the South County, shortly after Easter, thus taking advantage of a lull in the affairs of the parish and giving himself some change and relaxation. Such change of scene with variation in labor seems to have constituted his only "vacation," except on the two occasions when serious illness necessitated complete ces- sation of work. He frequently records having delivered over two hundred and fifty sermons and addresses in the course of the year.
The financial difficulties of Grace Church already alluded to came to a head in the parish year of 1849-50. At the annual meeting on Easter Monday, 1849, Amasa Manton, the chief creditor, made a formal demand for the payment of his note many years overdue. A strong committee of five was appointed to solicit subscriptions with authority to make over to the subscribers as security the title to all the unsold pews in the church. In spite of all their efforts, continued for several months, as the Easter meeting of 1850 drew near only half of the necessary fifteen
1 The Rev. Daniel Henshaw in 1903 stated that these two benefactors were Amasa Manton, who gave $3,000, and William T. Grinnell, $1,000.
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thousand had been raised and that conditional on obtaining the total amount. With failure impending, Bishop Henshaw took the matter into his own hands, as he said to the Vestry, "without your authorization but, I trust, not without your approbation." He asked for free gifts and asked them even of those outside the parish, and on Easter Monday he transmitted to the Corporation a subscription list to the amount of $14,955 which in the meeting was speedily raised to the $15,000 sought.
Nearly one-third came from persons outside the parish, nearly one-fifth came from the Manton family-Amasa Manton, sub- scribing two thousand dollars and his three sons two hundred and fifty dollars apiece. Alexander Duncan gave two thousand dollars; in fact, nine persons contributed over half the money raised, the rest was contributed by some fifty other individuals both within and without the Church. The relief this afforded to Vestry and Corporation is abundantly witnessed by the records. The meeting adjourned for two weeks to take proper action in the matter. At the adjourned meeting a five page report of the whole crisis was spread upon the records and votes of thanks were passed to the Rector and the contributors outside the corporation. With special reference to the chancel window given by Amasa Manton,1 a laudatory vote to that gentleman was recorded, and finally a committee was appointed to continue the history of Grace Church from the laying of the corner stone to the extin- guishment of the debt,-a commission apparently unfulfilled.
At this adjourned meeting Francis E. Hoppin, an able lawyer of the time, who had been very prominent in corporation affairs, was elected to the Vestry. Elisha Dyer, Jr., and Amory Chapin, his brothers-in-law, had already served as Vestrymen, as did two of his brothers later. His tragic illness in 1858 and untimely death meant a severe loss to Grace Church, to which his family have been devoted and generous benefactors.2
The optimism of the report of 1850 was not wholly justified. In spite of the freedom from the payment of burdensome interest and a later retrenchment in the appropriation for music with the substitution for a time of a volunteer choir, there was a steadily growing deficit in running expenses. What was more alarming, the receipts were falling off owing to a decrease in the number of
1 The two side lights of this window on its removal from the chancel were by order of the Vestry placed in their present position in the nave as a memorial to Mr. Manton.
2 To this loyalty the present Altar and several other memorials testify.
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rented pews. In 1847 it had been possible to rent sixty-two pews, in 1851 the Treasurer reported that only thirty-one had been rented, and yet the size of the congregation was rather increasing than diminishing. Evidently the idealistic attempt to introduce free pews into a system of paid sittings was not to be crowned with immediate success. Human nature being what it is there is obvious difficulty in announcing that there are free sittings available and then limiting the free attendance to the capacity of the free pews. Instead of the two hundred thus provided for three or four hundred would often be present. To turn away from the House of God the excess over the welcome two hundred seemed unfitting, and yet it was evident that many irresponsible persons were taking a small-minded advantage of the opportunity to attend one of the most beautiful and interesting churches in the city. After much discussion and mature deliberation the Vestry voted "to close the unrented pews belonging to the Corporation," that is, over a quarter of the pews in the church. Whether this harsh measure was ever put into large effect is not known. Per- haps it was in the spirit of this vote that, as it is said, a certain wealthy member of the Corporation locked his pew when his family was not present. Nor under the circumstances that ensued and Dr. Henshaw's sudden death is it possible to tell the effect of the vote upon the finances of the parish.
The rejoicing over the financial rehabilitation of the parish had been sobered almost at once, it seems, by the serious illness, in the summer of 1850, of the Rector and benefactor. Two or three years before, according to his biographer, Bishop Henshaw's heart had shown signs of weakening and he had taken a few weeks' respite. This time the disability was more alarming and the Bishop abstained from active duties for the greater part of the summer. September found him in the harness again, however, and he carried on his work with almost his old energy for two years more.
Early in July, 1852, having obtained permission of the Vestry, Bishop Henshaw undertook a series of episcopal visitations in Maryland, to relieve his old friend and bishop, who had gone abroad for his health. He took with him his youngest son, then nineteen years of age, and had much satisfaction and delight in renewing old ties of friendship and affection. Though he seemed in unusually good health, the excitement and continuous strain in less than two weeks proved too much. He was stricken with paralysis early in the morning of July 20th and shortly after noon
ARCHITECT'S SKETCH OF CHURCH AND CHAPEL, CIRCA 1860
-
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he died. His body was brought back to Providence and placed in Grace Church. On Sunday the church, draped in mourning, was closed, while appropriate sermons were preached in other churches of the diocese. On Monday the church was thronged for the funeral, at which Bishops Doane, Southgate, and Williams officiated, the latter as preacher on the text, "The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance."
Over the grave of Bishop Henshaw in Grace Church Cemetery an impressive monument was erected. One of the inscriptions thereon bears the following moderate and well-deserved tribute to his ability and character.
"As a theologian he was sound; as a preacher, clear and earnest; as a pastor, faithful to the best interests of his flock; as a Bishop, wise in counsel, and an example in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in piety."
Thus ended, with the untimely death of Dr. Henshaw at the age of threescore, a rectorship of nine years, the first of consider- able length in the history of Grace Church. The accomplishment for Grace Church had been of the greatest significance. A church of ample size had been built at a cost of nearly $50,000, exclusive of the land, not only the finest of its kind in Rhode Island but, as its Rector was fond of saying, "one of the largest and purest specimens of Gothic architecture to be found in our country." And in this beautiful house of God over two hundred free sittings had been provided that those who would might come and worship. The roll of communicants which had numbered 274 before Dr. Vinton left, but which Dr. Henshaw found at 220, was reported at the convention of 1852 as 330. Perhaps of even greater sig- nificance was the way in which Bishop Henshaw had interpreted the Episcopal Church to this New England community. Puritan prejudice, even then, commonly took the position that Episcopacy and Americanism could never go together. Bishop Henshaw's practical common sense and Puritan inheritance, his enthusiasm and belief in the Church, and his clear setting forth of his positions went far to give the Episcopal Church a strong and natural place in this city. This reconciliation which he so ably furthered, his successor, Bishop Clark, and the years of the Civil War brought to completion.
An interesting tribute to Dr. Henshaw's liberality of spirit and power over men of unlike mind is given by his biographer:
"A polite, kind-hearted old Quaker . . . . declared that Bishop Henshaw was the most perfect pattern of a Christian
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gentleman he had ever seen. In testimony of this high opinion, he said that he intended to obtain for him exclusive use of the Union Chapel in the village where he lived, because he was satis- fied that he could do what no other man of his acquaintance could accomplish-subdue the opposition of different and discordant sects, and harmonize their religious feelings."1
Of his dislike of contention within the Church we have his own words from one of his addresses to Convention, in which he speaks of conditions at General Convention and in his own Diocese.
"The resolutions bearing upon this agitating topic, which were finally adopted with so much unanimity in the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, and the general favor with which the pastoral Letter of the other house has been received, clearly demonstrate that, whatever may be the oblique tendencies of individual minds, there is no disposition on the part of any considerable num- bers amongst us to revive the abandoned errors of Romanism on the one hand, or adopt, as a substitute for the principles recog- nized in our standards, the plausible novelties of modern days, on the other.
"In these 'troublous times,' when the Church is so fiercely assailed by misrepresentation and calumny from without-and alas! too much agitated by disquietude and controversy within, we of this Diocese have reason to bless God, that, through His mercy, we are permitted to feel how good it is for 'men to be of one mind in a house': 'how sweet and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.' May the Holy Spirit impart to us more and more of the grace of unity and love!"
Many tributes are paid in the writings of those who knew this eminent man to his practical wisdom, his excellent judgment, his courage, his zeal, and especially his devotion, "never thinking of himself when Church work was to be done."
At the same time note is taken of his warm-hearted sympathetic disposition, his intense feelings, his kindly counsel, his power to win the love of those who knew him.
The Rector of Grace Church held many offices of wide signifi- cance and was a figure of importance in the national councils of the Church. Sent as a youth of twenty-two to represent Vermont in the House of Deputies in the General Convention of 1814, he was accredited to almost every later convention, making his last
1 THE LIFE OF BISHOP HENSHAW OF RHODE ISLAND by John N. Norton, A.M., p. 138, New York, 1859.
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appearance in the House of Bishops at the Convention of 1850 in Cincinnati, which he records as the first convention held west of the Alleghanies.
His greatest interest seems to have been in bringing within the hearing of the gospel those without opportunity to hear it. Quite likely his interest in "free" pews and churches sprang from this zeal. His solicitude for missions in outlying parts of the diocese, the country, and the world at large was ever keen and active. At one time two of his clergy were "missionaries to the dominions of the Sultan of Turkey."
The foundations laid by such a man were sound and sure and on them future rectors built with confidence and success.
The question of securing a new rector for Grace Church was not a simple one. On the whole the plan of combining the office of rector with that of bishop of what was still a small and struggling diocese had worked well. Both parish and diocese were far stronger than they had been in 1843. Yet there are indications that there were some who felt that the Church, at least, would progress more rapidly if the responsibility of the Rector was undivided. In view of the Convention called in September, 1852, to elect a new bishop, a special meeting of the Corporation was held. Dr. Richmond Brownell, who at that meeting returned to the Vestry, Edward Walcott, the Senior Warden, W. T. Grinnell, and Dr. S. A. Arnold were elected delegates to Convention and, if unanimous, were empowered by Corporation and Vestry to assure Convention that the bishop-elect would be elected Rector of Grace Church at a salary of $2,000. The Convention elected as bishop one of the most famous preachers of that time, Dr. Francis Lister Hawks of what is now Calvary Church, New York, and two days later he was unanimously offered the Rectorship of Grace Church.
However, when Dr. Hawks, early in November, declined the election to the episcopate, the Vestry seemed to feel that it was not wise to wait for a rector until another selection for the bishopric should be made; and a strong committee of the Vestry was chosen "to make inquiries and gather information in reference to procuring a Rector for this Church." In February, 1853, Dr. Brownell and others were appointed a committee "to proceed to Yonkers to hear the Rev. Abraham Beach Carter, Rector of St. John's Church, preach," the first of many references in the records to a committee to go afield to hear a prospective rector. After six months deliberation and after the Convention of 1853 had
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failed to elect a bishop, this committee recommended Mr. Carter as a suitable person for rector. Accordingly Corporation and Vestry called Mr. Carter at a salary fixed finally at $2,000, but evidently in vain. In April, 1854, the Vestry presented another prospective rector to the Corporation, but that body voted to postpone action until after the Convention of 1854. At this Convention the clergy elected as bishop the venerable Nathan Crocker, D.D., then for over forty-five years Rector of St. John's Church. The laity, however, declined to concur, quite likely because Dr. Crocker was over seventy years of age. In spite of the failure of that Convention to elect, perhaps in view of its adjournment to September 26th, the proposal of an independent rector of Grace Church was not formally renewed, though it was still the subject of discussion at Vestry meetings. Moreover, at this time the work of the parish was being satisfactorily, if not aggressively, carried on under the ministry of the Reverend Henry Burroughs, Jr., who seems to have had virtual charge of the church from early in 1853 until the fifth Rector took office in March, 1855. Mr. Burroughs signed the reports of 1853 and 1854 as "Acting temporarily."
The Special Diocesan Convention called to elect a bishop met in St. John's Church on September 26th. Notwithstanding a strong feeling that a fund should be raised to support a bishop independently of any rectorship, and some disposition to postpone the election until that could be accomplished, it was decided by a clear majority to proceed to the election of a bishop on the next day. Bishop Clark said that the general opinion in Boston was that Dr. Vinton would be called back as bishop to his native state. At the election, however, the clergy, with apparently little dis- agreement,1 chose the Rev. Thomas March Clark, D.D., and the laity promptly concurred in this choice.
Whatever were the sentiments of Grace Church in this matter, on the day following the election by Convention, the Vestry voted unanimously to invite Dr. Clark to the rectorship at a salary of $2,000. This election was "approved" by the Corporation on October 10, 1854, this being the first time that the Vestry had invited a rector for more than one year without the previous authorization of the Corporation. Dr. Brownell, Edward Walcott, and Dr. Arnold were chosen a committee to wait upon the bishop- elect and urge his acceptance of the call.
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