USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 2 > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68
In 1833 the Board of Missions had the courage to appoint twenty additional missionaries in the domestic field and two to Africa. In 1835 two cardinal forward steps were taken-the missionary field was declared to be the World and nothing short of it and every baptized member of the Church was pronounced, by virtue of his baptism, a member also of the General Missionary Society of the Church. In that year, too, was sent forth the first missionary bishop, the pure, loving and holy Jackson Kemper, a host in himself. This was plainly the era, when the Church, like a young giant, was becoming aware of itself as "a strong man armed".
It was at about this same period that the Diocese of Rhode Island likewise, as a small part of the whole body, entered upon its own period of rapid expansion. In the one hundred and seven years after the foundation of King's Church, Providence, from 1722 to 1829, only one parish which has survived was, as we have seen, established in the Diocese. Had no greater rate of progress been subsequently main- tained, it would have taken five thousand years to reach the present number of churches.
But between 1829 and 1839, inclusive, there intervened a period of extraordinary growth, such as the Rhode Island Episcopal Church never saw before and has never seen since, as far at least as the number of new organizations is concerned, averaging three in each two years, not quite all, however, proving permanent. But no less than a dozen parishes, still existing, were then admitted to the Convention, while from 1843 to the close of the nineteenth century the number of churches, chapels and mission stations has increased at the rate of one in each year.
Grace Church, Providenee .- In 1829 there was felt the need of a church on the west side of the river in Providence, many members of St. John's living too far away to find attendance there convenient. In Dr. Crocker's parochial report of that year, he remarks, not without a trace of deep regret at the breaking of ties of more than a score of
172
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
years, "We should do violence to our feelings and incur the charge of indifference to measures which are supposed to promise efficient aid to the cause of piety and Episcopacy, were we not to say that sundry in- dividuals of this church have organized an Episcopal society on the west side of the river. Their Delegates are now here and claim to be admitted as its legal representatives in this Convention. We trust that it will be your pleasure to recognize and honor their claim". A little later in the session, upon a promise of conformity to the Con- stitution and Canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Rhode Island and to those of the Eastern Diocese and of the Church in the United States, Grace Church was received into union with the Con- vention.
The first rector of the parish was the Rev. Samuel Fuller, jr., and the laymen who appeared as its first delegates in the Convention of 1830 were George S. Wardwell, Richmond Brownell, Benjamin F. Hallett and Philip S. Gardner. The number of communicants was reported as about thirty.
Thus was launched upon its distinguished and beneficent career the organization which was destined to become the largest parish in the Diocese, numbering at present more than one thousand communicants and recording among its eminent and useful rectors two of the bishops of Rhode Island. Mr. Fuller remained in Providence only a single year. The true founder of the prosperity, both spiritual and temp- oral, of Grace Church was the Rev. John A. Clark, who assumed the rectorship near the close of 1832. Finding, upon his arrival, forty-two communicants in the parish, he was able at his retirement after a little more than two years and a half to leave two hundred and thirty-six, thirty-eight having removed or died in the mean time. Almost imme- diately upon his assumption of the pastorate a deep and increasing seriousness spread over the congregation, due, under God, to his remarkable zeal and spirituality, more than a hundred individuals be- ing added to the Redeemer's Fold between Christmas and the begin- ning of the following June.
The only drawback to the rapid advance of the parish in numbers was the impossibility of receiving into the church edifice, but then just ready for occupancy, nearly all who desired to attend the services.
During the following year also the same happy state of things con- tinued undiminished and a deep sense of the predominance of religious interests filled many hearts. Indeed a most exceptional work of grace, without any unhealthful excitement, lasted throughout Mr. Clark's brief pastorate, such as has never probably been paralleled in
.
İ
173
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
the history of the Episcopal Church in Providence. Six young men had their attention directed towards the Christian ministry through his devoted labors. A Bible Class of more than two hundred members was maintained. The Sunday School was raised from about fifty teachers and scholars to two hundred and forty-three, with an addi- tional Colored School of a hundred and nineteen members. The men- tion of the ministry of the Rev. John A. Clark in Grace Church always awoke an enthusiastic response on the part of the older generation of its attendants, which has lately passed away.
Mr. Clark was followed in the rectorship of Grace Church by the Rev. Alexander H. Vinton, then only in deacon's orders, but after- wards well-known and highly honored throughout the Church. Find- ing the parish somewhat discouraged by the loss of their late beloved pastor and by a somewhat long period of waiting for a successor, Mr. Vinton succeeded, by means of his ardent piety and moving eloquence, in consolidating and establishing the work previously done and in eventually raising it to a still higher level. He remained a half dozen years and was followed, after an interval, in 1843, by Bishop Henshaw, who continued in the rectorship of Grace Church until his death in 1852. The most signal event of his administration, in addition to marked spiritual succeess, was the erection, as a result of the rector's devoted assiduity in the collection of means, of the present noble stone church. At the close of Bishop Henshaw's pastorate the number of communicants, in the parish, had been increased to three hundred and thirty.
Bishop Clark filled the same arduous office of rector of Grace Church from his consecration, in 1854, until 1866 or 1867, when the growing duties of the Episcopate compelled him to forego the care of a parish, the change having been made possible by the raising of a fund of about forty thousand dollars towards the bishop's support. In his last paro- chial report the number of communicants noted was four hundred and eighty. William T. Grinell and Edward Walcott were among the most prominent laymen in Grace Church at this period.
St. Mark's Church, Warren .- In 1829, a little after the establish- ment of Grace Church, Providence, there was founded another parish which has gained an honorable record, St. Mark's Church, Warren. The enterprise owed its origin to the Rev. John Bristed, at that time assisting Bishop Griswold, rector of the adjacent parish, St. Michael's, Bristol. In 1828 Mr. Bristed began to hold services in Cole's Hall, Warren, and by his energetic efforts soon built up a church, an edifice being erected in the following year. The first rector was the Rev.
174
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
George W. Hathaway and at the time of the earliest parochial report, in 1831, the communicants numbered twelve. At the close of Mr. Hathaway's faithful service in 1851 there were one hundred and forty communicants registered in the parish.
In the Convention of 1832 three new parishes werc admitted, St. Paul's Church, South Kingstown; Trinity Church, Pawtuxet; and St. James's Church, Smithfield.
St. James's Church, Woonsocket .- Only the last of these three, under the above title, has survived to the present day. The first rector, the Rev. Joseph M. Brown, was succeeded in 1835 by the Rev. Henry Waterman, whose name is held in conspic- uous honor in the Diocese of Rhode Island and whose work in Woonsocket, until his departure in 1841, availed, with that of succeeding faithful rectors, to build up the vigorous parish now exist- ing there. The church was built in 1833 and has since been exten- sively remodeled. The growth of the parish is indicated by the fact that at the time of the earliest report in 1833 there were about twenty communicants, while in 1900 there were five hundred.
St. Luke's Church, East Greenwich .- One of the three parishes founded in 1833 was St. Luke's Church, East Greenwich. As early as 1823 church services had been begun by the Rev. Charles H. Alden, deacon, who was then the principal of an academy in the town. No permanent organization, however, resulted at the time, and the ser- vices appear to have been suspended after the retirement of Mr. Alden in 1825. It was through the missionary labors of the Rev. Sylvester Nash that a church was organized in the year above mentioned and an edifice erected in 1834. Mr. Nash continued rector until 1840, when he was succeeded by the Rev. William H. Moore. In December, 1841, there entered upon the rectorship of St. Luke's the Rev. Silas A. Crane, who by reason of his long continuance in the office and of his holy and uplifting influence upon the parish seems more closely identified with it than any other. Dr. Crane continued going in and out among the people, in all gentleness and humility, for nearly thirty-one years until his death in the summer of 1872. Dr. Charles Eldredge, Joseph J. Tillinghast, Daniel Green and Wanton Casey were among the laymen identified with St. Luke's in its earlier history. In 1875, during the rectorship of Dr. Crane's successor, the Rev. George P. Allen, the first church of wood was replaced by a handsome and spacious one of stone. Dr. James H. Eldredge was the leading layman in St. Luke's at this time.
Christ Church, Lonsdale .- Another of these three parishes, Christ
175
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
Church, Lonsdale, is among the most important in the Diocese. The inception of the movement there was due to the Rev. Mr. Taft, rector of St. Paul's Church, Pawtucket, who officiated at Lonsdale once every Sunday for several months during 1833. The Rev. Mr. Nash, also, who was, later, rector at East Greenwich, did missionary work there for about two months. But it was the Rev. James W. Cooke, who, coming to the village in the latter part of 1833, really founded the parish. A year before the admission of Christ Church into the Convention of Rhode Island the people of Lonsdale were almost wholly unacquainted with the services of the Church, and there was not to be found in the whole neighborhood a single communicant. In December, 1833, a meeting of the inhabitants of the village was held, at which the parish was organized. Mr. Cooke remained only two years in charge of the church, but the period was long enough for hin to impress upon the people his own earnest Christian spirit and to gather fifty communicants. During his rectorship a neat and spacious wooden church was built and consecrated, which gave place, some years since, to a tasteful one of stone.
Christ Church, Westerly .- Of the two parishes established in 1834, Christ Church, Westerly, is of marked prominence. In that year the Rev. Erastus De Wolf, as a missionary of the Rhode Island Convoca- tion, officiated in that village for about seven months. At the request of the Convocation the Rev. James Pratt visited Westerly, in Septem- ber of the above year, and held services, a church being organized under his auspices in the ensuing November. In 1835 a commodious edifice was erected.
One of the succeeding rectors, from 1844 to 1858, was the excellent and polished Rev. Thomas H. Vail. afterwards the first Bishop of Kansas. Within the last few years a beautiful stone church has been built in the parish. In 1900 the number of communicants was three hundred.
St. Stephen's Church, Providence .- Passing several other parishes organized at this period we note the formation of the very important St. Stephen's, Providence, in 1839. As early as 1837 the zealous young rector of Grace Church, the Rev. Alexander H. Vinton, established a Sunday School in the southern part of the city, on the east side of the river. It numbered as many as eighty scholars and its teachers were communicants of Grace Church. This school proved after a year or two to be the fruitful germ of a new parish, which was admitted to the Convention under the name given above, with the Rev. Francis Vinton, a brother of the rector of Grace Church, as its first rector. The
176
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
number of communicants was then from fifteen to twenty, most of them having been transferred from the parent church. From this small beginning has grown up the large and highly honored parish, now including more than nine hundred communicants and abundant in good works. Mr. Vinton remained but a short time, being followed by temporary pastors, the first to devote himself heart and soul to the building up of the parish sufficiently long to accomplish any consid- erable amount of good being the Rev. Henry Waterman, of blessed memory. Mr. Waterman entered upon his duties as rector, November 7, 1841, and was on the Sunday following instituted into his office by Bishop Griswold. A few months previously a neat church had been consecrated for the use of the parish, at the corner of Benefit and Transit streets. Dr. Waterman remained rector of St. Stephen's until 1874, with the exception of five years, from 1846 to 1851, when he had charge of a church in Andover, Massachusetts. He secured an unusually large place in the affection and estecm of his parishioners in Providence and ministered in a high degree to their spiritual advance- ment. It was during his rectorship, in 1862, that there was conse- crated the elegant and spacious stone edifice, on George street, which nearly forty years of use has so much endeared to the congregation.
All Saints Memorial Church, Providence .- A Providence parish which has grown to be a very important and prominent one was begun in 1847 as St. Andrew's, in the southern part of the city, on the west side, and is now known as All Saints Memorial. For several years this parish did not flourish in its original position, but after the assumption of the rectorship by the Rev. Daniel Henshaw and the removal of the church edifice to Friendship street, where it was enlarged and improved, it soon entered upon an encouraging and healthful period of growth. It was into this church that the first boy choir in Providence was introduced in 1858, the arrangement having continued, with ever increasing acceptableness, to the present day. About 1870, the old church proving too small for the enlarging congre- gation, it was decided to erect a large and costly Gothic structure of freestone, at the corner of High and Stewart streets, in memory of the late Bishop Henshaw. The new church was accordingly opened for worship at Easter, 1872, and consecrated in 1875, it being particularly notable for the beautiful memorial gifts it contains. After many years of active service Dr. Henshaw has retired and been made rector emeritus.
The Church of the Messiah, Providence .- Another interesting par- ish in Providence is the Church of the Messiah, which was founded in
-
177
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
1856, through the self-sacrificing labors of the Rev. Benjamin B. Bab- bitt, and has been later brought into great prominence through the remarkable work among the poor and afflicted of the much lamented Rev. Thomas H. Cocroft, who passed away in the midst of his toils and apparently as a result of them in 1897. It was during the rectorship of Mr. Cocroft that a stone church of tasteful design was erected for the use of the parish, as a memorial of Arthur Amory Gammell.
Among the fast increasing number of parishes founded in Rhode Island during the last forty-two years, all interesting and useful, there is space for a mention of only one more, the Church of the Redeemer, N. Main Street, Providence, organized in 1859, distinguished as the first free Episcopal church in the city. For many years this parish was identified with the name of its first rector, the gentle and devoted Rev. Charles H. Wheeler, a man much beloved. It is now a vigorous and active church with three hundred and fifty communicants.
The later Growth of the Four Colonial Churches .- During the period of expansion of the last seventy years the four ancient colonial churches, also, have shared in the general prosperity. Trinity Church, Newport, which at the beginning of the period was, as we have noted, enjoying the ministerial services of the devoted servant of God, the Rev. Salmon Wheaton, has since had nine rectors, of whom the first was the Rev. Francis Vinton, D. D., the fourth the Rev. Alexander Mercer, D. D., the seventh the Rev. Isaac P. White, D. D., and the eighth the Rev. George J. Magill, D. D. A building called Kay Chapel has been erected for week day services and the use of the Sunday School, as well as a convenient parish-house adjoining. At the begin- ning of the period, in 1829, there were one hundred and twenty-three communicants. In 1900 there were four hundred and ninety.
St. Paul's, Wickford, continued to use the old Narragansett church building until 1847, when a plain but neat and comfortable church was erected on the Main street of the village, through the efforts of the rector at that time, the Rev. John H. Rouse. The new church was enlarged and received the addition of a spire about twenty-five years later. The old church edifice is kept in good repair, as a time lionored relic, and is regularly opened for public services in the latter part of each summer. In 1829 St. Paul's had forty-three communicants, in 1900 one hundred and ninety-eight.
In the parish of St. Michael's, Bristol, during the rectorship of the Rev. John Bristed, in 1834, a handsome Gothic church of wood was erected. During the same pastorate there was a season of unusual spiritual interest with an addition of more than one hundred com-
12
178
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
municants to the church as a result. In 1858 the church was burned, and during the following year the present substantial structure of brown stone was erected. It is a most honorable fact in the history of St. Michael's that it has contributed three bishops to the Church, and a number of clergymen too large to enumerate. At one time, in 1880, there were said to be twelve living ministers connected with the parish and there are, probably, not less at the present time. In 1829 St. Michael's had one hundred and sixty-two communicants, and in 1900 four hundred and thirty.
St. John's Parish, Providence, the fourth of the colonial churches, passed the earlier portion of the period we are considering under the faithful and fruitful pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Crocker, already allud- ed to as its rector for more than twenty years previous to 1829. Dr. Crocker survived until 1865, when he died on October 19th at the age of eighty-five, having been rector of the parish for over fifty-eight years and being the senior presbyter in the United States. The whole term of his service with the parish was sixty years, inasmuch as before his rectorship he had ministered in it temporarily in parts of 1802, 1803 and 1804. He was succeeded by the Rev. Richard B. Duane, D. D., a man of consecrated and delightful spirit, during whose rector- ship the church edifice was much enlarged and the rectory built. The Rev. C. A. L. Richards, D. D., has just closed a long and useful pastor- ate at St. John's and been elected its rector emeritus. During the last few years of his rectorship a spacious and handsome parish house has been erected to accommodate the growing activities of the church and extensive improvements have been made in the sacred edifice itself. In 1829 the communicants of St. John's Church numbered one hun- dred and sixty, and in 1900 four hundred.
The General History of the Diocese from 1829 to 1900 .- The general history of the Diocese at this period shows us Bishop Griswold, passing the thirteen closing years of his life, from 1830 to 1843, at Salem, Massachusetts, and in Boston, but continuing as faithful in his Epis- copal ministrations in Rhode Island as during his residence within it. When he died in the latter year, in the place of the four parishes which first greeted him as bishop, there were twenty-one, of which four have become extinct. Where there were not over two hundred com- municants at the time of his consecration, there had come to be about twenty-one hundred and twenty-five. The whole Church throughout the United States mourned Bishop Griswold's death and not least of all the small Diocese where he passed the first nineteen years of his life as a chief pastor of the flock.
179
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.
After the decease of the Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, it was felt that the time had come when Rhode Island should enjoy the exclusive services of a bishop. A Special Convention was accordingly called to meet at St. Stephen's Church, Providence, on April 6, 1843, for the election of such an officer. It consisted of eighty members, of whom twenty-one were clergymen-nearly twelvefold as many as took part in the first Convention, a half century before. The ahnost unani- mous choice fell upon the Rev. John Prentiss Kewley Henshaw, D. D., rector of St. Peter's Church, Baltimore, who was accordingly conse- crated during the ensuing August. Bishop Henshaw served the Diocese with eminent ability, energy and devotion until his death in 1852. His brief Episcopate was a period of enthusiastic home missionary interest and activity, many new points, especially in the manufacturing dis- tricts of the State, being occupied, at least tentatively ; not less than six, which grew into parishes, surviving to the present day, as perma- nent stations of the church. Bishop Henshaw has left upon the Dio- cese the impression of a man in earnest.
The present venerable bishop of Rhode Island, the Rt. Rev. Thomas March Clark, D. D., was elected to that office at a Special Convention, on September 27, 1854, ninety-five members, of whom twenty-four were clergymen, being present. During Bishop Clark's Episcopate the number of parishes in the Diocese has become twice and a fourth as large as at the beginning, and besides nearly twenty new chapels and mission stations exist as a fruit of his labors. In the same time the number of communicants has quintupled. It has been a period of solid growth, not only in numbers but in public estimation, until the Episcopal Church in Rhode Island in its influence and dignity is inferior to no other religious body, in marked contrast to its lament- able condition at the close of the Revolutionary War. Another fca- ture of the present happy administration has been the marked decline in party spirit and the attainment of a high degree of charity and tranquillity.
On the 6th of December, 1894, there was held, amidst the most impressive surroundings, the Fortieth Anniversary of the consecra- tion of Bishop Clark. The only elements marring the pleasure of the occasion were the great feebleness of the aged Diocesan, who was, however, able to be present, and the reflection that of all the twenty. four clergy who participated in the election two score years before, only one, the Rev. Dr. Henshaw, remained connected with the Diocese, almost all of them having passed from the earth, notably Dr. Crocker, Dr. Taft, Dr. Crane, Dr. Vail and Dr. Waterman. One of the aus-
180
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
picious enterprises of this Episcopate, almost wholly due to the energy and self-sacrifice of the bishop himself, has been the raising of an Episcopal fund of one hundred and seven thousand dollars, suffi- ciently large to make sure that the head of the Diocese will always be supported without serving a parish as its rector. Another notable incident has been the presentation to the Diocese, by Mrs. Henry G. Russell, of the noble estate on Brown street between Power and Charles Field streets, Providence, to be forever the residence of the Bishop of Rhode Island, with a large fund for its maintenance.
In 1897 Bishop Clark, by reason of the infirmities of age, was obliged to ask for the election of a bishop coadjutor, and accordingly at a Special Convention, held at the Church of the Redeemer, in Provi- dence, on October 19th of that year, the Rev. William Neilson Mc- Vickar, D. D., was chosen for that office.
The Condition of the Episcopal Church at the Opening of the Twentieth Century .- At the opening of the twentieth century the Episcopal Church in Rhode Island embraces fifty-three parishes, four- teen other churches and chapels, in which services are held during a portion or the whole of the year, and six mission stations. There are two bishops and sixty-eight other clergy. During the last conven- tional year one thousand and sixteen persons were baptized and six hundred and seventy-one confirmed. The marriage service has been used four hundred and fifty-three times, and nine hundred and seven- ty-one persons have been buried by the clergy of the Church. There are twelve thousand three hundred and seventy-two communicants and nine thousand eight hundred and eighty-one teachers and scholars in the Sunday Schools. During the year there was contributed for all purposes the sum of $247,748.32, of which the sum of $193,381.46 was for parish purposes.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.