USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 2 > Part 19
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Methodist meeting-house in America to be furnished with a tower and bell, the fact exciting many searchings of heart. Bishop Asbury is said to have prophesied grave disaster as a retribution for introducing such novelties. But the tower still stands in its original form and the church, after nearly a century, remains vigorous and hopeful.
Among the laymen prominent in the earlier history of the society were the Hon. Dutce J. Pearce, Jeremiah Hazard, John Allan, John C. Braman, William R. Pitman, J. C. Powell and Benjamin Mumford. In 1827 the Sunday School was organized and in 1829 the Rev. James Porter, subsequently distinguished as a writer and preacher, became pastor.
The pastorate of the Rev. Joel Knight in 1842 was marked by a potent revival, the number of members of the church rising above three hundred. In 1843-4 the pastor was the Rev. Robert M. Hatfield, who became such a favorite and eminent preacher and who was or- dained at the time of the Annual Conference of 1844, held in the Newport Church.
In 1856, while the Rev. Dr. Upham was ministering to the society, a mission was founded which has since developed into the robust and healthy Thames Street Church, a sketch of which appears below. After a somewhat disastrous fire in 1881, the First church was thor- oughly rebuilt and adorned, it being reopened in the following year, during the pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Whedon. One of the peculiar arrangements of this parish is the leasing of the seats of the church at a uniform rate of one dollar each, thus removing the distinctions of pecuniary ability from the house of God. The present number of members is two hundred and thirty.
Centreville .- All that can be confidently asserted concerning the date of the origin of this church is that it was sometime previously to 1806. A private record describes a quarterly meeting held in Sep- tember of that year in Centreville, showing that a society had been already established. This record was made by Lovwell Spalding, whose family has continued prominent in this parish, and is carefully preserved among the papers of the church. It shows that Thomas Branch and Mr. Smith were present at the quarterly meeting as preachers, eight persons being baptized. So excited was the meet- ing held on Sunday evening, on this occasion, that the authorities sent a warning that unless a greater quiet were preserved the school- honse where it was held would have to be vacated. Warwick Circuit, on which the Centreville society was situated, was very large, extend- ing from Wickford to Plainfield, Connecticut, and cmbracing thirteen
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places. In 1824 the Rev. Moses Fifield removed to Centreville and immediately took a deep interest in the affairs of the Methodist church. In 1831, largely through his leadership, the edifice still standing was completed, the services, up to that time, having been held in a school house.
On August 5th, of that year, the society was incorporated under the rather peculiar title of the Methodist Episcopal Church and Proprie- tors' Meeting-House in Centreville, Rhode Island. In 1853 the church became a station by itself, falling out of the circuit. From 1810 to the present time there have been regular preachers at Centreville, but while it was on the circuit they came at long intervals, and for more than thirty years Mr. Fifield preached, without remuneration, much more frequently than the pastor, with great acceptability. From time to time large sums have been spent upon the improvement of the church and there has been a good degree of prosperity. The member- ship in 1900 was one hundred and twenty-six.
This completes the list of the ten churches which were formed in the early days, when the first wave of Methodism swept over New England. It was about fifteen years before another, at least one that has been preserved to the present time, was established, the initial im- petus and what may be styled the spiritual romance of the system hav- ing somewhat passed away. In the last eighty years many new socie- ties have been organized, all of them interesting in their origin and his- tory, and many of them among the largest and most important in the State, but there is space only to allude to a few of them in passing.
The Little Compton Church was the first to mark the revived activ- ity in the extension of the system. It began to have stated preaching services in 1820 and was really a branch of the First Church at New- port, the interest having been carried thence by Mr. Lemuel Sisson. He settled in Little Compton in 1816 and dwelt there with his wife and eleven children, forming a good-sized congregation in themselves, when, at long intervals during the first four years, the pastor of Newport came over and ministered to this devoted Christian house- hold, although always joined by enthusiastic friends and neighbors. Their first regular minister was the Rev. Daniel Dorchester, who was stationed at Portsmouth. The earliest quarterly meeting was held in September, 1821. Such has been the growth of the society that three church edifices have been built for it, the last one at a large cost for such a rural point, in 1872. In 1900 there were seventy-three members. The Little Compton Church enjoys the distinction of being the only one in Rhode Island belonging to the New Bedford District.
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The First Church at Pawtucket had its beginning in a elass formed in 1822, its first preaeher being the Rev. Onesiphorus Robbins, who took eharge in 1827.
The distinguished Robert M. Hatfield was stationed at Pawtucket in 1841-2 and a second ehureh edifiee was built under his pastorate, the first one having been ereeted in 1830.
The third and present expensive building was raised in 1894, when the Rev. P. M. Vinton was pastor. In 1886 there were two hundred and fifty-six members, in 1900 three hundred and eleven.
The Hope Street Church (first known as the Power Street), was organized in Providenee in 1834, being the second Methodist society in the eity. Daniel Field, Hezekiah Anthony, Levi Webster and the four Captains Hall were among the first promoters of a Methodist church on the east side. In 1874 the new church was dedieated on Hope street, just forty years from the dedieation of the first one at the corner of South Main and Power streets. This society has been sub- jeet to unusual fluetuations of prosperity, sometimes being eneour- aged and sometimes being greatly depressed. In 1900 it had one hundred and forty-five members, with a fine Sunday School of two hundred and eight teachers and seholars.
The Woonsocket Church began to have regular preachers in 1834, but was probably supplied with serviees somewhat previously to that time from a Massachusetts eireuit. The edifice was built in 1836-7. The membership in 1900 was one hundred and sixty-three, the Sunday School embraeing two hundred and twenty-eight members.
Grace Church, Westerly, lies in the line of Jesse Lee's famous first visit to Rhode Island in 1789 and may have been eonneeted with his first sermon at Charlestown, near by, in some dim, traditional way. But its known existenee dates from its organization in 1847. For many years its place of meeting was the old Union meeting-house and different halls, the society being very feeble, but in 1873 a new build- ing of its own began to be used, it not being completed until 1881. Sinee that time the ehureh has beeome very prosperous, with a large congregation and, in 1900, two hundred and thirty-five members. Westerly, with three other small ehurehes in the northwestern part of the State, belongs to Norwich Distriet.
The Mathewson Street Church was the third society to be formed in Providenee, in 1848, the first membership being made up mainly from persons transferred from the other two parishes. The serviees began in Hoppin Hall, on Westminster street, the Rev. Robert Allyn, from East Greenwich Seminary, being the first preacher. From the
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beginning, the new enterprise was favored in a marked degree. On May 28, 1851, a handsome church edifice was dedicated for the parish on Mathewson street, the first pastor in the new building being the ever welcome Robert M. Hatfield, multitudes attending his ministra- tions. At least four of the later Methodist churches in Providence have been indebted for their origin or effective nursing care to the generosity and missionary spirit of this noble organization. Under the pastorate of Dr. Whedon, in 1873, the church celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. In 1897 the first edifice was replaced by a costly and elegant new stone building, erected upon the institutional plan and embracing parlors, gymnasium, reception rooms and vestry, as well as a spacious and imposing auditorium. The front forms a new departure in ecclesiastical architecture, resembling a chaste and tasteful Renaissance business building, rather than the conventional form of a church. It is pleasant to see signs that the inner house, as well as the outer tabernacle of this church, is being richly renewed. The membership in 1900 was three hundred and eighty-eight.
The Thames Street Church, Newport, began, as has been noted above, with efforts of the First Church in the southern part of the city. In 1854 services were held in an old school-house and a vacant store. In 1855 a minister was sent to labor in the region and in the following year a new church was organized by twenty-seven members of the old parish. In 1865 a building was erected and dedicated. The society has enjoyed the ministrations of several of the ablest Methodist clergy- inen in the Conference and has prospered accordingly. In 1900 it had one hundred and eighty-three members.
Even this very partial list of the Methodist churches of Rhode Island would be quite incomplete without a reference to Trinity Union Church, Providence. The first movement towards the forma- tion of this parish was made in January, 1859, the services being con- tinued for three months, with ever increasing interest, under the charge of the able Rev. Dr. Mckeown. At the end of that time a church was organized with the Rev. William McDonald as the first pastor. In May, 1865, a new church edifice was dedicated in a com- manding location on Trinity Square, the number of members quickly becoming the largest in the State. In 1898 it was found expedient, as has been already noted, for the old Chestnut Street Church to remove from its long established site and become consolidated with this parish, under the title of the Trinity Union Church, there being thus opened before the combined organization a prospect of enlarged prosperity and usefulness to which it would be difficult to assign any
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limits. With the united zeal of the two bodies and the massing of their ample resources, such a work for God can be accomplished as has seldom fallen to the lot of a society in Providence. In 1900, after a revision of the list of members, the number was seven hundred and seventy.
Even with this consolidation the Methodist churches in the city numbered eleven at the close of the nineteenth century, in the place of the single one of the first third of the century, and two thousand six hundrd and forty-seven members, where there were only about thirty in the early days, twelve communicants only being present at the first celebration of the Lord's Supper in Providence by a Metho- dist minister, the Rev. John Finnegan, August 22, 1801.
The State of Rhode Island, at the close of the nineteenth century, contains forty-one Methodist churches, with five thousand eight hun- dred and ninety-six members.
The Characteristics of the Methodists .- Methodism in this State, as well as elsewhere, has always represented, in an emphatic manner, the joyous and wakeful elements of the Christian religion. It might be said to have sung itself into the hearts of great multitudes of peo- ple. It has made the largest use of any body of the Revival System and has been most successful where the revivals have been most con- tinuous, the alleged evil of the plan consisting, of course, not in the revival but in the reaction.
In many forms of good works the Methodist church has been pre- eminent. Its care for the support of its superannuated and infirm clergy is a model for other denominations, not always imitated. In consistency with its wide-awake spirit, it has been most active in re- spect to church extension, the strong upholding the weak and the old parishes gladly conceding the claims upon them of the young and struggling stations.
Flourishing missions are maintained among the Swedes in Provi- dence, Newport and Pontiac. An interesting form of work has been lately entered upon in Providence under the name of the Deaconess Home. The Methodists pay particular attention, also, to the promo- tion of the cause of Temperance.
The faithful women of the church are, as a rule, much more promi- nent in their organizations than in most Christian bodies, it not being uncommon for them to assume the superintendency of Sunday schools and the presidency of mixed societies. There is, also, in this connec- tion, a commendable zeal for home and foreign missions. One of the hopeful signs of the times, promising great things for the future of
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the Church, is the general introduction of branches of the Epworth League, with their large membership made up of the brightest and most devoted young men and women of the Church. Nor is the social element in abeyance, the Providence Methodist Social Union being effective in bringing together many of the members of the Denomina- tion around the festive board three or four times a year. The relig- ious instructor at the State Institutions, at Cranston, is a Methodist, the Rev. J. H. Nutting.
Since 1841 the East Greenwich Academy (founded in 1802 as the Kent Academy) has been the property of the Methodists and has done an excellent work in educating both sexes, at rates within the reach of all. Its alumni list contains many honored names of those prominent in church and state.
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
The Rev. Dr. Mather, of Boston, speaking of Rhode Island nearly two hundred years ago, in the charitable way so characteristic of the Puritans of "the Bay", declared: "It has been a Colluvics of Antinomians, Familists, Anabaptists, Antisabbatarians, Arminians, Socinians, Quakers, Ranters, everything in the world but Roman Catholics and true Christians". How astonished would the good doctor have been to be permitted to look forward to the present time and see Roman Catholics, of whom there were none in his day, in Rhode Island, or, indeed, for a century later, now numbering from one hun- dred thousand to two hundred thousand in the State and amounting to at least double the number of any other Christian body.
The Beginning of the Church .- The beginning of the Roman Cath- olic Church in Rhode Island centers around the attractive and pic- turesque figure of Bishop Cheverus. He was a French ecclesiastic, who, in 1795, at the age of twenty-seven, joined the Roman Catholic Mission in Boston, Massachusetts, and was in 1808 appointed its first bishop. After Bishop Cheverus had lived in that city for nearly thirty years, King Louis XVIII recalled him to France and named him in 1823 to the Bishopric of Montauban. In 1826 he became the archbishop of Bordeaux and a peer of France. In 1836, the year of his death, Cheverus was elevated to the Cardinalate.
It was this prelate, destined to become so distinguished, who was the first, so far as is known, to minister to Roman Catholic residents of Rhode Island. There were a few French families of that faith per- manently fixed in Bristol in the early part of the nineteenth century.
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To them Bishop Cheverus came, first in 1811, in company with the Rev. Dr. Matignon, a French missionary also living in Boston, to celebrate mass for them and baptize their children, the visit being once or more repeated.
It was on the occasion of one of these missionary journeys to Bristol that Bishop Griswold, at that time rector of St. Michael's Episcopal Church in the town, cordially invited the Bishop of Boston to preach to his congregation in the parish church, on a Sunday afternoon, an invitation which the latter as cordially accepted.
Notice having been duly given, a large number assembled and were exceedingly edified and gratified by the excellent gospel sermon of the French prelate, as he stood in the pulpit, not commanding in stature but highly winning and dignified in mien. Indeed Bishop Cheverus and Bishop Griswold were men, in many respects, of a like sweet and humble spirit, both abounding in charitable words and works.
No doubt a peculiarly beneficent influence was exerted in the town by ministrations conceived and carried out in such devoutness and simplicity of heart.
At the same period, but a couple of years later than the first visit of these faithful missionaries in Bristol, the two, in 1813, came also to Providence on a like service.
When, in that same year, the Rev. Dr. Benedict wrote his History of the Baptists and enumerated the eighty-five to ninety religious societies then existing in Rhode Island, the name of the Roman Catholics did not appear among them. What there were of the adherents of this church in the State were still too inconspicuous and too destitute of any organization to attract the attention of the histo- rian. But yet at almost that very hour the apostolic Bishop of Boston was offering the Bread of Life, after the traditional forms of his ancient church, to a little colony of Roman Catholics in the town of Roger Williams.
From 1813 onward for a decade, likewise, these two pastors contin- ned to visit at intervals their "few sheep in the wilderness", in Provi- dence. Not in some stately edifice, like the present SS. Peter and Paul, on Cathedral Square, were these primary services solem- nized. It was only in an old school house of wood, in Sheldon street, that they began. But even that plain and bare refuge was somehow, presently, denied the bishop, or voluntarily surrendered by him, for subsequently for years we find him celebrating mass only in private houses, in an old police station, or at length in the quaint "Tintop Meeting-House", at the corner of Richmond and Pine streets.
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The First Pastor of Rhode Island .- In 1820 there had been gained so little advance in numbers that there were said to be, all told, only seven Roman Catholics in Providence. By 1827, however, there had occurred such an improvement, numerically and in respect to courage, that Bishop Fenwick was petitioned to send a priest to minister stead- ily in Providence and other towns of Rhode Island, the Rev. Robert D. Woodley, a native of Virginia, being accordingly appointed first pastor of Rhode Island and Connecticut, to officiate in the former State at Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket and Newport. What a contrast is this outlook with the aspect of the same territory after less than three-fourths of a century has passed, when, in place of the single lonely missionary for six thousand square miles, there are at least one hundred priests at work in Rhode Island alone.
The First Public Service .- It was in April, 1828, that Bishop Fen- wick held the first public Roman Catholic service in Providence, by celebrating mass in Mechanic's Hall, preaching and confirming five candidates. This occasion may, therefore, be regarded as the formal presentation of the Church to the inhabitants of Providence, about fifteen years subsequent to the earliest services.
The Beginning of the Newport Church .- To Newport must be ac- corded the third place, in order, where the services of the Roman Catholic Church were held.
In 1825 were begun by the United States government the works of Fort Adams, leading to an extensive immigration of laborers who found employment and became residents there. Many of these being attached to the Roman Catholic Church, a priest, soon after the above date, occasionally visited the town to look after their spiritual inter- ests. The Rev. Mr. Woodley, mentioned above, was the first to organ- ize a regular congregation of the church in Newport.
In 1828 he purchased, for the accommodation of his people, a school- house, where divine service was maintained for several years, this being said to be the first Roman Catholic church edifice in Rhode Island. In 1833 a subscription for the erection of a spacious and well-finished building was opened by the pastor of that date, the Rev. John Corry. By 1836 the new edifice was completed at an expense of about $4,000, the whole sum being contributed by the faithful members at Fort Adams. On the 24th of August, in the succeeding year, the church. was dedicated under the title of St. Joseph's, by tlic Rt. Rev. Bishop Fenwick of Boston, the Rev. Mr. Corry, under whose superintendence it had been built, resigning his charge of the mission on the following day. Mr. Corry was succeeded by the Rev. Constantine Lee.
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In June, 1849, the Roman Catholic population of Newport then numbering about five hundred, the corner-stone of a costly stone church was laid on Spring street, under the name of St. Mary's, the structure proving one of the most beautiful and striking features of the city and being consecrated in 1853.
To complete what is to be said about the Church in Newport, it should be noted that, in 1885, the parish of St. Joseph purchased the old Zion Episcopal church, built in 1834 on the State House Parade, and fitted it up for their worship.
The Pawtucket Church .- The fourth point in the State at which Roman Catholicservices wereinstituted appears to have been Pawtucket. After the introduction of cotton manufactures by Samuel Slater and the Wilkinsons a foreign population began naturally to be drawn to that village. David Wilkinson, a very enlightened and liberal-minded man and one of the chief promoters of St. Paul's, the first Episcopal Church in Pawtucket, recognizing the desirability of a place of wor- ship for the operatives of the Roman Catholic faith, presented them a suitable lot for a church. This was built upon in 1828 and the edifice was called St. Mary's, the people, for whom it was intended, number- ing from one hundred and fifty to two hundred. The first mass in Pawtucket was celebrated by the Rev. Mr. Woodley.
The Church of SS. Peter and Paul, Providence .- In the town of Providence, the Roman Catholic population having increased to near three hundred, the resident priest, the Rev. Mr. Corry, who succeeded Mr. Woodley in 1830, soon after that date determined to build a church. The site which he purchased in 1832, under considerable difficulties, was a part of the present cathedral land and extended from High street to Pond street. The price paid for this lot, fifteen hundred dollars, contrasts somewhat strangely with the cost of land purchased only some fifteen years later for the addition of two tran- septs, twenty-nine thousand dollars.
About 1835, when the railways between Boston, Providence and Stonington were constructed, the Roman Catholic population was soon raised to one thousand by the influx of the army of industry. This was the time selected for the beginning of the building of the Church of SS. Peter and Paul, on the land which had been waiting for three years to be occupied, the structure being made somewhat available for use at the end of 1837. It was not, however, until 1838 that it was fully ready for consecration, on November 4th. Although the church was built of only rough slate stonc, covered with cement, it must have seemed beautiful and welcome after the quarter century
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KJWHYIN. CATHOLIC ROOTS
SS. PETER AND PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, PROVIDENCE.
ERECTED IN 1835. THE LAST SERVICE WAS HELD IN THIS EDIFICE SUNDAY, MAY 5, 1878. SOON AFTER THIS, IT WAS DEMOLISHED TO MAKE ROOM FOR THE PRESENT CATHEDRAL.
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of waiting since the first visit of Bishop Cheverus. When, a few weeks later, the Christmas services were heralded by the Spanish bell, pre- sented by Philip Allen & Son, it must have been felt that little was left to be desired. How imperatively the church was needed was at- tested by the fact that during the first ten years there were solemnized in it five hundred and ninety-four marriages, while twenty-two hun- dred and fifty-nine baptisms were administered there.
St. Patrick's Church, Providence .- The second church in Provi- dence was built on State street, Smith's Hill, and dedicated July 3, 1842, by the name of St. Patrick's. It is now the oldest Roman Catholic house of worship in the city and has generally been attended by the wealthiest congregation of that faith. The first pastor was the Rev. William Wiley. By 1886 the constituents of St. Patrick's Parish numbered about four thousand.
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