USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > Beloit > Past made present : the first fifty years of the First Presbyterian Church and congregation of Beloit, Wisconsin together with a history of Presbyterianism in our state up to the year 1900 > Part 22
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When Mr. Peet resigned from the First Church, June 1, 1841, the Rev. Cyrus L. Watson, of Rockford, Illinois, became immediately the temporary supply. He was a preacher of no mean ability, but of highly nervous tem- perament. While his congregation occupied Rogers' block, the tinkle of the cow-bells in the adjoining fields was a vastly disturbing influence to him of a Sunday morning, and on one occasion extorted an impatient ejac- ulatory prayer for relief, from his lips, in the midst of his sermon. t
During the summer of 1841, the construction of a church building on the new site began. Although Mr. Peet had retired in June of that year, we cannot doubt that his energy and ability as a solicitor secured a portion of the necessary funds. Money and material came, however, with great difficulty in those scant times. Four hundred dollars and his personal labor with the hammer were contributed by Mr. Finch, eight thousand brick by James H. Rogers, forty thousand brick by a non-member, George Reed} William Payne, an Englishman of notorious profanity, but with a kindly heart under a rough exterior, learning that the work must stop from ina- bility to pay for the plastering, challenged Mr. Finch, that if the latter would furnish the lath, the speaker would put them on and plaster the basement free of charge. It was so done. The contractor, although having no connection or sympathy with the Society, gave notice that he would complete his contract in any event, trusting to the future for his pay. The frame of the entire building was enclosed and the basement completed in the autumn of 1841. The structure was painted white-a circumstance which gave the church its frequent, endearing name. The basement had but one finished room, bare, unadorned, with movable benches .?
Services began immediately to be held in this bare room and were con- tinued uninterruptedly until the more ambitious accomodations on the floor
*In October, 1856, he began serving the First Church at Beaver Dam, Wis.
+Authority of Mrs. William P. Lynde.
ĮGeorge Reed, a brother of Mrs. Alexander Mitchell, perished in the Newhall House fire, January 10, 1883. Their brother, Harrison Reed, mentioned in this sketch, now lives in Jacksonville, Fla.
¿Authority of Silas Chapman, who taught in this basement, on week days, in 1842.
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above were completed. Mr. Watson tided his flock over the period of removal from Rogers' Block to the new basement, and remained un- til June, 1842 .*
From this date until May 1, 1843, the church was with- out a pastor, without even a temporary supply. It was a period of much depression among the members, but they struggled along with great bravery and intermit- ted no Sunday or Wednes- day services. The Rev. John U. Parsons, a somewhat vis- ionary scholar, a Congrega- tionalist, who later took a belligerent part in the strug- gle of bleeding Kansas, preached occasionally to the shepherdless flock and not infrequently Silas Chapman JOHN OGDEN. and William Pitt Lynde, read sermons and otherwise conducted the services. At this time Dr. Wil- liam P. Proudfit, Ambrose Ely and Asahel Finch, Jr., were the elders, and Edward D. Holton was superintendent of the Sunday School.
But it must not be supposed that this little people, although greatly depressed, were in decay. Indeed, except in the year 1839, the additions to the church had been constant, although largely by letter. In its second year, 1838, fourteen had united, of whom thirteen were by letter; in 1840, thirty-four had united, of whom twenty-nine were by letter; in 1841, twenty-six had united, of whom eighteen were by letter; in 1842, eleven had united, of whom nine were by letter; in 1843, twenty-five had united, of whom twenty-two were by letter.t
The increase in 1843, as compared with 1842, may be partially ascrib- able to the added interest arising from the beginning of the pastorate of the Rev. Aaron L. Chapin.
Mr. Chapin was a native of Connecticut, born in Hartford, Feb. 6, 1817. He graduated from Yale college 1837, and from Union Seminary, N. Y., 1842, was licensed to preach in New York State, and when called to Mil- waukee was teaching in a deaf and dumb institute in the city of New York,
*Mr. Watson removed from Milwaukee to northern Ohio and later to Tecumseh, Michigan. Mrs. Jane E. Ogden (now in her ninetieth year, Feb. 25, 1900), telis me that Mr. Ogden's farm was where Bay View is situated. She says that Mr. Ogden with two of his men used to come in, five miles, every morning during that summer to work on the new church, and that when it was done he felt quite proud of it. He helped build the North Presbyterian church also and later owned eight pews in Immanuel church. His family all united with Calvary church.
+Peet's History, p. 134.
250
PRESIDENT AARON LUCIUS CHAPIN, D.D., L.L.D.
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the earliest school for the instruction of these unfortunates. He began to preach in the basement of the White Church May 1, 1843, being then twen- ty-six years of age .*
Upon his arrival in Milwaukee, he was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Wil- liam P. Lynde. Being then single, he boarded in a little cottage on Jack- son street, directly north of the present St. John's Cathedral. Upon his marriage he built a house on the N. W. corner of Knapp street and Mil- waukee street, opposite where the Notre Dame Convent now stands.
Mr. Chapin was a man of rare ability and of great energy, a forceful speaker and of imposing if youthful appearance.t Stimulated by his enthusiasm the people pushed forward the completion of the building. In the Weekly Sentinel ( there were no daily papers then) of December 2, 1843, occurs this brief item :
The Presbyterians are finishing their house.
The house being finished was sixty feet in length by forty-two feet in width. There was a spire forty feet in height, terminating in a vane. The architect was Nathaniel C. Prentiss, of whom it is known that he had but few attractive traits of character, that he had moved from Rochester, N. Y. to Milwaukee, and from the latter place to St. Paul, where he died. The cost of the edifice when completed, was $4,700, a goodly proportion of which and of the furnishing resulted from fairs and other entertainments superintended by the ladies. There was a bell put into the spire by mistake supposed to be a gift from Solomon Juneau. Soon, however, they discov- ered the mistake, removed the bell and it became by purchase the property of St. Peter's Chapel, which then stood on Martin street, between Jefferson and Jackson streets. This bell was the second that came to Milwaukee. It did duty on St. Peter's Chapel for about forty years and now on Calvary cemetery gate it tolls for funeral processions. ?
The appearance of the completed First Church to the contemporary eye, may be judged from an article in the Weekly Sentinel of Saturday, January 27, 1844 :
The Presbyterian house was dedicated to the service of God on Wednes- day afternoon. The building is a very neat and tasty one, and reflects much credit on the society and the village.
The following item in the same paper thus reads :
Rev. Mr. Chapin was ordained as minister of the Presbyterian Church on Wednesday evening last. (January 24.)
The church thus finished and then devoted to the worship of the Triune God, became for a quarter of a century a great power, an aggressive influ- ence, in this community, and yielded up its existence only when its cramped
*Aug. 23, 1843, at Lenox, Berkshire County, Mass., he married Martha Colton, who died in Beloit, Wis., Dec. 18, 1859, leaving one child, Elizabeth, now Mrs. Henry D. Porter, D. D. August 26, 1861, Prest. Chapin married Fanny L. Coit, of New Lisbon, Conn., who is still living in Beloit, Wis., with their children, Robert C. (a professor in Beloit College), Annie L. and Ellen F. President A. L. Chapin died in Beloit July 22, 1892, and the college is his monument.
+Mrs. Ogden says that when Rev. Mr. Chapin first appeared in the pulpit her husband remarked, "Are they going to have that boy preach here ?"
#Authority of Silas Chapman.
¿Milwaukee Sentinel, February 11, 1894.
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facilities and the exigencies of encroaching trade forced it to more commo- dious quarters.
The services of dedication were simple and unostentatious. There were reading of Scriptures and invocation by the Rev. Martin P. Kinney,* and a sermon and dedicatory exercises, including an especially impressive prayer by the pastor-elect, Mr. Chapin.
The exercises upon the ordination and installation of Mr. Chapin were much more extensive and elaborate.
The order of the services was as follows :
Prayer and reading the Scriptures, by the Rev. Martin P. Kinney.
Sermon by the Rev. John J. Miter, t who twenty days before had been installed the pastor of Plymouth Church.
Ordaining prayer by the Rev. Hiram Foote,¿ pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Racine.
Right hand of fellowship by the Rev. Edwin D. Seward,¿ of Kenosha.
Charge to the pastor by the Rev. Otis F. Curtis, | then of Waukesha, later the organizer of the Spring Street Congregational Church.
Charge to the people by the Rev. Stephen Peet.
Concluding prayer by the Rev. Samuel E. Miner, { of Waukesha. Benediction by the pastor.
At both these meetings, afternoon and evening, the auditorium room was crowded with a congregation intensely interested and appreciative. How many now are living who gathered in that church that day it is practi- cally impossible to tell. These persons who still survive were present at the dedication : Mrs. John Ogden, Mrs. William P. Lynde, Mrs. Nelson Lud- ington, Mrs. Lydia Ely, Mrs. Fanny ( Rogers) Bradford, Miss Sarah Phelps, Mr. Silas Chapman .** And two of these, Mrs. Lynde and Mr. Chapman, are present this evening (January 24, 1894).
*Mr. Kinney had been a law student in the offic. s of Finch & Lynde. He became, in 1841, a Congregational minister, and in 1844 pastor of a church in Whitewater, remaining there eight years ; then pastor of First Congregational church, Janesville, Wis., Oct. 2, 1859, to Oct 1, 1864, and of Second church, Rockford, Ill., nearly eight years. He died sud- denly at Racine, while attending a child's funeral there. March 12, 1871.
¡Mr. Miter remained with the Plymouth Congregation until 1856; he died in Beaver Dam aged sixty-five years, May 5, 1875.
Mr. Foote died at Rockford, Ill., aged eighty years, January 13. 1889.
¿ Mr. Seward died at La Clede, Mo., February 25, 1891.
| Mr. Curtis died, aged seventy-five years July 1, 1879.
[He was living in 1891, in Ridgway, O.
** Silas Chapman died at his residence, 515 Sycamore street, Mil., Dec. 14, 1899, aged 86 years at his last birthday, June 9th. He had lived in Milwaukee since the spring of 1842; taught school in the basement of the old White Church, became a bookseller and then map publisher. Nov. I. 1839, he married Mrs. Austin, who died Oct. 16, 1880. See Evening Wisconsin Dec. 14, 1899. Mr. Chapman was the first elder of the North Presby- terian church (see succeeding page) and continued in that connection during the twenty- one years of Dr. Buchanan's pastorate. When, after his pastor's resignation, the new Immanuel church was formed, Mr. Chapman, for local and personal reasons and after some delay, connected himself with a Congregational body At the time of his death he was a member of the Pilgrim Congregational church, N. W. corner Grand ave, and 28th street, but his two daughters are members of Calvary Presbyterian church. Mrs. William P. Lynde passed away June 27, 1897. A portrait of her, taken in her prime, will be given in the article on our Woman's Synodical Missionary Society.
253
The popularity of the new church was evident from the demand for sittings. The pews were sold, not leased. William Allen purchased a pew as soon as the sales began to be made and almost continuously since, to the present time, he or his family have supported this church in this manner. One of the original deeds of these pews is now preserved in the archives of the Old Settlers' Club. It is dated July 29, 1844, and for sixty dollars con- veys slip No. 41 to James McNeil, his heirs and assigns forever. The trustees who executed the conveyance were Royal Jennings, P. C. Hale, Josiah Drummond, E. D. Holton, John Ogden, Williamı P. Lynde, Alex- ander Mitchell and Clarence Shepard .*
There are several items of interest to chronicle concerning the pastor- ate of Mr. Chapin, which continued until February 1, 1850.
The accretion to the membership during the entire seven years was steady if not large. The following tablet shows it :
YEAR.
ADDITIONS BY LETTER.
ON PROFESSION.
TOTAL.
1844
28
2
30
1845
14
13
27
1846
43 3 46
1847
22 7 29
1848
25 6
31
1849
13.
12. 25
1850
24 4 28
It appears, therefore, that during the first fourteen years of this churchi's history there were three hundred and sixty additions to the primitive thir- teen members. Of these additions sixty-six were on profession. On Janu- ary 1, 1851, the number of members was one hundred and seventy-five.
In the summer of 1846, occurred an event which can be viewed with complacency now, but which at that time caused great excitement and resulted in the withdrawal from the church of one of its most active mem- bers, Edward D. Holton. A lecturer, named Ichabod Codding, was speak- ing in various parts of the Northwest in opposition to slavery and the slave trade, and Mr. Holton, having requested the use of the First Church for Mr. Codding's address, the trustees met at the office of Anson Eldred, to consider the answer to be given. At this meeting, held August 8, 1846, the following preamble and resolution were unanimously adopted :
WHEREAS, We think it inexpedient to allow the occupation of our church for any meeting whose action is political, or to any party whose organization is political even in part, although the course of such party, or the action of such meeting, may be founded in justice and humanity, and the end they profess to have in view meet with our warmest approval; therefore
Resolved, That we cannot give our consent to the occupation of the First Presbyterian Church by Mr. Codding, as a lecturer, for the object for which we suppose it is requested by the committee.
In 1847, the church building was enlarged by the addition of twenty feet to the length, at a cost of one thousand dollars, and was reopened
*Royal Jennings died December 18, 1872; Philetus C. Hale died in Milwaukee, May 28, 1887; Josiah Drummond went to New York and died, his wife returned to Scotland and died; Mr. Lynde died in Milwaukee, December 18, ISS5; Mr. Shepard died on the Atlantic Ocean, September 20, 1892; Mr William Allen died in Milwaukee, January 20, 1883.
+From Peet's History, p. 134.
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November 21, 1847. As thus extended it contained ninety-two slips and had a seating capacity for between five hundred and six hundred persons. The basement was partitioned, thus providing a lecture room thirty-three feet by forty-two feet, and a school room twenty feet by forty-two feet. A bell was purchased at. a cost of three hundred dollars.
The officers of the church, with their residen- ces and occupations at the time of this enlarge- ment were :
ELDERS :- John Ogden, No. 50 Spring street, carriage maker; Ambrose Ely, No. 86 Mason street, boot and shoe dealer; James Farr, Jr., No. 105 Oneida street, clerk; Hiram Warner, No. 53 Spring street, soap and candle maker; Ira E. Goodall, Sycamore and Sixth streets, dry goods.
JOHN M. BUCHANAN, D. D.
ORGANIST :- Franklin Ripley, Jr., No. 38 Wisconsin street, lawyer.
CHORISTER :- O. S. Putnam, No. 38 Wisconsin street, forwarding mer- chant.
SEXTON :- E. G. Dunham, No. 281 East Water street, chairmaker .* The Sunday services were held at 10:30 o'clock and at 2:30 o'clock.
A very noteworthy event, during Mr. Chapin's administration, was the withdrawal of a respectable and influential portion of his congregation to form another Presbyterian church-a church known from its geographical position as the North Presbyterian Church. The new organization took place with a membership of sixteen persons,t January 5, 1849. The Rev. John M. Buchanan, D. D., who had been in the city for some months pre- vious to this date, was installed as pastor at the same time. The first elders of the North Presbyterian Church were Silas Chapman and William Gilles- pie .¿ This following had at first a small wood building for their audience room, on the northwest corner of Martin and Milwaukee streets, which gave way in 1855 to the present brick structure now occupied by the Welsh Pres- byterians. Dr. Buchanan, as he was the first pastor of the North Church, so he was its only pastor. After twenty-one years ministration considera- tions of health caused his resignation in August, 1870.
On February 1, 1850. the Rev. Mr. Chapin retired from his pastorate to accept the presidency of Beloit College. This was done at the urgent solic- itation of the Beloit District Convention, but in opposition to the wishes of a large portion of his congregation .? His career in his wider field was most successful and amply justified the foresight of those who selected him. He
*Mr. Farr married Mr. Chapin's sister and removed to Chicago; Mr. Warner died in Ripon, April 16, 1857; Mr. Goodall resides in Beloit; Mr. Ripley died in Milwaukee, Janu- ary 1, 1857; Mr. Putnam removed to California and died; Mr. Dunham is dead.
fAmong these were William Mason, William H. Watson, William Gillespie, Robert N. Austin, Silas Chapman and Phoebe F. Chapman, his wife, MIS. Mary Austin, Mrs Peter Martineau, Mrs. Charles Hepp and Mrs. Jacob A. Hoover.
İMr. Gillespie, a mason and plasterer, living in the neighborhood of Racine street, removed East about 1850. Mr. Chapman, who was born June 9, 1813, connected himself with the First Church in the winter of 1841-2.
¿Mrs. Ogden says : " Mr. Chapin was such a fine preacher and gentleman, so genial and well liked by everybody, just the man for the place, that we all felt hurt when he was called away to Beloit."
255
officiated as president of Beloit College until 1886, and died aged seventy- five years, July 22, 1892.
The pulpit was supplied during the summer of 1850 by the Rev. Nathan C. Chap- in, a brother of his predeces- sor. This Mr. Chapin was born at Hartford, Connecti- cut, September 20, 1823, graduated at Yale 1844, and died at Minneapolis, Minn., December 11, 1892.
The Rev. William H. Spencer, from the First Pres- byterian Church of Utica, New York, became the suc- cessor of Mr. Chapin. He began his labors October 20, 1850, was installed May 11, 1851, resigned in 1855, and became connected with West- minster Church, Chicago, in 1860, where he died Febru- ary 17, 1861.
SILAS CHAPMAN.
Early in Mr. Spencer's in- cumbency occurred an event the complete comprehension of which requires a retrospect.
When the First Church was established in 1837, there was no Presby- tery in Wisconsin-no ecclesiastical body of which it could form with other churches a vital part. Indeed there were not a few Congregationalists among its founders, and an agreement had been made that the polity of the infant congregation should be determined by that of the majority of the members .* An organization called the Presbytery of Wisconsin was estab- lished January 17, 1839, by the Rev. Mr. Crawford and five others. These were not all Presbyterians, one delegate represented the Congregational Church of Waukesha .; This Presbytery adopted the Constitution, Confes- sion of Faith and Discipline of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, but was never connected with any Synod or with the General Assem- bly. Provision was made by which Congregational churches might become connected with the Presbytery. At its first meeting after organization, on July 5, 1839, its name was changed to the Presbytery of Milwaukee. The Congregational influence was strongly felt at this meeting and became more potential at various succeeding conventions. At a special session of the Presbytery, held at Troy, Walworth County, October 6, 1840, eight churches being represented, an organic union was effected with a like number of
*Authority of Mrs. Cordelia Brown, who adds that the voting occurred on a day earl- ier than had been first fixed, and that some of the Congregationalists had not received notice of the change of time and felt aggrieved that they had had no opportunity to indi- cate their preference. Elder I. H. Goodall moved to Beloit. Wis., at an early day, and has since been identified with the First Congregational church of this city.
+Peet's History, p. 9.
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representatives of Congregational churches .* The joined body was called The Presbyterian and Congregational Convention of Wisconsin. The Pres- bytery of Milwaukee now disappeared, being merged in this Convention. The articles of Union provided that each church in the convention should preserve its own autonomy, each maintaining its existing form of govern- ment or adopting other as it elected. The First Presbyterian Church of Milwaukee was a member of this Convention until June 14, 1842. At that date, this body having become unwieldy, it was divided into three District Conventions-Milwaukee, Beloit and Mineral Point It was under the rule of the Milwaukee District Convention that the First Church was dedicated fifty years ago-a fact which explains the presence of so many Congrega- tionalists at the ordination of Mr. Chapin.
In 1847, after the Convention had been in existence seven years, certain of the First Church members believing that a church, presbyterial in form, should be loyally and obediently connected with Presbytery, Synod and General Assembly, that is, should be Presbyterian in fact, set about con- stituting the Presbytery of Milwaukee and starting a new church. This Presbytery affiliated with the Old School branch of the Presbyterian Church and it was this body that organized the North Presbyterian Church
The First Church, however, still continued to recognize the jurisdiction of the District Convention, and doubtless would never have intermitted its allegiance had Mr. Chapin continued liis pastorate. But the arrival of Mr. Spencer, an ardent Presbyterian, changed all this. He felt strongly that his little flock should be enfolded in its proper paddock. His influence was very potent. Moreover, not a few of the church were embittered towards the Convention, especially towards the Beloit District Convention, which had encouraged the resignation of Mr. Chapin, and not a few others felt that the union which had theretofore existed, while salutary for the youth- ful period of the church, had now become quite outgrown.
Therefore, under Mr. Spencer's lead, the First Church left the Conven- tion early in 1851. Three ministers, of whom Mr. Spencer was one, asso- ciated as the nucleus of another Presbytery of Milwaukee .; Two churches belonged to this Presbytery at its beginning, one the First Church, the other a recently formed Presbyterian church on the South Side, which, after sev- eral mutations, finally became the present Hanover Street Congregational Church. This new Presbytery, it must be noted, attached itself to the New School branch of the Presbyterian Communion. Instead, therefore, of one vigorous Presbytery in Milwaukee, there were two feeble Presbyteries-one direful evidence among many of the disaster flowing from the disruption of the Presbyterian church in 1837.
During Mr. Spencer's term, in 1852, the White Church was once more enlarged. The western end of the edifice was detached sufficiently from the remaining portion to permit the construction of transepts. These were forty feet broad, and made the width of the building at the cross eighty feet. The church was reopened in January, 1853. This improvement cost three thou- sand dollars. It was the last important betterment ever made of the old
*A graphic account of this union will be found in Jubilee Memorial, 1840-1890, by the Rev. H. A. Miner, p. 5. The union was effected October 7, 1840. See pages 166-168 of this book.
+See page 148.
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structure and left it in the condition in which it is now so well and so lov- ingly remembered .*
After Mr. Spencer's retirement the Rev. A. S. Benson temporarily filled the pulpit, in the summer and fall of 1855. The Rev. Shubael Granby Spees of New York, was called late in the fall of the same year, 1855 ; he accepted and was installed February 10, 1856, and resigned in May, 1859. He died in Greenville, N. Y., aged sixty-one years, February 28, 1872 .;
It is found that in the year after his ministry began, evening services have been substituted for the afternoon hour, the Sunday School gathering at a quarter before three o'clock. Jonathan Ford was then superintendent of the School, and George Tracy his assistant. There were thirty-seven
THE OLD WHITE CHURCH.
teachers and two hundred and seventy five scholars. The membership of the church was about the same number-two hundred and seventy-five per- sons ; that is, it had in about six years made a net increase of one hundred and twenty-five persons. The elders at this period were, Samuel C. West, Anthony Green, Moses Kneeland, James D. Lawrence, Jonathan Ford and J. A. Hall. The deacons were Henry H. West, I. N. Mason and John I. Fairbanks. The trustees were George D. Dousman, D. T. Post, John N.
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