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 3
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Another early case of public interest, that of Paul Dillingham against L. G. Fisher, which involved the title to the whole village, and which Mr. Fisher bravely defended and won, is reported in 5 Wis., 475.
These events occurred somewhat before my time. But I well remember the public landing opposite our yard on the north. It was an open space situated where King's block and the buildings north of it now are. There the rafts tied up, and there we used to see Indian men and boys shoot their blunt-headed arrows at a mark. The Winnebago or Turtle Indians dearly loved this spot, the home of their ancestors as the many totem mounds show, and often paid us friendly (almost too friendly) visits, with their squaws, babies, young bucks, children, dogs and all. Blanketed, painted and be- feathered, they were not quite so stolid as they looked.
Put up a big copper cent and they would shoot all around it. But let any one set up a three-cent piece, or better still a bright dime, and whack ! some one would hit it the first shot.
¡Three or four rods south of our home on State Street was the house of Capt. Alex. Gordon, and south of that in my childhood there seems to have been on the west side of that street an open pasture ground about all the way to Rice Dearborn's bakery, at what is now 210 State Street.
+ NOTE .- Mr. Gordon's house was moved at an early date to where it still stands as the main part of No. 925 School Street. That was the home of George Stocking.
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NOTE .- The jasper arrow-head pictured above, exact size, was picked up by me on the bank of Rock River, at the rear of Brown's South Block, in 1882. The Cent of 1849 also belongs to the writer. That of 1827 was loaned by Lewis C. Martin.
R. P. Crane's house was at the north-east corner of Turtle and Race streets, and A. J. Battin's house, yard and peach trees were at the north-east corner of Turtle and Broad streets where the McKey block now stands. At the south-east corner of School and Turtle was the house of John Hackett, our first postmaster.
The College and Early Census.
OLD MIDDLE COLLEGE, THE FIRST COLLEGE BUILDING.
The Presbyterian and Congregational conventions of 1845 had located a college at this place, the town promising a site and seven thousand dollars. June 24, 1847, the corner stone was laid. The four brick walls of old Mid- dle College were promptly put up, but for lack of funds had to be left some time without a roof. Money was very scarce, there was little specie and the currency was "Wildcat." The staples were cord wood at $2 or less per cord, wheat at 25c. to 40c. per bu., and bass wood lumber at $10 per m. Then the citizens, including all our pioneers, made a noble rally, Middle *College was duly roofed and thus other conditional subscriptions were secured.
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The census of Beloit, taken by James W. Strong and published Dec. 6, 1848, shows a population of 1,678 persons, about equally divided as to sex, half of whom were under twenty years of age, and there were 271 dwelling houses.
II. Formation of a Presbyterian Society.
Such were some of the personal and material foundations on which this church was first built.
March 9th, 1849, after previous prayer and conference in the same place Feb. 28th, seventeen men and a boy (Jesse Burchard), all connected with the First Congregational church or society, met at the house of Ben- jamin Brown. T. L. Wright was chairman, with David Merrill, secretary.
Those present then decided to form themselves into a new Evangelical Society. March 19th they adopted a constitution and name, the First Presbyterian Society of Beloit, and elected their first officers : A. J. Battin, chairman; R. P. Crane, clerk; and three trustees, John P. Houston, Chester Clark and O. A. Smith. They also voted that not less than two-thirds of the trustees of this society shall be members of the Presbyterian Church.
At about the same time and by substantially the same persons was first formed this church.
Our first session book, kept in the neat hand-writing of A. J. Battin, tells us that fourteen men, having gathered at Andrew Battin's store, Feb. 26, 1849, after prayer and conference, adjourned to meet at the dwelling house of Benjamin Brown, at 2 p. m. of Wednesday, Feb. 28. At that time and place, T. L. Wright, chairman; David Merrill, secretary; Mr. T. L. Wright. Mr. A. J. Battin and Mr. Benjamin Brown were made a committee to arrange for a proper organization of the First Presbyterian church of Beloit. Articles of Faith were also adopted and three elders elected, viz., Asahel Clark, M. D., Horatio Burchard and J. M. Daniels. It was also voted that the annual church meeting should be held on the first Monday in January.
The reasons which led these members of the First Congregational Church to desire a different organization were various. Some like Mr. Dan- iels and Mr. Culbert were originally Presbyterians ; others, influenced by a recent church trial before the whole congregation, which had lasted seven weeks (one day each week), preferred to try the Presbyterian method of discipline ; and still others acted from personal feeling. The leaders of that enterprise however were influenced by a deeper motive, which was, their earnest sympathy with the despised but growing Abolition movement. Hon. Horatio C. Burchard, of Freeport, writes me that this was the motive which actuated his father, and I know that this was what principally led my father Benjamin Brown, Mr. A. J. Battin, and probably Mr. T. L. Wright to take that step. In those years very good people honestly and radically differed on the slavery question. Officers of the First Church would not allow its discussion in their building. Our fathers on the contrary considered this as almost the paramount moral question of the age. That conviction, with the lesser motives suggested, sufficiently explains their action.
*NOTE .- Three committees were appointed to secure subscriptions, one representing the college, one the farmers and one the business men of the village. Benj. Brown was chairman of this third committee which raised by far the largest amount.
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The First Presbyterian Church Organized.
The List of those who, March 3, 11 and 18, asked and received letters of dismission from the First Congregational Church, comprised 48 names, 17 married men and their wives, one other married woman, eight young men and five young women. Two of these names, Mrs. Ann M. Culbert and Mrs. Agnes Merrill, do not appear on the recorded list of charter members received March 21st, because their reception was unavoidably delayed until April 29.
This First Presbyterian Church of Beloit was officially organized in the Aunt Jane Moore school house on Race Street, which, though built over for a residence, still remains at its original loca- tion (now 439 St. Paul Avenue). At the meet- ing held there Wednesday, March 21, 1849, Rev. Lewis H. Loss of Rockford, presided and con- ducted the formal organization. On account of his sudden indisposition, the sermon was preached by Rev. Prof. Jackson J. Bushnell of Beloit College. Rev. L. Benedict of Rockton, and Rev. Dexter Clary, pastor of the First Congregational Church, assisted in this opening service. The church was then duly organized and its three elders elect were ordained.
J. J. BUSHNELL.
The recorded list of charter members received March 21, 1849, is as follows :
THE CHARTER MEMBERS.
Augustine J. and Mrs. Amelia E. Battin, T. L. and Mrs. Catherine B. Wright, R. P. and Mrs. Almira Crane, John P. and Mrs. Eunice Houston,
A. J. BATTIN.
MRS. AMELIA E. BATTIN.
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MR. AND MRS. A. D. CULBERT.
Horatio and Mrs. Frances Burc- hard, Benjamin and Mrs. Lucy Ann Brown, Charles and Mrs. Teressa Peck, Samuel B. and Mrs. Amanda Cooper, A. D. Culbert, David Merrill. John M. Daniels, Miss Frances B. Burch· ard, Mrs. Sarah M. Burchard, Mrs. Elizabeth Burr, Benjamin Clark, Fred Lathrop, Andrew B. Battin, Jesse Burchard, (son of Horatio), Asahel Clark, M. D., Mrs. Caroline C. Clark, Chester and Mrs. Lucretia Clark, Charles and Mrs. Harriet N. Moore, Beman Clark, (son of Asahel), Miss Louisa Burchard, George H. Stocking, Lyman Johnson, E. N. Clark, M. D., and Mrs. Sarah A. Clark, O. A. and Mrs. IEmma Smith, Henry and Mrs. Louisa Mears, John Fisher, Jr. and Mrs. Jane Fisher, Miss Harriet Burchard .- 46.
Of the Charter members only 3 remain with us, David Merrill, aged 86; Dr. Elijah N. Clark, aged 82 and Beman Clark.
First Communion Service and Call of a Pastor.
On Saturday afternoon, April 28, 1849, the first preparatory service was held in that Race street school house with all the elders present and Rev. L. H. Loss as moderator of session. Five adults were admitted by letter and two adults and three young people on confession of faith. The last were
ORANGE A. SMITH.
MRS. EMMA SMITH.
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JESSE BURCHARD.
year, made for his last year $700. Mr. Eddy accepted the call and began his labors here July 29, 1849. His father's farm in New York State near Palmyra adjoined that of the Clarks.
At Bellona, N. Y., also Aug. 29, 1844, Mr. Eddy had married Mr. A. J. Battin's daughter, Ann Eliza, to Mr. N. B. Gaston. In coming here therefore he renewed several early and dear associations of friendship. And during all his ministry Mr. Eddy was very earnest in promoting among his church members the spirit of Christian charity and affection.
LOUISA BURCHARD. MRS. H. D. CONVERSE.
Lucy Ann Brown, (daughter of Benjamin), Julia S. Peck, Mrs. Twist and Augustus R. Peck, who is still a member here. He sang in the earlier choir for 30 years, and will tell us about it.
The adults were Mrs. Ann M. Culbert and Mrs. Agnes F. Mer- rill (wife of David, ) from First Congregation Church, Jacob and Mrs. Lydia Banta, Zilpah Clark and Joseph L. and Mrs Sarah M. Jewett.
The first Communion service of this church was held in that same school house on Sunday, April 29, 1849, and those 10 per- sons were publicly received.
Next month (May 29), the church approved a previous ac- tion of the society by which Rev. Alfred Eddy of Bellona, Yates county, N. Y., was elected pastor, with a salary of $500 per
MISS HARRIET BURCHARD.
The First Church Building.
The next important event in our history was this church building. At a meeting of the Society, April 9th, 1849, the Trustees were instructed to get a site and April 30th they secured from Mr. Hill this lot at the S. E. corner of Broad and Pleasant streets, four rods by eight, for $400. At another meeting held July 16th, 1849, Mr. T. L. Wright advised their not beginning to build until they had the whole amount needed to finish. Mr. Brown opposed that view and said that in such a growing community seventeen Yank- ees and a boy could do anything they chose.
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Mr. Wright at once exclaimed. "If Benja- min Brown can build a church without a dollar, I move that he be chief builder." The motion was duly put and carried unani- mously. Mr. Brown replied, "Gentlemen, I accept the position. Will you nominate an assistant builder? "
The record decorously says that 'Benjamin Brown was made Superintendent of the work, (Chairman of the Building Committee ) and that A. J. Battin and T. L. Wright were associated with him on that committee. The very next day, July 17th, 1849, they began work. They examined several designs and combined two for the front, making the BEMAN CLARK. ground plan (46x70) forty-six feet by seventy feet. Admiration for the Greek architecture, then prevalent in the Eastern states, settled their choice on that pleasing front, which with its large Ionic columns and tall, graceful steeple was in its day, universally admired.
In an old account book of my father's occur several suggestive entries. "July 20, 1849, helped finish up the last eleven dollars due for church lot."
Sept. 19, 1849, Cr. by 32 sticks of timber (478 ft. at 5c per foot) to apply on my subscription for church, $23.90." Three miles away he found and bought with his own gold a pile of seasoned square timber, which he personally helped haul to the lot, and which was enough for all the framing except the upper part of the steeple. Some of those sticks, fourteen inches square, are under our feet to-day and just as sound as ever.
The stone walls, twenty inches thick, were plastered on the out- side with a cement which lasted better than similar material seems to nowadays, and that smooth surface, marked off in large blocks, was painted to represent light- colored, variegated marble. It was beautiful but not Presbyterian. Our rock is not a sham rock. True Presbyterianism does not peel off.
The papers called our church edifice a handsonie structure, an ornament to the town and a credit to the practical builder, Mr. Quig-
THE FIRST BUILDING, 1850.
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ley. There were then in Beloit three other commodious churches, the Congregational, the Methodist, dedicated the year before, and the Baptist, also a neat Episcopal church, and another small structure on Race street where catholics met once a month. One of those poor, hard-working Catholics gave my father ten pounds of nails for our church. They were not forgotten. The first Catholic church on School street burned down Dec. 22d 1884. On the same day Benjamin Brown met Father Ward and said to him, "I'm sorry for you. I am sorry twenty dollars worth," and gave him a twenty dollar gold piece. It was the interest on those nails.
T. L. WRIGHT. A New York dispatch, published here in June, 1850, reads thus, "The Spanish minister will soon make an official demand on our Government for indemnity on account of the Cuban invasion and the amount will be large." Still another, dated St. Louis, June 4, reported all our California gold seekers as having left on the first for the plains. Notwithstanding this foreign threat and the absence of so many good citizens, however, we went right on with the building, which cost (ac- cording to R. P. Crane) about $10,000, and dedicated it July 23rd, 1850, substantially free of debt. The Trustees then were T. L. Wright, A. Clark and O. A. Smith.
The sale of pews, at auction, held on Saturday, July 20, amounted to $4,500, with quite a number of pews still to be disposed of.
A Dedication and Tnaguration.
At the dedication of the new building, Tuesday, July 23d, singers from the Baptist, Methodist and Congregational choirs joined with ours and led by Mr. Nelson Gilbert, (Congregational) rendered an im- pressive service of song.
The"sermon_was given by Rev. A. L. Chapin, instead of the Rev. Robert Patterson, of Chicago, who had been expected. Rev. Dexter Clary read the Scripture, Rev. Aratus Kent, of Galena, offered the Dedicatory prayer and the pas- tor, Rev. Alfred Eddy pronounced the Benediction.
PREST. A. L. CHAPIN, 1866.
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GEORGE H. STOCKING.
The next day, July 24th, 'that elegant church,' as L. G. Fisher, Esq., styled it, was opened for the exercises of Beloit College Commencement. In the morn- ing, after a procession from the College, Rev. Aaron L. Chapin was there duly inducted to the office of President by Rev. A. Kent and gave his inaugural discourse. There also in the afternoon, after another proces- sion, the college classes, which then comprised only eight stu- dents, four Freshmen and four Juniors enjoyed their com- mencement.
A Publie Character.
*In that early day Beloit had a notorious drunkard, Paul Bona Field called Bony Field, who lived on that island in Rock river (just below the mouth of
the Turtle, ) which was named after him, Bony's Island. (See illustration, page 25). He was drowned that Fall while cross- ing to the Island, when drunk and Mr. Eddy revealed his own catholic spirit by preaching a funeral sermon for him in this church.
Weddings and Donations.
The first marriage ceremony by Mr. Eddy, reported in the public press was that of October 20, 1850, which united Mr.
*NOTE. That island is now owned and has been for twenty years by Hon. Clinton Babbitt. Mr. Babbitt says that pioneer Bradford Colley claimed to have seen at an early day several indian tepees or frames for wigwams, still standing where Mr. Babbitt's home is located on the west bank of the Turtle (about half a mile N. E. of the college,) and Mr. Colley told him that they were left by some of Black Hawk's indians, who called that place, Hemdoka, "the camp on the bluff." Hence the name of that farm.
MRS. GEO. H. STOCKING.
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George H. Stocking and Miss Louise J. Gordon, both of Beloit.
In fact, however, Mr. Eddy's first wedding in Be- loit was the marriage of Woodhull Helm and Mary A. Clark, (only sister of Dr. Elijah N.) at the Race St. school house, Sunday morn- ing Oct. 14, 1849. Immedi- ately after the opening exer- cises of morning service, tlie bride and groom, who were sitting in front, rose in their MR. AND MRS. HELM. places and, before all the audience learned what was going on, were duly united. Mr. Eddy then gave out his text, "Thy Maker is thy husband," and preached an appropriate sermon.
That was the era of donation parties. They were advertised in the papers and the public were respectfully solicited to attend afternoon and evening.
About that time also was recorded this suggestive conversation between two children:
Jimmie, what does donation mean ?
I know. Do means the cake, and nation means the people. They carry cake to the minister's house and the people go there and eat it.
Well they did. Our parsonage was a little white house next to and east of the church. It was a handy place to stop at between the morning and afternoon services. The older members surely remember some of those donation visits paid to Mr. Eddy and family as very delightful occasions-to us. the minister's children had each a pocketbook for such events, to which we children of the church contributed from our private bank accounts according to personal preference. Our mug banks on the mantel were willingly drawn on for them, but they were all such charming children that it was difficult to choose between them.
Mrs. Eddy herself, well deserved an extended version of the parable of the good Samaritan, as the Samaritan's wife. One dark summer evening (please keep it dark ), a little boy carrying a pail of milk was running home down Broad street when right in front of the minister's gate, he fell over a jagged stump, scraped his face and hands, spilled the milk, and got instead a full measure of sand. With strong crying and in much despair he went into the parsonage, Mrs. Eddy bound up his wounds and washed out his pail, pouring in not wine and oil, but a new supply of milk, and sent him on his way rejoicing. This account is not on the church record, but I personally know this to be a fact.
MRS. EDDY AS THE GOOD SAMARITAN'S WIFE.
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The noble dovotion of the church women and of the young people is not even touched upon here because it will be presented by others. That also was something not on the official record, but continually and everywhere under it.
The Church Audience Room and Prayer meeting Room.
The pulpit of the new church was at the south end of the audience room, then shorter than now, and the choir gallery extended across the north or front end. That part behind the gallery was a narrow upper room and there, or in the vestibule below we used to have our prayer meetings. Those meetings have never been forgotten. Even in distant California, as a letter from the absent members reveals, that upper room was remembered, and some of us remember it still, for associations like those of the Apostolic meeting place of Acts I : 13, 14.
The audience room had four rows of pews with a middle aisle and side aisles and drop seats along the wall each side. For information about the deep-toned church bell, whose voice has sounded all these years, we must depend on the man who collected the cost of it, Dr. E. N. Clark.
President Chapin's first baccalaureate sermon was preached here July 6, 1851, and he then reported three seniors, four sophomores and ten freshmen. The commencement exercises of that first graduating class began with Professor Squier's inaugural address in this house on the morn- ing of July 17, 1851, but the afternoon exercises were held in the open air at the college grounds. On that occasion other students besides the seniors took part, and one of our boys, George A. Houston, spoke as a representative of the Archaean society.
In April, 1852, this church was first enrolled in the Presbytery of Bel- videre (N. S). July 30, of that year, the church adopted and sent off a very tender and earnest letter to its absent members, the gold seekers, directed care of Dr. E. N. Clark, Nevada City, California. Both that and their reply are on record and are both models. (A fac simile reproduction of this rec- ord is given later. )
The Old Melodeon.
November 16, 1854, it is recorded that $50 a year was voted to Miss Fairbanks for presiding at the melodeon. Presiding was the right word. A good deal of it was required. That old melodeon once had an experience which even Mr. Peck does not know about. It then stood in the middle of the old gallery with its back toward the audience room, so that George Stocking and Jennie Kendall or Sarah Watson perhaps, could sing off from the book that the player used and yet be facing the people. The bell rope when swinging loose, hung down rather near the melodeon front. One Thursday evening, while ringing for meeting, the young sexton did not notice that the rope as pulled down had coiled around the pedals of the melodeon. When the ponderous bell swung back that melodeon was sud- denly jerked up in the air about six feet and as suddenly dashed down again wrong side up. But the melodeons of those days were evidently built to stand all such simple tests as that, for when this instrument was promptly set on its feet it proved to be uninjured with the exception of a broken pedal stick which was easily mended.
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I tried to find that melodeon and have it here on the platform, but they tell me that it has simply disappeared, gone where the good melodeons go- burnt up.
Early Discipline in the Church.
In those early days our church order was also tested by several cases of discipline and stood the test equally well. With no break in its harmony two persons were duly expelled, one for habitual drunkeness, and another for avowed infidelity. In a third case, by the action which session took, the offending brother was completely reclaimed.
My father having been in earlier life a school teacher, believed in dis- cipline and the meetings of session for those early cases were nearly all held at his house.
III. Characteristics of the Successive Pastors.
Rev. Alfred Eddy left us in June, 1855, for Bloomington, Ill., where he organized a new church and built it up to a membership of over two hun- dred. When the war broke out he served in the 4th Illinois Cavalry as chaplain until obliged to resign from physical disability. In 1863 he was called to Olivet Presbyterian Church, Chicago, which he served successfully three years and then organized the Ninth Presbyterian Church of that city. Beginning with seventeen members he left them in 1871 with 250, became pastor of a large Presbyterian church at Niles, Michigan, and preached there up to a few weeks before his death in 1883. On one Sunday in March 1876, after special meetings conducted by an evangelist, Dr. Graves, one hundred and ten persons united with his church on profession and four by letter. He was licensed to preach in 1835 and was ordained by the Presbytery of Geneva at Bellona, N. Y. in 1840. Although not a college bred man, as all your subsequent ministers have been, he was well educated in the truest sense of that word. He had read widely, understood human nature and was a man of superior tact. Mr. Eddy had a social nature, manly physical presence, an unusually rich, deep voice and a most hearty laugh when among friends. He was a very regular smoker in his study but did not smoke in public. Outside of the pulpit, but never in it, he was humorous, jovial and often witty. He carried about him to the sick and to the well all atmosphere of cheerfulness and of bright Christian hope. He was also a natural orator, on demand for the Fourth of July and other public occa- sions. In the pulpit his sermons, generally written with care and always interesting, were characterized by rhetorical beauty of expression, depth of feeling, a climacteric progress of thought, and almost invariably by an ini- pressive ending. His voice would sometimes startle you by its power and oftener would move you to tears by its pathos.
Indeed, Deacon B. C. Sewall almost invariably wept. No matter what the text or topic, from the wells of Brother Sewall's eyes Mr. Eddy's ser- mons always drew brine. The ungodly called Deacon S. the Town Crier, a title which in later years descended legitimately to good Father Cowles.
Botlı as a preacher, a pastor and as a man among mnen, Rev. Alfred Eddy deserved and received the strong affection of this people. His life- size portrait (which was unveiled the next Tuesday evening and now hangs where he used to stand ) is presented to this church by his children.
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