USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > Rock County, Wisconsin; a new history of its cities, villages, towns, citizens and varied interests, from the earliest times, up to date, Vol. I > Part 28
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JANESVILLE CHURCHES
took charge as rector of the church in December, 1859, was re- ealled, and remained in charge until September, 1889, when Rev. H. Baldwin Dean became rector. Rev. A. H. Barrington was called to the rectorship February 1, 1891, and resigned Novem- ber, 1905. The church was without a rector until May 9, 1906, when Rev. John MeKinney, the present incumbent, became rector.
Church societies : Christ Church Guild, Mrs. L. C. Brewer, president ; St. Agnes Guild, Mrs. F. F. Stevens, president ; Daugh- ters of the King, Mrs. William Ruger, president; Woman's Auxil- iary, Mrs. John MeKinney, president; Junior Auxiliary, Mrs. Abby Winslow and Miss Bessie Woodruff, presidents.
Vestry : Senior warden, William Ruger ; junior warden, Robert M. Bostwick, Jr .; vestrymen, George S. Parker, Jr., William Sayles, George Smith, William Skelly, Joseph L. Bostwick and Norman L. Carle. Robert M. Bostwick, Jr., is treasurer of the society and William Ruger, Jr., is clerk of the vestry.
New windows and new pews have been placed in the church during the present year (1908).
St. Paul's Lutheran Church was first established here in 1865, with Rev. H. Ernst as the first pastor. Meetings of members of this faith had been held at different times as early as 1855. The Rev. F. Locher and the Rev. A. Wagner had preached here fre- quently, but no stated or regular meetings were held util 1865. In 1870 the Rev. Mr. Duberg was chosen as their pastor, and two years later he was succeeded by the Rev. G. Rousch, and was followed by the Rev. J. Schlerf. In 1867 the society purchased Hope Chapel from the Baptists, for which they paid $2,500. The original members of the congregation came from Pomerania and Mecklenburg in Germany. Rev. John Scherf served from Sep- tember 1, 1875, to September, 1888, and was followed by Rev. Max. J. F. Albrecht, from October, 1888, to July, 1891. He was followed by the Rev. Christ. John Koesner, from July 5, 1891, and who is at present (1908) its pastor.
The church was erected in 1883, and in 1889 the congregation purchased a large pipe organ, costing $1,400. The steeple was built in 1893, and three large bells were purchased for $1,000 at the time.
The church membership at present (1908) consists of 240 families.
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The congregation supports a parochial school, of which Mr. K. F. G. Kath is principal and Miss Mary Gallitz assistant.
The parsonage was built in 1880, and greatly improved in 1907.
The Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church had its first beginning in Janesville in 1855, when meetings were held in a small apartment near the court room, and they also rented of other denominations occasionally. In 1873 they built a church near the depot at a cost of $2,700. Among the original members were A. Anderson, S. Trulson, M. Hanson and C. C. Peterson. The first pastor was Rev. Adolph Preuss, who has been succeeded by the Revs. Duus, Duberg and C. F. Magelson.
United Brethren in Christ. This church was organized, and the first services were held on Sunday, May 10, 1908, in their new church building. which, with the parsonage just completed, cost $20,000. Rev. L. A. McIntyre, pastor.
In April, 1897, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Janesville, Wis., was organized with twenty-two charter members. The Christian Science church, being based on the healing of sin and sickness, as preached and practiced by Jesus, the membership consists of those who have had proofs of this healing in their own experience.
The Christian Science church has no pastor in the usual sense of the word. The Bible and the Christian Science text-book are their only preachers. This text-book is "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker G. Eddy.
Two readers are elected from the church membership every three years. Those who have served as first readers are Miss Stella F. Sabin, Mrs. Clara J. Persels, Mrs. Helen C. Sherer and Mr. Marshall P. Richardson.
Church services are held at present in the hall formerly occu- pied by the city library. The church owns a lot on the corner of High and Pleasant streets and now has a growing building fund for the erection of a church edifice. The membership has more than doubled and the average attendance at Sunday ser- vices is between sixty-five and seventy.
St. Peter's Church. The congregation of St. Peter's was or- ganized by Rev. A. C. Anda, western field secretary, February 6, 1903. Nineteen charter members signed the constitution and with but few additions were the sole representatives of English
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Lutherans in central Wisconsin for the year and a half that ser- vices were conducted by Chicago seminary students, in the small hall down town. In June, 1904, the congregation took posses- sion of the church property at Jackson and Center streets, which was purchased from the Methodists at a very low price. At this time Rev. W. P. Christy was installed as pastor. In the summer of 1905 a new roof and new chancel platform and arches, new furniture and carpets were added at a cost of $1,000. In 1906 a large, two manual, electric organ was purchased, rebuilt and installed at a cost of $1,200. With these material improvements, which represent a value from $15,000 to $16,000, the congregation has been correspondingly blessed with substantial increase and numbers at this time more than 350 souls.
This congregation has been self-supporting from its very be- ginning, and its only obligation to the church at large is a $3,000 church extension loan. It is a substantial evidence of what can be done in 100 other places on the territory of our synod, where the church is ready with the men and an adequate church exten- sion fund to possess fields ripe unto the harvest. Rev. W. P. Christy is still (1908) pastor.
The German Evangelical Lutheran. St. John's congregation was organized in the spring of 1890, by Rev. George Kaempflein. There were sixteen members to vote. Church and parish were dedicated September 9 of the same year. Rev. George Kaemp- flein stayed with the congregation until his death, which occurred on April 9, 1898. Since then until this day, Rev. Paul F. Werth has been the officiating minister.
A new parish house was built in 1902, provided with modern conveniences. At present the congregation consists of 100 voting members, 300 members admitted to communion, while the total membership is 500.
Young Men's Christian Association, of Janesville, was organ- ized in April, 1892. The first officers were B. F. Dunwiddie, president ; Thorwaldson Judd, vice-president; J. B. Hayner, secre- tary; O. G. Bennett, treasurer. There was a membership roll of sixty and meetings were held in the different churches of the city. A movement was almost immediately started to raise funds by public subscription for the erection of a suitable building, but the hard times of 1893 to 1896 impeded progress to such an extent that the building was not completed till 1905-06, at a cost of $33,-
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000, to which was added $2,000 for equipment. During the year 1901 a dormitory was erected by Mrs. M. P. Leavett and added to the original building at a cost of $5,750, which included makes the total cost of the building about $40,000.
During the fall of 1903, a woman's auxiliary was organized, and is a strong adjunct to the association. In 1893, Mr. J. C. Kline was called as general secretary of the association, which position he still holds (1908). There are now a total of 445 mem- bers, with officers as follows: F. F. Lewis, president; Dr. E. E. Loomis, vice-president; L. K. Crissey, treasurer, and Dr. F. M. Richards, recording secretary.
XV.
COLLEGES IN ROCK COUNTY.
Beloit College-The Beginning.
At the twenty-fifth anniversary of Beloit College, Tuesday afternoon, July 9, 1872, its first and only president, up to date, Aaron L. Chapin, gave the following account of the beginning of that institution.
"The first scene is in the old stone church, in the fall of 1843. That old stone church was not quite finished, but when completed a few weeks later it was the most stately and grand house of Christian worship then in Wisconsin. At the time (that fall) it was made comfortable for the meeting of the general Presbyterian and Congregational convention of Wisconsin, whose members at that fall session numbered just twenty-eight, representing all parts of the territory of Wisconsin into which Christian civilization had then made its way. It was my first introduction to that body. I found those men then and there thinking on a college. They had been thinking on it for a year or more. Less than ten years after Black Hawk and his wild Indian troop had been chased by the Illinois volunteers up through this Rock River valley those pioneers of Christ's army had come in and entertained the thought of planting a college, on the colony plan, away up by the Beaver's Dam on the headwaters of this clear stream. They abandoned that scheme only because it had the smack of a private money speculation.
"In the early summer of 1844, in a little stateroom of the steamer Chesapeake on Lake Erie, were delegates returning from a northwest gathering called to consider the interests of Christ's kingdom in the wide Mississippi valley. They were Stephen Peet, Baldwin, J. J. Miter, Gaston, Hicks, Bulkley and Chapin.
"The Western College Society was organized and its secre- tary, Baldwin, said that a hand from the East would be stretched out to help on the establishment of a genuine Christian college in the West. Stephen Peet enlarged on that point; his words kindled
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hope and enthusiasm in the rest; there was earnest consultation and fervent prayer, and Beloit College became a living concep- tion. These seven then and there took the responsibility of call- ing a meeting of the friends of Christian education in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa for definite consultation on the matter.
"August 6, 1844, that meeting convened in the old stone church, Beloit. Four came from Iowa, twenty-seven from Illinois, twenty-five from Wisconsin-in all, fifty-six delegates. For two days they talked and prayed, and finally decided that a college and a female seminary should be established, each near the border line. A committee of ten was appointed to consider and report at a future convention. This met in October, 1844, with fifty members from Illinois and Wisconsin, affirmed the purpose of a college, but deferred action. A third convention, numbering sixty-eight, met in May, 1845, and after earnest and prayerful discussion, with only one dissenting vote, located the college in Beloit. In October, 1845, a fourth, convention met, adopted a form of charter, and elected a board of trustees for the college; and so the ship was launched. The first meeting of that board was held October 23, 1845, immediately after the convention adjourned. There were eight-Kent, Peet, Hickox, Clary, Pear- son, Fisher, Talcott and Chapin. Mr. Kent said, 'Let us pray.' That fervent prayer from his lips was the first cry of life of the infant college."
The history of the college during the next two years was then presented in the following paper by Prof. J. J. Bushnell :
In 1846 Beloit pledged a site of ten acres for the college and the erection of the first building, and for the latter purpose raised a subscription of seven thousand dollars. Major Williams, of New London, Conn., had donated lands which were expected to realize ten thousand dollars, and another small tract had been given which was later sold for one thousand dollars.
When Bushnell came on April 27, 1848, the college had no money. The Beloit subscription of seven thousand dollars had dwindled to five thousand; of this, four thousand had been col- lected and spent in the summer of 1847, in putting up the bare brick walls of Middle College, the cornerstone being laid June 24. For six months previous to his arrival Middle College had stood floorless, windowless and roofless, without any means to finish it. Five young men had been fitted for college in the Beloit Semi-
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nary under S. T. Merrill, and were organized into a freshman class in 1847. Early in May, 1848, this class was transferred by Merrill to Bushnell, who took charge of them a few weeks until the June meeting of the trustees.
On the last of May, 1848, Joseph Emerson arrived. His first question to Bushnell was, "Can we have a college here?" Bush- nell's reply was, "Yes; if we will make it."
June 1 the trustees met and assigned to Emerson the depart- ment of languages and to Bushnell that of mathematics. Out- siders said that Beloit must finish that college building, or outside funds could not be obtained. For three weeks Professor Bushnell and Deacon Hinman visited the community and talked up the college. There was some pro-slavery sentiment and opposition to an abolition college. A public meeting was held in June, and it was voted that Beloit ought to raise two thousand more to com- plete the college building. Subscriptions were made on the spot. Mr. Spafford C. Field said he had no money but could give 160 acres of land; that proved the most important subscription of all, for it was sold for four hundred dollars. The total for that eve- ning was twenty-four hundred dollars. Then three committees were appointed-one for the college, one for the farmers, and one for the business men, the chairman of the last being Benjamin Brown. This third committee raised the most, and altogether brought the new subscription up to four thousand dollars; these sums, however, were only on paper, and not paid. The winter of 1848-49 was a time of money scarcity; wheat was about thirty- seven cents per bushel and pork, one and three-quarter cents per pound. The work of finishing the building went on slowly, and the workmen were paid mainly in orders on the stores. Besides the sale of the Field land, scarcely three hundred dollars in cash was collected from the whole subscription; that was paid by orders, labor, material, and in any way the building agent, Mr. Samuel Hinman, could devise; and so the building absorbed nearly the whole. Eight hundred dollars realized from the sale of the Williams land, donated for endowment, had been also used in the work.
In 1847 Deacon Samuel Hinman had moved to Beloit from what is now Waukesha, then Prairieville, and had taken charge of the work of building that first college building.
The building fund was thus debtor to the investment fund to
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that amount. But a lot immediately south of the college ground was bought for fifty dollars; boys were employed to gather cobble- stones from the bed of Turtle creek. All the broken brick about the college were utilized to fill up the wall behind this stone faced work, and the subscriptions of work were used in building there a private residence which became the Hinman house. There Ches- ter Clark worked out his subscription, laying those cobblestones with the mason help of Rev. Johnson, editor of "The Stumbling- Stone." The Messrs. Gates made the cut-stone for the corners. About eight-hundred dollars' worth of subscriptions were thus worked into the building, which with the ground cost fourteen hundred and seventy-five dollars. It was sold to Mr. Hinman for all it cost and the money used from the college investment fund was replaced.
If ever there has been a crisis in the history of the college it was when Beloit raised her second subscription of four thousand dollars.
During 1848 and 1850 Mrs. S. W. Hale, of Newburyport, Mass., was led to help us through Professor Emerson. As a result she gave five thousand acres of land in Coles county, eastern Illinois, which brought to the Beloit College about thirty-five thousand dollars.
At the semi-centennial of the college, celebrated June 23, 1897, Horace White, of New York city, a graduate of the class of 1853, gave his vivid remembrances of those early days, partly as follows :
"Under Mr. Merrill's tuition I began the study of algebra and of Latin and Greek. In 1845 my mother married Mr. Samuel Hinman, of Waukesha, Wis., one of the best men that ever lived, and we went to his farm near that village, where we remained a year or two. His election as superintendent of the first building erected for Beloit College brought us back here in the spring of 1847. This was the year in which the first freshman class was formed, the year in which the cornerstone of Middle College was laid.
"I remember the time when the five young men constituting the first freshman class studied alongside of us younger ones in the old basement, under Mr. Merrill, who was acting president and professor of all departments in Beloit College until the advent of Professors Bushnell and Emerson in the month of May,
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1848. I remember the coming of those two seers of Israel and the laying of the cornerstone aforesaid. The college building was in course of construction a long time, and the five freshmen (grown to be sophomores) recited their lessons in a room of Lucius G. Fisher's house down on the river bank. It was a severe struggle on all hands to get that college building under a roof. We children-that is, the Hinman children and the White chil- dren-had these troubles served up to us daily because Deacon Hinman had charge of the work, for which he received a salary of five hundred dollars per year; and this was all that a family of ten had to live on. We thought we lived pretty well, however.
We produced our own vegetables and poultry, our own pork and milk and butter. The cows grazed freely on the open prairie round about, and were lured homeward by an enticement of bran at the close of each day. We had a wood lot which supplied our fuel, and I cut down the trees. Tea and coffee were unknown luxuries to us, but we were as well off in this respect as Crœsus was. Sugar was scarce, but we had more of it than Julius Cæsar had. There was abundance of fish in the streams, and of game in the woods and fields. Prairie chickens, wild pigeons, wild ducks and wild geese were to be had in the greatest profusion during their season, together with an occasional deer and an occasional bear. During my senior year in college (1853) it was not an uncommon occurrence to find a flock of quails in our door- yard picking up crumbs in competition with the chiekens. Black- berries, strawberries, wild plums, wild grapes, hickory nuts, hazel- nuts and black walnuts were to be had for the trouble of gather- ing them, and as for wild flowers I cannot begin to tell you how the prairies, the woods and the river banks glowed with them. The habitat of many of these flowers extended to the base of the Rocky Mountains on the west and to the headwaters of the Sas- katchewan on the north, as I discovered a few years since while making a journey to the Pacific coast by the Canadian Pacific railway.
"So you see that a salary of five hundred dollars for a family of ten, plus the bounties of nature and our own industry, was not a niggardly allowance. Yet I faney that the salaries offered to Professors Bushnell and Emerson, of six hundred dollars per year, coupled with the proviso, "if we can raise it," did not con- stitute the moving consideration with them. Ah, those noble-
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minded, high-principled men! What can I say in their praise ? What can I not say, of them and of those who came a little later, President Chapin, Professor Lathrop, Professor Porter? These five constituted the faculty during my undergraduate course. Two of them are still alive, thank God, to see the fiftieth anni- versary of the institution to which they gave their lives. Pro- fessor Porter, according to my recollection, came hither a victim of consumption, and was not expected to live more than three years. If Beloit were as good for all invalids as it has been for him, it would be the most popular health resort in the United States."
(And now, 1908, Professor Porter is still living in Beloit and in connection with the college as an Emeritus .- Ed.)
The following paper, abridged, given at the semi-centennial by President Chapin's son. Robert C. Chapin, Ph. D., professor of political economy in the college, together with his supple- mentary statement, sufficiently complete this record to date :
Epochs in the History of Beloit College.
We may distinguish four well-defined epochs in the life of the institution, each of about twelve years. First is the formative period, from 1847 to the election of Lincoln ; then the war period, extending, with its influences, down to about 1873: third, the period of intensive growth, to the inauguration of President Eaton in 1886; and finally the era of expansion. Her whole his- tory is a consistent interpretation of the motto upon her seal. "True science with pure faith." If knowledge has claimed a wider scope, and faith a deeper sacrifice, she has exhibited throughout the same steadfast devotion to both.
The instructive story of the genesis of the college has often been recited, but it is fitting that it be reviewed once more. Into the fertile prairies of Wisconsin and Illinois were pouring, in the years following 1840, the sons of New England. These set- tlers brought their ideas with them, and were seeking. as rapidly as possible, to embody these ideas in institutions which should both give them form for the present and perpetuate them in the future. The higher Christian education was one of these cher- ished ideas, dear to their hearts from the first. In 1842 and 1843 at least two definite plans were discussed in their ecclesiastical gatherings, and one for a college colony at Beaver Dam had made
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considerable progress before its impracticability was demon- strated.
The sentiment in favor of establishing a college was crystal- lized into action by a convention at Cleveland, Ohio, in June, 1844, at which representatives of both Congregational and Pres- byterian churches in all parts of the Northwest discussed the religious needs of the whole region.
A conference of seven of these men in the stateroom of Ste- phen Peet, then agent for Wisconsin of the American Home Mis- sionary Society, bore fruit in the calling of a convention, which met at Beloit, August 7, 1844, composed of fifty-six delegates from Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. Caution prolonged the delib- erations through three subsequent conventions before the matter could be handed over to the corporation appointed by the last of the four, in October, 1845.
The first convention recommended the establishment of one college for Iowa and of a college and female seminary for north- ern Illinois and Wisconsin, "one to be located in northern Illinois contiguous to Wisconsin, and the other in Wisconsin contiguous to Illinois."
In a third convention, which met at Beloit, May 27, 1845, after protracted discussion, the plan of one college and one female seminary for the two states was reaffirmed by a vote of sixty-three to one. This vote virtually decided also the location of the college at Beloit, for Beloit was the border town which had been in the minds of the leaders from the outset, and her interest in the enter- prise had been manifested by an offer from her citizens of a site and seven thousand dollars, "together with their sympathies, prayers and future efforts."
The convention, therefore, then passed, as a matter of course, a resolution locating the college at Beloit, and appointed a com- mittee of ten to draw up a charter and a list of trustees, both to be presented to the fourth convention, October 21, 1845. This convention accepted the trustees and charter as recommended, and left further arrangements, including the locating of the semi- nary, in the hands of these sixteen trustees: Aratus Kent, Ste- phen Peet, Dexter Clary, Aaron L. Chapin, Flavel Bascom, Calvin Waterbury, Jedediah D. Stevens, Ruel M. Pearson, George W. Hickox, Augustine Raymond, Charles M. Goodsell, Ephraim H. Potter, Lucius G. Fisher, Wait Talcott, Charles S. Hempstead,
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Samuel Hinman. Eight of the sixteen were ministers, eight lay- men; eight were from Wisconsin, eight from Illinois; eight were Presbyterians, eight Congregationalists. Mr. Peet states that the denominational distribution was an accident, while the geographi- cal location was carefully studied. A majority of the minis- terial incorporators, including Peet, Kent and Chapin, were grad- uates of Yale, whose influence appears at many points in the subsequent history.
The trustees immediately met, October 23, 1845. After prayer they chose Rev. Aratus Kent as president and Rev. Dexter Clary as secretary. The charter fared hardly at the hands of the terri- torial legislature, owing to influences unfavorable to religion, if not to education. Amendments were inserted restricting the sphere of operations to the town of Beloit, and prohibiting re- ligious tests. So dissatisfied were the trustees that they voted (April 14, 1846) not to accept the charter on these terms; but in October, finding that valuable time would be lost by waiting for a new legislature, they reconsidered their action and found that no practical difficulties had been imposed by the amendments.
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