Historical Text - #3
A History of the Universalist Church in Springfield
by Dr. Everett E. Thompson
Clerk and Historian of The Church of the Unity
Prepared especially for the occasion of the
one hundredth anniversary of the building of
the first Universalist church in the city
of Springfield, 11/05/1944
We are celebrating today the one hundredth anniversary of the building of the first Universalist church in the city of Springfield. We are recognizing the occasion both at our regular morning service of worship and at a special vespers service at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The Rev. Robert Cummins, D. D., General Superintendent of the Universalist Church of America, preaching at the morning service, and the Rev. John Van Schaick Jr., D. D., Editor in Chief of the Christian Leader, speaker for the vesper service, are participating in our observance of the anniversary.
The earliest known printed reference to Universalists in Springfield is a notice in The Republican, June 21, 1826, that the Rev. L.R. Paige would preach to the Universalist group the next Sunday at the United States Chapel, and that for the year ensuing, he would preach regularly at the Chapel each month on the first and third Sundays, at Factory Village (Chicopee) on the second Sunday, and at South Wilbraham on the fourth.
Evidently followers of John Murray and Hosea Ballou in this neighborhood were endeavoring to organize. We still possess some of the early records of the Springfield group, the first entry of which in the Secretary's book is dated April 77, 1826, just two months before the newspaper notice. The record for this first meeting states that a number of citizens- of Springfield, "agreeable to previous notice", assembled in the new schoolhouse on the hill, to consider" the consistency of forming a society of Universalists." After discussion it was voted unanimously to form such a society; Capt. Ethan Allen Clary was chosen to draft a petition for an act of incorporation and a committee appointed to solicit subscribers to the petition.
Records of succeeding meetings on May 17 and 26 announce arrangements for securing a clergyman for "two Sabbaths in each month for one year, from the first of June next", and also the failure of a committee to obtain from other religious societies in Springfield permission to use temporarily their places of worship for Universalist meetings. Also, at the meeting on May 26, a committee reported that the Rev. Lucius R. Paige had been secured as preacher, and various officers to manage the affairs of the Society were appointed.
The records of these meetings deal with the first real activities of the Society, but at the back of the Secretary's book are the items of the Treasurer's account. The first is dated April, 1824 and reads: "To cash collected by S. Rogers on Subscription paper No. 1 . . $15.25", and across the page on the other side of the ledger, under the same date, is the entry "By cash paid Mr. Flagg for ministerial services and expenses by S. Rogers . . . $15.25." The next entry is a year and nine months later, December 25, 1825.
It is interesting to note that the moderator chosen for the first meeting was Capt. Edmund Alien. He and Capt. Clary were stationed at the Springfield Armory and other subscribers to the petition were workers at the Government plant. This probably accounts for the fact that after the new Society's inability to secure a meeting place with other religious societies in town, through efforts of these leaders in the movement, the religious services of the Society were held at first in the Chapel on the Armory grounds.
This Chapel was a hall in the office building, and had been used by the Episcopalians for their first service in l8l7 and from that time to 1824 when the great fire at the Armory stopped its use for a year or two. Later the services of the Universalists were held in Beacon Hall in Gunn’s Block, at the corner of State and Walnut Streets.
The petition for incorporation of the new Society was duly presented to the General Court of Massachusetts, and was granted and approved by the Governor, Feb. 13, 1827. The act stated that Edmund Allen, Ethan A. Clary and Moses Y. Beach and those associated with them were duly "incorporated as a religious Society by the name of the First Independent Universalist Society in Springfield, with all the privileges, powers, and immunities to which other religious Societies in this Commonwealth are entitled by the laws and Constitution thereof."
The Society was further authorized "to purchase and dispose of any estate, real or personal, for the use of said Society, the annual income of which shall not exceed five thousand dollars", and also to raise by donation or subscription for the support of a minister, a sum the income of which "shall not exceed eight hundred dollars." Times have changed and among those who sigh for the good old days are probably no Universalist ministers of the gospel, seeking an annual salary of $800 - and yet there would be other compensations'. Subscriptions of the parishioners for the year l826-27 totaled $l76.92 -nearly all putting their names down on the list for an annual amount of $3 to $6; that is, 25 to 50 cents per month.
Some of the founders of the Universalist Church in Springfield were well-known citizens of that period. Captain Edmund Allen was a native of Belchertown and a soldier of the Revolutionary War. At the time of his activity in the organizing of the Universalist group he was 73 years of age. His son, also named Edmund, was an employee at the Armory from 1809 to l845 and was noted as a fine singer. He was chorister for several years in Dr. Peabody's Unitarian Church soon after its founding in 1819.
Captain Ethan A. Clary was also an armorer, 1809 to 1833; his name appears frequently in the early records of the Society down to 1834 when he left the city to accept a position of responsibility in the Boston Custom House. He had five sons and seven daughters; one of the sons was Commodore Albert Gallatin Clary of the U. S. Navy and two others served in the U.S. Army, one of whom, Gen. Robert Emmet Clary, entered the army to serve on frontier duty at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., in 1829 and did not retire until 1869.
Another of the original incorporators was Moses Yale Beach who had a rather eventful career in the Connecticut Valley in his youth. After being actively identified with the new Society for two years, he left the city in 1829 and was later editor and owner of the New York Sun from 1835 to 1849.
The records of the Society for the years 1827 to 1844 show more or less progress in interest and welfare. The clerk's reports are meager, confined mostly to appointments of members to the Prudential Committee, to the statement from time to time that the Church was out of debt, and to motions to adjourn. The titles of officers appointed, as of record on April 14, 1828, might be considered by the Nominating Committee of The Church of the Unity for its next annual meeting -- they were: Nominating Committee (3 members); Prudential Committee (3 members) "to manage the concerns of the Society"; Secretary, Treasurer, Collector, Assistant Collector, Sexton, Bell Ringer, and Tithing Man.
The Treasurer's Accounts for 1828 and 1829 are given in some detail; for the first year a total of $309.57 was paid to the Rev. L. R. Paige and in 1829 the sun of $252. It is hoped that the Rev. Mr.. Beige had also other sources of income. The total expense for 1829 for advertising was $l.25, paid to S. Bowles.
Records of the pastors of this period are not complete, but besides the first incumbent, the Rev. Lucius R. Beige, others who served down to 1850 were the Rev. Charles Spear, the Rev. D. J. Mandell, the Rev. A. A. Folsom, and the Rev. R. P. Ambler.
In the minutes of the meeting of April 12, 1841 the name of Eliphalet Trask first appears as a member of the Society. From 1834 to his death in 1890 Mr. Trask was one of Springfield's leading citizens, lieutenant governor of Massachusetts' 1858-60, and president, director, or trustee of many of the city's important banks or companies. He was strong anti-slavery man and from the early years of his residence a staunch supporter of Universalism in the city.
There are indications in the records as early as 1841 of a desire to worship in a structure of their own. Committees made investigations and reports, and Mr. Trask, as Chairman of the Prudential Committee much of the time between l841 and 1844, was apparently strongly interested in taking such a step. Strangely enough, however, there are no definite facts in the old records about votes of the Society on the location or the building of a Church, or of the dedication of such a structure. On May 6, 1844, at a meeting at which Mr. Trask presided, it was voted that "we reconsider the vote in reference to accepting the proposition of Roderick Burt"; also "that we reconsider the vote specifying the dimensions of the House which at a previous meeting we voted to build."
The minutes of the next meeting are dated April 14, 1845, nearly a year later. It is known from other sources, however, that a Universalist Church was erected at the corner of Main and Stockbridge Streets in 1844. A ponderous cornerstone, preserved through the years and now in the basement of The Church of the Unity, bears in large numerals the date 1844. The dedicatory exercises were probably held in the fall of that year. The lower floor of the wooden building was rented for commercial purposes, the Society meeting on the second floor.
That Mr. Trask was largely responsible for erecting this structure is established by tradition. He and Dr. Osgood, for so long the pastor of the First Church in Court Square, were friends and co-workers in anti-slavery activities. It was Dr. Osgood who, in l8l8-19, lost a number of his parishioners when they broke away to form a new Congregational Society, later to become The Church of the Unity. One day, while the Universalist Church was being built, Dr. Osgood met Mr. Trask on Main Street and inquired, '"Well, brother Trask, what are you building here?" "A house where the truth will be preached" said Mr. Trask "If it is, there will be a scattering among the Universalists," was Dr. Osgood's quick reply. But a hundred years later the good doctor's two heretic folds are harmoniously united and copartners each summer in union services with their Congregational friends at the fine old Church on the Square.
The First Independent Universalist Society was reorganized on Feb. 25, 1855, under the leadership of the pastor at that time, the Rev. J.J. Twiss, who served from 1855 to 1857. It was then that the members of the Society selected the name of St. Paul's Church, by which it was generally known thereafter.
The Main Street structure was used until 1869 when a new church was erected at the corner of Bridge and Chestnut Streets on the site now occupied by the Hotel Kimball, as attested by a bronze tablet in the lobby of the Hotel. Here the Society prospered and grew, especially strong in the good fellowship among its men, and the good works and locally famous fairs and suppers of its women.
At a special meeting of the Society on November 9, 1908, the sale of the Chestnut Street Church was voted, and also the purchase of the Baptist property on State Street at the corner of Spring. The first meeting in this new home was held June 29, 1909, and after the merger with the Third Congregational Society in 1928, the last meeting in that structure was held on June 10, 1928.
In the Spring of 1928 it was evident to such lifelong members of the Universalist Church as Mr. Eliphalet Trask Tifft, Treasurer of the City of Springfield for many years, Mr. William E. Gilbert, at present Chairman of the Board of the Union Trust Company, and Lumen S. Brown, well known and successful business man, that something would have to be done for Saint Paul’s Church. Financial conditions were Not good and the Society had lost several members who were generous contributors. The membership as not increasing.
At this time the Rev. Charles A. Wing, minister of The Church of the Unity, had resigned to accept a call to St. Louis, and the Unitarians had not yet decided upon a new minister. Mr. Tifft, Mr. Gilbert, and Mr. Brown knew these facts and were in touch with Mr. Dwight Winter, Mr. Guy Kirkham, Dr. John MacDuffie, Mr. William D. McClench and others of The Church of the Unity. The Chairman of the Prudential Committee of St. Paul's Church, Dr. Everett E. Thompson, was invited to meet with these men, who set before him the idea of a merger of the two churches. It was proposed that the Rev. Owan Whitman Eames, who had been minister of St. Paul's Church for just under two years, be invited to serve the federated church.
At a special meeting of St. Paul1s Society held in May, 1928, Dr. Thompson presented the idea of the merger to the members, and later that month the Society voted in favor of the merger. Mr. Tifft, Mr. Brown, and Dr. Thompson were appointed a Committee of three to meet with Mr. Winter, Mr. Harry Hopson and Mr. Kirkham to arrange details.
Services in the federated church began in the fall of 1928. The act of the State Legislature authorizing the merger legally was passed in June, 1929.
The Second Universalist Church, now located at Bay and Princeton Streets, was started in the fall of 1895 by Rev. Charles Conklin, then pastor of St. Paul's Church. He resigned from St. Paul’s March 1, 1898, to devote all his time to the new church and to another Universalist mission at the North End. Since 1898, the Second Universalist Church has had about 12 pastors and is at present served by the Rev. Dorothy Tilden Spoerl.
