The Vestry voted to light the church by electricity.
Monthly Archives: February 2013
1874
Our second rector, The Rev. Dr. A.H. Vinton, presided at the funeral of Benjamin Tyler Reed, a founder and early vestryman, who had served as warden from 1863-72. Pallbearers included John Cummings; founding vestryman and early warden Enoch Redington Mudge; our first senior warden, Edward Sprague Rand; Henry Winthrop Sargent; and Amos Adams Lawrence. Among the many in attendance were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Josiah Quincy, and Robert Charles Winthrop. According to the April 3 Boston Evening Transcript, the cortege to Mount Auburn Cemetery comprised some twenty coaches.
1873
Several famous botanists were connected with our church.
-
Rhododendron “Edward S. Rand”. Photo credit: Tijs Huisman
When Benjamin Tyler Reed retired as senior warden, Edward Sprague Rand served again as warden until 1875. His son E.S. Rand, Jr. (actually III) wrote many botanical works. An orchid and a rhododendron are named for him (or perhaps his father).
- Henry Winthrop Sargent (1810-1882) became junior warden. In 1859 and 1875, he published supplements to Downing’s reference work, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1841).
- Dec. 2. Winthrop Henry Sargent (1840-1916, son of H.W. & Caroline Olmsted S.) married Aimee Rotch, daughter of Emmanuel charter members Benjamin S. and Annie Bigelow Rotch. They lived at 207 Commonwealth Avenue. Winthrop served for 30 years as warden of St. Luke’s Chapel, Fishkill-on-Hudson, NY, where the Sargents summered. See also:
- Rotch Reredos
- Henry Winthrop Sargent and His Family
- Register of the Mass. Society of Colonial Dames of America: 1893-1905, (p. 83, #144) lists some of Aimee’s ancestors including Emmanuelites Amos & Nathaniel Lawrence.
- The Rev. Dr. A.H. Vinton officiated at the wedding of Mary Allen Robeson (1853-1918), daughter of charter members Andrew (1817-1874) and Mary Allen Robeson (1819-1903), and Charles Sprague Sargent (cousin of H.W. S.), who founded the Arnold Arboretum and wrote many botanical works. Andrew and his wife Mary Allen Robeson lived at Holm Lea across from Fairsted in Brookline. They were memorialized by their daughter Alice Robeson (Mrs. Stephen Van Rensselaer) Thayer in our windows depicting Simeon and Anna. See also:
- Register of the Mass. Society of Colonial Dames of America: 1893-1905, (p. 48, #41) lists Mary’s ancestors who served the Commonwealth.
- Register of the Mass. Society of Colonial Dames of America: 1893-1905, (p. 57, #66) lists even more of Alice’s ancestors.
Simeon (Andrew Robeson, 1817-1874) & Anna (Mary Allen Robeson, 1819-1903) by Harry Eldredge Goodhue
1872
- Consuming 65 acres downtown, the Great Boston Fire killed 12 firefighters and several dozen residents. On Summer Street it destroyed Trinity Church, which the congregation rebuilt 5 years later on Copley Square, several blocks from Emmanuel. Above is John Adams Whipple‘s panorama of the damage looking east from Washington St. at Bromfield Street.
-
Eben Dyer Jordan (1822-95). Credit: WikiCommons
Parishioner and founder of Jordan Marsh Co., Eben Dyer Marsh and five others founded the Boston Globe. See also this 1890 biographical sketch by John C. Rand.
1869
- 27 December. Caroline Maria (née Welch) Crowninshield at the age of 45 married at Emmanuel Howard Payson Arnold, a 39-year-old attorney from Cambridge MA. They came to reside nearby at 156 Beacon Street. See also her memorial window.
- Dr. Huntington became the first bishop of Central New York.
- The Rev. Dr. Alexander Hamilton Vinton became our second rector.
For biographical information on Dr. Vinton please see the chapter on him in Emmanuel Church, 1860-1960: The First Hundred Years.
See also Timeline 1894.
1864
Mrs. Gardner by John Singer Sargent, courtesy of the Gardner Museum via WikiCommons
April 10. Isabella Stewart Gardner was confirmed at Emmanuel by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Manton Eastburn, Bishop of Massachusetts. It was the fourth anniversary of her marriage to John Lowell (Jack) Gardner, Jr., who had purchased Pew 28 in 1862. Although the Stewarts had been members of Grace Church in New York City, their children were not confirmed until they reached adulthood. Louise Hall Tharp in her biography Mrs. Jack hypothesizes that Isabella’s confirmation “might have been a sort of thank-offering for the child she so much wanted”. John Lowell 3rd, born on June 18, 1863, unfortunately died on March 15, 1865. His baptism and burial are recorded in our parish register. The Gardners, who lived nearby at 152 Beacon St., later raised their orphaned nephews, sons of Jack’s brother Joseph, also owned a pew until his death in 1875.
Take a visual tour of her museum and its collection at Google’s Cultural Institute.
1863
- Our first chapel was built.
- Transepts were added to the nave.
1862
- April 24. Emmanuel Church consecrated. It was the first building constructed on Newbury Street.
- Pew deeds were issued.
- Edward Payson Dutton became clerk.
1861
March 24. The Rev. Dr. Frederic Dan Huntington (May 28, 1819-July 11, 1904) was ordained and became Emmanuel’s First Rector. See also the chapter on him in Emmanuel Church, 1860-1960: The First Hundred Years.
June 17. Cornerstone laid for the church on Newbury St.
- Alexander Esty (18 October 1826 – 2 July 1881) architect.
Dec 15. First service in the church
1860
- March 17. The first meeting held at William R. Lawrence’s house, 98 Beacon
The Rev. Dr. F. Dan Huntington
Street. A committee was formed to secure Dr. Frederic Dan Huntington (1819-1904) as rector, although he had yet to be ordained an Episcopalian priest. Richard Sullivan. Fay, Jr. (1833-1882) was chosen as Chairman of the Committee of Subscribers.
- April 9 (Easter Monday). At their foundation meeting the name Emmanuel Church was formally adopted and these officers elected:
- Edward Sprague Rand (1809-84), senior warden until 1864
- William Richards Lawrence (1812-1885), junior warden until 1863
- John B. Alley (1817-1896), clerk
- Jere E. Bridge, treasurer
- Sept 12. Dr. Huntington was ordained a deacon at Trinity Church, then on Summer Street.
- Sept 16. The first service was held at Mechanics Association Hall, at the intersection of Bedford and Chauncy streets.
- Proprietors of the Corporation were:
- Benjamin Franklin Burgess (1817-1909)
- Col. John Jeffries, Jr. (1823-1897)
- William Richards Lawrence (1812-1885)
- Edward Sprague Rand (1809-84)
- Henry Sigourney (1831-1873)
- Henry Timmins (1800-1863)
- George Phineas Upham (1826-1901)
- Foster Waterman (1805-1870)