[p. 56]
Mystic Church.
In pursuing the history of this church quotations will be freely made from the semi-centennial address delivered Oct. 24, 1897, by
the Rev. Mr. Barstow, its present pastor.
Reference has been made to the unpleasant relations existing between the pastor of the
Second Church and some of its members which might have intensified the desire of the latter to colonize.
But there were other things that conspired to make them feel that the propitious time had arrived for the formation of a new church.
‘The town was rapidly growing, and its business life developing, especially along the line of ship-building (one hundred and eighty-five ships being built in it in the ten years from 1843), and the new railroad was just then opened to the centre of the town.’
Then, too, the size of the congregation seemed to forebode the necessity of enlarging the church edifice in the near future if there were no separation.
At the suggestion of
Rev. Mr. Baker, the pastor, two neighboring ministers were named by him and two by
Deacon James, to whom the whole matter of organizing a new church should be referred, and their advice was to be final.
They met on the 29th of March and, after listening to all the
pros and
cons, came promptly and decidedly to the conclusion that a new church should be formed immediately.
Separate worship was begun in the
Town Hall on Sunday, May 9, 1847.
The largest attendance at any of the nine services held before the church was formally organized was one hundred and eighty-four.
The organization was effected July 6, 1847, seven churches and four specially invited ministers composing the council.
The sermon was by
the Rev. Dr. Kirk, of the
Mt. Vernon Church, and the address “constituting the church” was by
the Rev. Dr. Edward Beecher of
[p. 57] the
Salem-street Church in
Boston.
The church consisted of sixty members.
July 29
Nathaniel Jaquith,
Galen James,
Jotham Stetson and
John Stetson were chosen deacons.
All of them had held the same office in the mother church, and the last named, who had served in that church for eight years, continued faithfully to discharge the duties of the office till his death, in 1899, in the eighty-eighth year of his age.
The Mystic Society was legally organized Aug. 13, 1847.
The land on which the building now stands on Salem street was soon purchased, and a house capable of seating about five hundred persons was erected, and dedicated to the worship of God Feb. 14, 1849.
The house contained seventy-three pews, whose appraised value ranged from ninety to two hundred and fifty dollars. About half of the pews were sold to individuals and the rest were held as ‘stock’ by five persons and rented at eight per cent. of their appraised value.
Two-fifths of that stock was purchased later by
Mr. William Haskins and by his will donated to the society, in addition to four thousand dollars in cash, which is now invested in the parsonage.
Mr. Haskins, though not a member of the church, was deeply interested in its welfare.
He died in 1871.
For many years the annual expenses of the society were met by assessing a tax upon the members of the church according to their town valuation, and by the voluntary contributions of those who were not members.
This method was discontinued after 1871, and since the union of the two churches, in 1874, the pew rental system has been employed.
On the twentieth of September, 1847, by a hearty, unanimous vote,
the Rev. A. B. Warner (a nephew of the first pastor of the mother church) was called to the pastorate, at a salary of $800.
