The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-11

present. We, the undersigned, believ- ing in the Christian religion, and att tached to the Protestant Episcopal church, do agree to unite and form a religious society in New Haven, in the county of New Haven and state of Connecticut for the benefit of the Prot estant Episcopal church, and we do in pursuance of the statute laws of Con- recticut in such case provided, here by, by these presents, unite and associ- ate ourselves together and form such new religious society, under the name of the parish of St. Thomas church." This was signed by William Brown, D. M. Burwell, A. T. Wood, John Warner, Joseph Yemmans, Gideon Ferris, Aaron Belden, A. B. Clarke, John Lego, James filling, James S. Arnold, William M. Thompson, Joel B. Foote, William A.. Goodwin, Richard A. Goodwin and Thomas Lawton, all of whom have gone to their rest, so far as have been able to determine. I give these names that you may know who the men were who conceived and carried out the idea of the formation of this parish.
 At this same meeting a committee was appointed Ito wait on the rectors of the Episcopal churches in the city and request their cooperation and rec commendation to further this cause" !" Their report shows that the rector and associate rector of Trinity church were in entire sympathy with the move, while the rector of St. Paul's thought it inexpedient to form another parish at that time. It does not seem, however, as if it were formed any too soon, for it at once had wholesome growth without drawing from the strength of the existing parishes.
 The first officers chose were Joel B. Foot and James S. Arnold, wardens; A. F. Wood, treasurer; and D. M. Bur- well, clerk. MT. Foot remained senior warden until 1871 when he resigned be- cause of his intention to remove from the cty.
 It ought to be stated at this point that St. Thomas was never a mission but was independent from the first. You may be interested to know how the church came to be called St. Thom- as. There are only two others by the way in the diocese which bear that lldlllc AL ctll llllOI llcA odCliOii iiA6 CA those who were interested in the for mation/of the new parish the matter of name came up for discussion, and several names were suggested. But the suggestion which met the approval of all was that of the wife of one of the promoters of the parish, which sugges- tion was that it should be called St. Thomas, because Bishop BrownelPs s name was Thomas. I confess I like that explanation of the origin of the l name better than that suggested by good woman, who, when she was asked why it was called St. Thomas, sarcas- tically replied that "she did not know unless it was to indicate the doubtful ness of the project
 We have seen now that the formal organization of the parish took place February "A, 1S48, but no services were held until Easter two months later. In the meantime the parish had extended call to the Rev. E. E. Beardsley, rec tor of St. Peters church, Cheshire, to
 become their rector, and he had slg- nified his willingness to cast in his lot
 with theirs and to take up his duties at Easter am not quite sure how they happened to turn to him, but the nat ural inference is that they knew him, and were familiar with his preaching, some of them at least, for in the year | 1S41 to AZ he assisted for four months in Trinity parish. And then I am told that he had made the remark that a | third parish was needed in New Haven | Moreover he had proved himself a l capable business man in his adminis- | tration of affairs at Cheshire, both l in the academy and the church, and | the situation here demanded a man l whose knowledge of business was | something more than parliamentary | Taking all those things into considera-
 tion it is not difficult to understand
 how they came to turn to him. He was | their first and only choice. That he had faith in the enterprise is evidenced
 by his coming. He knew that it was a great undertaking and that to make | 1t a success would tax his abilities to | the utmost. The modest stipend of $6Ot | could not have been a very strong fac- tor in helping him to decide. No, it was
 his faith in the future development of l the parish that brought him here, and l I do not think we can accord toe | high praise to his faith and to the | faith of the young men who started the
 enterprise. In a sermon which he
 preached at the close of the first de- | cade of his rectorship he says: Such
 was the pecuniary weakness of the
 original organization, and so uninvit- | ing outwardly was the whole prospect
 that the question with the people could
 not have been, as with wealthy and
 long established parishes, who shall be
 called to the rectorship, but, who will | come and throw himself into this posi- l ton of anxiety and care and self-sacri-
 fee, and work with us in faith, build- | ing up and looking for the reward ot
 his labors more to the future than the | present"
 The parish had procured the use of 8 lecture room owned by the Congrega-
 tionalists on what is now little Orange
 street. and there on Easter day, 1S48 | they commenced their services. There
 were twenty-five present at that first
 communion, and about thirty families
 made up the congregation. But the
 growth of the parish exceeded the most
 sanguine expectations, and before tho
 year had closed in which the parish
 was organized it was voted to purchase
 a lot and to build thereon a. house o1 worship which would accommodate the | increa sing congregation. Accordingly