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Centennial Memorial of the First Baptist Church of Hartford, Connecticut, March 23d and 24th, L890
Centennial Memorial of the First Baptist Church of Hartford Connecticut March 23d and 24th L890 Author:First Baptist Church General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1890 Original Publisher: Press of Christian secretary Subjects: Baptists Religion / Sermons / Christian Religion / Christianity / Baptist Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you... more » buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: ADDRESS Of DEACON GUSTAVUS F. DAVIS. The First Baptist Church in Hartford was constituted on the 23d day of March, 1790, under advice of council. John Bolles was the first deacon, and is regarded as the father of the Baptist cause in this place. It was not until about eight years later that the first meeting-house was built on the corner of Temple and Market Streets, where it still remains. It is also worthy of notice as the place in which the first sessions of Washington (now Trinity) College were held. The first pastor was the Rev. Stephen Smith Nelson, an alumnus of Rhode Island College (now Brown University). He was called to supply the pulpit in 1796, ordained in 1798, and continued in charge until 1801. He married the daughter of Deacon Ephraim Robins, and was said to be the first educated Baptist minister in the state. After an interval of six years, during which the pulpit was supplied by Dea. Robins, the Rev. David Bolles and Eber Maffit, the church called as its second pastor the learned but eccentric, Rev. Henry Grew, who served from 1807 to 1811. The next minister was the Rev. Elisha Cushman, from 1813 to 1825. He was very successful, and during his ministry the membership was increased from 90 to 268. He was succeeded by the Rev. Cyrus P. Grosvenor from 1825 to 1827, and he by the Rev. Barnas Sears, 1827 to 1829. The latter became, subsequently, a professor in Newton Theological Institution, and later President of Brown University. The above par...« less