Here is a poem that weaves in the names of all who served as pastors of the Harrison Square Church in Dorchester (Boston), Mass. up to 1878. All of them were authors and many were poets. Rev. Caleb Davis Bradlee, who was the current Pastor at the time, wrote it and although he lists all the names at the bottom of the poem, I will list them first and tell you what I found out about them. Just posting the poem would give you no idea how famous these guys really were in their time, although few have made it into wikipedia (and the ones that did only because of their connection to another person who has a page).
Rev. Charles Brooks – The church was opened for Unitarian worship in Nov. 1848 with the illustrious Rev. Brooks on hand till the end of the year. He was known as the Father of Normal Schools for his labors in education. A memoir about this Rev. Brooks (picture and all) appears in an 1880-1881 volume of The Massachusetts Historical Society at p. 174. At one point in his life, it says he became friends with William Wordsworth, and he also turns up in John Quincy Adams’ memoirs. He is not the Rhode Island Unitarian minister in wikipedia, Rev. Charles Timothy Brooks.
Rev. Francis C. Williams took over In Jan. 1849 and stayed, as we also see in the poem, a year. From there he went to Vermont. When the Civil War broke out, he served as the chaplain for the Eighth Regiment of Vermont Volunteer Infantry. One report states he had an “impetuous nature,” while another describes him in his later years as appearing much younger than he really was.
Rev. Samuel Johnson came on next in Jan. 1850, staying until the spring of 1851. No, not THAT Samuel Johnson. This Samuel Johnson was a classmate and friend of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s brother, Samuel. Together they published a book of hymns entitled “Hymns of the Spirit,” which included a poem attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, later discovered to really be by a lady named Miss Eliza Thayer Clapp. (If Emerson was the one who eventually corrected this, he took a long time doing it). There’s a page about Rev. Johnson on this site: Amos Bronson Alcott (Louisa May Alcott’s father).
Rev. Dr. S. G. Bulfinch came on board in August of 1852. While editor at the Southern Messenger, Edgar Allan Poe corresponded with Rev. Bulfinch in 1836. (links here), mentioning his Boston cousins, Robert and William, in one. Rev. Dr. Bulfinch served at All Soul’s Church in Washington, D.C. from 1838 to 1847, but Poe had left The Messenger in 1837. Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch was the son of architect, Charles Bulfinch, (dome of the U.S. Capitol and many Boston landmarks), and brother of Thomas Bulfinch, author of Bulfinch’s Mythology.
Rev. J. B. Marvin’s stint at Harrison Square Church appears, according to the poem, to have been pretty short, but he did hire Ralph Waldo Emerson to lecture on 4 occasions, which cost $35.00 each time.
Rev. Frederic Hinckley began his work as a Unitarian minister in Windsor, Vt. He served at All Soul’s Church in Washington, D.C. for five years beginning in 1870. He died in Barnstable in Dec. 1891. His son Frederic Allen Hinckley was also a minister, who was listed in early editions of Who’s Who In America as well as a grandson, Allen Carter Hinckley who was an opera singer with the Met.
Rev. Prof. Henry C. Badger was married to Ada Shepard, known as the model for the character of Hilda in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Marble Faun.” Rev. Badger was also an author. His brother, William, published a post-mortem tribute to him in The Unitarian, Vol. IX, Jan. 1894, p. 464, which reveals a great deal about his prolific career and his personal life, including the tragic ending of his marriage.
Rev. Nathaniel Seaver, Jr. was a little hard to pinpoint. Perhaps it’s because his first name is really spelled Nathanael, Harvard Divinity School has a page with a short bio on him.
Now for the poem:
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