A Neighbor Complains about the Bells at Asylum Hill Congregational Church & Trinity Episcopal Church

Who was “N”?  Two days after the Courant published this complaint, it re-printed an article from the Hartford Times that referred to “Dr. Burton’s excellent communication to the Courant, against the nuisance of church bell-ringing, meets with general approbation.”  That would make “N” Nathaniel Burton, pastor of the Park Congregational Church and dear friend of Joseph Twicell.  Burton was (likely) a resident of Forest Street at this time.

The Asylum Hill Congregational Church accepted a gift from Roland Mather that would allow the church to complete its steeple on February 10, 1875.  The new tower would include space for clocks, and “N” is quite clear that the future clocks prompted this letter.

1. The complaint garnered at least one letter of support, from a resident of Main Street who said he certainly knew what “N” was talking about.
2. Another letter criticized “N” for mentioning the “stump-tail church” as an authority of church bells – it offered an interesting anecdote involving Delaware melons, but it effectively amounted to an argument that of course this church would say it didn’t need bells to draw its members to worship because the churches with bells were doing it for them!
3. “N” followed up with a letter to the editor three days later suggesting that the fire alarm bell be rung only for its actual function, namely, to alert people to a fire, rather than to commemorate the death of “a citizen who died in the discharge of his duty” in a way sure to provoke anxiety in the general populace.

1. Trinity Episcopal Church constructed a new church building in 1892 and did not install bells.
2. Asylum Hill Congregational Church installed clocks in its steeple on September 20, 1897.
3. The hands of the clock went into place on September 23, 1897, and the church took steps to ensure the tolling of the hours would not become a nuisance.

Up until this point in time, Asylum Hill Congregational Church had been a “stump-tailed church,” or a church without a steeple.

1. “They bring nobody to church who would not come otherwise. They do not in the least assist punctuality, in these days of clocks and watches in all houses and pockets.  They cannot ordinarily be said to ‘make melody unto the Lord.’  And in fact they answer no purpose except to be fountains of noise.”
2. “We love you, but we don’t want your bells. In our more angered moments we class them with steam gongs, locomotive whistles, fire crackers, and other like superfluous outbreaks, in which there is neither grace, mercy, nor peace.”

The only other (possible) stump-tailed church in Asylum Hill at this point in time would have been the Asylum Avenue Baptist Church.

Half-Sick, “Those Dreadful Bells,” Hartford Daily Courant, June 15, 1875, page 2.

Hartford Times, “Church Bells,” Hartford Daily Courant, June 17, 1875, page 2.

N., “A Complaint and an Appeal,” Hartford Daily Courant, June 12, 1875, page 1.

N., “More of the Bells,” Hartford Daily Courant, June 15, 1875, page 2.

One Who Can’t Get Used to It, “Still Another,” Hartford Daily Courant, June 15, 1875, page 2.