Twichell’s Resignation Announced from the Pulpit

1. According to the Courant, no more than six people had known about Twichell’s resignation prior to the announcement. Only one person, A. H. Bronson, knew about Walter’s departure.
2. A Courant reporter would interview Walter about this at some point today, and Walter told the reporter that:
• He had reached his decision to resign on his own;
• Twichell had felt for a long time that he needed to step back from his activities; and
• Twichell’s family had been urging him to resign.

It bears mentioning that later sources give different dates for the service at which Parker announced Twichell’s resignation to the congregation.  They are:

• December 11, 1911: Twichell’s obituary gave this date as the date Parker announced his resignation to the congregation.
• December 13, 1911: the Courant published a history of the church just prior to the church’s 50^th anniversary, and it stated that Parker announced Twichell’s resignation occurred on this date.  Melva Swartz, covering the church’s 75^th anniversary, picked up this same date, but she said the resignation was announced on the 46^th anniversary of Twichell’s installation, which was December 11, 1865.  The Courant’s earlier history said it took place “nearly 46 years” after his installation.

I side with the contemporary article over the later ones, and I share these different dates because it’s interesting to contemplate how the date changed over time, especially by the 50th anniversary:  not only was that celebration just over three years after Twichell’s resignation, Twichell was also in attendance as the congregation honored him and his pastorate.

1. Joseph Twichell was installed as pastor on December 13, 1865.
2. Howard Walter was installed as assistant pastor on November 18, 1910.
3. Walter submitted his letter of resignation on December 1, 1911.
4. Twichell submitted his letter of resignation on December 8, 1911.

The church would act on Twichell’s letter of resignation on January 19, 1912.

1. From Parker’s remarks: “I pray you, good friends, to pardon him who brings you this sad and surprising message.  My only plea is that of fidelity to the inexpressibly tender and strong ties of brotherly friendship and love which, for so many happy years, have bound together your minister and myself in the closest and choicest intimacy.”
2. From Parker’s remarks: “Therefore I beg to say that all the regrets and sorrows, all the affliction which you now experience on receiving his resignation, should be softened, if not sweetened, by a grateful and thankful remembrance of the peculiar and abounding blessings with which God has hitherto filled the cup of your mercies, even to overflowing.”
3. From Walter’s remarks: “Beyond all the joys and exceeding rich rewards of the year just passed, outshining even the luster of the manifold kindnesses and underserved affection which have been lavished on me and mine by the members of this congregation, may I say that the fairest jewel in the diadem of the days of my service in Asylum Hill parish has been the privilege, so coveted when I came, of association, intimate and unshadowed, with our pastor.”

1. Walter concluded his remarks on Twichell as follows: “I would only say that the memory of those hours, and the long continuance, if God will, of that friendship, with – may I add – the friendly intercourse with the members of his family which it included, will remain a precious and enduring heritage through the coming years of a service so different and so distant.”
2. Both the Fiftieth and the Seventy-fifth Anniversary articles that were published in the Courant gave the date of Twichell’s resignation as December 13, 1911.

Swartz, Melva J., “Hill Church Will Observe Anniversary,” Hartford Courant, March 18, 1940, page 1.

Unattributed, “Fiftieth Anniversary of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church,” Hartford Courant, February 14, 1915, page X5

Unattributed, “Rev. J. H. Twichell Resigns Pastorate,” Hartford Courant, December 11, 1911, page 1.