There are three sources for Hawley’s remarks at this meeting and, consequently, for whether or not he called for a new Sunday School on Asylum Hill. These are: a contemporary article in the Hartford Daily Courant; Maria Metcalf’s 1890 recollections to Fanny Bartlett; and Atwood Collins’s history lecture on the occasion of Asylum Hill Congregational Church’s 50th anniversary. Although none of these sources contradict each other, they do become increasingly specific, with the Courant article being largely silent on this subject and Collins directly quoting Hawley’s speech.
Maria Metcalf recalled in 1890 that she had attended the 1860 annual meeting of the City Missionary Society at the Pearl Street [Congregational] Church, but the 1860 annual meeting was held at Center [Congregational] Church. The 1861 annual meeting was held at the Pearl Street Church, but at that meeting Hawley announced his resignation as City Missionary. Given that the Sunday school was up and running by July 1861 at the latest, which was in between the 1860 and 1861 annual meetings, Metcalf more than likely misremembered the location of the meeting she attended.