Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

spring term of his freshman year he left
college to assist the Rev. T. A. T. Hanna,
D. D., who was secretary of the State
Convention of Connecticut. In this way
he became very well acquainted with the
Baptist work of the State, in which he
was interested as long as he lived.
In the following fall he returned to
Colgate University, having made up the
term's work during the summer months,
and graduated therefrom in 1885. In ad-
dition to his work in college and semin-
ary, Dr. Fennell was pastor of a small
church in Sidney, New York, for four and
one-half years. He went there in 1882
and preached on Sundays until he left the
seminary to accept a call to the First Bap-
tist Church of Middletown, Connecticut,
and he received the degree of Master of
Arts from the Seminary in 1888, and the
degree of Doctor of Divinity from his
Alma Mater in 1908. He was ordained to
the ministry, April 26, 1887, and was pas-
tor of the First Baptist Church for five
years, and during this time the church
edifice was almost entirely remodeled.
He also evidenced his peculiar fitness for
his sacred calling, and his earnest work
for the spiritual progress of the church
won him the affection and esteem of the
members. His second pastorate was in
the First Baptist Church of Meriden,
Connecticut, where he remained eight
years. In that period two hundred and
forty new members were received into
the church.
His activities were not all confined to
the pastorate. During his pastorates at
Middletown and Meriden, he was much
interested in Bible class work, and his
inspirational talent in that line gave him
a reputation that led to his being placed
at the head of Bible study promotion
work among the Baptist churches of the
State. Under his auspices as president of
the Connecticut Baptist Bible School
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
156
Union a summer school was held in the
Tabernacle at Crescent Beach, in which
the Baptist Bible scholarship of the State
was enlisted. In that school was brought
out, in a series of lectures by the Rev. E.
Blakeslee, the first draft of that original
student's life of Christ, which afterward
developed into the Blakeslee system of
graded instruction, an idea that was taken
up and finally absorbed by the larger
denominational publishing societies. For
two years Dr. Fennell wrote a series of
Sunday school lessons called the ''Senior
Inductive Bible Studies." During his
pastorate at Meriden he was the State
president of the Young People's Society
of Christian Endeavor.
His next call was from beyond the
limits of his native State, and it was with
considerable regret that he accepted the
call as it meant the severance of relations
very dear to him. In 1900 Dr. Fennell
was called to the South Baptist Church of
Newark, New Jersey, where he served as
pastor for eight years, years blessed in
the memory of that church. In 1907 the
Rev. George M. Stone, D. D., who had
been pastor of the Asylum Avenue Bap-
tist Church of Hartford, Connecticut, for
twenty-nine years, chose Dr. Fennell as
his successor, and he was called to the
church in October, 1907, and began his
work, May 1, 1908. He served the church
for nearly nine years, until the final call
came and he heard the Master's approv-
ing words, "Well done, good and faithful
servant."
During many of these years Dr. Fen-
nell gave much time to lecturing for the
Young Men's Christian Association, the
Young Women's Christian Association,
Teachers' Bible Study Institute, and for
six years taught the Old Testament in
the Kennedy School of Missions con-
nected with the Hartford Theological
Seminary. These thirty years in the min-