1 am - 
 
 ... . 
 
 :
 
 THE CHURCHES OF MATTATUCK.
 
 THE CHURCHES OF MATTATUCK : 
 A RECORD OF A BI-CENTENNIAL 
 CELEBRATION AT WATERBURY, CON- 
 NECTICUT, NOVEMBER 4 TH AND 5x11,1891. 
 
 EDITED BY JOSEPH ANDERSON, S. T. D. ( 
 
 PASTOR OF THE MOTHER CHURCH, MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN 
 SOCIETY, THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, ETC. 
 
 NEW HAVEN : 
 
 PRESS OF THE PRICE, LEE & ADKINS COMPANY. 
 1892.
 
 TO MY PEOPLE. 
 
 NOT MINE ALONE, THIS STORY OF THE PAST. 
 
 MINE THE DIM OUTLINE, OTHER HANDS HAVE CAUGHT 
 THE CHANGING COLORS OF THE CENTURIES VAST 
 
 AND LIFE'S SWEET CHARM INTO THE CANVAS WROUGHT. 
 
 NOT MINE ; AND YET I FONDLY PRESS MY CLAIM ! 
 
 HAVE I NOT WATCHED THE PICTURE SLOWLY GROW, 
 ADDING, THE WHILE, EVENT AND DATE AND NAME 
 
 SOME TOUCH OF LIGHT TO WIN PERFECTION so? 
 
 AND NOW, O FRIENDS LONG LOVED, MY FINISHED TASK 
 
 To YOU I BRING. THAT IT SHOULD SPEAK OF ME 
 IN ANY TIME TO COME, I DO NOT ASK ; 
 BUT LET IT TEACH YOU EVERMORE TO BE 
 
 To THAT GREAT PAST MORE JUST, RESPONSIVE, TRUE, 
 WHENCE THROUGH THE YEARS GOD'S MESSAGE COMES TO YOU. 
 
 JOSEPH ANDERSON. 
 
 MAY 4TH, 1892.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 It appears from an Indian deed of 1657, and from 
 certain entries in the colonial records in 1673, that 
 the name by which Waterbury was first known was 
 Mattatuckoke, which means, " the place without 
 trees," or, " the badly wooded land." The name, 
 like all Indian geographical names, was accurately 
 descriptive; but whether it was originally applied 
 to the treeless meadows of the Naugatuck, which 
 are so extensive in this part of the valley, or to 
 some other badly wooded place, cannot now be pos- 
 itively decided. However this may be, the name was 
 used but a short time by white men ere the termina- 
 tion okt (meaning "land " or "place ") was dropped, 
 and the name in its shortened form, Mattatuck,came 
 to be applied to the entire region afterward incor- 
 porated as the town of Waterbury. This territory 
 embraces to-day the towns of Waterbury, Watertown, 
 Plymouth, Thomaston, Naugatuck and Middlebury, 
 a large part of Wolcott and Prospect, and portions 
 of Oxford, Litchfield and Harwinton. 
 
 The Congregational churches of this region may 
 without impropriety be designated " The Churches 
 of Mattatuck," and this is the name assigned to 
 them on the title-page of this volume. These 
 churches, although scattered over so wide a field, 
 and not all in close fellowship with one another, 
 are brought into a well defined group by virtue of 
 their common descent from the church organized
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 at the centre of the ancient town in 1691. The aim 
 of those who had charge of the bi-centenary of the 
 original organization was to have this entire group 
 of churches represented in the public services by 
 their pastors. 
 
 The papers read by these pastors, and the ad- 
 dresses made by other speakers, are reproduced in 
 full in the following pages. The addresses of those 
 who spoke without manuscript were stenographi- 
 cally reported. Of the paper by the Rev. E. B. Hil- 
 lard, of Conway, Mass., only a synopsis was given 
 at the celebration. While histories have been pub- 
 lished elsewhere, in pamphlet or book form, of the 
 other older churches of the Waterbury group 
 Watertown, Wolcott and Naugatuck no history of 
 the church in Plymouth has hitherto appeared 
 except in a series of articles in a local newspaper. 
 As Plymouth is with one exception the eldest 
 daughter and has been the most prolific of all, and 
 as her record strikingly illustrates the painful pro- 
 cess by which derivative churches and towns were 
 brought into being in early Connecticut, it seems 
 appropriate that Mr. Hillard's transcript of Ply- 
 mouth history should be given in full. 
 
 In the service devoted to the derivative churches, 
 two or three of those churches were not heard 
 from. That Northfield had a place among the 
 " grand-daughters " was a fact I was not aware of 
 until after the celebration was over. The relation of 
 Oxford to Waterbury I was not sure of. I have 
 prepared (not without considerable labor) sketches 
 of these churches, also of the church at Terryville 
 and the little church at Reynolds Bridge, and for 
 the sake of completeness have included them in
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 this volume, where they may be found in their 
 proper chronological order. 
 
 In preparing the various addresses and papers 
 for the press I have added bibliographical and 
 other notes which may be of service to those desir- 
 ing to pursue still further the history of a church, 
 a district or a period. I have also prefixed some 
 historical memoranda, by the help of which the 
 proper place of Waterbury in the early develop- 
 ment of Connecticut may be definitely recognized, 
 and have given a careful account of the bi-centen- 
 'nial celebration itself, reproducing therein the pro- 
 gram of the entire series of services. Other mat- 
 ters connected more or less closely with the occasion 
 are given as " addenda." The additions thus made 
 including a full index constitute about one-fifth 
 of the volume, and represent the earnest desire of 
 the editor to give to it such completeness as was 
 possible within prescribed limits. In this way 
 may also be explained in part at least the long 
 delay in the publication of the book. 
 
 In the public celebration, but little reference was 
 made to those who have served as pastors of the 
 First church since the death of Mark Leaven- 
 worth, and accordingly this record of that celebra- 
 tion contains only their names and the dates of 
 their pastorates. Some of these men were undoubt- 
 edly as able and devoted, and as well worthy of 
 commemoration, as those whose lives are here 
 recorded. But the exigencies of the occasion were 
 such that, although materials were not wanting, 
 detailed accounts could not be presented. To com- 
 plete the history of the mother church, even on 
 the basis which the present compilation indicates,
 
 x PREFACE. 
 
 would require a second volume, giving biographies 
 of the pastors of the present century and an accu- 
 rate account of the relations of the church to our 
 other churches and to the large and busy life of 
 the Waterbury of to-day. 
 
 JOSEPH ANDERSON. 
 Waterbury, May 4th, 1892.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, 3 
 
 HISTORICAL DATA, 18 
 
 I. THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURY. 
 
 DR. JOSEPH ANDERSON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, - 25 
 
 II. THE WATERBURY CHURCHES. 
 
 WORDS OF INTRODUCTION, ..... 57 
 
 DR. EDMUND ROWLAND'S ADDRESS, 59 
 
 REV. W. P. ELSDON'S ADDRESS, - 63 
 
 REV. A. C. EGGLESTON'S ADDRESS, 68 
 
 MR. D. F. MALTBY'S PAPER. 72 
 
 REV. J. G. DAVENPORT'S POEM, - - 76 
 
 III. THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN FARMINGTON, 93 
 
 THE CHURCH IN WATERTOWN, - - - - 99 
 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH, 108 
 
 THE CHURCH IN OXFORD, 131 
 
 THE CHURCH IN WOLCOTT, 136 
 
 THE CHURCH IN NAUGATUCK, .... 14! 
 
 THE CHURCH AT NORTHFIELD, .... ^3 
 
 THE CHURCH IN MIDDLEBURY, ----- 153 
 
 THE CHURCH IN PROSPECT, 160 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THOMASTON, 163 
 
 THE CHURCH AT TERRYVILLE, .... ^5 
 
 THE CHURCH AT REYNOLDS BRIDGE, - - - 169
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 IV. EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 JEREMIAH PECK, BY Miss S. J. PRICHARD, - 173 
 
 JOHN SOUTHMAYD, by Miss PRICHARD, - - - 184 
 
 MARK LEAVENWORTH, BY HON. F. J. KINGSBURY, 197 
 
 DR. H. B. ELLIOT'S ADDRESS, .... 209 
 
 DR. GEORGE BUSHNELL'S ADDRESS, - - - - 215 
 
 V. REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATULATION. 
 
 REV. J. L. R. WYCKOFF'S ADDRESS, - - - 227 
 
 REV. J. S. ZELIE'S ADDRESS, 233 
 
 PRESIDENT FRANKLIN CARTER'S ADDRESS, - 240 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 LETTERS FROM ABSENT FRIENDS, .... 253 
 
 RELICS OF THE DEAD, 257 
 
 INDEX, - 265
 
 INTRODUCTION.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. 
 
 The first public reference to a celebration of the 
 bi-centenary of the First Church in Waterbury 
 was made on Sunday, March ist, 1891, at a com- 
 munion service in which the two Congregational 
 churches of the city participated. It was sug- 
 gested that as the 26th of August, the true anniver- 
 sary of the organization of the mother church, was 
 for various reasons an unfavorable time for the 
 celebration, it should take place in the autumn. 
 
 On the 2oth of September, the question of a pub- 
 lic celebration having been laid before the congre- 
 gation of the First church, it was voted that public 
 services be held on the 4th and 5th of November, 
 that the Second Congregational church be invited 
 to a special participation in it, and that the stand- 
 ing committee secure the appointment of a suitable 
 committee of arrangements, on which both churches 
 should be represented. The invitation was accepted 
 by the Second church, and a committee of ladies 
 and gentlemen was appointed, numbering forty. 
 
 At a meeting of this committee on the 5th of 
 October, the Hon. S. W. Kellogg was appointed 
 chairman, and Dr. E. O. Hovey secretary. The 
 work of preparation was divided among the follow- 
 ing special committees:
 
 4 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 On public services : The Rev. Joseph Anderson, D. D., the 
 Rev. John G. Davenport, A. S. Gibson, Dea. D. F. Maltby, 
 O. H. Stevens, Miss Sarah J. Prichard, Mrs. Cornelia M. 
 Benedict, Mrs. D. F. Webster. 
 
 On hospitality : Mrs. L. I. Munson, Mrs. H. L. Welch, Mrs. 
 H. C. Griggs, Mrs. W. E. Riley, Miss Martha Kendrick, Mrs. 
 J. R. Smith, Mrs. G. E. Terry, Dea. G. W. Beach, S. M. Judd. 
 
 On church decorations : Mrs. F. B. Rice, Mrs. E. L. Bron- 
 son, Mrs. G. L. White, Mrs. A. C. Peck, C. M. Upson, A. J. 
 Blakesley. 
 
 On finances : Earl Smith (treasurer), J. H. Bronson, Israel 
 Holmes, Elisha Leavenworth. 
 
 On printing and publication : C. F. Chapin, R. R. Stannard, 
 Miss Anna L. Ward, Miss Helen Sperry. 
 
 The other members of the committee of arrangements were 
 as follows : Mrs. Charlotte F. Blackman, Mrs. Cornelia A. 
 Buel, Miss Mary E. Cook, Miss Margaret Croft, Miss Susan 
 Spencer, H. F. Bassett, A. S. Chase, W. H. Cooke, C. P. Goss, 
 Dea. Eben Hoadley. 
 
 On the 23d of October a circular letter was sent 
 out to pastors and others, giving an outline of the 
 two days' program which was in preparation, and 
 conveying "a cordial invitation to be present at 
 the celebration " to 
 
 all the churches in the city of Waterbury and within the 
 bounds of the ancient township, to churches in the vicinity, to 
 former members -of the First church, still surviving, and their 
 descendants, and to friends of the old church wherever they 
 may be. 
 
 A list of the Congregational churches existing 
 within the bounds of ancient "Mattatuck" was 
 given, and it was announced that most of these, as 
 well as all the Protestant churches of the city, and 
 also the Congregational church in Farmington, 
 "the mother of us all," would be represented in the 
 exercises of November 4th and 5th by their pastors
 
 PREPARATIONS. 5 
 
 or prominent members. The hope was also 
 expressed that the " daughter churches " would 
 appoint delegations to be present at some, if not 
 all, of the services. 
 
 The hopes and promises of the letter of invita- 
 tion were pleasantly fulfilled. The committee on 
 public services was so fortunate as to secure the 
 acceptance of all, without exception, who had been 
 invited to take part in the several public meetings, 
 and the other committees fulfilled their various 
 duties with zeal and success. 
 
 The arrangement of the interior of the church 
 received careful attention from the committee on 
 decorations and their assistants, and was consid- 
 ered unusually artistic and appropriate. On the 
 main walls of the church, between the windows, 
 were hung large tablets in the form of shields, 
 bearing the names of the churches descended from 
 the mother church and the dates of their organiza- 
 tion. On the gallery across the rear of the audito- 
 rium were the names of the ''granddaughters" 
 churches derived from the church in Plymouth. 
 On the end wall, facing the congregation, was a 
 large and elaborate tablet, containing the names of 
 all the pastors of the First church and the dates of 
 their pastorates, and high above the choir gallery, 
 on either side of the organ, were panels bearing 
 the dates, 1691 and 1891. The woodwork behind 
 the pulpit, constituting the front of the choir gal- 
 lery, was covered with a mass of foliage consisting 
 of laurel branches, and bearing the inscription, 
 "Farmington, 1652, the Mother of Us All," and on 
 the other side, " Waterbury, 1691." The pulpit plat- 
 form was occupied with masses of flowers and foli-
 
 6 BI-GENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 age-plants, and rustic baskets, filled with flowers 
 and trimmed with autumn leaves, hung from the 
 peaks of the arches between the columns on either 
 side. The tablets on the walls were also adorned 
 with masses of autumn leaves. 
 
 The only decorations elsewhere were those in the 
 church parlors, consisting of newly framed por- 
 traits of a number of the pastors and deacons. 
 Deacon Edward L. Bronson, some time before his 
 death, began collecting photographs of his prede- 
 cessors in office, and Mrs. Bronson continued the 
 work. Having brought together all that could be 
 procured making an unbroken series from 1818 
 to the present day she had them mounted and 
 placed in two frames of antique oak in time for the 
 celebration. Portraits of six of the pastors a 
 series extending from Joel R. Arnold to Dr. George 
 Bushnell were also placed in an appropriate 
 frame and hung upon the parlor wall. Above this 
 was placed a small photograph of the church edifice 
 preceding the present one, and on one side an 
 engraved portrait of the present pastor and on the 
 other a similar portrait of the Rev. Luke Wood, 
 pastor from 1807 to 1819. This last was the gift of 
 the Rev. Francis T. Russell, rector of St. Margaret's 
 diocesan school, who, in a letter regretting his 
 necessary absence, said : 
 
 I can do a better thing to show my interest than to be 
 present myself, which is, to ask your acceptance of an excellent 
 likeness of my dear grandfather. I will ask you to insert the 
 dates of his pastorate, and have it framed .... with 
 reference to the place you may prefer to have it occupy. 
 
 Outside of the church, in the rear of the chapel 
 a collection of another kind had been arranged, for
 
 PREPARATIONS. 7 
 
 examination by any who might be interested in 
 memorials of those long dead. During the summer 
 of 1891, while the old burying ground on Grand 
 street was undergoing transformation into a park, 
 and headstones were being taken away or buried 
 out of sight, the pastor of the First church had 
 several of the headstones the oldest and those of 
 special historical interest removed temporarily to 
 the church yard. At the same time he had the 
 remains of the second and third pastors of the 
 church disinterred, * with reference to a suitable 
 disposition of them in ground belonging to the 
 parish. It was at one time intended that the re-in- 
 terment of these remains should take place in 
 connection with the memorial service which had 
 been arranged for Thursday afternoon, November 
 5th. This plan it was found necessary to abandon, 
 but the ancient headstones were brought together 
 and placed against the wall on the east side of the 
 church yard in proper order, that all who wished 
 might examine them. The following are the 
 inscriptions upon them : 
 
 Here is | The Body of | Thos. Judd, Esq. | The first | 
 Justice | Deacon | Captain | in Waterbury | who Died Jan'y | 
 ye 4th A. D. 1747 | Aged 79. 
 
 Here lyeth | ye Body of Mrs. Sarah : | Judd wife of Decn | 
 Thomas Judd. She | dyed Septr. ye 28, 1738 | in ye 69 year 
 of | hur Age. 
 
 In Memory of | Thomas Clark | Esqr who departed | this 
 life Novr 12. | 1765. In his 75th. | year. 
 
 * The place of burial of the Rev. Jeremiah Peck is not known. 
 
 A fuller statement regarding these disinterments will be found at the end of 
 this volume.
 
 8 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 Here lies the Body of | Timothy Hopkins | Esq. | who died 
 Febry ye $ih \ A. Dom. 1748 | Aged 57 years. | when this you 
 See, | then think on me. 
 
 Here lies ye Body | of ye Revd John South | mayd Minister 
 of ye Gos | pel for ye space of 40 | years : died Novr I4th | 
 1755 in ye Both year of | his Age. 
 
 This stone is erected to the | Memory of the Rev. | Mark 
 Leavenworth | Pastor of the first Church of | Christ in Water- 
 bury, who | Departed this Life on the 2oth | of August, 1797, 
 in the 86th | year of his age & 5 8th of | His Ministry. 
 
 In Memory of Mrs. | Ruth, consort of Revd | Mark Leaven- 
 worth | & daughter of Mr. | Jeremy Peck, who died | August 
 8th 1750 in the | sad year of her age- 
 In Memory of | Mrs. Sarah Leavenworth | Relict of the | 
 Rev. Mark Leaven worth: | who died | May 7th, 1808: | aged 82.* 
 
 The public services in connection with the cele- 
 bration occupied the larger part of two days, 
 beginning on Wednesday afternoon, November 
 4th. The program distributed at the several ses- 
 sions was very nearly as follows : 
 
 * Thomas Clark, to whose memory one of these stones was erected, was 
 deacon of the church from 1728 to 1765. 
 
 Timothy Hopkins, whose remains were exhumed along with those of the second 
 and third pastors, was the father of the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D. D., the famous 
 divine, from whom the Hopkinsian school of theology received its name, and 
 better known to some readers as the hero of "The Minister's Wooing." 
 
 The headstone which bears the name of John Southmayd is a new one, an 
 exact duplicate of the original, which, when removed, was found to be in several 
 pieces. The reverse of the new stone bears the following inscription : " Replaced | 
 in loving memory | by his | great-great-great-granddaughter | Lucy Bronson 
 Dudley | 1891." The original stone is in Mrs. Dudley's possession.
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES. 9 
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES. 
 
 WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. 
 
 HISTORICAL SERVICE. 
 
 "I remember the days of old ; I meditate on all thy doings ; I muse 
 on the work of thy hands." 
 
 ORGAN PRELUDE, by Mr. A. S. Gibson. 
 
 Andante, op. 122, no. 2. G. Merkel. 
 INVOCATION, by the Rev. Joseph Anderson, D. D. 
 HYMN: " Be thou exalted, O my God." 
 
 READING OF SCRIPTURE, by the Rev. G. A. Bryan. 
 Became a member of the First Church, May 5th, 1839. 
 
 PRAYER, by the Rev. George Bushnell, D. D. 
 Pastor of the First Church from 1858 to 1864. 
 
 HYMN: "O God, our help in ages past." 
 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, by the Rev. Dr. Anderson. 
 HYMN: " Great God. beneath whose piercing eye." 
 PRAYER, by the Rev. J. G. Davenport. 
 HYMN: " Let saints below in concert sing." 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
 ORGAN POSTLUDE, by Mr. A. S. Gibson. 
 Fantasia, op. 176. Merkel. 
 
 WEDNESDAY EVENING. 
 
 SERVICE FOR THE WATERBURY CHURCHES. 
 
 " Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell 
 together in unity." 
 
 ORGAN PRELUDE, by Mr. A. S. Gibson. 
 
 Cantilene Pastorale, op. 15, no. 3. A. Guilmant.
 
 io BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 HYMN: "Thou Holy Spirit, Lord of grace." 
 
 READING OF SCRIPTURE, by the Rev. R. W. Micou. 
 Rector of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 
 PRAYER, by the Rev. L. W. Holmes. 
 
 Pastor of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 HYMN: "O Lord and Master of us all." 
 
 WORDS OF INTRODUCTION, by the Rev. Dr. Anderson 
 
 ADDRESS, by the Rev. Edmund Rowland, D. D. 
 Rector of St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 
 ADDRESS, by the Rev. W. P. Elsdon. 
 
 Pastor of the First Baptist Church. 
 
 ANTHEM: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel." 
 Benedictus in E. , op. 6, no. 2. Dudley Buck. 
 
 ADDRESS, by the Rev. A. C. Eggleston. 
 
 Pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 PAPER, by Mr. D. F. Maltby. 
 
 Senior Deacon of the Second Congregational Church. 
 
 HYMN: "O God, our God, thou shinest here." 
 
 POEM, by the Rev. J. G. Davenport. 
 
 Pastor of the Second Congregational Church. 
 OFFERING. 
 
 For the " Fund for Christian Visitation and Charity." 
 
 OFFERTORY, by Mr. A. S. Gibson. 
 
 A Russian Romance. H. Hoffman. 
 
 PRAYER, by the Rev. F. C. Baker. 
 
 Assistant Minister of the Second Congregational Church. 
 
 HYMN : " Come, kingdom of our God." 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
 ORGAN POSTLUDE. 
 
 " On the Coast." Dudley Buck.
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES. 
 THURSDAY FORENOON. 
 
 SERVICE FOR THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 "Behold, I and the children which God hath given me." 
 ORGAN PRELUDE. 
 
 Adagio, from Sonata, op. 148. J. Rheinberger. 
 HYMN : " See, from Zion's sacred mountain." 
 
 READING OF SCRIPTURE, by the Rev. F. E. Snow. 
 Became a member of the First Church, May 3d, 1868. 
 
 PRAYER, by the Rev. H. M. Hazeltine. 
 Pastor of the Church in Oxford. 
 
 ADDRESS, by the Rev. E. A. Smith. 
 
 Pastor of the Church in Farmington from 1874 to 1888. 
 
 HYMN : " Daughter of Zion, from the dust." 
 
 PAPER, by the Rev. Robert Pegrum. 
 
 Pastor of the Church in Watertown. 
 PAPER, by the Rev. E. B. Hillard. 
 
 Pastor of the Church in Plymouth from 1869 to 1889. 
 PAPER, by the Rev. R. G. Bugbee. 
 
 Pastor of the Church in Thomaston. 
 HYMN : " God of our fathers, to thy throne." 
 
 PAPER, by the Rev. I. P. Smith. 
 
 Pastor of the Church in Wolcott. 
 PAPER, by Mr. Franklia Warren. 
 
 A Deacon of the Church in Naugatuck. 
 PAPER, by the Rev. W. F. Avery. 
 
 Pastor of the Church in Middlebury. 
 PAPER, by the Rev. W. H. Phipps. 
 
 Pastor of the Church in Prospect. 
 HYMN : " O God of Bethel." 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
 ORGAN POSTLUDE. 
 
 Agitato, Allegro, from Sonata, op. 148. Rheinberger.
 
 12 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 THURSDAY AFTERNOON. 
 
 MEMORIAL SERVICE. 
 " The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance." 
 
 ORGAN PRELUDE. 
 
 Offertory in F, Ashdown, no. 83. E. Battiste. 
 
 ANTHEM : " Lead, kindly Light." 
 
 Music by P. A. Schnecker. 
 READING OF 'SCRIPTURE, by the Rev. G. S. Dickerman. 
 
 A descendant of the Rev. Jeremiah Peck. 
 HYMN : " Rise, O my soul, pursue the path." 
 THE Rev. JEREMIAH PECK, by Miss Sarah J. Prichard. 
 THE REV. JOHN SOUTHMAYD, by Miss Prichard. 
 THE REV. MARK LEAVENWORTH, by the Hon. F. 
 J. Kingsbury. 
 
 A lineal descendant of the first three pastors. 
 
 HYMN: "Father, beneath thy sheltering wing." 
 
 ADDRESS, by the Rev. H. B. Elliot, D. D. 
 
 Pastor of the First Church from 1845 to 1851. 
 ADDRESS, by the Rev. George Bushnell, D. D. 
 
 Pastor from 1858 to 1864. 
 PRAYER, by the Rev. G. A. Bryan. 
 HYMN : " Silently the shades of evening." 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
 ORGAN POSTLUDE. 
 
 Sonata in C, op. 65, no. 2. Mendelssohn. 
 
 THURSDAY EVENING. 
 
 SERVICE OF REMINISCENCE AND THANKSGIVING. 
 " The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day; 
 
 the father to the children shall make known thy truth" 
 ORGAN PRELUDE. 
 
 Toccata and Fugue in D minor, book 4, no. 4. J. S. Bach.
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES. 13 
 
 HYMN : " Before Jehovah's awful throne." 
 
 READING OF SCRIPTURE, by the Rev. J. P. Hoyt. 
 
 Pastor of the Church in Cheshire. 
 ANTHEM : " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts." 
 
 " Sanctus," from Communion Service. Gounod. 
 PRAYER, by the Rev. J. A. Freeman. 
 
 Pastor of the First Church in Woodbury. 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 
 HYMN : "O mother dear, Jerusalem." 
 
 ADDRESS, by the Rev. J. L. R. Wyckoff. 
 
 Pastor of the North Church in Woodbury. 
 
 ANTHEM : One Hundred and Twenty-second Psalm. 
 
 In three numbers. Composed by A. S. Gibson. 
 
 OFFERING. 
 
 For the new Congregational Mission in Waterbury. 
 
 OFFERTORY, by Mr. A. S. Gibson. 
 
 March of the Magi Kings. Dubois. 
 
 SONG : " The Ninety and Nine," by Mr. M. C. Baker. 
 Music by Campion. 
 
 ADDRESS, by the Rev. J. S. Zelie. 
 
 Pastor of the Church in Plymouth. 
 MEMORIAL HYMN : 
 
 " O God, to thee our fathers prayed." 
 
 ADDRESS, by President Franklin Carter, LL. D. 
 
 A son of the First Church. 
 THE FORTY-SIXTH PSALM. 
 
 In seven numbers. Dudley Buck. 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
 ORGAN POSTLUDE. 
 
 Choral March, introducing " Ein' Feste Burg." Buck. 
 
 The anthem by Mr. Gibson (Psalm cxxii.) was 
 composed for the celebration, and " respectfully 
 dedicated to the Rev. Joseph Anderson, D. D."
 
 I 4 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 The "Memorial Hymn" sung at the Thursday 
 evening service was written by Dr. Anderson. 
 It is as follows : 
 
 MEMORIAL HYMN. 
 O God ! to thee our fathers prayed, 
 
 When all the hills were forest-clad : 
 In lonely vale, in woodland shade 
 They worshipped, and their hearts were glad. 
 
 Here, day by day, their task they wrought; 
 
 Here, week by week, thy courts they trod : 
 Their labor hath not come to naught, 
 
 And they, gone from us, rest in God. 
 
 Gone ! but the echo of their praise 
 
 Is in the air to-day, and we, 
 True to the faith of olden days, 
 
 Meet as they met, to worship thee. 
 
 Their faith we follow, and their zeal 
 
 We emulate, assured that thou, 
 Who leddest them in woe and weal, 
 
 Art nigh, to bless their children now. 
 
 Spirit divine ! thy blessing give : 
 Here, 'midst the years, thy power display, 
 
 Till dying souls have learned to live, 
 Till all the lost have found their way. 
 
 Mr. Gibson presided at the organ at all the ser- 
 vices of the celebration. The choir of the church 
 quartette and full chorus led the singing at the 
 Thursday evening service. The tenor solos were 
 taken by Mr. Mark C. Baker, of Elmira, N. Y. 
 
 The committee on hospitality made full pro- 
 vision for the entertainment of visitors from 
 abroad. Between the forenoon and afternoon ser- 
 vices of Thursday, a collation was furnished in the 
 parlors of the church, to which about a hundred 
 guests sat down.
 
 VISITORS. 15 
 
 The following is an incomplete list of delegates 
 from " daughter churches," and other visitors from 
 out of town. (Names already given in the program 
 above are not included.) 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. R. D. H. Allen, Terryville. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. I. Allen, Terryville. 
 
 Mrs. Chauncey Atwood, Woodbury. 
 
 Mrs. Frank Babcock, Terryville. 
 
 L. D. Baldwin, Plymouth. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. T. P. Baldwin, Watertown. 
 
 Miss Sarah Baldwin, Watertown. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Barnes, Plantsville. 
 
 A. S. Beardsley, Plymouth. 
 
 Charles W. Bidwell, Watertown. 
 
 Mrs. Lydia A. Bidwell, Watertown. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Frank Blakeslee, Plymouth. 
 
 Miss Sarah Bradley, South Britain. 
 
 Miss F. Bronson, Middlebury. 
 
 Mrs. R. G. Bugbee, Thomaston. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Bull, Plymouth. 
 
 J. E. Burbank, Hartford. 
 
 Mrs. George Bushnell, New Haven. 
 
 Mrs. A. M. Camp, Watertown. 
 
 Mrs. George Camp, Middlebury. 
 
 Miss Gussie Camp, Middlebury. 
 
 G. S. Clark, Middlebury. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. S. T. Dayton, Watertown. 
 
 H. S. Dayton, Watertown. 
 
 Mrs. C. L. Dayton, Watertown. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Marcus DeForest, Middlebury. 
 
 Mrs. Lucy B. Dudley, New York, N. Y. 
 
 Mrs. D. E. Eaton, Naugatuck. 
 
 W. H. Farnham, Morris. 
 
 D. W. Fenn, Middlebury. 
 
 Mrs. J. A. Freeman, Woodbury. 
 
 Mrs. E. C. French, Watertown. 
 
 J. B. Fox, Thomaston. 
 
 Mrs. G. W. Gilbert, Thomaston. 
 
 Mrs. Charles Gilbert, Thomastou.
 
 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 Mrs. Betsey Gordon, Plymouth. 
 
 W. G. Hard, Naugatuck. 
 
 Miss C. M. Hickox, Cheshire. 
 
 Mrs. E. B. Hillard, Conway, Mass. 
 
 Samuel Holmes, Montclair, N. J. 
 
 W. B. Holmes, Montclair, N. J. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. G. B. Hotchkiss, Prospect. 
 
 Mrs. Mary R. Hough, Wolcott. 
 
 Miss Sarah Hungerford, Watertown. 
 
 Rev. J. S. Ives, Stratford. 
 
 Mrs. S. B. Ives, Cheshire. 
 
 Miss Mary Ives, Cheshire. 
 
 Mrs. Harriet Lathrop, Providence, R. I. 
 
 M. J. Leaven worth, Roxbury. 
 
 Rev. and Mrs. Edwin Leonard, Morris. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Lum, Seymour. 
 
 Mrs. H. G. Marshall, Cromwell. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Munson, Westville. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Neales, Naugatuck. 
 
 S. H. Newton, Naugatuck. 
 
 Edward Norton and son, Goshen. 
 
 F. J. Partree, Watertown. 
 John Partree, Watertown. 
 H. C. Peck, Northfield. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Peck, Watertown 
 B. W. Pettibone, Winchester. 
 Mrs. D. F. Pierce, South Britain. 
 
 G. B. Preston, Middlebury. 
 Mrs. I. P. Smith, Wolcott. 
 
 Miss Louisa H. Thompson, Milford. 
 
 Rev. J. P. Trowbridge, Bethlehem. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Tuttle, Middlebury. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. William Tyler, Middlebury. 
 
 Miss Mamie Tyler, Middlebury. 
 
 Mrs. J. M. Wardwell, Plymouth. 
 
 Mrs. Franklin Warren, Naugatuck. 
 
 Mrs. Huldah Warren, Plymouth. 
 
 Mrs. W. S. Webb, Plymouth. 
 
 Miss E. B. Wells, Plymouth. 
 
 Mrs. C. W. Wolcott, Terryville.
 
 EXPENSES. 17 
 
 George Wrigold, Winchester. 
 Mrs. J. S. Zelie, Plymouth. 
 Alfredo Zavalo, Nicaragua, C. A. 
 
 The expenses of the celebration, as reported by 
 the committee on finance, were as follows : 
 
 For printing and postage, . . . . $31.75 
 
 " decorations 45-55 
 
 " framing portraits of pastors, . . . 5.45 
 
 " carting and placing headstones, . . .2.50 
 
 " collation, board, lodging, etc., . . 53.50 
 
 " travelling expenses of speakers, . . 13.00 
 
 " music (soloist, quartette, etc.), . . 71.80 
 
 " stenographer, n-45 
 
 Total, $235-.oo 
 
 The amount required to meet this outlay was 
 collected (from thirty-seven persons) by Messrs. 
 Earl Smith and J. H. Bronson, of the finance com- 
 mittee.
 
 HISTORICAL DATA. 
 
 II. 
 
 Some of the following memoranda were included 
 in the four-page program distributed at the several 
 meetings of the bi-centennial celebration. They 
 may serve a useful purpose in furnishing a histori- 
 cal background for the papers and addresses here 
 published. 
 
 There were eleven churches organized within 
 the present limits of Connecticut previous to the 
 organization of the church in Farmington. The 
 places and dates of their organization are as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Windsor, 1630 ; Hartford, 1636 ; New Haven, 1639 ; Milford, 
 1639 ; Guilford, 1639 ; Stratford, 1640 ; Stamford, 1641 ; Bran- 
 ford, 1646 ; Saybrook, 1646 ; Fairfield, 1650 ; Norwalk, 1652. 
 
 The church in Farmington was an offshoot from 
 the church in Hartford, and was organized on the 
 1 3th of October, 1652, twelve years after the settle- 
 ment of the town. 
 
 During the interval between the organization of 
 the Farmington church and that of the church in 
 Waterbury, thirteen churches were organized as 
 follows: 
 
 Clinton, 1657 ; New London, 1660 ; Norwich, 1660 ; Middle- 
 town, 1668 ; Hartford Second (the ' ' South Church "), 1670 ; 
 Stonington, 1674 ; Wallingford, 1675 ; Haddam, 1675 ; Derby, 
 1677 ; Woodbury, 1679 ; Simsbury, 1682 j.Enfield, 1688 ; Wood- 
 stock, 1690. 
 
 The church in Waterbury was organized on the 
 26th of August, 1691. In the three Connecticut 
 colonies twenty-five churches had been established 
 previous to that time.
 
 HISTORICAL DATA. 19 
 
 The Congregational churches derived wholly or 
 in large part from the First church in Waterbury, 
 with the dates of organization, are as follows. In 
 some of these the parish limits, from the first, 
 extended beyond the bounds of ancient Mattatuck, 
 and the meeting-house (as in the case of Oxford 
 and Northfield) may have been situated in another 
 town. 
 
 Watertown, formerly " Westbury," June (?), 1739. 
 
 Plymouth, formerly " Northbury," May, 1740. 
 
 Oxford, in part, January gth (?), 1745. 
 
 Wolcott, formerly " Farmingbury, " in part, November 18,1773. 
 
 Naugatuck, formerly "Salem Society," February 22nd, 1781. 
 
 Northfield, in part, January ist, 1795. 
 
 Middlebury, formerly "West Farms," February loth, 1796. 
 
 Prospect, formerly " Columbia," in part, May i4th, 1798. 
 
 Thomaston, formerly "Plymouth Hollow," December 7, 1837. 
 
 Terryville, January 2nd, 1838. 
 
 Waterbury, Second, April 4th, 1852. 
 
 Eagle Rock (Reynolds Bridge, Thomaston), October 29, 1879.* 
 
 Of these churches, six (namely, Watertown, 
 Oxford, Northfield, Wolcott, Middlebury and Pros- 
 pect) are situated in farming communities and 
 have suffered from the transition from an agricul- 
 tural to a manufacturing state through which 
 Connecticut has passed during the present century. 
 The church in Plymouth belongs perhaps to the 
 same class. The membership of these seven 
 churches on the ist of January, 1891, numbered 739 
 (in 471 families). At the same date the member- 
 ship of the other six numbered 2169. The total 
 membership (that is, of enrolled communicants) 
 was 2908 ; the whole number of families, 2446. 
 
 In addition to the two Congregational churches 
 in Waterbury, there are within the present limits 
 
 * A Swedish Congregational church was organized in Thomaston, October 27, 1891.
 
 20 
 
 HISTORICAL DATA. 
 
 of the town two Protestant Episcopal, four Metho- 
 dist Episcopal, a Baptist, a German Lutheran, an 
 Adventist, an African Methodist and four Roman 
 Catholic churches. There are also several denomi- 
 national and " union " chapels at which religious 
 services are statedly held. 
 
 The First church has had fourteen pastors, besides 
 several ministers who have served as pastors for 
 short periods. Their names and the dates of their 
 settlement and dismission are as follows : 
 
 Jeremiah Peck, 1691 (ministry began 1689) to i6qg. 
 
 John Southmayd, 1705 to 1739. 
 
 Mark Leavenworth, 1740 to 1797. 
 
 Edward Porter, 1795 to 1798. 
 
 Holland Weeks, 1799 to 1806. 
 
 Luke Wood, 1808 to 1817. 
 
 Daniel Crane, 1821 to 1825. 
 
 Joel R. Arnold, 1831 to 1836. 
 
 Henry N. Day, 1836 to 1840. 
 
 David Root, 1841 to 1844. 
 
 Henry B. Elliot, 1845 to 1851. 
 
 William W. Woodworth, 1852 to 1858. 
 
 George Bushnell, 1858 to 1865. 
 
 Joseph Anderson, since February i2th, 1865. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Asahel Nettleton served as preacher 
 in 1815 and 1816, during the pastorate of Mr. 
 Wood. The Rev. Henry Benedict was acting pastor 
 in 1826 and 1827, and the Rev. Jason Atwater in 
 1829 and 1830. The only ex-pastors now living are 
 Dr. Elliot and Dr. Bushnell. 
 
 On the z6th of August, 1891, the occurrence of the 
 two hundredth birthday of the First church was 
 publicly recognized in the " Waterbury American," 
 in an appropriate article bearing the well-known
 
 HISTORICAL DATA. 21 
 
 initials of Miss Sarah J. Prichard. As a part of the 
 record of the celebration to say nothing of its 
 intrinsic interest it seems proper to reproduce it 
 here. 
 
 THE BI-CENTENNIAL OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURY. 
 
 Two hundred years ago, this day, was organized the First 
 church of Christ in Waterbury. To-day let every Protestant 
 church within the ancient township, whether Congregational, 
 Protestant Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal or Baptist ; whether 
 in Waterbury, in Plymouth, in Thomaston, in Watertown, in 
 Naugatuck, in Prospect, in Wolcott, in Middlebury or in 
 Oxford, look with tender and affectionate regard toward the 
 old First church ; for however true to heaven their spires may 
 point, they one and all point thither by the way of the church 
 that was organized on the 26th of August, 1691. 
 
 Here, for more than fifty years, and here alone, came every 
 inhabitant, every man, woman and child, to worship. Hither 
 wended their way every Andrews or Andrus, every Barnes 
 and Bronson, every Carpenter, Carrington and Clark ; every 
 Gaylord, Gridley, Hancox, Hickox, Hopkins and Judd, and 
 every Porter, Richards, Richardson, Scott, Scovill, Standly and 
 Upson; and even the Warners and the Wei tons were good 
 and staunch Congregationalists for two generations ; the first 
 adherent to the Church of England in the township having 
 migrated hither from New Haven when the town was more 
 than two-score years old " Bishop" James Brown. 
 
 It is for this and other reasons that the coming celebration 
 of the organization of this our mother church (by august per- 
 mission of the General Court) should be an occasion of deep 
 and tender interest not only to the churches within the borders 
 of the original township which still bear the family church - 
 name of Congregationalist, but to all the descendants of the 
 men and women who had part in it. 
 
 It was on March 2ist, 1689, that the proprietors agreed to be 
 at the expense of transporting the Rev. Jeremiah Peck and his 
 family and cattle from Greenwich to Waterbury. We there- 
 fore may conclude that he had been with the people nearly, if 
 not quite, two years before the formation of the church and
 
 22 HISTORICAL DATA. 
 
 his ordination. During this time Mr. Peck could not have per- 
 formed the functions of an ordained minister of the church, 
 notwithstanding former ordinations ; hence children were car- 
 ried for baptism to the church at Farmington. 
 
 It does not satisfactorily appear that the Rev. Jeremiah Peck 
 ever had a meeting house to officiate in, and we are led, in our 
 thoughts of that day, up to the minister's house, that stood 
 hard by St. John's church and on the present site of Mrs. John 
 C. Booth's residence, in the timbers of which, it is thought, are 
 mingled portions of that house, built with pious care by the 
 first men of Waterbury for the minister who should come to 
 dwell with them ; and that is, in all probability, the place where 
 the organization of the church took place. 
 
 It was the great event of that period to the young, almost 
 infant, town of Waterbury. In its results and outgrowths it 
 has continued to be the most important event that ever oc- 
 curred within the town, and it is due to the past and the pres- 
 ent alike that the celebration should be warmly and cordially 
 participated in by every church and town within the range of 
 ancient Waterbury. 
 
 s. j. P. 
 
 August 26th, 1891.
 
 I. 
 
 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURY: 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY.
 
 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURY : 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 
 
 BY THE REV. JOSEPH ANDERSON, D. D. 
 
 We shall soon be celebrating the four hundredth 
 anniversary of the discovery of America. The 
 organization of the First church in Waterbury took 
 place just midway between that event and the 
 present time. A hundred and twenty-eight years 
 had elapsed, after Columbus first set foot in the 
 new world, before the landing of the Pilgrims at 
 Plymouth; a hundred and forty-eight years, before 
 the settlement of Farmington took place, and 
 a hundred and eighty-five years before the settle- 
 ment of Mattatuck. Nine years more passed by 
 before Mattatuck was incorporated as a town and 
 called Waterbury, and five more were added before 
 the Rev. Jeremiah Peck and his townsmen sought 
 and obtained permission to " embody in church 
 estate." 
 
 During this long period, while most of North 
 America remained an unbroken wilderness, what 
 had the civilized world been doing? And what 
 was it doing in 1691 ? 
 
 The invention of printing, of the mariner's com- 
 pass, and of gunpowder, had already taken place at 
 the time of the discovery, and with the aid of these 
 the movement known as the Renaissance was stead- 
 ily advancing toward a grand culmination. The 
 Renaissance was not only a revival of learning, it 
 was a new birth of art and science; it brought in a
 
 26 THE FIRST CHURCH. IN WATERBURY : 
 
 new era in politics and religion. Just twenty-five 
 years after Columbus's first voyage, Luther nailed 
 his " theses" to the church door of Wittemberg, and 
 the Protestant Reformation was begun. In 1526 
 Tyndal's English New Testament was published, 
 and by this time Protestantism was making rapid 
 headway in the countries of northern Europe. In 
 southern Europe the ancient church of Rome not 
 only held its own; it gave new and more explicit 
 expression to its doctrines and laws through the 
 Council of Trent, and through the labors of the 
 Society of Jesus reached out into all the known 
 world in aggressive missionary effort. The national 
 antagonisms produced by the breaking up of the 
 religious unity of Europe led on, in the course of a 
 century, to the Thirty Years' war. This was ter- 
 minated in 1648 by the peace of Westphalia, in 
 which the political rights of the reformed churches 
 and the Protestant princes of Europe were at 
 length recognized. 
 
 In England the break with the ancient church 
 was at first a matter of royal caprice; but the 
 people were ready for a change, and accepted the 
 Protestant doctrines in a very serious way. The 
 severe measures of Queen Mary failed to bring the 
 nation back to Rome, and under Elizabeth, in 1570, 
 the final rupture with the Roman church took place. 
 A great diversity of views, however, had been 
 developed among the English Protestants, and 
 when Elizabeth attempted to compel uniformity, 
 then Puritanism began to take visible form. Among 
 the non-conformists there were several grades of 
 Puritans, some of them holding much more radical 
 views in regard to church government than others.
 
 AN mSTORlCAL SURVEY. 27 
 
 Soon after the ascension of James I., some of these 
 sought escape from persecution by removing to 
 Holland, and afterwards to America. Others, of a 
 less radical type, emigrated directly from England 
 to Massachusetts Bay in 1628 and 1630, and within 
 ten years from this twenty thousand Englishmen 
 had taken up their abode in New England. Among 
 these were the men who settled Hartford and 
 Farmington. 
 
 The year 1640, in which a settlement at Farming- 
 ton was begun, was the year when the Long Parlia- 
 ment began its sessions. From that time the 
 fortunes of Puritanism in the mother country were 
 strangely varied. In the Revolution under Crom- 
 well, and in the Commonwealth, independency 
 triumphed; but this was only until 1660. Under 
 the reign of Charles II. and James II., Puritanism 
 of every kind was at a disadvantage, and the 
 Puritan colonies of New England had to bear their 
 share of hardships. From 1662 onward, for twenty- 
 five years, Massachusetts contended against the 
 crown. The attempt was made to wrest from the 
 colonies their charters and treat them as conquered 
 territories. In 1686 James II. sent over Sir Edmund 
 Andros to act as governor-general of New England. 
 The following year, Connecticut having refused to 
 recognize his authority, he visited Hartford to 
 assert it personally. In an interview with the chief 
 men of the colony, the charter of Connecticut was 
 brought into the room; but the lights were sud- 
 denly extinguished, and when they were lighted 
 again the charter was not to be found. In the in- 
 terval (so the story goes) it had been hidden away 
 in a hollow oak. ' It is difficult to say what the
 
 2 8 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURT: 
 
 course of things in New England would have been, 
 had not another revolution taken place in England. 
 When the news of the landing of William of Orange 
 at Torbay reached Boston, Governor Andros was 
 immediately imprisoned, and the General Court 
 resumed its sessions (May, 1689) as under the old 
 charter. In Connecticut the old charter was again 
 brought forth, and a new era in the colonial history 
 was entered upon. 
 
 This year 1689 in which William and Mary 
 ascended the throne, and the grand European 
 Alliance was formed, in which England was 
 included was the year the Rev. Jeremiah Peck 
 began to preach in Waterbury, the settlement 
 being then some twelve years old. I do not know 
 that the plodding planters of Mattatuck kept much 
 trace of the great events beyond sea, but, as you 
 perceive, these events were not without signifi- 
 cance even for them, here on the edge of the 
 wilderness. In the chronological annals prefixed 
 to Green's " Short History of the English People," 
 the section which begins with the year 1689 is 
 entitled, " Modern England." By aid of these 
 events at which we have been glancing, and such 
 as these, the planters of Mattatuck had been lifted 
 into a new era of the world's history. They belong 
 not to the mediaeval time, but to our time. At this 
 date, the authorized version of the Bible had been 
 in circulation eighty years; Shakespeare had been 
 seventy-five years dead and Milton seventeen; New- 
 ton's " Principia " had seen the light. So that we 
 must not look upon these ancestors as very ancient. 
 If from what we know of them they seem so to us, 
 perhaps it is because they were apparently so far
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 29 
 
 out of the current of the world's grand events, 
 leading" a life which looked like a mere episode in 
 the world's broad history. But they were not out 
 of the current; they were in fact giving it direc- 
 tion. 
 
 The good people who settled Farmington were 
 members of the church in Hartford, of which the 
 eminent Thomas Hooker was the pastor. The 
 Farmington church was organized in 1652, and its 
 first pastor was Mr. Hooker's son-in-law, and the 
 second his son Samuel, who ministered there from 
 1661 to 1697. It was under the ministry of these 
 two men that the proprietors of Waterbury grew 
 up to manhood and received their religious educa- 
 tion. Those who were over forty-five years of age 
 at the time of the settlement of Mattatuck must 
 have been born in England ; those who were under 
 thirty-seven were probably natives of Farmington. 
 It is interesting, therefore, to know that the Rev. 
 Samuel Hooker was a minister worthy of his noble 
 parentage. He is described as an " animated and 
 pious divine." It is said, too, that he was "an 
 excellent preacher, his composition good, his 
 address pathetic, warm and engaging." He had 
 "three things to do with his sermons before he 
 delivered them in public to write them, commit 
 them unto his memory and get them into his 
 heart." This was a good ministry under which to 
 grow up, and the influence of the church itself was 
 doubtless in harmony with that of its pastor. 
 Ex-President Porter, describing the life of the 
 Farmington settlers, says : 
 
 The Sabbath was the great and central day of the week. 
 As the drum beat its wonted and pleasant sound of invitation,
 
 3 o THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURY: 
 
 they resorted to the house of worship with cheerful steps, to 
 be roused or comforted by the fervent Hooker. . . . From 
 the house of God they return at evening, to spend the remain- 
 ing hours of sacred rest in joyful reflection upon the truth 
 there heard, doubly grateful for a church such as they loved, 
 though it were in the wilderness. There they instruct their 
 children with strict and judicious care, and close the day by 
 committing themselves and theirs to the care of the Almighty. 
 . . . . Day by day through the week the instruction of 
 the children is prosecuted in patriarchal simplicity and with 
 patriarchal faithfulness. The sacred presence of parental 
 restraint follows the child wherever he goes. He enters not a 
 door where there is not the same subduing influence ; while 
 law with its majestic presence fills the very atmosphere in 
 which he breathes.* 
 
 If under such training as this the settlers of Matta- 
 tuck had failed to grow up into virtuous and noble 
 men and women, who could retain his faith in the 
 value of Christian nurture ? 
 
 It does not appear that a large proportion of 
 these settlers of the men, at any rate were 
 church members; but they could not come forth 
 from such an atmosphere as that in which they had 
 lived so long in fact, they could not be true sons 
 of the Puritans and not cherish the utmost 
 respect for religion, and an earnest desire to make 
 full provision for the religious wants of the new 
 community. And such provision was made. By a 
 requirement in the original articles, three " pro- 
 prieties" of one hundred and fifty pounds each 
 were secured for "public and pious uses." By a 
 subsequent vote of the town one of these was set 
 apart for the minister, who was allowed a " larger 
 interest" than any other man in the community 
 
 *Pp. 36, 37 of "A Historical Discourse in Commemoration of the Origina' 
 Settlement at Farmington in 1640. By Noah Porter, Jr. Hartford, 1841."
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 3! 
 
 But in addition to this the committee of the settle- 
 ment set apart in 1679 " a house lot of two acres " 
 and other pieces of land in different parts of the 
 town, amounting in all to more than twenty acres, 
 to " be and remain for the occupation and improve- 
 ment of the minister of said town forever." 
 
 That so much should have been done for the 
 maintenance of religion, and that at the same time 
 the organization of a church should be delayed for 
 fourteen years, is to be explained by various con- 
 siderations. For some time the settlement was 
 unfortunate and unpromising. The community 
 did not grow as the proprietors had hoped, and 
 within nine or ten years from its foundation some 
 of the foremost men began to remove from it. In 
 fact, for thirty-five years the settlers struggled on, 
 amidst Indian wars, sicknesses and floods, and at 
 the end were scarcely more in number than during 
 the first eight years of the settlement. But this is 
 not all. There were religious conditions which 
 may have led to a postponement of action. The 
 first half century of New England history had wit- 
 nessed a great change in the religious life of the 
 people. The early immigrants were almost with- 
 out exception church members, and conspicuous 
 for their Puritan piety. But, notwithstanding the 
 rigid training already alluded to, the children did 
 not uniformly grow up pious, while among the 
 later immigrants there was greater diversity of 
 beliefs and practices than among those who came 
 first. To secure political rights, which in all the 
 colonies were somewhat dependent on church mem- 
 bership, compromises were resorted to, such as the 
 "half-way covenant "; the number of actual church
 
 32 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURY : 
 
 members diminished (at least relatively), and for- 
 malism in the churches took the place of the 
 solemn and substantial piety of the earlier period. 
 The decline of religion became more marked from 
 the time of King Philip's war, which was contem- 
 poraneous with the first settlement of Mattatuck, 
 and aroused so much anxiety that the General 
 Court called upon the ministers of the colony to 
 take special pains to instruct the people in the 
 duties of religion and to stir up and awaken them 
 to repentance and a reformation of manners. As 
 might have been expected, a day of fasting and 
 prayer was appointed. But the General Court of 
 Massachusetts went still further, and (in 1679) 
 called together a synod of the churches to consider 
 " what are the evils that have provoked the Lord 
 to bring his judgments on New England, and 
 what is to be done that these evils may be 
 reformed." The report of the committee appointed 
 to frame an answer to these queries speaks of the 
 neglect of church-fellowship, indifference to bap- 
 tism, the spread of profaneness, the desecration of 
 the Sabbath, the want of family discipline, law- 
 suits, promise-breaking, strivings after worldly 
 gain, intemperance in bodily enjoyments, immod- 
 est apparel and irreverent behavior and inattention 
 in the house of God during public worship. " In 
 Scripture we read of but one man," says the com- 
 mittee, solemnly, " that slept at a sermon, and that 
 sin had like to have cost him his life : Acts xx. 9." 
 It was in such a period as this (and the picture of 
 it is as lurid as if it had been painted two hundred 
 years later) that the colony from Farmington set- 
 tled in the valley of the Naugatuck. That these
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 33 
 
 people should have made the necessary material 
 preparations for the establishment of religion and 
 the ministry among them was a matter of course, 
 perhaps a matter of compulsion; but it did not 
 follow that the organization of a church must 
 immediately take place. 
 
 The Rev. Jeremiah Peck had been a resident of 
 Waterbury for more than two years before the first 
 step toward a formal organization of a church was 
 taken, by applying to the General Court for per- 
 mission to " embody. " " We, at least some of, the 
 inhabitants of Waterbury, being by the goodness of 
 God inclined and desirous to promote the concerns 
 of the kingdom of Christ in this place by coming into 
 church order, .... humbly request the consent 
 of the General Court now assembling, that we may, 
 as God shall give us cause and assistance, proceed 
 to the gathering of a Congregational church in this 
 place." So ran the application, written by Mr. 
 Peck's somewhat pedantic pen; and the response 
 was as hearty as could have been wished: "This 
 Court do freely grant them their request, and shall 
 freely encourage them in their beginnings, and 
 desire the Lord to give them good success therein." 
 This was at the May session, 1691. It appears from 
 a letter from Mr. Peck's successor, the Rev. John 
 Southmayd, to the Rev. Thomas Prince, of Boston, 
 that the church was organized and Mr. Peck 
 installed as its pastor on the 26th of August, follow- 
 ing. At that date the churches within the present 
 limits of Connecticut numbered twenty-five. 
 
 From the same letter we learn that the number 
 of male members in the new organization was 
 seven; but of this leading event in the history of
 
 34 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURT : 
 
 the Waterbury church we have no further informa- 
 tion that is very definite. One of these men was 
 undoubtedly Isaac Bronson, who with Mr. Peck 
 signed the application addressed to the General 
 Court. " There can be but little doubt," says Dr. 
 Henry Bronson, the historian of Waterbury,* " that 
 John Stanley and Thomas Judd, senior, were also 
 of the number." Other male church members in 
 the settlement were Obadiah Richards, Abraham 
 Andruss, John Hopkins (probably), Joseph Gaylord, 
 Thomas Judd, Jr., Benjamin Barnes and Thomas 
 Judd, son of William. All these, except Hopkins, 
 had sat under the ministry of Samuel Hooker. The 
 last named four had been admitted to church 
 membership at Farmington within two years, two 
 of them indeed within a few months. But it would 
 have been in keeping with the method adopted in 
 New Haven and elsewhere if these twelve men had 
 selected seven of their own number as specially 
 well fitted to carry spiritual burdens, and had made 
 them the " seven pillars of the church." We are 
 informed by Trumbull in his "History of Connecti- 
 cut " that a church was organized by subscribing 
 to a confession of faith and a covenant upon a day 
 of fasting and prayer. " Neighboring elders and 
 churches were present on these occasions, assisted 
 in the public solemnities and gave their consent."f 
 If the organization of the Waterbury church took 
 place on the 26th of August, it must have been on 
 a Sunday ; but provision must somehow have been 
 made for the attendance of delegates from neigh- 
 
 *" The History of Waterbury, Connecticut; the Original Township; with an 
 Appendix of Biography, etc. By Henry Bronson, M. D. Waterbury, 1858." 
 tVol. I, p. 285.
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 35 
 
 boring churches perhaps Farmington and Wood- 
 bury and Derby and New Haven, and possibly 
 Milford and Hartford and the usual discourse 
 must have been preached, and the initiatory acts 
 solemnly gone through with. The minister's house, 
 which Mr. Peck had already been occupying for 
 some time, was probably large enough to accom- 
 modate the worshippers who came together, 
 without the slightest inconvenience. 
 
 Such was the origin of the First church in Water- 
 bury, and such was the world in which it was 
 established. The town as originally incorporated 
 (in May, 1686) measured about seventeen miles 
 from north to south and nine miles from east to 
 west through its widest part. It embraced an area 
 of one hundred and thirty-three square miles or 
 eighty-five thousand acres. And since in those 
 days parish and town were one and the same, these 
 were the dimensions of the parish. It was a large 
 piece of territory and suggested large opportuni- 
 ties; but everything else was small. The population 
 was scanty, the means of subsistence were limited 
 and uncertain, and the life of the people, barring 
 their outlook toward God and heaven, was as 
 narrow and hard as we can well imagine. I wonder 
 whether these men and women who had turned 
 their backs upon the European world and had left 
 it so far behind them, with its great evils and its 
 great sorrows, and the younger ones who knew it 
 only by occasional and brief report, troubled them- 
 selves about what was going on across the sea, 
 except when, now and then, it concerned their 
 personal interests. I wonder whether they gave 
 much thought even to colonial affairs, save when
 
 36 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERS URT : 
 
 these were forced upon their attention by some 
 threatening of Indian outbreak or by " the soldiers 
 passing to and fro." " We live remotely," they said, 
 in one of their appeals for aid, " in a corner of the 
 wilderness, which in our affairs costs us much 
 charge, pains and hardships." The clearing away 
 of the forest, the breaking of the new soil, the pro- 
 viding shelter for themselves and their cattle, must 
 have engrossed time and effort and thought. That 
 they should have done so much for the support of 
 the ministry and for schools and in due time should 
 have proceeded to erect a meeting-house for the 
 community, is much to their credit, even if they 
 failed in broad views of the world behind them 
 or were lacking in novel philosophic theories. 
 
 The theories, however, and the larger life came 
 all in good time ; for the germs and principles of 
 true growth were in these men. It was a very vital 
 thing, this Anglo-Saxon stock that had been trans- 
 planted so strangely to a new world, and it was sure 
 to become great and mighty. 
 
 Even if I had referred only in the briefest 
 way to the birthday which we are celebrating, I 
 should still have had but scant space in which to 
 narrate the story of two hundred years. I cannot 
 paint a picture, I can only sketch an outline. 
 Details give a certain kind of interest, but on a 
 small canvas there is not room for details, and we 
 must aim at a general effect. It will perhaps help 
 us to see things more clearly if we recognize certain 
 large divisions in this period of two hundred years 
 through which our church has lived, and fix our 
 thought upon certain familiar lines of life and 
 action. Let us remember, then, that there was a
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 37 
 
 period of small beginnings, which was also a period 
 of hardships and hopelessness ; that this was 
 followed by a period of improvement, in which 
 plantation and church became thoroughly estab- 
 lished. Then, about 1740, came the era of disin- 
 tegration, when the old parish was divided into 
 societies, and new centres of life were developed at 
 points remote from the old centre of the town ; 
 when ecclesiastical dissent also began to manifest 
 itself and to demand legal recognition. Then 
 came the Revolutionary period, the significance of 
 which to the community and to the church can not 
 be easily over-estimated, and following closely upon 
 that, the period of religious decadence. Here in 
 Waterbury the era of renewed prosperity in church 
 life cannot be said to have begun until 1816, when 
 the famous Dr. Asahel Nettleton preached here, 
 with his well-known evangelistic fervor, for nearly 
 a year.* We cannot say that it has continued unin. 
 terrupted through the seventy-five years that have 
 since elapsed, but it has been great enough to place 
 this latest era in contrast with all that preceded it. 
 It has been an era not only of renewed prosperity 
 in temporal and spiritual things, but an era of good 
 feeling and mutual toleration, of missions and 
 multiplied churches, an era of progress and hope. 
 
 In the early life of every old New England parish 
 there are two concrete facts which stand forth con- 
 spicuous, the minister and the meeting-house. 
 They are as prominent in the history of the Water- 
 bury church as elsewhere, and as well worth con- 
 
 *See " Memoir of the Life and Character of Rev. Asahel Nettleton, D. D. By 
 Bennet Tyler, D. D. Hartford: 1844." The account of Nettleton's work in 
 Waterbury is on pp. 92-94.
 
 38 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURY : 
 
 sideration, if we would learn what the church 
 signified in the early days and how the people 
 lived and struggled. 
 
 I have already quoted an appeal made by Water- 
 bury for state aid, in which it is said, "We live 
 remotely in a corner of the wilderness." In this 
 appeal, which prayed for assistance in erecting a 
 meeting house, special hardships are spoken of : 
 "The providence of God, and that in several ways, 
 hath brought us low by losses of the fruits of the 
 earth, losses in our living stock, but especially by 
 much sickness among us for the space of the last 
 four years." The troubles here referred to were 
 greater even than those to which new settlements 
 are commonly exposed. In the same year in which 
 this petition was presented it was a few weeks 
 after the organization of the church the "great 
 flood " had occurred, a disaster which devastated 
 the settlement and came near destroying it alto- 
 gether. But without this misfortune there would 
 have been enough to discourage the inhabitants ; 
 for it was a time of war, and many of the evils of 
 war were familiar to them. From 1689 to 1713 there 
 was war between England and France, except for 
 about four years, and the colonies were necessarily 
 involved in it. Crops were destroyed by hostile 
 savages, cattle were driven away, dwellings were 
 burned, men and women were murdered or carried 
 captive ; so that for a series of years the settlements 
 were kept in a state of alarm. During this whole 
 period Waterbury was a frontier town, and espe- 
 cially exposed to depredations. It does not appear 
 that it was actually invaded except in one instance, 
 but it was impossible to avoid anxiety, and the
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 39 
 
 daily life of this peace-loving people was shaped 
 with reference to the perils of war. 
 
 The gloom was increased by a movement which 
 set in as early as 1686; I mean the emigration of 
 some of the first settlers to more fertile and pros- 
 perous parts of the country. One by one the old 
 proprietors withdrew, until eleven of them had left 
 the settlement. Ten of the proprietors had died, 
 and only fifteen of the original thirty-six remained. 
 The young men were naturally reluctant to stay, 
 and the tide of emigration could hardly be checked. 
 To all the rest was added the " great sickness " 
 which broke out in October, 1712, and prevailed for 
 nearly a year, carrying off one-tenth of the popula- 
 tion. 
 
 It was during such a period as this that the 
 Waterbury church was organized, and in such dark 
 days as these the devout men of the community 
 decided to build a meeting-house. " The encour- 
 agement which we do particularly petition for," 
 said the selectmen, " is that our public rates may 
 be given to us for the space of the four next 
 ensuing years." The modest request was granted, 
 and the meeting-house was begun. It was finished 
 ere the end of 1694, and continued to accommodate 
 the church and the town for thirty-five years, or 
 until 1729. It stood near the east end of Centre 
 square a small building with doors on the east, 
 west and south sides. 
 
 In this house, which Mr. Peck had labored to 
 secure, he probably did not preach more than a 
 year or two. He was "by a fit of the appoplex dis- 
 enabled for the work of the ministry, and some 
 years after (June 7th, 1699) left this world, in the
 
 4 o THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERS URT: 
 
 seventy-seventh year of his age." Those must have 
 been dark days for the invalid pastor, and the out- 
 look must have been dark for his successor. 
 Perhaps it was because the field was so unpromis- 
 ing that John Southmayd, a graduate of Harvard, 
 young and ambitious, hesitated so long about 
 settling in it. But he waited and worked, and the 
 tide turned. In 1713 the misfortunes of the settle- 
 ment reached their culmination. This year of the 
 "great sickness " was the year of -the restoration of 
 peace between England and France, and the begin- 
 ning of new life for the colonies. The population 
 of Waterbury began now to increase, and with it 
 the membership of the church. Some of those who 
 had gone away returned; the young men were 
 more inclined to remain (Mr. Southmayd was 
 hardly twenty-four when he came to them), and 
 new settlements were begun at points a little 
 removed from the centre. The meeting-house was 
 repaired and its seating capacity increased at an 
 expense of fifteen pounds, and ere long it was 
 voted that a new edifice must be built. The town 
 had evidently entered the path of progress, and the 
 church, so far as appears, kept pace with it. It had 
 passed from dawn to daylight, and at the time 
 Mr. Southmayd laid down his pastoral office (in 
 1739) it was enjoying a career of prosperity. 
 
 Ten years before this, after the usual prolonged 
 struggle between the party of progress and the 
 party of economy, it was decided that a new meet- 
 ing house must be built. This second edifice was 
 finished in 1731. It was fifty feet long and forty 
 feet wide,* and if the dimensions seem insignificant 
 
 * Smaller by one hundred square feet than the present conference room of the 
 First church.
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 41 
 
 we must remember that the population of the 
 entire town, scattered over its one hundred and 
 thirty-three square miles, was not more than three 
 hundred souls. This was the second of four church 
 edifices which preceded the present one, and it had 
 a longer life than either of the others. With 
 occasional alterations and amendments it served 
 the purposes of the town, and afterward of the 
 First society, until near the end of the century. It 
 stood, beneath storm and sunshine, through all the 
 era of disintegration and dissent of which I have 
 spoken, through the Revolutionary period, through 
 the period of political reconstruction and religious 
 decline, and was not superseded by anything better 
 until 1796. It must have been some such edifice as 
 this, surviving to a still later day, and forming the 
 centre of a multitude of associations and memories, 
 that prompted Emerson to write : 
 
 We love the venerable house 
 
 Our fathers built to God; 
 In heaven are kept their grateful vows, 
 
 Their dust endears the sod. 
 
 Here holy thoughts a light have shed 
 
 From many a radiant face, 
 And prayers of tender hope have spread 
 
 A perfume through the place. 
 
 From humble tenements around 
 
 Came up the pensive train, 
 And in the church a blessing found 
 
 Which filled their homes again. 
 
 They live with God, their homes are dust, 
 
 But here their children pray, 
 And in this fleeting lifetime trust 
 
 To find the narrow way.
 
 42 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURY : 
 
 If we could look in upon one of those assemblies 
 that gathered in that eighteenth century meeting 
 house, any time between 1740 and 1790, how 
 strange it would seem to us ! How quaint the 
 minister in his professional garb, looking down as 
 a divine herald from the lofty desk ! how sober 
 and dignified the congregation, seated according 
 to age and rank in the high backed square pews ! 
 how motley the gathering of young people in the 
 galleries, each betraying in his own way the 
 inward conflict between the exuberance of youth 
 and the fear of the swift-coming penalty. From 
 Sabbath to Sabbath they assembled thus, and from 
 year to year, listening reverently in the sanctuary 
 and lunching solemnly in the " Sabba'-day house," 
 while Mr. Southmayd, growing feeble, gave place 
 to Mr. Leavenworth, and Mr. Leavenworth in his 
 turn grew old in one of the longest pastorates on 
 record. 
 
 At the time when the Rev. John Southmayd laid 
 down his pastoral office that is, in 1739 there 
 was much that was promising in the condition of 
 ecclesiastical affairs, and very little that was dis- 
 couraging, either in Waterbury or in the colony at 
 large. Ten years previously the town had been 
 annexed to New Haven county, and now the 
 Waterbury church was in close and advantageous 
 alliance with the New Haven Association and 
 formed one of the compact group of churches 
 which constituted the " establishment " in Con- 
 necticut. The group was more compact and more 
 thoroughly organized than it otherwise would have 
 been, because of the work accomplished through 
 the adoption of the " Saybrook platform " in the
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 
 
 43 
 
 commonwealth. It was in 1708 that the General 
 Court, " being made sensible of the defects of 
 discipline in the churches of this government," 
 convened the famous synod by which the Saybrook 
 platform was constructed a platform including a 
 confession of faith, heads of agreement and articles 
 of discipline. The new constitution thus prepared 
 marks the beginning of a new era in the history of 
 the Connecticut churches. " A uniform standard of 
 faith and action being thus agreed upon, a period 
 of harmony and good feeling followed, such 
 as had not been experienced for many years." 
 The churches, and especially the ministers, were 
 brought into closer union, and prepared for perils 
 and conflicts and achievements of which they had 
 little anticipation. 
 
 But underneath these tokens of prosperity cer- 
 tain new tendencies were already at work, and 
 these ere long produced results which to those who 
 clung to the old order of things must have been a 
 severe trial. The first of these inevitably in- 
 volved in the increase of population and the exten- 
 sion of the settlement over a wider area was a 
 tendency to territorial division and to a disinte- 
 gration of the original parish; the second of 
 vastly greater moment than any territorial changes 
 was the development of " dissent" and the forma- 
 tion of new sects and churches within the limits 
 and in the very strongholds of the old Congrega- 
 tionalism. It would be interesting to follow out 
 both of these movements. The first will be so 
 fully illustrated in the several histories of our 
 "daughter churches" that I need not dwell upon it; 
 but I must touch, however briefly, upon the history 
 of dissent in the old Puritan town.
 
 44 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERS URT : 
 
 For seventy years the only form of church gov- 
 ernment known in the colony of Connecticut was 
 the Congregational. The Congregational churches 
 constituted in fact, if not in theory, an " establish- 
 ment," and the prejudice of the people against other 
 forms is illustrated by an incident mentioned in 
 Winthrop's journal, or rather, by Governor Win- 
 throp's interpretation of it. In his son's room, he 
 says, there was a volume containing the Greek 
 Testament, Psalms and Common Prayer, and he 
 solemnly avers that the " mice," having access 
 to the volume, "ate every leaf of the Common 
 Prayer, but touched not the other parts of the 
 book."* In various places, however, there were 
 persons of good repute who had been educated in 
 the Church of England, and who had little sympa- 
 thy with the rigid doctrines and discipline of the 
 New England churches. In Stratford there were a 
 good many such, and the Rev. Timothy Cutler of 
 that place must have come under their influence, 
 for not long after his appointment as rector of Yale 
 college he embraced Episcopacy, to the dismay of 
 the college corporation and various other friends. 
 Mr. Cutler and several others, including the Rev. 
 Samuel Johnson of West Haven, visited England 
 to receive Episcopal ordination, and Mr. Johnson 
 in the course of time returned to America, and be- 
 came president of Columbia college. Among the 
 inhabitants of West Haven when Mr. Johnson 
 preached there as a Congregationalist, was a per- 
 son named James Brown. Whether he had come 
 under Episcopal influence through Mr. Johnson, I 
 
 * Quoted by C. W. Elliott in "The New England History," Vol. I. p. 414.
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 45 
 
 can not say; but not long after his removal to Wa- 
 ter-bury, which was in 1722, he was an Episcopalian, 
 and appears to have been the first of that persua- 
 sion in the town. In 1737 there was about half a 
 dozen Episcopalian families in Waterbury, and in 
 that year divine service was performed here for 
 the first time according to the rites of the Church 
 of England. It was the small beginning from 
 which large results were to flow. 
 
 The movement received aid from an unexpected 
 quarter. In 1740 there came to pass in New Eng- 
 land the "great awakening," or, in other words, a 
 remarkable revival of evangelical religion, under 
 the influence of Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards and 
 other prominent men of the time. Whitefield 
 landed in Boston that year, and at once compelled 
 the attention of the multitudes. He preached to 
 crowds numbering thousands, not only in the 
 meeting-houses, but upon the common. A great 
 excitement followed, and it spread through the 
 colonies. Much good no doubt resulted, and also 
 much evil. For the revival was everywhere accom- 
 panied with errors and extravagances. The " dis- 
 position to follow not truth nor reason, nor any 
 rule of conduct but inward impulses," manifested 
 itself in all quarters ; a class of itinerating minis- 
 ters appeared, who swept across the country, 
 spreading calumny and contention as they went ; 
 indeed, excesses of all kinds became common. 
 
 The people of the colonies, judged by their atti- 
 tude toward the new movement, were divided into 
 three classes : Those who accepted it with all its 
 extravagances as a work of God ; those who 
 acknowledged God's hand in it, but protested
 
 46 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURY: 
 
 against the excesses ; and those who looked with 
 no favor upon the new measures, but condemned 
 them as evil and only evil. In this last class were 
 some, of course, who remained in their Congrega- 
 tionalism ; but many found relief for their thought 
 and feeling by abandoning the church of their 
 fathers and becoming Episcopalians. All this was 
 illustrated in Waterbury, no less than elsewhere. 
 The old society was shaken and almost rent in 
 pieces, and the Episcopal parish profited by the 
 confusion and division ; for many, annoyed and 
 disgusted at what they saw, became " churchmen." 
 This was about the condition of things when Mr. 
 Mark Leavenworth, the successor of the Rev. John 
 Southmayd, appeared upon the field of action. 
 
 Mr. Leavenworth's ministry is conspicuous not 
 only in the history of the Waterbury church, but in 
 the ecclesiastical history of Connecticut, because of 
 its long duration. It began in 1740 and continued 
 until 1797. Within the limits of this pastorate, 
 therefore, took place some of the greatest and most 
 critical events of our national life. Chief among 
 these was, of course, the war of the Revolution. I 
 need hardly refer to the events of the Revolution, 
 or the causes that led to it; they are familiar to 
 you and your children. I need only remind you 
 that after an agitation of ten years the Continental 
 Congress in 1774 decreed a general boycott (as we 
 should call it now), a system of non-intercourse 
 with the mother country, and that this plan having 
 been promptly adopted by the House of Represent- 
 atives of Connecticut, the matter came quickly 
 before the towns for action. In Waterbury, action 
 was taken on the i7th of November in the same
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 47 
 
 year, and the result showed that a large majority 
 of the people were advocates of colonial rights and 
 ready to suffer for their vindication. The position 
 then assumed was not receded from. The conflict 
 came on, slowly but surely, and Waterbury had her 
 full share in it. " Few of us," it has been said, 
 " have any adequate conception of the disturbed 
 condition of our country in those dark and perilous 
 days," and there was distress here as well as else- 
 where. 
 
 But the actual condition of things cannot be 
 appreciated except as we take into account the 
 extent to which the ecclesiastical element entered 
 into the case. There were strong reasons why the 
 Church of England men should sympathize with 
 the mother country. These reasons were in many 
 cases effective, and " churchmen " and patriots 
 found themselves pitted against each other in every 
 community in which dissent had secured a footing. 
 It was certainly so in Waterbury. The patriots 
 early took a decisive stand (as we have seen) 
 against the designs of the mother country, and an 
 equally decided stand against their Tory neigh- 
 bors, and the result was a specially bitter antago- 
 nism between the two churches. It would be inter- 
 esting to show the bearings of the war upon the 
 fortunes of the churches and of their respective 
 pastors, Mr. Leavenworth and the Rev. James 
 Scovill; but I cannot delay, even in this important 
 field. I only remind you that the success of the 
 patriot cause involved not alone the results which 
 the patriots directly aimed at, but others which 
 they hardly dared to hope for. The way was 
 prepared for our noble written constitution, and for
 
 48 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERS URT : 
 
 such legislation as that of 1784, "for securing the 
 rights of conscience " a law which permitted a man 
 to join any denomination of Christians he pleased, 
 and led on to that beneficent separation of church 
 and state which characterizes our national life. 
 
 The effect of the Revolution on the church and 
 religion must, upon the whole, have been good; but 
 its immediate consequences might almost be charac- 
 terized as disastrous. That the Episcopal society 
 should have suffered was a matter of course. But 
 in the Congregational church, where one would 
 suppose the success of the colonial cause ought to 
 have involved an increase of prosperity, the actual 
 result was a long and serious decline in religion. 
 In the "Christian Spectator" for June, 1833, there 
 is an elaborate article* entitled "The Religious 
 Declension in New England during the Latter 
 Half of the Last Century." As this article clearly 
 shows, the declension was very real and very wide- 
 spread, and Waterbury was involved in it. It came 
 partly as a reaction from the violent measures and 
 extreme views of the revival period, and partly as 
 a result of political conditions the influence of 
 the times upon religion and the church. I cannot 
 give you details, for the records are wanting; but 
 you are justified in thinking of the days which fol- 
 lowed the Revolutionary war as days of decadence 
 and gloom. 
 
 But this, of course, was not to last. The era .of 
 renewed prosperity may be regarded as dating 
 from the building of the third house of worship 
 (that which afterward became "Gothic hall"), which 
 
 * Written, by the way, by the Rev. Luther Hart, formerly pastor of the church 
 in Plymouth.
 
 AN HISTORICAL SUE VET. 49 
 
 was dedicated in 1796. When the sound of the bell 
 placed in the steeple not long after the dedica- 
 tion first rung out over the hillsides of old Matta- 
 tuck, and it was voted that the Episcopal society 
 should have the use of it " on all proper occasions," 
 it was evident that religion was again uttering her 
 voice, and also that religion meant charity and 
 brotherly love. The discords of the Revolutionary 
 time were dying out, to be revived no more, and 
 the work of the Lord was to be accomplished by 
 new hands and upon a broader basis. It was at this 
 epoch (1793) that the Congregational churches of 
 Connecticut began their noble frontier mission 
 work, a work which ere long extended from Ver- 
 mont to Louisiana, and which through varying 
 phases has continued until now. 
 
 My hour is almost ended, and I have brought you 
 only a little more than half way along our journey 
 of two hundred years. The period that remains is 
 no less interesting and certainly no less important 
 than that which we have traversed, but it is more 
 like ourselves, less strange and quaint, and more 
 readily taken for granted. I must seek, however, 
 to characterize it, so far as I can, in rapid outline. 
 
 I have spoken of the era of renewed prosperity 
 as having begun in 1796. Three years later than 
 this, the Rev. Edward Porter, Mr. Leavenworth's 
 colleague for a short time, gave way to the Rev. 
 Holland Weeks (one of the ablest men of the 
 Waterbury ministry, I have reason to think) whose 
 pastorate extended to 1806. The fact that Mr. 
 Weeks was dismissed for want of support* shows 
 
 *See p. 17 of "Farewell Sermon, delivered December 21, 1806. By Holland 
 Weeks, A. M. New Haven: 1807."
 
 S o THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBUR7 : 
 
 that the lowest ebb of worldly prosperity in the 
 First church had not hitherto been reached. But 
 it was reached now, and the tide was turning. Be- 
 tween 1800 and 1820 a double transformation took 
 place which makes this epoch a marked one in the 
 history of the town and the church. In the town 
 at large that new era of prosperity was entered 
 upon which still shines upon us and in the light and 
 warmth of which we have grown to be a flourishing 
 city. At the beginning of the century, Waterbury 
 was an ordinary country village, with less than an 
 average supply of attractions, and a poor prospect 
 before it. In the estimation of the surrounding 
 towns it was a kind of Nazareth, of which nothing 
 good could be said. But it had in it what was 
 better than topographical advantages a group of 
 ingenious, industrious, wide-awake men, and it had 
 through the shaping of events an hour of golden 
 opportunity. In this quiet, unpromising village, 
 just at the opening of the century, the manufacture 
 of gilt buttons and of clocks was begun, and from 
 that time until now the "brass industry" has 
 steadily grown, and has transformed not only the 
 old village, but the entire Naugatuck valley, into 
 " something rich and strange." The record be- 
 comes doubly interesting when we find that in 
 spiritual things also there was a revival of pros- 
 perity. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Weeks, in his farewell discourse, 
 said to the people he was leaving, " You will feel, 
 I hope, the great importance of a speedy re-settle- 
 ment of the gospel ministry. ... If possible, let 
 the first candidate you employ be the one on whom 
 you fix your affections to be your minister. And
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 51 
 
 ' fixing, fix ' (as Dr. Young says in the choice of a 
 friend), ' and then confide till death.' " * The hope 
 thus expressed was hardly fulfilled, for the pas- 
 torate remained vacant for nearly two years, and 
 between the end of 1808, when the Rev. Luke Wood 
 was called, and the end of 1864, when the Rev. 
 George Bushnell resigned a period of just the 
 same length as Mr. Leavenworth's ministry the 
 church had eight installed pastors, besides two or 
 three acting pastors serving for more than a year. 
 Of the eight pastorates Mr. Wood's was the long- 
 est, but during a large part of the time he was 
 a sufferer from ill-health. For about a year (in 
 1816) his place was supplied by Dr. Nettleton, to 
 whom I have already referred ; and it was under 
 his ministry that the era of prosperity really began 
 in the church. Dr. Nettleton's preaching had been 
 followed by revivals of religion wherever he went, 
 and the results here were similar to those produced 
 elsewhere. First of all, more than a hundred per- 
 sons were added to the church, some of whom have 
 continued with us almost to the present time. And 
 besides this, a foreign missionary society was es- 
 tablished, which flourished for some years, the 
 Ladies' Benevolent society was organized, which 
 has continued until now, the prayer meeting be- 
 came an institution of the church, and the Sunday 
 school began its career of blessed influence. The 
 "revival," as tested by its immediate effects, cul- 
 minated in the summer of 1817. In February, 
 April and June of that year, one hundred and eigh- 
 teen persons were received into the church ; in 
 October there was only one addition, in the whole 
 
 * Farewell Sermon, p. 18.
 
 52 THE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURT: 
 
 year 1818 only two, and in 1819 only one. But the 
 origin of the institutions I have mentioned seems 
 to be connected with the new birth of interest in 
 religious things which was manifested throughout 
 New England at this time, and so strikingly mani- 
 fested in Waterbury. 
 
 And the new age which we then entered upon 
 has been an age of institutions. Church life 
 through all the land has grown more and more 
 objective, more and more institutional and con- 
 crete, and the tendency in that direction, as we 
 should naturally anticipate in an industrial com- 
 munity, has been especially marked in Water- 
 bury. In 1835 the First society erected its fourth 
 church building, which after standing just forty 
 years, to a day, was removed to give place to the 
 present edifice. In all the appliances of modern 
 church life parlors, chapel, organ, choir and the 
 like we have kept pace with the progress of the 
 nation, and in the organizations by which the 
 church reaches out a strong arm into the secular 
 life Christian associations, industrial schools, boys' 
 clubs, hospitals, and many more we have had a 
 goodly share. That at the same time we have 
 recognized the divine science of theology as a 
 living and growing rather than a dead thing, I 
 need not insist in the presence of those who know 
 us. 
 
 Of course I cannot do justice to the character- 
 istics of the present age in our church life without 
 referring, however briefly, to the development of 
 other churches from our own representing other 
 and at first hostile denominations and the gradual 
 approximation to brotherhood and spiritual union
 
 AN HISTORICAL SURVEY. 53 
 
 which has taken place among them. To the estab- 
 lishment of Episcopacy here, I have already re- 
 ferred. Two other non-Congregational churches 
 have appeared among us within the present cen- 
 tury the Baptists in 1803, the Methodists twelve 
 years later. They were in each case an expression 
 of the sense of spiritual need and the duty of spir- 
 itual activity. Looked upon at first not only with 
 suspicion, but with hatred, they have vindicated 
 for themselves a place in the respect and affections 
 of the most conservative representatives of the old 
 way. In all the Lord's warfare now, we move on 
 side by side and elbow to elbow, as if we had 
 always been friends. 
 
 The prosperity of these "daughter churches" 
 which bear Episcopal and Baptist and Methodist 
 names is exceeded in our city only by that of the 
 daughter which bears our own name. I should feel 
 that the ecclesiastical history of Waterbury was 
 indeed sadly incomplete were I not sure that the 
 conspicuous place of the Second Congregational 
 church in the life of our city would somehow 
 receive full recognition in our bi-centennial ser- 
 vices. That it has outstripped the mother church, 
 not only, but all the churches of Connecticut in 
 membership, is a fact worth thinking of ; but this 
 is by no means the only boast it has a right to 
 make. We are glad of the co-operation we find in 
 such a daughter in handing down to new genera- 
 tions the old faith and worship, and in remaking 
 the world for the Master. 
 
 Brethren and friends : It seemed to me befitting 
 that while standing on this high place of our his- 
 tory, with loftier summits rising into view, we
 
 54 
 
 TEE FIRST CHURCH IN WATERBURT. 
 
 should pause long enough to look back over the 
 landscape of the past, that we might see by what 
 path we had come and recall the varied experiences 
 of the way. It is thus we shall learn to know our- 
 selves aright, and the better prepare ourselves for 
 the momentous tasks of the future. Every such 
 story has its moral ; every such record abounds in 
 lessons. You must deduce them for yourselves. 
 But this, surely, should be our feeling as a church 
 that our past achievement bears to the great 
 whole some such relation as the foundation walls 
 of an edifice bear to the completed and beautiful 
 structure. Our church has had a life two hundred 
 years long ; yet what have we been but workers on 
 the foundation walls ? Let us not be satisfied with 
 past results ; let us work on, assured that the walls 
 on which we labor, if we labor aright, are 
 
 The first foundations of that new, near Day 
 Which shall be builded out of heaven to God.
 
 II. 
 
 THE WATERBURY CHURCHES.
 
 WORDS OF INTRODUCTION BY THE REV. 
 DR. ANDERSON. 
 
 We have written upon our walls the names of 
 the churches in the vicinity which we claim as the 
 offspring of the old First church in Waterbury. In 
 studying the ancient records of the town, one soon 
 discovers with what reluctance the mother parted 
 with her daughters. There was a conflict in almost 
 every instance, and in every instance the child tri- 
 umphed over the parent. This, which is true of 
 the churches of the vicinage, is especially true of 
 the churches of the city. In the case of the young- 
 est daughter, whose name we see upon my left the 
 Second Congregational church, the colonization was 
 friendly. But in regard to the other city churches 
 represented here this evening, which are churches 
 of other "denominations," we must acknowledge 
 not only the mother's reluctance, in a certain sense, 
 at parting with her offspring, but her hostility, and 
 in some cases, I regret to say, hatred on her part 
 toward the child. More than once heretofore I 
 have referred in public to a vote found in the 
 records of the old First church, bearing the inter- 
 esting date, July 4th, 1800, instructing a certain 
 committee to proceed against certain brethren and 
 sisters of the church who had been guilty of going 
 off to the Methodists, with the understanding that 
 if they could not be brought to terms they must 
 henceforth be treated as heretics, and "rejected"
 
 58 THE WATERS URT CHURCHES. 
 
 according to the Scriptures.* Strangely and beau- 
 tifully in contrast with all this is the attitude of 
 our Waterbury churches toward one another to- 
 day. We feel that not only the Congregational 
 churches of the vicinage but the Episcopal churches 
 of our city, if they will allow us to say so, are the 
 daughters of the old First church, and no less so 
 the Baptist church, and the Methodist churches. 
 
 And it seemed to me, looking the field over and 
 considering what services would be proper for such 
 a celebration as this, that we must have at least 
 one service in which the different denominations, 
 as we call them the churches of different names 
 here in our city should be represented. I desired 
 that there should be a manifestation here, to-day, 
 of the brotherhood of the church, a manifestation 
 in which, I know, those are willing to take part 
 who are under certain limitations by virtue of their 
 canon law, no less than others whose polity leaves 
 them free. So I have asked the Rev. Dr. Rowland 
 to speak for the church whose establishment in 
 Waterbury dates back to 1740 or thereabouts, and 
 the Rev. Mr. Elsdonto speak for the Baptist church 
 
 * The complete record of the action of the church is as follows : 
 
 "Waterbury, July 4, A. D. 1800. Met according to adjournment. Voted, 
 That Reuben Frisbie and Stephen Hotchkiss be a committee to inform a number 
 of the brethren and sisters of this church, who sometime since went off to the 
 Methodists, that the church, having taken proper steps, according to the gospel, 
 to gain them to their duty, without success, are about to proceed to reject them, 
 unless they come forward and make gospel satisfaction. 
 
 " Waterbury, Sept. i6th, 1800. . . . Having twice admonished Mrs. Lydia 
 Mix, Mrs. Susanna Munson, Mrs. Sarah Hoadly, Mr. Gershom Olds and Mrs. 
 Sybil Olds, agreeable to Titus 3, 10, and having waited upon them with much 
 forbearance and tenderness, without success, Voted to reject them from our fel- 
 lowship and communion, agreeable to the direction of the apostle in said text. 
 
 Test, HOLLAND WEEKS, Clerk." 
 
 The words of the passage appealed to are : "A man that is a heretic, after the 
 first and second admonition, reject."
 
 THE EEV. DR. ROWLAND'S ADDRESS. 59 
 
 which originated here in 1803, and the Rev. Mr. 
 Eggleston to represent our Methodist brethren, 
 who organized a church in 1815. Mr. Maltby a 
 fitting representative, not alone because of his 
 official relations will tell the story of the Second 
 Congregational church; and toward the end the 
 services will blossom out into a poem composed by 
 the senior pastor of this our youngest and largest 
 and most vigorous daughter. 
 
 I welcome you, friends, to these services in which 
 so many are to take part. I welcome also these 
 official representatives of the several churches, to 
 each of whom some part has been assigned. 
 Although we cannot hear from all of you in words 
 of response, we rejoice to have you with us on this 
 festal day. 
 
 ADDRESS BY THE REV. EDMUND ROW- 
 LAND, D. D., RECTOR OF 
 ST. JOHN'S CHURCH. 
 
 There is a passage in Macaulay's " History of 
 England " that is not half as well known as it 
 ought to be, for its literary merit alone, if for no 
 other reason. It is that passage in which, about to 
 speak of the wars between the " cavaliers " and the 
 "roundheads," he leaves the subject for a moment 
 and enters upon a eulogy of the Puritans. It is a 
 grand theme ; his pen was never better occupied 
 than in that eulogy. They were a noble race of 
 men, and I have found that all those who make 
 any claim whatever to descent from the Puritans,
 
 60 THE WATERS URY CHURCHES. 
 
 no matter what their affiliations at present may be, 
 are very glad to accept this view of them. They 
 were sterling men. God knows, I wish we had 
 more such men to-day men of deep convictions 
 and men who had the courage of their convictions. 
 They came to this country with the purpose of 
 carrying out here the idea of a church without a 
 bishop and a state without a king ; but not the idea 
 of a state without a church. They certainly were 
 the established church in this country at all 
 events, in this section of the country. An examin- 
 ation of the old records of New England will show 
 how closely the church and the state were one ; nor 
 did they intend there should be anything else here 
 but the church of the Puritans. This First church 
 established in Waterbury was a church of the Puri- 
 tans, and I am sure it scarcely entered into the 
 minds of the founders of the First church that the 
 voice of an Episcopal minister would ever be heard 
 in the church, to say nothing of the voice of a Bap- 
 tist minister. Indeed, I think it was usually the 
 policy of that church to avoid the Episcopalians 
 and the Baptists and the Methodists, and also to 
 make them feel as if they were interlopers. It was 
 the custom of the day. The Puritans had been per- 
 secuted in the old country, and they were perhaps 
 not unwilling to retaliate upon the church that 
 persecuted them, when that church came to be rep- 
 resented here. They wanted the ground for them- 
 selves ; they were the established church ; and it 
 was the rule almost always, the final argument of 
 those days, to persecute. If a man did not believe 
 exactly as you did, the next thing, after having tried 
 argument with him, was to persecute, to make him
 
 THE REV. DR. ROWLAND'S ADDRESS. 61 
 
 uncomfortable. I am very glad that those days 
 have gone by and that we live in better times. 
 Toleration is a mark of the advance of our age in 
 religious thought. 
 
 Dr. Anderson has said that this church may in 
 some sense be considered the mother of the Epis- 
 copal church, and it is true that it may be so con- 
 sidered. The Episcopal churches received the 
 benefit, largely, of the instructions given in this 
 church. It is a significant fact that when we look 
 over the personnel of our Episcopal church, we find 
 a very small proportion of our members whether 
 of our clergy or of our lay members who were 
 born and brought up and educated in the Episcopal 
 fold. Take the bishops ; it has been said that not 
 more than one-tenth of the whole number of our 
 bishops were born and educated in the Episcopal 
 church. They have all been drawn from other 
 denominations. If that is true of bishops, it is 
 likewise true of the lower clergy. Whenever I look 
 around among my acquaintances in the ministry, I 
 find that those who were born and brought up in 
 the church are very few and far between ; and it is 
 so among the members of our churches. Perhaps 
 not in so large a proportion, because the Episcopal 
 laity in this country are largely of foreign birth ; 
 nevertheless a very considerable proportion of our 
 laity were born and brought up outside of the 
 church. 
 
 Now, if this be so, what follows ? Why, it follows, 
 that if we have religious zeal, learning, faith, 
 charity, we have got them from somewhere outside 
 of ourselves, that thosje ministers who were edu- 
 cated in other denominations brought them with
 
 6 a THE WATERBURT CHURCHES 
 
 them into our church ; and I believe that is very 
 generally felt. But it is a thing we do not think of 
 as often as we ought, how much we are indebted 
 to one another in this Christian community for 
 religious ideas. It is impossible that this church 
 here should keep to itself the teaching it has 
 received in these two hundred years. That teach- 
 ing has gone out into the community. It has made 
 men examples for the community to emulate, and 
 it has made men who have united themselves with 
 other denominations distinguished for those virtues 
 which have been here inculcated. 
 
 I do not know that I am able to speak upon the 
 doctrines, the actual doctrines, of Congregation- 
 alism, as distinguished from those that I hold. It 
 is not incumbent upon me that I should. I may 
 say that I am very ignorant of the actual teachings 
 of Congregationalism. I know something of the 
 old doctrines of the Presbyterian church, but I 
 know very little of the doctrines of the Congrega- 
 tionalists as held to-day. I have had friends who 
 were Congregationalists, of whom, perhaps, I might 
 have received instruction. I have one friend in 
 especial, who, I think, is prominent in this denomi- 
 nation. I have never heard him say much about 
 doctrines, but I know how high a power his life 
 has, and how much good he is doing in the place 
 where God has put him. I never heard him speak 
 of " election," but I should judge from his conduct 
 and his words that he believes election to be as 
 broad as humanity itself. I never heard him speak 
 of the doctrine of predestination ; I do not know 
 whether he is a supralapsarian or a sublapsarian, 
 but I know that he feels that God's foreknowledge
 
 THE REV. MR. ELSDON'8 ADDRESS. 63 
 
 makes no difference with man's free will. I don't 
 know whether he believes in the verbal inspiration 
 of the Scriptures, but I do know that he finds in the 
 Scriptures the word of God, and that he draws from 
 them inspiring lessons every day of his life. I 
 don't know that he believes in the doctrine of pro- 
 bation after death, but I know that he is anxious to 
 have all men feel that they have a probation in 
 this life. He would have every human being, 
 wherever he may be, have a knowledge of his pro- 
 bation and what it is. 
 
 That friend of mine is the pastor of this church, 
 and in bringing you the greetings of the church to 
 which I minister in this place, I would also say 
 that I sincerely trust no call will ever separate him 
 from the First church, or from Waterbury (to 
 which he belongs as much as he belongs to you\ 
 except that last call which bids him come up higher 
 into the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 ADDRESS BY THE REV. W. P. ELSDON, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST BAPTIST 
 
 CHURCH. 
 
 When I go down to my old home, I turn myself 
 into a Methodist for the time being, that I may 
 fully fellowship the dear father and other kindred 
 there. To-day I have been glad to turn myself into 
 a Congregationalist, and so doing I had a very 
 great treat, this afternoon, in listening to that 
 admirable historical discourse which Dr. Anderson 
 gave us. I count myself very happy to be here to-
 
 64 THE WATEBBTJRY CHURCHES. 
 
 night to speak a word on this auspicious occasion. 
 And yet I feel like a stripling; I feel small and 
 insignificant in this august presence; I am so 
 young only eighty-eight years old alongside of 
 this majestic two-hundred. I am completely over- 
 shadowed. You know I am speaking as the Baptist 
 church. Personally I am not quite eighty-eight; 
 but I am expected to represent the Baptist church. 
 That, by the way, is a very difficult thing to do. 
 The Baptists are the worst kind of people I ever 
 knew to represent at all. They remind me of a 
 story of a boy who had been behaving badly, and 
 whose mother " went for him." He ran, but the 
 mother was gaining on him ; so he dropped on his 
 hands and knees and crawled under the barn, 
 where she couldn't reach him, and lay there. 
 She waited until his father came home, and 
 then committed the taws and the cause to him. 
 When he went out to the barn, and dropped on his 
 hands and knees, to go under it, the boy said, 
 " Oh, father, is she after you too ? " That boy had 
 no idea that his father could represent his mother. 
 And I have a very difficult task for to-night, if I 
 represent the Baptist church. My own church, 
 here in Waterbury, may possibly submit to it, pro- 
 vided I behave myself as I should. I was reading 
 in a New York paper this morning about some 
 man who had been elected to office, I think in 
 Pennsylvania. The writer, describing him, said 
 that he was a " mugwump of the most unscrupu- 
 lous integrity." Now, if my integrity should get 
 off the track a little, my church to-morrow would 
 utterly repudiate my representation of them. So 
 you see I have to go carefully. The Baptists are
 
 THE EEV. MR. ELSDON'S ADDRESS. 65 
 
 very democratic, even more democratic than the 
 Congregationalists. 
 
 While I do not know that there is any organic 
 fellowship, lying anywhere in the dim past, between 
 this mother church and the church I have the 
 honor to serve (at any rate I have not been able to 
 discover any fact that would so indicate) yet I have 
 got hold of this, that establishes a sort of connec- 
 tion after all: When one of those earlier church 
 buildings of which Dr. Anderson told us to-day 
 was put up, an election was held at which those 
 were chosen who should occupy the highest seat in 
 the church. I think it was the pew at the head of 
 the house, with its square walls and high that 
 pew in which were seated those who were most 
 honorable by reason of rank and by reason of age 
 in the congregation. Now, I believe there are at 
 least three members in my church to-day who are 
 descended from some of the original seven that 
 were elected to that highest honor in the house of 
 the Lord ; and yet that was very long ago, long 
 before there was any Baptist church. 
 
 I understand that in the early days of Baptist 
 history it was very difficult to get a footing in the 
 town. The first Baptist church was built in the 
 woods, and they had to go to the woods to worship. 
 Well, thank God, we have got out of the woods, and 
 this First Congregational church has got out of the 
 woods, too, as evidenced in the fact that I am in- 
 vited to speak here to-night. Congregationalism is 
 not a " standing order " any longer ; it is a march- 
 ing order ; it is going on, I hope, toward perfection. 
 I don't know that I am naturally a conservative ; 
 possibly I might not have come out of the church
 
 66 THE WATERS URT CHURCHES. 
 
 of my fathers if I had been. But, whatever re- 
 mains of conservatism there may be in me, I was 
 greatly pleased as well as surprised last Monday, at 
 what I saw and heard at the conference of New 
 Haven county Baptist ministers in the city of New 
 Haven. The subject of the paper for the day was 
 the inspiration of the Scriptures, and there was 
 developed in that paper and in the discussion that 
 followed, a remarkable variety of sentiment con- 
 cerning that great and vastly important doctrine ; 
 views were expressed by the different brethren 
 ranging all the way from the most narrow and 
 rigid verbal theory of inspiration to well, I don't 
 like to say how far it went in the other direction. 
 But it was worth a good deal to me to remember, 
 thinking it all over afterward, that in a confer- 
 ence of Baptist ministers of Baptist ministers 
 serving in the same county views so diverse con- 
 cerning a matter so fundamental could be freely 
 uttered, and could find the largest toleration. We 
 are indeed marching ; we are not a standing order 
 any more. 
 
 While appreciating fully the greatness of our 
 differences, I rejoice in the essential unity of the 
 Christian faith. 
 
 O Lord and Master of us all, 
 Whate'er our name or sign, 
 
 I bless God that this is true, as we sang here to- 
 night. At the bottom, at the root, we are of one 
 blood. Some day we may have not only one Lord, 
 but one faith and one baptism. At least, when the 
 millenium comes, I suppose that will be ; and 
 meanwhile I do bless God for our essential Christ- 
 ian unity ; I rejoice in every manifestation of it.
 
 THE REV. MR. ELSDON'S ADDRESS. 67 
 
 and therefore am always glad to take part in such 
 gatherings as this. When our Methodist brethren 
 began organizing their Epworth leagues, I began 
 grumbling, and denouncing them in my way, for 
 breaking into that magnificent organization of 
 Christian unity, the Young People's Society of 
 Christian Endeavor. Now, alas ! the bad example 
 is infectious, and there is a movement of the same 
 kind in the Baptist churches though they say that 
 it isn't like the Epworth league, that we may still 
 be affiliated with Christian Endeavor unions, 
 though organized as Baptist Young People's socie- 
 ties. But I, partly because I am so dogmatic and 
 denominational, did rejoice in the privilege the 
 Christian Endeavor movement afforded me of 
 making known my hearty Christian sympathy with 
 all believers and our essential unity ; so that I have 
 been protesting right along against this new move- 
 ment, and I uttered my protest against it at our 
 state anniversary last month. 
 
 I am glad to be here to-night. I congratulate 
 this old First church on her two hundred years 
 that lie in the past. I hope that God will make the 
 years to come more abundantly fruitful. I hope 
 that God will multiply the peace and the prosperity 
 of his people, and that the Christian fellowship 
 which exists in these churches in Waterbury may 
 be enlarged more and more in the days to come. 
 The botanist goes out into the fields, and immedi- 
 ately begins to classify and separate and group 
 together grasses, plants, trees and ferns, although 
 they all belong to the same kingdom. The astron- 
 omer projects his telescope into the heavens, and 
 begins to group together and classify the stars,
 
 68 THE WATERS URT CHURCHES. 
 
 although they are all one. It is one kingdom 
 of nature, it is one celestial sphere. And so is it 
 with us ; when we get down beneath the form, 
 when we get to the inner heart, the vital force, the 
 living substance, we find, " whate'er our name or 
 sign," that we are children of the one Father, 
 holding essentially the one faith. And, please 
 God, we shall finally dwell together in the one 
 church triumphant. 
 
 ADDRESS BY THE REV. A. C. EGGLESTON, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST METHODIST 
 
 EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 I am always very glad to attend exercises of this 
 sort. There are epochs in the history of churches, 
 as well as in the lives of men, that may well be 
 noted. These centennial occasions serve to make 
 vivid and real our national and ecclesiastical his- 
 tory ; we go back into a real past ; we take history 
 out of the realm of fiction and imagination and 
 make it live before us. To me personally the ser- 
 vices of to-day are full of the deepest interest ; for 
 I am a descendant by both my father and my 
 mother from those who at the first wrestled with 
 the wilderness here in Connecticut ; only my line 
 goes back to the settlement of Windsor in 1640, and 
 not to Mattatuck. 
 
 To-day by these exercises we are led back to 
 take our places with those thirty or thirty-five 
 families, who first entered the wilderness here and 
 grappled with the earth in its natural roughness,
 
 THE REV. MR. EGGLESTOWS ADDRESS. 69 
 
 to subdue it, to build homes for themselves and to 
 rear their children in the fear of God. The rocks 
 and streams were here the hills and meadows all 
 untilled and uncultivated. The new settlers built 
 twenty-five or thirty log houses, scattered here and 
 there, where now are the great churches and beau- 
 tiful homes. What labor, what care, what patience, 
 what watchfulness against savages, they must have 
 exercised ! The meadows, how valuable they were ; 
 for they could be easily tilled, and would furnish 
 pasturage and hay for cattle and horses and sheep ! 
 The forests, the primeval forests, how massive, 
 how hard to cut down and clear away ! 
 
 Thirty families came, then, to settle here at Mat- 
 tatuck, and these were all the people in the town, 
 then sixteen or seventeen miles long by nine miles 
 wide. There was no church nearer than Farm- 
 ington, twenty miles away ; so these twenty-five or 
 thirty families, two hundred years ago, founded 
 this First church in Waterbury. And I think that 
 in this they did wisely, for themselves and for their 
 children and for us. 
 
 But here is a question of chronology that 
 troubles me. Chronology is a hard subject to 
 tackle, anyway, the chronology of the Bible, of 
 history, of geology. Here is the point : All this hap- 
 pened only two hundred years ago. When I medi- 
 tate upon the work accomplished in this country ; 
 when I think of these sixty millions of people and 
 these forty-four states ; when I think of the work 
 of subjugating the wilderness and establishing our 
 homes, our commerce, our railroads, our telegraphs 
 and telephones ; when I think of our colleges and 
 schools and churches a Christian church of some
 
 7 o THE WATERBURY CHURCHES. 
 
 sort for every five hundred people in the land 
 why, it seems to me impossible that all this should 
 have been wrought out in two hundred years. This 
 is worse than asking- a man to believe the Bible 
 stories ! We read in the Bible how the Lord led the 
 children of Israel out of Egypt, and finally placed 
 David upon the throne as the equal of all kings. 
 That took nearly five hundred years ; and it isn't 
 yet four hundred years since Columbus first dis- 
 covered the islands of the west, and only two hun- 
 dred and seventy-one years, next month, since the 
 Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. But this is 
 contrary to all experience ! Whoever heard of a 
 great continent, thousands of miles in extent, 
 redeemed from the wilderness, subdued, peopled, 
 educated, and raised to the very highest enlighten- 
 ment in two hundred years ? And yet the pastor 
 of this church asks me to believe that all this has 
 been accomplished in that length of time, and he 
 brings up his old records to prove it. Well, I want 
 to believe it, and as a Methodist I suppose I ought 
 to. But if so, I shall believe that the age of God's 
 wonders has not passed. 
 
 I sometimes think the churches in their quiet 
 lives are like the genealogies of the antediluvian 
 patriarchs ; two hundred years have to go by before 
 they really get to living. It is written of Methu- 
 selah that he was nearly two hundred years old 
 when he begat Lamech. What that old patriarch 
 had been doing all those years nobody knows ; 
 seemingly, nothing worth recording. But at length 
 Lamech is born, and then it is said, " Methuselah 
 lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred and 
 eighty-two years, and begat sons and daughters."
 
 THE REV. MR. EGGLESTON'S ADDRESS. 71 
 
 Apparently, it took those old patriarchs about two 
 hundred years to come to their maturity ; and the 
 same seems to be true of some churches. But 
 while it is pleasant to remember the past, it is 
 still more pleasant to look forward, and to feel 
 assured that there is no reason why these churches 
 should not go on for the future, increasing in piety 
 and in every good work among men. 
 
 I am not here, however, to make a long speech. 
 I am here to bring to this First church of Water- 
 bury the Christian greetings of the Methodist 
 churches of this old town. I bring to you, Chris- 
 tian brethren, our most hearty good wishes for 
 your continued prosperity. We desire, not that you 
 should decrease in any way, but that you should 
 increase in all spiritual grace and usefulness. As 
 Methodists we are not here to pull down, or to 
 hinder, or to depreciate any good work, but to give 
 hearty fellowship and help in the great task of 
 caring for and tilling the Master's vineyard. We 
 rejoice in the work done by those brave and 
 earnest men who founded and maintained this 
 church under difficulties seemingly insurmount- 
 able, and we pray that the blessings of the past 
 may only be prophecies of the glory which shall 
 crown this Zion in the future.* 
 
 * A careful account of the origin of Methodism in Waterbury, and a history of 
 the First Methodist Episcopal church, was published in the Waterbury American 
 of July sth, 1889 (weekly edition). It was written by Mr. A. F. Abbott for the 
 forthcoming History of Waterbury.
 
 72 THE WATERBURY CHURCHES. 
 
 PAPER BY MR. D. F. MALTBY, OF THE 
 
 SECOND CONGREGATIONAL 
 
 CHURCH. 
 
 On the 3d of February, 1851, a special meeting 
 of the Congregational society of Waterbury was 
 " warned " by the society's committee, to meet on 
 the evening of February loth, to take into consid- 
 eration, in connection with other business, the 
 organization of a Second Congregational society. 
 The population of the place at that time was about 
 5,500, and the membership of the church nearly 
 400. Waterbury had already become noted for its 
 manufacturing industries and for its enterprising 
 business men, many of whom were members of the 
 Congregational church and society. They were 
 looking forward to an increased business, and a 
 larger and more rapid growth of population. Such 
 men as Aaron Benedict, P. W. Carter, the Hon. 
 Green Kendrick, the brothers Philo and William 
 Brown, and Edward Scovill men of broad views 
 in business, and of broad views also in regard to 
 the moral and religious wants of the community 
 foresaw the growth of Waterbury, and recognized 
 the fact that while there was no dissension in the 
 church, and it was not so large as to make parish 
 duties burdensome to the pastor, it would be good 
 and wise policy to make fuller provision for moral 
 and religious instruction and church fellowship. 
 
 At the meeting held February loth, 1851, in 
 answer to the call, the following resolution was 
 passed :
 
 MR. D. F. MALTBY'S PAPER. 73 
 
 Voted, that this society deem it expedient and necessary 
 for the interest of Congregationalism, and also of our own 
 society, that a new Congregational church be formed in this 
 place. 
 
 Voted, that Messrs. Nelson Hall, Gideon L. Platt, Charles 
 Benedict, Newton Hine, Jr., and Dyer Ames, Jr., be a com- 
 mittee to procure subscriptions for a new house of worship, 
 and said subscriptions not to be binding on any one unless 
 $15,000 are pledged. 
 
 This at that time was considered, and was, a large 
 amount to raise to start a new society. Several 
 adjourned meetings of the society were held, to 
 hear reports from the committee and to keep alive 
 the interest. At the eighth adjourned meeting, held 
 October 25th, 1851, the committee reported, that 
 the amount necessary to make the subscription 
 binding, namely, $15,000, had been procured. The 
 same evening the book was opened for names 
 of subscribers to the new Congregational society. 
 There were ten names subscribed in the following 
 order : Charles Benedict, J. M. Burrall, Douglas F. 
 Maltby, Augustus S. Chase, Augustus M. Blakesley, 
 J. Watson White, Edwin A. Lum, Charles Partree, 
 Nelson Hall, and Norton J. Buel. Half of the 
 number have been chosen deacons of the Second 
 church; half the number have been laid away in 
 the city of the dead. 
 
 Some months after the organization of the soci- 
 ety, that is, on the 4th of April, 1852, a daughter 
 was born to the First church, and was named the 
 Second Congregational church. It was organized 
 with a membership of fifty. Thirty-five were re- 
 ceived from the First church, and fifteen from 
 twelve other churches. Thirteen of these are still 
 members, thirteen have removed to other places, 
 4
 
 74 THE WATERS URT CHURCHES. 
 
 and twenty - four have stars prefixed to their 
 names. 
 
 The first pastor was the Rev. Seagrove W. Magill, 
 installed soon after the church was organized. Dr. 
 Magill was a man of fine physique and command- 
 ing presence, possessed of a great deal of dignity, 
 yet very kind, tender and fatherly a man who 
 won the confidence and love of his people. His 
 sermons were carefully written, showing study of 
 both thought and expression, requiring very close 
 attention on the part of his hearers. His good 
 common sense and sound judgment, in both tem- 
 poral and spiritual matters, made him just the man 
 to lay well the foundation of the new organization, 
 and the church still feels the power of his strong 
 hand, his safe instruction, and wise counsel. For 
 twelve years in this community he lived a noble 
 life as a trusted and honored citizen, greatly ad- 
 mired and beloved.* 
 
 The Rev. Elisha Whittlesey succeeded Mr. Magill, 
 coming at a time when there was more than ordi- 
 nary religious interest in the Sunday school. He 
 entered into the work with earnestness, and quite 
 large additions were made to the membership of 
 the church soon after he came. The church pros- 
 pered under his pastorate of nearly six years. 
 
 The Rev. Edward G. Beckwith succeeded Mr. 
 Whittlesey. It was only necessary for him to 
 preach one sermon in our pulpit to turn our hearts 
 toward him. He was a man exceedingly attractive 
 both in and out of the pulpit, a very interesting and 
 earnest preacher, genial and sympathetic, able and 
 
 * Dr. Magill died on Sunday morning, January zoth, 1884. On the next Sunday 
 a memorial service was preached by the Rev. J. G. Davenport, of which a full 
 abstract was published in the Waterbury American, January 28th, 1884. EDITOR.
 
 ME. D. F. MALTBT'S PAPER. 75 
 
 ready to adapt himself to all with whom he came 
 in contact. Preaching the gospel of Christ, and 
 living it in his daily life, he reached the hearts of 
 his people. He was fertile in expedients for help- 
 ing the society financially, and in enlisting all, old 
 and young, in the work of the church. The society 
 very soon paid its large debt, which had long been 
 a heavy load to carry, and the church had a large 
 amount of work constantly before it. His ministry of 
 ten years and three months brought both church and 
 society into an exceedingly prosperous condition. 
 
 Before Dr. Beckwith, who was securely locked up 
 in the hearts of his people, left, the Lord in a spe- 
 cial manner had opened the way for another, who 
 was not to break the lock, but to use the key in the 
 same effective fashion. And so it came about that 
 the Rev. John G. Davenport, who had preached in 
 Dr. Beckwith's pulpit for a single Sabbath, became 
 Dr. Beckwith's successor. Mr. Davenport has now 
 entered upon his eleventh year as our pastor; the 
 lock has not been broken, but the key has opened 
 it. We love him just as truly as we did Dr. Beck- 
 with, and the Lord has signally blessed his minis- 
 try as the growth of the church, not only in mem- 
 bership but in Christian character and activity, 
 testifies. 
 
 The steady and rapid increase in the membership 
 of the Second church, from the beginning until now 
 will appear in the following statement, showing 
 the number received by the several pastors: 
 
 By Mr. Magill, on profession 76, by letter 226 ; total, 302. 
 
 By Mr. Whittlesey, " 101, " 86 ; " 187. 
 
 By Dr. Beckwith, " 222, " 180 ; " 402. 
 
 By Mr. Davenport, " 247, ' 298; " 545. 
 
 Between pastorates, " 4, " 17 ;" 21
 
 76 THE WATERBURT CHURCHES. 
 
 The entire number received, to the present time, is 
 1457; the present membership is 836. 
 
 We went out from the mother church a small 
 company, imbued with something of the same 
 spirit she had in bidding us go. She promised us 
 sympathy and help as we might need, and for many 
 years we had need of both; for our faith was sorely 
 tried, and our pockets, which were not richly lined, 
 were heavily taxed. It was a sorry sight on the 
 morning of January ipth, 1857, to see the beautiful 
 steeple of the new church, lying prostrate on the 
 roof of the buildings south of it, even as far as the 
 roof of Irving block, and the south-west corner of 
 the edifice in ruins. But the sympathy and help 
 of the mother church, and others, gave us courage 
 and cheer. 
 
 We rejoice in uniting with our beloved and hon- 
 ored mother in celebrating her bi-centennial birth- 
 day. We rejoice in the pleasant feeling existing 
 between the mother and the daughter, and we pray 
 that the Lord may guide and bless both of us in all 
 our future history. 
 
 POEM BY THE REV. JOHN G. DAVENPORT 
 PASTOR OF THE SECOND CONGRE- 
 GATIONAL CHURCH. 
 
 One night I was sitting on Centre sqtiare 
 Charmed with the scene that is ever fair, 
 Watching the elms in their silvery glow, 
 And their shadows flung on the grass below; 
 Noting the bronzes, tall and grand,
 
 TEE REV. MR. DAVENPORT'S POEM. 
 
 That grace the common on either hand, 
 
 Catching the glitter and glint that play 
 
 Like the flash of gems on the fountain's spray; 
 
 Tracing fantastic figures made 
 
 By paths inwoven with light and shade; 
 
 Glancing anon at the buildings fair 
 
 That compass so grandly our famous square. 
 
 Many passed by and I dreamily heard 
 
 The ripple of laughter, the earnest word, 
 
 The jest of the flippant, the ribald song, 
 
 The rythmic step of the hurrying throng. 
 
 But little I thought of the eager life 
 
 With which the beautiful scene was rife; 
 
 The pictures wrought in the evening's glow 
 
 Suggested others of long ago. 
 
 The lights grew dim and a shadow fell 
 O'er the scenes that I knew and loved so well. 
 The buildings that stood in their proud array 
 Melted like mists and faded away; 
 And on either side I could faintly trace 
 The rudest of cabins in their place, 
 Whose narrow windows revealed the rays 
 Of the twinkling light of other days; 
 And from out the marshes between I heard 
 The voice of the frog and the water-bird, 
 And a dampness mantled the evening air 
 That chilled my soul like a grim despair. 
 
 The scene was shifted, and now the breeze 
 Swept sadly sighing through forest trees; 
 And out on the night air, shrill and high, 
 From the hill-top rang the wild beast's cry. 
 T turned, and where Harmony has her home, 
 
 77
 
 78 THE WATERBURY CHURCHES. 
 
 Uplifting its graceful arch and dome, 
 
 A wigwam was standing, with skins apart, 
 
 And a fire within with a crimson heart, 
 
 And round the glow, on the earthen floor, 
 
 A cluster of savages, half a score. 
 
 Some fashioned their arrows, and some displayed 
 
 The bows that their skillful hands had made; 
 
 Some told of the brilliant chase, and some 
 
 Sat like sphinxes, unmoved and dumb. 
 
 But while I was looking, St. John's sweet bell 
 
 To the present recalled with its lingering knell, 
 
 Proclaiming afar that another hour 
 
 Had passed beyond human reach and power. 
 
 The radiant picture again I knew, 
 
 To fact, not fancy, its features true. 
 
 " I must leave," said I; when near me drew, 
 
 As I thought, a figure in somber hue, 
 
 Of style antique and of saintly air, 
 
 And of face as dignified as fair. 
 
 A startled look filled his searching eyes, 
 
 As of gravest doubt or of wild surprise. 
 
 With courtesy bowing, he eagerly said, 
 
 " In just returning from realms of the dead 
 
 I sought to discover again the place, 
 
 Familiar so long with my form and face. 
 
 And I thought it was here, but all I can see 
 
 Appears but a puzzling mystery. 
 
 Name for me, sir, if you will, this town." 
 
 Astonished, I said, " It has great renown; 
 
 Do you carry a watch ? " and the words we sing 
 
 Regarding the " everlasting spring " 
 
 Suggested their most irrelevant rhyme. 
 
 But I murmured, " You take no note of time.
 
 THE REV. MR. DAVENPORTS POEM. 79 
 
 'Tis Waterbury town," said I; 
 
 "A place where so many would live and die 
 
 That real estate is exceedingly high ; 
 
 Where brass is moulded to forms untold, 
 
 And ever transmuted to shining gold; 
 
 Where hammer and anvil ne'er cease to ring, 
 
 Nor busiest wheels to whirl and sing; 
 
 Where " but he stopped me. " Somewhere here 
 
 I preached the gospel for many a year, 
 
 But just where it was, I'm not so clear. 
 
 I thought I remembered the sacred spot, 
 
 But going thither, my soul waxed hot 
 
 At finding uplifted toward the sky 
 
 A brazen horse on an altar high, 
 
 An idol vaunting itself just there 
 
 Where I warned them of idols to beware. 
 
 Shocked at the horrible sight I had seen, 
 
 I fled to the opposite end of the green, 
 
 When, lo, on another altar there, 
 
 The form of a woman appeared in air. 
 
 Whether Fate or Fury, I could not tell, 
 
 Or Diana of Ephesus, noted well, 
 
 Or the Virgin Mary, or other dame; 
 
 But my soul was crushed with the awful shame. 
 
 And I saw (and no grief could equal mine) 
 
 The lighted candles about her shrine. 
 
 Oh tell me, sir, can it truly be 
 
 That this town has lapsed to idolatry ? " 
 
 " Oh no," I answered, with stifled laugh, 
 " Don't take our horse for a golden calf. 
 We never worship yon prancing steed, 
 Preferring a record for better speed. 
 And as for the woman over there,
 
 8o THE WATERS URT CHURCHES. 
 
 With the coronet circling her nut-brown hair, 
 It's Victory, holding the wreath of bays 
 For the heroes worthy of deathless praise. 
 If a woman we worshipped, we'd bow the knee 
 To a creature of not so high metal as she. 
 
 " But, please sir, who are you ? " I now inquired, 
 For to know the quaint visitor I aspired. 
 Said he, " When I threaded this spacious park 
 And here was abiding, they called me ' Mark.' 
 Through more than a century's half I stood 
 For all I thought noble and pure and good, 
 And tried, with such powers as I had, to win 
 The people I loved from the grasp of sin. 
 The fruit of my labor I do not know; 
 They've wholly forgotten, ah, long ago, 
 The earnest words that I uttered here, 
 And him who spake them, I greatly fear. 
 All is so changed; it cannot be 
 That Waterbury remembers me. 
 I've even failed to discover my bones, 
 Or decipher on plainest memorial stones 
 The name that once was accounted dear; 
 Alas, alas, they're ungrateful here." 
 
 "Why, Reverend Mark Leaven worth! " I replied; 
 " Your name and your influence have not died. 
 The seeds of truth that you planted here 
 Yield blossom and fruitage, year by year. 
 Look over this busy, progressive town, 
 Extending the fertile valley down, 
 And climbing the slopes to the sunny height 
 That watches and guards us on left and right; 
 Consider the palaces here of toil,
 
 THE REV. MR. DAVENPORTS POEM. 81 
 
 The beautiful homes that garland the soil, 
 
 The buildings reared for the children's weal, 
 
 And the temples where thousands humbly kneel; 
 
 Observe how the bustle of life is here 
 
 With its ceaseless vigor and hope and cheer, 
 
 And in all that is best in this noble town 
 
 You've a right to discover your own renown. 
 
 You and the others laid broad and sure 
 
 Foundation stones that shall ever endure. 
 
 Integrity flawless and purpose true, 
 
 The justice that never withholds the due, 
 
 A public spirit that's high and strong, 
 
 Conscience to scuttle the public wrong, 
 
 Regard for the welfare of man that sees 
 
 Far over the bounds of present ease, 
 
 All this in the early days you taught, 
 
 And thus for the future you grandly wrought. 
 
 And so, while your bones may be disinterred 
 
 And to peaceful and honored couch transferred, 
 
 Your life 'mid these latest, most stirring days 
 
 Goes throbbing on through our crowded ways, 
 
 And Waterbury 's responsive still 
 
 To the force of your sturdy and manly will." 
 
 The old man smiled, and he asked, " But where 
 Now worship the people of my care ? " 
 I pointed at once to the graceful spire 
 All flooded and gilt with electric fire: 
 " Here in a temple both rich and strong 
 Your dear old church is uplifting its song, 
 And worshipping Him, with reverent soul, 
 Who lives unchanged while the ages roll." 
 " But who stands now where I stood, to tell 
 The slippery ways that lead to hell ? "
 
 82 THE WATERBURY CHURCHES. 
 
 " One Joseph now points to the heavenly bliss, 
 
 And urges the people to strive for this." 
 
 " Not Joseph Bellamy, here returned, 
 
 A mightier logic having learned ? 
 
 Ah, here he would often weave his chain 
 
 From a fervid heart and glowing brain, 
 
 And with it would leave his listeners bound 
 
 As under a magic spell profound. 
 
 He cannot be here again to show 
 
 The ills that the non-elect shall know ? " 
 
 " That Bethlehem star is set," I said, 
 
 " Your ancient Bellamy's with the dead. 
 
 Perchance were he, sainted, to come again 
 
 To labor on earth for the souls of men, 
 
 He long might live as a man at large, 
 
 Enrolled as a minister "without charge." 
 
 The world has been moving, as you must know, 
 
 Since he, sir, and you in death lay low. 
 
 Old issues are passing, new truths appear, 
 
 Earth's vision is broadening year by year. 
 
 The clergyman stands of his age a part, 
 
 The product of forces that pulse in its heart, 
 
 Athrill with its thought and aglow with its zeal, 
 
 Discerning the false and embracing the real 
 
 That leap into view at the turn of the wheel. 
 
 His sensitive spirit is pained with the need 
 
 Of society given to lust and to greed, 
 
 And he eagerly lifts to the view of mankind 
 
 The perfect ideal, the heavenly mind, 
 
 Strength wedded with gentleness, virtue unpriced, 
 
 The splendor of manhood, the crown of the Christ. 
 
 And thus (while its product) he fashions his age, 
 
 And leads ever up to a worthier stage; 
 
 His voice as the trumpet whose musical peal
 
 THE REV. MR. DAVENPORT'S POEM. 83 
 
 To conflict calls onward, to conquest as real. 
 Our Joseph, succeeding you here, we esteem 
 As a man for his time, in his office supreme, 
 Awake to the truth and the need of the hour 
 And bringing to duty high culture and power." 
 
 My visitor listened, and studied the while 
 The church uplifting its shadow-wreathed pile. 
 He seemed to be dreaming of years that are past 
 As he waited in silence; then suddenly asked, 
 " How solves he the question, profound and sublime, 
 The deepest and grandest inquiry of time ? " 
 My mind flew at once to the themes of our thought 
 Whose study had special perplexity brought. 
 The mode of creation, direct or by stages, 
 The author or authors of Pentateuch pages, 
 Free trade or protection as best for a nation, 
 The Andover view of post-mortem probation, 
 Prohibition or license, the Gospel of John 
 Are a few of the points that I lingered upon; 
 But what was the query he questioned about, 
 I shortly confessed I was somewhat in doubt. 
 " I mean, sir," now turning in wonder to me, 
 " How God can be sovereign, and man can be free. 
 The question we struggled with, year after year, 
 And settled with logic as weighty as clear, 
 But found, having ended and laid down our pen, 
 That the question was there to be settled again. 
 Has this, my successor, 'mid time's evolution, 
 Secured what is truly a valid solution ? " 
 
 " He's come quite as near it," I answered, " as man 
 In the dim light of earth ever needs to, or can. 
 A word that explains it has dropped from above,
 
 84 THE WATERS VRT CHURCHES, 
 
 As sweet as the music of angels; 'tis Love. 
 The love of the Father that streams to the earth 
 Brings sunshine and beauty and gladness to birth. 
 Incarnate in blossom, in verdure, in song, 
 In perfume and tint that to summer belong, 
 In the sweetness of meadow, the lustre of sky, 
 The glory of worlds that sweep silently by, 
 This love, from the fathomless Spirit divine, 
 Doth man in its tenderness ever enshrine; 
 Awakens his pulses and nurtures the flame 
 That flashes and glows in his marvellous frame; 
 Endows him with passion and eager desire, 
 With affections that thrill and hopes that inspire; 
 Gives home for his solace, the world for the field 
 That shall discipline, skill and development yield; 
 Bestows princely honor through all of life's span, 
 Conferring the freedom that makes him a man. 
 Love maketh him free, and love sits on the throne, 
 Claiming sovereignty full and forever its own. 
 So to us, freedom here and dominion above 
 Are but phases of one indivisible love." 
 
 A shake of his head made me feel, I confess, 
 That my speaking for Joseph was not a success. 
 While listening with patience sublime, he turned 
 And looked westward through eyes that with eager- 
 ness burned. 
 
 " Come with me," said he, " to where in my youth 
 I won the sweet love of the beautiful Ruth." 
 Together we walked down the broad highway 
 That beamed in a glory like breaking day. 
 " What candles are these ? " he asked in amaze, 
 Shielding his eyes from the tear-bringing blaze. 
 " O, these were invented a decade ago;
 
 THE EEV. ME. DAVENPORTS POEM. 85 
 
 The wicks are of carbon; you see how they glow. 
 The tallow is lightning; yoii've seen it at play; 
 It is caught and enclosed, and it shines like the 
 
 day." 
 
 As we passed to the corner of Willow and Main * 
 My companion began in a musical strain 
 To tell of the memories leaping to birth, 
 As if from the soil of this cubit of earth. 
 
 " 'Twas here I won the maid," he said, 
 
 " I well recall the hour 
 When first she on my bosom lay, 
 
 A pure and perfect flower. 
 
 'Twas in the glowing summer-time 
 
 When skies were blue and gold, 
 And heavenly peace seemed everywhere 
 
 Creation to enfold. 
 
 I'd just received an urgent call 
 
 To preach the gospel here, 
 But felt that first of all the flock 
 
 I must secure her ear. 
 
 The shadows pointed toward the east 
 Whence glories new should dawn; 
 
 I ^looked for glory to my soul 
 Ere daylight should be gone. 
 
 With throbbing heart I hither came, 
 
 Uncertain of my fate, 
 Eager, yet loath, to pass within 
 
 Her father's wicket gate. 
 
 * The venerable visitor, dazed by his surroundings, had apparently forgotten 
 that the scene here reported occurred in Northbury, to which place the lady's 
 father, Jeremiah Peck, had removed in 1738, the year before Mr. Leavenworth's 
 call to Waterbury. J. G. D.
 
 86 THE WATERS UR 7 CHURCHES. 
 
 Just here, beside the cottage wall, 
 
 The clustering lilacs made 
 A bower of beauty and of peace 
 
 Enwrapped in deepest shade. 
 
 What was my joy to see the girl 
 
 Sit spinning here alone, 
 As dignified, and calm and sweet 
 
 As queen upon her throne. 
 
 Her profile only was in view, 
 
 But this was classic grace; 
 And filmy wreaths of sunny hair 
 
 Bordered the noble face. 
 
 I saw that while she twirled the wheel, 
 
 Her eyes would oft incline 
 To letters which I recognized 
 
 (O blessed fact !) as mine. 
 
 Against the background of the years 
 
 That picture still I see, 
 The maiden at her spinning-wheel, 
 
 So beautiful to me. 
 
 Her robe was homespun, white and blue, 
 
 Her folded kerchief gray, 
 Her snowy apron wrought with flowers, 
 
 The apple-blooms of May. 
 
 Her brow was decked with dainty cap, 
 A rosebud gemmed her breast; 
 
 She wore a look of thoughtfulness 
 And yet of peace and rest. 
 
 She charmed me as I stood and gazed, 
 She seemed so pure and fair; 
 
 I could have thought an angel sat 
 In her old oaken chair.
 
 THE REV. MR. DAVENPORT'S POEM. 87 
 
 ' O Ruth, my Ruth,' at length I said, 
 
 And hastened to her side; 
 ' I've come to give you all my heart, 
 
 And pray you be my bride.' 
 
 She started, and the mantling blush 
 
 Rose over cheek and brow; 
 Will you be mine ? ' I eager said, 
 ' O tell me, tell me now.' 
 
 She sat me down beside her there 
 
 Within the lilacs' shade, 
 And said, ' Of that of which you speak, 
 
 I earnestly have prayed. 
 
 And yet I cannot clearly see 
 
 The way my feet should tread, 
 And know not if my heart be right 
 
 In urging me to wed. 
 
 Our God has called you to a course 
 
 Of duty grand and high, 
 A work too lofty to be shared 
 
 With one so weak as I. 
 
 I think I love the holy Lord, 
 
 And wish his will to do; 
 And so I wait his certain sign 
 
 That I should go with you.' 
 
 'Ruth, let us pray,' I humbly said; 
 
 We fell upon our knees; 
 I heard the robin's happy song, . 
 
 The whisper of the trees. 
 
 ' O Thou, whose mighty reign is love, 
 
 Reveal to us thy way, 
 O take us, guide us as thou wilt, 
 
 Unitedly we pray.'
 
 88 THE WATERS URT CHURCHES. 
 
 As we uprose, Ruth turned to me 
 
 And placed her hand in mine; 
 ' I'm yours,' she said, ' my soul receives 
 
 The Master's holy sign. 
 
 For, as you prayed, a glory fell 
 
 That filled my raptured heart, 
 And in it came a voice to me: 
 
 With him till death shall part.' 
 
 She laid her cheek upon my breast, 
 
 Her eyes agleam with bliss, 
 And then with holy tenderness 
 
 I gave the virgin kiss. 
 
 And nature seemed athrill with song, 
 
 Rose-fragrance filled the air, 
 A brighter sun was pouring down 
 
 Its glory everywhere. 
 
 The months rolled by, and when at length 
 
 I here found blest employ, 
 A bride I brought her to my home, 
 
 My youth's sweet strength and joy." 
 
 The speaker had ceased, but continued to gaze 
 In the gloom at bright visions of earlier days; 
 And his tears that fell like the drops of the sky 
 Proved it's pathos to live and it's pathos to die. 
 
 Together we came to the centre again, 
 
 And he questioned of much that's occurred among 
 
 men. 
 
 " Who governs Connecticut now ? " said he, 
 And I tried to explain of the possible three, 
 Each claiming the chief of the state to be. 
 I fear that my language was not quite plain,
 
 THE REV. MR. DAVENPORT'S POEM. 89 
 
 For he quickly added, " A wonderful gain, 
 
 If governors three are now needed to reign ! " 
 
 And I briefly told of the nation great, 
 
 Built up of sovereign state on state; 
 
 Of the flag of the glorious stripe and star 
 
 Proclaiming liberty near and far; 
 
 Of the lands magnificent we have won, 
 
 Spread out from the rise to the set of sun; 
 
 Of the power of the nation, great and high, 
 
 Which nothing, but Chili, dares defy; 
 
 Of the hope we have that in coming time 
 
 The people of every race and clime, 
 
 Like the dwellers upon this favored shore, 
 
 Shall exult in plenty and power; and more, 
 
 In the purity, peace and life divine 
 
 That flow from the gospel's holy shrine. 
 
 As I spoke at last of this gladsome day, 
 When churches and people should come to pay 
 Their gratulations to one that has told 
 Her centuries twain, our mother old, 
 He said, " How gladly I'd meet them there, 
 To speak of her record so grand and fair ! 
 But, lest I be absent those golden days, 
 I'll voice for her now a song of praise." 
 And his melody rang on the midnight air, 
 And rose to God like the soul of prayer: 
 
 " Glorious Lord, whose praises ever 
 
 Rise from earth and rolling sea, 
 And whose honors starry heavens 
 
 Rapturous chant eternally ! 
 Hear us, Father, 
 
 While we lift our song to thee.
 
 9 o 
 
 THE WATERBURY CHURCHES. 
 
 Thou did'st grant thy grace and favor 
 To the fathers when they prayed; 
 
 Through the wilderness did'st lead them 
 When they humbly sought thine aid; 
 
 Hear us, Father, 
 For on thee our souls are stayed. 
 
 For the mother church we bless thee, 
 For the long and faithful years 
 
 She has borne her holy witness 
 To the God that calmed her fears; 
 
 Guide her, Father, 
 Through her gladness and her tears. 
 
 For the souls who here have sought thee, 
 
 And the seeking surely find; 
 For the noble sons and daughters 
 
 Who have gone to bless mankind, 
 Lord, we thank thee, 
 
 Give to us the Christlike mind. 
 
 On thy servant who delivers 
 
 Here thy message sweet of love, 
 
 Shed the richest, holiest blessing 
 From the radiant courts above; 
 
 O'er him ever 
 Spread thy wings, O heavenly Dove. 
 
 When the work of life is ended, 
 
 And the weary journey o'er, 
 With the precious saints departed 
 
 May we tread the golden shore, 
 And, O Father, 
 
 Worthily thy love adore."
 
 III. 
 
 THE MOTHER AND DAUGHTERS.
 
 THE CHURCH IN FARMINGTON. 
 
 BY THE REV. EDWARD A. SMITH. 
 
 The designation of one church as mother, and of 
 another as daughter, has been frequent on this 
 occasion. Your courteous circular of invitation 
 refers to your own church as the mother of Water- 
 town, Plymouth, Wolcott and other churches, and 
 finally in all dutifulness speaks of the old church 
 at Farmington as the " mother of us all." This use 
 of the words " mother " and " daughter " is wholly 
 appropriate, and yet a person who is in the habit 
 of asking himself questions will presently begin 
 weighing the words, " mother church " and " daugh- 
 ter church," and asking how much of a truly 
 maternal and filial relation has existed between 
 Farmington and Waterbury. 
 
 The plain truth confronts us that there is at 
 present no intimacy between mother and daughter. 
 With all friendliness, there is still no direct and 
 immediate intercourse between the two bodies. 
 Was it ever otherwise ? The old records, to which 
 one at first naturally turns for an answer, surprise 
 us by their silence on this point. It seems strange 
 to say it, but the old books of the two churches 
 scarcely betray the fact that one church knew of 
 the existence of the other. The Farmington church 
 indeed, when men first began to settle at Matta- 
 tuck, laid a hand of remonstrance on certain men 
 by the name of Judd and on a certain other named 
 Standley, saying to William Judd that they " see 
 not his call to remove on account of any strait
 
 94 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 ness for outward subsistence," and counselled him, 
 '"if it may be with satisfaction to his spirit to con- 
 tinue his abode with them." The whole party they 
 urge (there being as yet no church established in 
 the new region) to be "wary of engaging far until 
 some comfortable hopes appear of being suited 
 for the inward man." This caution, you will no- 
 tice, was given to settlers previous to the formation 
 of the church. But when the church at Mattatuck 
 was finally organized there is no mention made of 
 the fact; there is no large written entry running 
 across the page to record the birth of a new church. 
 Truly, so far as the old pages go, these churches 
 were mother and daughter only as the ledge of rock 
 on the hillside is mother to the big boulder which 
 has rolled down to the meadow below. The boulder 
 and the ledge have parted, and are nothing to one 
 another henceforth. So, if one look no further 
 than the surface, did Farmington and Waterbury 
 apparently lead separate and distinct existences. 
 
 But if any one should infer that these churches 
 were in reality strangers to one another, he would 
 greatly err. No ! they were really in close contact, 
 the currents of life flowing continually from one to 
 another. All along through their history these 
 churches, and indeed all churches of Connecticut, 
 present one type of feeling, of doctrine, of usage, 
 and this similarity of type would indicate contin- 
 ual intercourse and interdependence. It might 
 well be that old German villages a few miles apart, 
 and with a mountain between them, should diverge 
 greatly in dialect and usage and dress; but these 
 Connecticut churches, though twenty miles apart, 
 were really near neighbors in spiritual things.
 
 THE CHURCH IN FARMINQTON. 95 
 
 Indeed all the twenty-five churches of the state 
 were in pretty close connection with one another. 
 Distinct organizations, they yet formed a homoge- 
 neous body of great unanimity of sentiment. 
 
 There were several forces which tended to press 
 the settlements and churches near together. One 
 of these was the Indian, who by perpetual menace 
 of tomahawk and torch did unintentional mission- 
 ary work in making men discover the goodness 
 and pleasantness of brethren dwelling together in 
 unity. Especially in frontier towns like these, 
 white men found themselves forced into a certain 
 harmony of feeling as a defence against their sav- 
 age neighbors. 
 
 Another compacting pressure was found in their 
 similar religious perils. They had to fight hard to 
 keep up Christian faith and practice, amid the hard- 
 ships and anxieties of frontier life. It is very easy 
 for settlers in a new country to let religious life 
 burn low. And these early Christian people in 
 Connecticut in their earnest struggle against hea- 
 thenism among themselves were able the better to 
 understand one another's experience. They became 
 readily sympathetic with one another, as is natural 
 for men who are fighting the same battle with the 
 same resolute purpose. It is possible that their 
 opportunities for intercouse were limited, yet these 
 men, craving contact with neighboring towns and 
 churches, came quickly to an understanding with 
 one another, and the occasional intercourse which 
 was possible went far in the way of promoting a 
 sense of fellowship. 
 
 The fellowship of the churches was still further 
 advanced by the sessions of the General Court.
 
 96 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 The churches were virtually all present there, by 
 their ministers or prominent church members. 
 Their continual association with one another on 
 that floor, as well as the discussion of matters 
 belonging to the churches (which made up a large 
 part of the business of the legislature), was one 
 prolonged process of weaving the church life of 
 one section with that of another. This body was 
 not unlike a house of bishops in its care of the 
 churches. It decided, for instance, that one church 
 must hasten to get a preacher; that a complainant 
 from another church had no ground for complaint; 
 it granted or refused permission to form new 
 churches. In this body, as in a forum, the leading 
 men of each community touched the men of other 
 towns and churches, and gave and received thought 
 and sentiment on religious affairs. 
 
 Finally, there came the interesting experiment 
 which the Connecticut churches made in harness- 
 ing themselves up into a stiff ecclesiastical fellow- 
 ship. Good understanding and order were to be 
 compulsory. Ministers of a county or half county 
 were to be put in groups charged to keep the min- 
 istry pure. Churches and ministers were put into 
 yet other groups called " consociations," and were 
 made responsible for good religious order in their 
 dioceses. It was an armor which they could not 
 wear long. Before long it was to be laid aside; 
 but the effort to give themselves close coherence 
 showed first of all the enjoyment of a fellowship 
 already existing. The almost unanimous accept- 
 ance of the Saybrook system was proof of a strong 
 consensus in favor of the system, and the existence 
 of such a common consent is evidence that a cer-
 
 THE CHURCH IN FARM1NGTON. 97 
 
 tain amount of fellowship had already come into 
 being-. But beside showing the existence of fellow- 
 ship, the system provided for a further develop- 
 ment of it. The meetings of the various ecclesias- 
 tical bodies thus established brought men into fre- 
 quent and close contact with one another. Although 
 the records are strangely silent, the fact that men's 
 hearts were warmed by Christian fellowship cannot 
 be hidden. It lies written in records which are 
 better interpreters of life than those yellow pages 
 which make up the early archives of the church. 
 
 But this community of feeling is not a thing 
 simply of the past. It is a happy reality of the 
 present. There are now more avenues of commu- 
 nication open between churches, and there is more 
 of interchange of sentiment between them, than 
 men are wont to suppose. Such measure of firm- 
 ness and warmth of Christian faith as we happen to 
 possess would, if it were realized, prove to be 
 largely reinforced and braced by the goodly fellow- 
 ship of the churches. To a very large degree we 
 are aided by influences which circle among the 
 churches, coming in to us at our windows and flow- 
 ing out again to regions beyond. 
 
 Now in view of this comradeship of the churches 
 we owe it to ourselves to recognize it and to get 
 the good which it is designed to do us. In this 
 connection we may properly ask ourselves whether 
 we ought not to make more of the gathering of 
 churches in conferences and the like. Possibly 
 some of us have a distaste for these meetings. But 
 believe me, many a man who has gone to such places 
 prepared to be wearied with much dullness and 
 many infelicities has in this unpretending assembly 
 5
 
 9 8 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 found an outlook given to him upon a wider field 
 of the Christian life, and an opportunity afforded 
 for beholding a type of religion different from his 
 own, but noble, interesting and profitable to con- 
 template. The Book of Revelation speaks of a cer- 
 tain voice as being like a voice of many waters. 
 Such a manifoldness of voice a man may detect if, 
 with ear ready to hear, he will sit and listen in 
 some of these assemblages of the churches. If he 
 has a soul at all in sympathy with human life, he 
 will hear (from among the commonplace and the 
 tedious, always to be met with in such places) a 
 voice varied and rich with the manifoldness of 
 human experience. 
 
 We are set round about with a savagery not of 
 war paint, but a savagery of immoralities, dishon- 
 esties, quiet cruelties and selfish unbeliefs, and we 
 need that help which can be got by contact with 
 friends and by the sight of the regiments, divisions 
 and corps of that great army of which we are a 
 part. In view of this fellowship of the churches 
 we owe it also to others to recognize it and to see 
 to it that the strength of some be brought to the 
 support of such other parts of our commonwealth 
 as are weak. There are great changes going on. 
 In one place the change consists of a coming in of 
 foreign life, and the local church cannot alone 
 grapple with it. In other places our sympathies 
 are touched by the decay of the old New England 
 life. When the farmhouses are falling to pieces, 
 decay threatens also the old church. Old and fail- 
 ing towns tend to become bad towns; and these are 
 a source of infinite harm to the state. Bad men 
 and women will come from them into your commu-
 
 THE CHURCH IN WATERTOWN. 99 
 
 nities; bad streams will flow into state politics; 
 foul vapors will float down and rest on the life of 
 the commonwealth. But where weakness appears, 
 the strength which other regions can furnish 
 should be brought to its aid. In old times the 
 churches, as we have said, were members one of 
 another; and we of this day are no less closely 
 knit in interest with our sister churches. The prob- 
 lem of the city is one to be studied by all of the 
 churches. The problem of the country towns be- 
 longs also to all of us. It cannot be solved by those 
 who are in immediate contact with the evil, but 
 must be taken up by all the churches of the state. 
 The robust and well-to-do are, by means of their 
 courage and gifts, to aid in bearing burdens which 
 rest very heavily on other parts of the state. 
 
 The churches of Waterbury, Farmington and those 
 which have sprung up in this region since we went 
 apart, are all fingers of one hand, members of one 
 body. The bond is no less real than it was in 
 former days, nor do I believe that the church is 
 less ready to meet obligations which we owe as 
 members of that body of which our Redeemer is 
 the Head. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN WATERTOWN. 
 
 BY THE REV. ROBERT PEGRUM. 
 
 Believing that the records of church history give 
 to us numerous proofs of divine faithfulness and 
 lead us to remember our own duties and privileges, 
 we do well thus to assemble for the appropriate 
 celebration of the bi-centennial of the First church
 
 ioo THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 of Christ in this city. My part in these interesting 
 exercises is to extend the heartiest congratulations 
 and best wishes of the first-born child to her aged 
 mother on her two hundredth birthday; and, as it 
 always affords pleasure to parents advanced in 
 years to remember the youthful days of their chil- 
 dren, it is my intention to remind our ecclesiastical 
 mother of some of the experiences connected with 
 the early life of the eldest daughter. 
 
 Watertown, originally a part of Waterbury, was 
 first permanently settled in 1721. The ''Public 
 Records of the Colony of Connecticut " state that 
 in October, 1732, thirty-two men petitioned the 
 General Court for "winter privileges." The fol- 
 lowing is a copy of the petition: 
 
 Whereas a considerable number of families in the northwest 
 corner of the bounds of Waterbury town, by their great dis- 
 tance from the meeting-house (which is to several nine miles 
 and to those that are nearest three), and exceeding bad way, and 
 more especially by reason of a great river, called Waterbury 
 river, which for the great part of the winter and spring is not 
 passable, are debarred from the hearing of the word preached, 
 to the number of above thirty families, we having met 
 together, September, 1732, and appointed the subscribers, then 
 and there to petition the town of Waterbury for an abatement 
 of our parts of the minister's rate for the space of four months 
 (namely, the three winter months of this present winter com- 
 ing and the month of March next) in case we should hire a 
 minister on our own charge to preach the word among us, and 
 they, the rest of said town, refusing, we have appointed Dea- 
 con Samuel Brown and Lieutenant Samuel Heacock our com- 
 mittee, to represent and lay our difficult circumstances before 
 this honorable Assembly; and the humble prayer of your 
 memorialists is that we may have liberty to hire a minister for 
 the space of those four months before mentioned, being the 
 most difficult part of the year, at our own charge, and that we 
 also may have an abatement of our parts of the minister's rate
 
 THE CHURCH IN WATERTOWN. 101 
 
 and be discharged from paying the minister of the town of 
 Waterbury during said four months, as we have a minister 
 among us, either for this present year or for a longer time, as 
 you in your great wisdom shall think best. And your memo- 
 rialists shall, as in duty bound, ever pray. 
 
 This memorial, the original of which is still ex- 
 tant, was dated October 4th, 1732, and signed by 
 Samuel Brown and Samuel Heacock. On the back 
 of it are thirty-two names, the list being headed 
 by Capt. William Heacock and Dr. John Warner. 
 The petition was granted for four years. 
 
 In May, 1733, they asked to be made a society, 
 stating that they had hired a minister, Mr. Daniel 
 Granger, that they were "universally suited in 
 him " and that he was not " ill pleased " with them. 
 This petition and two similar ones, in May and 
 October, 1734, were denied. In October, 1736, forty- 
 five families asked to be made a society, and were 
 again denied; but they were allowed five months 
 "winter privileges" for two years. In May, 1737, 
 they asked again to be made a society, and were 
 denied. In October, 1737, on petition, a com- 
 mittee was appointed by the General Court to 
 consider their case and report. In May, 1738, 
 the committee reported in favor of their being 
 made a distinct ecclesiastical society, and pro- 
 posed a line of division; but Waterbury opposed the 
 movement, and a new committee was appointed. 
 This committee in May, 1738, reported thirty-seven 
 families and a population of 230 in the proposed 
 society. In October, 1738, the committee reported 
 the same line, and the petition was granted, the 
 society being named Westbury. 
 
 The first meeting house was erected in 1741. 
 The second church edifice was built in 1772; and,
 
 102 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 as a very large quantity of heavy timber was used 
 in its construction, the builders were obliged to get 
 assistance from five towns in order to raise it. The 
 present church edifice was dedicated January 29th, 
 1840. 
 
 In May, 1739, the ecclesiastical society of West- 
 bury had leave granted them by the General Court 
 " to embody in church estate," that is, to organize 
 a church with the approval of neighboring minis- 
 ters and churches. This church, with many others, 
 was organized as the result of the " great awaken- 
 ing," which began in 1735 an( ^ continued to 1741. 
 
 The first pastor was the Rev. John Trumbull. 
 He graduated at Yale College in 1735, an( ^ was 
 licensed to preach by the New Haven county Asso- 
 ciation of ministers on May 29th, 1739. The min- 
 utes of the council of churches that ordained Mr. 
 Trumbull are still to be seen in the library of Yale 
 University. According to these minutes, the exact 
 date of his ordination and installation as pastor of 
 this church was January i6th, 1740 (new style). 
 The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 
 event was celebrated in 1890.* From Barber's "His- 
 torical Collections of Connecticut " we learn that 
 
 * The discourse delivered on this occasion was published in pamphlet form, with 
 the following title: "A Memorial and Historical Sermon in celebration of the One 
 Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Installation of Rev. John Trumbull, 
 the First Pastor of the First Church of Christ in Watertown, Conn., Preached 
 Sunday morning, June i, 1890, by Rev. Robert Pegrum. Press of the Woodbury 
 Reporter, 1890." 
 
 The centenary of the incorporation of the town was celebrated with public ex- 
 ercises, including addresses and a procession, on Thursday, June i7th, 1880. An 
 account of the proceedings, with a report of addresses by the Hon. F. J. Kings- 
 bury, the Rev. Nathaniel Richardson, D. D., and others, was published in the 
 Waterbury American of June i/th and i8th. At this celebration an interesting 
 account of Episcopacy in Watertown was given by the Rev. Dr. Richardson, but 
 the existence of a Congregational church was not recognized. F.DITOR.
 
 THE CHURCH IN WATEBTOWN. 103 
 
 the ordination took place at the house of Deacon 
 Hickox, about two miles east of the place where 
 the church now stands. Mrs. Rebecca Judd, who 
 lived to be ninety-nine years old, was baptized a 
 few days afterward, being the first child baptized 
 in the parish. Mr. Trumbull continued in sole 
 charge of the church until May, 1785, when a col- 
 league was settled. His pastorate was terminated 
 by death in 1787. He was known as an "old light" 
 in theology, but was very popular with the people, 
 and acquired great influence by his generosity, hos- 
 pitality and kindness. It is said that if one of his 
 parishioners had lost a cow, or had met with any 
 similar calamity, he would interest himself in the 
 matter, head a subscription for his relief and per- 
 suade others to sign it. Mrs. Younglove Cutler 
 used to describe another way in which on a certain 
 occasion the pastor raised money for those in 
 trouble. He placed a dollar in his cocked hat and 
 said, "I am sorry a dollar;" and then, carrying the 
 hat around the room, asked of each person, " How 
 much are you sorry ? " In this way the required 
 amount was soon obtained. Mr. Trumbull was a 
 wealthy man and a large land-holder. In Bronson's 
 " History of Waterbury " we read that he " was not 
 tall, but a stout, athletic man; he was sound, 
 shrewd, humorous, and loved innocent sports." 
 During the forty-six years of his sole pastorate 
 256 persons were added to the church. The follow- 
 ing is the inscription upon his monument in the 
 old cemetery: 
 
 Sacred to the memory of the Rev. John Trumbull, A. M., 
 senior pastor of the Church of Christ in Westbury, and one of 
 the Fellows of the Corporation of Yale College, who died Dec.
 
 104 
 
 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 13, 1787, in the seventy-third year of his age and the forty- 
 eighth of his ministry. 
 
 If distinguished learning, industry and abilities, the most 
 unaffected piety of heart, the firmest attachment to the doc- 
 trines of the gospel, the most unblemished moral character, a 
 studious attention and friendship to the people of his charge, 
 the most cheerful hospitality to his friends, and ardent charity 
 to the poor, which rendered him respectable in life, and, in a 
 firm reliance on the merits of the Redeemer, raised his mind 
 above the fear of death, can render the memory of the deceased 
 dear to the survivors, and afford a worthy example to pos- 
 terity; Go, reader, and imitate his virtues ! Behold the upright 
 man ! His end is peace. 
 
 The second pastor was the Rev. Uriel Gridley. 
 He graduated at Yale College in 1783, and was 
 ordained as Mr. Trumbull's assistant, May 25th, 
 1785. He remained pastor until his death, which 
 took place December i6th, 1820, in the fifty-eighth 
 year of his age and the thirty-sixth of his minis- 
 try. He was a man of more than ordinary size and 
 finely proportioned. A writer says of him, " I shall 
 never forget his majestic dignity and easy grace as 
 he walked, bowing reverently, up the broad aisle, 
 ascended the steps to the pulpit, and turned his 
 placid, benign face toward the audience." During 
 the thirty-five years of his ministry, 232 persons 
 were added to the church. A portion of the inscrip- 
 tion on his tombstone reads thus: 
 
 Here rests in hope all that on earth remains 
 Of one, whom late we knew, and much we lov'd, 
 As husband, parent, friend and guide to heaven, 
 These ties all sever'd by the hand of death. 
 Yet mourn we not as those who have no hope, 
 Our loss, his gain; our grief, we trust his joy. 
 For him to live was Christ, and in His steps 
 He humbly trod, a follower of the Lamb.
 
 THE CHURCH IN WATERTOWN. 105 
 
 Since that date, the church has had fifteen min- 
 isters, in the following order: Horace Hooker, 
 Darius O. Griswold, W. B. DeForest, Philo R. Hurd, 
 D. D., Chauncey Goodrich, George P. Pruden, Sam- 
 uel M. Freeland, Benjamin Parsons, Stephen Fenn, 
 George A. P. Gilman, Franklin Tuxbury, Charles 
 P. Croft, Benjamin D. Conkling, George A. Pelton, 
 Robert Pegrum. All the earlier pastors have fallen 
 asleep in Jesus; and the divine word says concern- 
 ing such, " Blessed are the dead who die in the 
 Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that 
 they may rest from their labors; and their works 
 do follow them." 
 
 The church has been served by twenty deacons, 
 as follows: Dr. John Warner, Jonathan Guernsey, 
 Timothy Judd, Thomas Hickox, Samuel Hickox, 
 Thomas Fenn, Thomas Dutton, Jared Harrison, 
 Noah Richards, Jonah Hungerford, Charles Day- 
 ton, Clark Davis, Truman Baldwin, Benjamin M. 
 Peck, Joel Hungerford, Lucius Woodward, Dayton 
 Mattoon, Amos P. Baldwin, Samuel T. Dayton 
 and Henry T. Dayton. The last two are still in 
 office. 
 
 According to a report in the archives at Memo- 
 rial Hall, Hartford, this church has enjoyed various 
 seasons of spiritual refreshing, resulting in the 
 conversion of many souls. From the commence- 
 ment of Mr. Trumbull's ministry until the present 
 time, 1290 persons have been received into its mem- 
 bership. Eight ministers have been raised up, as 
 follows: Stephen Fenn, Israel B. Woodward, 
 Aaron Dutton, Matthew R. Dutton, Anson S. 
 Atwood, Frederick Gridley, John L. Seymour and 
 Jesse Guernsey, D. D.
 
 io6 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 For many years the church has had an excellent 
 reputation for helping forward the Lord's work in 
 this and other lands. Mrs. Dorcas Southmayd, who 
 died in April, 183 2, bequeathed one hundred dollars 
 to constitute a perpetual fund, the income arising 
 therefrom to be expended annually for the benefit 
 of the poor members of the church. The annual 
 interest of the small amount with which the fund 
 was begun rendered but little aid; it was, however, 
 an excellent example, and that example has been 
 copied by successive generations, until at the pres- 
 ent time the income is sufficient to be of real ser- 
 vice to the Lord's poor. The additions made to 
 this fund in later years, by Benjamin DeForest, Jr., 
 and others, have brought the amount up to $4,300. 
 The original gift was like a grain of mustard, in- 
 significant in appearance ; but it has germinated 
 and become a tree, the branches of which afford 
 shelter to those who are destitute. 
 
 In olden times, church discipline was carried out 
 very strictly. As an example of what was required 
 of those under discipline, we quote the confession 
 of a brother who was charged with falsehood and 
 other offences: 
 
 In view of all these my faults and inconsistencies, and the 
 evils resulting therefrom, I desire to humble myself before God 
 and this church, and do sincerely ask his and their forgiveness, 
 and earnestly request this church to continue to extend their 
 fellowship to me. 
 
 Of church votes we give two specimens, the first 
 relating to singing and the second to prayer. In 
 1792 the church voted that Watts's hymns be sung 
 on sacramental occasions, at the discretion of the 
 pastor. In 1795 the church voted to unite with sis- 
 ter churches in a concert of prayer on the first
 
 THE CHURCH IN WATERTOWN. 107 
 
 Tuesdays in January, April, July and October, 
 according to the recommendation of the General 
 Association. 
 
 In the early history of the society, it was the 
 custom to register not only the date but also the 
 cause of death. There are several curious entries. 
 One of them, relating to the death of a lady, reads 
 thus: 
 
 She lived with her husband but ten weeks. He has buried 
 two wives in ten months a providence which never took 
 place in Watertown before, and probably there are but few 
 such instances in the Christian world. The ways of the Lord 
 are past finding out. 
 
 In this death-list almost every kind of disease is 
 mentioned from small-pox to wilful starvation. 
 The diseases prevailing here most widely at the 
 close of the eighteenth century were consumption 
 and fits; in seven successive years twenty died 
 from consumption and twenty from fits. The last 
 word is evidently employed in a generic sense, as 
 it is applied to persons of all ages. It has, how- 
 ever, occurred to me that not only individuals, but 
 churches have fits; and " Died of fits " would form 
 an appropriate epitaph for scores of extinct 
 churches. Hence, the value of the apostolic exhor- 
 tation, " Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit 
 in the bond of peace."
 
 io8 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. 
 
 BY THE REV. E. B. HILLARD. 
 
 The " grand committee " appointed by the Gene- 
 ral Court of Connecticut to superintend the settle- 
 ment of Mattatuck (that is, Waterbury) ordered 
 that "for benefit of Christian duties and defense 
 against enemies " the inhabitants of the new plan- 
 tation "should settle near together." Accordingly, 
 prior to the year 1700, all the inhabitants lived in 
 the town centre or its immediate neighborhood. 
 But as the lands at the centre were taken up, the 
 new settlers had to find room in the remoter parts 
 of the town. In 1725 or 1730 we get trace of set- 
 tlers in the northern part, and here the history of 
 Plymouth as a distinct community begins. 
 
 The northern and north-western section of the 
 town, embracing what is now Thomaston and a 
 part of Watertown, was called in the early time 
 Wooster Swamp, and the settlers in it the " North- 
 ern " or " Up-river inhabitants." The first mention 
 made of these in the Waterbury records is the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 December 14, 1730, it was agreed by vote that at Wooster 
 Swamp, according to their families, they shall have their 
 school money according to their list, which families are Jona- 
 than Scott, Sr., Jonathan Scott,' Jr., Gershom Scott, David 
 Scott, Samuel Thomas, Ebenezer Warner, Ebenezer Dickason, 
 Dr. John Warner, Geo. Watton, James Williams, Joseph Nich- 
 ols, Jonathan Koley, Abraham Etter, John Sutliff, Isaac Cas- 
 tle, Joseph Hurlbut, Henry Cook. 
 
 Most of these belonged in the western part of the 
 "Swamp," afterwards called Westbury, now Water-
 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. 109 
 
 town. Of the settlers in the northern or North- 
 bury part, Henry Cook was the earliest, coming 
 with his family about 1728; and John Sutliff fol- 
 lowed him a year or two later. Others joining 
 these, they began to organize as a distinct commu- 
 nity. 
 
 In all the early New England towns the first 
 movement towards distinct organization was in 
 the direction of religious privileges. The first pub- 
 lic body organized was the church; the first public 
 building erected was the meeting-house; the first 
 public officer provided for was the minister. As an 
 old writer says: "In the first settlement of New 
 England, when the people judged their number 
 competent to obtain a minister, they then surely 
 seated themselves, but not before, it being as un- 
 natural for a right New England man to live with- 
 out the minister as for a smith to work his iron 
 without fire." Accordingly, no sooner had the 
 "northern" inhabitants become numerous enough 
 to do something for themselves than they began to 
 move for religious provision independent of the 
 church at the centre of the town, to which by law 
 they were required to pay taxes for the minister's 
 support. At first, in 1732, they joined themselves 
 with the "northwestern" inhabitants, in the en- 
 deavor to obtain "winter privileges," that is, the 
 privilege of hiring a minister to preach among 
 them during the winter months, with exemption 
 during that period from parish rates at the centre. 
 The first movement of the " Up-river " people to- 
 ward a distinct organization was a petition to the 
 town for winter privileges in the fall of 1734. But 
 the town "voted they would do nothing in the
 
 no THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 case." Two years later (September 29th, 1736), fif- 
 teen residents in the northern section namely, 
 Thomas Blakeslee, Henry Cook, Jonathan Cook, 
 John Howe, Jonathan Foot, John Sutliff, John 
 Sutliff, Jr., Samuel Towner, Samuel Frost, Barnabas 
 Ford, Ebenezer Elwell, Gideon Allen, Isaac Castle, 
 Daniel Curtis and John Humaston united in the 
 following touching appeal to the town: 
 
 Whair as it is well known to you all, that we, whose names 
 are hearunto affixed, have our abode at such a distance from ye 
 fixed place of publique worship in this town, and that ye cir- 
 cumstances of ye way, are such as yt is with difficulty yt we 
 come to ye house of God at any time of ye year, and especaly 
 in ye winter season is extreamly difficult and sometimes wholy 
 imposable, and being much consarned for our poor children, yt 
 they also might have ye opportunity of atending ye publick 
 worship of- God more conveanantly, and nothing douting of 
 your readiness to shew cindness to us and to our children, we 
 do therefore hearby pray and ask for yor willingness consent 
 and approbation, yt all those who live within Bounds hearaf ter 
 mentioned, may at our cost and charg, have ye preaching of ye 
 word of life among ourselves in ye three winter months of 
 desember jenewary and febeuary, and be freed from paing min- 
 isteriel charg with ye town for the said three months, (being 
 willing to pay our proportion and ministerial dues for ye other 
 nine months of ye year), which privilidg to be enjoyed from 
 year to year, and euery year for such term of time as ye hon- 
 ourable general assembly in their wisdom and goodness shall 
 grant and determene, whereby you will much oblige your Chris- 
 tian brethren and neibors.* 
 
 It would seem that such an appeal must have 
 prevailed. But it did not. The original petition, 
 which is still in existence, is endorsed as follows: 
 
 *This and one or two other documents are given in the form in which they have 
 come down to us, without alteration in spelling, punctuation, etc. These may 
 serve as a sample of all. To place orthographical curiosities before our readers is 
 not our main purpose, and we adopt as a rule the orthography of to-day. EDITOR.
 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. m 
 
 " The within petition negatived at a town meeting 
 in Waterbury, September 29th, 1736. Attest, JOHN 
 SOUTHMAYD, Town Clerk." Of the record of the 
 town meeting at which this appeal was rejected, 
 only a fragment remains. From this we learn that 
 the " subscribers of the first negatived petition " 
 asked of the town whether they would grant them 
 the privilege of hiring a minister during the three 
 winter months (with exemption from ministerial 
 charges in the town during those months) " for the 
 three following years," and that " this liberty was 
 voted and answered in the affirmative." In April 
 following, an indefinite extension of this privilege 
 was asked for, but was refused by the town. Not 
 only so, the former privilege was in practice 
 revoked, and the northern inhabitants were still 
 required to pay ministerial charges at the centre. 
 
 The following month, despairing of further favor 
 from the town, they brought their complaint and 
 appeal before the General Assembly, which in those 
 days was supreme in matters concerning the church 
 as well as in those relating to the state. The memo- 
 rialists describe themselves as " living on a tract of 
 land about five miles square, whereof Barnabas 
 Ford's dwelling house is the centre." This tract of 
 land "adjoineth to Litchfield bounds and lieth 
 northward of those farmers" that is, the farmers of 
 Westbury " unto whom this honorable Assembly 
 hath granted liberty to have the gospel ministry 
 among them in the winter months, with exemption 
 from paying rates to the support of the ministry in 
 the town. Our habitations are eight or nine miles 
 from the meeting house in the town, to which 
 parish we do belong, neither are we convenient to
 
 H2 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 the above farmers, therefore were not by the act of 
 Assembly annexed to them." The memorial pro- 
 ceeds: 
 
 And forasmuch as we could not attend the publick worship 
 in s'd town therefore we applyed our selues to our town at 
 theire meeting September 26th 1736, and they kindely granted 
 us the libertie to haue a minister among our selues for the 
 three winter months, and to continue for three years with 
 exemption from ministeryall charges in the town for the 
 s'd term ; upon which we rested, and have hired and sup- 
 orted a minister. But to our greate surprise, the said town 
 haue forced us to pay taxes to the suport of the ministry 
 in the town, for those very months they had by vote 
 (upon record) freed us, and yet we haue maintained our 
 own minister, without the help of the town. Therefore 
 our humble request to your honours is that you would in 
 your wisdom consider our ciercomstances and grant us libertie 
 to suport the gospel ministry among our selues upon our own 
 charge, for so many months in each yeare as we shall finde our 
 selues able, with freedom from paying taxes to the suport of 
 the ministry in the town dureing such time and times as we 
 shall have a minister amongst our selues. And whereas there 
 are seueral other persons that are comeing to settle with us in 
 the aboue mentioned Tract of Land, we therefore pray that 
 such as may settle with us may have granted to them the 
 same libertie and preuledge we ask for our selues, hopeing 
 thereby we shall more easilie suport the gospel ministry 
 amongst us, or that your honours would grant us such other 
 relief in referance to the premeses, as may be thought con- 
 venient. 
 
 The petition was rejected in both houses, but 
 the northern inhabitants made preparations for a 
 renewal of their appeal. Their second memorial, 
 presented in October, 1737, referring- to the appli- 
 cation to the town meeting of September 2pth, 1736, 
 for winter privileges for a limited period, says: 
 
 The afores'd Town meeting knowing our distressed circum- 
 stances, with all readiness Granted our request, only the
 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. n 3 
 
 Libertie was to continue but for three years next ensuing the 
 date of said meeting. Now our humble Request to this 
 Assembly is that you would confirme and Ratify to us the vote 
 of s'd Town, and make adistion theretwo if you in your wisdom 
 think fit. 
 
 This time their application was partially success- 
 ful. The Assembly enacted "that during said 
 three months granted by the town of Waterbury 
 to the memorialists in the three years then next 
 ensuing, the memorialists shall be exempted from 
 paying any charges to the support of the ministry 
 in said town society, provided they maintain a 
 gospel minister among themselves"; but the sug- 
 gestion that the Assembly should " make addition 
 thereto," that is, should lengthen the three years' 
 period was not adopted. The act of the Assembly 
 was, however, an official recognition of the "north- 
 ern inhabitants " as a distinct community, and 
 from this all the rest, to the full investment of 
 Plymouth as a town, naturally follows. 
 
 Encouraged by this initial success, they prepared 
 to move, on the General Assembly at its next 
 session (May, 1738), for independent privileges 
 " for such time as they should have the word dis- 
 pensed among them," that is, the whole year round, 
 if they should support a minister, instead of the 
 three winter months only, already granted. This 
 third memorial enlarges upon the difficulties beset- 
 ting a regular attendance upon public worship at 
 the centre of the town, and humbly requests 
 
 That in your great goodness and tender regard for us in our 
 spiritual and most valuable interest, you would consider us, 
 and grant us an exemption from paying ministerial charges 
 with the town, for such time as we have the word dispensed 
 among ourselves, at our own cost and^charge.
 
 H 4 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 The application failed, but defeat did not dis- 
 courage the persistent memorialists. At the 
 October session they applied for an extension of 
 the three years' period by an addition of two years, 
 relating at the same time more fully the difficulties 
 of their situation: 
 
 Your Honors hath in your wisdom and goodness given us 
 liberty to hire a gospel minister among ourselves three months 
 in a year for the space of three years, in the winter season, 
 with exemption from ministerial charges in said town during 
 said time, which will be out in February next; and we now beg 
 leave to lay our distressed circumstances before your honors 
 once more, which are that we live some eight, nine, ten and 
 eleven miles from the public worship in said town, and must 
 pass a difficult river nine times, and go through seventeen 
 pairs of bars and gates, some of us, and the rest of the way 
 being generally very bad; and unless we have the gospel 
 preached among ourselves, there are one hundred and thirty- 
 nine persons that must be the greatest part of the year destitute 
 thereof; and we pray that your Honors would grant us this 
 privilege; further, that we have liberty to hire a gospel min- 
 ister among ourselves for the space of two years next after the 
 aforesaid term of time. 
 
 This modest appeal was not in vain. " It was 
 resolved by the Assembly "that the memorialists 
 shall and hereby have granted unto them the 
 liberty of hiring the gospel preached among them 
 for the space of two years, to commence and be 
 computed from February next, with exemption 
 from paying ministerial charges to said town for 
 such time only as they hire the gospel preached 
 among them." 
 
 The case was now evidently going against the 
 old society and in favor of the new community. 
 The victory secured in 1738 was promptly followed 
 up. The northern inhabitants, at a town meeting
 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. 115 
 
 held on the iyth of September, 1739, "prayed the 
 old society to give them certain bounds," and 
 secured a vote that they, the said old society, would 
 not oppose them in praying the General Assembly 
 "for a committee to state the bounds of their 
 society and view their circumstances." Armed 
 with this vote, they applied to the Assembly to be 
 "made a society, with the privileges of a society, 
 that they may settle a gospel minister among 
 them," and with a view to this end asked the 
 Assembly to " appoint a committee, and send them 
 to view their circumstances and state the line 
 between said old society and said inhabitants, and 
 to make return to this board with their doings." 
 The petition was granted, and a committee was 
 appointed, consisting of Captain Thomas Miles, 
 Mr. Stephen Hotchkiss and Captain Joseph Thom- 
 son, all of Wallingford, who, on the 25th of 
 October, reported to the Assembly that the " north- 
 erly inhabitants " were " well able to bear the 
 charges of a distinct society," and that the lands 
 contained within the indicated bounds constituted 
 " a good sufficiency for a society." Whereupon the 
 following action was taken: 
 
 Resolved by this Assembly that the said memorialists, within 
 the limits above specified and described, be and become a 
 separate and distinct society, or parish, and that they shall 
 have and be invested with all the powers and privileges where- 
 with other parishes within this colony are endowed, and shall 
 be known and called by the Parish of Northbury. 
 
 And so, after four applications to the town, and 
 five to the General Assembly, the new community 
 at last gained its end, and Northbury went on the 
 roll of the ecclesiastical societies of Connecticut.
 
 n6 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 The boundaries adopted by the Assembly's com- 
 mittee were as follows: 
 
 Beginning at the north-west corner of the First society in 
 said Waterbury, and the north-easterly corner of Westbury 
 society at two white oak trees, known by the name of Two 
 Brothers; then running south-easterly by the West Branch 
 until it comes into the river; then by the river until it comes 
 where Spruce Brook emptieth itself into the river, a little 
 below Upson's Island; then from the mouth of said brook a 
 straight line to the falls of Hancock's Brook, and from thence 
 a straight line to the south side of Mr. Noyes' farm, lying 
 partly on a hill by the name of Grassy Hill; and from thence a 
 due east line to Farmington line; then north by said Farm- 
 in gton line to Harwinton bounds; then by Harwinton bounds 
 and Litchfield bounds to the bounds first mentioned ; bounding 
 south on said "Waterbury, First society; east on Farmington 
 bounds; north, part on Harwinton and part on Litchfield 
 bounds; and west on said Westbury society. 
 
 The society was constituted, but not yet organ- 
 ized. The General Assembly had built the ship, 
 but left it on the stocks; those who were to sail in 
 it must launch it. This they proceeded to do. The 
 law provided that upon application of any three 
 inhabitants of a society to any justice of the peace, 
 he must warn a meeting of that society. Accord- 
 ingly three of the inhabitants of Northbury made 
 application to one of the justices of Waterbury, 
 who issued his warning to those living within the 
 parish bounds in the following form: 
 
 Whareas the law prouides that when parishes, or any three 
 of ye inhabitance of ye sosiaty, appliing to any assistant or 
 justis of ye peace, shall by a waront by him issued out, warn 
 all ye inhabitance within ye bounds of ye sosiaty, etc. 
 
 these are therefore in his maiesty's name to warn each and 
 every parson within ye bounds of Waterbury, known by ye 
 name of North Bary, ye third sosiaty in s'd Waterbary, to
 
 THE CHURCH IN PL YMO UTH. 1 1 7 
 
 atend a sosiaty meating, and forme themselves, and chuse a 
 moderater and sosiaty dark and other nesasary bisness as they 
 shall have need of, to apear upon ye 20 day of this instant 
 Nouember, at eight of ye clock in ye morning at ye house they 
 meat in. 
 
 dated in Waterbary, this 10 day of Nouem. ano domini, 1739. 
 Signed per THOMAS CLARK, Justis Peace. 
 
 John Sutlif, Ebenezer Richason, Barnabas Ford. Inhab- 
 itance of the 3d Sosiaty. 
 
 In response to this warning, the inhabitants met 
 on the day designated, organized the society and 
 transacted its first business, as appears by the fol- 
 lowing record of the meeting: 
 
 the meating being warned as ye law derects, Mr. John Sutlif 
 was chosen moderator, and Barnabas Ford was chosen clark 
 for the sosiaty of North bury. 
 
 at ye sam meating, Moses Blasle, [Blakeslee], John Sutlif, 
 and ebenezer richason was chosen commitee for ye year insuing. 
 
 It appears further from the record that "att ye 
 same meating we maid choise of Mr. Samuel todd 
 to be our minister by a major vote." In March fol- 
 lowing a committee was appointed "to carry the 
 society's call to Mr. Todd, in order to receive his 
 answer"; which answer he returned as follows: 
 
 NORTHBURY, March 3, 1739-40. 
 
 To Mr. Jeremiah Peck, Moses Blakeslee, Daniel Curtiss, 
 committee: 
 
 Having received your call and proposals in behalf of the 
 society to settle with you in the work of the ministry, and 
 having weighed and considered them, I declare myself willing 
 upon them to settle with them in the work of the ministry, 
 provided they proceed to a regular ordination upon or before 
 the eighth day of May next; and I pray God you may be a 
 blessing to me and I to you. SAMUEL TODD. 
 
 The condition herein expressed the society accep- 
 ted, voting "to proceed in the ordination of Mr.
 
 n$ THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 Samuel Todd upon the seventh day of May next 
 ensuing the date hereof"; and Jeremiah Peck, 
 Daniel Curtiss, John Warner, Moses Blakeslee and 
 Thomas Blakeslee, were chosen a committee to 
 " prosecute the design in order to an ordination." 
 
 In the meantime, a building for public uses had 
 been erected by the inhabitants of Northbury on 
 land given them for the purpose by the Rev. John 
 Southmayd, their aged pastor. He was dismissed 
 from his pastoral charge, in Waterbury, the year 
 their society was organized, but of course retained 
 his interest in these sheep of his, on the edge of 
 the wilderness. Mr. Southmayd had bought the 
 land from John How, and now conveyed it 
 
 To the inhabitants living within two miles and a half of 
 Ford's dwelling house, and so many as shall be annexed to 
 them, when they shall be set off for a society, to them and 
 their heirs and successors forever, one acre of land near said 
 Ford's dwelling house in Waterbury, on which the said inhab- 
 itants have already set up a house under the denomination of 
 a school house.* 
 
 In the building designated as the "school 
 house," which stood on a mound, since levelled, 
 near the north-west corner of the Thomaston park, 
 the Northbury church was organized, and Mr. 
 Samuel Todd was ordained first pastor, May yth, 
 
 * A part of the original deed is still in existence. It contains the signatures of 
 Mr. Southmayd and the witnesses, is labelled on the back, " The north inhab- 
 itants, deed of John Southmayd. received to record December i3th, 1738, entered 
 in Waterbury records, sth book, p. 15, per John Southmayd, recorder," and is 
 endorsed as follows: "Waterbury, in Connecticut, October 6, 1738, then per- 
 sonally appeared John Southmayd, the signer and sealer of the above written 
 instrument, and ackowledged the same to be his free act and deed before me. 
 THOMAS CLARK, justice of peace." This deed constitutes the title to the open 
 ground, or " Park," in the centre of the village of Thomaston. The house 
 spoken of as Barnabas Ford's stood near where the academy in Thomaston now 
 stands. E. B. H.
 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. 119 
 
 1740. The record of the ordination, as entered in 
 the minutes of the New Haven East Association,* 
 is as follows: 
 
 At a council of elders and messengers, regularly convened 
 at Northbury, the third society of Waterbury, May yth, 1740, 
 for the ordination of Mr. Samuel Todd to the work of the 
 gospel ministry there: 
 
 Elders present: The Rev. Messrs. Samuel Whittlesey, Isaac 
 Stiles, Samuel Hall, Mark Leavenworth. 
 
 Messengers from the churches: Mr. Jacob Johnson, Wal- 
 lingford, Mr. John Gaylord, Cheshire, Deacon Todd, North 
 Haven, Timothy Hopkins, Esq., Waterbury, Deacon John 
 Warner, Westbury. 
 
 At which council Mr. Whittlesey was chosen moderator; 
 Mr. Leavenworth scribe. 
 
 Then Mr. Todd was examined and approved. 
 
 Then voted, that Mr. Hall should preach, Mr. Whittlesey 
 introduce the affair by taking a vote of the church, etc., and 
 also should make the prayer before the charge, and give the 
 charge; that Mr. Stiles should make the prayer after the 
 charge, and Mr. Leavenworth give the right hand of fellow- 
 ship. 
 
 According to which Mr. Todd was ordained, with imposition 
 of the hands of the presbytery. 
 
 Test, MARK LEAVENWORTH, Scribe. 
 
 The society and the church were now fully 
 organized, and provided with a " settled minister;" 
 but as yet they had no meeting house. In connec- 
 tion with the establishment of a meeting house 
 troubles arose which distracted the society for 
 years, and came near ruining it. As has been said, 
 the earliest settlers located on the west side of the 
 Naugatuck river, in what is now the village of 
 Thomaston. There the first public ground was 
 laid out and the first public building erected, with 
 
 * Now in the library of Yale University.
 
 120 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 the expectation, no doubt, that when the society 
 came to be organized, it would adopt these as its 
 meeting house green and meeting house. But the 
 course of events disappointed this expectation. 
 The -settlers that came in afterward took up their 
 farms on the east side of the river, and soon out- 
 numbered the west-side settlers. Some of them 
 living as far east as Town Hill, they naturally did 
 not fancy going, all their lives, over to the west 
 side to meeting, and it was this feeling that began 
 the division between east side and west side which 
 ultimated, a century and a quarter later, in the par- 
 tition of the town. 
 
 The public building on the west side of the 
 river, though used at first for public worship, was 
 not the meeting house of the society, having been 
 built before the society was organized, and being 
 owned by a company of private persons. Aside 
 from the objection to its location on the part of 
 those on the east side, the tenure of it was an inse- 
 cure one,being subject to the will of a majority of the 
 owners, independent of the control of the society. 
 The question of building a meeting house was, 
 therefore, early agitated. The first action of the 
 society was taken at a meeting held October 6th, 
 1740, when it was vo.ted to apply to the General 
 Assembly " for a committee to stake a place to set 
 a meeting house." The vote seems to have opera- 
 ted like a charge of dynamite. With the date of 
 October 6th, the record of the society in the hand- 
 writing of Barnabas Ford abruptly closes. The 
 society had gone to pieces, shattered (like so many 
 other ecclesiastical societies) on Meeting-house 
 Rock. But although thus for the time dissolved, it
 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. 121 
 
 was not to remain in a state of dissolution. The Gen- 
 eral Assembly had power to reconstruct it, and to 
 the General Assembly appeal was made, at the 
 May session, 1741, by Moses Blakeslee, Thomas 
 Blakeslee and John Bronson. A remonstrance 
 against being involved in additional expense 
 through the building of a meeting house had in 
 the meantime been drawn up, but had apparently 
 not been presented to the Assembly. The appeal 
 just referred to was duly presented, May soth, set- 
 ting forth that the circumstances of the parish 
 were "truly distressing," and that it was "alto- 
 gether unable to extricate itself out of the dif- 
 ficulties under which it was laboring," and pray- 
 ing " that your honours would take the same into 
 your wise consideration and in your great wisdom 
 and goodness find out some redress for our great 
 grievances although we are unable so much as to 
 hint to your honours in what way and manner." 
 The response was as follows: 
 
 This Assembly being informed of the broken and confused 
 circumstances that the parish of Northbury in Waterbury are 
 at present under, in all their public affairs, not having any reg- 
 ular society meeting or officer, and that the said society may 
 not be further involved in difficulties and ruined, it is resolved 
 by this Assembly that Colonel Benjamin Hall (of Wallingford) 
 and Captain John Riggs (of Derby) be a committee to repair 
 to said society with full power to warn said society to meet 
 together, and to lead and conduct said society in the choice of 
 proper officers for the same, and to advise and direct them 
 where they shall meet on the Sabbath for public worship in 
 said society and for what term of time; and the said society 
 and all the inhabitants thereof are hereby warned to conform 
 themselves to the advice and direction of said committee in 
 every respect on pain of incurring the great displeasure of this 
 Assembly. And the said committee are directed to view the 
 6
 
 122 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 circumstances of the said society, and hear the parties con- 
 cerned in the premises and give them their opinion what is 
 best to be done with respect to getting a place affixed for them 
 to build a meeting house upon, and at what time, and to make 
 report of their opinion on the whole of the premises to this 
 Assembly in October next. 
 
 The visit of the committee was made on the loth of 
 June, and at the next session (October, 1741) they 
 reported as follows: 
 
 We led them to the choice of a clerk, whom we swore, and 
 the officers needful for the same, and we did also advise and 
 direct them to meet on the Sabbath for ten months in the year 
 at the house called the school house, and the other two months 
 at the dwelling house of Joseph Clark (namely January and 
 February), and we also viewed their circumstances and advised 
 them unanimously to make their application to the present 
 Assembly for a committee to affix a place for them to build a 
 meeting house upon, and that they pray the said Assembly to 
 direct the said parishioners not to build a meeting house at the 
 said place when so affixt at the public charge of the said parish 
 for such term of time as the Assembly should think fit. 
 
 The account of what had taken place, as given by 
 the new clerk of the society, is as follows: 
 
 Northbury, in Waterbury, at a society meeting on June loth, 
 1741; warned by a citation from the worshipful John Riggs 
 and Benjamin Hall, a committee appointed and sent by the 
 General Assembly last year to advise, direct and lead us in 
 our society affairs. At the same meeting Joseph Clark was 
 chosen clerk of the society of Northbury and sworn. Deacon 
 Moses Blakeslee, Lieutenant John Bronson and Sergeant John 
 Warner were chosen our prudential committee; Ensign Daniel 
 Curtiss was chosen collector for the minister rate for the 
 present year. 
 
 The society being now in the hands of the east- 
 side inhabitants, they proceeded to apply for a new 
 committee to locate the meeting house. Those on 
 the west side of the river drew up an earnest pro-
 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. 123 
 
 test against being burdened with " further charges 
 at present," but their remonstrance was of no avail. 
 A committee was appointed, consisting of Captain 
 John Riggs and Captain John Fowler, to visit the 
 parish and fix the place of the meeting house; the 
 visit was made on the 24th of November, 1741, and 
 the place of the meeting house was fixed as follows: 
 
 On the westward side of a certain swamp called the One 
 Pine swamp, about thirty rods southward of the highway that 
 runs from the river eastward by Isaac Castle's up the hill to 
 William Luttenton's and Joseph Clark's dwelling houses, and 
 near or about twenty rods west from said swamp, where we 
 caused a stake to be set up and cast stones about it, which said 
 stake is to be included within the sills of the meeting house. 
 
 The action thus taken seems to have decided the 
 owners of the public building on the west side not 
 to allow its use any longer to the society as a place 
 for public worship. At the annual meeting in 
 December, 1742, the society agreed by a full vote 
 that they would " meet for the public worship of 
 God at places as followeth ": 
 
 From this time until the first day of March next ensuing 
 at the dwelling house of Joseph Clark; and from that time 
 until the first day of May next ensuing at the dwelling house 
 of the Rev. Mr. Todd; and from that time unto the first day of 
 July next ensuing at the dwelling house of Joseph Clark, 
 senior; and from that time unto the first day of September 
 next ensuing at the dwelling house of Joseph Clark, junior; 
 and from that time until our annual meeting in December next 
 ensuing at the dwelling house of the Rev. Mr. Todd. 
 
 At a meeting held a month later, they adjourned to 
 meet "at the dwelling house of Joseph Clark"; 
 from which it may be inferred that the proprietors 
 had excluded the society from the use of their 
 building not only for public worship, but also for
 
 i2 4 TSE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 society meetings. At the next annual meeting a 
 plan for public worship at private houses was 
 again agreed upon. But this homeless way of 
 living did not satisfy them, and, slowly recovering 
 from the shock of dismemberment, they voted in 
 December, 1744, to "build a meeting house at the 
 stake," and in September following asked the Gen- 
 eral Court if they might change the location to " a 
 place called the Middle stake, or in other words, a 
 bush marked, which the Court's committee marked 
 to be a place to build a meeting house at, for pub- 
 lic worship." 
 
 At this same meeting (September, 1745) it was 
 voted to ask the General' Assembly to grant a tax 
 upon the land lying in the bounds of Northbury, at 
 the rate of sixpence (old tenor) per acre, for four 
 years, " only the lands belonging to the inhabi- 
 tants of said place that have professed to the 
 Church of England being exempted." The crisis 
 which had for some time been impending had 
 arrived. " Openly, in the meeting, before the vote 
 for taxing was passed, Barnabas Ford, Thomas 
 Blakeslee and David Blakeslee declared their dis- 
 sent from their land being taxed for the building 
 a meeting house for the dissenters." A secession 
 to the Church of England has taken place, and the 
 little band of seceders, with a refreshing coolness, 
 speak already of the main body of the society as 
 "the dissenters"! Mr. John Warner, when he 
 appears before the General Assembly, speaks of 
 "about one-third part" of the society as having 
 declared for the Church of England, " which leaves 
 the rest unable to support the gospel and build a 
 meeting house," and adds:
 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. 
 
 125 
 
 We are of opinion that the reason why the place was affixed 
 so far west was to accommodate the western inhabitants, 
 which at that time lived thickest on the west side of said 
 parish; and they having generally declared for the Church of 
 England on said west side, we are of opinion that at the Black 
 Oak bush marked by said committee, called the Middle stake, 
 which stands by the path that goes from Deacon Blakeslee's 
 to Isaac Castle's dwelling house, about twenty rods eastward 
 from the brook that runs from the north end of the hill called 
 the One Pine toward the river, which said place your memo- 
 rialists are unanimously agreed in, is the place for them to 
 build a meeting house upon; and we therefore pray your 
 Honors to set aside the first mentioned place and establish 
 the last above described place for your memorialists to build a 
 meeting house upon, which we are desirous of, or in some 
 other way grant relief to your memorialists, in that and in the 
 foregoing part of this memorial. 
 
 The " middle stake " here spoken of was on the 
 south side of the " green," at the centre of the town 
 of Plymouth, on the highway opposite the present 
 town building. This was established by vote of 
 the General Assembly as the place at which to 
 build, and there the first meeting house was built. 
 The Assembly also enacted: 
 
 That all the unimproved lands of said parish, exclusive of 
 the lands belonging to such persons in said parish as have pro 
 fessed for the Church of England, shall be and hereby is taxed 
 at the rate of sixpence (old tenor currency) yearly for the space 
 of four years next coming, to be paid by the owners of such 
 lands and to be improved for the building of said meeting 
 house and for the support of their minister. 
 
 Against this tax the owners of the land rebelled, 
 and the Assembly was called upon to arm the col- 
 lector of the society, Caleb Humaston, with the 
 authority of the state; but so difficult, even then, 
 did he find this task that at a subsequent session of 
 the Assembly he presented a petition " praying for
 
 1 2 6 TEE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 obtainment of distress " (authority to seize and sell 
 the property), and for the appointment of some one 
 to help him, " it being very troublesome and diffi- 
 cult," he adds, " for one alone to do it." 
 
 The place of the meeting house having been 
 fixed, and a tax laid, the society at the annual 
 meeting of December, 1745, at a session lasting 
 " till nine of the clock at night " voted to build a 
 " meeting house forty-five feet long, thirty-five feet 
 wide, and twenty feet between joints;" they 
 selected a building committee, decided that the 
 tax should be one shilling, old tenor, on the pound, 
 and appointed Deacon Moses Blakeslee to secure 
 the necessary land for the building and for the 
 " green " which should surround it. This matter 
 was so important that a committee was appointed 
 by the town of Waterbury, consisting of Captain 
 Timothy Hopkins, Captain Stephen Upson, Ser- 
 geant Thomas Porter, Captain Samuel Hickox and 
 Captain William Judd, " to set out a place of parade 
 for the inhabitants of the parish of Northbury 
 within said town." These dignitaries repaired to 
 the place, and marked out the grounds as follows: 
 
 Eight rods south from the stake appointed by the Court for 
 the meetinghouse for said parish, and eighteen rods north from 
 said stake, and sixteen rods west at each end from the east line 
 of John Brinsmead's farm in said parish, and lies twenty-six 
 rods in length and sixteen rods wide, and is as we judge conven- 
 ient for a green, a place of parade and burying place if need 
 be, as laid out by us. 
 
 The land thus laid out, measuring two acres and 
 six-tenths, was owned by John Brinsmead of Mil- 
 ford, and was purchased of him by the town. An 
 additional piece four-tenths of an acre was 
 bought by individuals, and Mr. Brinsmead added
 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. 
 
 127 
 
 an acre as a gift to the society, making the green 
 four acres in all. It was deeded to Caleb Humaston 
 as agent for the purchasers, and by him to the 
 Northbury society. An additional acre north of 
 the green, purchased by Mr. Humaston for himself, 
 was afterwards purchased by the Rev. Mr. Storrs, 
 the second minister of the parish, and is the land 
 upon which the residence of Mr. W. W. Bull and 
 the present parsonage stand. 
 
 The building of its first meeting house was an 
 arduous and protracted task for a society enfeebled 
 by the secession of its heaviest property holders 
 and still further encumbered by dissensions among 
 those who remained. The means at their command 
 were so limited, and the labor of establishing their 
 homes in the wilderness was so exacting, that the 
 period of a generation had nearly passed before 
 the house of worship which the society in the first 
 year of its existence had resolved to build, was 
 completed. The first movement toward building 
 was in October, 1740; the first decisive action in 
 December, 1745. In September, 1747, the frame 
 was up, and at a meeting held that month permis- 
 sion was given " to any of the inhabitants to build 
 a Sabbath-day house for conveniency, provided he 
 sets it on the green on which the meeting house 
 stands," and it was voted to "clear the meeting 
 house green by cutting brush and carting it away." 
 In December, 1750, Elnathan Bronson was ap- 
 pointed to sweep the house an indication that it 
 was in use for public worship. But it was not 
 finished at that date, nor for several years after- 
 ward. . In 1761 it was voted "to lay the floor in the 
 galleries;" in 1763 a committee was appointed "to
 
 I 2 8 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 carry on the work of the meeting house," and in 
 December, 1768 twenty-eight years after the first 
 vote to build a rate was laid "to defray the 
 charge of finishing." But at length the society 
 was fully organized, and equipped with meeting 
 house and green and church and minister, having 
 through much tribulation entered into its king- 
 dom. 
 
 Meanwhile in 1764 the first pastor, the Rev. 
 Samuel Todd, had been dismissed, after a troubled 
 pastorate of twenty-four years, and the Rev. Andrew 
 Storrs, in 1765, had been installed as his successor. 
 Of Mr. Todd it is to be said that he was the " apos- 
 tle " of Plymouth. To no man in its history has 
 the community been more largely indebted. He 
 was the pilot under whose guidance it weathered 
 the storm. Coming in his young manhood into the 
 wilderness, bringing his young wife with him on 
 horseback, when bridle paths were the only roads; 
 the society that had called him wrecked at the outset 
 of its history; his parishioners divided and alien- 
 ated; his church for years destitute of a home and 
 wandering like a wayfarer from house to house; 
 his support inadequate; his salary, which had been 
 small from the first, diminished by the deprecia- 
 tion of the currency (the " sink of money," as the 
 records have it) and because of the straitened cir- 
 cumstances of his people difficult to secure; chang- 
 ing his home repeatedly with the changing for- 
 tunes of the parish; struggling with discourage- 
 ment and in the later years of his ministry with 
 broken health, this good man labored on with 
 patience and faithfulness and a spirit unembittered 
 by trouble, his chief solicitude being not for him-
 
 THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. 129 
 
 self but for the parish in its weakness. At length, 
 on the i2th of February, 1756, after sixteen years 
 of labor and trial, he opened his heart to the 
 society in a communication referring to the sub- 
 ject of his pecuniary support, which he spoke of as 
 "greatly threatening their ruin;" "and yet," he 
 added, " I can truly say I am free to serve you in 
 the work of the ministry so long as there is a hope- 
 ful prospect of doing service to your souls." What 
 he proposed as a means of relief was: 
 
 A public contribution once in two months, to be gathered by 
 the deacons at the close of the evening worship; what any 
 shall see it their duty to hand in at other times, it shall be 
 acceptable; and if the society please, you may make a grant 
 of the ministry money to me; record may be made thereof, and 
 I will serve you by the grace of God as long as God in his 
 providence shall continue me in the work of the ministry 
 among you. 
 
 The proposal was accepted, and they struggled 
 on together for a few years longer. But the case 
 was hopeless. The faithful minister had done his 
 work, and his release from the pastoral bond was 
 near. Application for advice was made to the New 
 Haven Association of ministers, and a committee, 
 consisting of the Rev. Messrs. Daniel Humphrey, 
 John Trumbull, Benjamin Woodbridge and Mark 
 Leavenworth, recommended that a council of the 
 " consociation ' be convened to settle their affairs 
 or to dismiss the pastor. A council was called, and 
 Mr. Todd was dismissed in August, 1764, after a 
 pastorate of a little more than twenty-four years, 
 a pastorate which was not a failure but a success, 
 unsurpassed indeed by any that followed it. Mr. 
 Todd did good pioneer work, making things easier 
 for his successors, and the record of the parish for
 
 130 
 
 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 a century and a half is his monument. He was, 
 with Mark Leavenworth of Waterbury and Joseph 
 Bellamy of Bethlehem (young men together, and 
 settled at nearly the same time), a leader of the 
 advanced religious thought of the age, and, like 
 leaders in every age, he endured the pains and pen- 
 alties of "heresy" therefor. He believed in the 
 true spiritual life, in an age of dead formalism; 
 he believed in " revivals " as divine, in an age 
 when those around him counted them only out- 
 bursts of fanaticism. He believed in the volun- 
 tary support of the gospel, in an age which com- 
 pelled its support by law. He believed in the 
 free fellowship of the churches in a time when 
 the rule of consociation was an iron bondage, 
 anticipating by a century and a half the rejec- 
 tion by the Connecticut churches of the Saybrook 
 system and their adoption of the pure Congre- 
 gationalism of the Cambridge platform instead. 
 Dr. Henry Bronson's estimate of him, in the " His- 
 tory of Waterbury," is an entirely mistaken one. 
 He was not deposed from the ministry,* as stated 
 in the " History," nor was his religious fanaticism 
 the occasion of the formation of the Episcopal 
 church in Northbury; for, as we have seen, that 
 church was made up originally of " mad Congrega- 
 tionalists " who " declared for the Church of Eng- 
 land " as their only way of escape from the pay- 
 ment of taxes. 
 
 From the settlement of the second pastor, the 
 Rev. Andrew Storrs, the course of the society was 
 
 * The record is as follows: "At a meeting of the Association of New Haven 
 county, regularly convened at Westbury, September 241)1, 1745, the Rev. Mr. 
 Todd of Northbury, appearing, made acknowledgment to the acceptance of the 
 Association for assisting at the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Lee at Salisbury. "
 
 THE CHURCH IN OXFORD. 131 
 
 "plain sailing." Mr. Storrs* pastorate continued 
 until his death in 1785, that is, for twenty years. 
 He was succeeded by the Rev. Simon Waterman, 
 who was settled in 1787 and dismissed in 1809. Mr. 
 Waterman's successor, the Rev. Luther Hart, was 
 settled in 1810 and was pastor at Northbury until 
 his death, in 1834. The first four pastorates cov- 
 ered a period of ninety years. The Rev. Ephraim 
 Lyman was pastor from 1835 to 1851. The only 
 other pastorate of like length was that of the Rev. 
 E. B. Hillard, who was settled in 1869 and dis- 
 missed in 1889. 
 
 The town of Plymouth was incorporated in 1795 
 Northbury society having first, with Westbury 
 society, become incorporated in the town of Water- 
 town, in 1780. The ecclesiastical societies in each 
 instance took the initial steps, so that the town 
 was in each case an evolution from the society. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN OXFORD. 
 
 BY J. A. 
 
 The Rev. Joseph Moss, third pastor of the church 
 in Derby, died on the 2nd of January, 1732, and his 
 successor, Mr. Daniel Humphrey, was ordained in 
 March, 1734. During the interval between these 
 dates, that is, in March, 1733, certain inhabitants of 
 Quaker Farm, in the northern part of Derby, peti- 
 tioned the town " for abate in the town's charge." 
 The petition was not accompanied with any writ- 
 ten statement of the grounds on which it was 
 based, but there is little doubt that the object of
 
 132 TEE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 the petitioners was to secure exemption from taxa- 
 tion for the support of the minister an exemption 
 which, under the circumstances, they might with 
 special propriety ask for. The town consented to 
 "abate these our neighbors four pence upon the 
 pound on the grand list for two years from this 
 date," and this was the rate which had been 
 allowed to the Rev. Mr. Moss for some time before 
 his death. 
 
 In April, 1740, the "north farmers" of the town 
 of Derby prepared a memorial for presentation to 
 the General Assembly, asking that they might be 
 set apart as an ecclesiastical society. The Assem- 
 bly did not see fit to grant their petition imme- 
 diately, but appointed a committee, as usual, to 
 consider the matter. In December of the same 
 year, while the matter was under consideration, 
 the town appointed three agents to confer with the 
 " north farmers " with reference to establishing " a 
 dividing line between the north and south parts of 
 Derby township, in order to make an ecclesiastical 
 society in the north part of said township," and 
 offered to excuse all the north farmers from paying 
 any ministerial charge to the present minister of 
 Derby from the year 1740, "provided they hire 
 preaching among themselves for the whole year." 
 At the next May session, the legislative committee 
 reporting in their favor, permission was granted by 
 the General Assembly, to the north farmers of 
 the town of Derby, together with certain inhabi- 
 tants of the town of Woodbury and of the south- 
 western part of Waterbury, to organize a separate 
 ecclesiastical society, to be called Oxford. The 
 Waterbury men who were embraced in the new
 
 THE CHURCH IN OXFORD. 133 
 
 organization were Isaac Trowbridge, John Weed, 
 Jonas Weed, Joseph Weed, Thomas Osborn and 
 Joseph Osborn. 
 
 Officers were elected, and the organization of the 
 new society thus completed, on the 3oth of June, 
 1741. On the 6th of October the society by a two- 
 thirds vote decided to build a meeting house, and 
 asked the General Assembly, as was customary, to 
 send a committee to " fix the place whereon their 
 meeting house shall be erected and built." The 
 site selected was at the south end of the hill com- 
 monly called "Jack's Hill," and "near the high- 
 way that runs on the east side of Little River, on 
 land belonging to Ephraim Washborn." Meetings 
 of the society were held at private houses until 
 March, 1743. The meeting of June 2ist, 1743, was 
 held at the new meeting house. This first place of 
 worship was occupied for more than fifty years. 
 On the 3d of January, 1793, the society voted to 
 build a new one. It was not finished until 1795 or 
 later, and is the edifice now in use. 
 
 In May, 1743, those residing within the bounds of 
 the Oxford society were authorized to "embody 
 themselves in church estate, by and with the con- 
 sent and approbation of the neighboring churches, 
 and to settle a minister according to the establish- 
 ment of the churches in this government." The 
 early records having disappeared, the names of 
 those who came together to organize the church 
 are unknown; nor can any one say how many of 
 the members belonged to each or either of the 
 towns represented in the society. Probably a 
 larger number belonged to Derby than to either 
 Woodbury or Waterbury; but there is no reason to
 
 134 
 
 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 doubt that some of the inhabitants of Waterbury, 
 and members of the Waterbury church, found a 
 place in the new organization. The eight men 
 already mentioned as belonging to Waterbury may 
 possibly, judging from their surnames, have repre- 
 sented only three or four families; but these must 
 have been enrolled in the old First society, and 
 some of the members of the new church probably 
 came from their several households. The church 
 in Oxford is not a daughter of Waterbury in the 
 same sense as are the other churches of the 
 vicinage; but Waterbury undoubtedly has a claim 
 upon it. 
 
 The church was organized on the pth of January, 
 1745. The first pastor, Mr. Jonathan Lyman, was 
 ordained on the 4th of October in the same year. 
 He was a brother of General Phineas Lyman, and 
 graduated from Yale College in 1742. His salary 
 was fixed at 125 pounds a year, and his "settle- 
 ment " was 500 pounds, to be paid in four yearly 
 instalments.* He served the church until his 
 death, which was the result of an accident. He 
 was thrown from his horse and instantly killed, in 
 October, 1763. His successor, Mr. David Brownson, 
 graduated at Yale College in 1762. He was 
 ordained in April, 1764, the ordination sermon 
 being preached by the Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, of 
 New Milford. Mr. Brownson's pastorate covered a 
 period of forty years. From the time of his death^ 
 November, 1806, the church was without a settled 
 pastor until May, 1811, when Mr. Nathaniel Free- 
 man was called. He served them for three years^ 
 
 * The " legal tender " of Connecticut at this time was valued at the rate of four 
 dollars to one dollar in silver.
 
 THE CHURCH IN OXFORD. 135 
 
 and was succeeded by a series of " stated supplies," 
 one of whom, the Rev. Ephraim G. Swift, remained 
 with the parish from December, 1818, to June, 1822, 
 and another, the Rev. Sayres Gazley, from July, 
 1827, to January, 1829. The Rev. Abraham Brown 
 was settled in June, 1830, and was dismissed in 
 August, 1838; the Rev. Stephen Topliff was settled 
 in September, 1841, and remained until July ist, 
 1860. The Rev. John Churchill, whose pastorate of 
 the North church in Woodbury was terminated in 
 June, 1869, began soon after to preach in Oxford, 
 and served as pastor without settlement until 1876. 
 He was succeeded, after an interval, by the Rev. 
 Frederic E. Snow, one of the " ministers raised 
 up " in the First church in Waterbury. He became 
 a member of that church, on profession of his 
 faith, May 3d, 1868, was licensed to preach by the 
 New Haven Centre Association of ministers, May 
 ist, 1877, and was ordained and installed pastor of 
 the church in Oxford, April 2 ist, 1880. Mr. Snow 
 was dismissed, to become pastor of another church, 
 July 24, 1883. The Rev. James B. Cleaveland served 
 the church during 1886 and 1887, and was followed 
 by the Rev. Henry M. Hazeltine, whose pastorate 
 began July ist, 1888, and still continues. 
 
 The population of Oxford has never been large, 
 and throughout a considerable part of its history 
 there have been four places of worship in the town; 
 so that the membership of the church has of neces- 
 sity been small. Although revivals have repeatedly 
 taken place, so that thirty were added to the church 
 in one year (1842) and thirty-three in another 
 (1853), nevertheless the church has not held its own 
 in respect to numbers, and during a large part of
 
 136 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 its later history has been partly dependent on aid 
 received from the Missionary society of the state. 
 In 1858 there were only eighty-seven resident mem- 
 bers, and the number has since been reduced by 
 deaths and removals to less than sixty. 
 
 But the church, although feeble, has not lived in 
 vain. Its contributions to benevolent and mis- 
 sionary objects, since these have been regularly 
 reported, amount to a considerable sum; it has 
 sent out into other churches, including the First 
 church in Waterbury, men who are prominent 
 in the business world and active in Christian 
 work, and it has raised up several ministers. One 
 of these, the Rev. Andrew L. Stone, D. D., filled 
 important places and acquired a wide reputation. 
 He was born in Oxford, November 25th, 1815, and 
 graduated at Yale College in the class of 1837. He 
 was pastor at Middletown, Conn., and afterward at 
 Boston, Mass., in the famous Park street church, 
 where he remained for sixteen years. In the civil 
 war he was chaplain of the Massachusetts Forty- 
 fifth regiment, and in 1866 became pastor of the 
 First Congregational Church in San Francisco. He 
 was made "pastor emeritus" in 1881, and died Jan- 
 uary xyth, 1892. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN WOLCOTT. 
 
 BY THE REV, ISAIAH P. SMITH. 
 
 It is with pleasure that I bring to you congratu- 
 lations as a representative of the church in Wol- 
 cott, one of your daughters. We are near you as 
 regards distance, and our life has always been in
 
 THE CHURCH IN WOLCOTT. 137 
 
 various ways connected with yours. You are much 
 older as well as larger than we are, our church 
 existence having begun in 1773, when you had 
 reached the quite mature age of eighty-two years. 
 We had our origin in a somewhat different way 
 from most daughters, being one-half the daughter 
 of one mother and the other half the daughter of 
 another mother, one of our mothers being also the 
 daughter of our other mother. But as this was all 
 in the same family, it did not disturb either one of 
 us in the incipient stages of our existence. 
 
 To be more explicit the town of Wolcott was 
 not incorporated until several years after the 
 church was organized. The tract of country em- 
 braced in it was situated between Farmington and 
 Waterbury, and previous to the organization of our 
 church one-half of the people were included in the 
 one town and one-half in the other. The original 
 members of the church came, some from Farming- 
 ton and some from Waterbury; and the society 
 received a name Farmingbury made up (as was 
 frequently the case) from the names of the two 
 mother towns. 
 
 In its early history Farmingbury was a thriving 
 agricultural region, and the church for the first 
 fifty years of its existence was not inferior to 
 many of its neighbors in numbers and strength. 
 Indeed it paid, for a considerable number of years, 
 a larger salary to its pastors than this ancient and 
 honorable church, whose bi-centenary we now cel- 
 ebrate, paid at the same time. But as business 
 began to develop in the valleys, and the west 
 began to open up, the people in this, as in other 
 hill towns, emigrated in large numbers, preferring
 
 138 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 in some instances to go where the climate was less 
 healthy and the air less pure than that of the 
 heights they had occupied, because of the better 
 prospect of financial success. 
 
 But we have had the satisfaction of helping in 
 this way to build up other places, not only finan- 
 cially but morally and religiously. Our town has 
 shown itself successful in raising men, if not in the 
 highest degree flourishing in some other respects. 
 Of late, however, it has received emigrants from 
 the cities, some preferring the independent life of 
 the farmer to the confined and monotonous experi- 
 ences of manufacturing and mercantile establish- 
 ments, and some, who are employed in your thriv- 
 ing city, choosing to have homes in our quiet town 
 and to enjoy our rural associations. Is it not possi- 
 ble that the tide may turn with such towns as ours, 
 and that for awhile we may receive from other 
 places more people who will come to make their 
 home with us, than we send out from our borders ? 
 At any rate we are hopeful. There are abandoned 
 farms in Wolcott, but we are not disposed to raise 
 a doleful lamentation over the fact. In the open- 
 ing opportunities of the west and the increase of 
 business along the lines of railways, it is not 
 strange that some of the best places should be 
 deserted. Enterprising young men have gone 
 away, and after the death of aged parents the old 
 homestead has been neglected, and has run down 
 and been finally deserted; not because the land is 
 poor, but because the people have been attracted 
 elsewhere, often to their own great disadvantage. 
 It is a fact that some of the poorest land in Wol- 
 cott is cultivated and in a thriving condition, while
 
 THE CHURCH IN WOLCOTT. 
 
 139 
 
 some of the best has been allowed to grow up to 
 forests. The best farms eighty years ago were in 
 a district where now there is not a single house. 
 
 The church had its period of highest prosperity 
 from one hundred to sixty years ago, when the 
 population was about twice as large as it is at 
 present. At the time it was organized, it required 
 much self-denial to sustain religious institutions; 
 but the church had leading men who were earnest 
 and determined in this respect, and they laid foun- 
 dations on which others successfully built. They 
 were fortunate in their first pastor, the Rev. Alex- 
 ander Gillet, who, coming to them from Yale 
 College just before the Revolutionary war, labored 
 for them with great energy during that trying 
 period. His labors resulted in repeated revivals of 
 religion and in large additions to the church. His 
 successor, the Rev. Israel B. Woodward, was also 
 instrumental in largely increasing the member- 
 ship, and was highly esteemed by the people of his 
 charge. Good men in succession followed him, but 
 I will not dwell upon their history. The church 
 has been blessed with men of piety and faithful- 
 ness in the pastoral office. Besides, it has had 
 deacons and other leading men, who have made 
 their lives greatly effective for good; among whom 
 I would especially mention Deacon Isaac Bronson 
 as a man of good ability and very devoted piety. 
 Between two pastorates he conducted the religious 
 services most of the time for five years. He died 
 in 1845, at tne a e of eighty-four. During the years 
 of its history, the church has had many revivals of 
 religion, which have resulted in large additions to 
 its membership.
 
 1 4 o THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 In 1834 an Episcopal church was organized, and 
 it did a good work for many years; but because of 
 changed circumstances, resulting from a decreased 
 population, religious services were discontinued 
 more than twenty-five years ago. The church edi- 
 fice still remains. 
 
 Our town has had its political excitements in 
 days gone by. We have possessed the Yankee 
 traits of independent thinking and earnest acting. 
 So much was this the case that in the days of 
 the anti-slavery discussion the stove in the meet- 
 ing house was blown up with powder, and the 
 house destroyed by fire. The meeting, which was 
 to have been held in it, was held by its ashes. At 
 the present time, I am glad to say, we are at peace; 
 and we hope it may not again be necessary that 
 our moral and religious atmosphere should be 
 cleared by storms like those of other days. 
 
 We bring our good wishes to you to-day; and we 
 hope that as in the past you have not only become 
 great and have conveyed blessings to those directly 
 under your influence, but have sent out many from 
 among yourselves to do good elsewhere, in these 
 churches which have sprung from you and in places 
 far remote, so it may be in the future. And in this 
 grand and glorious work, the humblest as well as 
 the highest will at last receive a rich reward. 
 
 The following anecdote, which has more than once ap- 
 peared in print, illustrates so well the relations of Wolcott to 
 Waterbury in recent days, and at the same time the relations 
 of the country churches to the cities throughout New England, 
 that it may very properly be reproduced as an addendum to 
 Mr. Smith's paper : 
 
 " Nearly twenty years ago, at one of the Connecticut Sun- 
 day school conventions, a quaint old minister from Wolcott
 
 THE VHTTRCH IN NAUGATUCK. 141 
 
 spoke of the doubts and discouragements he met with in his 
 field of work. ' Mine is not an encouraging field,' he said. 
 ' There are few young people in it at the best, and they are 
 liable to leave at any time. Once in a while a bright young 
 man is brought into the church, but just as soon as he gets to 
 taking part in the prayer meeting and teaching in the Sunday 
 school, and I begin to have comfort in him, he is off for a 
 busier centre, and I seem all alone again. I have sometimes 
 wondered why the Lord wanted that Wolcott church kept up. 
 but I think I have found out. I was down at Waterbury a few 
 weeks ago, and there I found that a deacon of the First church 
 a good and substantial man in the community was a Wol- 
 cott boy. And then I found that a deacon of the Second 
 church was another Wolcott boy. And they told me that there 
 had been other deacons from Wolcott in those churches before 
 now. That news was a great encouragement to me. As I rode 
 up the hill that night to my home I said to myself: I see now 
 why the Lord wants the Wolcott church kept up; it is to 
 supply Waterbury with deacons.' " * 
 
 THE CHURCH IN NAUGATUCK. 
 
 BY MR. FRANKLIN WARREN. 
 
 The church in Naugatuck, the fifth daughter of 
 this venerable mother, is doubly unfortunate 
 to-day; first and chiefly, in that she comes to this 
 home-gathering wearing as it were the garb of 
 widowhood, mourning the withdrawal of her 
 earthly beloved, the Rev. William F. Blackman, 
 
 * The centenary of the church in Wolcott was celebrated on the loth and nth 
 of September, 1873, during the pastorate of the Rev. Samuel Orcutt. The services 
 on that occasion are reported, and a detailed history of the church and society pub- 
 lished, in a handsome volume of 608 pages, bearing the following title : 
 
 " History of the Town of Wolcott (Connecticut) from 1731 to 1874, with an 
 Account of the Centenary Meeting, September loth and nth, 1873, and with the 
 Genealogies of the Families of the Town. By Rev. Samuel Orcutt. Waterbury, 
 Conn.: 1874." EDITOR.
 
 I 4 2 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 who, notwithstanding his professions of affection 
 for her, listened to the voice of another and a 
 fairer charmer, and a few weeks ago left her dis- 
 consolate in her grief. Disconsolate, and yet 
 truth compels me to say that, in accordance with 
 human nature, she has, notwithstanding his so 
 recent departure and her more than one hundred 
 years, already begun to look around among eligible 
 men for his successor. Secondly, she is unfor- 
 tunate in the fact that with a lamentable disregard 
 of the eternal fitness of things, the one to whom 
 has been given the duty and privilege of represent- 
 ing her to-day is one whose sojourn with her has 
 been brief, and whose personal knowledge of facts 
 connected with her history is very limited. And 
 yet, I claim by relationship a connecting link 
 between this old mother church and her middle- 
 aged daughter in Naugatuck; for my heart holds 
 sweet memories of a dear sister who when a child, 
 more than threescore years ago, was a member of 
 the Sunday school of this First church the first 
 Sunday school ever established in Waterbury and 
 who one year ago fell asleep in Jesus, a member of 
 the church in Naugatuck. And so through many 
 years there have come to me from time to time 
 glimpses of the life and membership of the Nauga- 
 tuck church; and these, with a few facts furnished 
 by others, will be all that I shall attempt to bring 
 you to-day. 
 
 I find that according to the earliest records the 
 people of that part of Waterbury called Judd's 
 Meadows, and those parts of Milford and Derby 
 adjoining (and, according to some authorities, what 
 is now called Prospect, then Columbia) obtained
 
 THE CHURCH IN NAUGATUCK. 143 
 
 from the " governor and company " convened at 
 Hartford in May, 1773, what were in those days 
 termed " society privileges " privileges pertain- 
 ing not only to strictly religious matters, but also 
 to providing schools and teachers, laying of taxes, 
 etc. A society was formed the same year, which 
 by virtue of these " privileges " maintained public 
 worship in schools and dwelling houses for nearly 
 twelve years, during which time eight different 
 ministers officiated as supplies, or as candidates. 
 
 On the 22d of February, 1781, a church was 
 organized under the name of the Congregational 
 Church of Salem. It consisted of ten male and six 
 female members, most of whom were from the 
 church in Waterbury. The first church edifice was 
 built in 1782, and stood on the east side of the 
 Naugatuck river. The first pastor was the Rev. 
 Abraham Fowler, who was settled in 1785. During 
 the next seventy years his successors were Jabez 
 Chadwick, Stephen Dodd, Amos Pettingill, Seth 
 Sackett, Chauncey G. Lee and Albert K. Teele. In 
 those early years the pecuniary compensation of 
 the minister was of necessity small, three or four 
 hundred dollars per annum being all that the few 
 brave souls could afford to give, who, with little 
 ready money, but with strong hands and willing 
 hearts, were striving to maintain the preaching of 
 the gospel among them. But as we read the record 
 it is interesting to note that as the figures repre- 
 senting the number of church members increased, 
 those representing the pastor's salary increased 
 also, and in a proportion highly creditable to the 
 people and doubtless very gratifying to the pastor 
 and his family.
 
 144 
 
 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 In 1831 the church building was removed across 
 the river to its present site. In 1854 it was again 
 removed, and the present edifice erected. This is 
 a building similar in style and interior arrange- 
 ment to that of the Second Congregational church of 
 this city, excepting that the rooms for prayer and 
 social meetings were, until recently, in the base- 
 ment, which was often cold and damp, and gener- 
 ally depressing in its effect. 
 
 Of the ministers who have served the church 
 within the last forty years, the Rev. Messrs. 
 Charles C. Painter, Frederick T. Perkins and 
 Stephen C. Leonard were not installed pastors, but 
 did good and fruitful service nevertheless for the 
 Master while with us. Of those who were installed 
 as pastors, the Rev. Charles S. Sherman is perhaps 
 the most prominent.* He is conspicuous, not only 
 for the length of his pastorate, which was nearly 
 twenty years, and for his peculiarly gentle and 
 Christ-like character, through which he won and 
 still retains the love and esteem of the people of 
 Naugatuck to a remarkable degree, but also as one 
 who had been for several years a missionary in 
 foreign lands, and who after his return to this 
 country gave illustrated lectures on Palestine. In 
 those days, when pastoral trips to the Holy Land 
 were like "angels' visits," a man whose feet had 
 trodden that sacred soil was looked upon with a 
 degree of reverence akin to awe; and when in our 
 youthful days we beheld the reverend gentleman, 
 
 *To Mr. Sherman's centennial sermon I am indebted for most of the facts in 
 the early history of the church and society. Il is entitled: " A Memorial Dis- 
 course in commemoration of the National Centennial, delivered in the Congrega- 
 tional Church, Naugatuck, Conn., July 9, 1876, by the Rev. Charles S. Sherman, 
 a former pastor. Waterbury, Conn.: 1876." F. W.
 
 THE 'CHURCH IN NAUGATUCK. 145 
 
 then a stranger to us, with his tall, dignified form 
 arrayed in oriental robes, and heard him speak 
 of those far away places with mysterious Bible 
 names, in so familiar a manner, he was to our 
 minds "not a whit behind the very chiefest 
 apostle." During his ministry in Naugatuck, the 
 Lord added to the clmrch 246 souls. 
 
 The next settled pastor was the Rev. D A. 
 Easton, who was also a very acceptable and suc- 
 cessful minister. During his pastorate of three 
 years, 108 persons were added to the church. 
 But we regret to add that, after enjoying the affec- 
 tion and esteem of the community, and maintaining 
 a high standard of Christian character throughout 
 his stay with us, he at last went down to New 
 York, and became a broker ! 
 
 Last but by no means least among these worthy 
 names is that of William F. Blackman, whose 
 removal from Naugatuck has left an aching void in 
 all hearts. He is too well known in this vicinity to 
 need any eulogy from me. For nearly seven years 
 he gave to this church the utmost of his love and 
 effort, and succeeded in gaining the affection and 
 confidence of the people (not only of the members 
 of his own and other churches, but of those outside 
 of any church) as few men are privileged to do. We 
 deeply regret his loss, but rejoice in the fact that 
 he has been advanced to what may be deemed a 
 higher place and a more extended influence. 
 
 Probably the most noticeable work of the society 
 during Mr. Blackman's pastorate was the building 
 of what is called the "parish house," the idea of 
 which was conceived, and its establishment pro- 
 vided for and assured by loving and generous 
 7
 
 146 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 hearts, before he came among us. Its possibilities 
 of benefit to the church and community, which Mr. 
 Blackman foresaw, at once enlisted his warmest 
 interest and most earnest effort. His labors of 
 body and mind were constant and arduous in its 
 behalf from the commencement of the work until, 
 on the xoth day of October, 1888, with grateful and 
 joyous hearts we saw it dedicated. As the plan- 
 ning and paying had all been accomplished before 
 I was connected with the church, I may be par- 
 doned for saying that this parish house is, for 
 beauty of style and finish, convenience of arrange- 
 ment, and adaptation to its purposes, unrivalled in 
 any village of the size of Naugatuck and in very 
 few of the largest cities. In this building are now 
 held our prayer meetings, social meetings, Sunday 
 school sessions, etc. It also contains a memorial 
 library and reading room, free to the public, a gift 
 to the people of Naugatuck from a member of the 
 church. Provision is made by the "parish house 
 association " for a course of first-class lectures each 
 winter, at extremely low rates, also for literary and 
 musical entertainments of such a nature as will be 
 not only interesting but educational and uplifting 
 in their influence. 
 
 It seems an injustice to say so much of the 
 growth and prosperity of the church and so much 
 of the pastors who have been set over it, and 
 nothing of the other officers, some of whom have 
 gone to their reward, while others have borne for 
 a quarter of a century, and still bear, the honor and 
 burden of office; or of those brethren and sisters 
 whose faith and self-denying, consecrated works 
 have, with the blessing of God, made it possible for
 
 THE CHURCH IN NATJGATUCK. I47 
 
 us to report, to-day, that our membership has 
 increased from sixteen to more than 300, that we 
 have a Sunday school of nearly 300 members, and 
 a Christian Endeavor society of nearly 100, that we 
 have a comfortable house of worship, a parish 
 house such as I have described, a home for our pas- 
 tor (when we get one), and a society free from debt. 
 But time and your patience will not allow us to do 
 more than this. 
 
 It may be thought that this report presents only 
 the bright side of the picture, and suggests that we 
 are a little self-satisfied and egotistical. But what 
 daughter is there who does not want everybody, 
 and especially her mother, to think that she has 
 done well since setting up housekeeping for her- 
 self ? I can truly say, however, that I have no 
 other side to present. There may have been in 
 this church dissensions and quarrels, grievous 
 scandals and trials for heresy, but if so, it was 
 before my acquaintance with it began, and they 
 have not been made known to me. We are, I 
 believe, a united, loving family. We ask of thee, O 
 mother, a mother's prayers, and a mother's bless- 
 ing. May no act of ours bring a blush of shame to 
 thy fair and saintly face, or a pang of sorrow to thy 
 loving heart. May the tide of holy influence that 
 flows from thee never cease. And as we, in our 
 infancy, were called by the name of Salem, so 
 mayest thou, in thine old age, be a true Salem, a 
 house of perpetual peace.
 
 148 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 THE CHURCH AT NORTHFIELD. 
 
 BY J. A. 
 
 The date of the first settlement of Northfield is 
 not certainly known; but it must have been before 
 1762. Among the earliest settlers were Titus Tur- 
 ner and John Humaston, who came from North 
 Haven with their ox-teams, consuming a week on 
 their journey. The parish was at first known as 
 South-East Farms; the name "Northfield" was 
 formed, like a good many others in Connecticut, by 
 piecing together portions of other names. The 
 " North " came from Northbury and the " field " 
 from Litchfield. The first meeting for ecclesiastical 
 purposes, of which any record remains, was held 
 October i5th, 1789, at which it was voted to hire a 
 minister for six months. A " burying yard " was 
 laid out in 1791, and in 1792 a committee was 
 appointed to build a meeting house. On April 
 2ist, 1794, it was voted to petition the General As- 
 sembly to be set off as a distinct society, and on 
 the 24th of November it was voted to extend a call 
 to the Rev. Joseph E. Camp, and to give him .a 
 " settlement" of a hundred pounds, and more if it 
 could be raised, his salary to be seventy pounds a 
 year (lawful money) for four years, seventy-five 
 pounds the fifth year, eighty pounds the sixth year, 
 and eighty-five pounds thereafter. An additional 
 vote of firewood was afterward made, the amount 
 not to exceed " thirty cords, sled length." Thus far 
 the people had enjoyed society privileges for only 
 six months of the year, having to pay taxes for the
 
 THE CHURCH AT NORTHFIELD. 
 
 149 
 
 support of the gospel in Litchfield the rest of the 
 time. 
 
 The organization of the Northfield church took 
 place on the ist of January, 1795. The earliest 
 record opens as follows: 
 
 A number of members from the several churches of North- 
 bury, Litchfield, North Haven, Westbury and Cheshire having 
 by the providence of God fixed their residence in this society, 
 and being desirous of enjoying gospel ordinances among them- 
 selves, met this day at the house of Mr. William Washburn 
 for the purpose of forming themselves into a regular gospel 
 church. 
 
 Of those who united in the new organization one 
 came from the Cheshire church, two from North 
 Haven, two from Litchfield, two from Westbury and 
 seven from the church in Northbury. Of the four- 
 teen members nine were received from the two 
 churches (Watertown and Plymouth) which had 
 sprung from the old church in Waterbury. 
 
 The services of the day began with prayer, and 
 a sermon was preached by the Rev. Simon Water- 
 man, of Plymouth, on the text, " Ye are the light 
 of the world." Mr. Waterman " acted as modera- 
 tor, in leading and assisting the several members 
 in forming themselves into a distinct church 
 upon the gospel plan." These persons "exhibited 
 proper testimonials of their regular standing in the 
 churches from which they came," and " did expli- 
 citly assent and consent " to a brief confession of 
 faith and a covenant, and in testimony thereof sub- 
 scribed their names, after which " they were declar- 
 ed by the moderator to be a regular church of 
 Christ according to the gospel plan." They then 
 unanimously voted to invite Mr. Joseph Eleazer 
 Camp to settle with them in the work of the gospel
 
 I 5 o THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 ministry and take the pastoral charge of them; 
 and Titus Turner, Abel Atwater and John Warner 
 were appointed to wait on Mr. Camp and request 
 his answer. It was voted that if Mr. Camp accepted 
 the call, this committee should convene a council of 
 churches to ordain him; also, that on the day of fast- 
 ing, previous to the ordination, the church should 
 publicly assent to the articles of faith just adopted, 
 and renew their covenant with God and one ano- 
 ther; also that on that day they should elect dea- 
 cons. The fast took place on the 2nd of February, 
 and the ordination February i2th, 1795. 
 
 On the 7th of September following, a committee 
 was appointed to stake out the green and fix the 
 site for the meeting house. At a meeting in Novem- 
 ber it was decided that the meeting house should 
 be fifty by thirty-eight feet, and a subscription was 
 opened for materials of all kinds. The house was 
 begun in the summer of 1796; in August, 1801, it 
 was voted to finish it "as plain as could be done 
 with decency," and it was finished in 1803. In 
 December of that year a committee of eight was 
 appointed to " seat " the congregation. Those who 
 paid the heaviest taxes were assigned seats near- 
 est the pulpit, after which the order was dependent 
 on age. 
 
 The epoch at which the church was begun was 
 one of great intellectual activity in the town in 
 which it was situated. The famous Litchfield law 
 school was then in full career under Judge Reeve, 
 and Miss Pierce's school for young ladies had 
 lately been opened in the same village. A post- 
 rider had not long before begun his bi-weekly trips 
 to New York, and a post office had been established
 
 THE CHURCH AT NORTHFIELD. 151 
 
 Wolcott was in Washington's cabinet, and members 
 of congress and several officers of note in the Rev- 
 olution resided there, and exercised an influence 
 over all the region which stimulated both enter- 
 prise and religion. 
 
 Mr. Camp's pastorate continued until June, 1837. 
 By that time the people thought he was too old to 
 preach, and he was dismissed. During his forty- 
 two years of ministry 175 members were added to 
 the church. He had six sons and a daughter, and 
 as his salary never exceeded four hundred dollars 
 a year, he found it necessary " to work his land like 
 any farmer." An anecdote which has been con- 
 nected with other Connecticut pastors and parishes 
 seems with good reason to be credited to Mr. Camp. 
 Preaching in the church at Wolcott, in exchange 
 with the Wolcott pastor, he announced with a sig- 
 nificance which was promptly recognized and 
 resented, the hymn, 
 
 Lord, what a wretched land is this, 
 That yields us no supply ! 
 
 The chorister, according to the custom of the time, 
 announced the tune, and we may suppose he did it 
 with peculiar satisfaction saying, " Sing North- 
 field." 
 
 Between 1837 and 1844 the church was without a 
 settled pastor. The pulpit was supplied by the Rev. 
 Messrs. B. H. Campbell, J. W. Salter, Stephen Hub- 
 bell, Aaron Snow, William Ransom, William Rus- 
 sell, Frank Howe and Samuel Moseley, and during 
 this period twenty-two were received as members. 
 The Rev. Joel S. Dickinson was pastor from Febru- 
 ary, 1844 to June, 1851. The Rev. Lewis Jessup 
 was settled in November, 1851, and remained three
 
 152 
 
 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 years; after which the Rev. Noah Coe supplied the 
 pulpit for fifteen months. The Rev. Stephen Rogers 
 was pastor from November, 1856, to February, 1859. 
 Immediately thereafter, the Rev. James Richards, 
 D. D., LL. D., who on account of his intemperance 
 had been deposed from the ministry several years 
 before, by the Presbytery of New Orleans, La., and 
 was then teaching a school at Litchfield, was en- 
 gaged to supply the pulpit. As this action was dis- 
 approved by the Litchfield South Consociation, 
 with which the church was connected, the church 
 on June 2oth dissolved its connection with that 
 body. Dr. Richards's engagement terminated in 
 1860. Other pastors have served the church as fol- 
 lows: Erastus Colton, 1861-1864, E. W. Tucker, 
 1864-1866, H. N. Gates, 1866-1871, E. B. Sanford, 
 1871-1873, S. G. W. Rankin, 1873-1874, M. J. Callan, 
 1874-1875, William Howard, 1875-1876, H. A. Ott- 
 man, 1877-1881, E. C. Starr, 1881-1888, Joseph Kyte, 
 1888 to the present time. 
 
 By the will of Captain Asa Hopkins, a former 
 resident of Northfield, who died in New Haven in 
 December, 1855, a fund of ten thousand dollars was 
 left to the church, its proceeds to go to the sup- 
 port of the ministry. A legacy of about two thou- 
 sand dollars, conditioned on the speedy removal of 
 the society's debt of three thousand, was received 
 in 1870 from the estate of Mrs. Wealthy Hotch- 
 kiss. On the first of January, 1892, a legacy of 
 twelve thousand dollars was received from the es- 
 tate of William Gilbert, of Winsted, one-third of 
 it for the erection of a building to serve for a par- 
 sonage and also as a place for a public library free 
 to the town, one-fourth for a first purchase of
 
 TEE CHURCH IN MIDDLEBURY. 153 
 
 books, and the remaining five thousand dollars to 
 constitute a permanent fund for the support of the 
 library.* 
 
 THE CHURCH IN MIDDLEBURY. 
 
 BY THE REV. W. F. AVERY. 
 
 It is my privilege, at this large family gathering, 
 to introduce to you one of the younger daughters. 
 At her birth the mother was already one hundred 
 and five years of age, and this little one has now 
 reached her ninety-fifth year. I hope to show that 
 her history has not been entirely discreditable to 
 the parent or the household. 
 
 Preparation was made for her by the formation 
 of an ecclesiastical society five years beforehand, 
 that is, just a century ago. A house of worship was 
 completed in 1794, two years before the organiza- 
 tion of the church. It was a building almost 
 exactly the size of the present one, standing on 
 the opposite side of our pretty park, its hospitable 
 doors opening north, south and west. It had 
 square pews, and over the high pulpit a sounding 
 board, that none might fail to hear and receive the 
 word. The feet of the listeners were warmed by 
 
 * Between January i, 1882, and June 26, 1887, a series of Parish Papers, sixteen 
 in number, was edited and issued by the Rev. E. C. Starr, the pastor at that time, 
 in which sketches of the history of the Northfield church and society and the 
 lives of the successive pastors were published. From these sketches and the doc- 
 uments upon which they are based obtained through the courtesy of Mr. Howard 
 C. Peck the foregoing account of the church has been compiled. Too much praise 
 cannot be given to the Rev. Mr. Starr for his painstaking efforts to rescue from 
 oblivion and put on record in accurate statement the facts pertaining to the life of 
 the church and the ministry in Northfield; and it is to be hoped that at the cen- 
 tenary of the church, January i, 1895, these facts may be reproduced, "writ 
 large " in a historical discourse, and published in permanent form.
 
 154 
 
 THE MOTHER AND TEE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 foot stoves which were filled in the intermission 
 with coals at the Sunday house near by. 
 
 To organize the church, there gathered on the 
 roth of February, 1796, a group of twelve persons, 
 ten of whom were men, six bearing the familiar 
 name of Bronson. They made a noble statement 
 of the main object for which they entered into 
 this sacred-union, and adopted articles of faith and 
 a covenant. In five or six weeks twenty-four more 
 were received, the proportion of the sexes now 
 being twenty-three women to thirteen men. The 
 men only had voted in organizing, after the man- 
 ner of the times; and this was the order of pro- 
 cedure in selecting a pastor: First, the society 
 held its meeting, inviting him to become pastor, 
 with the promise of a salary of $400 a year, so long 
 as he should sustain this relation to them, and in 
 addition a " settlement " of $350, to be paid in the 
 course of the first year. After this a meeting of 
 the church was convened, and the church united in 
 the call, and sanctioned the provision for the min- 
 ister's support. Deacons having been chosen, your 
 daughter and fellow worker was now fully equip- 
 ped. Situated on your west, right by your side, 
 her labors and yours have been intermingled, and 
 each has had its influence upon the welfare of the 
 other, from that day to this. 
 
 Was it a puny child, born ninety-five years ago, 
 out on those lovely hills ? You shall judge for 
 yourselves. A fortnight since, I had the sad privi- 
 lege of receiving at our cemetery, for burial, the 
 earthly remains of one of our aged members, who 
 had spent the last four or five years of her life 
 with friends in your town. This burial led me to
 
 THE CHURCH IN MIDDLEBURY. 
 
 155 
 
 turn to our church manual "for facts concerning 
 her connection with our church. I found that in 
 1832 she had stood up, with thirteen others, to pro- 
 fess her attachment to Christ. Her pastor was the 
 Rev. Jason Atwater. Then I noticed that in that 
 year forty-three were received into the church. I 
 found that in a ministry, there, of fifteen years, 
 Mr. Atwater was privileged to receive one hundred 
 and eighty-seven persons. Of these, thirty-three 
 only came by letter from other churches, and one 
 hundred and fifty-four were received on profession. 
 Was not that a very fruitful ministry in so small a 
 town ? The Rev. Mark Mead preceded him. Dur- 
 ing Mr. Mead's pastorate of twenty years, one hun- 
 dred and twenty-four joined the church by profes- 
 sion, and twenty-five by letter. Before him the 
 Rev. Ira Hunt, the first minister, gathered into the 
 fold eighty-six in all, sixty-nine being by profes- 
 sion. 
 
 These first three pastorates covered a period of 
 forty-nine years. In this first half of its existence, 
 the church received 422 members, and in its entire 
 history, of ninety-five years, it has received the 
 goodly number of 726. What is especially to be 
 noticed is, that only 166 of these, or less than one 
 in five, came from other churches. The church has 
 been God's instrument in bringing over from the 
 world to the ranks of Christ's followers 560 precious 
 souls, many of them to become efficient workers 
 for him. Had we been a large manufacturing cen- 
 tre, a tide of immigration would have set towards 
 us, bringing with it many Christians, to strengthen 
 us. But we are a farming community and a scat- 
 tered people, having no factories. Hence our
 
 156 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 growth, as a church, has been very largely from 
 within. In view of these numerous additions by 
 profession, year after year, may I not present this 
 off-shoot from you as a vigorous, fruitful vine, 
 especially in the earlier portions of its history ? 
 
 But there is another view in which the fruitful- 
 ness of the Middlebury church most strikingly 
 appears. I refer to the large number who have 
 gone out from its membership to help in other 
 fields, to plant other churches or strengthen those 
 already existing, to be officers and standard bear- 
 ers in those churches, to become Christian fathers 
 and mothers, training up families in the principles 
 in which they had been indoctrinated in their 
 youth. I have said that the church received in the 
 first half of its existence 422 members. In our 
 manual I find an asterisk placed against the 
 names of 241 of these, to indicate that they had 
 removed to other communities. Observe that 211 
 would be one-half of the whole number, but there 
 were 241 whom the church sent forth as mission- 
 aries, as it were, to those without. For the most 
 part letters to other churches were given them, 
 one and two at a time. But when the church was 
 called upon to spare a considerable number at 
 once, to help the settlements in New Connecticut 
 (Ohio), it was hard to part with so many energetic 
 citizens who were helpers at home. Blood is some- 
 times drawn from the veins of a healthy person, 
 and injected into those of an invalid. All through 
 its life your daughter has been giving lier life blood 
 to others. 
 
 Look at the help she has returned to you, her 
 mother, and your community. Was not Edward L.
 
 THE CHURCH ZZV MIDDLEBUR7. 157 
 
 Bronson (your deacon for many years) a brother 
 very highly esteemed ? We noticed those words, 
 so tender and appreciative, which your pastor 
 uttered at his recent funeral. His father, our 
 Deacon Leonard Bronson, we loaned to you for 
 some fifteen years. Then he gladly came back, to 
 end his days with us. Did not our Silas Bronson 
 give you the library which bears his name ? and is 
 he not through it blessing all your community ? 
 He had resolved to make the donation to his native 
 place, and to erect for it a handsome building; but 
 one stepped in and advised that it should go to 
 the more growing town of Waterbury. Except for 
 that suggestion it would have graced and blessed 
 our town. It was Middlebury that sent you Gideon 
 L. Platt, recognized so long as standing in the front 
 rank of your physicians. We gave you George L. 
 Townsend, to help edit the " Waterbury American," 
 and Aaron Benedict, to help build up your great 
 brass industry, as well as to hold an honorable 
 office in this church. I point you to the biogra- 
 phies of various other men of note mentioned in 
 the " History of Waterbury," who went from Mid- 
 dlebury to other places, far and wide, and made 
 their mark for good. And the many inspiring 
 lives begun on those quiet hillsides and trained in 
 those homely farmhouses ought to make us feel 
 that it is worth while to work for our hill towns. 
 We must keep the springs among the hills pure, 
 for the streams which issue from them are sure to 
 flow down into the valleys, where our great manu- 
 facturing centres are. Often the gift of one per- 
 son going forth from an obscure home proves a 
 rich boon to a large town, or even to a whole state.
 
 158 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 The small towns of Connecticut are full of splen- 
 did illustrations of this. 
 
 Do I seem to have spoken with too much eulogy 
 of my own little church ? What I have said was 
 more especially true of it a generation ago, when 
 it was most vigorous. Then, at least, the old gospel 
 so manifestly proved itself the power of God unto 
 salvation, that we, at the present day, may still 
 learn much from the methods of our fathers. But 
 they were far from perfect. Human nature, fifty 
 or seventy-five years ago, was essentially what it is 
 to-day. I find in the records of this church fre- 
 quent mention of grievances and of meetings called 
 to inquire into alleged faults. But the promptness 
 with which action was taken was remarkable. 
 Ordinarily time and place for a hearing were 
 appointed within two or three weeks of the com- 
 plaint, and the decision was reached without 
 tedious delay. Often too the result was humble con- 
 fession of wrong and restoration to full confidence 
 again. 
 
 In reaching out to the ends of the earth in mis- 
 sionary work we are much in advance of the fathers. 
 From the first, contributions were taken regu- 
 larly for home uses. But it was about twenty-three 
 years before the duty of joining in the great mod- 
 ern missionary movement was earnestly discussed. 
 Then came gifts first to educate pious young men, 
 to aid Andover Seminary and Yale College. 
 
 During these early years much was made of 
 catechising the children. Saturday evenings were 
 very generally devoted to this work. At one time 
 a committee of five men was appointed to help for- 
 ward this instruction of the children. As early as
 
 THE CHURCH IN MIDDLEBURY. 
 
 159 
 
 1818 a turn was made to regular Sabbath school 
 work. 
 
 And now, in closing, conies a most important 
 question: Has this vine, planted on yonder hills, 
 vitality still ? Will it yet bear precious fruit ? You 
 as well as we are interested in the answer. Our 
 young people will still drift toward you. All along 
 our eastern border are families dependent for 
 work on your shops. We have equipment for 
 Christian work in an excellent house of worship 
 and a parsonage, a Society of Christian Endeavor, 
 a Sabbath school work branching out in three direc- 
 tions, with a library freshly enlarged. We support 
 our own preaching, and give a third as much more 
 to others. We need not pecuniary help so much as 
 the far richer gift of the Holy Spirit, that we may 
 more zealously cultivate the important field of 
 labor which lies within our reach. 
 
 Our fathers planted this church amid far greater 
 pecuniary difficulties than ours. I hold in my hand 
 a curious looking document, bearing the date of 
 1786. It is the subscription paper for building our 
 first Middlebury church. Forty-one names are 
 attached, and the approximate value of gifts is 
 expressed in pounds, shillings and pence. Like 
 the Israelites in erecting the tabernacle, they gave 
 what they had. Of money I find only sixteen shil- 
 lings. But seven of them brought nails, which 
 quite likely they had hammered out, eleven brought 
 shingles, ten gave oak boards, three gave white- 
 wood clapboards, eleven gave provisions at market 
 prices, and twenty-five gave labor. With this ex- 
 ample of sacrifice before us, we ought to go on 
 supporting ourselves and helping others. Sacrifices
 
 160 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 for the gospel's sake make its messages precious, 
 and bring with them rich gifts of the Holy Spirit. 
 Oh! those twelve years of ingathering, which this 
 Middlebury church has enjoyed, enlarging it as 
 much as all the other eighty-three years! If the 
 review of the history of these churches, to-day, 
 shall lead us all, with one voice, to exclaim, " Come, 
 from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon 
 us," it will indeed be well. The best life of the 
 fathers will then enter into our lives, and through 
 us bear fruit forever. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN PROSPECT. 
 
 BY THE REV. W. H. PHIPPS. 
 
 The church in Prospect a daughter ninety-three 
 years old, although next to the youngest of the 
 daughters brings her greetings to-day to the aged 
 mother. 
 
 This daughter is somewhat enfeebled, and has for 
 many years been walking by the aid of crutches 
 furnished by the sister churches of the state. Her 
 feebleness, however, is not because of her age, but 
 results from the fact that she does so much for the 
 support of her aged mother and all her relatives in 
 the cities; so that it will not be advisable to cover 
 her with an extinguisher just yet, on the principle 
 of the survival of the strongest and the destruction 
 of the weakest. During the fourteen years of my 
 pastorate, twenty-four have been dismissed from 
 the Prospect church to join other churches, and 
 there are several others who have recently gone to 
 the cities, but have not transferred their church 
 relationship. Yet our church numbers more com-
 
 THE CHURCH IN PROSPECT. 161 
 
 municants to-day than it did fourteen years ago. 
 At the same time, we think of one of the wealthiest 
 men of Naugatuck as having been born in Prospect, 
 and we can point to deacons and superintendents 
 of Sabbath schools in churches in New Haven and 
 Wallingford who were brought up here and went 
 from us to their present fields of labor. 
 
 When the Congregational society was formed in 
 Prospect (then Columbia) a survey was made to 
 establish the society limits, that all included within 
 such limits might be subject to taxation for the 
 support of the society. The original map and the 
 record of the survey are still preserved, although 
 the trees which are mentioned as marking the 
 boundary lines have disappeared. This survey 
 contained 9,291 acres, of which 3,239 lay in the town 
 of Waterbury and 6,051 in the town of Cheshire. 
 Of the Waterbury section, 2,384 acres lay in that 
 part of the town known as Salem society. The ter- 
 ritory described included substantially the tract of 
 land which now constitutes the town of Prospect. 
 
 Columbia (as it was originally called) was for a 
 period of time a nourishing place, supporting man- 
 ufactures of some importance. But it has gradually 
 diminished, and now there are more old cellars 
 marking the places where houses formerly stood 
 than there are houses in the town. 
 
 The church was organized on the i4th of May, 
 1798, with sixteen members. All but two of these 
 had Bible names, such as Abraham, Ephraim, 
 Asahel, Damaris, Jerusha and Mehitabel. Evidently 
 the people of " Columbia " "went by the Bible " in 
 those days, differing materially from a certain old 
 tar who said to a friend that was trying to direct 
 his mind to the gospel, " We don't know nothing
 
 1 62 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 about the Bible here; we go by the almanac." I 
 suppose they thought they went by the Bible also 
 when in their " rules of practice " they forbade 
 " card-playing, frolicking and horse-racing." 
 
 The first pastor was Oliver Hitchcock. He 
 remained with the church thirteen years, his pas- 
 torate being the longest of any except my own. 
 From the Rev. Franklin Countryman's historical 
 address * we learn that Mr. Hitchcock was " a good 
 farmer, and proficient in laying stone walls." Cer- 
 tainly he had plenty of stone to practice with, and 
 there are about twelve acres of land connected 
 with the parsonage where I suppose he demon- 
 strated his ability as a farmer. The records show 
 that he was also proficient in building hearts 
 which had been hearts of stone into the walls of the 
 church of Christ. 
 
 The church prospered, and increased in mem- 
 bership, until 1832, when the Rev. J. D. Chapman 
 became pastor. Mr. Chapman embraced the doc- 
 trines of the Perfectionists (afterwards known as 
 the " Oneida community " ) and led away with him 
 many of the prominent members of the church. 
 When afterward all who entertained these beliefs 
 were excommunicated, it involved the cutting off 
 of a great portion of the working church. 
 
 The number of members at the present time is 
 ninety-eight. The Prospect church has no reason 
 to regret that she was ever born, for her life has 
 been fruitful of good. She is feeble, and may be 
 dying, but she is giving her life to others. 
 
 * Delivered by the Rev. Franklin Countryman, then pastor of the church in 
 Prospect, at the time of the nation's centennial. It was published in the Water- 
 bury American of July igth, 1876, in which it fills nearly three columns. EDITOK.
 
 THE CHURCH IN THOM ASTON. 163 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THOMASTON. 
 
 BY THE REV. R. G. BUGBEE. 
 
 These exercises naturally turn our thoughts to 
 the past, and remind me of the old adage which I 
 used to hear when I was a boy that ''children 
 should be seen and not heard." The saying is in 
 many places obsolescent, or else is transformed in- 
 to its opposite : " Children should be heard and 
 not seen." But in this large family gathering of 
 churches, where there are some of the old stock of 
 sister churches to be heard from and several also of 
 the elder daughters with an interesting history, the 
 saying ought to be enforced; the granddaughters 
 and great-granddaughters should be seen and not 
 heard. Therefore I bring very briefly the greeting 
 of the First Congregational church in Thomaston 
 to our venerable and honored grandmother, the 
 First church in Waterbury. We felicitate you, 
 that you have reached your two hundredth anni- 
 versary in so ruddy a state of health, with steadily 
 increasing vitality and an ever widening influence. 
 We also bring Christian greeting- to the other 
 churches of this family; and it seems like a genu- 
 ine old fashioned New England Thanksgiving to 
 meet so many relatives and so many generations 
 under one roof. And as grand-parents always have 
 an interest in their posterity, we stand up with 
 childish simplicity and tell briefly our age and a 
 few other facts. 
 
 We shall be fifty-four years old next December. 
 The church was formed from the church in Ply-
 
 1 64 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 mouth, December yth, 1837. It was organized with 
 thirty-seven members, only two of whom, I think, 
 remain upon our roll to-day. One of them, Tertius 
 D. Potter, who has served the church in several offi- 
 cial positions, is now ninety-eight years old.* Our 
 present membership numbers 307, while there have 
 been more than 900 different persons enrolled in 
 our list of members during our church life. Ger- 
 mans, Swedes, English, Scotch and French have 
 found fellowship with our American-born members. 
 Looking hastily over the records I find that the 
 church has had in fifty-four years nine pastors and 
 acting pastors; so you see that it has endeavored 
 to keep abreast of most of our modern Congrega- 
 tional churches in one respect at least in not 
 clinging to a minister till he is too old to move out 
 of town. 
 
 We feel honored in belonging to this family of 
 churches. We take pride in the fact that we are a 
 branch of the trunk which sprang from the mus- 
 tard seed planted in Waterbury two hundred years 
 ago. What a grand family of churches it is! Its 
 branches reach out into many parts of the sur- 
 rounding country; and perhaps there are churches 
 in distant places, unknown to us to-day, which 
 really sprang from the fruit of this tree wafted by 
 providential forces to far away states. In that 
 case, some of our branches reach out thousands 
 of miles, interlocking with branches from other 
 church families, as the limbs of a dense forest 
 intertwine and embrace each other. 
 
 * Tertius D. Potter, has passed away since the bi-centennial celebration took 
 place. He was a deacon in the church in Plymouth prior to 1834, and in the 
 church at Thomaston after that was organized. He was born September 25th, 
 1793, and died January loth, 1892, in the ninety-ninth year of his age. EDITOR.
 
 THE CHURCH AT TERRTVILLE. 165 
 
 And what harvests of precious fruit immortal 
 souls have already been garnered from this church 
 tree! As we think of the thousands who have been 
 entered upon our church rolls, but have now passed 
 away in faith, we are reminded of the inspired 
 word, " Therefore let us also, seeing we are com- 
 passed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, 
 lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so 
 easily beset us, and let us run with patience the 
 race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the 
 author and perfecter of our faith." We have in 
 this family of churches a living illustration of that 
 divine saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like 
 unto a grain of mustard seed which a man took and 
 sowed in his field; which indeed is less than all 
 seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the 
 herbs and becometh a tree; so that the birds of 
 heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof." 
 What better commentary on this Scripture than 
 the mustard seed of two hundred years ago com- 
 pared with the massive trunk, the strong branches 
 and the immortal fruit of our church family tree 
 to-day? 
 
 THE CHURCH AT TERRYVILLE. 
 
 BY J. A. 
 
 When the men of " Northbury, " after a long 
 struggle, succeeded in fixing the place of their 
 meeting house on Plymouth hill, they felt, no 
 doubt, that the cause of justice had triumphed, and 
 little suspected that the site they had secured 
 would in after years be inconveniently distant
 
 1 66 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 from the chief centres of population within their 
 society limits. In the course of time these chief 
 centres became established at Plymouth Hollow 
 (now Thomaston) on the one side, and Terryville 
 on the other; and when the Congregationalists in 
 these places became sufficiently numerous they felt 
 that they must have churches of their own. This 
 conclusion was reached, and decisive action taken, 
 at about the same time in both cases. The church 
 in Plymouth Hollow was organized on the yth of 
 December, 1837, and the church in Terryville on 
 the 2nd of January, 1838. The mother church "on 
 the hill " parted with fifty-one of its members in 
 the one case and forty-nine in the other, thus 
 losing one hundred members by colonization 
 within less than a single month. As all the original 
 members of both the new churches came from the 
 Plymouth church, their relation to the ancient 
 church of Waterbury by lineal descent is obvious. 
 The first pastor of the Terryville church was the 
 Rev. Nathaniel Richardson, who was settled in 
 August, 1838. The new church edifice was dedi- 
 cated, and the pastor ordained and installed, at the 
 same time, August 8th. His pastorate terminated 
 within two years (July 26., 1840), and more than a 
 year afterward (that is, in October, 1841) he was 
 followed by the Rev. Merrill Richardson, who was 
 pastor of the church at two different times. He was 
 dismissed in July, 1846, and settled again, May i6th, 
 1849, the pastorate of the Rev. Judson A. Root 
 coming between, and, owing to the failure of his 
 health, lasting only six months (from October, 1846, 
 to April, 1847). Mr. Richardson remained with the 
 church until January i8th, 1858, when he was dis-
 
 THE CIIURCH AT TERRYVILLE. 167 
 
 missed to a pastorate in Y/orcester, Mass. Mr. 
 John Monteith, jr., was ordained and installed, 
 October 27th, 1858, and continued until July 3ist, 
 1860. The Rev. Franklin A. Spencer was installed, 
 June 24th, 1863, the pulpit having been supplied 
 in the meantime by the Rev. A. Hastings Ross, the 
 Rev. Edwin Dimock (for eighteen months) and 
 others. In 1865, the Rev. Ephraim M. Wright 
 became " acting pastor," and served the church 
 until 1869. Mr. Henry B. Mead was ordained and 
 installed, June yth, 1871, and dismissed, May i2th, 
 1874. He was followed, in October, by the Rev. 
 Leverett S. Griggs, whose father, the Rev. Leverett 
 Griggs, D. D., had been pastor in the adjoining 
 parish of Bristol from 1856 to 1869, and was still 
 residing there. Although Mr. Griggs was not 
 installed, his pastorate continued until October, 
 1887, being the longest thus far enjoyed by the 
 Terryville church. The Rev. W. F. Arms became 
 pastor in March, 1888, and continues to the present 
 time. 
 
 As we have seen, the church at its organization 
 numbered forty-nine members. Twenty years later, 
 at the close of the Rev. Merrill Richardson's pas- 
 torate (that is, in January, 1858), the number on the 
 roll was 149, of whom 108 were resident members. 
 In the spring of that year sixty-four were added on 
 profession of faith fruits of the revival of religion 
 which had taken place throughout the country. 
 Again, in 1864, there was a large addition (thirty- 
 four), and since that time the church has gradually 
 and steadily increased in numbers and in strength 
 
 In 1866, the church reported seventeen of its 
 members as having fought in the war for the
 
 1 68 THE MOTHER AND THE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 Union, four of whom had died in the service. In 
 1878, the church edifice was altered and repaired, 
 and on the 6th of November was rededicated. An 
 organ was placed in it, at a cost of eight thousand 
 dollars, the money being raised by the Sunday 
 school. At different times in its history, the 
 church has sustained a mission Sunday school in 
 addition to the school at the centre, and in various 
 other ways has manifested its interest in the exten- 
 sion of the kingdom of Christ. It has also "raised 
 up " four ministers of the gospel, one of whom, 
 Edwin Johnson, was educated at the expense of the 
 church. He was born December ist, 1826, gradua- 
 ted at Yale college in 1846, and ordained in 1851. 
 In 1867 he became the first pastor of the First Con- 
 gregational church in Baltimore, Md., was pastor 
 of the South Congregational church in Bridgeport 
 from 1870 to 1876, and died December 25th, 1883. 
 The others are the Rev. Horace R. Williams, who 
 is pastor of the Congregational church in Clinton, 
 Mich.; his brother, the Rev. Moseley H. Williams, 
 who was for some years a secretary of the Ameri- 
 can Sunday School Union, and is now a member of 
 the editorial staff of the "Sunday School Times;" 
 and the Rev. Linus Blakesley, pastor (since 1870) 
 of the First Congregational church in Topeka, 
 Kansas. 
 
 Three years after the organization of the church, 
 Eli Terry, senior, erected a large and commodious 
 dwelling house, and presented it to the ecclesiasti- 
 cal society to be used as a parsonage. This was in 
 August, 1841. He also made and presented to the 
 society a wooden clock for the tower of the church, 
 which is still in good condition.
 
 THE EAGLE ROCK CHURCH, THOM ASTON. 169 
 
 The church, although a child of the Plymouth 
 church, was not, like that, consociated. In 1870, 
 when the Hartford Central (afterward the Farm- 
 ington Valley) conference of churches was organ- 
 ized, it connected itself with that body. On the 
 organization of the Naugatuck Valley conference, 
 February 22nd, 1883, it transferred its connection 
 to that, and continued in fellowship therewith until 
 June, 1891. 
 
 THE EAGLE ROCK CHURCH, THOMASTON. 
 
 BY J. A. 
 
 The Eagle Rock church was organized in 1879, to 
 meet the wants of a small manufacturing commu- 
 nity situated near Reynolds Bridge, in the town of 
 Thomaston. The Rev. E. B. Sanford, then of 
 Thomaston, began a work of visitation and preach- 
 ing in the place in May, 1878. A chapel was built, 
 and on the 2gih of October, 1879, a church of twen- 
 ty-six members was organized, ten of whom were 
 received on profession of faith, the rest from other 
 churches, most of them from the Congregational 
 church in Thomaston. About fifty families were 
 included in the parish. 
 
 Mr. Sanford served the church as pastor until 
 September, 1882. In the following May he was 
 succeeded by Mr. F. J. Pohl, of the Yale Theologi- 
 cal Seminary, who was ordained there on the i2th 
 of September, and who served the church for about 
 a year. In November, 1885, he was succeeded by 
 Mr. Ursinus O. Mohr, also of the Yale Seminary, 
 who labored in this field during 1886, and was 
 
 8
 
 1 7 o THE MOTHER AND IRE DAUGHTERS. 
 
 ordained there on the 25th of February, 1887, then 
 having the foreign missionary work in view. His 
 successor was the Rev. Joseph S. Burgess, whose 
 brief term of service began in August, 1887, and 
 who died at Reynolds Bridge on the 2 8th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1888. Mr. Burgess was born on the i5th of 
 August, 1815, and spent most of his life as a minis- 
 ter among the Free Baptist churches of Maine. He 
 was a pastor at Lewiston for nearly twenty years ; 
 was a trustee of Bates College, and for a time cor- 
 responding secretary of the Home Missionary soci- 
 ety of the Free Baptist churches. Late in life he 
 became a resident in Waterbury, and, with his fam- 
 ily, largely identified with the First church. After 
 entering upon the pastorate of the Eagle Rock 
 church, he connected himself with the Naugatuck 
 Valley Association of Congregational ministers. 
 He was succeeded by the Rev. Dighton Moses, who 
 began his ministry at Reynolds Bridge on the ist 
 of September, 1888, and continued it until April, 
 1890. Since that time the church has been without 
 a pastor. Its present membership numbers about 
 fifty. 
 
 Throughout its history, it has been subject to the 
 vicissitudes incident to life in a somewhat isolated 
 and changeful manufacturing community com- 
 posed largely of foreigners, and has been depend- 
 ent on the aid of the church in Thomaston, and the 
 Connecticut Missionary society.
 
 IV. 
 
 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS.
 
 JEREMIAH PECK. 173 
 
 JEREMIAH PECK. 
 
 BY MISS SARAH J. PRICHARD. 
 
 The Rev. Jeremiah Peck has for so many years 
 been considered the first minister of Waterbury 
 that the mere mention of a predecessor carries 
 with it a certain sense of disloyalty to that gentle- 
 man. But our town records bear indications that 
 may not be disregarded that a clergyman min- 
 istered to the spiritual needs of this wilderness 
 people, and dwelt in " the house built for the min- 
 ister," before the year 1689. 
 
 In the land divisions of 1688 we find a name 
 unknown hitherto in the town. Twenty-nine acres 
 of meadow land up the west branch of the Nauga- 
 tuck river, at and near Reynolds Bridge, were 
 allotted to four proprietors by name, the first men- 
 tioned of whom is Mr. Frayser. The appellation 
 " Mr." in itself is significant, as it stands alone on 
 our records until the coming of Mr. Peck. This 
 land was to be divided by its four owners accord- 
 ing to their proprietary rights. A careful follow- 
 ing of its division among the three men whose pro- 
 prietary rights are known reveals the fact that the 
 number of acres left for Mr. Frayser was more 
 than that of any one of the landed proprietors and 
 equaled that of a one hundred and fifty pound pro- 
 priety, belonging only to one of the three great lots 
 reserved at the beginning by the General Court's 
 committee " for public and pious uses." At a later 
 date the same land is found in the possession of 
 the children of the Rev. Jeremiah Peck, who record
 
 174 
 
 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 that it was their honored father's land. Now, how 
 that land, once granted to Mr. Frayser, became Mr. 
 Peck's requires solution. 
 
 On North Main street there still stands an 
 ancient house, the dwelling place of the late 
 Charles D. Kingsbury. Historical secrets were 
 stored away beneath its roof, that even the owner 
 knew not of, which by the extreme courtesy of his 
 son, Mr. Frederick J. Kingsbury, have been made 
 available for historical purposes. 
 
 In the beginning, the records of the town were 
 kept on sheets of paper. If one sheet of paper 
 could not contain all the words of a document, 
 another sheet was sewed to it. The original arti- 
 cles of agreement for the settlement of Waterbury 
 found in the Kingsbury house are twice sewed. 
 After a time certain of these documents were gath- 
 ered together and sewed at the edge, thus forming 
 a book, a portion of which " proprietors' book " 
 Dr. Henry Bronson, the esteemed historian of 
 Waterbury, found about forty years ago, and it 
 remains with us to this day. Certain other origi- 
 nal documents which either once formed a part of 
 that book, or should have been made part of it, 
 were quietly stored away in the house referred to, 
 biding their time, and by one of them we think the 
 question we have raised concerning the possession 
 of Mr. Frayser's land is satisfactorily answered. 
 It is a division of meadow lands, both up and 
 down the river, is without date, but the absence of 
 Mr. Peck's name is evidence that it was prior to 
 the date of his coming. On it the thirty-one origi- 
 nal proprietors are all represented, and when we 
 look for the three great lots we find two under that
 
 JEREMIAH PECK. 
 
 175 
 
 name, but the third one is designated as " the lot 
 bought," from which it is inferred that Mr. Fray- 
 ser's great-lot rights were returned to the town and 
 bestowed upon Mr. Peck. We also find, in 1687, in 
 a list of twelve men, to each of whom the General 
 Court of Connecticut granted two hundred acres of 
 land, and ten of whom we know to have been min- 
 isters of the church of Christ, the name " Mr. John 
 Frayser." If we look at the language of the record 
 relating to the bestowal of the minister's house 
 upon Mr. Peck, under the light of this revealment, 
 we seem to find in it a meaning hitherto unseen; 
 for the proprietors gave to him " the house built 
 for the minister, with the home lot, at his first 
 entrance there with his family." Again, there is a 
 suggestion, that he may have died in Waterbury, 
 in the somewhat unusual provision made for the 
 occurrence of death, in the following sentence of 
 the same record, relating to land bestowed upon 
 Mr. Peck. The language is : "And, if the providence 
 of God should so dispose that he should die before 
 the four years be out, it shall fall to his heirs." 
 
 Beyond the above facts, we know nothing of Mr. 
 Frayser; but, however events may have been 
 obscured by time and the loss of records, there 
 can be no question regarding the probability that 
 there was a minister in Waterbury before the year 
 1689. A General Court that existed, first of all, to 
 provide for the spiritual nourishment of the colo- 
 nists, and considered thirty families a sufficient 
 number to support a minister, and only gave con- 
 sent to the existence of a plantation at Mattatuck 
 upon the report that the meadows hereabout could 
 maintain thirty families; a General Court that
 
 I7 6 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 withheld its consent to township rights and its 
 blessing from petitioners therefor until the requi- 
 site number of households had been gathered, is 
 not to be suspected of having allowed this wilder- 
 ness child of its adoption to remain eleven years 
 without a spiritual guide. And thus we give our 
 " hail " and " farewell " to the unknown Mr. Frayser. 
 
 The Rev. Jeremiah Peck came to Waterbury ripe 
 in years and rich in experience. Had he kept a 
 diary from his youth to age, and left it as a legacy 
 to the First church of Christ in Waterbury, what a 
 valuable mine of historic lore the old church might 
 to-day possess. We should surely find in it a boy's 
 account of the voyage of the good ship "Hector," 
 in the year 1637, from London to Boston. We should 
 know the names on that passenger list which has 
 never been found, though carefully sought; and he 
 might have told us whether the Rev. John Daven- 
 port, vicar of St. Stephen's in Coleman street, Lon- 
 don, dared to cross the ocean under his own name, 
 and how New Haven looked when the goodly and 
 glorious company reached the "red hills," after- 
 wards called East and West Rocks, in 1638. We 
 should then know and understand where and how 
 he acquired his knowledge of Hebrew and Greek 
 and Latin. 
 
 The question of his life, and how it was spent 
 until he attained his thirty-third year, would be 
 made plain to us. Possibly we might in that 
 interesting diary learn that his father was, as has 
 been suggested, one of the merchants of London 
 who owned shares in the ship " Hector," and that 
 the lad went back to England, and there acquired 
 his store of Hebrew and Greek and Latin, that had
 
 JEREMIAH PECK. 
 
 177 
 
 made his name sufficiently famous to call the owner 
 thereof to be the first teacher of the colony school 
 at New Haven; and, all this would harmonize with 
 the words regarding him to be found in Stiles's 
 Itinerary: "It is said that he came, a minister, out 
 of England." That a man of his force of character 
 and acquirements should remain in a new country 
 in utter obscurity, so that his name is unmentioned 
 until his thirty-third year, when it suddenly shone 
 out, like a star of considerable magnitude, seems 
 improbable and gives plausibility to the above 
 report concerning him. 
 
 On the contrary, Cotton Mather, that oft sus- 
 pected truth-teller, had plainly written of Jeremiah 
 Peck that "he was bred at Harvard," but no cata- 
 logue of that university gave a place to him. Time 
 has, once more, verified Mather, for a few years ago 
 there came to view certain college stewards' 
 account books, in one of which are found credits to 
 Jeremiah Peck, from the year 1653 to 1656. He 
 possibly was one of the seventeen young men who 
 left Harvard without a degree, because the time of 
 study was prolonged one year. We might reconcile 
 the statements in Stiles's Itinerary and those of the 
 college steward's account book, could we find 
 authority for suggestion, even, that he was instruc- 
 tor at Harvard, and not a student. At present, his 
 life from the time of his arrival with his father in 
 New England to his thirtieth year is absolutely 
 unknown. 
 
 How readily a few lines in that diary might have 
 explained all these points. In it we might also 
 find, not the name, but we should expect to find 
 some allusion to Miss Johanna Kitchell, of Guilford,
 
 178 EARLY AND LATEE PASTORS. 
 
 who became his wife in the same year that he left 
 Harvard. Her age I have not found; but, as her 
 father came in 1637 on the voyage of the " Hector" 
 to which we have alluded, it is possible that their 
 life associations ran back to that early date, and 
 that the boy and girl together kept the fast when 
 the wind blew a gale and all the passengers were 
 confined in the cabins; together joined in the ser- 
 vice of thanksgiving when the wind went down, 
 and heard the ship master and his company when, 
 every night of the two months' voyage, " they set 
 their eight and twelve o'clock watches with sing- 
 ing a psalm, and a prayer that was not read out a 
 book." 
 
 We should have found the story of the four 
 years that he spent in Guilford in preaching or 
 teaching, and the joy of his heart would surely 
 have escaped his pen, as he wrote of his call to the 
 high position of master of the colony school at 
 New Haven. This school was opened in the 
 autumn of 1660. Having had a winter's experience 
 with the lads of that town, in the May following 
 the school-master presented to the General Court 
 of New Haven colony the following petitional 
 propositions. After two hundred years, they seem 
 as near an introduction to the man as we can 
 obtain. They evidence that Mr. Peck had the cour- 
 age of his convictions and the full capacity for 
 expressing both courage and convictions. He asks 
 fifteen questions. Most petitioners were content 
 with one or two. He desires that the master shall 
 be assisted with the power and counsel of any of 
 the honored magistrates or elders; that rectorcs 
 scholcz be appointed and established; that two men
 
 JEREMIAH PECK. 179 
 
 be appointed to prove and send to the master such 
 scholars as be fitted for his tuition; that two men 
 be appointed to take care of the school, to repair 
 and supply necessaries as the case may require. 
 After asking four things for the school, he makes a 
 number of personal requests: That the school may 
 begin but at 8 o'clock all the winter half-year (7 
 o'clock had been the hour); that the school-master 
 have liberty to be at neighbors' meetings once 
 every week; liberty to use any books that belong 
 to the school. He solicits a week's vacation in 
 the year. He requests that his person and estate 
 may be rate-free in every town within New Haven 
 jurisdiction. He also desires that a settled habita- 
 tion be granted to him, not at his own charge. He 
 petitions for liberty to receive and instruct in the 
 school, scholars sent from other places outside the 
 colony of New Haven, and the benefit of them; 
 that half the year's payments shall be made and 
 accounts cleared with the master within the com- 
 pass of every half year; that forty pounds per 
 annum be paid to the school-master by the colony 
 treasurer and ten pounds by the New Haven 
 treasurer. The next requests we give in his own 
 words: 
 
 That the major part of the above payments be made to the 
 school-master in these particulars: Thirty bushels of wheat, 
 two barrels of pork, two barrels of beef, forty bushels of Indian 
 corn, thirty bushels of peas, two firkins of butter, one hundred 
 pounds of flax, and thirty bushels of oats. 
 
 He likewise desired to learn what was expected of 
 him beyond instruction in the languages and ora- 
 tory. His final petition is in the following words: 
 That the honored Court be pleased to consider of and settle 
 these things, this court time, and to confirm the consequent
 
 i8o EAELT AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 of them, the want of which things, especially some of them, 
 doth hold the master under discouragement and unsettlement, 
 yet these things being suitably considered and confirmed, if it 
 please the honored Court further to improve him who at pres- 
 ent is school-master, although unworthy of any such respect 
 and weak for such a work, yet his real intention is to give up 
 himself to the work of a grammar school, as it shall please God 
 to give opportunity and assistance. 
 
 It is gratifying to be able to state that nearly all 
 the requests of the school-master were complied 
 with, and that Mr. Peck seemed to be very well 
 satisfied. Nevertheless, neither the colony school 
 nor the colony of New Haven prospered. Dark 
 days dawned for both. The school was closed in 
 1662, and New Haven colony itself, the beloved of 
 noble and excellent men, soon closed its unwilling 
 eyes, to open them again, most unwillingly, under 
 the jurisdiction of Connecticut. 
 
 How eagerly would we scan the pages revealing 
 the life and acts of our pastor during his ministry 
 at Saybrook, follow his return to Guilford, and 
 learn from his own pen exactly why he was so 
 earnestly opposed to the baptizing of children 
 whose parents were not in church communion; fol- 
 low him through all the eventful, stirring scenes 
 and days that clustered around the last hours of 
 New Haven colony and led that band of her devo- 
 ted children, of whom Jeremiah Peck was one, to 
 go forth into the wilderness of New Jersey, to 
 found a new town a town in whose government 
 no man might have part until he had acknowledged 
 the government of his God by visible membership 
 in church union. 
 
 Mr. Peck became one of the first settlers of New- 
 ark, the first minister at Elizabethtown, the first
 
 JEREMIAH PECK. 181 
 
 settled minister at Greenwich, Conn., and, eleven 
 years later, Waterbury's accredited first pastor. 
 
 How the pages would glow with interest as we 
 read of this man, much sought after by the early 
 churches, as he drew near to this people, " dwelling 
 in a corner of the wilderness," and in need alike of 
 meeting house and minister of the pioneer order, 
 as Mr. Peck undoubtedly was; for, as we have seen, 
 he had an eye for business and personal advantage 
 as well as spiritual insight. 
 
 And now we turn to our own town records, to 
 learn what we may of his coming. There is no 
 mention of his name prior to the year 1689. 
 
 The house on North Main street, with its histori- 
 cal secrets, has yielded up the original minutes of 
 the meeting of March i8th, 1689, from which we 
 learn that the vote desiring Mr. Peck to " settle in 
 the work of the ministry " was unanimous. The pro- 
 prietors were generous. They gave him uncondi- 
 tionally " the home lot and house built for the min- 
 ister on his first entrance there with his family." 
 They gave him the allotments and divisions belong- 
 ing to the minister's lot, so called, provided he 
 remain with them four years. And, to induce his 
 sons, Jeremiah and Caleb, to live in Waterbury, in 
 the generosity of their hearts they gave to them 
 one of their three great lots, with all its grants and 
 divisions, the only conditions being that they 
 should, each of them, build a house and dwell four 
 years in the town. Mr. Peck accepted the invita- 
 tion. 
 
 All the way from Greenwich to Waterbury, in 
 1689! There is something extremely winsome in 
 that journey. It was in the spring-time, too! And
 
 1 82 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 there were Indian villages in the way. But Water- 
 bury 's discreet and stalwart proprietors Isaac 
 Bronson, a very pillar in the wilderness, as well as 
 in the church; Samuel Hickox, usually found on the 
 right side of everything, and Obadiah Richards, 
 the father-in-law of more proprietors' sons than 
 any other man in Waterbury were there, as guard 
 and guide to " Mr. Peck and family, and cattle and 
 estate." 
 
 Time will not permit us to take that journey. It 
 is safe to say that the minister's house was made 
 ready; that much scouting by the boys, not down 
 on the record, took place that day to discover the 
 approach of the little cavalcade. There was the 
 Rev. Jeremiah Peck, Mrs. Peck, the son Jeremiah, 
 twenty-six years old; Anna, a daughter of twenty- 
 four years, who went, the next year, a bride 
 down the Farmington path with Thomas Stanley; 
 and Joshua, a lad of sixteen, besides probable house- 
 hold servants,with the " cattle and estate." The date 
 of the arrival is unknown, but that it occurred 
 prior to May 2oth, 1689, appears by the fact that on 
 that day the good-natured town permitted Mr. 
 Peck's door-yard to extend a rod and a half into 
 the highway, which extension is still visible to-day 
 in the sloping bit of lawn lying between the house 
 of Mrs. John C. Booth and St. John's church. 
 
 The year 1689, in which Mr. Peck came, was a 
 year of great and special trials, both in Waterbury, 
 in other towns and in the colony. There was a 
 great drought, and there was an epidemic sickness 
 in most of the plantations, so great that the " peo- 
 ple suffered for want of tendance;" so great that 
 in August no Court could be held at Hartford.
 
 JEREMIAH PECK. 183 
 
 Two of the twenty-five men who signed the agree- 
 ment for Mr. Peck's salary died in that year. To 
 add to this, the beating of the drum for volunteers 
 to go forth to war with the Indians at the north 
 was heard in every town, and Mr. Peck himself 
 reminded the Court of the many soldiers that 
 Waterbury had entertained, and the much scouting 
 that had been done, without pay, when he peti- 
 tioned for assistance in building the meeting house 
 at least, the petition was written by his hand and 
 bears evidence in its style of his authorship. 
 
 It seems reasonable to believe that Mr. Peck was 
 school-master in Waterbury, for we find no mention 
 of schools until after he became an invalid. 
 
 Although there remains to us no pictured sem- 
 blance of his personal presence; no word of ser- 
 mon or of song to keep in memory, we have the 
 assurance that the Rev. Jeremiah Peck, the accred- 
 ited first minister of the First church of Water- 
 bury, was a man of true courage, of great enter- 
 prise, and of unfailing integrity; that in all his 
 wanderings there is no indication that he wan- 
 dered one step away from the path of a true and 
 faithful minister of the gospel of Christ. 
 
 He remained the pastor of the church until his 
 death on the 7th of June, 1699. Regarding the 
 place of his burial, there is neither record nor tra- 
 dition, so far as has been learned. He may have 
 been borne at that early day over the then new 
 road to New Haven, and there laid beside his 
 father, Deacon William Peck (who died at the ad- 
 vanced age of ninety-one years, three years after 
 this church was gathered), or he may have been 
 laid to rest in yonder late desecrated place of burial.
 
 1 84 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 JOHN SOUTHMAYD. 
 
 BY MISS SARAH J. PRICHARD. 
 
 In the year 1699, and before the death of the Rev. 
 Jeremiah Peck, this church received the ministra- 
 tions of a young man who became the most learned 
 and distinguished lawyer in New England. When 
 he "came to Waterbury he was fresh from Harvard 
 College. It is pleasing to know that this people 
 appreciated the ability of the Rev. John Read, 
 before opportunity had been given him to prove it 
 elsewhere. 
 
 He made a deep impression. The town was 
 stirred to activity. There was a determination and 
 an earnestness in its efforts to secure Mr. Read 
 " for the work of the ministry " that the years have 
 not been able to obliterate from the records. It is 
 almost pathetic to read of the inducements offered 
 him by a people whose ratable estate was but sev- 
 enteen hundred pounds, and the number of whose 
 taxable citizens was but forty-seven. He was 
 offered fifty pounds by the year, in provision pay, 
 ten pounds in wood and twenty pounds in labor, in 
 the same year that the salary of the governor of the 
 colony was but one hundred and twenty pounds, in 
 provision pay. It must be remembered that this 
 town, as a town, was less than fourteen years old, 
 having been incorporated in 1686, and that less than 
 forty men had built one house for the minister, in 
 which, an invalid, his life was drawing to its close. 
 Undaunted by the magnitude of the undertaking, 
 the town promised to build a new house for Mr.
 
 JOHN SOUTHMAYD. 185 
 
 Read. It was to be thirty-eight feet long, nineteen 
 feet wide; to have two chimneys from the ground 
 and, apparently, a chamber chimney. The town 
 agreed to " dig and stone a cellar, clapboard the 
 house and shingle it, and make one end of it fit to 
 live in." As a present gift, independent of the 
 town's action, the proprietors gave him ten acres of 
 upland, and this land seems to have been laid out 
 to him, or to his heirs, long afterward. Yet more 
 was there in the heart of this generous people to do 
 for him. After he had been ordained two years, 
 the house and the house lot of two acres, at the 
 south-west corner of West Main and Willow Streets, 
 with a one hundred and fifty pound propriety, was 
 to be his own. Negotiations went on. From time 
 to time, another persuasive voice was added to the 
 committee, to entreat Mr. Read to dwell here; but, 
 at last, as winter was drawing near, Mr. Read evi- 
 dently drew away, for the old record bears wit- 
 ness to the fact in these words: " Deacon Thomas 
 Judd was chosen a committee to endeavor by him- 
 self, and the best counsel he can take, to get one to 
 help him in the work of the ministry, and to bring 
 a man amongst us, upon probation, in order to* set- 
 tlement, if he can." John Hopkins was, later, chosen, 
 with Deacon Judd, " for getting a committee." 
 
 As we may not enter into the secret of the power 
 that Mr. Read had over this church, let us listen a 
 moment to a few words of his own. Mr. Thomas 
 Prince has placed them on record for us as follows: 
 
 In conversation with the late honorable and learned lawyer, 
 John Read, Esq., as I happened to speak of living with the 
 Rev. Mr. Torrey, of Weymouth, he immediately said: "Mr. 
 Torrey ! That was the most wonderful man in prayer I ever 
 heard. When I was senior sophister at college, in 1696, there
 
 1 86 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 being a day of prayer, kept by the association at Newtown, 
 upon some extraordinary occasion, in the house of public wor- 
 ship, I and several others went from college to attend the exer- 
 cise; where were two prayers made by two ministers, beside 
 a sermon by a third, in the forenoon, and the like in the after- 
 noon; and then, Mr. Torrey stood up and prayed nearly two 
 hours; but all his prayer so entirely new and various, without 
 tautologies, so exceeding pertinent, so regular, so natural, so 
 free, lively, and affecting, that towards the end of his prayer, 
 hinting at still new and agreeable scenes of thought, we could 
 not help wishing him to enlarge upon them. But the time 
 obliged him to close, to our regret; and we could gladly have 
 heard him an hour longer. His prayer so wonderfully 
 enlivened and moved the congregation , that we seemed not to 
 be sensible of the time's elapsing, till he had finished." 
 
 If we may judge of the influence of Mr. Read over 
 the people of Waterbury by Mr. Read's account of 
 the effect upon him of Mr. Torrey's prayer, we can 
 form some estimate of the keenness of their disap- 
 pointment. But the work on the minister's house 
 went on and the forty-seven good men voted a tax 
 on themselves of half a penny on the pound " in 
 current silver money or its equivalent, to buy glass 
 and nails for the minister's house." Truly, there 
 were giants in those days, in the pulpit and in the 
 pews. 
 
 Meanwhile, the minister for this church and peo- 
 ple had been made ready and was drawing near. 
 He came, in the person of a young man of twenty- 
 three years, late in the autumn of 1699. Dr. Henry 
 Bronson, in his " History of Waterbury," has drawn 
 for us a sharp and vivid outline of the then condi- 
 tion of affairs. He says that Waterbury was not a 
 very inviting field of labor; the town was yet suf- 
 fering from the effects of the great flood; a gloom 
 had settled over the prospects of the people; they
 
 JOHN SOUTHMAYD. 187 
 
 were upon the borders of civilization and in the 
 midst of an Indian war. All this was true, but, in 
 the ever new and stirring events of the period, 
 when every rustle of the forest trees brought with 
 it life and expectation of important tidings from 
 distant towns, there was no time for despondency, 
 and little time for aught else than imperative 
 action. The building of the great common fence 
 guarding the grain fields an undertaking, the 
 magnitude of which, when the men and means are 
 estimated, equals and even surpasses the construc- 
 tion of any of our modern public works for which 
 we take credit and glory to ourselves these men 
 carried on as a matter of life and death to them- 
 selves and families, without a thought of credit or 
 glory; and this great work was yet incomplete 
 when the new minister came. 
 
 John Southmayd was born in Middletown, Conn., 
 August 23d, 1676. He was the son of William 
 Southmayd, mariner, and Esther Hamlin, his wife; 
 the grandson of William Southmayd; the great- 
 grandson of Sir William Southmayd, of the county 
 of Kent, England, and, on his mother's side, the 
 great-great-grandson of Elder William Goodwin, of 
 Hartford; for which descent let his descendants 
 with us, to-day, be duly thankful. The only item 
 regarding his father that has come to the notice of 
 the writer, is recorded in the diary of Major John 
 Talcott, and is the not altogether discreditable fact 
 that William Southmayd, mariner, permitted a 
 negro boy belonging to him to escape out of his 
 barque at Middletown. 
 
 The negotiations for the settlement of Mr. South- 
 mayd over this church were carried on for more
 
 1 88 EAELT AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 than five years before they culminated in his ordi- 
 nation. In October, 1703, "Sergeant Isaac Bron- 
 son, Thomas Judd, Jr., and Edmund Scott were 
 appointed to prepare what was needful for the 
 entertaining the elders and messengers, for the 
 ordaining Mr. Southmayd," and yet Mr. Southmayd 
 himself in a letter written to Mr. Prince in 1729 has 
 given the date of his ordination as May 3oth, 1705. 
 During this interval, important events had occurred 
 in his life. That he lived in Waterbury, and was 
 the acting pastor of the people, is strongly indi- 
 cated, if not proved, by the records; and is satisfac- 
 torily proven when he himself, in 1738, states 
 that he has been with the church about thirty- 
 eight years. Therefore, we may conclude that he 
 came to the house (begun for Mr. Read), with his 
 bride, in the year of their marriage, 1700. They 
 undoubtedly lived, for a time, in the end of the 
 house the town had finished. In 1702 his father 
 died, at Middletown, leaving an estate of more than 
 a thousand pounds, out of which, Dr. Bronson tells 
 us, Mr. Southmayd brought to Waterbury " fifty 
 pounds in gold and silver"; and yet, despite his 
 coin of the realm, this town increased his salary, 
 and the proprietors from year to year bestowed 
 gifts upon him, independent of all his land divisions 
 that fell to him by allotment, from his one hundred 
 and fifty pound propriety. The town gave him the 
 lot of two acres, extending from West Main street 
 to Grand, on one corner of which the residence of 
 Mr. Robert K. Brown now stands, together with the 
 house that had been begun for Mr. Read on that 
 lot; it purchased the two-acre house lot next 
 adjoining that, on the east, and added it to the gift.
 
 JOHN SOUTHMAYD. 189 
 
 In that house on the corner, two daughters were 
 born to Mr. Southmayd before his ordination, and 
 one of the two, Susannah, who became the wife of 
 Thomas Bronson, Esq., was born just before the 
 order was given, in 1704, to fortify Mr. South - 
 mayd's house. Doubtless the fort about Timothy 
 Stanley's house was too crowded by the alarmed 
 inhabitants to be comfortable for Mr. Southmayd's 
 family. 
 
 We may not linger over this period. Mr. South- 
 mayd became pastor, preacher, leader, and the 
 responsible conductor of many of the interests of 
 the community. If it became necessary to make an 
 appeal to the General Assembly, the people applied 
 to Mr. Southmayd to put it in good form and give 
 it all the advantage that might accrue from his 
 pen. He was appointed, in 1710, on the committee 
 to draw up, in writing, " the circumstances of the 
 town in that time of war, and present it at the Gen- 
 eral Court." If any one could do this feelingly, 
 surely Mr. Southmayd could, for, just over the way 
 from his house, near where Mr. C. M. Mitchell now 
 lives, were the distressed wife and children of Jona- 
 than Scott, who had been carried off, with his two 
 sons, by the Indians. Again, in 1711, he was 
 requested to write to the committee of safety, 
 " expressing the fears of the common enemy." 
 
 Meanwhile, the little meeting house, that seems 
 not to have been made ready for the first seating of 
 the people until 1702, was continually undergoing 
 changes. First, the young men were permitted to 
 build a small seat, or gallery, to sit in, and then, 
 Mr. Southmayd to enlarge the seat at the west end 
 of the pulpit, and then the town agreed to put up
 
 190 
 
 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 a beam for a gallery at the west end, and finally 
 to build the gallery; and then the doors and win- 
 dows had to be repaired. In 1719, the repairs that 
 had been eleven years in process were completed, 
 and the second seating took place. At first, the 
 vote was, that the persons formerly seated in the 
 pews should sit there, without any disturbance. 
 This vote was subsequently overruled, and it was 
 decided that the seating should be by list of estate 
 and by age, reckoning one year in age to four 
 pound of estate. But two years pass by, and then, 
 in 1721, the town voted to apply to the General 
 Court to get a tax on all the land laid out within 
 the town bounds, the money to be disposed of to 
 the building of a meeting house. I do not know the 
 result of the above appeal to the Court, but it was 
 probably not granted, for in the year following 
 more repairs were made; a part of the stairs into 
 the gallery was taken up, and seats were placed 
 where the stairs had been. We might never have 
 known that the first meeting house had east and 
 west doors, had they remained as they were at the 
 beginning; but they were closed on this occasion, 
 to give place for more seats. The outside of the 
 meeting house was mended and the pulpit was 
 raised. 
 
 For three years the little meeting house must 
 have been, on Sundays, on lecture days and on 
 Fast days, not to mention Thanksgiving days, a 
 veritable human hive, and it is not surprising that 
 the pulpit had to be raised. In 1726, the situation 
 evidently became unbearable and it was decided to 
 build a new meeting house, forty feet wide and 
 fifty feet long. Later, it was decided that the area
 
 JOHN SOUTHMAYD. 
 
 191 
 
 of the new house must contain two thousand square 
 feet, but it might be proportioned by the com- 
 mittee and the workman, and we have no record as 
 to the proportions adopted. The need was impera- 
 tive, and in the building haste was made. There 
 was much culling of material for that house. Mr. 
 Southmayd held I know not what place on the 
 committee, but a little book found in the Kings- 
 bury house tells its own interesting story, written 
 by his hand, of the building of the second meeting 
 house in Waterbury. 
 
 On the first day of July, 1729, the town met 
 together for the important work of seating the 
 people in it. Mr. Southmayd was given his choice 
 and chose " the pew at the east end of the pulpit, 
 next to the pulpit." It was evidently a day of 
 great expectations, and the committee began to 
 bestow the honors. Age and estate alone are men- 
 tioned as qualifications. The pew, next in dignity 
 to Mr. Southmayd's was there, facing that one, 
 with the pulpit between. Into it were delegated 
 those whom they delighted to honor, Abraham 
 Andrus, senior, and his wife. Mr. Andrus must have 
 been eighty-two years of age at this date, and, with 
 the exception of his brother-in-law, Benjamin 
 Barns, seems to have been the only signer of the 
 articles for the settling of Mattatuck left alive, 
 unless we count Stephen Upson, senior, who was 
 probably of greater age than either Andrus or 
 Barns, but who signed later. Into the pew with 
 the above went widow Deborah Porter, whose hus- 
 band, Dr. Daniel Porter, had died a few years 
 before. Her house was hard by the meeting house, 
 facing it, with only the highway between. Lieu-
 
 192 
 
 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 tenant Hopkins and his wife completed the list. 
 These persons had lived in Waterbury fifty years, 
 and had been familiar with every scene of joy or 
 woe within the town. Into the second pew went 
 Dr. Warner. However much we may desire to fol- 
 low this seating, the door of the record closes upon 
 us, and we are shut out from farther knowledge, 
 thanks to Mr. Southmayd. If there was a skeleton 
 in the church, he has not told of it. New people 
 had come in, doubtless there was dissatisfaction 
 and some friction, but the Rev. John Southmayd's 
 good common sense was equal to the occasion. 
 
 It was when the new meeting house was fin- 
 ished that Mr. Southmayd's salary was raised to 
 seventy-five pounds, money. This was one of Water- 
 bury's bright periods. The old town was growing. 
 It would be pleasant to tell of the new inhabitants 
 that came. Two years later, the minister's salary 
 reached its highest point, one hundred pounds, and 
 in the following year came the first of a long series 
 of trials that the old First church had to pass 
 through ; and they grew then, just as they are 
 growing to-day, out of the town's increase in wealth 
 and population. The inhabitants who had been 
 welcomed to hospitable meadows and uplands, 
 asked to withdraw their support from the church 
 in the town spot, and establish little centers of their 
 own, here and there, throughout the township. 
 To-day, we can see the bright outcome of all this 
 darkness and trial, better than we can see the sore 
 distress that surely settled in the breast of their 
 dear mother, when she saw her birdlings flying 
 away, laden with much of the harvest that she had 
 toiled to gather. Through all this period the Rev.
 
 JOHN SOUTHMAYD. 
 
 193 
 
 John Southmayd proved himself the very man 
 for this church and people. They who will give 
 the subject careful study, amid the facts left to 
 us, will find that his name is worthy of great 
 honor. 
 
 To go back to 1721. That was the year in which, 
 in the great town meeting in December, Mr. 
 Southmayd was by the town chosen town clerk, 
 and by the proprietors, proprietors' clerk an act 
 of ancient Waterbury the value of which will re- 
 main in full force until time shall have effaced the 
 last word written by him. For thirty-four years 
 he filled the offices, to the increasing satisfaction 
 of both parties. How difficult it must have been to 
 keep the peace at all times between town and 
 proprietors, and make the record satisfactory to 
 both amid conflicting interests, came out on one or 
 two occasions, when the votes had been recorded 
 by another hand. 
 
 After " about thirty-eight years" as preacher and 
 pastor of this church, the Rev. John Southmayd 
 sent " to the deacons and townsmen in Waterbury 
 to communicate to the church and inhabitants of 
 said town," words that must have occasioned sorrow. 
 He addressed his people as " Beloved brethren and 
 neighbors," and told them that through great diffi- 
 culty and infirmity of body he had served them for 
 two years; that he had no expectation of relief; 
 that the public work he was engaged in was too 
 much for him; that a sedentary life was destruc- 
 tive to his health, and that he desired to live more 
 privately. He besought his people to obtain 
 another minister and give him relief as speedily as 
 possible. The town acceded to his request, but 
 9
 
 194 
 
 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 " expressed a wish that he would still serve, as far 
 as he should be able." 
 
 No sooner was Mr. Southmayd relieved from his 
 duties as pastor than other obligations were almost 
 forced upon him. He had the care of letting out 
 the school money, and taking security, by mort- 
 gage; he kept the notes and " bonds of interest " 
 that the ministry land was sold for, and was to 
 deliver the just proportion to the several societies' 
 committees, and he was appointed town treasurer. 
 The number of bargains still in existence, written 
 by Mr. Southmayd, and the indentures, with their 
 peculiar and rhythmic phraseology, prepared by 
 him, attest the confidence placed in him by all 
 sorts and conditions of men. The General Assem- 
 bly placed his name on committees requiring 
 firmness and discretion united with good judg- 
 ment. During all these useful years Mr. South- 
 mayd seems to have carried on his landed estate 
 with good husbandry, and it was constantly grow- 
 ing around him. He could stand in his door at 
 one time, and, looking southward, say that he 
 owned all the land lying bet ween that door and the 
 Naugatuck river. A goodly inheritance it would 
 be to a descendant of his in 1891. 
 
 The attitude of Mr. Southmayd toward the 
 Church of England, in its earliest manifestations 
 in our town, is worthy of note. Not a hostile 
 thought appears to have been evoked in his breast, 
 when certain men "with Church of England pro- 
 clivities" voted against the payment of a one hun- 
 dred pound obligation held by Mr. Southmayd 
 against the town. He gave his consent as 
 guardian to Oliver Welton, a minor, who desired to
 
 JOHN SOUTHMAYD. 195 
 
 convey a house lot adjoining Mr. Southmayd to 
 " the professors of the Church of England as a glebe 
 lot, for the use of the church forever." We may 
 believe that his voice was heard and his influence 
 felt in the town meeting of 1742, when liberty was 
 given to Dr. Benjamin Warner and others, " to set 
 up a church on the highway, north of Edmund 
 Scott's house lot, against the apple tree in said lot, 
 by the highway," and in the meeting when the 
 town agreed to " give twelve pounds old tenor bills 
 out of the town treasury, to purchase land for the 
 church to be placed upon, that the highway be not 
 cumbered," and also in the meeting when the town 
 voted that it would not oppose a petition of the 
 " churchmen " to the General Assembly for parish 
 privileges. 
 
 During the first half of the eighteenth century 
 Mr. Southmayd's name must have been honored in 
 all the region. It certainly did very much in many 
 ways for Waterbury township, and up to the 
 present time it seems, at least to the writer, not to 
 be too much to say of him, that no man who has 
 ever lived within the original bounds of the town 
 has done as much for Waterbury as did John South- 
 mayd. It is true that he had more than a half 
 century to do his work in; and it was at a time 
 when all things were in a formative stage, and in a 
 period when the minister was to his people a law- 
 giver. It was during his ministry, and in attend- 
 ance upon his preaching, that the great Samuel 
 Hopkins grew up; who was able to say that "he 
 never had heard a profane word in Waterbury." 
 Was that an unconscious tribute to John South- 
 mayd ?
 
 196 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 We go back once more to the town books; and 
 there we find inscribed certain family records, in 
 Mr. Southmayd's hand, that tell, each and every 
 one in its own words and way, how sorrows entered 
 his soul. The first bears date August i3th, 1741, 
 and records the death of Susanna Southmayd, wife 
 of Thomas Bronson. This is the daughter who was 
 born when the house was fortified in 1704. Next, 
 we find, " John Southmayd, son of John Southmayd, 
 died February 28th, 1742-43, about twelve of the 
 clock, in the thirty-third year of his age." And 
 then we come to this: "Anna Southmayd, wife of 
 Joseph Bronson, died August nth, 1749, in the 
 forty-third year of her age." In less than two 
 years, his hand had written on the page, " Susanna 
 Southmayd, wife of Mr. John Southmayd, died Feb- 
 ruary 8th, between ten and eleven of the clock at 
 night, 1751-2." But not yet had the final stroke 
 fallen. His son Daniel was yet alive. Two years 
 later we find written, " Daniel Southmayd, son of 
 John Southmayd, died about eleven o'clock at night, 
 January i2th, 1754." And thus John Southmayd, of 
 whom we have said too little because we feared to 
 say too much, was left in his last years alone. (His 
 only daughter was living at Middletown.) But not 
 for long. Once again we glance at the old record. 
 Thereon we find: " Mr. John Southmayd, died 
 November i4th, 1755, in the eightieth year of his 
 age." 
 
 Earth's highest station ends in " Here he lies," 
 And " Dust to dust" concludes her noblest song.* 
 
 *Alas ! we may not add : 
 
 "And where his pilgrim feet have trod, 
 
 The God he trusted guards his grave." S. J. P.
 
 MARK LEAVEN WORTH. 197 
 
 MARK LEAVENWORTH. 
 
 BY THE HON. FREDERICK J. KINGSBURY.* 
 
 The Rev. Mark Leavenworth, the third minister 
 settled over this church, was the sixth son, as well 
 as the sixth child, of Dr. (and Deacon) Thomas 
 Leavenworth of Stratford, Conn., where he was 
 born in 1711. His mother's name was Mary Jen- 
 kins. When he was six or seven years old his 
 father moved to Ripton parish, quite at the north 
 end of the town (and now the town of Hunting- 
 ton), and there spent the remainder of his life. 
 His house was near the Housatonic river and about 
 two miles northward from the new village of Shel- 
 ton. Mark was probably fitted for college by the 
 Rev. Jedediah Mills of Ripton, as he was a teacher 
 of great reputation at that time. He was graduated 
 at Yale College in the class of 1737, under the presi- 
 dency of the Rev. Elisha Williams. The year that 
 he entered college, namely 1733, the Rev. George 
 Berkeley, dean of Derry, and afterwards bishop of 
 Cloyne in Ireland, who had come to this country 
 with the idea of founding an institution of learn- 
 ing, but afterward abandoned the plan, had pre- 
 sented to the college a valuable farm near Newport 
 on the island of Rhode Island, the income of which 
 should be used for the benefit of three resident 
 graduates who should pass the best examinations 
 in Latin and Greek. This income they were to 
 enjoy for three years, if they remained so long at 
 
 * Mr. Kingsbury, who is a lineal descendant of Mr. Leavenworth and of his two 
 predecessors, is a member of St. John's church.
 
 198 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 the college. They were known, and are still 
 known, on the college books as " scholars of the 
 house." One of these valuable scholarships young 
 Leavenworth obtained, and remained in New 
 Haven two years, pursuing a theological course. 
 He was licensed to preach by the New Haven East 
 association of ministers, October loth, 1738. In 
 June, 1 739, after preaching a few Sundays on trial, 
 here in Waterbury, he was unanimously invited to 
 succeed the Rev. John Southmayd, who had 
 resigned his charge on account of enfeebled 
 health. Mr. Southmayd had been the minister here 
 for nearly or quite forty years. He was a strong 
 man in character and intellect, a man of wealth, 
 and a man of great influence in the community. 
 His change of occupation seems to have been ben- 
 eficial to his health, for he lived seventeen years 
 after this, acting as magistrate and filling various 
 offices of public trust, and doubtless remaining by 
 far the most influential member of Mr. Leaven- 
 worth's congregation. It has always seemed to me 
 that the relation of these two men to each other 
 during this period was the highest possible evi- 
 dence of the superior character of both. It speaks 
 of broadness, of judicial fair-mindedness, of great 
 natural amiability, and of much Christian charity. 
 The relations between a new pastor and an old one 
 who remains a member of the congregation are 
 proverbially difficult and very apt to become 
 strained; nor is this wholly the fault of the men 
 themselves, but it is largely referable to that 
 instinct of humanity in the members of the con- 
 gregation which leads so readily to the formation 
 of parties, cliques and schools. Mr. Southmayd
 
 MARK LEAVENWORTH. 
 
 199 
 
 and Mr. Leavenworth did not always think alike; 
 they differed and differed widely on matters that 
 were regarded then as of the highest importance. 
 But they never lost their mutual respect and affec- 
 tion, and as a final evidence of confidence and 
 esteem after seventeen years of intimate acquaint- 
 ance Mr. Southmayd made Mr. Leavenworth the 
 executor of his will. 
 
 In February, 1740, a month before the time for 
 his ordination, perhaps in order that he might be 
 fully equipped for his work, Mr. Leavenworth was 
 married to Miss Ruth Peck, daughter of Deacon 
 Jeremiah Peck of Northbury parish, now Plym- 
 outh, and granddaughter of the Rev. Jeremiah 
 Peck, the first minister of this church. The people 
 of Northbury had been very insistent in their 
 demand for what they then called " winter privi- 
 leges," and although at this time I think they had 
 gained their point, perhaps to some of them the 
 young Waterbury minister was a "winter privi- 
 lege " by no means to be despised. 
 
 A great-great-granddaugter of Mr. Leavenworth, 
 living on the ground where he lived, and perhaps 
 partly in the same house (for a portion of it is said 
 still to exist), has discovered among his papers a 
 poem addressed to the bride and groom on the 
 occasion of their marriage. It bears the signature 
 of " J. G.," which are doubtless the initials of the 
 Rev. John Graham of Southbury. The penman- 
 ship is bold and elegant, and the writing, although 
 more than one hundred and fifty years old, is clear 
 and distinct. The composing and sending of such 
 a poem on such an occasion is a pleasant indication 
 of the amenities and aesthetic susceptibilities of a
 
 200 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 time that is apt to seem to us cold, hard and un- 
 joyous. Doubtless it was written in haste and sent as 
 a pleasant, friendly greeting, without thought of 
 critical eyes, but the glimpse it gives us of a life of 
 culture and refinement and of an interchange of 
 courtesies, makes it an object of interest far beyond 
 its intrinsic merit. This is the poem : 
 
 TO MR. M. LEAVENWORTH AND MADAM RUTH PECK HIS BRIDE. 
 
 Hail, happy pair, long may you prove 
 The Joys of chaste connubial Love. 
 To Heaven and to each other true 
 Be Eden's joys revived in you. 
 In honorable wedlock dwell, 
 Like our first parents ere they fell. 
 No fretful strife or anxious care 
 Or pining jealousy be there. 
 May a fair progeny presage 
 Comfort to your declining age, 
 And when you late to Heaven remove 
 There flourish in immortal love. J. G. 
 
 Having referred to Mr. Leavenworth's residence, 
 I may as well say now that it was the place next 
 east of the church, and that this church building 
 stands in part at least upon what was his home- 
 stead. But the church in which he preached I 
 beg his pardon, the " meeting house," for, although 
 he was a liberal-minded man even towards dissen- 
 ters, I don't think he would ever have permitted 
 the building to be called a church the meeting 
 house, then, in which he preached, stood at the east 
 end of the green on the ground now occupied in 
 part by the Welton drinking fountain. 
 
 In March, 1740, he was duly ordained, with a five 
 hundred pound settlement and a one hundred and 
 fifty pound salary. But the woeful tergiversation 
 of Cutler and Johnson had produced a wholesome
 
 MARK LEA VENWORTH. 201 
 
 distrust in men's minds, and he was required to give 
 a bond for five hundred pounds to be paid to the 
 society "if he should, within twenty years from 
 that time, become a churchman, or by immorality 
 or heresy render himself unfit for a gospel minis- 
 ter, to be decided by a council." Undoubtedly 
 the becoming a churchman was the thing to be 
 specially provided against, the other general forms 
 of misdemeanor being mainly added by way of 
 rhetorical balance. In about nine years, however, 
 whether they had ceased to care, or ceased to fear, 
 the society, apparently of their own motion, released 
 him from his bond. 
 
 Mr. Leavenworth had hardly become fairly set- 
 tled in his ministry when all his tact, judgment 
 and influence were put to the test. Dr. Bushnell 
 says that our early settlers came into the wilder- 
 ness to be tempted of the devil. And in the matter 
 of resistance they were not altogether successful. 
 There had been a great deterioration in morals, 
 and doubtless some lapses in religious doctrine; 
 but when, in 1740, the Rev. George Whitefield went 
 through the country speaking, in words such as 
 few men have the power to utter, of righteousness, 
 temperance, and a judgment to come, all New Eng- 
 land trembled, and the cry rose up, " What shall we 
 do to be saved ?" Young men like Mr. Leaven- 
 worth, with high hopes and earnest enthusiasm, 
 threw themselves into the movement, fully believ- 
 ing that it was the Lord's doing; while the older 
 and more conservative people of longer experience, 
 of whom Mr. Southmayd was a representative, saw 
 in it but a temporary wave of excitement, already 
 accompanied by some excesses, and doubted much 
 whereunto the thing would grow. Cries of heresy
 
 202 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 were in the air, the odium theologicum was aroused, 
 and in 1744 Mr. Leavenworth and two others, for 
 assisting at the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Lee of 
 Salisbury, who was supposed to be in sympathy 
 with the new movement, and whose church was 
 gathered under the Cambridge platform, were tried 
 and suspended from all associational communion. 
 It does not appear, however, that the relations of 
 Mr. Leavenworth to his people were very seriously 
 affected. And here again I suspect we see the 
 broad, kindly and judicious nature of Mr. South- 
 mayd, who, though not in sympathy with the new 
 movement, perhaps saw some good in it, and at 
 least knew how to make allowances for youthful 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 Mr. Leavenworth was evidently a man of broad 
 charity himself, and of a liberal and catholic spirit, 
 for in 1747 he declined that part of his salary which 
 was raised by tax on the Episcopal portion of the 
 inhabitants, although I suppose his legal right to it 
 was clear; but his sense of justice rebelled, and he 
 seems always to have had the courage of his con- 
 victions. 
 
 In 1749, a great and fatal sickness appeared in 
 the town. Dr. Eronson estimates the deaths at six 
 per cent, of the whole population. There were 
 hardly enough of the well to care for the sick and 
 bury the dead. There was difficulty in getting 
 medicine, and Mr. Leavenworth volunteered to go 
 on horseback to Norwich and procure a supply. 
 
 In 1750, after several years of enfeebled health, 
 the first Mrs. Leavenworth died, and not very long 
 after, he married Sarah, daughter of Captain Joseph 
 Hull of Derby. She was a person of much charac- 
 ter, dignity and influence. She was the mother of
 
 HARK LEAVENWORTH. 
 
 203 
 
 all his children except one. She survived him 
 several years, dying, as you will have seen by her 
 tombstone, in 1808. She was universally known as 
 Madam Leavenworth, a title which was perhaps 
 due to her position by the etiquette of the time, 
 but was due to her personality also, and perhaps in 
 part to her two wheeled chair or chaise the only 
 vehicle of the kind in town. 
 
 In 1754, Daniel Southmayd died. He was the 
 pride of Waterbury. A son of the Rev. John, a 
 graduate of Yale college, a young man of only 
 thirty-seven years of age he had filled almost 
 every position of honor, trust and profit in the gift 
 of his fellow townsmen. His death after a brief 
 illness was a cause of public mourning. Mr. Leav- 
 enworth improved the occasion by a sermon of such 
 power that the whole congregation were " dissolved 
 in tears." The sermon was printed and is still 
 extant; but the excitement, the personal element 
 and the sense of loss can not be reproduced; like 
 many another traditionary burst of eloquence, its 
 power can only be estimated from our knowledge 
 of its effect. 
 
 In 1760, when about fifty years old, he accepted 
 the position of chaplain in Colonel Whiting's regi- 
 ment, called into service to repel the attacks of 
 French and Indians on our northern frontier. He 
 was away from home on this service eight months. 
 Hollister says:* "The amount of fatigue endured 
 by the Connecticut troops was almost incredible." 
 Putnam was there as lieutenant-colonel, and where- 
 ever he went there was very apt to be fighting and 
 sure to be work. Mr. Leavenworth was appointed 
 
 * History of Connecticut, Vol. II., p. 97.
 
 204 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 chaplain again, the following year, but probably 
 felt that he was needed at home. 
 
 In 1772, he received that highest compliment to 
 a Connecticut clergyman of the time, the appoint- 
 ment to preach the election sermon. That also still 
 exists, in printed form, and doubtless compares 
 fairly, if not favorably, with the rest of the collec- 
 tion. I believe there has generally been but one 
 edition called for. 
 
 When the Revolutionary conflict came on, there 
 was no doubt where Mr. Leavenworth would be 
 found. He threw himself into it with all the 
 enthusiasm and energy of his nature. He prayed, 
 doubtless "straight from the shoulder," when it 
 became his duty to open the first town meeting on 
 the subject with prayer. He was early on the state 
 committee for raising troops. Were it not that he 
 was now well on in years, he would probably have 
 been found again at the front. Three of his sons 
 did go, one with Arnold on his first trip to Bos- 
 ton, another serving as surgeon during the whole 
 eight long, tedious years. All three were graduates 
 of Yale. But this part of Mr. Leavenworth's life, 
 so important to him, to his people and to his coun- 
 try, must be dismissed with few words. 
 
 In 1793, at the age of eighty-two, when the incon- 
 sistency of freedom and slavery began to impress 
 itself on the public mind, we find his name on the 
 list of the new " Society for the Promotion of Free- 
 dom," a fact showing again his ready sympathy 
 with new ideas whenever their tendency was to the 
 uplifting of humanity, and his promptness to act in 
 the line of his convictions. 
 
 The last prominent public act of his life was 
 when in 1795, at the age of eighty-four, he laid the
 
 MARK LEAVENWORTH. 205 
 
 corner stone of a new meeting house for his people, 
 the third erected by the old society. This stone, 
 which was at the north-west corner, bore upon its 
 west side in conspicuous letters, his initials, M. L., 
 and the date, 1795. When the meeting house was 
 removed, in 1835, to the site now occupied by the 
 Second Congregational church, the stone was pre- 
 served and placed in the south-west corner. When 
 the building was again moved, to the rear, the 
 stone disappeared. There is a brown stone in the 
 foundation of the Second church on the south side, 
 not far back, which is perhaps the missing one; and 
 when the Second society builds its new church, 
 and the present edifice is removed, I hope the 
 stone may be found and presented to this society 
 to be preserved with its relics. 
 
 Mr. Leavenworth is described to us as a man of 
 medium size, erect figure and quick movement. He 
 had much dignity of manner, but a quick sense of 
 humor and was on terms of familiarity with his 
 people, though the distance which in those days 
 existed between the minister and his flock was 
 doubtless duly maintained. Dr. Bronson has pre- 
 served several anecdotes illustrating these traits in 
 his character, but I must not stop to repeat them 
 here.* 
 
 On August 26th, 1797, in the eighty-sixth year of 
 his age and the fifty-eighth of his ministry, he 
 closed his long career, having publicly officiated 
 only a short time before his death. 
 
 The life of a New England country minister, 
 however busy, useful and influential it may be, 
 leaves behind but a meagre record for historic uses, 
 and it is only by detached facts accidentally pre- 
 
 * Bronson's History of Waterbury, pp. 289-290.
 
 206 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 served, that we are able to reproduce, to any 
 degree, the times in which he lived and his influ- 
 ence upon them. We have enough to show that 
 Mr. Leaven worth was a man of affairs, that he 
 took an active interest in everything relating to 
 the public welfare. That he was a good business 
 manager appears from the fact that he lived in a 
 hospitable and somewhat elegant manner, and sent 
 three of his sons to college. He also became a 
 large landholder, in the days when land was the 
 principal source of wealth. That he was always 
 right, or always wise, or even always good, we 
 know too much of human nature to believe or even 
 to imagine; but, whatever his shortcomings may 
 have been, their proportion was so small that time 
 and the mantle of charity have hidden them from 
 us. 
 
 The two published sermons which have come 
 down to us, both prepared for special occasions, 
 and well received at the time, though good, can 
 hardly be called great. A much more vivid notion 
 of his pulpit power is given us in the recollection 
 of the late Dr. Samuel Elton, who remembered the 
 impression made upon him as a boy, when Mr. 
 Leavenworth, then certainly not less than eighty 
 years of age, preached in Watertown. He remem- 
 bered him as a man of medium height, of erect 
 figure, bright, dark eyes, and a commanding voice. 
 He stood for a moment in the pulpit, looking 
 around upon his congregation, and then announced 
 his text: "The fathers, where are they? and the 
 prophets, do they live forever ? " His theme was, 
 the changes that had taken place in that congrega- 
 tion within his own memory, and the impression
 
 MARK LEAVENWORTH. 207 
 
 he produced upon his youthful hearer remained 
 vivid and profound after seventy years. 
 
 It is said that he was a favorite teacher, and 
 attracted here many young men. They must have 
 been advanced students, as I know of no evidence 
 of his having had anything like a school.* But we 
 can easily see that in his superior scholarship, his 
 prompt and decided ways, his sense of humor, his 
 breezy companionship, and his ready sympathy 
 with all that was truest and best, he possessed 
 those rarest gifts which make one a teacher of 
 young men. 
 
 The long period of Mr. Leavenworth's ministry 
 was one of upheaval and excitement. First came 
 the "great awakening," and soon afterward the 
 seven years' struggle of the French and Indian 
 war; and this had hardly closed when the conflict 
 began with the British government, which ended 
 in the war of the Revolution, when neighbor was 
 set against neighbor and friend against friend. A 
 large part of the Episcopal society, which had now 
 grown to be quite strong, sided with the mother 
 country, and the town was almost equally divided 
 in opinion. But there were sensible men in both 
 societies; the division was not wholly on religious 
 lines, and Mr. Scovil, the Episcopal clergyman, was 
 an own cousin of the first Mrs. Leavenworth a 
 fact which perhaps had an ameliorating influence 
 extending beyond their own families. There was 
 
 * General Elias W. Leavenworth (in the " Leavenworth Genealogy," p. 54 ) says: 
 "Joshua Perry graduated at Yale in the class of 1775; studied theology with his 
 uncle Mark Leavenworth, of Waterbury, who often had a large number of young 
 men with him preparing for the ministry Dr. Brace informs me that sometimes 
 there were fifteen or twenty." The Dr. Brace referred to is David Brace of Syra- 
 cuse, N. Y., a grandson of the Rev. Joshua Perry, and a townsman of General 
 Leavenworth.
 
 2o8 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 dissension, friction, and doubtless much hard talk- 
 ing, but on the whole, things went quite as peace- 
 fully as could have been expected. After the Revo- 
 lution came the perhaps still more trying period 
 of almost anarchy, so that nothing was settled or 
 sure until after the adoption of the constitution 
 and the inauguration of Washington as first presi- 
 dent, in 1789. 
 
 What a half century for a man to have lived 
 through ! and what an experience to have carried 
 the burden of responsibility for the religious, moral, 
 social, secular and political welfare and training of 
 two or three generations, in such a time of turmoil 
 and unrest! Doubtless such periods develop men 
 of courage and of action. They are not favorable 
 to the growth of churches. A cynic might perhaps 
 say that the times which develop the best men 
 make the poorest Christians. It would not be true, 
 but it would be one of those rather mean half- 
 truths which are more perplexing than pleasant. 
 To have successfully carried a church and a town 
 through such a period and maintained the love and 
 respect of the people implies a character and an 
 ability well worthy of our admiration and our praise. 
 
 An obituary notice of Mr. Leavenworth, pub- 
 lished at the time of his death, closes with these 
 apparently just and well considered words: 
 
 To the endearing qualities of a kind and affectionate hus- 
 band and parent were very apparently united in this reverend 
 father that piety towards God, that diffusive benevolence 
 toward men, that undisguised frankness and dignity of deport- 
 ment, that persevering faithfulness in office, that unshaken 
 trust in the merits of the Saviour, that heavenly -mindedness 
 and calm converse with death, which abundantly evidenced to 
 all his acquaintance the child of God and the heir of heaven.
 
 THE REV. DR. ELLIOT'S ADDRESS. 
 
 209 
 
 ADDRESS BY THE REV. H. B. ELLIOT, D. D. 
 
 I have noticed that those who spoke this fore- 
 noon are mentioned on the programme as repre- 
 senting certain bodies from which they came, and 
 as bringing therefore delegated greetings. It is 
 not my privilege to represent anybody but myself, 
 and I therefore bring no greetings except my own, 
 which I bring most heartily on this occasion. I 
 was grievously disappointed that I could not be 
 present from the beginning of the exercises, to fill 
 my mind and heart from the fulness of the stream, 
 rather than to catch some of the rivulets. I can 
 bring to you, with my greetings this afternoon, no 
 prepared address, but must speak almost im- 
 promptu, and from the heart rather than the head. 
 My mind has been so occupied during the last few 
 days with things of the present that I have had no 
 opportunity to gather up thoughts concerning the 
 past. I have been dwelling, as was said this morn- 
 ing, amid the scenes of a heresy trial. The words 
 " General Assembly," in the paper prepared by 
 Miss Prichard, which was read this afternoon, 
 sounded singularly familiar to me as words that 
 have been heard over and over again during the 
 last few days, and that have been lingering in my 
 mind during the wakeful hours of last night's 
 weariness. But it was a different " assembly" from 
 that to which the writer referred, for my mind 
 reverted to the New York Presbytery and the trial 
 scenes of the day. And I wish to say in this con- 
 nection that while I have not the slightest sym- 
 pathy with the vagaries (for so they have seemed
 
 2 io EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 to me) which have issued from New York as a 
 centre during the past few years and especially the 
 past few months, nevertheless I do not dread such 
 occurrences so much as many might. The moral 
 atmosphere needs clearing up occasionally. I 
 have confidence that the light thrown upon old 
 truths by the progress of divine inspiration in 
 the present an inspiration differing from that 
 of the Scriptures in degree and in quality but 
 not in its source, coming from the Holy Ghost 
 into true hearts that this will encourage those 
 why are yet to come to make still further progress 
 in the knowledge of that truth the essential features 
 of which constitute the faith delivered once for all 
 to the saints ; and I shall gladly walk in the middle 
 way of intelligent and devout confidence in the 
 word of our God which abideth forever, which is 
 preached to you in the gospel as it was proclaimed 
 two hundred years ago, here in Waterbury, and has 
 been ever since. 
 
 Now, my memory and my associations are not 
 with this long past of which you have been hear- 
 ing, nor with the children of the mother repre- 
 sented here in these tablets upon the walls, but 
 they are with the present organization, with the 
 generation'that has not altogether passed away, and 
 with those who are still among the happy and 
 useful living. It is only a quarter of the period 
 you are celebrating, almost but not quite a quarter, 
 which my knowledge of this place covers. It is 
 nearly fifty years since I came to this place, and 
 was regarded as a boy preacher. A lady said to me 
 this afternoon, " When you came here you found a 
 great many friends, and when you left here you
 
 THE REV. DR. ELLIOTS ADDRESS. 211 
 
 still had those friends." If my memory serves me 
 rightly, I can assent to that without reserve; I can 
 say with truth that I left behind me none but 
 friends. It was the happiest period of my Chris- 
 tian and ministerial life. In responding to Dr. 
 Anderson's invitation to visit you, I said that there 
 was no place in my memory so dear to me as 
 Waterbury. I cannot think of it, much less speak 
 of it, without being so moved that my utterance 
 becomes almost indistinct. So warmly, so gently, 
 with so kind appreciation of my limited powers, 
 undeveloped yet, and with so large a hospitality, 
 did they entertain me during the few years that 
 I and my household were here a hospitality 
 poured out lavishly on me and mine that it was 
 to me a wonderful expression of the grace of God 
 in the people and the grace of God to me personally. 
 The years were few, but they were full of spiritual 
 interest. I cannot but recollect that many who are 
 here to-day in the fulness of years and usefulness, 
 stood up in their youth, together or singly, to mani- 
 fest their acceptance of Christ under my ministry. 
 As I have visited here at different times, one and 
 another has come to me with some grown-up girl 
 or boy, or some newly married couple, and said, 
 " Do you not remember these ? These are my chil- 
 dren whom you baptized in childhood," or, "whom 
 you admitted to the church." You can well con- 
 ceive, then, that my thoughts, taking hold upon 
 what is to me a remote and yet a near past, are 
 filled with satisfaction as I greet you to-day. 
 
 I remember so well those who were officers in the 
 church at that period; indeed, I could not possibly 
 forget them. They were more than my supporters
 
 2i 2 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 in my ministry. They were themselves the respon- 
 sible workers, under whom and with whose con- 
 stant counsel I labored. They were men of mark, 
 modest but faithful workers, wise and earnest. 
 Some of them were good looking men, and others 
 not so good looking. Some were of ordinary man- 
 ner and others of eccentric manner, but their pray- 
 ers still sound in my memory and in my heart, 
 prayers offered in the lower room, where, gloomy 
 as it was, and oftentimes damp and disagreeable, 
 we yet gathered with an unfailing interest. Their 
 prayers lifted us above all thought of their appear- 
 ance and their manners. They gathered around 
 the young preacher, eager not for him but for his 
 Master, and together we watched the progress of 
 affairs, together we prayed for souls. There were 
 times of special religious interest, when we were 
 aided by other ministers; and there were times 
 when, after such aid, the work of the Spirit of God 
 was visible through several months, and, as the 
 result, an ingathering of fruit. No ingathering so 
 extensive as those mentioned here as taking place 
 in the early history of the church, none so exten- 
 sive as some that have marked the church at times 
 since, but all of them seasons in which (I think I 
 can say it with truth) the conversions were such as 
 stand the test of time. And so we walked together 
 until weariness of the flesh, and the outcropping of 
 a disease, the beginning of which had been sup- 
 pressed, as I hoped, before I came, brought an end 
 to my ministry. 
 
 I recollect (and must be pardoned again if I men- 
 tion it, for I speak not with forethought, but on 
 the impulse of the moment) I recollect the meet-
 
 THE REV. DR. ELLIOT'S ADDRESS. 
 
 213 
 
 ing in the room below, to receive the paper which 
 I had sent to the society, asking to be released. (I 
 had already sent one to the church, the other I sent 
 according to due order to the society.) I recollect 
 how Greene Kendrick rose and said, " That paper 
 must be meant for me, for as I look around me I 
 observe that I am the only member of the society 
 present who is not a member of the church. I take 
 that paper to myself therefore, and I have this to 
 say, that while Mr. Elliot and I have differed on a 
 great many points, there has never been a harsh 
 word or an unkind thought between us." And so 
 we parted, compelled, as I think, by the providence 
 of God, and not driven away, as alas! too many 
 ministers have been driven, by dissensions and 
 oppositions, with bitterness of spirit on either side. 
 I thank God frequently, as I recall these scenes, 
 and I thank God again to-day, that I can thus 
 speak, not for my own sake merely or chiefly, but 
 for the sake of the people and for the honor of 
 Christ in them. It was not I, my dear friends, but 
 your predecessors and those that still remain who 
 were then included in the First church; it is to 
 you I must give the credit of those years of har- 
 mony and spiritual life. May God bless you for it, 
 as he has blessed and rewarded those from among 
 your number who have gone up on high. 
 
 And now, can I in a few words add anything that 
 shall not be personal either to myself or to you, 
 but shall have a more general bearing upon such 
 an occasion as this ? 
 
 I have just been reading a singular book, a book 
 not without faults and yet with no little power, 
 entitled, " The Strange Adventures of Phra the Phoeni-
 
 2 1 4 EARL T AND LA TEE PASTORS. 
 
 dan" by Edwin Arnold, the son of Sir Edwin 
 Arnold, the well known poet and critic who is now 
 upon our shores. It relates the adventures of a 
 Phoenician merchant, a man of mighty physical 
 prowess and of great mental capacity, who, long, 
 long ago, entered upon a strange life, or rather, a 
 series of lives; landing upon the shores of Britain 
 in the time of the Druids, marrying the queen of 
 the country, engaging actively in the events of the 
 period, dying apparently under the Druids' sacred 
 axe, but reviving four or five hundred years after- 
 ward at the time of the Roman invasion; mingling 
 again in the scenes of that age, and again passing 
 into unconsciousness; reviving in the time of the 
 Normans, to die apparently and to live again in 
 the time of Edward the Third; and yet again in 
 the time of Elizabeth, in which time he writes his 
 history, and his long career really ends. It is a 
 series of lives in one life. Glimpses which are 
 extremely vivid are given of British history dur- 
 ing all that period, and through it all moves the 
 spirit of Phra's first bride, who occasionally reap- 
 pears to him and has spiritual converse with him. 
 When he speaks to her of the time that is past, she 
 says, " What is that word ? I do not remember it. 
 Time? Oh! I recollect; but to us these are epi- 
 sodes; when we passed away we left behind us our 
 hour-glasses and our calendars. It is time no more 
 in the spirit land." 
 
 And so, as we have been reviewing the two hun- 
 dred years of this church's existence a period in 
 which no one life has lived on, but in which the 
 life of the church under its ever living Master has 
 been perpetuated, reappearing in successive gene-
 
 THE REV. DR. BUSHNELL'S ADDRESS. 215 
 
 rations and in the various scenes of Christian activ- 
 ity and Christian conquest I have thought to my- 
 self, We have had glimpses of an age vital in its influ- 
 ence upon Christ's kingdom as represented here to- 
 day; and although not yet in the spirit world we can 
 feel that this long age is after all but an episode in 
 the great cycles of eternity. We shall stand by and 
 by where our hour-glasses and our calendars have no 
 place. We shall stand there to review the scenes 
 which, although not marked in their regular succes- 
 sion as they are in earthly histories, are surely mark- 
 ed in their importance and in their pre-eminent sig- 
 nificance as connected with the kingdom of Christ. 
 Oh that we, and they who have passed on before us 
 into the great " general assembly " of the church 
 made perfect beyond these scenes, may, as we come 
 to that review, feel and say from the heart, " Not 
 unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name 
 give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake." 
 
 ADDRESS BY REV. GEO. BUSHNELL, D. D. 
 
 It is entirely contrary to my judgment that I 
 should stand up here to prolong these services. I 
 think we have had about all we can carry away. It 
 has been rich and delightful; it has warmed my 
 heart not only toward the Waterbury of to-day, but 
 toward the future of this place, and of other places 
 of which this may be taken as a type. 
 
 I ought perhaps to say that I have discovered 
 something that I did not know before in the char- 
 acter of your honored pastor. I have looked upon
 
 2 i6 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 him always as a master of thought, and my errand 
 in Waterbury was to hear his historical address. 
 But I find that he is a master of men, as well. Last 
 Friday, I received a note from him, informing me 
 of this meeting, and giving me an outline of the 
 programme. I told him in my reply that I was glad 
 there was so little room for me, that I should be 
 most happy to come here and enjoy this occasion, 
 and that if my friends desired to see my face and 
 hear my voice I could offer the concluding prayer, 
 and that would perhaps be enough in view of the 
 full programme marked out. What was my sur- 
 prise, on coming here yesterday, to see that I was 
 announced for an address ! But I have yielded to 
 his requirement; I have come, as we obey the great 
 elemental forces of society. 
 
 I was not aware that this was a " mother church" 
 to such an extent as it seems to be. I judge from 
 the indications on these walls that this bishopric is 
 about the biggest we have in the Congregational 
 field, and I am glad that the churches included in 
 it have such a splendid report to present. We think 
 of these outside churches in New England as dry- 
 ing up; we think of them as places of little conse- 
 quence; but I am sure that no one can have heard 
 the addresses presented here by these churches to- 
 day without being convinced that that is an entire 
 misapprehension. These churches have been and 
 are sources of intelligence and power to the coun- 
 try, and the work done by their pastors is worth 
 com memorating. 
 
 In this connection let me say that I expect great 
 things from the historic spirit which seems to have 
 broken out here. I have always thought of Water-
 
 THE REV. DR. BUSHNELL'S ADDRESS. 217 
 
 bury as a busy hive of industry; I have thought 
 of it in connection with sounding brass rather than 
 with that sort of delightful scholarship which goes 
 back to the origin of things, apprehends them, sets 
 them in a clear and impressive light, and enables 
 us to understand what we have, and what we may 
 expect to be. This matter of history is beginning 
 to engage the attention of the bright men of the 
 country; and what materials of interest we have ! 
 Take this case, the origin, so distinctly visible, 
 of the sons of men and women who came here to 
 make a plantation, persons whose names are 
 known and whose characters can be traced. Our 
 history does not run back into mythology or into 
 tradition; it is a clear spring from the ground, 
 which we can follow until it reaches the affluent 
 ocean. If we will only be patient, there is going to 
 be a great deal of surveying of beginnings, and 
 there will come out of it a vast amount of courage 
 and strength for our people. If we knew what was 
 proper for us here, and what God was giving us for 
 the future, we should feel that we had a heritage 
 which we ought ever to hold in highest honor, and 
 whose lessons we should most patiently and faith- 
 fully learn. 
 
 One of the impressions made on my mind by 
 these services is that in this country we have to 
 depend largely, for the promotion of religion and 
 of good government among our people, on processes 
 of training. What we have seen illustrated in this 
 history is the influence which came from the 
 original settlers, and which has been growing as 
 families have multiplied and children have been 
 born unto them, and the associations of the place
 
 2i8 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 have been gathering about them. We have seen 
 that in the turbulent times of the church, in times 
 of great excitement, there was a shrinking back on 
 the part of a large proportion of our people per- 
 haps our wisest and best people from such meas- 
 ures as some were adopting and such results as they 
 thought were being secured. I do not think that is 
 altogether wise. I think we ought not to be afraid 
 of a little excitement. It is better that the church 
 should be aroused, and the whole community 
 stirred, even if there should be some unpleasant 
 consequences, than that men should slumber on 
 undisturbed. But I say (with the approval, I doubt 
 not, of your judgment, and I think in harmony 
 with our principles and our system) that after all 
 we are to depend chiefly upon those influences 
 which we denominate training. We have all found 
 out, I suppose, where we received the best impulses 
 of our lives. It was not from books; it was not 
 from any great occasion; it was from that faithful 
 influence which began to flow around us in our first 
 conscious moments. It was this that stimulated 
 and guided us and made us wise; if there is any- 
 thing good in us, it came out of that faithful process. 
 Well, then, look ahead ! If we are going to have 
 training in religion, it is coming from two books, 
 which are ultimately one book; we are to be 
 trained by the stress and force of the truths and 
 influences which originate from the two revelations 
 of God. We are to be taught and trained, and our 
 children and all our people. And it would seem 
 that the Old Testament has something to do with 
 this thing; for here is the origin of Christianity. 
 Christianity did not spring immediately out of the
 
 THE REV. DR. B USHNELL'S ADDRESS. 219 
 
 ground; it is the outgrowth of a previous system; 
 and the thing for us to aim at is, first of all, to 
 grasp the system of truth which in the ancient 
 favored nation bore such fruit and so wonderfully 
 prepared the way of the Lord, and to use this in 
 the training of our people, our legislators and our 
 families and our churches. We must therefore be 
 careful not to cast discredit on the Old Testament. 
 Nor do we need to. In order to satisfy problems 
 which have arisen, we need not believe that the 
 revelation of the law of God was made at the end 
 of the history of the Jewish people, or somewhere 
 after the Babylonian captivity, instead of at the 
 beginning. I understand very well that moral law 
 involves, more or less, an antecedent growth, and 
 that there were applications of the law given by 
 Moses which were developed in after ages; but I 
 have not yet seen any reason for putting the giving 
 of the Mosaic law forward to the time of the Baby- 
 lonian captivity. When do you form laws and con- 
 stitutions for a people ? Is it not at the beginning ? 
 Admitting that a growth occurs occasionally, there 
 is something which enters in at that critical stage 
 when God has the people most in his power, that 
 stamps the character and rules the life. Grant that 
 in Jewish history there were developments after- 
 wards; they may have been of the nature of con- 
 cessions, the gracious feeling of God towards men 
 in their weakness and sin. I do not think we ought 
 to settle down to the idea that we can turn history 
 end for end. How would it look, to turn your his- 
 tory end for end ? How could we conceive of it ? 
 What would it amount to? No; we want the law 
 of God for the training of our people. You and I
 
 220 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 needed it in our early life; we had it, and it was 
 good for us. You train a child aright, not when 
 you enforce your own wishes upon him, but when 
 you interpret for him the principles of eternal 
 right, and get his young mind to accept them. And 
 the training, as a process of any urgency, ceases 
 when the child has come to accept these principles, 
 and to live them, and to govern himself by them. 
 He now issues from the family a self -governed 
 member of the church, and a self-governed mem- 
 ber of a free state. So, we cannot afford to throw 
 away the idea that ethical teaching, moral train- 
 ing, must enter into the beginnings of life and the 
 origin of communities, and must run through his- 
 tory alongside of the other dispensation, that of 
 the gospel of Christ. 
 
 A word, now, which I think has come to us while 
 we have been here, in regard to that gospel of 
 Christ. We all understand that a great change has 
 come over the preaching and thinking of the 
 church in these days. Dogmatic preaching is not 
 relished; nobody cares to preach very much in that 
 way; and it is because we have discovered that we 
 do not know half as much as we thought we did, 
 and that when you put truths into propositional 
 forms you do not add to their force, you take it 
 away. We have come to understand that the gos- 
 pel of Jesus Christ is if I may so say a law of 
 spiritual life, a principle of spiritual life; no, not a 
 law, not a principle, but a living source of everlast- 
 ing life to men. That is what gives dignity and 
 beauty and power to the gospel. Now, we accept 
 it; all our thinkers accept this idea; but are we 
 making it practical, first, in our own life and the
 
 THE REV. DR. B USHNELL'S ADDRESS. 221 
 
 life of the church, in the training of the church, 
 in the preaching of the church ? Is it all keyed to 
 this new conception of the gospel as a divine, spir- 
 itual life, emanating from God, flowing over and 
 uniting all mankind in the family of God ? I think 
 we have a great deal yet to do in regard to this 
 application of the gospel. It is not enough to say 
 a man repents; we want a repentance that is unto 
 life and flows on with a deepening and extending 
 and ever refreshing spiritual power; and the ques- 
 tion is, how to secure it ? That is the problem 
 before the church, and on this historical occasion 
 it is well to look at it. I believe that the prospects 
 of this congregation and this church, of this town 
 and the churches here represented, for the next 
 few years will depend upon the ability and the 
 faithfulness with which we apply the gospel as a 
 source of life to men. If we fail in this, it will be 
 a bad failure. 
 
 I am talking too much; but it has struck me with 
 great power since I have been here, that in build- 
 ing up churches and in building up communities 
 very much depends upon sympathy. When I was 
 a boy in college, I had occasion, on a snowy day in 
 winter, to pass through Waterbury on foot. When 
 I reached here I was too tired to go farther, and 
 was ill withal; so I endeavored to find my way to 
 some tavern or place of public entertainment. I 
 found one, but they could not receive me; and I 
 do not know that I cared very much, for it didn't 
 look inviting. But as I was talking the matter 
 over, one of your citizens overheard me. Seeing 
 that I was in a strait, he took me to his home, 
 kindly cared for me, nursed me in a little sickness
 
 222 EARLY AND LATER PASTORS. 
 
 which followed, and then sent me on my way. And 
 from that hour I always had a kind heart towards 
 Waterbury. And so, to-day and yesterday, the 
 impressions which have been liveliest in me have 
 been those that came from looking in the faces of 
 some of my old friends. No words can explain it 
 to you; you cannot understand what the feeling is 
 until it springs up within you; and it springs up 
 quickly enough if you can look into the living eye 
 and face of a friend. 
 
 Well, now, this old church has been going on its 
 way, and I know a little something about it. I was 
 pastor here some six years, and it wasn't the pleas- 
 antest part of my life either; for we were in the 
 turmoil and throes of civil war, and there was war 
 right through this church. It was not violent; 
 nobody was hurt; but it was war all the time. 
 There was no sympathy; there was a want of 
 homogeneity in the congregation, there were dis- 
 cords stirred up by great events. Your young 
 daughter, over the way, started under very different 
 auspices. In that church there was homogeneity. 
 The young men who came forward and subscribed 
 to the fund for establishing that church signed, I 
 suppose, for freedom and for peace and for a better 
 chance; and they probably got it. But the fact I 
 want to impress upon your minds is the astonish- 
 ing growth of that church, on this great principle 
 of human sympathy. You must warm a congrega- 
 tion into one spirit, if you are going to do very 
 much with it. When there is sympathy run- 
 ning from heart to heart and eye to eye, it is an 
 easy matter to preach. Then, words tell, and 
 prayer is a delightful and iiplifting exercise.
 
 THE REV. DR. BUSHNELL'S ADDRESS. 223 
 
 There is such a tremendous waste in the conflicts 
 of churches that we ought by all means to guard 
 against them, remembering that a church is but a 
 household on a larger scale, and that if there be 
 any opposition in the household there is no com- 
 fort nor power; the real object for which it exists 
 is sacrificed. 
 
 Let us, then, take home to our hearts from this 
 beautiful anniversary the thought that the gospel 
 has in itself an inexhaustible power for moving 
 the minds and hearts of men, for toning up 
 society, for bringing the most diverse materials 
 into accord and sympathy with one another; and 
 let us apply that gospel, let us make it the study of 
 our lives to develop it, and so to instruct the peo- 
 ple of God. 
 
 In conclusion, I offer my congratulations to this 
 beloved pastor and his flock, on the success of this 
 anniversary. I am sure it has been delightful to 
 you all, and is destined to bear great fruit.
 
 V. 
 
 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATU- 
 LATION.
 
 ADDRESS BY THE REV. J. L. R. WYCKOFF, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE NORTH CHURCH IN WOODBURY. 
 
 As an observer of these interesting exercises 
 during the past two days, and standing just a little 
 outside of the circle of churches that have been 
 specially represented here, there are one or two 
 things that I should be glad to say before I begin. 
 
 The last speaker of the afternoon, Dr. Bushnell, 
 gave Dr. Anderson a new title and called him a 
 " master of men." I should be glad, and I am sure 
 it would meet with your hearty approbation, to give 
 him an additional title, that of " master of ceremo- 
 nies," particularly of bi-centennial ceremonies. He 
 certainly is to be congratulated, for he seems to have 
 been in league with the clouds, and so has secured 
 bright and propitious weather, and he is further to 
 be congratulated, in that he has been permitted to 
 say, speaking in the name of his church, " Here 
 am I, and all these children whom thou hast given 
 me." It seems to me a very unusual thing that 
 exercises of this sort, involving a participation on 
 the part of so many, should have been carried for- 
 ward without his being compelled to apologize for 
 a single absentee. And in all these extended exer- 
 cises there has not been a single dissonant note 
 either from the great organ above us or from any 
 lesser " organ " on the platform. 
 
 But the interesting exercises which are to follow 
 admonish me that I must be brief. There is time 
 simply to present to you the Christian salutations 
 of the venerable and historic town and churches
 
 22 8 REMINISCENCE AND CONOR A TULA TION. 
 
 which I have been invited to represent, and to con- 
 gratulate you upon your past successes and your 
 bright outlook. That past you can grasp securely 
 in your memory, as a priceless treasure, and your 
 future, as some one has humorously said, is all 
 before you. 
 
 Sunday before last, the church of which I am 
 pastor celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of 
 its organization, and the twentieth of my ministry 
 to it. As I thought of those seventy-five years of 
 church life, it made me feel quite venerable. 
 Seventy-five years of church life ! how much that 
 means of struggle, prayers and service ! How far 
 reaching the results! But when I think of this 
 church, with its two hundred years of life behind 
 it, it makes my church seem quite youthful. Two 
 hundred years of church life! How much more that 
 means of faith, self-sacrifice and success ! 
 
 It is not an easy matter, except in a general way, 
 to indicate the value of a church like this to the 
 community in which it is placed. I have been 
 thinking, as these interesting commemorative 
 services have been progressing, of the value of this 
 old church, first, to the industries of this city. 
 
 There are some men, immersed in the affairs of 
 the world, who seem to think a church does not 
 amount to much. To them, the only valuable things 
 are those that can be weighed and measured. The 
 busy factory, with its daily out-put of manufactured 
 goods, is to them the symbol of utility. It is not an 
 easy matter to make an inventory of the total out- 
 put of a Christian church through a period of two 
 hundred years. The merchant, the manufacturer 
 can turn to his shelves or his wareroom, and there
 
 THE REV. MR. WTCKOFF'S ADDRESS. 229 
 
 he finds the physical products. He can put down 
 their value, foot up the column, and get the grand 
 total. The results of church life are too subtle to 
 be caught by the pen and transferred to paper. If 
 you look at this stately and comely edifice, at the 
 church roll, or the assembled congregation, these 
 represent only a part, and by far the least import- 
 ant part, of her work. Her work is chiefly spirit- 
 ual, and yet she indirectly determines the style of 
 architecture for your homes and places of busi- 
 ness. It would be difficult to discover one single 
 worthy enterprise in which the helpful influence 
 of the church is not felt. - Your public and indus- 
 trial schools, your cemetery, monuments, library, 
 and all your humane and philanthropic institu- 
 tions could not have had an existence without her 
 friendly aid. Your industries would not have been 
 so prosperous without her. Her elevating and 
 inspiring touch has been felt in all the avenues 
 of your busy life. 
 
 It is not enough, to say that religion does not 
 disqualify a man for business. It is the crown of all 
 his other virtues. It gives cunning to the hand, 
 clearness to the vision, and strength to the judg- 
 ment. The church has been the promoter of har- 
 mony between the capitalist and the laborer. Uncon- 
 sciously your Christian influence has pulsed itself in 
 every artery and vein of your bounding activities. 
 It is the Christian spirit of so many of your 
 leading business men that has given so enviable a 
 name to your industries, preserved their harmo- 
 ny and led to their wonderful success. 
 
 I have also been reminded of what the church has 
 done, secondly, for the moral character of your city.
 
 230 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATULATION. 
 
 Waterbury is very far from being perfect. If she 
 had attained unto perfection, then might this ven- 
 erable church say, with good old Simeon, " Lord, 
 now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for 
 mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Nevertheless 
 in excellent morals and manners your beautiful city 
 is unsurpassed. Without the church it would have 
 been a very Sodom. These churches have been" and 
 still are as salt which has not lost its savor. A force 
 more potent than your mayor, council and police 
 has been among you, unrecognized by many, and 
 yet it has been the promoter of law and order, 
 has given you a wide . reputation for peace and 
 quiet; and that force has been exerted largely 
 through the church. Remove these churches and 
 all that they stand for, and very soon you would 
 lapse into barbarism. 
 
 I have been thinking, too, in the third place, of 
 the grand total and the wide and beneficent results 
 of your benevolent contributions through all these years. 
 
 While you have derived benefits for yourselves 
 from this church, you have not forgotten to do 
 good and to communicate to others. The rich 
 clusters that have fallen from this goodly vine 
 have strengthened and cheered many other lives. 
 By giving your life, you have found it richer 
 and larger. Many a desert place has been made 
 to bloom and smile through your generous bene- 
 factions. You have found it (as these children 
 have come back to you and their heroic struggles 
 and successes have been rehearsed) " more blessed 
 to give than to receive." 
 
 I have been thinking, once more, that it must be a 
 delightful thought for you to cherish the thought
 
 THE REV. MR. WTCKOFF'S ADDRESS. 231 
 
 of that long line of saints that this church has been 
 the means of preparing- for their reward and rest. 
 As you call to remembrance the former days, you 
 cannot but think of those " who through faith and 
 patience have inherited the promises." The grim 
 messenger has come to all your homes through 
 these years. It would be pleasant for you to go 
 over that long list and (as you called their names) 
 speak of their prayers, patience and purpose 
 their many virtues and their eminent services. This 
 church has been to them the house of bread as the 
 shelter of a rock in a desert land as the springs 
 and palms of Elim to their thirsty and weary souls. 
 
 Thus, under God, she has been the means of con- 
 serving every interest among you that was worth 
 conserving. 
 
 In view then of your magnificent history, and 
 because you have so faithfully kept the faith and 
 delivered it to the saints, I bring to you, to-night, 
 the fraternal greetings of ancient Woodbury, a 
 town that was settled before yours, and for many 
 years more important than any in all this region 
 
 In the early days it was an active centre of trade. 
 Farming was the elect and prosperous occupation. 
 Had we known of the present decadence of the 
 country village had we known that manufacturing 
 was to be the foundation of future greatness, and 
 that the railways were to follow the water courses, 
 we should have moved our town over into this 
 beautiful valley. Somewhere in the race you have 
 passed us, and we* have been compelled to con- 
 tribute to your splendid and prosperous life. But 
 we do not envy you your greatness and prosperity; 
 we rejoice in it.
 
 232 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATULATION. 
 
 Our blood is in your veins. A constant stream of 
 helpful and stimulating influences has been flowing 
 into your life to deepen and broaden the tide of 
 your prosperity. Our produce has come to your 
 markets; we have fed you with milk, and should be 
 glad to feed you with meat, did not Chicago forbid. 
 As we come down into this valley to trade with 
 your merchants and manufacturers, we say to our- 
 selves, with pride, This is the great and mighty 
 Babylon which we have helped to build! 
 
 I also bring to you the Christian salutations of our 
 churches of the same order one of which is older 
 than yours. Twenty-one years ago she celebrated 
 her two hundredth anniversary; so you see we had 
 reached our majority before you were born. Our 
 churches, like our town, have contributed to your 
 marvellous development. 
 
 During my ministry of twenty years in Wood- 
 bury, thirty-five young men have gone from my 
 parish to seek employment in your city, most of 
 whom have come to you fortified with Christian 
 principle. My church has furnished to your daugh- 
 ter, here, two men who " have served well as 
 deacons," and "gained to themselves a good stand- 
 ing and great boldness in the faith which is in 
 Christ Jesus." Of not a few on the roll of this 
 church it is their proud distinction that they were 
 born in Woodbury. Our loss has been your gain. 
 
 As the representative of ancient Woodbury and 
 her two churches, mother and daughter, dwelling 
 together in Christian concord, I ask you to accept 
 our Christian salutations and congratulations. We, 
 too, have a deep interest in your history; we prize 
 your fellowship, and we pray for your prosperity
 
 THE REV. MR. ZELIE'S ADDRESS. 233 
 
 and peace. May the streams that flow from the 
 springs among the hills continue to make glad this 
 Zion, and may it become as the garden of the Lord. 
 
 The Master whom you have served so loyally in 
 the past has bidden you pause, for a little, and call 
 to remembrance the former days, but his command 
 to you to-night is, Arise and go forward to new con- 
 flicts and still grander victories. And his promise 
 is, " Lo I am with you alway, even to the end of the 
 days." 
 
 The true and grand idea of a church is a society 
 for the purpose of making men and women Christ- 
 like earth like heaven the kingdoms of the world 
 like the kingdom of God ! 
 
 May you understand your mission, and perform 
 it! 
 
 ADDRESS BY THE REV. J. S. ZELIE, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH IN PLYMOUTH. 
 
 There seems to be in these anniversary times 
 just a little of what strikes us as a sigh of relief. 
 Those who go to school look upon the drudgery 
 days as in a special sense the property of their 
 teachers, and the anniversary days as their own; 
 and though they allow their teachers to be present, 
 the anniversary day is chiefly an assertion of them- 
 selves. Do we not find hidden away in our con- 
 sciousness, at this time and at all such times, a 
 little of the elation which attends a graduation ? 
 We address cordial words to the memories of our 
 teachers, while our real thoughts are with our- 
 selves. Which is the true spirit of these memorial
 
 234 
 
 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATULATION. 
 
 days self-congratulation or self-f orgetfulness ? 
 The latter feeling seems nearer to the truth, and 
 makes us recognize that these days do not belong 
 to us as much as to those who have gone before. 
 Self -congratulation does not have quite the true 
 ring to it. 
 
 If we are to congratulate ourselves at all about 
 the "good old days," let us congratulate ourselves 
 that they have been, rather than that they have 
 ended. To make these old divines and the lay peo- 
 ple of whom they were but the spokesmen seem 
 more real to us than ourselves, to summon up their 
 names and faces out of their long repose, not to 
 make them live over again, but to see that they do 
 live over and over again, to make these hours not 
 so much their memorial as their resurrection and 
 their epiphany, to give them not so much an eulogy 
 as an "All hail," is to me the real purpose of this 
 anniversary. We have not been dreaming, while 
 those who have spoken to us have caused to pass 
 before our minds this long procession of our 
 fathers. They are as real as they have seemed. 
 We speak of " burying ourselves " in the past, but 
 "living ourselves into it" is the expression which 
 comes nearer to the true idea of history. We have 
 not been made to have a clearer vision of what was, 
 without having obtained also a clearer sight of 
 what is. And when to-night the benediction falls 
 upon us, it will not be the benediction of one man 
 alone, ending a dream and saying, " Here end the 
 things that have been," but the heaped up bless- 
 ing of all these beautiful years, and of all these 
 ancient ministers speaking through one and telling 
 us that yesterday and to-day they have stepped for- 
 ward with us, and that they go on with us.
 
 THE REV. MR. ZELIE'S ADDRESS. 
 
 235 
 
 How much real meaning can these days have for 
 those of us who are younger ? We know that it is 
 not difficult for these older ministers and laymen 
 to enter into the spirit of them, that it is easy for 
 those who have lived in these places and who have 
 become familiar with their history; but we natur- 
 ally wonder whether the younger ones among us 
 can really get anything out of the days except an 
 indefinite pleasure in knowing that something 
 important is going on and that we are witnesses of 
 it. Yes, there is much for those who are young. I 
 never came into a region where the past seemed so 
 present as among these hills. The towns are as 
 modern as others of the kind, but there is a 
 " brooding " spirit here which I have never felt 
 elsewhere. Other regions, of traditions as noble, 
 seem to have hurried away faster from their tradi- 
 tions, but here, though we have made as much pro- 
 gress, it seems as if our past had stayed more 
 loyally by us. The least familiar of any here 
 with the literal history of these churches, I yet do 
 not feel anything like a stranger to them. The old 
 names still linger, with scanty facts attached to 
 them, but they are more than names to me. I feel 
 that I know them in the spirit. 
 
 There is no one class of men more attractive to 
 me than the old New England divines. We have 
 heard much to-day of what they did, of the dates of 
 their doings, of their hardships, their heroisms, but 
 not quite so much as I should have liked to hear of 
 what they were. I had hoped to hear a little more 
 about their personal habits and appearance, about 
 three-cornered hats and knee-buckles and reverend 
 manners, of the old Puritan laughter which came
 
 236 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATULATION. 
 
 from the depths when it did come, for this gift 
 God seldom withholds from the best of his ser- 
 vants, and there must have been times when the 
 souls of Jeremiah Peck and John Southmayd and 
 Mark Leavenworth, in spite of their natural grav- 
 ity, broke out into grand and restful mirth. How 
 grave the records of their doings read, except for 
 the interlined additions of some lay recorder who 
 here and there leaves us a narrative of their wit 
 and their oddities. But they do not seem ancient 
 in much beside dress and expression. The human 
 heart and the unselfish outpouring of the human 
 soul never become antiquities. Words may; dress, 
 manners and doctrine may, though the latter 
 always a little less so than it seems; but to him 
 who has once realized that human life, in any age 
 or place, is the water of an eternal fountain, men 
 never become antiquities. 
 
 It is possible that our prejudices about the old 
 divines have sprung largely from the outside 
 appearance of their books. Their literary works 
 run into no new bindings, through no new edi- 
 tions. But they themselves are issued over and 
 over, in the widely circulated editions of human 
 lives which have caught up and handed on their 
 influence. The dryness of their books and the 
 richness of the men themselves seem strangely at 
 variance. We wonder how those who wrote so 
 dryly, and who dealt with so many themes which 
 to us seem artificial, could ever have been very 
 human in their dealings with men. But they were 
 wonderfully so, and human beings seem to have 
 been just what was necessary to draw out their 
 richness. The ancient ministers of Plymouth out
 
 THE REV. MR. ZELIE'S ADDRESS. 237 
 
 in the churchyard, the old worthies of your church 
 here, who have been brought to our remembrance, 
 do not seem so dead as some modern church mem- 
 bers, whose lives long since ended, so far as the 
 church is concerned, and whose works, if they per- 
 form any now, must be classed as "posthumous." 
 
 We can hardly imagine nowadays how men can 
 be helped without the aid of church machinery. 
 Our clerical ancestors knew as little about it as the 
 apostles did; and we, with all our many different 
 charities and methods for helping men, fall to 
 wondering, perhaps, if they ever really did any- 
 thing but preach. As we come to learn more about 
 them we may wonder rather if there was ever 
 poured out from one life to another more strong, 
 abiding vitality than these men poured into the 
 lives they ministered to. The humanity and 
 tenderness for which we seek almost in vain in 
 their writings, and which seem there to have given 
 place to a kind of November righteousness, did 
 shine out of their lives in unselfish, unfearing 
 devotion to the real needs of the human heart. In 
 the midst of our endless committees, societies and 
 plans, do we not long once in a while for the old 
 simplicity with which our ancestors grappled with 
 human life at first hand, and not through the 
 medium of church machinery ? 
 
 They had their follies, and we are all well posted 
 in them, but they seem to us different when we 
 discover how vital these men still are. The follies 
 of these men were mostly of such a kind as not to 
 prevent their staying a life-time in a place. The 
 follies of the modern minister are of a different 
 sort.
 
 238 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATULATION. 
 
 At our distance from the early theologians, and 
 on one of these occasions, we are likely to get a 
 better understanding of the place they hold in the 
 history of the world's thought. As we look back 
 and see how individual they were, and how sep- 
 arate from the general thought of the world, it 
 seems as if there was one thing, much talked of 
 now, which they did not have, and that is the cath- 
 olic spirit. They appear to have done their thinking 
 without much regard to those around them or before 
 them, and New England theology seems to be in a 
 little corner by itself. They did not bend or swerve, 
 but thought straight on from point to point, from 
 logic to logic. We look upon right thinking as being 
 more in a circle than a straight line, and the Puri- 
 tan thinking seems at first sight to have gone on 
 too straight, and to have run away from the world's 
 thought. But, now that we are getting further 
 from it all the time, that which at first looked so 
 much like a straight line begins to look more like a 
 curve and we can see how the Puritan thought is 
 bending into one of God's great circles of truth. 
 
 But this is a thanksgiving service, and you have 
 not been mistaken if you have expected the church 
 on Plymouth Hill to be grateful for its parentage. 
 We do not have to cast about in our minds for 
 things to be grateful for; we are glad to be derived 
 from a church like this. We forget our long strug- 
 gle with you for " winter privileges," and, as you 
 desired that we should remain in want of them, I may 
 say to you that Plymouth Hill is as much in need of 
 " winter- privileges " as it ever was, though of a dif- 
 ferent sort. You have honored us ; have we honored 
 you ? The old Plymouth church is less to-day than
 
 THE REV. MR. ZELIE'8 ADDRESS. 
 
 2 39 
 
 her children are, but they can never be anything 
 but our children. Perhaps our only superiority 
 now is that we are one degree nearer of kin to you. 
 They have their prosperities, but the old ministers 
 of Plymouth belong to us, and we are content to 
 stay by their graves and feel that all of their spirit 
 has not departed from us. The church has given 
 noble men to the world, and is still raising them, 
 and we have not been left alone as much as some of 
 our sisters of the other hill-tops. As we come back 
 here for this anniversary, we feel as if we had 
 gained a coat of arms and a noble pedigree. 
 
 And I wish to add my own thanksgiving to that 
 of the church; for I have that for which to be per- 
 sonally grateful. The name of your church, the 
 name of your minister, was familiar to me, before I 
 came here to live. I knew the church by sight 
 before I ever saw it. I first became a church mem- 
 ber in a college to which this church gave its pres- 
 ident, and as he was present when that first mem- 
 bership was given me I feel very glad to know that 
 he is present here, when I receive this second mem- 
 bership which you intend, I am sure, that all of us 
 shall have. I am indebted to the minister of this 
 church for an ordination sermon which neither my 
 people nor myself have ever forgotten, which has 
 come back to the memories of some of us many a 
 time when we have grown perhaps a little discour- 
 aged over the affairs of the church, and has made 
 us feel that the true success of a church is different 
 from what we once thought it was. I acknowledge, 
 too, my indebtedness to one of the old, old sons 
 of this church, Samuel Hopkins, for real inspira- 
 tions.
 
 240 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATULATION. 
 
 And now the two hundred years are over, as 
 much as two hundred years ever can be over; for 
 two centuries, filled with loyalty to God and Christ 
 and humanity, have laid hold on all the years that 
 follow with a grasp which cannot be broken. 
 
 ADDRESS BY FRANKLIN CARTER, LL. D., 
 
 PRESIDENT OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 
 
 There is nothing that attests the significance of 
 time to the human mind more than the celebra- 
 tions of these latter days. Biography is not 
 merely a series of events; it is imperfect unless 
 we can fix the date into its surroundings and mark 
 it with a figure. History is not merely a succes- 
 sion of developing causes and effects, not merely a 
 combination of co-ordinations, for an end; we 
 are unsatisfied unless we are able to tell when the 
 combination entered into the history, unless we 
 are able to tell how and when the master mind 
 lighted up the period with a celestial beauty or 
 darkened it with the horrors and hate of war. 
 
 We have been celebrating an event which lighted 
 up this Naugatuck valley with a " light that never 
 was on sea or land." We have been rejoicing that 
 we, in our period, have covered the end of the two 
 hundred years; we have been glad that we could, 
 after the lapse of these days, come back here and 
 gather around the old hearthstone, and bless God 
 for the old home. But many, whose spiritual lives 
 began anew in connection with this church, have 
 almost lived to see this day and have not seen it;
 
 PRESIDENT CARTERS ADDRESS. 241 
 
 some dropped away long ago, and pathos is in all 
 our hearts for those who, early or late, are not 
 here to share with us this joy that they have not 
 lived to see this day. 
 
 My mother's ancestors were connected with this 
 church away back to the very first deacon, and my 
 wife's mother's ancestors back to the first minis- 
 ters; so that in my children is the blood both of 
 the "diaconate" and of the "priesthood." My 
 father was not born in this place, but was here 
 converted, and within a few years there has come 
 into my possession a record of his consecration of 
 himself to God on reaching his majority, a record 
 which never could have been written except for 
 the solemn influences of the Puritans. It takes 
 one back to the days of Samuel Hopkins and Jona- 
 than Edwards. It reminds me of the form of con- 
 secration found in the autobiography of Samuel 
 Hopkins, who was born in this town in 1721, was a 
 member of this church, and became a pioneer in 
 the realm of thought, so that when the Andover 
 Seminary was formed, it was formed by a com- 
 promise between Calvinists and " Hopkinsians," 
 leading the way to all the modern liberty and to 
 all the modern conquests of scholarship. The last 
 echoes of his utterances were heard in the recent 
 decision of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts 
 in the Andover case, or later still, in the case that 
 was decided in the Presbytery of New York yester- 
 day. This is the consecration of Samuel Hopkins, 
 dated August 7th, 1742, just before he reached his 
 majority: 
 
 I call heaven and earth to witness that I now take the God 
 of heaven and earth for my God. I now make myself over,
 
 242 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRA TULA TION. 
 
 with all that I have or ever shall have, to him. I now promise 
 allegiance to the God of heaven, that henceforth I will make 
 it my only business to serve and honor him, begging his gra- 
 cious assistance to perform my obligations and to keep my sol- 
 emn vows inviolate. It is done. I am no more my own, but I 
 give myself to God, to be his forever. 
 
 That covenant, written in 1742 by a son of this 
 church, may stand as a proof that fifty years after 
 this church was organized the same solemn influ- 
 ences pervaded it as at the beginning. The coven- 
 ant of my father, which is enough like that to have 
 been modelled upon it, may stand as a testimony 
 that seventy years ago the same solemn influences 
 pervaded this church; and I can testify that up to 
 the time when I left my home in 1863, the doctrine 
 that God has authority over every mental move- 
 ment of man and every thought of man, just as 
 surely as the law of gravitation has authority over 
 every particle of matter, was preached from this 
 desk. The doctrine of God's omniscience, omni- 
 presence and sovereign decrees was the influence 
 that I felt in my boyhood. 
 
 I owe the two ministers who spoke this after- 
 noon an incalculable debt. From the first came 
 impulses for good which I trust have ever 
 increased; the other was concerned with some of 
 the most solemn events of my childhood. I can 
 remember sitting down in the church when I was 
 not yet twelve years old, wondering and puzzling 
 my brain as to whether I was one of the elect. I 
 can remember studying the old hangings behind 
 the pulpit, which I thought must have a likeness 
 to the hangings of the tabernacle, and wondering 
 what connection there could be between them and 
 the sovereignty of God. I thank God for my Puri-
 
 PRESIDENT CARTER'S ADDRESS. 
 
 243 
 
 tan conscience, though it has made me a great 
 deal of trouble; but I thank him for that. I thank 
 God for the inheritance from my father, whom I 
 remember rising often in the early twilight and 
 joining with a few of the neighbors in praying for 
 the coming of God's kingdom. I remember waking 
 often and hearing his voice leading in prayer. I 
 thank God for the solemn influences of my mother; 
 how prayerful she was none but her children 
 knew. I sometimes wonder, if it had not been for 
 the influence of one who was buried in 1861 by the 
 pastor who spoke last this afternoon, one whose 
 words never fell in sharp condemnation on any 
 body, whose letters, written in fine writing, I cher- 
 ish to-day as more precious than rubies, I some- 
 times wonder whether the real expansiveness and 
 gentleness of the gospel would ever have come into 
 my life but for her. Some of you will remember 
 her, and I desire, now and here, to acknowledge my 
 debt to that sister, and to say of her life that it was 
 not local or provincial, despite her narrow sur- 
 roundings, but that she had the transparency of 
 heaven, she had the depth of heaven, she had the 
 arching tenderness of heaven. From her I learned, 
 as I never could have learned from any one else, 
 that which does not enter into the life of most of us 
 and certainly has not entered into mine, that we 
 are not to cherish resentment, no matter what the 
 injury is; that it is the noble thing, the Christlike 
 thing, to forgive whatever comes, and to cherish 
 only love for the evil-doer, a view of duty that 
 was enforced by her life. 
 
 I remember Judge Bennet Bronson, as he used to 
 rise over in that corner, in his blue cape-coat, look-
 
 2 4 4 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATULATION. 
 
 ing out from tinder his shaggy eyebrows, standing 
 during prayer, and giving the impression that he 
 was the only one that knew how things shoiild be 
 done; and I thought it was so. He died when I was 
 thirteen years old, and there was no one left after 
 he went away to stand up for the old methods. I 
 remember how Deacon Aaron Benedict used to 
 come in at the door yonder, and take his muffler 
 off (he was always afraid of sore throat), and walk 
 slowly up the aisle; and after Judge Bronson died 
 it seemed to me that the dignity and position of 
 the church centred in him. There was another man 
 Mr. Greene Kendrick who sat almost opposite. 
 He was never a deacon, was not even a member 
 of the church; but I remember at one time, when 
 aid was asked for the relief of sufferers in Kansas, 
 his quoting Scripture so correctly and in such 
 amounts that I felt that nobody but a Scotch Cove- 
 nanter or a New England Methodist or a Southern 
 Presbyterian could do that. Then there was Mr. 
 Edward Scovill, who was called Deacon, although 
 I believe he never functionated. His ready, sonor- 
 ous speech made the impression on me as a boy 
 that he was not afraid of the minister, which I 
 was. One of my neighbors was John Stocking, 
 afterwards a deacon, and I used to play with his 
 boys. I remember that at one time, as I was 
 rather given to getting up plans for amusement 
 and he thought I was in the habit of leading his 
 boys off, he said to me he didn't wish me to hatch 
 up any more new projects. I thought the language 
 rather vigorous and not altogether proper. I was 
 with his boys one afternoon, when Mr. Under- 
 wood, who was then conducting revival meetings
 
 PRESIDENT CARTERS ADDRESS. 
 
 245 
 
 in this place, came down the street. I had had 
 some conversation with Mr. Underwood, and when 
 I saw him coming, somehow I felt in awe of him, 
 and crept into an ox-cart, and hid till he went 
 past. I had not been doing anything very bad, 
 not hatching up any very bad project; but I have 
 learned since then, in my college life, that young 
 men don't care to meet those of whom they stand 
 in awe, especially if they don't know them very 
 well. Then there was Zenas Cook, and there was 
 Benjamin Andrews; and the Browns the four 
 brothers, Philo, William, Augustus and James ; 
 and my uncles, Israel Holmes and Samuel J. 
 Holmes. As I look back upon all that company 
 now (and I might name many others), it seems 
 to me that this church, if it did not have all 
 the brass, certainly had all the cream of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 But I want to speak a word of one or two men 
 whom I have come to know in later times, who 
 were not members of this church, but were 
 descended from it. 
 
 There on the wall is a date away in 1739, when 
 the church at Watertown went off from the old 
 church. There was a boy born in 1739, named 
 Mark Hopkins, who was a younger brother of 
 Samuel. He was a son of Timothy, who was one 
 of the " messengers " when the church up the river 
 at Plymouth was organized, and who died in 1749. 
 At that time the elder brother Samuel was settled 
 in Housatunnuc (now Great Barrington), and he 
 took this boy, ten years old, up there to be with 
 him, and fitted him for college. That boy became 
 one of the most distinguished lawyers of that
 
 246 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATULATION. 
 
 period. He was a member of the convention which 
 was held in Berkshire county, in the early summer 
 of 1774, for the purpose of considering what should 
 be done in regard to the mother country, and in 
 which resolutions were passed that were taken up 
 and imitated in various other counties of Massa- 
 chusetts, and became the preliminary note of the 
 War of Independence. He died afterwards of 
 typhoid fever while in the service, at White Plains. 
 He had two grandsons whom I knew well. One of 
 them was the fifth president of Williams College, 
 a man of majestic presence and majestic character, 
 a man whose endurance might well bring back to 
 our thought the endurance of the early Puritans. 
 I could hardly help thinking, when my friend Zelie 
 (who was one of the guard of honor at Dr. Hop- 
 kins's funeral in 1887, being of the last class at col- 
 lege that had the privilege of his instructions) I 
 could hardly help thinking, when he spoke of its 
 being so difficult to recall those men, that he had 
 seen one of them. For Dr. Hopkins represented, 
 in every inch of his body and in every inch of his 
 mind, the old Puritan conception. 
 
 Let me give you just two anecdotes of him; and 
 first, to illustrate his endurance. After his election 
 as president of the college, having made up his 
 mind that some knowledge of anatomy and physi- 
 ology was desirable, he purchased a manikin, 
 imported for Dr. Armsby of the Albany Medical 
 school, at the price of six or seven hundred dollars, 
 and gave his own note for it, because the college 
 was too poor to pay for it. He made up his mind 
 that the manikin should pay for the manikin by 
 lectures; so in December, 1842, he started down
 
 PRESIDENT CARTERS ADDRESS. 
 
 247 
 
 through Berkshire county for Stockbridge, where 
 he was born, having packed that manikin in a box, 
 and having laid that box in a sleigh, thus filling 
 the sleigh so full that it was impossible for him to 
 sit in it except with his feet hanging outside. He 
 had decided to go down and, by giving lectures and 
 illustrating them, earn money enough to pay for 
 the manikin. That is the old Puritan, through and 
 through. 
 
 Now, let me give you an idea of his sagacity as a 
 teacher. He was very fond of dwelling on the dif- 
 ferences between man and the lower animals. He 
 said, one distinction was that the lower animals 
 did not laugh. A student who was fond of asking 
 questions raised his hand and said to him, " Dr. 
 Hopkins, I have a little dog at home, and when I 
 am there this little dog runs up to me and puts his 
 paws on my knee, and looks up into my face, and 
 really, I think he laughs." By that time the atten- 
 tion of the class was somewhat absorbed in this 
 dialogue, and Dr. Hopkins in a very benignant 
 way said, " When a man laughs, he usually laughs 
 at something; will you tell me what your dog was 
 laughing at ? " 
 
 One more illustration of his endurance. When 
 death came to him, it came in the silence of a June 
 morning. He had been sitting up more or less 
 through the night, trying to get breath. As the 
 birds were singing all around him, he felt that 
 there was a power going from him, and as he sat 
 on the edge of the bed, erect and majestic, he said 
 to his beloved wife, " Mary, this must be death." 
 In a moment his head dropped and he was gone. 
 It has reminded me of that striking passage in 
 Browning,
 
 248 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATULATION. 
 
 I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forebore, 
 
 And bade me creep past. 
 No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers, 
 
 The heroes of old, 
 Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears 
 
 Of pain, darkness and cold. 
 
 He had a brother who was equally distinguished, 
 and I could tell you many stories of him. The 
 most remarkable thing about him was that as a 
 college professor he had the most intense religious 
 interest in his pupils and showed it more conspicu- 
 ously than any college professor I have ever 
 known. These two men the one an Old Testa- 
 ment prophet, the other a reasoner on the law of 
 God and on its universal presence, a reconciler of 
 the Old Testament and the New, a man who could 
 persuade into acceptance of Christ these two men 
 did more for the honor of religion in our colleges 
 than any men of their day. In their presence no 
 student could despise Christianity, nor could any 
 atheist, however aggressive, refuse to acknowledge 
 the development of character, as produced by a 
 Christian faith, in these men. They were the 
 grandsons of that Mark Hopkins who was born 
 in 1739. 
 
 Now, my dear friends, there have gone out in 
 that way, from this church, multitudes of whom 
 we know little; but just as every atom in this uni- 
 verse responds to every other atom, so every soul 
 that rests its faith in Christ responds to every 
 other soul. Electric thrills are passing to-day 
 between the two worlds, the living and the dead, 
 binding us all into closer relations with those who 
 have been, and those who, though we have never 
 heard of them, have received inspiration from this
 
 PRESIDENT CARTERS ADDRESS. 249 
 
 fountain, and have drunk of that water of which 
 if a man drink he shall never die. 
 
 Nothing seems to me so glorious as the anniver- 
 sary of a church. Standing here and recalling the 
 multitude of little children the thousands of little 
 children that have been baptized here " into the 
 name of the Father and of the Son and of the 
 Holy Ghost," and many of us among them; remem- 
 bering those who have here stood up and professed 
 Christ, generally in youth, but sometimes in 
 maturer life, and occasionally in old age on the 
 verge of death; remembering those who in their 
 sick rooms have illustrated the dignity of patience 
 and endurance, the peaceable fruit of righteous- 
 ness; remembering the multitude of those who 
 have been buried with the prayer of faith, and in 
 whose hearts and in the hearts of whose friends 
 the hope of the resurrection was kindled by the 
 ministers of this pulpit; recalling how in battle- 
 fields, in high and lowly places, self-denials have 
 been made for the Master, may we not feel our 
 hearts kindled anew with the thought that Chris- 
 tianity is not dead, that Christ is not dead; that 
 he was dead, but is alive forevermore ? 
 
 I wish to express my great pleasure at being per- 
 mitted to come back here and acknowledge my 
 recognition of obligation to the ministry of this 
 church, and to the influences that surrounded me 
 as a boy. The old house where I was born has 
 long since disappeared; the church in which I was 
 married has given place to this edifice; but the 
 springs of life have been touched in me here, as 
 they have in every one of you, by these exercises 
 during the last day or two. The follies, the
 
 250 REMINISCENCE AND CONGRATULATION. 
 
 anxieties, the hopes of my boyhood, have come 
 back to me, and looking through the tangled web 
 of life I have felt the goodness of God. 
 
 It is no small thing for you or me or any of us 
 here, that we were identified with those sturdy 
 pioneers who built up the business of this city. It 
 is no evil fortune that we have been identified with 
 those men of thrift, far sighted and shrewd, who 
 stretched their vision out into the illimitable and 
 up into the infinite. It is no small thing to be 
 grateful to God for, that we have inherited the 
 faith and the endurance and the thought of those 
 men; we are better men, and have done our work 
 better, for having entered into their labors. Let 
 us see to it that the granite which they laid does 
 not become in our structure pudding-stone. Let us 
 remember that our problems are as difficult as 
 theirs, and that we have need of the same sense of 
 nearness to God which they had. Is it not enough 
 
 That more and more a providence 
 
 Of love is understood, 
 Making the springs of time and sense 
 
 Sweet with eternal good; 
 
 That death seems but a covered way 
 
 Which opens into light, 
 Wherein no blinded child can stray 
 
 Beyond the Father's sight; 
 
 That care and trial seem at last, 
 
 Through memory's sunset air, 
 Like mountain-ranges overpast, 
 
 In purple distance fair; 
 
 That all the jarring notes of life 
 
 Seem blending in a psalm, 
 And all the angles of its strife 
 
 Slow rounding into calm.
 
 ADDENDA.
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 I. 
 
 In response to the circular sent out before the bi- 
 centennial celebration, letters were received which 
 might well be reproduced in full. A few extracts 
 are all that can now be given. 
 
 The Rev. A. W. Hazen, D. D., pastor of the First 
 church in Middletown, wrote as follows : 
 
 The church to which I minister was organized on the/our f A 
 of November, 1668. It was therefore twenty-three years of 
 age when yours was formed. Still, we are glad to recognize 
 you as born in the same century with us! Since institutions 
 like these venerable churches took their rise so long ago, we 
 must not claim that everything beneficent dates from the nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
 I trust your honored church may receive from the coming 
 festivities a fresh impulse which it shall feel in all the next 
 hundred years. May the Holy Spirit abide in the church and 
 its ministry, to make Christ a vivid reality therein, to the end 
 of the ages. 
 
 Mr. J. H. Morrow wrote from Rialto, California: 
 
 Distance of course makes it impossible for us to be with the 
 First church in the joyful celebration of November 4th and 
 5th. But I can assure you that upon the dates mentioned our 
 minds and hearts will dwell pleasantly upon the events taking 
 place in our old New England home, across the continent. 
 
 .... We pray for the old First church of Waterbury a 
 continuance into the coming centuries of the career of Christian 
 usefulness it entered upon two hundred years ago.
 
 254 ADDENDA. 
 
 From a widely known pastor in Bath, Maine, 
 whose pulpit he "supplied " for three months just 
 before his settlement in Waterbury, Dr. Anderson 
 received a letter full of reminiscence and affection, 
 a part of which follows: 
 
 I tender my hearty thanks for a programme of the proposed 
 exercises of the bi-centennial anniversary of the founding of 
 your church, and regret that I am not able to be " there to see " 
 and hear, and eat sandwiches. I will thank you again, if it 
 should be practicable for you to send me a copy of your dis- 
 course to be then delivered, and also other literature connected 
 with the occasion 
 
 I am now an " old chap " of more than seventy-two years, 
 and in very feeble health .... Still, though profoundly 
 unworthy, I have a good hope of heaven, and ten thousand 
 daily mercies and comforts, and, as Mrs. Stowe once wrote to 
 me about herself and husband, " an angel coming over the 
 river on the banks of which I am camping, bringing once in a 
 while a message of love." 
 
 I trust you are " strong in the Lord and in the power of his 
 might." How wonderfully things hold out and live in Connec- 
 ticut! I hope you will live to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary 
 of your pastorate, and then, as soon as God shall see best, 
 gather up your feet and other traps, and march on to glory. 
 Yours affectionately, even to the end, 
 
 JOHN O. FISKE. 
 
 The Rev. C. F. Bradley, formerly of Birming- 
 ham, Conn., wrote as follows from Quincy, Illinois: 
 
 Your circular recalls to me many pleasant memories of the 
 Naugatuck Valley Association, and makes me wish I could be 
 present at your commemorative festival. I congratulate the 
 old First church on having attained to the dignity of a venera- 
 ble "mother in Israel." Now, if she carries a youthful brain 
 on her shoulders, alert to the struggles and issues of the com- 
 ing twentieth century, if her heart glows with the enthusiasm of 
 humanity and human brotherhood, she will not have lived two 
 hundred years in vain. I wish her another two centuries of
 
 LETTERS FROM ABSENT FRIENDS. 255 
 
 hard work to make mankind nobler and happier, by which 
 time (let us hope) factory and shop and fireside will have 
 become temples of religion. 
 
 The Rev. Isaac Jennings, of Elmira, N. Y., who 
 was ordained to the ministry by the First church, 
 in acknowledging the invitation sent to him, said: 
 
 I recall with vividness many, if not all of the persons whose 
 names are attached to the letter which has found its way to 
 my hands. To meet them and shake hands once more on this 
 side would be a pleasure to me. I confess that some names 
 which I might reasonably have expected to see on this list are 
 not there. I infer that they have joined the silent majority. 
 There are probably more on that roll than there are of those 
 who will answer when the roll of the living is called; and if 
 spirits take an interest in human affairs they will be interested 
 spectators of your joyful occasion. We may hope that when 
 time is done, and progress is no more measured by centennials, 
 the companies and regiments which shall gather, bringing with 
 them the banner of the old First church, will present a full 
 muster, and raise a glorious cheer in honor of Him who gave 
 his blood for the whole church. 
 
 One letter we give in full. It was written on the 
 2nd of November, by the venerable Israel Coe, a 
 member, at the time, of the Second Congregational 
 church. It was brief, and, notwithstanding its 
 accurate and beautiful chirography, indicated 
 increasing weakness. Mr. Coe died on the i8th of 
 December, 1891, four days after his ninety-seventh 
 birthday. He says : 
 
 I was a member of the First Congregational church of 
 Waterbury thirteen years from 1821 to 1834. The Rev. Mr. 
 Crane was the pastor when I came to Waterbury. The Rev. 
 Joel R. Arnold followed Mr. Crane. 
 
 As there was no provision for lighting the church, prayer 
 meetings were held in the school-houses lighted by candles car- 
 ried in for the occasion. I procured lamps, to be held on the
 
 256 ADDENDA. 
 
 pillars of the church (I think in 1829), and Deacon Brown put 
 up the hooks. I sang in the choir. 
 
 I have lived almost half the time you are to celebrate. I was 
 born in Goshen, the i4th of December, 1794. 
 
 What I have written is of little importance. If I can furnish 
 any other facts, it will afford me pleasure. 
 
 With much esteem, truly yours, 
 
 ISRAEL COE. 
 
 In such men as Israel Coe, and Tertius D. Potter 
 of Thomaston (whose death, since the bi-centennial 
 celebration, is referred to on page 164), the divine 
 word spoken through the psalmist is illustrated, 
 to-day no less than in the days of old : 
 
 With long life will I satisfy him, 
 And show him my salvation.
 
 RELICS OF THE DEAD. 257 
 
 II. 
 
 In a foot-note on page 7 of this volume a " fuller 
 statement " is promised concerning the disinter- 
 ment of the remains of the early Waterbury pas- 
 tors, in connection with the abandonment of the 
 Grand street burying ground. This promise may 
 be fulfilled, in part at least, by republishing here 
 an article on " The Grave of John Southmayd," 
 published in the " Waterbury American " of April 
 25th, 1891, the occasion of which was a statement, 
 somewhat carelessly worded, that had appeared in 
 one of the local papers in reference to the disinter- 
 ment of John Southmayd's remains. The article 
 is reproduced as written, except that a paragraph 
 giving the main dates in Mr. Southmayd's life is 
 omitted. 
 
 THE GRAVE OF JOHN SOUTHMAYD. 
 
 Among the numerous gravestones of the Grand street bury- 
 ing ground there are a few that bear names which must always 
 hold a conspicuous place in the history of the town. The most 
 noteworthy of all are the stones which mark the graves of the 
 Rev. John Southmayd, the second pastor of the town, the Rev. 
 Mark Leavenworth, the third pastor, and Thomas Judd, the 
 first deacon. So closely related were these men to the early 
 life of this community and especially of the old First church, 
 that as soon as the abandonment of the Grand street cemetery 
 was seriously proposed I formed the purpose of having these 
 gravestones transferred to some appropriate place in the pres- 
 ent yard of the First church. I had consulted with some of 
 the descendants of these men in regard to the matter, and it 
 was agreed that no disposition of these visible memorials of
 
 258 ADDENDA. 
 
 them could be more appropriate than that which I proposed. 
 Partly with a view to this transfer, the headstone marking the 
 grave of the Rev. John Southmayd had already been removed, 
 and a duplicate copy of it was being made at the expense of 
 one of his descendants. 
 
 What was done yesterday at the burying ground, under my 
 supervision, was in futher development of the original pur- 
 pose. When I found that the gravestones were being buried 
 out of sight, and that, notwithstanding the facilities for subse- 
 quent identification furnished by Mr. S. M. Judd's map, the 
 graves of the notable men of the town, as well as those of the 
 obscure, must practically disappear forever, the question arose 
 in my mind whether, after the lapse of one hundred and thirty- 
 six years, anything might possibly remain of the mortal part 
 of the Rev. John Southmayd. It seemed to me that if there 
 was anything to be removed, there could be no better time than 
 the present for preserving and transferring it. Accordingly, 
 with the authority of the committee in charge, and in the pres- 
 ence of Mayor Baldwin and myself and one or two others, the 
 grave was reverently opened. No trace of a coffin was discov- 
 ered, but the cranium and the large bones of the skeleton were 
 found in a good state of preservation, and also numerous small 
 bones. These were carefully placed in a new box and con- 
 veyed to the parsonage on Leavenworth street, where they 
 will be cared for until the time of the bi-centennial celebration 
 of the organization 1 of the First church, next autumn. 
 
 I should infer from the bones exhumed yesterday that Mr. 
 Southmayd was a large man with a head of moderate size. 
 The forehead was not high, and the head was unusually long 
 from front to rear. 
 
 But whatever his physical frame and his external appearance 
 may have been, he was certainly a man of note in the commu- 
 nity, a fine representative of the scholarship of the time amidst 
 the plain and hard-working people of early Waterbury, and a 
 fountain of good influence through many years 
 
 Among the few manuscript relics pertaining to our earlier 
 history as a town, one of the most interesting is a dilapidated 
 volume, at present in my possession, containing Mr. South- 
 mayd's notes of sermons heard by him while a student at Har- 
 vard College.
 
 RELICS OF THE DEAD. 
 
 2 59 
 
 It seems to me very desirable that the remains of this emi- 
 nent and excellent man "relics" of one of our Protestant 
 saints and the headstone which has marked his grave for so 
 long a period, should for the future occupy some fitting position 
 in the church yard of the church of which he was for thirty- 
 seven years the minister. 
 
 JOSEPH ANDERSON. 
 
 Waterbury, April 2$th, 1891. 
 
 A careful examination of several of the skeletons 
 exhumed at the Grand street burying ground was 
 made by Walter H. Holmes, M. D., of Waterbury, 
 who reported the result of his investigations and 
 comparisons in an -article entitled "The Condition 
 of Bodies Long Buried," which was published in 
 " The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, " of 
 July 23d, 1891. The account of the condition of Mr. 
 Southmayd's remains is illustrated by engravings 
 in which the cranium of the Waterbury pastor is 
 placed alongside of that of a supposed " Mound 
 Builder " of the Mississippi valley. Dr. Holmes's 
 description omitting what is too technical for the 
 " general reader" is as follows: 
 
 Another skeleton was that of a minister, eighty years of age, 
 who had been buried for one hundred and thirty-six years, and 
 who is said to have been the principal man in the town dur- 
 ing his life. The skull and many of the long bones, especial- 
 ly the femora and humeri and many of the vertebrae, were 
 in most excellent preservation. The skull was perfect, even 
 the delicate turbinated bones and thin walls of the orbits being 
 whole. The skull is a remarkable one, and is shown [in the 
 engravings] from two points of view, the skull of a " Mound 
 Builder " from the west being shown by its side for the sake of 
 the contrast. It will be seen at once that the " Mound Builder's " 
 is an extreme example of the brachycephalic type, and the white 
 man's of the dolichocephalic. The extreme length backwards 
 from the foramen magnum is remarkable, by far the greater 
 part of the occipital bone being nearly horizontal, and taking a
 
 INDEX.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abandoned farms, in Pros- 
 pect, 161. 
 in Wolcott, 138. 
 
 Abbott, A. F., history of 
 Methodism by, 71, . 
 
 Absent ones remembered, 240, 
 241. 
 
 American, Waterbury, arti- 
 cles in, 20, 21, 71, #., 74, 
 ., 102, n., 162, n., 257- 
 
 259- 
 
 Anderson, Rev. Joseph, ac- 
 count of celebration by, 
 
 3-17- 
 
 address by, 57-59. 
 historical data by, 18-20. 
 historical discourse by, 25- 
 
 54- 
 letter by, on Southmayd's 
 
 grave, 257-259. 
 memorial hymn by, 14. 
 pastorate of, 20, 52, 63. 
 sketches of churches by, 
 131-136, 148-153, 165-170. 
 Antagonisms, religious, 58 
 
 and ., 60, 65. 
 
 in the war, 47, 48, 207, 208. 
 Anthem composed by A. S. 
 
 Gibson, 13. 
 Anti-slavery agitation, early, 
 
 204. 
 
 in Wolcott, 140. 
 Apostle of Plymouth, Rev. 
 Mr. Todd, 128. 
 
 Area of Mattatuck, 19, 69. 
 Arms. Rev. W. P., at Terry- 
 
 ville, 167. 
 Arnold, Rev. J. R., pastorate 
 
 of, 20. 
 Association, New Haven, of 
 
 ministers, 42. 
 ordains Mr. Todd, 119. 
 Atwater, Rev. Jason, at 
 
 Waterbury, 20. 
 at Middlebury, 155. 
 Avery, Rev. W. P., paper by, 
 
 153-160. 
 
 Baker, F. C., at the celebra- 
 tion, 10. 
 
 Baker, M. C., song by, 14. 
 Baptists, Congregational an- 
 cestry of, 65. 
 greetings from, 63, 67. 
 hard to " represent," 64. 
 in Waterbury, 53, 63-68. 
 prejudice against, 65. 
 very democratic, 64. 
 Beckwith Rev. E. G., pastor- 
 ate of, 74. 
 
 Bell in third meeting house, 
 use of, voted to Episcopal 
 society, 49. 
 
 Bellamy Rev. Joseph, 82, 130. 
 Benedict, Dea. Aaron, from 
 
 Middlebury, 157. 
 position in First church, 244. 
 Benedict, Rev. Henry, at 
 Waterbury, 20.
 
 2 66 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Berkeley, Bishop, scholarship 
 
 established by, 197, 198. 
 Bible names of persons in 
 
 Prospect, 161. 
 Birthday of First church 
 
 recognized, 20-22. 
 true date of, 3, 18. 
 Blackman, Rev. W. P., at 
 
 Naugatuck, 141, 142, 145, 
 
 146. 
 Blakesley, Rev. Linus, raised 
 
 up in Terryville, 168. 
 Boston Medical Journal on 
 
 John Southmayd's cra- 
 nium, 259. 
 Boy's thoughts of theology, 
 
 242. 
 Bradley, Rev. C. F., letter 
 
 from, 254. 
 
 Brass industry, origin of, 50. 
 Briggs trial in New York, 209. 
 Bronson, Dea. E. L., from 
 
 Middlebury, 157. 
 portraits collected by, 6. 
 Bronson, Dea. Isaac, of Wol- 
 
 cott, 139. 
 Bronson, Dea. Leonard, of 
 
 Middlebury, 157. 
 Bronson, Judge Bennet, 243, 
 
 244. 
 Bronson Library, origin of, 
 
 157. 
 Bronson, Silas, a Middlebury 
 
 man, 157. 
 Brotherhood of the churches, 
 
 58, 61, 66-68, 71, 94-99. 
 Brown, "Bishop" James, 21. 
 Brown brothers, 245. 
 Brownson, Rev. David, at 
 
 Oxford, 134. 
 
 Bryan, Rev. G. A., raised up 
 
 in Waterbury, 9. 
 Bugbee, Rev. R. G., paper 
 
 by, 163-165. 
 
 Burgess Rev. J. S., at Rey- 
 nolds Bridge, 170. 
 death of, 170. 
 Burying ground on Grand st. 
 
 abandoned, 7. 
 
 disinterments at, 7, 257-260. 
 headstones from, 7, 8. 
 Bushnell, Dr. George, ad- 
 dress by, 215-223. 
 pastorate of, 20, 222. 
 Camp, Rev. J. E., at North- 
 field, 148-151. 
 anecdote of, 151. 
 Card-playing, etc., forbidden 
 
 in Prospect, 162. 
 Carter, Dea. P. W., covenant 
 
 by, 241, 242. 
 
 Carter, Pres. Franklin, ad- 
 dress by, 240-250. 
 ancestry of, 241. 
 theology of, in boyhood, 242. 
 Catechising in Middlebury, 
 
 158. 
 
 Celebration, bi-centennial, ac- 
 count of, 3-17. 
 churches invited to, 4, 5. 
 collation at, 14. 
 committees for, 3, 4. 
 decorations of church at, 5 -7. 
 expenses of, 17. 
 first public mention of, 3. 
 letter inviting to, 4. 
 participants in, 9-13. 
 program of, 9-13. 
 visitors at, 15-17. 
 voted by church, 3.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 267 
 
 Celebrations, for the young, 
 
 235- 
 
 true glory of, 249. 
 make history vivid, 68. 
 significance of, 240. 
 spirit of, 233, 234. 
 true purpose of, 234. 
 Centres of population in Ply- 
 mouth, 19, 166. 
 Chilian war-cloud in 1891, 89. 
 Choir of First church, 14. 
 Christian Endeavor society an 
 expression of Christian 
 unity, 67. 
 
 Christian union, 52, 53, 67. 
 Church and state one, 60. 
 
 separation of, 48. 
 Churches before Farmington, 
 
 18. 
 
 before Waterbury, 18. 
 derived from Waterbury, 19. 
 gradual maturing of, 70. 
 not Congregational, 20. 
 of Connecticut, the early, a 
 
 homogeneous body, 95. 
 of to-day progressive, 65. 
 Church grievances settled in 
 
 Middlebury, 158. 
 Churchill, Rev. John, at Ox- 
 ford, 135. 
 Church members, names of 
 
 first, 34. 
 Clark, Thomas, headstone of, 7. 
 
 a deacon, 8, n. 
 Clergy of the Episcopal church 
 
 trained elsewhere, 61. 
 Coe, Israel, letter from, 255. 
 death of, 255. 
 
 first church lamps procured 
 by, 255. 
 
 Collation, guests at, 14-17. 
 Colonization of churches op- 
 posed. 57, 101, 109-114. 
 Colony of New Haven united 
 
 to Connecticut, 180. 
 Colony school at New Haven, 
 
 177-180. 
 Columbia society. 19, 160-162. 
 
 original map of, 161. 
 Committee of General Assem- 
 bly to visit Plymouth, 
 
 121, 122. 
 
 to locate meeting house, 123. 
 Common fence, building of, 
 
 187. 
 
 Concert of prayer in 1795, 107. 
 Conferences of the churches, 
 
 98. 
 
 Consociations, 96. 
 Cook, Henry, first settler in 
 
 Plymouth, 104. 
 Countryman, Rev. Franklin, 
 
 at Prospect, 162. 
 centennial discourse by, 
 
 162, n. 
 Country towns, problem of 
 
 the, 99. 
 Courtship of Mark Leaven- 
 
 worth, 85-88. 
 
 Covenants with God, 241, 242. 
 Crane, Rev. Daniel, pastorate 
 
 of, 20. 
 Crania of Waterbury pastors, 
 
 259, 260. 
 Date, exact, of organization 
 
 of First church, 18,21. 
 Daughter churches, delegates 
 
 from, 15-17. 
 list of. 19. 
 membership of, 20.
 
 268 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Davenport, Rev. J. G., hymn 
 
 by, 90. 
 
 pastorate of, 75. 
 poem by, 76-90. 
 Day, Rev. H. N., pastorate 
 
 of, 20. 
 
 Deacons at Naugatuck, 146. 
 at Watertown, list of, 105 . 
 of Second church, 73. 
 Decay of the ancient type of 
 
 life, 98. 
 Declensions, religious, 31, 32, 
 
 48. 
 Decorations at celebration, 
 
 5-7, 57- 
 DeForest, Benjamin, jr., fund 
 
 enlarged by, 106. 
 Dickerman, Rev. G. S., 12. 
 Dickinson, Rev. J. S., at 
 
 Northfield, 151. 
 Dimensions, original, of town, 
 
 35- 
 Discipline in the Watertown 
 
 church, 106. 
 Diseases prevailing in i8th 
 
 century, 107. 
 Disinterments, 7, 8, 80, 257- 
 
 261. 
 
 Disintegration, era of, 43, 192. 
 Dissent in Waterbury, 43-45. 
 
 in Northbury, 124. 
 Doctrine and life, 62. 
 in old times, 83. 
 versus love, 84. 
 Dudley, Mrs. Lucy B., 8, n. 
 Eagle Rock church, Reynolds 
 
 Bridge, 19. 
 sketch of, 169, 170. 
 Easton, Rev. D. A., at Nauga- 
 tuck, 145. 
 
 Eggleston, Rev. A. C., ad- 
 dress by, 68-71. 
 Elliot, Dr. H. B., address by, 
 
 209-215. 
 
 pastorate of, 20, 210-213. 
 Elsdon, Rev. W. P., address 
 
 by, 63-68. 
 
 Elton Dr. Samuel, describes 
 Mark Leavenworth, 206. 
 Emerson's hymn, 41. 
 Emigration from Middlebury, 
 
 156, 157- 
 
 from Prospect, 160, 161. 
 from Wolcott, 137, 138, 
 
 141. 
 
 from Woodbury. 232. 
 of early proprietors, 39. 
 to New Jersey, 180. 
 Episcopacy in Waterbury, 44, 
 
 45, 49, 53, 59-63, 194, 195, 
 
 20 1, 202, 207. 
 profits by revival excesses, 
 
 46. 
 
 in Wolcott, 140. 
 Episcopalians brought up in 
 
 other folds, 61. 
 Era in which First church 
 
 originated, 25, 38, 39. 
 of frontier missions, 37, 49. 
 of renewed prosperity, 48, 
 
 49, 50, 51- 
 
 Establishment, an ecclesias- 
 tical, in Connecticut, 42. 
 Ex-pastors now living, 20. 
 
 addresses by, 209-223. 
 Expenses of celebration, 17. 
 Farmingbury, 19, 136-141. 
 Farmington, life in, described, 
 
 29, 30. 
 settled, 25, 27.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 269 
 
 Farmington church, mother of 
 Waterbury church, 4, 18, 
 29, 30. 
 
 sketch of, 93-99. 
 Fellowship of the churches, 
 
 95. 97- 
 First church and Rev. John 
 
 Read, 184, 185. 
 attitude of, toward dissent- 
 ers, 60. 
 authorized by General 
 
 Court, 33. 
 
 history of, 18, 20, 25-54. 
 in New Haven association, 
 
 42. 
 organized when, 3, 18, 20, 
 
 33; how, 33, 34. 
 pastors of, 20. 
 First settlers, names of, 21. 
 First society, 41. 
 Fiske, Dr. John O., letter 
 
 from, 254. 
 Ford, Barnabas, dwelling 
 
 house of, in. 
 
 first clerk of Northbury, 117. 
 Foreign element in Thomas- 
 ton church. 164. 
 Foreign missionary society, 
 
 Forty-sixth psalm, Dudley 
 Buck's, at celebration, 13. 
 
 Fowler, Rev. Abraham, at 
 Naugatuck, 143. 
 
 Frayser, Mr., was he a 
 Waterbury minister? 173- 
 
 175- 
 Frontier experiences of 
 
 Waterbury, 38, 95. 
 Frontier missions, 48. 
 Fruits of revival in 1817, 51. 
 
 Gates, Rev. H. N., at North- 
 field, 152. 
 
 General Court, the. and the 
 churches, 96, 175. 
 
 Gibson, A. S., anthem by, 13. 
 organist at celebration, 13. 
 
 Gilbert legacy at Northfield, 
 152, 153. 
 
 Gillet, Rev. Alexander, at 
 Wolcott, 139. 
 
 Gospel as life, 221. 
 
 Governorship of Connecticut 
 in 1891, 88. 
 
 Graham, Rev. John, poem 
 by, 200. 
 
 Granger, Rev. D., at Water- 
 town, 101. 
 
 Grave of John Southmayd 
 
 opened, 258. 
 Mark Leavenworth opened, 
 
 260. 
 
 Timothy Hopkins opened, 
 260. 
 
 " Great awakening," 45, 46, 
 
 201. 
 at Watertown, 102. 
 
 Great drought, 182. . 
 
 Great flood, 38. 
 
 Great sickness, 39, 182, 202. 
 
 Gridley, Rev. Uriel, at Water- 
 town, 104. 
 
 Griggs, Rev. Dr. Leverett, at 
 Bristol, 167. 
 
 Griggs, Rev. L. S., at Terry - 
 ville, 167. 
 
 Guests at collation, 15-17. 
 
 Half-way covenant, 31, 180. 
 
 Hart, Rev. Luther, at Ply- 
 mouth, 131. 
 on the decline of religion, 48.
 
 270 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hazeltine, Rev. H. M., at 
 
 Oxford, 135. 
 in the celebration, n. 
 Hazen, Dr. A. W., letter 
 
 from, 253. 
 Headstones, inscriptions on, 
 
 7,8. 
 
 removed to church, 7. 
 "Hector," the ship, 176, 178. 
 Hillard, Rev. E. B., paper by, 
 
 viii, 108-131. 
 pastor at Plymouth, 131. 
 Historical discourse, 25-54. 
 Hitchcock, Rev. Oliver, at 
 
 Prospect, 162. 
 Holmes brothers, 245. 
 Holmes, Dr. W. H., on South- 
 mayd's remains, 259, 260. 
 Home missions, 37, 49, 99. 
 
 beginning of, 49. 
 Hooker, Rev. Samuel, at 
 
 Farmington, 29. 
 Hopkins, Dr. Mark, president 
 of Williams college, 246. 
 character of, 246, 247. 
 death of, 247. 
 Hopkins, Dr. Samuel, at 
 
 Great Barrington, 245. 
 covenant by, 241, 242. 
 hero of the "Minister's 
 
 Wooing," 8, n. 
 under Southmayd's minis- 
 try, 195. 
 Hopkins legacy at Northfield, 
 
 152. 
 Hopkins, Mark, an eminent 
 
 lawyer, 245, 246. 
 born in Water town, 245. 
 grandfather of President 
 Hopkins, 246. 
 
 Hopkins, Prof. Albert, 246. 
 great-grandson of Timothy, 
 
 245- 
 Hopkins, Timothy, cranium 
 
 of, 260. 
 
 father of Dr. S amuel , 8 an d n . 
 of Mark, 245. 
 grave of, opened, 260. 
 great grandfather of Presi- 
 dent Hopkins, 245. 
 headstone of, 7. 
 Hopkinsianism, 241. 
 Hotchkiss legacy at North- 
 field, 152. 
 House of first minister, where, 
 
 21. 
 
 Hoyt, Rev. J. P., in celebra- 
 tion, 13. 
 
 Hull, Captain Joseph, of 
 
 Derby, father-in-law of 
 
 Mark Leavenworth, 202. 
 
 Humaston, Caleb, collector in 
 
 Northbury, 125, 126. 
 Humaston, Miss Esther, 243. 
 Humphrey, Rev. Daniel, at 
 
 Derby, 131. 
 
 Hunt, Rev. Ira, at Middle- 
 bury, 155. 
 
 Hymn by Rev. J. G. Daven- 
 port, 90. 
 memorial, 14. 
 Indian depredations, 38. 
 
 skull, 259. 
 
 Indian, the, a menace to civ- 
 ilization, 95. 
 war, 183, 189, 207. 
 Industries of Waterbury and 
 
 its church life, 228. 
 Influence of church life, con- 
 servative, 231.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 271 
 
 Influence of church life, on 
 
 benevolence, 230. 
 on morals, 230. 
 
 Inscriptions on gravestones, 
 7, 8, 103, 104. 
 
 Inventors in Waterbury, 50. 
 
 Jennings, Rev. Isaac, letter 
 
 from, 255. 
 
 ordained by First church, 
 254- 
 
 Johnson, Rev. Edwin, raised 
 up in Terryville, 168. 
 
 Judd, Sarah, headstone of, 7. 
 
 Judd's Meadows, in Nauga- 
 tuck, 142. 
 
 Judd, Sturges M., map of 
 cemetery by, 258. 
 
 Judd, Thomas, first deacon, 7. 
 a founder of the church, 34. 
 headstone of, 7. 
 
 Kendrick, Green, 213, 244. 
 
 King Philip's war, 32. 
 
 Kingsbury, F. J., ancestry of, 
 
 197, n. 
 paper by, 197-208. 
 
 Kingsbury house, docu- 
 ments found in the, 174, 
 181. 
 
 Kitchell, Miss Johanna, mar- 
 ried to Rev. J. Peck, 177, 
 178. 
 
 Kyte, Rev. Joseph, at North- 
 field, 152. 
 
 Ladies' Benevolent society, 
 origin of, 51. 
 
 Lamps for the First church, 
 
 255- 
 Land at Thomaston deeded 
 
 for public uses, 118. 
 set apart for the ministry, 31. 
 
 Leaders in religious thought, 
 
 130. 
 Leading men of the First 
 
 church, 72. 
 
 Leavenworth genealogy, 207, 
 n. 
 
 Mrs. Ruth, 8, 84-88, 199, 
 200, 202. 
 
 Mrs. Sarah, second wife of 
 Mark, 8, 202; her two- 
 wheeled chaise, 203. 
 Leavenworth, Rev. Mark, and 
 John Southmayd, 198, 
 199- 
 
 a " new light," 201, 202. 
 
 at Yale College, 197, 198. 
 
 as a man of business, 206. 
 
 as a teacher, 207 and n. 
 
 chaplain of Whiting's regi- 
 ment, 203. 
 
 character of, 181, 208. 
 
 courtship of, 85-88. 
 
 cranium of, 260. 
 
 death of, 205. 
 
 grave of, opened, 8, 260. 
 
 inscription on headstone of, 
 8. 
 
 in the Revolutionary war, 
 204. 
 
 lays corner stone of third 
 meeting house, 205. 
 
 length of pastorate of, 205. 
 
 marries Ruth Peck, 199. 
 
 marries Sarah Hull, 202. 
 
 Mr. Davenport's vision of, 
 78-90. 
 
 obituary of, 208. 
 
 ordination of, 200. 
 
 pastorate of, 20, 42, 46, 49, 
 197-208.
 
 272 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Leavenworth, Rev. Mark, 
 
 preaches election sermon, 
 204. 
 
 relations of, to Episcopacy 
 201, 202, 207. 
 
 residence of, 200. 
 
 rides to Norwich for medi- 
 cine, 202. 
 
 sermons by, 203, 204. 
 
 sketch of, 197-203. 
 
 three sons of, in the Revolu- 
 tionary war, 204. 
 Lee, Rev. Mr., ordination of, 
 
 130, and n. 
 Legacies at Northfield, 152, 
 
 153. 
 
 Length of pastorates, 51. 
 Leonard, Rev. S. C. , at 
 
 Naugatuck, 144. 
 Letters from absent friends, 
 
 253-255. 
 
 Litchfield Law school, 150. 
 South consociation, North- 
 field church separated 
 
 from, 152. 
 
 Local history, interest in, 217. 
 Lowest ebb in prosperity of 
 
 church, 49, 50. 
 Lutheran church, 20. 
 Lyman, Rev. Ephraim, at 
 
 Plymouth, 131. 
 Lyman, Rev. Jonathan, at 
 
 Oxford, 134. 
 
 death of, by accident, 134. 
 Magill, Rev. S. W., pastorate 
 
 of, 74 and n. 
 Maltby, D. F., paper by, 72- 
 
 76. 
 Manufactures, development of, 
 
 in Connecticut, 50, 229. 
 
 Mattatuck, area of, 35, 69, 216. 
 incorporated, 25. 
 Indian name of Waterbury, 
 
 vii, 4. 
 
 Mead. Rev. Mark, at Middle- 
 bury, 155. 
 
 Meeting houses in Middle- 
 bury, 153, 159; gifts to 
 build, 159. 
 
 in Naugatuck, 143 , 144, 
 at Northfield, 150. 
 in Oxford, 133. 
 in Plymouth, 119-125. 
 in Waterbury, 39, 40 and n, 
 
 48, 52, 189-192. 
 in Watertown, 101, 102. 
 Meeting house, the third, fur- 
 nished with a bell, 49. 
 Membership of Waterbury 
 
 churches, 19. 
 
 Members, original number of, 
 in Waterbury, 21, 33, 34. 
 Memoranda, historical, 18-22. 
 Memorial service, 7, 171-223. 
 Men of to-day, obligations of, 
 
 to the past, 250. 
 Men raised up in Middlebury, 
 
 157- 
 
 in Plymouth, 239. 
 in Prospect, 161. 
 in Watertown, 245. 
 in Wolcott, 138, 141. 
 Methodists in Waterbury, 53, 
 
 68-71, 71 n. 
 earliest, names of 
 excommunicated, 57, 58 and 
 
 n. 
 
 meetings, 71. 
 Micou, Rev. R. W., in the 
 
 celebration, 10.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 273 
 
 Middlebury a generation ago, 
 
 158. 
 
 society organized, 154. 
 Middlebury church, 19, 153- 
 
 160. 
 
 gifts of, to Waterbury, 157. 
 membership of, 155, 156, 
 
 159- 
 missionary movement in, 
 
 i 5 3. 
 
 organized, 154. 
 present state of, 158. 
 Ministers, associations of, 96. 
 raised up in Oxford, 136. 
 in Terryville, 168. 
 in Waterbury, S, n, g, 135, 
 
 195, 245. 255. 
 in Watertown, 105. 
 " Minister's wooing," hero of, 
 
 8, . 
 
 Ministry, provision for, in 
 Waterbury, 30, 33, 181, 
 if4-ifo. 1 55. 200-202. 
 Minutes of N. H. East associ- 
 ation at the ordination of 
 Samuel Todd, 119. 
 of the First church concern- 
 ing Methodist dissenters, 
 58 and n.; concerning call 
 of Mr. Peck, 181. 
 of town meeting concerning 
 
 Plymouth, in. 
 of meeting at Plymouth 
 to organize a society, 117, 
 122. 
 Mission, Congregational, in 
 
 Waterbury, 15. 
 Missions on the frontier, 49. 
 Mohr, Ursinus O., ordained at 
 Reynolds Bridge, 169, 170. 
 
 Monuments, inscriptions on, 
 
 103, 104. 
 in Waterbury, 79, 80. 
 
 Morality and the churches, 230. 
 
 Moral training of communi- 
 ties, 217-220. 
 
 Morrow, J. H., letter from, 
 
 253- 
 Moss, Rev. Joseph, of Derby, 
 
 131. 
 
 Mother and daughter 
 churches, viii, 19, 93-170, 
 216. 
 Naugatuck church, a house of 
 
 peace. 147 
 
 church membership, 147. 
 deacons, 146. 
 organized, 143. 
 parish house, 145, 146. 
 pastors of, 143, 144. 
 sketch of, 141-147. 
 Nettleton, Dr. Asahel, minis- 
 try of, 20, 37 and ., 51. 
 New age, an age of institu- 
 tions, 52. 
 New centres of population, 
 
 43, 94, 108, 192. 
 New Connecticut aud Middle- 
 bury, 156. 
 New England divines, not 
 
 antiquated, 236, 238. 
 real character of, 235, 246. 
 very human. 236. 
 worked without "machine- 
 ry," 237, 238. 
 
 New settlers, labors and pa- 
 tience of, 69, 159, 1 86, iS~. 
 Northbury parish, 19, 108-131. 
 boundaries of, 116. 
 organized, 115-117.
 
 274 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 "North farmers" in Derby, 
 permitted to organize a 
 society, 132. 
 
 Northfield church, viii, 19, 148- 
 
 153. 
 
 pastors of, 151, 152. 
 Old cellars in Prospect, 161. 
 Old Testament criticism, 219. 
 Old-time worshippers de- 
 scribed, 30, 41, 42. 
 Oneida community and Pros- 
 pect, 162. 
 Orcutt, Rev. Samuel, History 
 
 of Wolcott by, 140, n. 
 Organization of First church 
 
 delayed, 31, 33. 
 described, 34, 35. 
 place of, 21, 35. 
 time of, 18, 21, 33. 
 Organizations, modern, 52, 
 
 237- 
 
 Original minutes of meeting 
 that called Mr. Peck, 181. 
 
 Oxford church, 19. 
 sketch of, 131-136. 
 society organized, 132, 133. 
 
 Painter, Rev. C. C., at Naug- 
 atuck, 144. 
 
 Parade ground in Plymouth, 
 126. 
 
 Parish house at Naugatuck, 
 145, 146. 
 
 Parish, original, disintegra- 
 tion of, 43, 101, 108-116, 
 132, 137, 143, 153, 161. 
 
 Participants in the celebra- 
 tion, 9-13. 
 
 Pastors of Eagle Rock church, 
 
 169, 170. 
 at Middlebury, 155. 
 
 Pastors at Northfield, 151, 152. 
 at Oxford, 134, 135. 
 at Plymouth, 130, 131. 
 at Terryville, 166, 167. 
 at Watertown, 105. 
 of First church, list of, 
 
 20. 
 
 portraits of, 6. 
 Peck, Jeremiah, jr., father of 
 
 Ruth Leavenworth, 85, 
 
 ., 199. 
 Peck, Rev. Jeremiah, and the 
 
 N. H. colony school, 177- 
 
 180. 
 
 at Elizabeth town, 180. - 
 at Greenwich, Conn., 181. 
 at Harvard college, 177. 
 began Waterbury ministry, 
 
 21, 28. 
 
 character of, 183. 
 coming of, to Waterbury, 
 
 181, 182. 
 
 death of, 39, 183. 
 grave of, unknown, 183. 
 had he a predecessor ? 173- 
 
 175- 
 
 marriage of, 177. 
 on the ship Hector, 176. 
 petition of, to General 
 
 Court, 178-180. 
 sketch of, 173-183. 
 sons of, 85, 181, 182. 
 Peck, Ruth, courtship of, 84- 
 
 88. 
 married to Rev. Mark 
 
 Leavenworth, 199. 
 Pegrum, Rev. R., paper by, 
 
 99-107. 
 Periods in Waterbury history, 
 
 37-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 275 
 
 Petitions to General Court, by 
 Jeremiah Peck, 178-180. 
 by Northfield, 148. 
 by Oxford, 132. 
 by Plymouth, 111-115, J 2i- 
 
 125. 
 
 by Salem, 143. 
 by Waterbury, 33, 38, 39, 
 
 189, 190. 
 
 by Watertown, 100-102. 
 Phipps, Rev. W. H., paper 
 
 by, 160-162. 
 
 Planters of Mattatuck, emi- 
 grants from Farmington, 
 29. 
 
 men of the modern time, 28. 
 names of, 21. 
 of Anglo-Saxon stock, 36. 
 Platt, Dr. G. L., from Middle- 
 bury, 157. 
 Plymouth church and her 
 
 children, 238, 239. 
 colonizing. 166. 
 grateful for her parentage, 
 
 238. 
 
 organized, 19, 118. 
 sketch of, 108-131. 
 Plymouth, first settlers at, 108. 
 Plymouth Hollow, 19, 108- 
 
 121, 163-165, 166. 
 Plymouth settlers appeal to 
 the town for winter privi- 
 leges, no. 
 memorials of, to legislature, 
 
 112-115. 
 
 Plymouth society reorgan- 
 ized, 121. 
 
 vote to build by, 124, 126. 
 Plymouth town incorporated, 
 
 Pohl, F. J., ordained at Rey- 
 nolds Bridge, 169. 
 
 Porter, President Noah, de- 
 scription of early New 
 England life by, 29, 30. 
 
 Porter, Rev. Edward, pastor- 
 ate of, 20, 49. 
 
 Portrait of Rev. Luke Wood, 
 6. 
 
 Portraits in parlors of First 
 church, 6. 
 
 Potter, Tertius D., of Thomas- 
 ton, 164 and n, 256. 
 
 Prayer meeting, origin of, 51. 
 
 Prayer meetings before 1829, 
 
 255- 
 Preaching, dogmatic, no longer 
 
 relished, 220. 
 Prichard, Miss S. J., article by, 
 
 in "American," 21, 22. 
 papers by, 173-196. 
 Prospect church, 19, sketch of, 
 
 160-162. 
 Prospect men in other 
 
 churches, 161. 
 Public library at Northfield, 
 
 152. 
 in Waterbury, origin of, 
 
 157- 
 Pulpit supplies at Northfield, 
 
 151- 
 
 at Oxford, 134, 135. 
 Puritans, the eulogy of, by Dr. 
 
 Rowland, 59, 60. 
 by Mr. Eggleston, 69. 
 by Mr. Zelie, 235-238. 
 Quaker Farm, petitioners at, 
 
 131- 
 
 Rapidity of modern achieve- 
 ment, 70.
 
 276 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Read, Rev. John, called to 
 
 Waterbury, 184, 185. 
 describes the Rev. Mr. 
 
 Torrey's praying, 185, 186. 
 Relics of the dead, 7, 257-261. 
 Religion, decline in, 31, 32, 48. 
 Remains of pastors, exhumed, 
 
 7, 259-261. 
 
 final disposition of, 261. 
 Revival, 45, and reaction, 48. 
 excesses, effect of, 46. 
 of 1817, under Nettleton, 51. 
 Revivals at Terryville, 167. 
 
 at Watertown, 105. 
 Revolutionary war, 46, 47, 48. 
 Reynolds Bridge, church at, 
 
 19, 169, 170. 
 Richards, Dr. James, at 
 
 Northfield, 152. 
 Richardson, Rev. Merrill, at 
 
 Terryville, 166, 167. 
 Root, Rev. David, pastorate 
 
 of, 20. 
 Ross, Rev. A. Hastings, at 
 
 Terryville, 167. 
 Rowland, Rev. E., address 
 
 by, 59-63. 
 Rural churches, 20, 137, 138, 
 
 157, 161, 231, 239. 
 Russell, Rev. F. T., grandson 
 
 of Rev. Luke Wood, 6. 
 Salem society, 19, 141-147, 
 
 161. 
 
 Sanford, Rev. E. B., at North- 
 field, 152. 
 
 at Reynolds Bridge, 169. 
 Saybrook platform, 42, 43, 96, 
 
 97- 
 
 Scholars of the house, 197, 
 198. 
 
 School, Miss Pierce's, at Litch- 
 
 field, 150. 
 the colony, at New Haven, 
 
 177-180. 
 
 Scovill, Rev. James, 207. 
 Scovill, Edward, 244. 
 Seating the meeting house, 
 
 42, 65, 190-192. 
 at Northfield, 150. 
 Second Congregational 
 church, Waterbury, 19, 53. 
 invited to celebrate, 3. 
 growth of, 75. 
 origin and spirit of, 222. 
 sketch of, 72-76. 
 society organized, 72, 73. 
 spire blown over, 76. 
 Settlers, of Northfield, 148. 
 of Waterbury, of what 
 
 stock, 29, 36. 
 life of, described, 29. 
 Services, order of, at celebra- 
 tion, 9-13. 
 Sherman, Rev. C. S., at 
 
 Naugatuck, 144, 145. 
 centennial sermon by, 144. n. 
 Skeletons exhumed, 7, 259- 
 
 261. 
 Smith, Rev. E. A., paper by, 
 
 93-99- 
 Smith, Rev. Isaiah P., paper 
 
 by, 136-141. 
 Snow, Rev. F. S., n, a son of 
 
 the First church, 135. 
 pastor at Oxford, 135. 
 Societies, ecclesiastical, set 
 
 apart, 43, 73, 101, 116, 132, 
 
 137, 143, 148, 153, 161, 192. 
 Society for the promotion of 
 
 freedom, 204.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 277 
 
 Soldiers' monument, 79, 80. 
 
 South-east Farms, in North- 
 field, 148. 
 
 Southmayd, Daniel, "Water- 
 
 bury's pride," 203. 
 sermon on death of, 203. 
 
 Southmayd, Mrs. Dorcas, of 
 Watertown, fund begun 
 by, 106. 
 
 Southmayd, Rev. John, and 
 Mark Leavenworth, 198, 
 
 199- 
 attitude of, to the Church of 
 
 England, 194, 195. 
 becomes town clerk, 193. 
 bereavements of, 196. 
 called, 40. 
 children of, 189. 
 conies to Waterbury, 186. 
 cranium of, described, 259, 
 
 260. 
 disinterment of remains of, 
 
 7, 257-259- 
 
 gifts of the town to, 188. 
 grave of, 7, 196, n, 257- 
 
 259- 
 
 headstone of, 8 and n. 
 land at Thomaston given 
 
 by, 1 1 8. 
 
 landed estate of, 194. 
 lineage of, 187. 
 pastorate of, 20, 42, 193. 
 settlement of, 188. 
 sketch of, 184-196. 
 work of, in Waterbury, 189, 
 
 I93-I95- 
 
 Starr, Rev. E. C., at North- 
 field, 152. 
 
 parish papers edited by, 
 I53> 
 
 Stocking, Dea. John, 244. 
 Stone, Rev. Dr. A. L., raised 
 
 up in Oxford, 136. 
 Storrs, Rev. Andrew, at Ply- 
 mouth, 128, 131. 
 Subscribers, original, to Sec- 
 ond church building fund, 
 73- 
 
 Subscription paper for build- 
 ing Middlebury meeting 
 house, 159. 
 Sunday school, origin of, 51. 
 
 in Middlebury, 158. 
 Swedish church, 19, n. 
 Sympathy in building up com- 
 munities. 221. 
 Tax upon land in Northbury, 
 
 124, 125. 
 Territorial . division in the 
 
 town, 43, 108. 
 Terry, Eli, gifts of, to Terry- 
 
 ville church, 168. 
 Terry ville church. 19, in the 
 
 civil war, 167, 168. 
 membership of, 167. 
 sketch of, 165-169. 
 Theology a progressive sci- 
 ence, 52. 
 Thomaston church, 19. 
 
 sketch of, 163-165. 
 Thomaston park, original 
 
 deed of, 118, n. 
 Todd, Rev. Samuel, a man of 
 
 progress, 130. 
 at Plymouth, 117, 118, 128- 
 
 130. 
 
 character of, 129, 130. 
 hardships of, 128. 
 ordained, 118, 119. 
 relief for, 129.
 
 278 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Torrey, Rev. Mr., of Wey- 
 mouth, in prayer, 185, 186. 
 
 Town of Waterbury, original 
 dimensions of, 35, 69. 
 
 Townsend, George L., from 
 Middlebury, 157. 
 
 Trouble in Northbury society, 
 
 120-122. 
 
 Trumbull, Rev. John, de- 
 scribed, 103. 
 
 installation of, at Water- 
 town, celebrated, 102 and 
 n. 
 
 monument to, 103, 104. 
 pastorate of, 102-104. 
 Type, unity of, in Connecti- 
 cut churches, 94. 
 Unity of Christians, 21, 61, 62, 
 
 66. 
 
 Up-river inhabitants, 108. 
 Vacancies in pastorate, 20, 5 1. 
 Village churches, 19. 
 Vision of Mark Leavenworth, 
 
 Mr. Davenport's, 78-90. 
 Visitation and charity, fund 
 
 for, 10. 
 
 Visitors at celebration, 15-17. 
 Vote to celebrate bi-cente- 
 
 nary, 3. 
 War, effects of, 38, 48, 207. 
 
 for the Union, 167, 168. 
 Warren, Franklin, paper by, 
 
 141-147. 
 
 Watch, the Waterbury, 78. 
 Waterbury and Farmington, 
 
 early relations of, 93, 94. 
 annexed to New Haven 
 
 county, 42. 
 
 family of churches, 164. 
 in 1699, 186, 187. 
 
 Waterbury in 1800, 50. 
 
 men in Oxford church and 
 
 society, 134, 133. 
 Waterman, Rev. Simon, mod- 
 erator at Northfield, 149. 
 pastor at Plymouth, 131. 
 Watertown as a society, 101. 
 centenary, 102, n. 
 diseases in, 107. 
 when settled, 100. 
 Watertown church, 19. 
 discipline in, 106. 
 organized, 102. 
 sketch of, 99-107. 
 death record of, 107. 
 ministers raised up in, 105. 
 pastors and deacons in, 105. 
 Watts' hyms at Watertown, 
 
 106. 
 
 Weeks, Rev. Holland, fare- 
 well sermon of, 50, 49, n. 
 pastorate of, 20, 49. 
 Welton monument, 79. 
 Westbury, 19, 99-107. 
 West Farms, 19, 153-160. 
 Whitefield, Rev. George, re- 
 vival under, 201. 
 Whittlesey, Rev. E., pastor- 
 ate of, 74. 
 Williams, Rev. M. H., raised 
 
 up in Terryville, 168. 
 Winter privileges at Ply- 
 mouth, 109-114, 199, 238. 
 at Watertown, 100. 
 for Judd's meadows, 143. 
 Wolcott church, 18. 
 centenary of, 140, n. 
 ' ' raising deacons for Water- 
 bury," 141. 
 sketch of, 136-141.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 279 
 
 Wolcott, Episcopalians in, 140. 
 
 incorporated, when, 137. 
 
 men in city churches, 141. 
 
 raising men, 138. 
 
 Wood, Rev. Luke, pastorate 
 
 of, 20, 51. 
 
 Woodbury, ancient, described 
 by Rev. J. L. R. Wyckoff, 
 228, 231, 232. 
 bi-centenary of, 232. 
 North church, 228. 
 Woodbury tributary to Water- 
 bury churches, 232. 
 
 Woodward, Rev. Israel B., at 
 
 Wolcott, 139. 
 Woodworth, Rev. W. \V., 
 
 pastorate of, 20. 
 Wooster swamp, 108. 
 Wyckoff, Rev. J. L. R., ad- 
 
 dress by, 227-233. 
 pastorate of, at Woodbury, 
 
 228. 
 Zelie, Rev. J. S., address by, 
 
 233-240. 
 relations of, to Waterbury, 
 
 239.
 
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