YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

AN HISTORICAL ADDRE&S
In Commemoration OF THE
¦ ¦ f
ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OR.THE>
Vermont Domestic Missionary Socierj)
BY
Rev. CKaflesH. Merrlft D. D.
Befcre the 'M'Sel&ii' neld in Lyndbnville, May 32, 1918

AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS

At the semi-centennial of this Society, held in St.
Johnsbury, June 17, 1858, Rev. H. N. Burton, then pastor in
Newbury, closed his "discourse" with these words: "Shall
not this Society, at the centennial fifty years hence, be able
to speak of more munificent benefactions, more extended
operations, sublimer sacrifices, more devoted services and
more glorious triumphs than have characterized the past
fifty years?" At the seventy-fifth anniversary, held in
Montpelier, June 14, 1893, Rev. C. S. Smith, the retired
secretary, closes his "sketch" as follows: "May those here
today who shall gather to celebrate the centennial twenty-
five years hence, be able to testify to its continued useful
ness and witness a large growth of the Kingdom of Christ
in the state."
Measurably we shall find, as we review the years,
have these hopes been realized. Of those delegates present
fifty years ago two survive who are residents in the state,
out of a possible list, resident and non-resident, of eight,
Rev. A. W. Wild and Rev. E. E. Herrick. Of the residents
in the state officially present twenty-five years ago, four are
still pastors in active service, Rev. George F. Chapin, still
serving in the same field, Rev. William C. Clark, Rev. E. G.
French, and Rev. James Ramage. Others then present are
the Corresponding Secretary of the Convention, J. M. Corn-
stock, the Secretary of the Society, C. H. Merrill, and two
additional delegates, Rev. C. H. Smith and Deacon G. H.
Cross. Eight ministers retired from active service, now liv
ing in the state, among them Rev. E. E. Herrick, who was
present fifty years ago, together with a few laymen, make
up the list of those who can now testify to the fulfillment of
hopes. The beginnings of missionary activity in what are now
the bounds of Vermont are hard to define with accuracy.
We must bear in mind that our Pilgrim Fathers came to

the shores of New England not as missionary pioneers, but
as representatives of those who sought to establish "a
Church without a bishop, and a state without a king."
Hence it followed that the civil and ecclesiastical settle
ments for a century and a half went hand in hand. If, as
Mr. Palfrey alleges, the first Missionary Society in Protes
tant Christendom was the General Court of Massachusetts,
then the General Court of Connecticut, which followed
hard after, and which required a Congregational Church
to be established in each township of the state, may be re
garded as a close second. The first distinctive "Societies"
which may be called "Missionary" were local bodies formed
by ministerial associations, and largely for the purpose of
work among the Indians. It was not until 1774 that the
General Association of Connecticut took into consideration
"the state of settlements now forming in the wilderness
to the westward and northwestward of us, who are desti
tute of a preached gospel, many of whom are our brethren,
emigrants from this colony." And it was not until 1780
that two ministers were recommended by them "for service
in Vermont and parts adjacent." Whether these were sent
does not appear. But in 1788 the New Haven West Asso
ciation did send -two men to Vermont. Other local Asso
ciations, the New Haven East, the Middlesex, the Litch
field County, the Hartford North, sent in this and later
years others; until in 1798 the Missionary Society of Con
necticut was formed, and the work was prosecuted more
systematically. These men were sent in response to calls
which had come from those who had gone up into the new
settlements, and who made appeal to pastors and friends
left behind. Almost without exception the men sent were
pastors who spent their summer vacations in this way,
making horseback tours, ranging in one recorded instance
up to eight hundred miles. In 1793 we find this vote of one
of the local Associations: "the term of service is to be for
four months, the allowance four and one half dollars a week
over and above four dollars a week for the supply of their
pulpits." Time would fail us to give a list of the names
of those who made these tours, and the places they visited.

Suffice to say that among them are many who later took up
their abode in the state and became prominent as pastors
in some of our largest Churches, and active in organizing
missionary work.
But it is evident that up to the beginning of the last
century, when 94 Congregational Churches were reported
in existence, — nearly one half our present number of 215, —
it was the civil rather than religious propaganda that had
chiefly to do with their organization and support. To this
end the grants given for settlement of towns by Governor
Wentworth of New Hampshire, and later by the earlier
Governors of Vermont were made contributory.*
To this same end was the act of the General Assembly
of Vermont passed in 1780 empowering a town to levy taxes
for building and repairing its meeting house and supporting
its minister. This minister was naturally of the "Standing
Order," and persons could escape this tax only by declaring
such payment to be for a purpose "contrary to the dictates
of his conscience;" or, by a later act of legislature, by pro
ducing a certificate that he was a supporter of some other
Church. It was not until 1807 that all laws uniting Church
and state were repealed.
It is for these reasons that we are justified in saying
that the Churches formed up to the beginning of the last
century had their origin and support only incidentally in
missionary agencies. In Bennington and Rutland Coun
ties in the Western part of the state, and on the Eastern
side in Windham County and the Connecticut valley up as
*Note — The grants of Governor Wentworth usually contained
lots in each township for Glebes, for the First Settled Minister, for
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and
for Schools. Two of these, the Glebes and the Society for the Prop
agation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, were English rights and be
came subject to prolific legislation. In 1794 the Vermont legisla
ture sequestered the Glebe lands for all denominations, and the
Society's lands for school purposes. This act was repealed in 179 9.
In 18 05 the Glebe lands were sequestered for school purposes, and
the Society's for all denominations. A- few years later this was re
pealed, and the lands given into the care of the towns. The Society
in 1816 appointed- as agents Bishop Griswold of Rhode Island and
two laymen in Vermont to represent them, and in 1823 they brought
suit against the town of New Haven for their lands and carried the
case to the Supreme Court of the United States. Daniel Webster

far. as Newbury, no Churches, so far as we have record, had
any missionary visitation. And later, in the settlement of
the Champlain valley and the Northern part of the state,
the visitation of the Itinerant missionaries from Connecti
cut and Massachusetts was irregular, spasmodic and brief.
For an account of these itineraries we are dependent upon
the files of papers with the Missionary Society of Con
necticut. It was not until April 4, 1804, that a group of ministers
in our state acting as a committee appointed by the Con
sociations of the Western Districts of the state of Vermont,
issued a circular letter to the Churches within these Dis
tricts, asking them to make contributions to defray the ex
pense of some missions in our new settlements. The fol
lowing year, October 10, 1805, they made report, showing
that five men had made missionary tours during the two
years for which $327.97 had been contributed and $228.96
expended, leaving $99.01 in the treasury, a worthy precedent
they were able to keep up all the first years of missionary
operations. The first of these men reported that he made
two tours, during the first of which he preached eight weeks
as missionary, and five as candidate, without expense to
the committee. During the second he preached eight
weeks as missionary, and nine as candidate, without mis
sionary expense. The distinction between his missionary
and candidature work does not appear except in the way of
expense. If this was really a prolonged attempt to secure
a pastorate it does not appear to have met with success,
appeared for the State and was defeated, the Court holding that the
Revolutionary war did not invalidate these English rights, that the
act of 17 9 4 was void and no title could be conveyed under it. Sub
sequently the Episcopal Church, to whom the Society had conveyed
its claims, secured from other towns these lands, and today derive
an income of some $5,000 annually from them. Dartmouth College
came within a few votes in one of the legislatures of getting these
lands by an act which would of course have been invalidated by the
later decision of the Supreme Court.
The grant, made by Governor Chittenden and other Governors
of Vermont, largely in the Northern part of the state, gave lands
only for Churches having no English origin, or for Gospel purposes.
These, with others sequestered and not reclaimed, now furnish the
"Town money" for Church organizations which maintain worship
thirteen Sundays in the year.

for his only pastorate in Vermont is reported as at Man
chester during these two years he is "candidating." The
fields he visited, 41 in all, ranged from Sudbury on the
South to Swanton on the North, and Montpelier, Cabot and
Walden on the East. He preached 127 sermons, attended
42 public conferences, formed two Churches, baptized nine
adults and sixty-one children, and administered the sacra
ment of the Lord's Supper seven times. This may be taken
as a sample of this kind of work, both that done in the
early days by the men from Connecticut, and later by our
own men during the first two decades of the century.
Three of the other men did eight weeks' service each, and
one five. Two of these men were settled pastors, one of
them the famous colored pastor of West Rutland, Rev. Lem
uel Haynes, one does not appear among the fist of Vermont
ministers, and the other shortly after his mission was or
dained in a town not in his itinerary, Essex, where he re
mained 23 years.
At a meeting of the General Convention of Ministers,
held at Middlebury, September 1, 1807, at which nine men
from the state and one from General Assembly of the Pres
byterian Church were present, it was voted, after consulta
tion with the committee appointed by the consociations of
the western district of Vermont, that this Convention form
themselves into a society to be known by the name and
style of the Vermont Missionary Society; that the Conven
tion annually elect, from the seVeral parts of the state,
twelve trustees, one half of whom should be laymen, and
that this body of trustees should hold their first meeting in
October. This election accordingly took place, ministers
and an equal number of laymen were elected representing
the state from Marlboro to Thetford on the eastern side,
and Rutland and Addison counties on the western, and
from this time on for 11 years the missionary work was
done by this organization. The average receipts were be
tween six and seven hundred dollars a year, with always
a surplus in the treasury. From six to fifteen men were
employed for a part of each year. For the most part these
were pastors in the state who took this time to be absent

from their charges. They received from five to seven
dollars a week for their services, and in a few instances it
was in part or wholly paid by the fields they visited. Occa
sionally laymen were employed, and rare instances are
found, as in the report of 1815, where an appropriation is
made for a field or group of fields on condition that they
employ a minister for a year. Regret is expressed in one
of these annual reports that the New England Missionary
Societies do not act in accord. "In consequence," they say,
"of the want of system that prevails some districts receive
a large portion of missionary labors, while in others the
voice of a missionary is seldom or never heard." For this
reason it was proposed "to restrict the missionaries to small
districts, that they may visit particular places at stated
times. By this means not only the fact that there will be
preaching, but the kind of preaching, and the character of
the preacher, at least to some extent, will be known."
Towards the close of this period of eleven years, inter
est in the work began to wane. Notwithstanding the bal
ance in the treasury continued to be upon the right side,
contributions were f ailing off, and the annual address to the
Churches failed to meet the response that was needed.
The coming of Levi Parsons, a son of Rev. Justin Parsons,
pastor at Pittsfield, who was commissioned by the Society
in 1817, marked a new era in the history of missions in the
state. His father had been one of early summer mission
aries. Mr. Parsons, a graduate of Middlebury, and just
completing his course at Andover, was under appointment
by the American Board to go on a foreign mission to Tur
key. He labored for six months, the first year in a group
of towns in Washington County near Montpelier, and later
in the northern part of the state in Westfield and Troy,
where, following an extensive revival, Churches were or
ganized. His experience led to the conviction that an im
pulse might be given to missionary work by organizing lo
cal Missionary Societies in the different towns among the
young, calling them Juvenile Missionary Societies, and
making them auxiliary to a state Society. His plan met
the approval of the trustees, and he returned another year

to put it in execution. As a result of his labors that year
he reported that he had organized thirty-two Societies, and
raised by subscription not far from $3,000.
When the Vermont Missionary Soqiety met that year
at Peacham, in connection with the General Convention of
Ministers, September 10, 1818, it was voted to dissolve, and
give place to a new organization immediately to be formed.
Accordingly six days after, at Castleton, delegates from
the newly formed local Juvenile Societies assembled to the
number of thirty-two, ten ministers and twenty-two lay
men, and formed the Vermont Juvenile Missionary Society,
adopting a constitution and electing officers. Apparently
it was an instance of changing the form but not the sub
stance. For when the names of these "Juveniles" are
closely scrutinized, they are found to be, so far as the min
isters are concerned, the identical persons who were the
leading spirits in the old organization recently interred.
Apparently the young people, if they were in control in the
local societies, were content to exercise their activities in
raising money, and modestly sent their pastors and deacons
to represent them in the state meeting. This Society con
tinued its existence for eight years, prosecuting its work
much in the same way as the Vermont Missionary Society
which had preceded it had done, when it gave way in turn
to the Vermont Domestic Missionary Society, which has
kept the name to this day.
A word in passing is fittingly due to the man who was
instrumental in its organization. The zeal of Mr. Parsons,
his piety, his executive ability are all made evident in his
reports of labors which are given at length in our records,
extracts from which cannot now be given. It was in Troy
especially, where the Church has this year observed its
centennial, that revivals were witnessed, the scenes of
which as he records them bear witness to his spirit and his
consecration. In 1819 he sailed as a foreign missionary
to Turkey. After two brief years of work, which left a per
manent impress upon the mission, giving him high place
among the noble army of saints, he died in Alexandria,
Egypt, with Rev. Pliny Fisk as his nurse, on a Sabbath

morning, February 18, 1822. In his person was illustrated,
as perhaps in no other, the intimate relation which has
always existed between the home and the foreign work.
The formation of the new Society, which was a dele
gate bodyfrom local organizations, led for a time to a sep
aration from the General Convention. Meetings were held
at different places and dates, the Convention meeting in
September, and the Missionary Society in October. The
Convention was composed wholly of Ministers, few in num
ber, delegates from County or Local Associations, and in the
early days always assembled in the study of the entertain
ing Minister. The Missionary Society was composed of both
Ministers and laymen, and met in some public place, as at
Vergennes, in 1820, in the court house; and had a sermon
preached in addition to the annual report. The sermon of
1819, preached at Randolph by Rev. Daniel Haskell, pastor
of the Church in Burlington, was thought worthy of pub
lication in full, and contains an examination of the religious
condition, and in many cases destitution, of the 243 towns
then in the state, based upon the census of 1810. He ex
amines them county by county and sums up as follows:
"Thus it appears that 97 towns in Vermont have in them
no stated preacher of the gospel, of any religious denomi
nation; and 154 towns are without a Congregational or
Presbyterian Minister. The population of the towns which
are wholly destitute was, in 1810, 41,665, and at a rate of
increase much less than the ten years previous to the last
census, would now be more than 50,000." It appears that
the 94 Churches of our order with which the century began
had increased to 167 in the year 1818, but of these 75 were
pastorless, leaving only 92 served with resident Ministers.
As some towns had more than one Church, like Rutland
and Westminster, these figures accord very closely with
Mr. Haskell's statement, that in only 89 towns was there
a Congregational or Presbyterian Minister. It is significant
as bearing upon the unsatisfactory results of the Itinerant
work that of the 94 old Churches only 25 were without
pastors, while of the 73 new Churches organized since
1800 there were 50 without pastors. Evidently the Itiner-

ant work lacked staying qualities.
A question naturally arises, as we note the change of
organizations, why do we date our anniversaries from 1818
when the Juvenile Missionary Society was formed, and not
from 1804 when men were employed and supported under
commission from a body of Ministers in the state, or from
1807 when the Vermont Missionary Society was formed, or
from 1826 when the organization took its present name?
The only help towards a solution of the problem seems to be
that the organization formed in 1818 started out independ
ently, separating itself from the Convention, with a differ
ent constituency and a different time of meeting. But it
seems unfortunate that, in consequence, the popular im
pression is conveyed that we have not been at our job here
in the state as long as is actually the case. This is one of
the misfortunes we have inherited.
For five years the annual meetings of the Society were
held by themselves, when, without any apparent reason
being given, it was voted to hold tbe next meeting in 1823
at Ludlow jointly with the General Convention, making the
members of that body eligible to membership in full to
gether with the delegates appointed from the local Socie
ties. Since that date the anniversaries have been held at
the same time and place with the General Convention.
The publication of reports was made separately up to
1875, since which date they have been included in the same
volumes. In 1826 the name of the Society was changed to the
one we now hold, the Vermont Domestic Missionary So
ciety, in accordance with a vote taken the year previous
to change the constitution to that effect, without in any
way apparently making any other important changes. It
was voted also at this same time to petition the legislature
for a charter, if it was deemed expedient. It was not, how
ever, until 1872 that a charter was secured. The next year,
1827, it was voted to follow the example of Connecticut
and Massachusetts and become auxiliary to the newly
formed American Home Missionary Society, organized with
headquarters in New York for the purpose of doing a na-

10
tional work. The relations held to this Society were for
80 years theoretically to this effect; the state organiza
tion was to do all needed home missionary work within
its own borders and turn over its surplus funds to the Na
tional Society for western work. Practically it was found
that, with the exception of rare years when there were lega
cies of unusual amount, there were no funds to turn over,
while in years of dearth there was nothing coming back.
In effect then there were really two Home Missionary or
ganizations working independently, if not in actual com
petition, and two separate appeals were made to the
Churches, one for the state and one for the nation. It was
not until 1906 that this condition was remedied, and the
whole Home Missionary work was made organically one.
The practical working of the old plan was not so disas
trous as might have been expected, but the increasing
home needs of New England and the older self supporting
states made it essential that a change in the haphazard
method of appeals should be effected. And this, together
with the movement to consolidate and make all our origi
nally independent benevolent societies more directly under
control of the Churches, brought about the present rela
tion of pooling all undesignated home missionary gifts from
living donors on a percentage agreement with the National
Society. Another vital change came into home missionary work
in the state at this time. It had come to be felt that the
Itinerant work was ineffective for securing permanent re
sults. In the report of 1826 we find this record: "Your Di
rectors are fully convinced that a stated ministry is produc
tive of more lasting results, than the system of Itinerant
labors." And then they quote from the last report of the
New York Society, which a year later became the Amer
ican Home Missionary Society: "Experience has convinced
this committee that the system of charitable aid which fur
nishes weak congregations with the means of supporting
a settled ministry is far more effective in its permanent re
sults, than that which embraces a wider field, and plants
but does not water." In accordance with this policy Itin-

11
erant work fell into gradual disuse for a time, and aid given
to Churches to secure a settled Minister came to the front.
Before going farther let us review briefly the dates of
•change in organization of missionary work in the state.
From 1780 to the organization of the Connecticut Mission
ary Society in 1798, work was done under the direction of
local ministerial Associations in the state of Connecticut.
For the five or six years following, the Connecticut Society
commissioned 39 men to come to Vermont to "look after
the shepherdless sheep in the wilderness." A few also
came from the Berkshire Association in Western Massachu
setts; and the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society, or
ganized one year later than the Connecticut, sent some,
.among them the famous foreign missionary, Adoniram
Judson. In 1804 a band of ministers in Western Vermont
took over the work from Connecticut, and in 1807 organ
ized the first state Home Missionary Society. This quietly
gave place to another organization in 1818, which took a
new name in 1826, became auxiliary to the American, after
wards the Congregational, Home Missionary Society in
1827, was chartered in 1872, and became organically con
nected with the National Society in 1906.
The constituency of these organizations varied. From
1807 to 1818 the membership was identical with that of the
^General Convention of Congregational and Presbyterian
Ministers. This was a delegated body from Ministerial As
sociations, usually in number from eight to twelve, meeting
in the study of the entertaining Minister. From 1818 to
1823 membership consisted of delegates from Juvenile So
cieties in local Churches. When they met again in 1823
-with the General Convention it was provided that together
with these delegates all members of Convention and life
members of the Society made by payment of $20 at any one
time should have membership. Gradually the local Juven
ile Societies died out and by 1836 they ceased to be rep
resented, leaving only life members and delegates to the
General Convention to constitute the body. In 1847 mem
bership was extended to all who contributed annually to the
funds of the Society. In 1873 membership was withdrawn

12
from delegates to the General Convention, and given only
to life members, to persons who contributed annually two
dollars, and to pastors whose Churches sent an annual con
tribution. In 1905 the constitution was again changed to
the form which now exists: Membership shall consist "of
life members made previous to 1905, and the members of
the Congregational Convention of Vermont annually meet
ing with that body." It should be remembered that during
these years the General Convention had changed, first
from being strictly a ministerial body; to, second, a dele
gated body of Ministers from Associations and Ministers
and laymen from County Conferences; and, finally, to a
representative body of pastor and one delegate from each
Church. Action taken last year has since brought the
two bodies, state and missionary, into still closer relation
ship by making the Board of Directors the same for each.
The methods by which work has been done during:
this more than a century has varied. At first it was Itin
erant exclusively, later it was for a time wholly Sustenta-
tion, and since both methods have been employed. Be
tween the two lies a radical difference. The first, the Itin
erant, is pioneer and aggressive. The missionary is sent
upon a circuit for visitation, or placed in a field for tempor
ary service. His full support is guaranteed by the Society,
and while he may receive voluntary offerings from the
fields, he is in no way dependent upon them, nor are they
required to make any pledges in advance. The second
method, that of making the missionary a settled pastor, is
virtually a sustentation scheme. It presupposes a Church
organization, or a body of Christians, capable of making
definite pledges in advance, and showing themselves ready
to come up to a standard of giving, before supplementary
aid is granted to make a sum sufficient to secure a pastor.
Now up to the time that the Society took its present
name in 1826, and the year later became auxiliary to the
National Society, it had been doing Itinerant work almost
exclusively. While offers had been made, in 1815 and later,
of definite sums of aid for securing and retaining approved
pastors, there is no record that any of these offers had been

13
accepted. On the change of policy, following the example
of other State and National Societies, Itinerant work fell
into disuse. From 1839 to 1849 there is no record of any
Itinerant laborer employed.
In the early fifties conditions were found to be in such
a deplorable state, Churches closed and large areas desti
tute of religious services, due in a measure to the wave of
emigration setting westward, that attention was called
again to the special need of this kind of work. A letter
to the Society from a layman, Sir Thaddeus Fairbanks of
St. Johnsbury, who pledged support, together with his
brother, for underwriting the increased budget, was the
occasion of starting up this method again with such vigor
and success that for a few years it. overshadowed the
other. His son, Rev. Henry Fairbanks, just graduating
from Andover Seminary, was the chief executive, throwing
himself into the work with great enthusiasm. Instead of
pastors, students from Theological Seminaries were em
ployed. In those days there were four terms in the year,
and. vacations came in such a way that by taking men from
different institutions, ranging from Princeton to Bangor,
it was possible to keep up the supply by relays for nearly
six months continuously. A volume of the correspondence
with these men is on file, which contain personal touches of
great interest. Some of the men who afterward became
among the foremost in our ministry served their apprentice
ship in this way. One cannot take up the book containing
their accounts without opening to a familiar name. Indeed
Vermont has been called the "Theological Calf Pasture of
the Seminaries." This work has been continued with de
grees proportionate to the need, down to the present day.
In later years it was supplemented by the work of the young
women, employed for personal visitation in destitute re
gions and evangelism; and to these agencies have been
due, almost without exception, all the new Churches organ
ized and old Churches revived for the last fifty years.
Reference has been made to the sermon, preached in
1819, showing the religious destitution of the state, and
appealing for a new spirit of aggressiveness. A similar call

14
for increased effort to meet pressing responsibilities was
made at the annual meeting in Randolph in 1886. Rev.
Henry Fairbanks had, at his own expense, secured an ac
curate census of the religious condition of 44 representative
towns in five different counties, and, comparing these with
the figures of the United States census for these same
towns and then for the whole state, he had compiled a
chart and drawn a map, showing the strength of all re
ligious denominations, and the regions left destitute. With
these charts and maps he came before the meeting and
made an appeal for the more than one half population of
the state that never from year's end to year's end attended
any religious service whatever, the larger part of whom
were in the "gores" lying between the parishes. Resulting
from this, in an effort to meet these conditions, the Society
was led to employ young women, for the most part at first
from the Moody schools in Northfield and Chicago, and
send them out two by two into these regions with a simple
gospel message. The house to house visitation led to cot
tage meetings, school house meetings, and opening the
doors of some old abandoned meeting house. Sectional
strife gave way to their vital appeal. As a sample of work
among other results there are three instances where a
house of worship had stood for more than fifty years with
out Church organization, a body with a soul, because of
denominational rivalry, where Christians were brought to
gether in Church fellowship. From 1891 until recently 65
women have been employed for longer or shorter periods,
until changed conditions have led the few remaining into a
work more nearly allied to the pastorate.
And this leads to a review of the part which women
have had, during all the years of organized missionary
work, in the support of the Society. To the very first ap
peal made by the Consociations of the Western Districts
of Vermont women responded, and the response was not
alone individual. In 1804, the first year of work, a mission
ary organization was formed in Cornwall, called the "Fe
male Society," to raise funds for home missions in the
state. This was shortly followed by one in Middlebury,

15
and a httle later in other towns. They took various names,
among them the name of "Female Cent Societies," pattern
ing after those in New Hampshire, making membership
conditioned on paying one cent a week, or fifty-two cents
a year. When the Juvenile Societies were started up the
membership of some were composed of both sexes; but
others bore the name of "Female" or "Young Ladies' Juven
ile Societies," while the men were in "Young Men's Juven
ile Societies." In 1826, there were 142 auxiliaries re
ported, seventy-two of which were women's Societies.
Many of these were in existence, when, in 1888, the
Woman's Home Missionary Union was formed, and gradu
ally they became merged in this. Only one of these "Fe
male Cent Societies" has continued until this day, the one
in Wallingford, which does not fail to send in its liberal
contribution to our Society each year. The Woman's
Home Missionary Union placed Vermont first in the list of
beneficiaries, and has regularly sent the apportioned
amount, $1,000, for the state work. At first this went
towards the support of state evangelists then employed, but
later to the support of the young women's work. In sum
ming up the financial aid that the Missionary Society has
received during its career, not least among the generous
patrons have been the faithful women of the state.
An interesting chapter might be written on the per
sonnel of this organization through all these years. First
and foremost place in this would be given to Rev. Thomas
A. Merrill, life pastor in Middlebury. A graduate of Dart
mouth College, reputed valedictorian or class leader in the
class with Daniel Webster, he came to Middlebury and was
ordained in 1805, was made pastor emeritus in 1842, and
died there in 1855. Immediately on coming to Middlebury
we find him active in promoting the work of organizing the
first Missionary Society in 1807. He was secretary of that
Society through its entire existence, writing the letters and
appeals and making the annual reports. Following his
retirement in 1818, he continued in the service of the new
organization as director down to the time of his death in
1855, appearing foremost in all interests. To him we owe

16
the preservation of early records, his name appearing in
autograph on the title page of all the annual reports bound
up in our first volume. He made his Church through var
ious local organizations the chief supporter of the Society,
Middlebury holding the record for annual gifts until in
later years the leadership passed to St. Johnsbury. The
secretaries following him, pastors of Churches, were Rev.
Daniel Haskell of Burlington, Rev. Calvin Yale of Char
lotte, Rev. Reuben Smith of Burlington, Rev. Charles
Walker of Rutland, some of them recording secretaries and
some corresponding secretaries, aU serving gratuitously,
and some not even attending the annual meetings. The
reports for the most part were written by Dr. Merrill or by
Walter Chapin as clerk. It was not until Rev. Ira Ingraham,
pastor at Brandon, became secretary in 1833, that after a
year or two in his pastorate he gave his whole time to the
work, and the office became salaried. Following him in
1838 the incumbents held office for brief periods, Rev. John
F. Stone holding it longest from 1848 to 1862; when Rev;
Charles S. Smith, beginning in the midst of the Civil
War, took up the work for twenty-six years. Mr Smith
was a man of rare judgment, fine Christian spirit, ex
cellent executive ability, and administered affairs, hold
ing the confidence of the Churches in a marked degree,
through a season of growth and prosperity. His adminis
tration was followed by one of thirty years, so that with
the exception of seven years three lives have spanned the
century of those intimately connected with the work, for
the most part in executive positions. Time would fail
to give the names of laymen prominent in service and sup
port. In the presidency have been those eminent in busi
ness, in social and civil positions in the state. One family
name, Fairbanks, has been borne by three incumbents, one
a minister, and all together holding the office more than half
the century. Treasurers also deserve tribute to their faith
fulness, especially as they served gratuitously up to recent
years ; when one of their number on his retirement set the
precedent of paying a nominal sum for the work of an as
sistant. This he did for a number of years in lieu of longer

17
serving as treasurer. This payment the Society has since
assumed. The large increase of responsibilities, in recent
years with the rapid growth of trust funds make it specially
fitting that the name of our present incumbent, Dea. John
T. Ritchie, who has given his rare experience as a banker
freely to our service, should have special mention.
It will be remembered that the last century began with
94 Churches of our o^der, and that in 1818 they numbered
167. The whole number of churches given by Mr. Corn-
stock in his history mounts up to 271, not including a large
number of reorganizations in the same townships, which
would bring the list to above 300. Now taking the figures
given by Mr. Smith in his seventy-fifth anniversary ad
dress as a basis for computation, the whole number of
Churches aided by this Society and its predecessors from
the beginning has been about 195. This of course in
cludes many that have become extinct. Of the 215
Churches now upon our roll, if Mr. Smith is correct, , only
61. have never been aided, though some of these were
doubtless visited by Itinerants in their early days. From
1830 to 1880 the average number aided was 46. Since that
date the number has slightly diminished, due in part to
Churches growing stronger and coming to self support,
but more to endowments that have been generously be
stowed. These Churches coming to self support have
more than kept pace wi.th new organizations, and calls
from old Churches growing weaker. If you seek our mon
ument look about. From Bellows Falls to Newport inclu
sive on the eastern part of the state, and along the lines
of all our railroads, where the population has drifted from
the hills to the valleys, you will find our work in some of
our most prosperous Churches today. In Orleans County
only two of the 20 Churches, and they among the smallest,
were not aided. In Lamoille County none. In Franklin
and Washington Counties very few, if any. We are what
we are today, as a body of Churches, largely because of
the Divine blessing upon this agency for promoting the
advancement of the Kingdom of God.
Taking again the figures given by Mr. Smith in his re-

18
view of seventy-five years as a basis of computation, the en
tire amount contributed by the Churches in gifts and lega
cies to Home Missions State and National, not including
interest and income from permanent funds, has been
$1,013,733 during the ten decades. Of this amount
$470,795, or nearly one half, came in the last three. The
largest decade of the century, 1888 to 1898, brought in $177,-
780. This was due to several large legacies, as in fact was
the case in swelling the totals in both the two following
ones. If we add to this total the amount raised by the Ver
mont Missionary Society during the eleven years preceding
1818, which was $6,664, we have for all the years of home
missionary work in the state the sum of $1,020,397. While
a portion of this came from individuals, one family in St.
Johnsbury another in Woodstock, another in Springfield,
contributing largely, and from different parts of the state in
former years it was not unusual to receive from individuals,
some of them anonymous, sums reaching into four figures,
the bulk has come in small amounts indicating a widespread
sacrificial interest in the work. It is significant also to note
that the largest legacies have come from persons related
to some of the smallest and weakest of our mission
Churches, in one case to a Church whose very existence
hung in the balance just before the will was drawn.
Increasingly the Society has become during recent
years a Banking Institution, or- Trust Company, for the
Churches. It has come to be recognized that the safety
of funds given or bequeathed to individual Churches might
be enhanced by putting them in care of an institution rep
resenting the whole body. As a consequence these later
years have witnessed a constantly increasing flow of Trust
Funds to the care of the Society. At present the amount
stands in excess of $40,000. In addition to this there are
Memorial and Permanent Funds, only the interest of which,
as conditioned by the donors, can be used; Annuity Funds,
or Conditional Gifts, available on the death of givers ; and a
Legacy adjustment account, for the equalizing of the in
come of legacies over a period of years. The whole brings
the securities held by the Society, covering all these funds,

19
np to more than $90,000. This has come in almost wholly
within the last thirty years. It indicates the increased re
sponsibility which has come upon the office of treasurer,
and the indebtedness due to those who have served so
faithfully. The versatility of the Society in adapting itself to
varying conditions has been one of its chief assets. Men
tion has already been made of the change from Itinerant
work to Sustentation, and the taking up again of the Itin
erant for aggressive measures, and then the balancing of
the two as needs required. From early days it has served
as publishing Society, deriving income for a time in the
issuance of the Vermont Advisor, a monthly magazine is
sued in 1809-15, and the circulation of tracts and cate
chisms; and in late years it has been subsidizing the Ver
mont Missionary. It was one of the first of all the state
Societies to take up this plan of subsidizing a state paper;
as it was one cf the first to adopt the plan of conditioning
grants of aid on a standard of giving based upon the grand
list. It has held partnership with various Sunday School
Societies, twice with the Sunday School Union in support
ing colporteurs and furnishing literature to needy commun
ities, and again with the Congregational S. S. Society in
employment of a missionary. For a time it had in the
field a "Children's Minister;" and a few decades ago a
"Financial Evangelist" was employed who anticipated the
plan of weekly offerings and the Every-member canvass.
At three different times it commissioned a French speaking
missionary to labor among the incoming Canadians. At
four times it aided in the support of County missionaries
employed by the local constituency. It employed state
evangelists; and was the first to secure women for this
work, sending them out two by two into regions most des
titute. Withal it is specially significant to note that it has
been the financial support ultimately of every new move
ment devised for furthering the interests of our Churches
during the century. Starting independently as they
usually did, they would come in a few years for the Society
to take up and carry on whatever features were found use-

20
ful. As an instance in the early seventies a scheme for
Sustentation, like that of the Scotch Presbyterians, was
devised by one of our leading Ministers and pushed for
a time most vigorously only to demonstrate that the Sus
tentation practicable for our polity was the one which.
this Society had for fifty years been supporting. And this
year, after the same manner, the State Conference turns
to the Missionary Society for financial aid.
And what now shall we say for the final summing up
of this more than a century of service? It would be possi
ble to give figures showing that our Churches have more
than kept pace in membership with the slow increase in
population in the state since the middle of the last century.
We have a larger number of Churches than ever before, and
a larger membership than in the decade of the thirties, when
following the great revivals of that period some 23,000
were reported enrolled. It would be possible also to cite
figures compiled at different times during this period show
ing that the mission fields had largely exceeded the other
Churches in the percentage of growth. With rare excep
tions all new Churches in later years have been aided in
their organization by this Society; and all old Churches
resurrected from the dead, an even more difficult feat, have
been given new life by this agency. But figures do not
tell the whole story. It is the atmosphere created, the
spirit and morale that counts. Here the Society has shown
itself at its best. It has created a feeling of hopefulness
and assurance, and invincible determination to meet all
conditions, to overcome all difficulties, to achieve the im
possible, in the effort to advance the Kingdom of God in
our midst. It has been the agency offered to our Churches
to make sacrifice, to do aggressive work, to show fellow
ship, and hold out the hand of brotherhood to our own kin
and to all that are in need. Have we not met our obliga
tions? May we not modestly claim that the hopes and an
ticipations of fifty and twenty-five years ago have been
measurably realized? And in the fulfillment of those hopes
may we not look forward to greater attainments in the
years to come?

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