USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > Middletown > A brief history of the First Church of Christ in Middletown, Connecticut for two centuries and a half, 1668-1918 > Part 1
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双茶
பிரதிரும் றுதே
Gc 974.602 M588h 1281150
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
IT
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01149 1336
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryoffi00haze_0
8.
FIRST MEETING HOUSE.
1668
1918
A Brief History
of the
Hirst Church of Christ
In Middletolun Connertirut
Hor
Win Centuries and a Half
Azel Washburn Bazen
Illustrated
1281150 CONTENTS
Foreword
Page 5
Chap. I The Years before 1668 7
II
The Founding of the Church
15
III
The Ministry of Nathaniel Collins
25
IV
The Ministry of Noadiah Russel
31
V
The Ministry of William Russel
39
VI The Ministry of Enoch Huntington
49
VII The Ministries of Dan
Huntington
and
Chauncey Allen Goodrich
63
VIII The Ministries of John Riley Crane and James Burnett Crane 73
IX The Ministry of Jeremiah Taylor 85
X The Ministry of Azel Washburn Hazen 95
XI The Beginning of the Ministry of Douglas Horton 139
Appendix A. 149 B. 153 C. 159
Index
161
FOREWORD
Material was gathered for an ampler history than is recorded in this volume. But the troubled period in which we are living, that has delayed its publication, makes it seem the part of wisdom to arrange only that which may be easily put into type, and may secure a more general reading than a larger book would obtain. Therefore the sketch herein relates mainly to the Church itself rather than to the twenty-five decades of secular history through which it has passed.
The plan by which the author limited himself did not allow him to insert full biographical notes of many eminent persons whose names adorn the annals of the Church. No one can be more painfully aware than he how unworthy are the following meager outlines of the con- spicuous subject to which they relate. Yet they are the offering of one who loves this institution to whose upbuilding and to the widening of whose influence a half century of his life has been cheerfully devoted.
" The hallowed form our fathers built
That hallowed form build we."
A. W. H. .
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT,
June the fifteenth, 1920.
5
CHAPTER I.
THE YEARS BEFORE 1668.
No one familiar with the Bible can question the value of a knowledge of human history. Not only is a large portion of this venerable book historical, but it strenuously enforces the need of acquaintance with its contents that men may become what they ought to be, and do what they ought to do. Yet, as Canon Liddon affirmed, " It is God in history which makes history for a Christian so encouraging and in- structive, and thus, in turning reverently to the past, we are where God Himself would place and keep us, close to Himself, our own, our personal
help in ages past, Our hope for years to come."
While, in no department of history is God more clearly revealed than in the wondrous records of the Christian Church. He seems to have planted this beneficent institution in the soil of our earth that it might be the means through which a knowledge of Himself should be kept
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alive among men, as well as a channel along which innumerable other blessings should flow to them.
Therefore, it is most helpful to trace the pathway of any section of the Church of Christ, if it has been at all loyal to its high vocation. Especially is this true, if the section is one like that an outline of whose story is to follow, which has been a vital force in a community for years and centuries.
The First Church of Christ in Middletown was organized November 4, 1668, so that its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary falls in 1918. This is a goodly age for an organization in America to attain. There are only sixteen Churches older than this in Connecticut, only twenty-five in Massachusetts, only one in New Hampshire, and none elsewhere in the United States. The Churches in this commonwealth which antedate this are that in Windsor, formed in 1630, the First in Hartford, 1632, those in Stamford and Wethersfield, 1635, that in Fair- field, the First in Milford, the First in New Haven, that in Old Saybrook, and that in Strat- ford, 1639, the First in Guilford, 1643, that in Branford, 1644, the First in New London, 1650, that in Farmington, the First in Norwalk,
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First Church of Christ
1652, the First in Norwich, 1660, and that in Clinton, 1667. These Churches have exerted a positive influence in the towns where they are located, nearly all of them being prominent among those of the State.
It is a well-known fact that the Gospel was preached in Mattabesett soon after its settle- ment in 1650. The founders of Middletown were men who believed in God, and who desired to worship Him in a public manner. That this fundamental desire might be gratified, some kind of a building was imperative. One of the early entries now remaining in the town records, not the earliest, as stated by Dr. Field, is that of a vote to build a meeting-house. This action was taken at the house of John Hall, who was one of the original settlers, February 2, 1652.
Doubtless there had been gatherings for wor- ship at the same place, as well as at other houses, before this date. Tradition informs us that there were assemblies, also, under the giant elm which stood at the north end of Main Street, near whose hospitable shelter the first meeting-house was reared. On the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of the town, in 1900, the spot was marked by the immense boulder which now perpetuates the
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A History of the
memory of its founders, as well as that of the Indians from whom they purchased its site.
The structure there erected in obedience to pure religious instincts was of the rudest kind, as were the dwellings of its builders. It was only twenty feet square, and ten feet from sill to plate, constructed of unhewn logs. It was de- fended by rough palisades, and at the time of worship within its enclosure several members of the " Train-Band " with their muskets occupied special seats near the door. For, while it is to the credit of the founders of Middletown that they treated the Indians honorably, having little trouble with them, yet they knew too well the crafty, revengeful spirit of Sowheag, their chief, the wigwams of whose subjects lined the " Great River" on either side, to trust them- selves wholly to his good will. This powerful, haughty Sachem, from his commanding seat on the crest of Indian Hill, with his shrill whistle could summon a " considerable " force of armed warriors to execute his behests.
In this modest, ungainly building the inhabit- ants of Middletown, which then embraced the present territory of Middlefield, of Berlin, in part, of Cromwell, and of Chatham, worshipped God for nearly a score of years. To make it
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First Church of Christ
more capacious,- " At a town meeting March 19, 1665, It was voated that there shall be a Galery in the meeting-house from the east end to the middle beams, and that the townsmen shall have power to order the work and get it don." Thus it is evident that the men who laid the foundations of this town were men who feared God, and who aimed to live according to his will. Assembled as a body for the trans- action of common business, they did not forget to legislate in behalf of their religion. Those hardy pioneers believed in the ministry of the Word, and according to their means they pro- vided facilities therefor. The first man who ministered to them for any length of time was Mr. Samuel Stow. Just when he began to preach here is uncertain, but it was probably not very long after the immigrants arrived, and he con- tinued his work till 1660. Yet the people were not in full harmony concerning him. The ques- tions between them and their minister were so difficult of solution that the aid of the General Court was invoked. And "The Court did declare that ye town of Middletown are free from Mr. Stow as their engaged minister," and appointed "a Committee to further a settled ministrie in that place." The General Court
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A History of the
also directed " That the people pay Mr. Stow £40 for his labor in the ministry the year past, that the people be free from their engagement, and that Mr. Stow is not impinged of his liberty to preach in Middletown to such as will attend him, until there be a settled minister there."
Mr. Stow, whose parents came from Eng- land in 1634, when he was twelve years of age, was graduated from Harvard College in 1645, and some years later came to this town. He has the distinction of being the first minister of the Gospel to reside here. His "homelot " here consisted of six acres, located at what is now the north-west corner of Main and Washington Streets. But he owned much other land in the township, since, when he died, in 1704, he is said to have possessed over thirteen hundred acres. In his will he bequeathed five hundred and five acres in the western part of the town to endow a school fund. Thus the early resi- dents of the town, like many of its citizens in all its history, took thought for education, as well as for religion.
The Committee appointed by the Court to aid the town in its search for a minister some time later delivered itself of the following advice and hope: "Since, after long endeavors
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First Church of Christ
by ye people there to procure them a minister, there appears a probability of their obtaining of Mr. Collins for that purpose,- the Committee doth approve of their proceedings therein, and of his acceptance of their motion, and according to the mind of ye Court doe advise both Mr. Stow and all the inhabitants of Middletown to a loving carriage to Mr. Collins, and a friendly compliance with each other,- that ye memory of all former differences may be wholly Buryed, and that Mr. Collins may have all due encour- agement in ye work of the ministry that he is called unto in that place, and that the long de- sired comfortable and peaceable settlement of Middletown may be obtained, which is the desire of the Committee appointed by the Gen- eral Court to promote the settlement of the ministry there."
Action and sentiments like the above show that the State was altogether at one with the Church in reference to the ministry of the latter. It must not be forgotten that the time of their legal separation was yet far in the future.
The mention of the name of Mr. Collins, however, brings us to a vital period in the his- tory we are considering.
CHAPTER II. THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH 1668
The name of Nathaniel Collins, first men- tioned near the close of the preceding chapter, is one of deep significance, not only to the First Church of Christ, but also to the entire town and commonwealth. The wholesome influence of his character and talents extended far and wide. In 1662 the town appointed a Com- mittee "to treat with Mr. Collins about his acceptance " of a certain "two hundred fifty pound lot that was formerly sequestered for a rouling elder," and " his settling with us in the work of the ministry." Later in the same year " the town did agree that the house for Mr. Collins should be 36 foot long, 18 foot wide, 10 foot hy between joints, and ston chimneys in the middell."
The first record of salary proffered to Mr. Collins was that of five and forty pounds ster- ling a year. His preaching here seems to have
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A History of the
begun in 1661, and to have given general satis- faction to the people. But they soon manifested a desire to be bound closer to each other and to their minister. On the 25th of January, 1664, a vote was passed that they " join themselves in church order, according to the rules of the gospel, as god shall give convenient oper- tunity." That opportunity did not arrive until four years thereafter. In 1665 the situation was set forth in the following letter addressed to Mr. Collins : - "Our present state you now know, namly that God by his providenc hath brought us hopefully nearere gathering into an ekclyasticall body, then formerly, though some of our neighboures and brethren are wee would hope conscienciusly differing from us respecting the maner of it, namly as you know some judg- ing wee are a church allredy, others that wee are not, however wee that thinke wee are allredy a church and wee allso that thinke wee are not but in some short time may be one, both senca- bile of the essentiall need of an officer to despenc the sealles as well as the word amongst us, to such as shall be regularly fitt, doe therefore by these presenc give you to know that our eyes are upon and our desires towards yourself for that worke as soon as we shall be in such a capasety,
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First Church of Christ
and request your answer to this our motion as god shall direct and incline, so desiering god to guide you in this great motion we rest waiting your answer your loving friends and neighbors, the inhabitants of Middletown." Sept. 4, 1665.
In the same month the town granted to Mr. Collins fifty pounds for the year ensuing. In 1667 the sum voted was fifty-five pounds. A fuller and more formal call was extended to Mr. Collins December 26, 1667, and a few weeks later a Committee was appointed to invite other churches to a Council here. The Council did not meet till November 4, 1668. Four churches were represented in it, named in the records thus, evidently according to their ages; the church of Christ at Windsor, Heartford, Farm- ington and North Hampton. " From Windsor came the Rev. Nathaniel Chauncy, a son of the then President of Harvard College, and himself a graduate of that institution. From Hartford came the Rev. John Whiting, also a Harvard graduate. From Farmington came the Rev. Samuel Hooker, son of the renowned Dr. Thomas Hooker, likewise a graduate of Har- vard and a Fellow there. From Northampton came the Rev. Eleazer Mather, a brother of
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A History of the
the noted Dr. Increase Mather, and an uncle of the more famous Cotton Mather. He, too, was graduated at Harvard about the middle of the century. There were six laymen present, indicating that some of the churches invited sent more than one delegate.
Such was the Council under whose wise guidance the First Church of Christ in Middle- town was organized, in the rough log house where its founders had worshipped for fifteen years. That its clerical members were all sons of Harvard College was almost of necessity the case, since the ministers of that day were educated men, and this was the only institution in New England where a liberal training was given. Nearly a half century was to pass before Yale College began its illustrious career.
The fundamental truths of the Christian religion to which the ten original members of the Church subscribed were stated with admir- able clearness and force in the document to which they affixed their names. It will be found entire in Appendix A to this volume. The Covenant, likewise, by which these stalwart pioneers bound themselves together, to the Church, and to its divine Head, reveals the hand of a master of sentences.
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First Church of Christ
One section of the latter is worthy of special mention, viz. :
"Attending his Holy will made known to us in his word, that wee will be subject to ye Government of Christ and observe all those Lawes yt he hath estab- lished in his kingdome, soe far as hitherto he hath or hereafter shall be pleased to reveale ye same unto us."
Here, surely, is a provision for all progress in the knowledge of the truth, broad enough to satisfy the most radical. The sentence breathes the very spirit of John Robinson himself as to the possibility of more truth breaking forth from God's word.
The minister, Nathaniel Collins, was the first of the ten men who assented to the Creed and signed the Covenant of the Church. Of the others, John Hall, Jr., Samuell Stockin, Senior, and Thomas Wetmer, Senior, were certainly here from the beginning of the town. While Thomas Allen, Andrew Warner, Senior, George Hubbard, and William Harriss were among the earliest inhabitants. Thomas Allen, John Hall, George Hubbard, Andrew Warner, and Thomas Wetmore lived near the meeting-house. Daniel Harris, John Savage, and Samuel Stock- ing lived at the Upper Houses, or what is now Cromwell.
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A History of the
It is supposed that Mr. Hall came to Middle- town from England, Mr. Wetmore from Wales, Messrs. Hubbard, Savage, and Stocking from Hartford, Mr. Allen and the Warners from Windsor, Mr. Harris from Boston, while Mr. Collins, the minister, was from Cambridge. Most of them were men of no ordinary stamp, as were the members of the Council invited to confer with them respecting the project in hand.
How long these messengers of the churches deliberated on the matter for which they were convened does not appear. But there could have been no question as to the wisdom of acceding to the wishes of the people here for a church of their own. They had shown them- selves to be Christian believers, and they were a dozen miles away from Wethersfield, where was the nearest church. Hence this Church was framed on the very day of the assembling of the Council, and its first act was to elect Mr. Collins " to the office of a pastour among them, prom- iseing that if desired by him and themselves in a capacity they would provide a fellow labourer in the word and Doctrine, whereupon he ac- cepted and at the request of the church was ordained by the Reverend Mr. Mather and Mr. Whiteing." The closeness of the relation be-
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First Church of Christ
tween the town and the Church is seen in the statement preceding the above record, "the Towne haveing formerly jointly invited to and desired it."
Thus was consummated the grand work of that November day in 1668 on the shore of our noble River. A small company of follow- ers of Jesus Christ here, desiring to band them- selves together for the worship and service of God, had summoned their brethren of churches in the vicinage to advise them. In accordance with the counsel of their neighbors, they insti- tuted a church of the New Testament type, chose their minister from their own number, and requested their friends to ordain him to his sacred office. Here was Congregationalism in its purity and its simplicity, the sovereign earthly power resident in the local body of disciples, not in a hierarchy superior to themselves. Nevertheless, these Christians, in full sympathy with their fellow believers, sought their wisdom and their fellowship, that they might be the more sure to act according to the mind of the Spirit. There was present here the Holy Catholic Church, in the plenitude of its power, and here the bounds of that Church were en- larged by the addition of a new society of wor- shippers of the Triune God.
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A History of the
Such was the humble origin of this beloved Church whose two hundred and fiftieth anniver- sary arrives in this year of our Lord, 1918. It is not easy for us to place ourselves backward two centuries and a half to the date of its birth. It may help us so to do if we recall a few familiar facts of history.
On the throne of England in 1668 sat Charles II, though the Commonwealth had been aban- doned only eight years earlier, and the renowned Oliver Cromwell had been dead but a decade. John Milton had yet six years to live, but only the year previous he had made the famous sale of his Paradise Lost for the paltry sum of five pounds. John Bunyan had been for seven years in prison, though his immortal dream was not to see the light for nine years to come. In France, Louis XIV was in the height of his splendid reign with the brilliant Colbert as his minister of Finance, and the illustrious Prince of Conde as commander of his armies. It was but twenty years from the Treaty of West- phalia, which brought to a close the dreary Thirty Years War, and gave peace to Europe.
In this country, John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts, had closed his eminent career less than a score of years before
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First Church of Christ
this Church was planted, while his distinguished son and namesake was in the midst of his memorable governorship of the Connecticut Colony. Only six years earlier he had been the chief instrument in obtaining the royal charter for this Colony from the hand of Charles II. William Bradford had died only eleven years before, and Miles Standish but twelve. It was but four years after the first printing of John Eliot's remarkable Bible for the Indians. There was only one College in America, though that, in the thirty years of its existence, had be- come the cherishing mother of many noble sons, some of whom, as we have seen, had been closely related to this Church. Only eleven states had been settled at all, and the entire population of the Country was hardly more than two hundred thousand. Facts like these may aid us to realize the venerable age of this First Church of Christ.
We must now turn our attention to the Rev. Nathaniel Collins and his ministry, which had been so auspiciously begun before the " ecclesi- astical embodying " of his flock.
CHAPTER III. THE MINISTRY OF NATHANIEL COLLINS 1668-1684
Nathaniel Collins was the son of Dea. Edward Collins, of Cambridge, Mass., where he was born in 1642. At the age of eighteen he was graduated at Harvard College, prob- ably living at his home during his course there. When he took the degree of Master of Arts in 1663, he was assigned an honorary oration. He seems to have come to Middletown soon after his graduation, and he remained here till his death in 1684. I am not aware that any of his sermons have come down to us, though we have one or more of all the other pastors of the Church.
Mr. Collins appears to have been something of a soldier, as well as a preacher, since, in 1681, " for his good service in sundry expedi- tions and engagements against the Indians, the General Court granted him a farm of two hundred acres." It was no light responsibility
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A History of the
which rested upon him here, that of shaping the character of the infant Church, which was nearly the same thing as moulding the town, of which it was the central and most important institution. Yet few events of special sig- nificance marked his ministry.
The first member received by him after the forming of the Church was Giles Hamlin, a man of considerable prominence, not only in the affairs of the town, but of the colony. He was the father of the Hon. John Hamlin, and the grandfather of the Hon. Jabez Hamlin, both men of stalwart character and of commanding influence. The latter was for thirty-seven years a Deacon of the Church. He was also the first Mayor of the city at its incorporation in 1784, and was annually re-elected till his death, in 1791.
Several persons were received Dec. 30, 1668, two of them being wives of original members, "A report of their knowledge and the Ground and reason of their hope beeing given by the elder in the face of the congregation owned by themselves each one in particular and also what had been matter of publick offense in any of them publickly owned." Jan. 20, 1669, " The Church concluded upon a Monthly Conference
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First Church of Christ
to bee kept up the whole day and occasionally ye conference day improved as a day of fasting and prayer." Thus early was the value of Christian fellowship and of intercourse with the unseen God recognized by these sturdy pioneers.
The first Deacons were elected May 16, 1670, and their names were Thomas Allen, Samuell Stockin, and John Hall, Jr. On the following Sunday they were ordained to " the office of Deacons in this particular Church of Christ, each commended to ye grace of God therein by prayers with Imposition of Hands." How long this method of setting apart Deacons continued does not appear, but it has been in use during the last half century.
In February, 1671, deep solicitude was felt for the children of the Church, and the last day of the month was observed as a time of special fasting and prayer for them. On that day " ye church with ye generality of their children met at ye officers' house. Haveing begun with prayer in ye morning ye officers acquainted ye children with ye voat, read them ye confession of faith and order, and also the covenant, with a particular explanation of each article, with ye scripture botom on which it stood." In the afternoon there were other exercises, and the
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case was " committed to God in prayer by Dea- con Stockin, and soe with a psalm and blessing ye church was dismist, both parents and children commended to ye grace of God." Action like this is freighted with instruction for our own time, and it might well be repeated in its spirit, if not in its precise form. Our youth are too little versed in the faith and order of the Church, while Christians as a rule feel scant solicitude for their spiritual welfare.
In 1679 the population of the town had so increased that the little meeting-house at the head of Main Street, even with its gallery, was insufficient for them. Hence on the eleventh of November it was voted to build a new house, " thirty-two feet square, and fifteen feet between joints." But the views of the residents of the Upper and the Lower Houses did not coincide as to its location. It was finally agreed, how- ever, that it should stand on the east side of Main Street, nearly opposite what is now Liberty Street. This structure was also built of logs, and was probably defended by pali- sades, as the first had been. This house was occupied for thirty-five years, but the citizens at the Upper Houses had an edifice of their own for the last twelve years of its use by the Church here.
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