USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Brookfield > Historical sketch of the First Congregational Church of Brookfield, Connecticut, and of the town of Brookfield > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
Newbury Brookfield
Smily C. Hawley
M. L
Gc 974.602 B79ha 1706887
7.52
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
V
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01148 6567
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch00hawl_0
FASTE
FRAUDE
WITHOUT
BROOKS
Arms: Or, a Cross, engrailed per pale gules and sable-Crest-A brock, or badger, proper.
.
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF THE
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
OF
BROOKFIELD, CONNECTICUT
1 AND OF
THE TOWN OF BROOKFIELD
WRITTEN FOR THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHURCH
" Often I think of the beautiful town; Often in thought go up and down The pleasant streets of that dear old town, And my youth comes back to me." -Longfellow.
1706887
INTRODUCTION
When invited by the anniversary committee to pre- pare and deliver the historical address on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Congregational Church at Brookfield, Connecticut, it was understood that the address should present not only the history of the local church, but also a general view of the early conditions, both civil and religious which obtained in Connecticut during the first period of its existence.
I have devoted considerable space to a historical sketch of the town of Brookfield, with which the life of the church was closely identified from its beginning ; for thirty years this ecclesiastical society was the only one in existence in this community.
The Addendum has been prepared chiefly that a record of church and town officials might be quickly available for future reference.
In arranging the souvenir I have introduced such features, in the nature of photographs and views, as would make the book more valuable.
EMILY C. HAWLEY.
Brookfield Center, Conn., August 17, 1907.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Brooks Coat of Arms Frontispiece Plan of First Meeting House . Opposite Page 21
Second Church Building
24
Captain Garry Brooks
66 36
Rev. Marion L. Burton, Ph. D. .
46
Deacon Alfred Somers
66
52
The Mill Dam-The Half-way Falls of the Still River .
66 77
Stone Arch, Still River, Brookfield
.€
84
Main Street, Brookfield .
88
Village Street, Brookfield Center
94
Still River, Brookfield
107
Frederick S. Curtis
113
Henry B. Hawley
117
Junius F. Smith, M. D.
121
Rev. Albert E. Dunning, D. D.
134
Sidney E. Hawley
147
Henry B. Hawley, Jr.
150
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
I. Connecticut: Early Settlements-Founders . . . 7
II. Settlement of Newbury-Brookfield and Aboriginal Dwellers 12
III.
Building the First Meeting House
18
IV. History of the Second Church Edifice
24
V. Pastors of the Congregational Church
35
VI. Deacons of the Congregational Church
49
VII. Organizations Within the Church
54
VIII. Anniversaries-Sesqui Centennial
64
IX. Congregationalism: Origin and Principles
70
X. Brookfield Iron Works
77
XI. Brookfield Center
90
XII. The Hills
100
XIII. History of the Town of Brookfield Continued
109
XIV. Town Affairs .
123
XV. Sons and Daughters of Brookfield
134
Addendum
. 151
CHAPTER I
CONNECTICUT
Early Settlements-Character of the Founders
It has been said that love of native land is a uni- versal passion.
To us, the sons and daughters of New England, our native soil is hallowed soil. We can never forget, should never forget, that it was the pursuit of liberty, civil and religious, that brought our Pilgrim ancestors to these shores in 1620. We, of Connecticut, live too near to Plymouth Rock ever to forget that struggle; it quickens our pulses and nerves us to endeavor when- ever we recall the past.
But a few weeks since some of us stood on the site of historic Jamestown, Virginia, and looking out upon the Hampton Roads, saw that splendid naval pageant, which had gathered from every land, to honor the three hundredth anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in the New World (1607).
We felt it to be an occasion for national congratula- tion, as we realized that within three centuries a na- tion has arisen here the most progressive on the globe -a nation having the greatest continuous empire ever established by man.
8
HISTORICAL SKETCH
Connecticut has a history of peculiar interest, of course to us it would be of deep significance.
The beautiful valley of the Connecticut River, and our splendid coast line on Long Island Sound, appealed to the early settlers of the Massachusetts colony and within ten or twelve years after the landing at Plymouth Rock the exodus into the great wilderness of our present state had commenced.
Consider for a moment the character and equipment of the men and women who, two hundred and seventy years ago, and more, laid the foundations of our commonwealth.
They were not adventurers, on pleasure bent, many of them were ministers educated at the universities of England, men of culture and high standing. A considerable number were persons of liberal means. They were, moreover, led by high ideals. They had come hither that they might plant in the virgin soil of this New World the seeds of progress, which, germinating, should bear fruit to bless the whole civ- ilized and uncivilized world.
In 1635 the famous English preacher, REV. THOMAS HOOKER, who had settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, three years previous, started with one hundred persons for the Connecticut valley in search of larger liberties. Their journey through the untried wilderness, without shelter by day or night, showed them to be persons of
9
EARLY SETTLEMENTS
no mean purpose. This party of Pilgrims laid the foundations of our capital city, Hartford, and the adjoining towns, Windsor and Wethersfield; the in- fluence of Thomas Hooker impressed itself upon the Connecticut colony for generations, and is recognized to this day.
In 1639 all the "free planters" of this colony met at Hartford and adopted a written constitution ; Thomas Hooker had preached his famous sermon de- claring the right of the people to choose and limit the power of the people and this constitution was the out- come.
In 1638, three years after the settlement at Hart- ford, REV. JOHN DAVENPORT, with a distinguished company of men of means from England, attracted by the beauties of the Long Island shore, settled at New Haven, founding there a Puritan colony, known as the New Haven Colony.
In 1639 they adopted the Bible as their constitution, and granted the rights of citizenship to church mem- bers only. Their government was known as the House of Wisdom.
The churches of New Haven, Milford, and Guil- ford were formed first by the choice of seven persons from among the brethren who were called "pillars"; the others joined themselves to these seven pillars by covenant.
10
HISTORICAL SKETCH
This plan of founding a church seems to have been peculiar to these towns; from this, came the phrase, "A pillar of the church."
The Saybrook Colony, antedating the others, was merged into the Connecticut Colony.
For a period of about thirty years the Connecticut and New Haven Colonies maintained distinct govern- ments, until the days of the Royal Charter in 1662 which united all the Connecticut colonies under one government, and included some fifteen towns, with a population of eighteen thousand souls.
The Royal Charter was the most liberal ever granted by a monarch to his subjects.
Charles II. signed the document through the appeals of the diplomatic Winthrop, one of the truest friends Connecticut ever had.
The united colonies of Connecticut lived under this charter for over one hundred and fifty years, or until the adoption of the Constitution in 1818.
In 1686, when this precious charter was in danger at the hands of a royal governor, its concealment in the oak occurred.
Our Connecticut officials on their visit to Jamestown, Virginia, this summer, May, 1907, carried with them a scion of the Charter Oak, which they planted in the soil of Virginia, the tribute of the Puritan to the Cavalier.
.
11
EARLY SETTLEMENTS
From these unusual antecedents came our great commonwealth; and who shall deny to us, their de- scendants, the just pride which we take in our historic state, and the fact that the ideals of the Pilgrim and Puritans have become the realities of to-day in our self- government and personal liberty?
CHAPTER II
SETTLEMENT OF NEWBURY-BROOKFIELD, AND ABORIGINAL DWELLERS
The early settlers here were from the Puritan Colony of New Haven, as it was known before the union.
They came from Milford and called the settlement Newbury.
Inasmuch as the first settlers here did not purchase their territory of the Indians, as did the early settlers of Danbury in 1684, Newtown in 1705, and New Mil- ford in 1707, we can secure no exact date when a set- tlement was made, but believe it to have closely fol- lowed that of the neighboring towns, namely, soon after the year 1700.
All early records having been lost, or destroyed, I find myself obliged to be confined to the records now in the hands of the clerk of this church, which begin in the year 1755, with the exception of certain valuable items of interest found among the records at Newtown and New Milford, which give light upon very early events connected with the settlement at Newbury.
Newbury embraced three (3) parcels of territory be-
13
SETTLEMENT OF NEWBURY-BROOKFIELD
longing respectively to New Milford, Newtown, and Danbury.
The ancient boundary line between the towns of New Milford and Newtown crossed our present village street near the Congregational parsonage, and just south of the present Episcopal Church. The northern half of Newbury therefore lay within the town of New Mil- ford; that portion of Newbury on the south of the boundary was within the town of Newtown; while the western part of Newbury was included in the town of Danbury.
The male inhabitants of Newbury were, until some time after the Revolutionary War, regarded as legal residents of one of these three towns above mentioned, and so enrolled for military and town affairs; namely, a man residing near this church was a legal resident of Newtown, until the date of our incorporation as a town. When Newbury organized for ecclesiastical, school and society affairs, it became known as The Society and Parish of Newbury.
The Parish of Newbury, Incorporated in 1754
In 1743 a memorial was sent to the General Assembly from Newbury, praying that they be set off as a distinct society, and their bounds as a parish be fixed. But this was not to be secured without opposition, as it would
14
HISTORICAL SKETCH
seem, for I find in the records at Newtown in the year 1743 that Rev. Thomas Toucey (pastor of the Congre- gational church at Newtown from 1715-1724 and a resident of that town in 1743) was appointed by that church "to oppose the formation of a new ecclesiastical society in Newbury," now Brookfield. In 1752 the bounds were agreed upon and Newbury was permitted to have church privileges for five months each year, from September to March. In 1754 the Assembly granted the petition of the memorialists, and the Society of Newbury was incorporated, and the bounds re- mained as fixed two years previous. Newbury man- aged its own affairs, and was known as the Society of Newbury for about thirty-five years. In 1759 the Society of Newbury petitioned the General Assembly to have the New Milford part of Newbury annexed to Fairfield County. About the year 1768 the in- habitants of the Society of Newbury took action in regard to securing town privileges, and for a period of nearly twenty years regularly petitioned the Gen- eral Assembly to grant them such privileges. That opposition arose from the three towns in whose bor- ders they lived there is no doubt.
The Society at Newbury annually appointed com- mittees for several years to wait on the inhabitants of New Milford, Danbury and Newtown "to secure their consent for town privileges."
15
SETTLEMENT OF NEWBURY-BROOKFIELD
In March, 1788, at a lawful meeting of the in- habitants of Newbury, being lawfully warned, it was voted that "this Society will make application to the next General Assembly for town privileges," and it was also voted that "Amos Wheeler, Esq., be an agent to present our memorial and secure the act of incor- poration." The Society was successful, and the town was incorporated in May, 1788, and received the name of Brookfield in honor of its first and then-time pastor, Rev. Thomas Brooks. The first town meeting was held June 9, 1788, the moderator being Col. Samuel Canfield, appointed by the General Assembly ; people were present from surrounding towns.
In December, 1794, it was voted to build a town house, building to be 34 feet long by 24 feet wide, two stories high, and built "convenient for hanging a bell upon." It was voted that the town house be near the meeting house. The building was completed in 1796, and seated, and a bell placed in the tower. This bell was replaced in 1829 by a new one, which is in use at the present time. A second town house was built in 1875-76, which is the building in which town business is transacted to-day.
The original survey of the land which constitutes the town of Brookfield was about eighteen square miles ; of this survey, New Milford contributed 81/2 square miles, Newtown 6 square miles, and Danbury 33/4
16
HISTORICAL SKETCH
square miles. This represents about 11,380 acres of land.
Town Limits as Fixed by the General Assembly in 1752
The north boundary line of Brookfield begins on the east at the Housatonic River, at the northeast corner of the John Warner farm, and running westerly to the Gallows Hill Cemetery, passes through it and continues west until it intersects the New Fairfield line; thence running southwardly on the New Fairfield line to a certain stone marker at the lower end of Beaver Brook Mountain; thence running easterly to the south end of Bound Swamp, and continuing easterly to a point below Abel S. Taylor's house on Whisconier Hill and to the mouth of Pond Brook where it empties into the Housatonic; thence northerly on the Housatonic River to point of beginning.
Aboriginal Dwellers
The oldest inhabitants of Brookfield recall the last of the Indians who frequented this vicinity ; they came at certain seasons with their baskets; a pathetic rem- nant of the once powerful Red man. DeForrest, in his history of Connecticut, relates that "the Indians were accustomed to pass down the Housatonic, and up the Still River during the summer season and plant in
17
SETTLEMENT OF NEWBURY-BROOKFIELD
the valleys." Indian arrowheads and implements have frequently been plowed up by the farmers in the meadows adjoining the Still River at Brookfield. Newbury was, in reality, in the midst of several peace- ful Indian tribes. On the south and east the Pootatuck tribe built their wigwams and gained their living from the waters of the Housatonic. On the north, at the "Great Falls" at Lanesville, lived for long that power- ful "tribe, one thousand strong, whose sachem was the wise Wehononague (Waramaug)," of whom Rev. Daniel Boardman of New Milford wrote, "This sachem is distinguished for his abilities and virtues, and his name should be recorded by the faithful his- torian." The Pootatucks at Newtown at last joined themselves to the tribe at the Great Falls, and later a considerable number joined the Scaticooks tribe at Kent.
In 1743 the Moravian missionaries visited the Great Falls and the sachem and many of his followers em- braced Christianity. It may be added here that in March last (1907) the Moravian Church celebrated its four hundred and fiftieth anniversary (450) all over the world. The sect did pioneer work in this country and has been recognized as "an ancient Episco- pal Church" by the British Parliament.
The Indian names which still abide with us are Pokono and Whisconier.
CHAPTER III
BUILDING THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE
In old New England days ecclesiastical and town affairs commingled. It is sometimes difficult to deter- mine whether the church was running the town or the town controlling the church. Civil and religious meet- ings convened at the "meeting house." In Connecticut all persons were required by law to contribute to the support of the churches, and to attend a place of wor- ship on the Sabbath and on fast days.
In January, 1755, the county court, sitting at Fair- field, in and for the county of Fairfield, passed the following vote: Whereas, the inhabitants of the es- tablished Religious Society of Newbury, Fairfield County, at their lawful meeting January 21, 1755, by a vote wherein more than two thirds of the inhabitants of said Society were present and qualified by law to vote, declare it necessary to build a meeting house in said Society, and now make application to this court to appoint and fix the place whereon their meeting house should be erected and built as by their memorial on file.
This court does thereupon appoint Samuel Olm- stead of Ridgefield, Stephen Burr and Joseph Sand-
19
BUILDING THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE
ford of Fairfield, all of the county of Fairfield, a committee to fix the place whereon said meeting house shall be erected and built, and make return of their doings to the county court to be held in Fairfield in April next.
Signed by THADEUS BURR, EsQ., Clerk of the Court.
The committee appointed by the court to select a site for the Newbury meeting house performed its task; but the same was not acceptable to the court, and this body appointed a second committee, namely, Increase Mosely, Benjamin Stiles and Gideon Walker, all of Woodbury, to select the site, and return report to the court at its next sitting. In October, 1755, the Society "approved of the findings of the committee appointed by the court" and accepted the site selected by said committee for a church building. The site was the one on which our present church stands.
December 10, 1755, at a meeting of the parish of Newbury, a building committee, having in charge the construction of the first meeting house, was appointed ; namely, Joseph Murry, Benjamin Dunning and Robert Bostwick representing the three sections of Newbury.
The first meeting house was forty-six (46) feet in length, by thirty-six (36) feet in width, and the posts were twenty (20) feet long.
The Society voted to cover the front side of the
20
HISTORICAL SKETCH
roof of the meeting house with cedar shingles and the back side of the roof with chestnut shingles. Also voted to cover the upright of the house with oak clap- boards. To secure means to build, a tax of four (4) pence on the pound was laid on the whole list of the inhabitants of Newbury. In June, 1756, the Society voted to lay a tax, to cover the meeting house, and Amos Northrop, Esq., collected the same.
In November, 1756, it was voted to purchase half a box of glass for glazing the meeting house. Although there were no pews placed in the edifice for some little time (benches being used), and the interior was not plastered, yet the meeting house was ready for oc- cupancy in the summer of 1757, and the Society of Newbury approached the great events which make September 28, 1757, memorable in its history ; namely, that on this date the church was formally organized; the church building or meeting house was dedicated, and the first settled pastor, Rev. Thomas Brooks, was ordained and installed over the church.
At a General Assembly, holden at New Haven in October, 1757, a memorial was presented by Joseph Murry, Joseph Smith and others, a committee for building and finishing the meeting house in Newbury, stating that said house was built and covered by taxing the inhabitants; the committee prayed the Assembly to grant a land tax of one penny per acre on all the
Czar Nearing
Samuel Warner
PULPIT
Mrs. Kellogg
Levi Dibble
Isaac Lockwood
Robert Ruggles
Henry Peck
Levi Dibble
WEST DOOR
Waite Northrop and others
Elijah Sturderant
Colbe Chamberlain Northrop Andrew
EAST DOOR
Joseph Smith
Michael Dunning
Samuel Merwin and others
Heman Burch
Levi Dibble
Henry Peck
Charles Jones
Andrew Northrop
Ezra Dibble
SOUTH DOOR
Waite Northrop
.
PLAN OF THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE BUILT IN 1756 AND AS "SEATED" IN 1812
21
BUILDING THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE
uninclosed land in the parish for four years to enable the Society to complete the house of worship. This was granted, and the interior was gradually completed. Pews were placed in the meeting house in 1759; they were of the square box type, seating a considerable number each. Galleries were added later, and the interior of the building was plastered in 1790. There was a sounding board beneath the pulpit, also. I have learned that the pulpit was a gift from the New Milford Society, being one formerly used by them in the old Congregational Church. It is a pleasure to chronicle the fact that New Milford was always favor- ably disposed toward the new enterprise at Newbury, and inclined to assist the settlers here toward securing a church.
In 1760 the meeting house was seated. The Society voted that "all persons upwards of fifty (50) years of age shall be seated in the first rank," and all under fifty years shall be seated "by the first three years' building list," and the "last year's list." Society also voted that the Rev. Thomas Brooks have a pew at the left of the pulpit.
In 1815, when the pews were sold at auction, the proceeds to be applied to the salary, provision was made for "seating the poor," as the introduction of the "sale of pews" did away with the custom of "seat- ing the meeting house." For some years the "tithing
22
HISTORICAL SKETCH
man" was regularly appointed to "care for those in this Society who on the Sabbath day are disorderly."
Provision was made for sweeping the meeting house at regular times. I am told by Elmer H. Northrop, Esq., that as a lad he performed this task and that of ringing the bell for three dollars a year. It was even intimated to him by a church official that he ought to contribute something to the support of the gospel from his salary.
This meeting house was occupied by the First Ecclesiastical Society of Newbury-Brookfield for about one hundred (100) years. For sixty-seven (67) years the church building was without a steeple. In the year 1824 the steeple was added; this has caused some people to believe that a second edifice was built in 1824, which is not the case.
The bell which called the people to worship was the bell in the town house hard by, which was placed there in 1795; what method was used previous to 1795 is not stated. It is sorrowful to relate that a bell never graced the steeple of the old First Church at Newbury.
Salary
In Connecticut all persons were required by law to contribute to the support of the church. Rate bills were issued for the raising of the salary of the minister, and these "rates" were made and collected in same
23
BUILDING THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE
manner as rates of respective towns. This system pre- vailed for a long period, but came at last to an end with the selling of the pews.
SABBATH-DAY HOUSES
Sabbath-day houses, or "Sabba-day houses," as they were called, stood south of the meeting house on land owned by John Peck, Esq., but now by the family of Arza Peck. These little houses occupied a position about opposite Mr. Peck's residence on the south side of the road. Their purpose was to afford a place for those who lived at a distance to congregate during the intermission between the Sabbath-day services, and warm themselves at the open fireplaces, which were a feature of these houses; the meeting house being without a fire for years. The Sabbath-day houses also gave opportunity for social intercourse between friends and neighbors. Permission to erect such houses was usually secured from the town meeting by those per- sons desiring to build them.
CHAPTER IV
HISTORY OF THE SECOND CHURCH EDIFICE
In December, 1852, the First Ecclesiastical Society of Brookfield appointed a special committee of eight persons to take action in regard to building a new church edifice. In April, 1853, this committee reported to the Society that they had raised a given amount of money, and the Society thereupon appointed a building committee; namely, Messrs. Hiram Fairchild, Beers Foote, Charles Hawley, Abel Taylor, and Roswell Parker. The plans and specifications were furnished by Mr. Nash, an architect of Bridgeport.
The new edifice was planned to be fifty-four (54) feet in length by thirty-eight (38) feet in width. The dimensions were subsequently somewhat altered.
In March, 1854, the bell was purchased and on April 12, 1854, the second church edifice was dedicated with great joy; neighboring churches participating in the dedicatory services, Rev. Mr. Churchill of Woodbury preaching the sermon. This event occurred during the pastorate of Rev. Dan C. Curtiss. This church stands on nearly the same site as the first meeting house, with entrance from the east instead of south as in case of first building. The seats occupied the center of the house and the two sides, with aisles
SECOND CHURCH BUILDING, CONSTRUCTED IN 1854
25
HISTORY OF THE SECOND CHURCH EDIFICE
separating the three sections of seats; "observation pews" were located on the right and left of the pulpit which was rather ornate in design with tall side lamps. The choir occupied the rear gallery; there were no side galleries. Stoves to the right and left of the east entrance with pipes extending to the chimneys on the extreme west side of the building furnished heat and smoke. In 1880 the choir gallery was constructed at the west end of the auditorium, at the rear of the pulpit.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.