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The Evolution of an Old New England Church By
Harry Kelso Eversull
د
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 02158 755 2
Gc 974.602 Ea4le Eversull, Harry Kelso, 1893- 1953. The evolution of an old New England Church
Juan Da. a. D.M. Baril.
THE OLD STONE CHURCH
THE EVOLUTION OF AN OLD 1
NEW ENGLAND CHURCH
BEING THE HISTORY OF
THE OLD STONE CHURCH IN EAST HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
By HARRY KELSO EVERSULL Minister in the Old Stone Church
EAST HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
1924
COPYRIGHT, 1924, BY H. K. EVERSULL.
THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR COMPANY, NEW HAVEN, CONN.
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. The Colony in the Wilderness I
CHAPTER II.
An Independent Church and its First Pastor 27
CHAPTER III.
The Pastorate of Nicholas Street 57
CHAPTER IV.
Saul Clark and Stephen Dodd 87
CHAPTER V.
The Last Three Quarters of a Century
I08
APPENDIX.
Roster of Ministers I38
Roster of Deacons I38
Roster of Sunday School Superintendents I39
Roster of Church Members 140
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The Old Stone Church
Frontispiece
Tombstone of Rev. Jacob Hemingway
27
Rev. Nicholas Street
57
The Old Stone Church, 1774-1797
7I
East Haven at the Close of the Eighteenth Century
83
Rev. Saul Clark
87
Rev. Stephen Dodd
97
The Old Stone Church, 1797-1850
IOI
Rev. Daniel William Havens
109
Rev. Joseph Alexander Tomlinson
I2I
Rev. Daniel James Clark
123
Rev. Harry Kelso Eversull
I3I
Interior of The Old Stone Church
I35
PREFACE.
This essay is an attempt to show the reactions of an old New England church toward the larger and more comprehen- sive religious movements which have taken place since the coming of our Pilgrim fathers. It is a record of two centuries of local church history viewed in relation to the religious history of New England.
The history of one Congregational church, situated in the midst of Puritan persuasion, is more or less the history of all. Quite naturally there have been local influences and circum- stances that have given each church its individuality, but all in all the vicissitudes of the New England Congregational con- gregations have a striking similarity. For the first century there were no theological controversies: the problems were largely those of church polity, inter-community fellowship, and protection from the aborigines and the elements.
For one to understand the true setting of any particular Congregational church of the early period and trace its devel- opment to the present day, the larger and more general back- ground of New England history must be seen; the general influences that have been present must be viewed in perspective in order to see how they have moulded the religious life of the people. No church lives unto itself alone, but taking its place beside its sister churches, performing its tasks in its local surroundings, it is a unit of the whole. At times its spirit is dormant, as though it had lost its grip on moral and spiritual idealism, and then again it rises to a pressing occasion and manifests remarkable virility. As a general thing it stub- bornly resists new movements and innovations and then, when least expected, it goes forward by leaps and bounds, grasping a new truth as though life would be impossible without it. Such is the history of the New England Congregational churches.
viii
PREFACE.
While this work purports to be a history of the Old Stone Church, of East Haven, Connecticut, it might almost as well serve as a history of any of its neighbors. Local details must be given, local characters must be introduced, and local tradi- tions must be revealed; but all these are infinitesimal parts of a great evolution, and may be considered as mere coloring in the growth of New England Congregationalism.
I have based my account of the development of the local church on the East Haven Village Records, Ecclesiastical Society Records, Church Records, S. Dodd's East Haven Register, D. W. Havens' Centennial Discourse, and numerous unpublished sermons, now in the possession of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. For the account of the larger and more general religious movements I have drawn principally from M. L. Green's Development of Religious Liberty in Con- necticut, W. Walker's History of the Congregationalists, F. B. Foster's Genetic History of New England Theology, L. Bacon's Historical Discourses, local histories and histories of denominations.
I am happy to express my thanks to Professors R. H. Bainton, R. H. Gabriel, and J. C. Archer, of Yale University, Reverend O. E. Maurer, Pastor of the First Church, New Haven, and Mr. Glenn Stewart for reading the manuscript and for many helpful suggestions. The officials in the New Haven Colony Historical Society and the Yale University Library, and Mr. W. S. Coker, East Haven town clerk and clerk of the Old Stone Church, have shown me special kindnesses, for which I am exceedingly grateful. From the very first I have had the counsel and helpful criticism of my wife.
H. K. E.
East Haven, Connecticut.
June 18, 1924.
CHAPTER I.
THE COLONY IN THE WILDERNESS.
The tall spire of the Old Stone Church reveals the center of the town of East Haven to the traveller for several miles in every direction. When he comes to examine this well-built structure he may be surprised to discover that it was erected in 1774, less than a year before the battle of Lexington. Old inhabitants will pass on to him the story of how the Indians assisted in carrying the stones for great distances in their long- handled wheelbarrows, and how the patriot troops assembled about its massive walls to resist the invasion of the British. But be that as it may, it is now one of the oldest stone meeting houses in all New England; and in the state of Connecticut there are only two houses of worship which are older, the first being the brick church in Wethersfield, built in 1770, and the second being the frame edifice in Farmington, built in 1772.1 The church organization is more than half a century older than the meeting house. As a separate congregation it was organ- ized in 17II. Before that, however, it was a part of the First Church, or Center Church as it is now known, in New Haven. It was, therefore, Congregational, and a part of the dominant religious body in the New England colonies. We are thus taken back to the days of settlement and the beginnings of the New Haven Colony. All this we must review if we are to understand the background of the East Haven Church. Especially must we do so because the early colonists were too occupied with subduing nature and fighting the Indians to develop many theological or ecclesiastical variations. Hence the history of one church is much like that of another, and we must survey the whole if we are to understand the part. To this general survey our first chapter will be devoted.
1 D. W. Havens, Anniversary Discourse (1874), p. 12.
2
THE EVOLUTION OF AN OLD NEW ENGLAND CHURCH.
The colonies of New England were predominately Congre- gational in their church polity. Although the early pioneers who left comfortable homes and well-cultivated fields to subdue the wilderness of the new world were of three religious lean- ings, namely, the Independents or Pilgrims, the Puritans who really desired to remain in the Church of England, and the Presbyterians, circumstances were such that Congregationalism consolidated and absorbed all of them. Their differences were in matters of church polity, not of creed, so they could unite without any one being forced to surrender or modify any part of his faith. All were strict Calvinists and of equal determina- tion to be free from the arbitrary rulings of Archbishop Laud of the Church of England.
The Pilgrims were the first to establish a permanent settle- ment in New England. They had gone to Holland in 1608, but fearing that their posterity would be absorbed by the Dutch, they resolved to seek a home in the wild regions of the new world where they could remain Separatists and English. A minority of the congregation sailed from Holland in July, 1620, for Southampton, where they embarked in the May- flower for America.
The Pilgrims were Separatists, having completely severed connection from the Church of England. Like the Puritans and Presbyterians, they were extreme Calvinists, rigorously opposed to liturgies, ceremonies, and the hierarchical govern- ment of the Established Church. Marriages and funerals were conducted without religious ceremony because ceremony savored too much of popery. Elder William Brewster was their spiritual leader until 1629, when the Reverend Ralph Smith accepted their call and entered upon his work.
The Puritans, staunch in their Calvinism as were the Pil- grims, believed that the Church of England was a true Church of God, although it greatly needed reformation. They desired to remain within its fold and reform its doctrines and purify its membership. The task was difficult, to be sure, but they
3
THE COLONY IN THE WILDERNESS.
had reason to look for substantial assistance from the govern- ment; and in the hope that this assistance would be forth- coming they were reluctant to separate completely from the church of their fathers.
The Puritan emigration, including a large number of Pres- byterians, began in 1628. John Endicott with a party of forty arrived from England and united with the survivors of the Cape Anne settlement to found the town of Salem. Two years later John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, arrived at Boston with eleven ships and nine hundred colonists. Other towns from Salem to Dorchester were soon settled. Sickness intruded into the happiness and prosperity of the colonists, depleting their number the first winter by two hundred. After that, however, the growth of the new settle- ments was steady and rapid until the outbreak of war between king and parliament, when it became necessary for the Puritans to remain in England.
In 1631 a law was enacted providing that none but church members should be freemen. In the same year Roger Wil- liams became minister in Salem and began to dissent from the standing order and startle all orthodoxy by preaching religious tolerance and complete separation of church and state. Four years later he was ordered into exile. Accompanied by a small number of adherents, he made his way across the winter snows to the Narragansett Indians, who granted him lands upon which he established the settlement of Providence.
Settlements were started in Connecticut in 1636 by people from Massachusetts. They came from Watertown and estab- lished a settlement in what is now Wethersfield-the oldest town in the state. Others came from Dorchester and settled in Windsor, while the people from Newtown (now Cam- bridge) began the settlement of Hartford. John Winthrop, son of the Governor of Massachusetts, built a fort and began a settlement at the mouth of the Connecticut River. This settlement was named Saybrook. In the summer of 1636 the
4
THE EVOLUTION OF AN OLD NEW ENGLAND CHURCH.
Reverend Thomas Hooker and the Reverend Samuel Stone, ministers in Newtown, took their congregation and travelled through the wilderness to join their neighbors who had gone before them to Hartford.
Indian troubles soon began to disturb the infant colonies. The Pequots, from the region about New London, in April, 1637, proceeded up the Connecticut River and attacked Wethersfield, killing six men and three women, and taking two women prisoners.2 Other Indian depredations had taken place in Massachusetts the year before, and the people in Connecticut felt great consternation lest similar attacks should follow. Men from Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, numbering all-told about ninety, joined forces and marched down the river. At Saybrook they were reënforced by a few settlers and Mohegan Indians, and as they continued on their way they were joined by about five hundred of the Narragansetts. The outcome of the brief expedition was the complete extermination of the Pequots as a tribe.3
The country west of Saybrook was wilderness and prac- tically unknown to the people in the recently established settle- ments along the Connecticut River. The Indians in the region were numerous. The Quinnipiacs, a peaceful people, were located in the vicinity of what was to become New Haven, but their number was kept small because of the frequent attacks of the Pequots from the east and the Mohawks from the west. They maintained a fort on Beacon Hill, in East Haven, and to the east of the hill they had a large burying ground which they visited annually.4 They also maintained a fort on the site where the old East Haven cemetery is now located.
In the punitive expedition against the fierce Pequots the settlers penetrated this country for the first time. They were
2 Benj. Trumbull, History of Connecticut, Vol. I, pp. 56-62, 65-69. E. R. Lambert, History of the Colony of New Haven, p. 20.
3 E. R. Lambert, History of the Colony of New Haven, p. 20.
4 Ibid., p. 40; S. Dodd, East Haven Register, p. 81.
5
THE COLONY IN THE WILDERNESS.
thoroughly delighted with what they saw, and the reports they took back were highly favorable. Captain Stoughton wrote to Governor Winthrop saying the land was excellent for a settlement, and it is quite possible that this letter was shown to Reverend John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton who were soon to come to the land of the Quinnipiacs and found the youngest of the Puritan colonies.
Glowing accounts of the progress of the Massachusetts Bay Company had been written by the Reverend John Cotton5 to Mr. Davenport, encouraging him to venture across the sea, and assuring him that "The order of the Churches and Com- monwealth is now so settled in New England that it brings to my mind the new Heaven and the new Earth in which dwells Righteousness." But things were not so serene when the Hector and her accompanying ship6 arrived in Boston harbor, June 26, 1637. The people were in turmoil : Anne Hutchinson was preaching Antinomianism, the Governor was ruling con- trary to the will of the counsel of elders, and even Mr. Cotton's orthodoxy was being questioned. Nevertheless, the immi- grants were given a warm and hearty welcome and invited to remain with and become a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Better judgment, however, prevailed on the part of the new-comers: Davenport and Eaton wanted to be away from the religious strife and independent of all other authori- ties. They chose to establish a colony for themselves where they could govern according to their own ideas. On the 31st of August, two months after their arrival in Boston, Eaton, with a bare handful of men, sailed for Quinnipiac, to see for himself if it would be suitable for a settlement.
The location seemed ideal and the Indians were few and peaceful. An interview was arranged with Momauguin, the sachem of the tribe, the result of which was the agreement that
5 Eaton and Davenport were members of the Massachusetts Bay Company from the first and had retained their interest in its progress.
" The name of the ship is lost.
6
THE EVOLUTION OF AN OLD NEW ENGLAND CHURCH.
the strangers should come and settle unmolested and should pay for the land they occupied. The exact terms of payment were made a little over a year later7 when Davenport and Eaton entered into a treaty with Momauguin. This treaty provided, on the one part, that the Indians would not "terrify, nor dis- turb the English, nor injure them in any of their interests," while, on the other, the English would "protect Momauguin and his Indians, when unreasonably assaulted and terrified by other Indians; and that they should have sufficient quantity of land to plant on, upon the east side of the harbor, between that and the Saybrook fort."8 And "by way of thankful retribu- tion" the English would give Momauguin and his Indians, twelve coats of English cloth, twelve alchemy spoons, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen knives, twelve porringers, and four cases of French knives and scissors.9
After the consummation of this treaty Momauguin and his Indians removed their camps to the eastward, and for many years occupied as a permanent reservation the land between the harbor and Lake Saltonstall, or what is now the town of East Haven.
About a month after the treaty was drawn up with Momau- guin a similar treaty was negotiated with Montowese, son of the sachem of Mattabeseck (now Middletown), for the pur- chase of a tract of land ten miles in length and thirteen miles in breadth, extending east and west of the Quinnipiac River and north of the tract purchased from Momauguin. "These purchases comprehended all the lands within the ancient limits of the old towns of New Haven, Branford, and Wallingford, and now form the whole, or principal parts of the towns of East Haven, North Haven, Hamden, Cheshire, Meriden, North Branford, Bethany, Woodbridge, and Orange."10
" November 24, 1638.
8 Benj. Trumbull, History of Connecticut, Vol. I, p. 98.
9 Ibid., p. 99.
10 Ibid., p. 74; E. R. Lambert, History of the Colony of New Haven, p. 46.
7
THE COLONY IN THE WILDERNESS.
The little band of explorers remained in Quinnipiac for three months when the approach of winter made it expedient for them to return to their friends. Leaving Joshua Atwater in charge of seven men to make preparation for the coming of the main body of the company, Eaton and the remainder of the party set sail for Boston. The winter of 1637-38 was long and cold, and the eight men, living in a hut which had been built on what is now the corner of Church and Meadow streets, endured the elements with stoic fortitude. But the severe weather was too much for one member of the advance guard : he contracted illness and shortly after succumbed. The seven survivors anxiously awaited the coming of spring when their wives and brethren would join them.
The company arrived in Quinnipiac in April, 1638, having set sail from Boston on March 30th. On the first Sabbath, the 18th of the month, the people assembled under an oak tree which stood near the present corner of George and College streets to hear the Reverend Mr. Davenport preach his first sermon in their new home. His text was from Matthew VI :I : "Then was Jesus led up into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." The occasion must have been unusually solemn and impressive, for Davenport recorded in his diary that he "enjoyed a good day."
A few days later the people again assembled, probably under the same oak tree, and entered into the Plantation Covenant. This compact provided "That as in matters that concern the gathering and ordering a church, so also in all public offices which concern civil order, as choyce of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of a like nature they would all of them be ordered by the Rules which the Scripture do hold forth." More than a year elapsed before a church was organized and a permanent civil and ecclesiastical government agreed upon.
After invoking the blessing of almighty God, every one began to work. The land was portioned out and houses were
3
8
THE EVOLUTION OF AN OLD NEW ENGLAND CHURCH.
erected. A market place in the center of the settlement was to be used for all public purposes. In a very short time Quinnipiac began to take on the appearances of a thriving and well-to-do settlement.
On June 4, 1639, all the free planters gathered in Mr. Robert Newman's "mighty barn" to lay the "foundations of Church and State." Mr. Davenport preached from the text (Prov- erbs IX :1) "Wisdom hath builded her house; she hath hewn out her seven pillars." He then proceeded to show that the church should be formed of seven pillars, and to these seven should be given the authority to add others. Emphasizing the great importance of the business before them, he urged every one to refrain from rash voting. To the questions which he proposed the following resolutions were adopted :
"I. That the Scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and men, as well in families and com- monwealths, as in matters of the church.
"II. That as in matters which concerned the gathering and ordering of a church, so likewise in all public offices which concern civil order, as the choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature, they would all be governed by those rules, which the Scripture held forth to them.
"III. That all those who desired to be received as free planters had settled in the plantation, with a purpose, resolu- tion and desire, that they might be admitted into church fellow- ship according to Christ.
"IV. That all the free planters held themselves bound to establish such civil order as might best conduce to the securing of the purity and peace of the ordinance to themselves and their posterity according to God.
"V. That church members only should be free burgesses; and that they should choose magistrates among themselves, to
9
THE COLONY IN THE WILDERNESS.
have power of transacting all the public civil affairs of the plantation : Of making and repealing laws, dividing inheri- tance, deciding all differences that may arise, and doing all things and business of like nature.
"VI. That twelve men should be chosen, that their fitness for the foundation work might be tried, and that it should be in the power of those twelve men, to choose seven to begin the church."11
These resolutions are known as the "Fundamental Agree- ment"; they formed the constitution of the civil and ecclesi- astical government of Quinnipiac. The twelve men chosen to select the seven pillars were Theophilus Eaton, John Daven- port, Robert Newman, Matthew Gilbert, Richard Malbon, Nathaniel Turner, Ezekiel Cheever, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson, William Andrews, and Jeremiah Dixon.12 Out of their number they selected the following seven to be the foun- dation of the First Church of Christ: Theophilus Eaton, John Davenport, Robert Newman, Matthew Gilbert, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson, and Jeremiah Dixon. These seven pious men, after serious deliberation and prayer, received others into their fellowship, and on the 22d day of August, 1639, two years after Eaton and his party of explorers had for the first time set foot on the shores of Quinnipiac, the church was formed. It was from this institution that the church in East Haven was to come.
The New Haven Colony was theocratic from its incipiency. The original seven pillars of the church convened on October 25, 1639, after the church had been duly organized, and held the first court. After a prayer and an address they proceeded to select the body of freemen and to elect their civil officers. Theophilus Eaton was selected for governor-an office which he continued to hold until his death in 1658; Robert Newman,
11 Benj. Trumbull, Vol. I, pp. 78-9.
12 The record shows only eleven.
IO
THE EVOLUTION OF AN OLD NEW ENGLAND CHURCH.
Matthew Gilbert, Nathaniel Turner, and Thomas Fugill were made magistrates; and Robert Seely was chosen marshal. Mr. Davenport charged the newly-elected governor in open court, from Deuteronomy I:16, 17: "And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it." It was decreed by the freemen that there should be a general court every year, at which all the officers of the colony were to be elected. At the next meeting of the court, September 1, 1640, the name of the settlement was changed from Quinnipiac to New Haven.
X
The work on the meeting house began as soon as the church was organized. A tax of twenty-five shillings was levied on every hundred pounds of property, which netted a total of five hundred pounds. The house stood in the center of the Green, probably facing the east. It was built of wood, fifty feet square, with a turret and tower, and a small railing around the roof. The interior arrangement provided for the separa- tion of the men from the women and the youths from the maidens. There was a middle aisle flanked by an aisle on either side; to the right of the middle aisle sat the women and small children, and to the left sat the men. The young men were quartered in the gallery on one side, while the young women had similar quarters on the other. On either side of the pulpit the seats were placed at right angles to the others, thus making the "amen corners." The pastor and teacher, both of whom were regularly ordained ministers, sat behind the pulpit; directly in front of the pulpit sat the ruling elder, and in front of him sat the deacons-all of them facing the congregation.13
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