USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Newtown > The story of two centuries, with an account of the celebration of the bicentenary of the Congregational Church of Newtown, Connecticut, October 18, 19 and 20, 1914, 1714-1914 > Part 1
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1714=1914
The Story of Two Centuries
Congregational Church
Newtown, Connecticut
E
Gc 974.602 N47n 1295455
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01150 5739
6
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/17141914storyoft00unse
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NEWTOWN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
1714 - 1914
THE
STORY OF TWO CENTURIES
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE
CELEBRATION OF THE BICENTENARY
OF THE
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
OF NEWTOWN, CONN.
October 18, 19 and 20, 1914
PRESS OF THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR CO.
1914
4-12-65 # 12133.
1295455
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface 4
Foreword 5
Story of the Celebration 7
Historical Address, by Susan J. Scudder 13
Address, by Rev. Williston Walker, D.D., of New Haven 60
Christian Endeavor Rally-a Retrospect and a Prospect- Address by Rev. O. W. Barker 68
The Church that Stands Four-Square, by Rev. Charles R. Brown, D.D., Dean of the Yale School of Religion So Address, by Rev. James H. George, D.D., Rector of Trinity Church, Newtown 83
Address, by Rev. L. F. Berry of Stamford 87
Address, by Judge John H. Perry of Southport 90
Address, by Rev. Sherrod Soule of Hartford 95
Letters of Regret 99 The Memorial Tablets I02
Ministers of the Church, 1714-1914 103
PREFACE
This book has been prepared not for the present merely or mainly, but for future generations. How often do we regret that the records of the past are so meagre! What would we not give for a book, similar to this, issued a hundred years ago; and are we not justified in feeling that our children and our children's children will prize this volume as we prize the all-too- rare old books, old clocks and old chairs that have come down to us? It is a book that is of lasting value, not only to the people of the church whose story it contains, but also to all who are in any way interested in Newtown or in Fairfield County. As a book of reference it should find a place in every local library, public or private. The work of preparing it has been a labor of love, thus eliminating all expense except that of publication.
ALLISON P. SMITH, TIMOTHY J. LEE,
SUSAN J. SCUDDER, ARTHUR T. NETTLETON,
CORNELIUS B. TAYLOR,
Editorial Committee.
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REV. TIMOTHY J. LEE Pastor of the Church
FOREWORD
A record of the Bicentennial celebration of the Newtown Congregational Church would not be complete without a brief word as to the preparatory work leading up to the celebration. At the annual meeting of the church in January, 1912, a com- mittee was named with power to arrange for a fitting celebration.
On December 16, 1913, the committee met in session at the residence of Miss Susan J. Scudder and effected an organization as follows :
Executive Committee ALLISON P. SMITH, Chairman
Miss SUSAN J. SCUDDER, Secretary
LEVI CURTIS MORRIS
Rev. TIMOTHY J. LEE
ARTHUR TREAT NETTLETON
CORNELIUS B. TAYLOR
The following sub-committees were named to care for the details of the celebration :
Program Committee Rev. TIMOTHY J. LEE, Chairman EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Committee on Invitations CORNELIUS B. TAYLOR, Chairman ARTHUR T. NETTLETON Mrs. ANDREW C. MOORE
Committee on Tablets ARTHUR T. NETTLETON, Chairman Rev. TIMOTHY J. LEE
Miss SUSAN J. SCUDDER
Mrs. LEVI C. MORRIS
Committee on Book ALLISON P. SMITH, Chairman CORNELIUS B. TAYLOR Rev. TIMOTHY J. LEE
ARTHUR T. NETTLETON SUSAN J. SCUDDER
Committee on Reception and Transportation ARTHUR J. SMITH, Chairman
CORNELIUS B. TAYLOR HERVEY W. WHEELER
EDWARD S. LOVELL PHILANDER E. ABBOTT
H. CARLTON HUBBELL Dr. FRANK J. GALE
GEO. R. WILSON
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BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
Committee on Decorations Mrs. ARTHUR J. SMITH, Chairman
Mrs. ARTHUR W. REYNOLDS Mrs. LEVI C. MORRIS
Mrs. HERVEY W. WHEELER Mrs. WM. HOMER HUBBELL
Mrs. WILLIAM H. THICKET
Mrs. PHILANDER E. ABBOTT
Mrs. GEORGE B. BEERS
Mrs. JESSE B. WOODHULL
Finance Committee LEVI C. MORRIS, Chairman
ARTHUR T. NETTLETON
CORNELIUS B. TAYLOR
WILSON M. REYNOLDS
Music Committee ARTHUR W. REYNOLDS, Chairman Mrs. WILLIAM F. HALE H. CARLTON HUBBELL Mrs. LEVI C. MORRIS
Committee on Printing ARTHUR J. SMITH, Chairman GUSTAVE W. CARLSON MINNIE R. THICKET
The result of their work found expression in the harmonious and inspiring services of the three days.
Previous to the celebration a committee named by the First Ecclesiastical Society, consisting of :
CORNELIUS B. TAYLOR ARTHUR TREAT NETTLETON LEVI CURTIS MORRIS
WILSON M. REYNOLDS
ARTHUR J. SMITH
with painstaking care and fidelity, had wrought great changes in the interior of the old meeting house. The result of their labors included the redecorating of the walls of the church, the installation of an organ, rich in tone and dignified in its outer architectural lines, the purchase of new pulpit furnishings, the laying of new carpets, the placing of new cushions in the pews, and the installation of an electric lighting system, used for the first time in any public building in Newtown at the Sunday evening service of the celebration. Everything in this ancient and loved House of God was in fine order for the coming cele- bration, which was to mean so much to the members of the church and congregation.
DEACON ALLISON P. SMITH Chairman of the Bicentennial Executive Committee
STORY OF THE CELEBRATION
The celebration in honor of the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Newtown Congregational Church had a fitting opening in the inspiring commemorative service held at the usual hour of morning worship, Sunday, October 18th. The weather conditions were perfect, the heavy fog of the early morning breaking away into a beautiful autumnal day. The church interior presented a bright appearance; chrysanthemums and hydrangea blossoms, palms, ferns and other plants were blended in the artistic decorations about the pulpit platform. The Rev. Timothy J. Lee, the Pastor, was assisted in the open- ing exercises by the Rev. Sherrod Soule of Hartford, Super- intendent of the Connecticut Home Missionary Society. The choir, under the leadership of Mrs. W. F. Hale, finely rendered the anthem, "Through Peace to Light," by C. B. Adams. The duet by Stainer, "Love Divine, All Love Excelling," was ren- dered by Mrs. W. F. Hale and Curtis P. Morris. The hymns of the morning were "Come, Thou Almighty King," "O God, Our Help In Ages Past," "Oh God, Beneath Thy Guiding Hand."
The sermon of the morning was by the Pastor, Rev. Mr. Lee. The texts were Heb. 10: 32, "Call to remembrance the former days," and Isa. 51 : I, "Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn."
Mr. Lee said in part :- "It has been said that the light which lights a nation to its fame is the light of its sunrise. We have met to call to mind how our church, yea, how our nation started and how our ancestors wrested out of the very jaws of the wilderness the inheritance that is ours to-day; and to pray for grace and the strength to do our part towards the world's advancement; to make strong and efficient our link in the wondrous chain of succession.
We are reminded to-day of the fact that even in this age of novelty and the love of it there are some things that are prized even more highly because they are old-the old church and the old town, both of which the founders loved and faithfully served ;
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BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
the old clocks that our grandfathers used to wind; the old chairs in which our grandmothers used to sit with the old Bible on their knees, and the old hymn books at their side with its
'Tell me the old, old story Of unseen things above, Of Jesus and His glory, Of Jesus and His love.'
We are patriots and accept that doctrine of the glorious Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal, and therefore, it makes no difference where a man is born, he is entitled to the same equality of privilege and opportunity with every other man; but somehow, to-day we cannot keep back the feeling that it is just as well for a man, if he can so arrange it, to be born in New England. The cleverest thing I ever did, perhaps the only clever thing that I have done, was to make just that arrangement, and, considering my extreme youth and inex- perience at the time, I submit that I ought to be somewhat com- mended. But I am not only a born Puritan, I am a born optimist as well, and I believe that I am a born optimist because I am a born Puritan. Contrary to the general impression, those ancestors of ours were, in my opinion, the greatest optimists that ever lived. With faith in God first they had faith in themselves as God sustained. They believed that an Almighty God was at the helm of the universe guiding the stately ship through the ages. With this conception they could sing from the heart
'We trust Thy love, Thou best dost know, The Universal peace,
How long the stormy force should flow, And when the flood should cease : And though around our path some form Of mystery ever lies, And life is like the calm and storm That checker earth and skies,
Through all life's changing joy and dread Permit us, Holy One, By faith to see the golden thread Of Thy great purpose run.'
It seems to be easy for us to mock them, and for a certain kind of so-called culture, such a culture as at this very moment is lifting up its braggart front on the desolated fields of Europe
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NEWTOWN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
sneering at the past and boasting of its superiority; it is easy for such a culture to pity their ignorance and to ridicule or cartoon them as solemn and morose. But I would like to put one of those cartoonists on Plymouth Rock as it was in 1620, with his back to three thousand miles of stormy ocean, and his face to the savage wilderness and more savage men and tell him that he is expected to go forward, wade through the snow, cut down the forest, clear a space for a home, and lay the founda- tions of a new nation; I would like to see how this modern optimism would compare with that of the old Puritans.
A few years ago our neighbor, New Milford, celebrated her Bicentennial. In a brief address which I was invited to deliver on that occasion, I told of a personal incident which I feel is appropriate now. Perhaps our New Milford friends who have honored us with their presence to-day will remember it, though it is just as possible that they will not; we preachers know what is the lot of public speaking. I once met one of our recently adopted sons who called himself a German-American. Just here I want to say by way of parenthesis that the time has come in the history of our country when the people are putting up a strong protest against using the hyphen in describing any of our citizens. We want to hear no more about German-Ameri- cans, Anglo-Americans, Franco-Americans or Irish-Americans. If men come here to make this land their home we will welcome them, but we insist that they be willing to call themselves, as we call ourselves, simply Americans; that they be loyal to no flag but Old Glory, to no ruler but Uncle Sam. Well, this recent importation from the Old World was living in Nebraska and added, 'Do you know that twenty-two Connecticuts could be put into my state and that this country has now reached a point in her growth where she could cut out New England and not feel it?' That was a strange idea, perhaps you will think, but it is not so rare after all, and it is time to stop its spread. Cut New England out of the great life of the nation! Yes, you may when you can cut out a thread of gold woven in and out in a fabric of glossy richness and manifold colors without destroying the entire piece. Cut New England out! Yes, you may when you can cut out of the loaf the leaven that has made it sweet and light. Cut New England out! Yes, you may when without disfigurement you can cut out the features of a mother from the face of her child."
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BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
Mr. Lee closed by saying : "I must detain you no longer, for you will have to do a tremendous amount of listening during the next three days. I hope you have inherited enough of that element of endurance which enabled your ancestors to listen to sermons two hours long, to carry you successfully through the ordeal. I want to say in conclusion that I love this old Church and this old Town. Their interests are now my interests and their people my people. God grant that the spirit of the founders shall ever be the spirit of the sons, and that while we sound the praises of a noble ancestry, we do not forget that we are called to do something ourselves for posterity to commemorate."
The congregation of the morning completely filled the church and the gallery, visitors being present from Bridgeport, South Britain, Stepney, Monroe, Redding, Bethel and New Milford.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON SERVICE
The service, Sunday afternoon, at 2:30 o'clock, to which the neighboring churches of the town had especially been invited, opened with the Doxology, followed by the Invocation by the Rev. Mr. Lee, and the Lord's Prayer by the congregation. The choir numbers for the afternoon included the anthem by Wilson, "Be Thou Exalted." Mrs. W. F. Hale gave an appropriate render- ing of Handel's solo, "Come Unto Me." The hymns for the afternoon were "How Firm a Foundation Ye Saints of the Lord," "Oh, Where are Kings and Empires Now," and "Blest Be the Tie that Binds."
Rev. Mr. Lee, in his welcome to the visiting friends, said : "It gives me great pleasure to welcome you here to-day, repre- sentatives of different churches. We all have our individual tastes in regard to religious worship, but as the Scripture which I have read states, we are, after all, one. One in faith, one in hope of a glorious immortality and one, I believe, in the desire for prosperity, both temporal and spiritual, of our beloved town. I am pleased, not to introduce, for you all know him, but to call upon the Reverend James H. George, Rector of Trinity Church, Newtown.
Rev. Mr. George made a very happy and pleasing address of congratulation.
The closing address of the afternoon was by Rev. Sherrod Soule of Hartford, beloved by all Congregationalists.
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NEWTOWN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR RALLY
The interest and enthusiasm in the Bicentennial celebration showed no falling away in the Christian Endeavor rally, Sunday evening, despite the two long and interesting sessions already held. The church was again taxed to its seating capacity. The service opened with the Invocation, Lord's Prayer, Responsive Reading, Reading of the Scripture, and the singing of the hymn, "Sun of my Soul, Thou Saviour Dear." Allison P. Smith spoke briefly as one of the charter members of the society. The main address of the evening was by Rev. Otis Webb Barker, Assistant Pastor of the Fourth Congregational Church of Hartford, and for twelve years pastor of the Newtown Congregational Church.
HISTORICAL SERVICE
Deep interest centered in the historical service, Monday after- noon. The service opened with the Doxology, the Lord's Prayer, and the singing of the Gloria. The historical paper was by Miss Susan J. Scudder, and received the closest attention; the paper occupied about an hour in its delivery, and was one of the great events of the celebration. The historian's able presentation of the historical matter made the time pass only too quickly.
At the conclusion of the reading of Miss Scudder's excellent paper, the hymn was sung, "Oh, God of Bethel by Whose Hand Thy People Still Are Led." The closing address of the after- noon was by Rev. Williston Walker, D.D., who spoke on the contrast of two centuries of church life.
MUSICAL SERVICE
The musical service, Monday evening, brought out an attend- ance which again crowded the old Meeting House, the largest company that has assembled in the history of the present genera- tion. The concert, which was of a sacred nature, reflected high credit on the choir director, Mrs. W. F. Hale, Arthur W. Rey- nolds, chairman of the Music Committee, and Joseph W. Crosley, choir director of St. James's Church, Danbury. The boy soloist, Master William Daniels of Danbury, was heard with great pleasure in the solo, "Oh, Divine Redeemer." Curtis P. Morris of Bridgeport, whose fine tenor voice is so often
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BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
heard in the Congregational Church choir, rendered the solo, "I'm a Pilgrim," by Johnson. Arthur W. Reynolds was heard with pleasure in a solo, "O Day of Rest and Gladness." Mrs. W. F. Hale, choir director and soprano soloist, rendered the solo by Gaul, "These are They." The work of the chorus was espe- cially pleasing, the chorus numbers including: "Festival Te Deum" in F, by Dudley Buck, "Inflammatus" from "Stabat Mater," by Gounod, and "Hear My Prayer," by Mendelssohn.
MEETING OF THE FAIRFIELD ASSOCIATION
The celebration came to a fitting close on Tuesday, October 20th, with the meeting of the Fairfield Association with the New- town Church. The meeting opened at II o'clock, Rev. L. F. Berry of Stamford, the Moderator, presiding. After a busi- ness session the meeting of the Association was adjourned at one o'clock to go to the dinner served by the ladies of the Church to the Ministers, Delegates and Guests of the Association. The Rev. L. F. Berry, Moderator, presided at the afternoon service and gave an exceedingly helpful address.
The address of the Rev. Charles Reynolds Brown, D.D., of New Haven, Moderator of the National Council of Congrega- tional Churches, was one of the treats of the session, spiritual in tone, eloquent and uplifting.
Rev. Gerald H. Beard, D.D., of the Park Street Church, Bridgeport, spoke on the Relation of the Country Church to the City Church. Hon. John H. Perry, a member of the Southport Church, and an active figure in the meetings of the National Council, gave an address of deep interest.
Thus closed a series of meetings, helpful and spiritual in tone, the influence of which must long remain with the local church and all whose good fortune it was to be present.
MISS SUSAN J. SCUDDER Church Historian and Secretary of the Bicentennial Executive Committee
HISTORICAL ADDRESS
By SUSAN J. SCUDDER
"Think of all those who erst have been Living where thou art even now, Looking upon life's busy scene
With glance as careless and light as thou.
All these, like thee, have lived and moved,
Have seen what now thou look'st upon,
Have feared, hoped, hated, mourned or loved, And now from mortal sight have gone.
We do think of them to-day, and, thinking, we are made solemn by the thought that we are but a part of the long pro- cession; that we, too, are passing away; that we soon shall be numbered with the generations that are gone and our successors will sometime be asking the 'days that are past' about us.
If the days that are past be compared with those that are present what wonderful changes will appear! Imagine that the Indians, who sold this town to its original proprietors, or those original proprietors themselves, should awake from the sleep of the centuries and survey this goodly land, what would they see which they did not see in 1700 or 1705? In the place of forests and swamps are meadows and cultivated fields; in place of log huts and wigwams are substantial and often costly houses; in place of a few red men or hardy settlers is a population of over four thousand. Where the Pootatuck rolled its silent way to the 'Great River' are large manufactories which supply all parts of the country and the world with articles then unknown, while the railroads and telegraph and our printing presses would call forth exclamations of astonishment and many questions."
Thus wrote one of the pastors of this church in an anniversary sermon preached July, 1876, the centenary of our Nation's birth, forty years ago. If the founders of this town and this church would have been astonished at the wonders of those days what would be their feelings could they go through our town to-day ! In place of the slow-moving coaches of olden days are the luxuri- ous, swiftly moving automobiles, rolling over our well-built state
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BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
roads, where once were only bridle paths. The telephone, found in almost every home, brings to us the very tones of our loved ones, though they be separated far from us, and our thoughts are flashed over the tractless seas by no visible means of com- munication.
Our grandmothers carried water from spring and brook for all their household purposes, while we of to-day but turn the faucet and all the waters of "Great Pond" are at our com- mand. Days were spent in making the tallow dips, to-day we press the button and our houses are suffused with light by the magic of a power then undreamed of. Where once they sat upon hard benches through a two-hours' sermon, seeking to relieve the chill of the unheated room with their foot-stoves, we sit upon soft cushions and complain if the minister exceeds his half hour. Then they tuned the Psalms, now soft music from organ pipe and choir leads us in the worship of the God who is "the same yesterday, to-day and forever."
But the mission of this paper is not to compare the past with the present, but rather to look into the past that we may see all the way our God has led us.
It is not necessary for me to go into the history of Newtown, our venerable historian, Mr. E. L. Johnson, has already done that for us in his able and scholarly paper prepared for the Bicentennial of the town in 1905, and I am sure it is still fresh in your minds how Massumpus, Mauquash and Nunnawauk, acting in behalf of the Pootatuck tribe of Indians, sold to William Junos and Samuel Hawley, Jr., of Stratford, and Justus Bush of New York, a tract of land eight miles long and six miles wide, lying on the west side of the Great River, now called Housatonic "for and in consideration of four guns, four broad- cloth coats, four blankets, four ruffelly coats, four collars, ten shirts, ten pairs of stockings, forty pounds of lead, ten pounds of powder and forty knives." Thus did the aboriginal owners of this fair town part with their ancestral homes for the pomp and vanity of "ruffelly" coats and collars.
But William Junos, Samuel Hawley and Justus Bush placed a far different value upon the land. They saw fields with crops growing when once their sturdy arms had cleared away the primal forests; mills upon the streams; communities "where a man's a
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man for ay that," and houses of worship where each might wor- ship the God of his fathers according to the dictates of his own conscience, and so we see very early in the life of the new settle- ment an effort made to settle a minister and build a house of worship.
It was the custom in those early days in the colonies for the town to call the minister in the town meeting, and a tax was levied on the taxable property of the freeholders for the minis- ter's salary and was considered a part of town expenses. The first move we have any record of toward calling a minister was September 24, 1711, when a town meeting was held at the house of Peter Hubbell, who was elected town clerk. It was then voted "that Mr. Phineas Fisk be invited to come to this place to preach a sermon amongst us and that we may discuss him about settling amongst us as a minister of the gospel for half a year or some other space of time, as may be agreed upon for a trial, and that Lieutenant William Adams be the person to wait upon him here as soon as can be conveniently attended upon." December 24, 17II, it was voted "that if Mr. Phineas Fisk will come and settle in Newtown and preach ye ministry to us he shall have a petition right." August 12, 1712, it was voted if Mr. Fisk would settle amongst them they would for his encouragement build him a house and give him his firewood yearly, move his family and goods, and fence and sow his home lot to wheat.
Mr. Fisk declined the call and some of the neighboring minis- ters were called in to assist the church in keeping a day of humiliation and prayer "that God in his mercy would direct and prosper us with a man to preach the gospel to us."
We have no record of when the ministers came to Newtown to keep a "day of humiliation and prayer" with the church, but no further effort was made till the spring of 1713, so far as we know, toward finding a minister. How did they spend those ยท long winter Sabbaths when Sunday began at sundown on Satur- day? Did the little handful of settlers gather about the fire- place,-stoves there were none, in the rude cabin of some one of their number to pray and tune the Psalms and perhaps listen to the reading of a sermon written by some noted divine of those or earlier days, or did the minister from the mother settlement at Stratford sometimes pay them a visit?
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With the opening of spring we find the town making a serious effort to settle a minister among them and at a
"lawful town meeting of ye Inhabitants of Newtown, April 29, 1713, Voted and agreed for Ebenezer Smith to go to Weathersfield to treat with Mr. Tousy of Weathersfield & request him to come and give us a visit & Preach a Sabbath or two with us that wee May Have Oportunity to Discorce him in Order to carry on ye work of ye ministry Amongst us. test John Glover Recorder."
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