USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Wilton > Wilton Parish, 1726-1951 : being a brief historical sketch of the Wilton Congregational Church and Ecclesiastical Society from the establishment to the present day : with additional comments concerning traditions, events & personages of the venerable old town > 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.
Gc 974.602 W71r
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01523 1480
Paris
Gc 974.602 W71r Root, Robert. Wilton parish, 1726-1951
WILTON PARISH A Brief Historical Sketch
00
JOHNE ZAMENO
WILTON PARISH
1726- 1951
Being a brief Historical Sketch of the Wilton Congregational Church and Ecclesiastical Society from the establishment to the present day with additional Comments concerning the Tra- ditions, Events & Personages of the venerable old Town
BY ROBERT ROOT And Various Members of THE CHURCH, SOCIETY & TOWN
Wilton Connecticut 1951
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
I never pass an old church by But that it seems to testify, That darkness cannot conquer light That love shall some day subdue might. An old church on a shaded hill Makes me worship and be still. - Galen Edward Hershey
WILTON PARISH
1726 - 1951
W ILTON WAS SETTLED, early in the eighteenth century, for reasons remarkably like those which in 1951 . make it such a rapidly growing Town. People then, as now, wanted to get away from the more heavily populated centers and to better their living conditions. Furthermore, the beauty and the munificence of the fertile meadows, winding streams and high ridges of the land to the north of the Township of Norwalk ap- pealed as much to "ye Inhabitants of Kent- Beldons Hill, Chestnut Hill and So Upwards" in that early day as it does to the commuters and residents of today. There is, therefore, a striking similarity between the first settlement of Wilton and the request for "Parrish Privi-
WILTON PARISH
leges" in 1726 and the influx of new people and the development of the Town on the oc- casion of its 225th Anniversary Celebration in 1951.
In the first years after the Pilgrims landed, most of the towns in Connecticut were or- ganized along the coast. In the Norwalk area, white settlers had their farms next to the plots of the Indians, fishermen and tillers, who lived on sea food and maize. Almost inevitably, differences rose between them. The Indians filed many damage claims against the whites because the settlers' hogs were constantly get- ting into the Indian plantings. And on the other hand, as the population increased, the Col- onists coveted the Indian lands.
As a result, the Indians of Norwalk were ordered-sometime after the middle 1600's- to move to the Chestnut Hills, and thus be- came the first substantial body of settlers in what is now Wilton.
Meanwhile, tradition has it, the first scat- tered Colonial homes were built in the area now called South Wilton. However, in those days of virtually compulsory Church attend- ance, removal too far from the village green and its Church was not attractive, and the real push towards settlement of the interior waited on the growth, through immigration, of a large group which had no automatic rights to the common lands of the Colony. These
[2]
HISTORICAL SKETCH
latecomers had to buy rights of commonage from the original "proprietor" or "stockhold- ing" families who owned the commons, and, therefore, such newcomers were tempted to move to the outskirts, as were many of the sons of the original settlers. Some families had already gone to start Danbury in 1685. In 1708, other Norwalkers bought land from the Indians to found Ridgefield. In the early eighteenth century, too, new settlers moved by horse- drawn cart to new homes in the Wilton area, though carefully avoiding the "wolf pitts be- yond" (presumably commemorated by Wolf- pit Road), for "there still lurked the wolf, the catamount, and other wild beasts, ready to come down with their depredations upon the flocks and herds of the new settlers." The first homestead here was built in Can- nondale "above Pimpawaug" (which is Al- gonquin for "narrow place") and became known exotically as "Egypt."
Meantime, proprietors with a speculative turn of mind saw that quick profits could be made by sale of these "wild" lands to the north. The areas would be more valuable, of course, if that long trip down to meeting every Sun- day could be eliminated. The stage for es- tablishment of a Church in the Wilton region was set!
To get a Church nearer home, the inhabitants of Wilton that year petitioned Norwalk to
[3]
WILTON PARISH
permit them to form a Parish of their own. The Wilton historian, the late Deacon G. Evans Hubbard, pictures what was probably happening in the fall of 1725. "We can easily imagine the Wilton farmers bringing their grain to Benjamin Hickox's Mill on the Fall Branch (now known as the Merwin Falls) back of the present Congregational Church. Mr. Buckingham (Minister of the Congrega- tional Church on the Green in Norwalk) had been very strict, they may have said, in re- quiring the new settlers up the Norwalk River to attend his Church regularly the past winter, the state of the roads notwithstanding. An- other winter was at hand. Mr. Buckingham was unpopular in Norwalk (due apparently to 'unbecoming' habits, a reference possibly to tippling-not an uncommon practice in those early days). Could we not have a Church of our own?"
Norwalk cooperatively approved the Peti- tion. In February, 1726, the Norwalk Parish granted "Tenn Acres of land" to the new Parish "for the use of the Presbiterian or Con- gregationall ministery among them forever." A little later it gave twenty-three acres more. Beyond that, the Town "by a major vote granted to the inhabitants of ye upper society, the old pulpit, upon free gift." If Wilton had no Church, it at least now had a pulpit!
Then, just 225 years ago, in response to
[4]
HISTORICAL SKETCH
a Petition by thirty-one persons interestingly worded:
The Humble Petition of ye Inhabitants of Kent, Beldens Hill, Chestnut Hill, and So Upwards within the Township of Norwalk
Humbly Showeth that by and with ye Comfort, Ap- probation & Incouragement of our Ancestors, Pro- geniters & primitive Settlers and Others of ye An- cient Society in the sd Township to have been in- deavoring to prepare an fitting our Selves for a Uni- form Society and fixed Congregation for the Worship of God and ye Administration of such Ordinances belonging thereunto, and to be a Parrish or Village by our Selves and in Reference to what ye Town hath Acted or Done in this Affaire; We here with Exhibit attested Copies Transcribed out of ye Records of ye Minits of ye Town Acts whereby Your Honrs may be Satisfied in our hitherto proceedurs, and Would Encourage our Selves that we may be Your Honrs Favorites, in Granting unto us Parrish Priviledges, whereby we may proceed Legally in What is Necessary for ye Obtaining the Special Ends Aimed at, And that Your Honrs would give us the name of Wilton Parrish in Norwalk, And Your Honrs therein will much oblige Your Most Humble Peti- tioners who in Duety Bound Shall Ever pray etc.
the Connecticut General Assembly created a new entity (but not yet a "Town") by vot- ing approval to these words (May 12, 1726) : "This Assembly do hereby Grant that the said inhabitants (of Kent, Beldons Hill, Chest- nut Hill and So Upwards) be one Village enjoying Parrish Privileges and that they may be called by the name of Wilton Parrish."
[5]
WILTON PARISH
This was the first time that the name Wilton was used. Why this was chosen is not known, though the Town is popularly believed to be named after Wilton in Wiltshire, England, because David Lambert, later "town taverner," had come from there.
The Church was organized early that sum- mer (the first meeting of the Wilton Society of which there is any record is that of June 7, 1726). The rest of that year, the Parish was busy building its first Meeting-House at a point then near the center of population, south of Wolfpit Road, near the present rail- road track. Later this original Church building was virtually forgotten, so that John Gaylord Davenport could reminisce in 1916, "Although my own boyhood was spent but a short dis- tance from the consecrated spot and I was very familiar with the place, a favorite resort for huckleberry seekers, no hint of its history was ever given me."
However, just 100 years ago, when the rail- road was built through to Danbury, excavation of ten whitened skeletons indicated where the burial grounds had been and where the first Meeting-House stood. The markers used were field stones. After the discovery, the remains were removed to the Sharp Hill Cemetery.
Before that first year was over, the Society had voted that the Meeting-House should be "rectified by laying the floor, and by plastering
[6]
HISTORICAL SKETCH
the walls, and by making comfortable seats to sett in." This business of seating was so im- portant that in November a committee of three was appointed to "seat it by list and age, ac- cording to the best of their judgment." One member found the task so delicate that he im- mediately resigned, and was replaced.
It took two months to resolve the differences on seating status. For if democracy was being born in America, the old aristocratic ideas insisted on protocol. Men of age and wealth had to have the best seats (the women and children taking inferior places, of course,) and in some Parishes there were heated discussions and even bitter legal disputes over the rank- ing.
In this Church, wealth got an edge over age. At the head of the Great Pew sat Joseph Bir- chard, whose prominence at 53 put him over John Stuart, the Norwalk Town surveyor, who was 59. The wealthy farmer, John Keeler, 45, also had a spot over his cousin Ralph, 53.
Music got recognition, significantly, six years later when John St. John was given a choice seat "so long as he sets ye tune."
Incidentally, at that time, all Wiltonians were fined five shillings for every failure to attend Church on Sundays, Fast Days and Thanksgiving. (At Hartford the fine was ten shillings!) These Sunday laws were enforced, too. At New Haven, for example, one William
[7]
WILTON PARISH
Blagden fell into some water late Saturday, could not legally light a fire Sunday to dry his clothes, and so went to bed to keep warm. He was found guilty of "sloathefulness' for missing Church and sentenced to be "publiquely whipped."
At this time, Wilton is said to have had its stocks and whipping post, too, opposite the present site of St. Matthew's Church. Here also were several of the Town's taverns, where public notices were posted, newspapers could be read, and Town and Society meetings frequently held. Usually, these old taverns had only one public room, the rest of the house being used by the inn-keeper's family, so that a historian remarks of the comforts: "The travel- ler who hesitated to share not only his room but his bed with an entire stranger was con- sidered so fastidious as to be quite unreasonable. Many a horseman slept on the floor, and if he used his saddle for a pillow, he knew it would not be stolen."
For the first half century of the Wilton Parish, it should be remembered, the Church members owed allegiance to the British crown and flag. King George I of England ruled the colony in 1726, and the parishioners un- doubtedly prayed or sang loyally, "God save the king!" Louis XV was King of France in that year and Germany was a group of inde- pendent states not to be unified for a century
[8]
HISTORICAL SKETCH
and a half. George Washington was not to be born for six years, and Napoleon for forty- three. When this Church was organized, only sixteen of the fifty-six signers of the Declara- tion of Independence had yet been born; and the Church was already fifty years old when the Declaration was made.
In 1726, New England congregations were called to the Meeting-House by the beating of a drum, the blowing of a conch shell or a horn, displaying a flag, firing a gun, or if the com- munity was fortunate enough to have one, by the "wringing of a bell." Since the Norwalk Church used a "drumb", probably a drum was also used in Wilton at the beginning.
As the call came, families near the Meeting- House started out walking in "desent order," man and wife first and other members of the family in twos behind them. Farmers mounted their substantial farm horses, and wife or child rode on a pillion, or cushion, behind.
There is no indication that these early Wil- tonians dressed drably when they went to Church. A little later, in fact, the Church no doubt saw "hooped petticoats and laced hoods, and long embroidered gloves," and "velvet coats and satin breeches and embroidered waist- coats, gold lace and sparkling buckles." As to- day, however, the Minister probably wore a black Geneva gown with white bands, as did almost all early Congregational clergymen.
[9]
WILTON PARISH
In Norwalk during the first year of the new Parish, the affair of the Reverend Mr. Buckingham had come to an unedifying con- clusion. His thunderings against his wayward congregation were reinforced in 1727 by a great earthquake which convinced many of their sins. "Considering the frowns of heaven upon them," the Norwalk Church set "a day for the humbling and abasing their souls before the Lord by fasting and prayer for redress." But the retreat was short-lived. The next week a meeting terminated Mr. Buckingham's min- istry.
In spite of this nearby example, the Wilton Parish promptly got itself into difficulties when it chose its first Minister. Almost as much mys- tery surrounds the shortcomings of the Rever- end Mr. Robert Sturgeon as the Reverend Mr. Buckingham.
Mr. Sturgeon was apparently educated in Scotland, but for unknown reasons the Pres- bytery there declined to give him a license to preach. Though referred to in the records as "the Reverend," he had possibly not been ordained. Shortly after arriving in Massa- chusetts in 1721, he got into the bad graces of the famous and influential Cotton Mather. Having left his home "under some embarrass- ments," he was nevertheless licensed in New England, "greatly to the regret of the Reverend Mr. Cotton Mather, by reason of his conduct
[10]
SITE OF FIRST MEETING HOUSE 1725
MARKER ON WOLFPIT ROAD
W
-- 1
THE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
THE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH AT CHRISTMAS TIME 1949
-
To the Honourade, General Court
201 or Afsembly of hus Majesties Colony. Connosticul Conubud at Hartford May 9. 12: The Humble Petition of
Y'a inhabitants of frent Betons Hill, Chofinut Hill, and to Upwards within the TownShip of Howwalk,
Humbly Showsthe. That Gy and witte Confort, Approbation-
of Encouragement of our turcostors, Progenitors & primitivos- Sattless and Others of Ancient Society in the & Township I have boom hidroburing to properes and full our Polvos for I Uniform Society and fix or Congregation for the worship of 1 God hand & DominiFraction of Such Ordinances Golonging Histe .- unto, and to Get a. a Parrish or Village by our Selves. And in Serazones to w/ Tour dawn hath Heted or Dones in His Efface
hore with xhvit Copies Tranfericed out of hoceros of of Allinits by Jocon iets whereby your fonts may to Satisfies in our Mit forte
procedures and Would Encourage our Solves that may to your thesis Favourites, in Granting unto us Parrish y L'Privileges, where by -
Wo may proceed fogally in What is theofiary for Obtaining
To Special Ends wego at, and that your friends would give us the flames of Wirton Parishin Norwalk, In your How? thorein will_ Hluch- Voltage Your Most funto latificross- whom Dusty Bound Inall Zisz pray, 90- Pisze Stewart.
Johnkeeter
Cimnathan E .....
Ensepti Carla
1
OMatthew Saintofolin. John Saint, obrar Daniell Betts Samuel Crets. " Stephen Brotts nathan Stayon Jon " Wood. in"
This affimbly granty the grams ofthe" Jonathan wood funer
within Petition ao order that a bill Janiel anobrico
Pall in the four Gon for ladich Bouton
Safe in the Upp Honda's Jonathan founderand
Jukmen yougery
. Gmina
THE PETITION TO THE GENERAL COURT MAY YE 12TH 1726
nathan, Betts
Sichein Bouton
HISTORICAL SKETCH
here and at home."
Mr. Sturgeon was called to the Parish at Watertown, Mass., and the next year, on Mather's complaint to the courts, he was in- dicted for "continuing his wicked and malicious inclination to overthrow, ruin and subvert, as well the Church in said Watertown, as the other Churches of this province." Found guilty, he was fined twenty pounds and costs.
Notwithstanding this story, the Wilton Church installed the Reverend Mr. Robert Sturgeon as its first Minister in 1726. How- ever, after a brief reign of peace, a note of dis- cord arose because the new Minister failed to bring his family from Europe. The Parish asked him "to apply to the Presbetry to use all proper means to induce his wife to come over into New England." If that happened, they would "sett down esse and contently."
In due course, the family did come, and Mr. Sturgeon earned a reputation for Biblical facility when he preached, the day of their arrival, on the text, "We have seen strange things today!"
The Church apparently did not find his way of life entirely acceptable; but since it brought no formal charges, the complaints are not known. Perhaps his religious opinions, which were not all in harmony with the West- minster Catechism, were disliked; for when employing his successor, the Church made stip-
[11 ]
WILTON PARISH
ulations about adherence to professed prin- ciples.
In calling him, the Parish had agreed to pay ninety pounds and give him "a full supply of firewood for his family's use . . . to be brought to his habitation from time to time as is needed." Five acres were also granted for a "house loot" (lot).
But it appears that the Congregation lagged in getting in the wood. Perhaps Mr. Sturgeon suffered from the cold. At any rate, five days before Christmas that first year, the Society voted that "every man shall bring unto the Reverend Mr. Sturgeon a load of wood within fourteen days" and set a three-shilling fine for failure.
This must not have worked too well, for the next December, the Society voted to make payments to those who brought wood. A year later, Ebenezer Jackson was granted nine pounds to furnish enough wood to Mr. Stur- geon for a year. Finally, in 1730, abandoning the generalities, the Society voted that he should have twenty-eight cords of wood a year.
Meantime, dissatisfaction with the "life and conversation" of Mr. Sturgeon increased, and in 1731 a Council was called to consider his dismissal. There is no record of a vote of ter- mination, but his ministry must soon have ended, for the next spring steps were being
[12]
HISTORICAL SKETCH
taken to get a new Minister.
After giving him a three-week's trial, the Society now extended a call to the Reverend Mr. William Gaylord, 22-year-old graduate of Yale College. Born in Hartford, he was on his father's side the great-grandson of a Dea- con who arrived in Massachusetts from England in 1631, and on his mother's side the great- grandson of the Reverend Mr. Samuel Stone, long a colleague of Thomas Hooker at Hart- ford.
Perhaps because he had heard about the slow wood deliveries to Mr. Sturgeon, the new young Minister delayed in answering the call. At any rate, six weeks later, a new com- mittee was appointed "to treat with Mr. Gay- lord as to terms of settlement and salary." His pay was set at sixty-five pounds, to be paid in money or provisions, another call was given, and he accepted.
For more than its first century, the Church had the custom of voting a 200-pound "settle- ment" to a young Minister to enable him to buy a house, land, furniture, books and what- ever else he needed for his life and work. Re- membering Mr. Sturgeon's religious ideas, and realizing it could not often afford such a settle- ment, the Society provided that "if Mr. Gay- lord turn from ye opinion or principles he now professes, contrary to ye mind of ye Society, then he is to return to ye Society ye
[13]
WILTON PARISH
two hundred pounds again."
A Council convened in February, 1733, and examined Mr. Gaylord's beliefs carefully, and he was ordained. So he began a pastorate of nearly thirty-four years, longer than any other of the Church and, with two exceptions, double the length of any other.
Mr. Gaylord's character has been memorial- ized by the careful records he kept for the Church from 1733 until 1766.
"He was methodical and exact," said the Reverend Mr. Samuel G. Willard in his scholarly 150th Anniversary Address. "He was sound in faith, not a man of extreme views, and probably would be reckoned a moderate Cal- vinist. His epitaph in Sharp Hill Cemetery reads:
"Here lies Interred ye Body of the Revd. William Gaylord who departed this life Janry. ye 2d 1767 in the 58th Year of His Age and 35th of his Ministry
He was an able Divine a faithfull Minister & a meek & humble Christian. his Love for Souls was very great, in proof of which he Spent his life in unwearied indeavours for ye Conversion of Sinners and Edification of Saints, & among many other Excilences, he Eminently merited ye Character of a Peace maker, & is now undoubtedly reaping ye Reward of Such in the Kingdom of his Lord."
Whatever his other virtues, Mr. Gaylord
[14]
HISTORICAL SKETCH
had the reputation of being a dull speaker. There is a story that, when he once preached at Ridgefield, the Congregation found the sermon uninteresting. Later, the Ridgefield Minister borrowed the sermon and preached it, without comment, to the same people. When the Congregation praised it as superior to Mr. Gaylord's from the same text, the Minister replied that "he could always preach well when he could get one of Mr. Gaylord's ser- mons to preach."
Just before his ordination, Mr. Gaylord was married to the daughter of a Stamford Pastor, and after bearing seven children, she died 14 years later of pulmonary tuberculosis. On the Church records, her husband carefully recorded his eulogy of her as "a good wife to me, both in spirituals and temporals, prudent, ' faithful, loving, loyal, and very respectful." Perhaps the latter words indicated something of the century's beliefs about the subservience of woman to her husband. In any case, women have a very small role in the written records of the early Church. In the year Mr. Gaylord became Pastor, the records show that women outnumbered men in the membership-forty- one women in full communion, to thirty-five men.
However, for more than a year, a Mrs. B and a Miss Polly C, did occupy the attention of the Deacons. A pair of spectacles had been
[15]
WILTON PARISH
lost, and one accused the other of stealing them! A final entry in the records states that "noth- ing more shall be said of it."
Mr. Gaylord married again, and his family grew to a total of thirteen children. But death, which had taken one of his first children in early childhood, continued to bring tragedy into the Minister's family. He recorded the death of two young daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah, from "a sore Grievious consumptive illness." And Colonial warfare brought death to his 20-year old son, Moses, who had just "been from home in ye expidition ag'st Mont- real a little more than four month." From this family, however, it would not be accurate to conclude that in the early days of the Wil- ton Church its members married early, had many children, and died at early ages. There was an average of only 4.5 deaths per year during the first dozen years of Mr. Gaylord's ministry, and of 6.8 per year during the next ten.
If Mr. Gaylord was a dull Preacher, he seems nevertheless to have drawn crowds. The Con- gregation grew, and soon the Parish felt it needed a larger Meeting-House. In the fourth year of Mr. Gaylord's ministry, (December, 1736), it was voted that a new Meeting-House "be built on ye Sharp Hill, with ye fore or broad side directly to the South." This loca- tion, on the east side of Danbury Road at
[16]
HISTORICAL SKETCH
Sharp Hill Road, is marked today by the old cemetery which accompanied it.
The new building was modeled after "ye prime antient" Meeting-House of Norwalk (which was probably the one burned by the British four decades later). The pews were six feet square, with the one next to the pulpit stairs reserved for the Deacons and leading men, and with "the two hind seats" set aside for the growing Gaylord flock. The old Meet- ing-House was sold in 1739 "att a vandue [auction-ed.] at sun one hour high at night." The proceeds were devoted toward finishing the new one. The Land comprising the present Sharp Hill Cemetery was given by John Marven, Sr., and an additional half acre was granted in 1755. The first recorded burial was in 1737. The last was in 1881, with the exception of that in 1934 of the late Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Spencer. This couple, who had been interested in the cemetery's restoration, willed a sum to the Society so that interest could be used for the cemetery's upkeep.
The cemetery was used 91 years after this second Church was abandoned, and 27 years after the present Hillside Cemetery was es- tablished.
If today parents find Wilton's schools a major interest, in that early day families also sought an education for their children. From 1712 to 1750 the Parishes or Ecclesiastical
[17]
WILTON PARISH
Societies in Connecticut had charge of schooling. In the first two years, 1726 to 1728, there is a record that Nathaniel Ketchum of Belden's Hill was hired to teach in "the upper parish." In Wilton a committee of three, including Mr. Ketchum, then named Mr. Sturgeon teacher, to be paid by the "country (tax) money as far as it would go" and by tuition of the pupils. He apparently taught at the parsonage or around at the homes.
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.