A modern history of Windham county, Connecticut : a Windham county treasure book, Volume I, Part 58

Author: Lincoln, Allen B
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co.
Number of Pages: 930

USA > Connecticut > Windham County > A modern history of Windham county, Connecticut : a Windham county treasure book, Volume I > Part 58

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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY

supply in April, 1881, and continued as such until in November of that year he was engaged for a year as minister. He moved his family into the parsonage and continued in the ministry until November 8, 1896, when he closed his pastorate.

During Rev. Mr. Elderkin's pastorate three funds were given the church, the interest of which is to be used for the support of the pastor and maintenance of the buildings. The first was given Deacon Henry Wylie, through the Home Missionary Society of Connecticut, of five thousand dollars for the support of the gospel; January 22, 1890, Elizabeth Wylie Kasson gave two thousand dol- lars through the same society for the support of the gospel. April 27, 1892, Daniel Gordan Campbell of Providence, R. I., gave through the same society five thousand dollars for the upkeep of the buildings and support of the gospel. Upon the death of Elizabeth Wylie Kasson in September, 1891, three thousand dollars was given to the Home Missionary Society of Connecticut, the interest of which was to be used for the minister's salary of this church. The gifts are known as the "Wylie," "Kasson" and "Campbell" funds. Later there came to the church a fund of four thousand seven hundred fifty dollars from the estate of Charles Dow of New York City. There is also a fund of two hundred fifty dollars in the bank making a total amount of twenty thousand dollars, of which the church has the interest.

After Rev. Mr. Elderkin came supplies, principally by Mrs. Alice M. Haynes of Oneco. In July, 1897, Rev. Charles H. Kenney of Attleboro, Mass., was en- gaged to preach and remained until April, 1901. There were supplies until April, 1902, when Rev. H. Martin Kellogg of Vermont was engaged as pastor and preached until April 30, 1911, when his resignation as pastor took effect. Rev. Stephen B. Carter, a former pastor, supplied the most of the time, until Rev. Wm. J. Reynolds of Dayville was called to the pastorate and became act- ing pastor May 1, 1912, and stayed until October 1, 1915, when he resigned and went to Lisbon. After a season of candidating Emmons White of Saybrook, Conn., a student of Yale School of Religion, became a stated supply until May 31, 1917. Upon his graduation from Yale in that year he was ordained as a minister in his home church at Saybrook and in the fall with his wife sailed as a missionary to India. Soon after he left, Rev. John C. Pryor of West Vir- ginia, also a student at Yale School of Religion, became acting pastor and con- tinued until May 31, 1918. Rev. Naaseb Malouff, also a student at Yale, began preaching here in September of that year and continued until May 31, 1920, when owing to the failure of his eyesight, he was compelled to resign his pas- torate. Rev. Truman D. Child of Rochester, Mass., was called to the pastorate and commenced his labors July 1, 1920.

While this has not been a strong church numerically, its influence has always been for good.

THE WESTFIELD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF DANIELSON

This church was definitely organized August 25, 1801, although the meet- ing-house had been built four or five years earlier and occupied from the . beginning.

Gordon Johnson was the first pastor. He remained but four years (1804- 1809). The membership of thirteen at the time of organization was but little increased until Roswell Whitmore came to the pastorate in 1813. Under his leadership through thirty years there were nearly five hundred accessions.

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While Thomas O. Rice, D. D., was minister, the present house of worship was erected. It is an unusually beautiful Georgian structure and occupies a prominent place in the center of the borough about half a mile from the loca- tion of the first meeting-house. It was dedicated in 1855, and upon the first Sunday of its use seventy members were added to the church.

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, DANIELSON, CONN.

Since the time of Doctor Rice the Westfield church has had ten pastors : Thomas T. Waterman (1858-1861), William W. Davenport (1861-1868), Jere- miah Taylor, D. D. (1869-1871), Adelbert F. Keith (1874-1877), James Ding- well (1878-1889), Edward Anderson (1890-1895), Herbert S. Brown (1895- 1898), Sherburne S. Matthews (1898-1905), Clarence H. Barber (1905-1916), and Walter B. Williams (1917 ----- ).

In its 119 years the church has had a strong and influential life. Its pulpit has had the respect of the community, and its membership has been a power for righteousness and good citizenship.

The character of the spiritual life of the church is indicated by the number

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of persons who have gone from it into ministerial, missionary and other like occupations. The list follows :

Rev. Zola Whitmore, a relative of Rev. Roswell Whitmore, joined this church in 1813, studied divinity under the late Dr. Nathaniel Emmons, of Franklin, and died in 1867.

Rev. Nathaniel Emmons Johnson, son of Gordon Johnson, joined in 1820, studied divinity with Doctor Cox, settled in New York state, and was after- ward for many years editor of the "New York Evangelist."

Rev. Ezra G. Johnson joined in 1832, wa's pastor at Johnstown, N. Y., 1843- 50, and at Centerville, N. Y., where he died in 1854.

Rev. Jabez Parkhurst joined in 1828, became a minister, and died in 1843.

Rev. Joel Baker united with the church in 1847, had several pastorates in different states, and retired from the ministry at the age of seventy-seven.

Rev. Herbert A. Reed united with this church in 1820, preached in the states of New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, and became superintendent of Congregational missions in Michigan, where he died.

Rev. Charles Hartwell united in 1849, while principal of the high school here, went to China in 1853 as missionary of the A. B. C. F. M.

Rev. George Ingersoll Stearns,-a grandson of Samuel and Mary Stearns, who united with this church in 1801,-joined in 1842, was installed pastor of the Congregational Church of Windham, 1852, and died in that pastorate in 1862.

Rev. Henry Kies united with the church in 1842, and was engaged in home missionary work in Iowa till his death in 1857.

Rev. Isaac Newton Cundall joined in 1842, ordained in 1854, held several responsible positions as pastor, superintendent of schools and of Soldier's Orphan Home, and was finally professor at Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. Died July 23, 1889.

Rev. Henry F. Hyde, united with this church in 1855 and held several suc- cessful pastorates in Woodstock, Pomfret and Rockville, where he died in 1880.

Rev. William Albert James united in 1855 and preached in Connecticut, Ohio, Michigan and California, where he died in 1892.

Rev. William M. Johnson united with this church in 1858, preached at Farmington, Me., October 9, and died October 12, 1864.

Rev. John Howland united with this church in 1882, was principal of the high school, married a daughter of our Deacon and Mrs. William H. Chollar, and for some years past has been a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. in Mexico.

Mrs. Sara B. (Chollar) Howland, wife of Rev. J. Howland, united with this church 1874, and is laboring with her husband in missionary work.

Dr. Mary Ayer Mckinnon united with this church in 1897, was for some years a missionary of the Presbyterian Board at Sochow, China.

Rev. Frank Perrin united in 1881 and became a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Rev. James McLaughlin united in 1883, and became an Episcopal rector.

Rev. Sherrod Soule united in 1878, preached in Beverly, Mass., and Nauga- tuck, Conn., and is now secretary of The Missionary Society of Connecticut.

Miss Marietta Kies, Ph. D., united in 1892, became an eminent teacher at Mount Holyoke Seminary, and later occupied a chair in the University of Indiana until her death in 1899.

Miss Mary Ann Kies united with this church in 1855, engaged in mission work in New York, and died in 1868.

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Rev. Joseph Danielson united with the church in 1855, and preached in Maine, New York, and his last pastorate at Southington, Conn., and died in 1898.

Rev. Robert G. Hutchins, D. D., was a native of Danielson, and was con- verted here, though seems not actually to have united with this church. He has had pastorates in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Fostoria (Ohio), and elsewhere.

Rev. Edwin A. Waldo united with the church in 1876, graduated from Andover Seminary and has been a successful social worker and minister. He is pastor of a church in Pasadena, Cal., at present.

Rev. Harold H. Barber united with the church in 1906, graduated from Yale and Hartford Seminary, was ordained in the church July 24, 1918, and went to Mexico as a missionary of the American Board in the fall of the same year. He died in Mazatlan a year later of a tropical fever. He had married Miss Barbara Howland, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. John Howland, who with her infant son is still in Mexico.

Mrs. Marion Wright, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. John Howland, is engaged with her husband, Rev. Leavitt O. Wright, in missionary work in Mexico under the American Board.

Miss Frances W. Danielson, daughter of Rev. Joseph Danielson, became a member of the church in 1898. Her life work is religious education in which she has gained prominence as teacher, author and editor.

Miss Evelyn Salmon, a member of the church since 1913, is about to gradu- ate from Jackson College and enter upon missionary work in Japan.

Many respected and honored persons of the town have served the church in its various offices. This has been conspicuously true of the diaconate. The men who have composed it have been few but of exceptional character. Their names follow : James Danielson, Shubael Hutchins, Adam B. Danielson, War- ren Stearns, Stowell L. Weld, William H. Chollar, John Waldo, Elisha Daniel- son, John D. Bigelow, Joseph W. Stone, Ezekiel R. Burlingame, Charles Phillips, John A. Paine, Joel Witter, George B. Guild, Fred A. Jacobs, Gilbert A. Bailey, Willard S. Danielson, David A. Witter, Simeon Danielson, Herbert B. Surrey, George E. Danielson, Theodore E. Hammett and James A. Danielson. During forty-five years Deacon Chollar never missed a service at church.

"The Westfield Congregational Sunday School was first organized in the year 1820, and Isaac T. Hutchins chosen superintendent. The early records, if any were kept, have been lost, so that there is but little that can be reported with reference to its growth, activity and usefulness during the first thirty years. These years were mainly devoted to a strictly Bible study, by commit- ting to memory and reciting many portions of the Scriptures. It cannot be stated when printed lessons were first introduced. The sessions of the first thirty-five years were held in the old church in Westfield, and the following- named persons succeeded Mr. Hutchins and served as superintendents during this time: Thomas, Backus, Warren Stearns, Adam B. Danielson, John Chol- lar, Israel Simmons, Oliver B. Burnham, and Amos D. Lockwood." The list of superintendents is continued as follows : Elisha Carpenter, H. L. Danielson, John D. Bigelow, William H. Chollar, Henry M. Danielson, F. G. Sawtelle, Joel Witter, A. P. Somes, Joseph W. Stone, Rev. James Dingwell, William K. Logee, Wesley Wilson, E. L. Palmer, George B. Guild, William H. Barron, Jr., Percy Hatch, Henry M Danielson, and Burdette C. Hopkins. "For some years the school maintained mission schools in Mashentuck, Killingly Center, the Warren District and in Danielson. The twenty-five years after coming into

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the new church were a period of growth for the Sunday school, and the en- thusiasm manifested was gratifying. The regular attendance varied from two hundred to two hundred and fifty. During this time a Sunday school concert was held on the second Sunday evening of each month, and the rooms were usually crowded to overflowing."

At present the school is prospering under the most modern methods of admin- istration and teaching, has a large membership, and is doing an invaluable work.

There has been in the church always a notable zeal for missions, benevolence and all good works. This has expressed itself in many organizations which for the most part have come into being to meet the insistent demand of the time, have had their day and done their work, then ceased to be. Missionary societies, young people's clubs and societies, men's clubs, etc., have had their use. The Ladies' Benevolent Society, however, has survived every change since its incep- tion in 1830 and has raised thousands of dollars for benevolence and for the more immediate needs of the church. The Westfield Auxiliary of the Woman's Board of Missions was formed in 1875 and is still effective in sustaining inter- est in foreign missions.

The members of the church and congregation bore their part in the Civil war. In the great World war also the Westfield Church exerted a strong patriotic influence. The people responded effectively to all the war appeals and entered seriously into the many war activities. There were twenty-five stars upon the service flag of the church, two of them turning to gold before the end of the war. Charles Enos Tayntor, in the hospital service, died of influenza soon after reaching France. Merrill Collyer Smith, a private in the Twenty-third Infantry regiment of the heroic Second Division, was killed in battle.

In January, 1920, the membership of the church included 355 persons. The services are well attended. A fine spirit of friendly cooperation exists among the people. The future appears strong, for the town is growing rapidly and the church has in itself the elements of growth. A fund for improvements on the church property has recently risen through the efforts and generosity of the people to $12,000; and in a short time such changes and additions will be made as are needed to provide a thoroughly equipped plant for the important work of a modern church in an industrial community.

POMFRET

The First Congregational Church of Pomfret was organized October 26, 1815, with eleven members, by former members of a church in Roxbury, Mass.

In the 200 years of its existence it has had three meeting houses. In the first one they worshipped forty-five years. In the second house, which was added to at various times, they held service until 1832, when the present house was built.

In the first 100 years it only had three pastors, while in the second, it had fifteen.

The Rev. Daniel Hunt was pastor of the church from 1835-1861. Through his teaching and example the church became and remained a benevolent church. In 1865 the 150th anniversary of the founding of the church was celebrated, at which "Father" Hunt read three important historical papers.

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When volunteers were called for in 1861, many of the members who re- sponded to the call and the pastor, Rev. Walter Alexander, spent six months working under the Christian Commission. The church had efficient helpers left behind in Deacon Lewis Averill and his brothers, Mr. Samuel Williams and others.

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, POMFRET, CONN.

Deacon George B. Mathewson was a man who lived his lifetime in the com- munity and was a power in the church, serving as deacon for many years. His sons and daughters were also very helpful, his eldest daughter, Miss Amaryllis, acting as clerk of the church and treasurer at one time, while his granddaughter, Miss Elinor B. Mathewson, is now clerk of the church, and his grandson, Mr. John Grosvenor, is treasurer. Dr. Lewis Williams, the much beloved physician, for twenty years superintendent of the Sunday school and for many years a deacon, was one of the most influential men in the parish. He was always to be found in his pew in church, though it meant rising early and riding many miles to care for his patients; usually attending the second service also

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and often taking a carriage load of neighbors to an outlying school-house to a 5 o'clock service. Every newcomer to town found in him a friend, and if ever a helping hand was needed, he was ready to give it; ably seconded by his good wife, while his house was a center for social life. His death in 1881 removed one who was greatly missed in church, town and county.

Deacon S. S. Cotton, a contemporary of Doctor Williams, was another able worker who was especially earnest in working for temperance. He was a great help in the social life of the church, also was prominent in town until he removed to Nebraska.

In 1872 a lecture room was added to the church and in 1880 a plot of land was donated for a parsonage, by Mrs. Zara Comstock, not far from the church and in a year or two, the old parsonage being sold, a new one was built.

The Rev. Daniel Dennison, pastor from 1889 until his death ten years later, was a great power among the young people, awakening them to an interest in the spiritual life and bringing them into work in the church through the Chris- tian Endeavor Society. During his pastorate rooms for social use were built over the lecture room.

The Womans' Benevolent Society which was organized in 1904 has done much to aid the church in many ways and is "a valuable agency for doing many needed services in the community as well as promoting the missionary activities of the church in the world."

In 1907 the cellar of the church was excavated and a dining room and kitchen were built there. In 1913, through the influence of the Rev. Harry A. Beadle, then pastor of the church, the Pomfret Neighborhood Association was formed which has been of great benefit to the community. Through that asso- ciation a big celebration of the 200th anniversary of the settlement of the town was planned and carried out. A number of Fourth of July gatherings, bringing together the people from all parts of the town and a "Welcome Home" to the soldiers have all been a part of its work. It now owns a house well furnished and has a library and gift shop. It is available for all kinds of gatherings and it was there the District Nurses Association was formed. Besides the house, it owns quite a plot of ground on which there is a dancing pavilion for use in summer and where, it is hoped, there may be built a hall, tennis court and bowling-alley.

The Pomfret Church celebrated its 200th anniversary, October 28, 1915, an occasion of great interest to the large number who attended. Twenty-four were present who attended the celebration fifty years before. The mother church in Roxbury, Mass., sent greetings by its pastor, Rev. J. DeNormandie. Two of its former pastors gave historical addresses and two of the daughter churches, Pomfret, Vt., and Woodstock, Conn., sent greetings by their pastors. Letters were received from many absent friends, including five of the former ministers. The choir, augmented by singers from the Episcopal Church, fur- nished music. Also, through the kindness of Episcopal friends, the church was beautifully decorated. An ample lunch was served to 225 people and an anniversary cake twenty-six inches in diameter and weighing sixty-five pounds was cut in small pieces and taken home in souvenir boxes.

A special fund of $1,400 was raised in connection with the celebration. Every indebtedness was paid off, the parsonage was painted; a garage was secured and both parsonage and garage wired for electricity; and $500 placed in the bank. There might be mentioned many other people who have done

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much for the support and upbuilding of the church, among them Col. Calvin Williams, Deacon Hayward and his son, Louis, the Sabin family, Deacon Charles W. Grosvenor and his brother, Benjamin, the genial host of the Ben Grosvenor Inn, and their efficient wives. More than thirty ministers have gone out from this church to carry the message of the gospel to other peoples.

Through the efforts of Rev. H. A. Beadle the old method of having a church organization and a society for the business of the church has been done away with and now there is the one organization which, through the trustees and Standing Committee, transact the business. Recently the renting of pews has been abolished and the "Every Member" canvass has provided the funds for salary and benevolences.

Now in 1920, under the leadership of the new pastor, the Rev. J. Spencer Voorhees, the people are planning to renovate the old church and make the exterior as nearly like the original church as possible.

WILLIMANTIC

[The substance of the following article was read by the editor before the brotherhood of this church, and its personal form of narrative is published herewith by request of several older members.]

The First Congregational Church of Willimantic still speaks affectionately of the mother church at Windham Center. It was in 1827 that a few mem- bers of the Windham Church, residents at Willimantic Falls, and chiefly cent- ered around the two mills now combined under the name Quidnic-Windham Company, organized to form a Congregational Church for their own locality, under the direction and with the cooperation of the Domestic Missionary Society of Connecticut. It was in August, nowadays the vacation month, that the missionary society sent to lead the new group a Yale theological student named Dennis Platt, who said that he was commissioned "to test the question whether an evangelical church could be established in a manufacturing vil- lage." The project had the hearty endorsement of the then pastor at Wind- ham Center, the Rev. Cornelius B. Everest, whose daughter, Martha, as Mrs. Amos M. Hatheway, was for so many years a tower of strength to this church and Sunday school, and indeed to the wholesome social life of this entire com- munity ; and whose grandson, Arthur C. Everest, is today as for the past thirty-one years, the efficient scribe of this church.

The meetings of the new church were held at first at the homes of the mem- bers, and it is recorded that during the first year the minister's labors were "mostly without charge to the people, except to a few individuals who gave him his 'board'." On January 22, 1828, an ecclesiastical council was called, and sixteen persons, seven men and nine women (note the large proportion of men), were organized into a church, twelve of them having thus far belonged to the church in Windham. Two persons, Erastus Fitch and wife, were "received by confession" at the first communion. At this service about sixty persons "sat down at the communion table of our common Lord"; the local Methodists, who had organized a church in Willimantic a short time before, uniting on this occasion with their Congregationalist brethren.

Within the next four years the Congregationalists had nearly one hundred members; and with the aid of the Missionary Society, a new church building was erected and dedicated in the autumn of 1828. Mr. Platt remained about

Vol. I-31

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two years, and was followed for the years 1830-1832 by the Rev. Ralph S. Crampton. Then came an interim of missionary supply, until the Rev. Philo Judson, who had preached at Ashford and Lisbon, came to Willimantic, as the first installed pastor, and remained from December, 1834, to Marcu, 1839; then came the Rev. Andrew Sharpe, for nine years, 1840-1849; then the Rev. Samuel G. Willard, for nineteen years, 1849-1869, the longest pastorate in the history of this church. An exceedingly interesting account of her father's life in Willimantic and of the community during that period, as she recalls it, is contributed to this work by his daughter, Miss Abby G. Willard of Colchester.

My personal recollections of the pastors of this church begin with Mr. Wil- lard. My father then kept a general merchandise store in the old Brainard House Building, on the site where Charles F. Risedorf now carries on the busi- ness of the Union Shoe Company. The Brainard House was then the leading hotel of the place, built and conducted by Henry Brainard, who prior to that business connection had for many years been locally famous as driver of four- horse teams to Norwich for the overland carrying trade. The present Murray Block supplanted the Brainard House in 1894.

I vividly recall standing on the stoop of my father's store and getting my first vision of "choo-choo cars," as a New London Northern train, drawn by that little engine "Nameaug," which all Willimantic boys of that period will remember, rolled into the dingy old brick depot, which then stood about one hundred feet south of the present dingy old wooden station; but I am supposed to be writing about the Congregational Church.

My mother was a Chaplin girl, "a Baptist born and a Baptist bred," and indeed she lived true to the other line of that old couplet-"and now she's gone, she's a Baptist dead"; for in her innermost soul she never lost her faith in the necessity of "immersion" as an act of complete submission to the will of the Lord and Master whom she ever faithfully served. (I give these intimate personal pictures because they so clearly reveal the religious life of that period). Her father, Deacon Origen Bennett, never attended the Congregationalist Church in Chaplin, but faithfully carried his family, summer and winter, to the Baptist Church on Spring Hill, Mansfield; often in winter making their way with difficulty, but with an old-fashioned warming pan filled with live coals, or in later fashion a hot soapstone, to keep their feet warm under the buffalo robe, in double sleigh or two-seated democrat wagon.

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A modern history of Windham county, Connecticut : a Windham county treasure book, Volume I, Part 58

Author: Lincoln, Allen B Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co. Number of Pages: 930

Author: Lincoln, Allen B
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co.
Number of Pages: 930