USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Canaan parish, 1733-1933, being the story of the Congregational church of New Cannan, Connecticut > Part 22
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In the year 1819, Rev. John Reynolds made an effort to hold services in or near the village, but failing to find a suitable building available, conducted meetings for several months in the White Oak Shade schoolhouse. During one service in which the pastor explained the doctrine and discipline of the church, Lucretia Seymour, in response to the invitation of the clergyman, came for- ward and signified her intention of becoming a member. A few days later Holly Seymour, Eliphalet and Calcina Hanford, Aaron Hoyt, and Deborah
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Conley joined the church; and a class was formed under the leadership of Holly Seymour. Shortly after, the meetings of the society were held at the house of the leader, which continued to be the "House of God" until 1830. For years services were held every two weeks. In 1828, under the ministry of the Rev. E. Wolsey and Rev. S. M. Fischer, a revival added several members to the church. Among the number was Captain Holly Hanford, who was one of the most noted men of the town, and who, until his death in 1851, was the ever devoted lover and supporter of the church. He was a man whose spirits never wearied and whose faith never faltered.
Members of the church from 1819 to 1832 were: Holly Seymour and Lucretia, his wife; Eliphalet and Calcina Hanford, Deborah Conley, Aaron Hoyt, Eliza Ogden, Angeline Hoyt, Ephraham Mills, Elizabeth Judson, Nancy Hoyt, Holly Hanford, Azor Tuttle, Sarah Tuttle, Matthew Kellogg, Rufus St. John, Abraham Crissey, Smith Tuttle, Elizabeth Tuttle, Samuel and Clarissa Silliman, Anna Crissey, Rebecca Crissey, Hannah, Eliza and Charlotte Crissey, Daniel W. Todd, Margaret Wood, Holly Hoyt, Eliza Rainard, Polly Hanford, James Ells, Peleg Lockwood, Clarissa Lockwood, Eliza V. Amerman, Angeline Johnson, Jesse H. Garnsey, Louisa Hoyt, Eliza Lockwood, Anson Benedict, Eunice Benedict, Hannah Waterbury, Anna Waterbury, Justice B. Mead, Mary Benedict, Deborah Nash, Anna Stevens, Hannah Besum, Seymour Bouton, Nehemiah Stevens, Electa and Eleanor Kellogg, Cyrus O. Fancher, Elsa St. John, William Benedict, Anna Mills, Henry Wardwell, Sally Ells, Mary Seymour, Charles A. Hanford, Eliza Mand, Mary E. Hanford, Angeline Lock- wood, William M. Andrews, Harriet Stevens, and Sally Ann Weed.
From 1816 to 1832 New Canaan formed part of the Stamford Circuit, which is the oldest in New England. Services were held at the house of Holly Seymour in White Oak Shade and frequently at the residence of Captain Cro- foot in Silvermine. These men and Captain Holly Hanford were the founders of Methodism in New Canaan.
In 1831, the town, by a formal vote in town meeting, authorized the selectmen to "rent the Town House for such rent or compensation as they deemed proper." Thus it came about that the Methodists at length united from the different quarters of the township. The first preaching service was held in May of that year in the Town House, now a private residence north west of the Episcopal Church. The story of that service, recorded by Charles H. St. John, is too good to omit, even though it is highly imaginative.
"THE LEGEND OF THE ROOSTER"
"Our Congregational rooster of 1776 was like the old ministers, deacons and members, a true devoted, patriotic rooster from beak to the end of the longest tail feather. But the even tenor of his life during these hundred years had never been disturbed by any new fangled "isms" and dogmas. During his
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long years' service as a Congregational rooster, he had never heard any "ology" but that of the time honored old church over which he was roosted, until the Methodists came trooping up the hill to the Town House on a bright Sunday in 1831. The Methodist sermon he was obliged to listen to that day, and the hearty amens and responses of the brethren and sisters completely overcame him.
ELER
THE FIRST METHODIST CHURCH, BUILT IN 1833, SKETCHED FROM AN OLD PRINT BY GEORGE RICHARDS.
His comb wilted, his tail and wings drooped, his proud old puritan heart was broken; he was not convicted; he was not converted; he was disgusted and dis- couraged, and never, never from that day to this has he been known to crow. His cock-a-doodle-do was forever ended. When the new church was erected, he utterly refused to mount the steeple and requested that he might be allowed to go into retirement as his mission was forever ended. Permission was granted, (tradition says some of the old members objected) and he took roost on the barn of Mr. Stephen Keeler, at the upper end of Smith's Ridge, where he can be seen to this day. If the truth of this romance is doubted by any doubting Thomas,
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he can interview the old rooster and from him learn that romances never lie and newspapers always tell the truth."
During the following year, in May, 1832, the Sunday School of the Meth- odist Church was duly organized under the pastorate of the Rev. Henry Hatfuld. The constitution, very legibly recorded, was written by Charles A. Hanford. As the writer of this article published a booklet in which he set forth the "Early History of the Sunday School" two years ago when the centenary of its founding was celebrated, anyone interested therein is referred to that publica- tion, a copy of which was filed with the New Canaan Historical Society.
On October 9, 1833, the trustees of the church, Holly Hanford, Holly Seymour, Aaron Hoyt, Rufus St. John, Amos Dickens, Samuel C. Silliman, and Minot Crofoot purchased from John M. Hanford, a tract of ground for the erection of a church. The deed specifically states that the trustees "erect or build or cause to be erected or builded thereon a House or place of Worship for the use of the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. And in further trust and confidence that they shall at all times hereafter; permit such ministers and preachers belonging to the said Church as shall from time to time duly authorized by the General Conference of the Ministers of the said Methodist Episcopal Church or the Annual Conferences authorized by the said General Conference to preach and expound God's Holy Word therein." Work on the building must have been hurried, for the only extant record giving any data about the first church edifice states that it was dedicated in October, 1833. Worship was held in the church until 1854, when the trustees, having failed to sell the building, purchased from John M. Hall, a plot of ground opposite the hotel. To this new site the meeting house was moved. Services were held as usual while the building was on its way to its new location, and among the clergymen who preached was the Rev. Jacob Shaw, grandfather of Stephen B. Hoyt and his sisters, who now reside in New Canaan. Rev. Shaw had been the pastor of the M. E. Church in 1850 and 1851. He is described in the Confer- ence Minutes of the New York East Conference as "a man of superior mind and attainments, and of a large and varied information, but so singularly retiring and unostentatious in his manner and habits, as perhaps to be unappreciated by the merely casual observer."
In its new site the building was fitted up with stores on the street and an auditorium above, which was duly labeled "Concert Hall." On November 27, 1857, the trustees of the church sold the property to Ebenezer Crissey, John N. Hall, and Henry Wardwell for $1500 .* For many years town meetings were held in the auditorium. Thus it seems to exemplify the saying of Christ: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." In greatly altered form the building still stands op- posite the old hotel. (See illustration page 218) .
*It was afterward bought by the town and was the Town Hall until about 1894.
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On May 29, 1841, the trustees, Holly Hanford, Seymour Comstock, Charles Carter, Minot Crofoot, David Rockwell, Selleck St. John and Henry Wardwell purchased from Aaron Hoyt the lot and house adjoining the Meeting House for the sum of $1716. The present parsonage was thus acquired. In 1853 in order to acquire more land in the rear of the parsonage and church, H. Bouton and John N. Hall were appointed a committee to purchase a lot and house from Thomas Raymond. The trustees bought the property for $1900, reserved the portion needed in back of the church and parsonage, and sold the remainder for $1900 to E. A. Miller.
On April 17, 1852, the trustees purchased from Justus Hoyt, the miller, an acre and a half of ground for a cemetery. This was laid out in plots eight feet by sixteen, which were priced according to location from five dollars to eight dollars per plot. Apparently the trustees did not have entire faith in the pur- chasers, for the society voted that no burials were to be made in any plot on which the payment had not been received. Four lots, eight by sixteen each, were given to Justus Hoyt "to be used by him as a burying place." On November 3, 1868, the trustees, Lewis Lockwood, Samuel Whitney, George R. Taylor, Herman Selleck, Ebenezer Crissey, Leonard Lounsbury, and George Carter sold the rights of the cemetery to the New Canaan Cemetery Association for $450. The Methodists, therefore, were pioneers in the establishment of Lakeview Cemetery, of which the town is now justly proud.
The minutes of the meetings of the trustees of the church for the year 1854 present somewhat of a history of the erection of the present church edifice. The trustees, whose names are recorded, were H. Bouton, Samuel Whitney, Henry Wardwell, M. W. Fox, John N. Hall, Ebenezer Crissey, Minot Crofoot and Seymour Comstock. The specifications for the church called for a struc- ture forty by seventy feet with a suitable projection in front and a four foot recess in the rear of the pulpit. The building with its spire was modeled after the Danbury M. E. Church. Starr and Barnum of Danbury signed a contract to erect the structure for $6,700. The Rev. J. B. Wakeley was the speaker at the laying of the cornerstone; Bishop E. S. James dedicated the church on December 21, 1854. Six or seven years later during a heavy windstorm the steeple was blown down and was replaced with the cupola which is still on the church.
There is, apart from a roll of membership, almost no data of the church during the Civil War. But the Rev. William T. Hill, who was appointed pastor in 1863, penned two sentences which are worthy of quotation. "It may per- haps be interesting to leave on record as an index to the character of the times that very early in the year seven members ceased to attend all services in this church because the pastor showed a disposition to speak, as occasion seemed to him fitting, in behalf of our bleeding country and of the suffering slaves. One
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of these persons has been expelled, four have withdrawn, and two remain mem- bers."
At the close of his pastorate in 1876, Rev. James M. Carroll was very active in organizing a "Band of Hope" and "Union Temperance Society." For many years thereafter monthly meetings were held alternately on Sunday even- ings in the Congregational and Methodist Churches. In the spring of 1880, Rev. G. A. Graves was appointed preacher-in-charge. "He found the village Band of Hope in vigorous action on the first Sunday evening, the membership rising during the term to over a thousand and the attendance upon the meetings often exceeding the seating capacity of the churches. 'No License' became the verdict of the people." By 1883, the Rev. W. P. Estes reported the member- ship as 1,400. As a total abstinence pledge from the use of intoxicants was signed by all enrolled, one can easily see that the temperance movement was very successful.
Doubtless everyone who has attempted to record history has wished at times that he could roll back the years and look in at the society of the past. In some respects the Methodists of a hundred years ago must have almost re- sembled the Quakers in appearance. The Discipline of 1840 thus admonished the members concerning dress: "1. Let everyone who has charge of a circuit or station read Mr. Wesley's Thoughts upon Dress, at least once a year in every society. 2. In meeting the classes, be very mild, but very strict. 3. Allow of no exempt case; better one suffer than many. 4. Give no tickets to any that wear high heads, enormous bonnets, ruffles or rings."
But if the members were plain in appearance, they were not lacking in spirit. Reference has already been made to their shouting and exhorting. The author remembers in his boyhood days the loud "Amens" and "Hallelujahs" which re-echoed during services. One Wednesday evening a leader of a Praying Band which held services for miles around, knelt beside a wooden chair with a veneered seat which served well as a drum. As he exhorted the Lord with a voice like the famous Bull of Bashan, he beat the chair and yelled, "And, O Lord, we thank thee that thou are not deaf to our petitions!" The little boy smiled and wondered why it was necessary thus to shout, if God could hear; but the memory of those services is not all humorous, for there was a sincerity in worship which made one feel that the Lord was near.
Few, indeed, are the descendants of the early church. In October, 1833, the year that the first church was dedicated, Charles Jones and Seymour Com- stock united with the church as probationers. The following year they were received in full membership. The writer recalls them still active in the church when they were in declining years. Among the present members of the church are Mrs. Mary Jones Raymond and Mr. Frank L. Comstock, the first, a daughter of Charles Jones; the second a son of Seymour Comstock. It is fitting to add that two bequests to the church are in memory of some of the earliest families.
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Upon his death in 1925, Mr. Seymour Crofoot left the church the income from $1000. He was the grandson of Captain Ebenezer Crofoot, already referred to as one of the founders of Methodism in New Canaan. Miss Inez de Forest Crofoot of Norwalk and New Canaan is the only survivor of the family. Mrs. Delia Dickens Palmer likewise bequeathed to the church the income from $13,383. Mrs. Palmer's first husband, Alva Dickens, was a descendant of the Dickens' family, who belonged to the Silvermine group of Methodists.
When the Rev. Jesse Lee, having been refused the use of a building, preach- ed his first sermon in New England in 1789, he stood on the street in Norwalk and used as his text, "Ye must be born again." That message, re-echoing over the hills of Fairfield County, resulted in a new church. And now, for over a hundred years, the New Canaan Methodist Church has been preaching the same gospel of salvation.
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AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS
"Delivered in St. Mark's, New Canaan, Sunday, May 13th, 1934, on the Occasion of the Centennial of the Consecration of the Present Church.
BY THE RT. REV. STEPHEN E. KEELER, D.D. Bishop Coadjutor of Minnesota
The year following the six-month program of the Congregational Church, while this book was in course of preparation, St. Mark's celebrated an Anniversary. The address of the occasion is reprinted here by courtesy of the author from the September 1934 issue of The Lion of St. Mark.
T HE History of St. Mark's parish begins with the founding of St. Paul's parish, Norwalk, organized in 17371 and of St. John's parish, Stamford, organized in 1742.2 In reality St. Mark's has two spiritual mothers and while in popular anecdote and generally accepted tradition St. Paul's, Norwalk, is given principal place, a close study of early records and history cannot but recognize our debt to St. John's, Stam- ford.
1762 May 13#
in this Church-yard was erected the first building of the Professors of the Church of England in Canaan Parish
Replaced by the Consecration of St Marks Church
Canaan Parish, a Part of the Ludlow Purchase Project of 1640
In all the early records of both the Norwalk and Stamford parishes and townships-the present New Canaan May 6* 1834 was known as Canaan Parish. The Con- gregational parish was so called. On April 3, 17323 the "proprietors of Norwalk by major vote granted to the inhabitants of Canaan parish all ye com- mon land where their meeting house standeth." When this town was incorporated in 1801 it was named New Canaan to distinguish it from Canaan in the northern part of the State, which had been first settled in 1738 and incorporated in 1739.3 In reality Canaan parish was a part of the purchase project of Norwalk from the Indians by Roger Ludlow in 1640, and while the real settlement of Norwalk did not begin until 1650
1. The proprietors of Norwalk had granted land-Feb. 11, 1733 or 1734 (the present site of St. Paul's, Norwalk)-to "professors of the Church of England provided they build a church on any part of it." The parish however was not organized until 1737. Hall's -- "Norwalk," p. 122.
2. December 2. 1742.
3. Hall's-"Norwalk," p. 122.
4. This meeting house had been erected in 1731.
5. Barber-"Connecticut Historical Collections, " p. 463.
Drawing by Henry I .. Becker
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apparently there were a few scattered inhabitants within the limits of the Lud- low purchase soon after 1640.6 By 1651 the settlement was well under way7 for on February 15, 1651 the Indian Runckinheage and other chieftains deeded ter- ritory to the "planters of Norwalk" listing fourteen of them by name. In 1680 there were Haits (Hoyts), Carters, Keelers and Sentions (St. John's) holding land on Clapboard Hillss while a few years later there were Hanfords9 in White Oak Shade, Davenports10 on Ponus Ridge and Weeds11 near the present Weed Street. When these early dates of pioneer settlements are definitely known it is not too much to claim for Canaan parish a real share in Roger Ludlow's purchase project of 1640, and certainly before any settlement of Canaan in the northern part of the State was under way a whole generation of pioneers from Norwalk and Stamford were living on the ridges of Canaan parish.
There is a growing regret that the town incorporators in 1801 did not see the quaintness and uniqueness of "Canaan Parish" as a name for this town. In view of the early settlement and history outlined above let us hope that before long the authorities of this New Canaan, in memory of the hardihood and fortitude of the pioneers of 200-250 years ago will rename the town "Canaan Parish."
First "Professors of the Church of England" in Canaan Parish, and Their Connection With Norwalk and Stamford
Canaan parish, comprising the territory covered by ,the present township limits, was made up of land ceded by both Norwalk and Stamford and or- ganized as a parish in 1731. From 1731 until the building of the first church of the "Episcopal Society" in 1764 the early settlers, who were "professors of the Church of England," if they attended service anywhere else than in the meeting house, went either to St. Paul's, Norwalk or St. John's, Stamford. The Silver Mine, White Oak Shade, Clapboard Hill, Canoe Hill and Smith Ridge settlers naturally turned toward Norwalk while those living on the Stam- ford side of Canaan parish, Talmadge Hill, Weed Street and Ponus Ridge dis- tricts were more attracted to Stamford.
The ministers of St. Paul's, Norwalk and St. John's, Stamford fulfilled duties in Canaan parish for a consideration. The early records of St. Paul's, Norwalk will reveal the appointment of a collector for the "Canaan side of the Norwalk parish" and sometimes a special committee was delegated by St. Paul's, Norwalk "to collect arrears in Canaan parish."12 Apparently, then as now, some church obligations were hard to collect.
6. Hall-"Norwalk," p. 14, and Trumbull-"Connecticut" Volume I, p. 115.
7. Hall-"Norwalk," p. 35.
8. Granted-to Thomas Hait and Capt. Sam'l Keeler for their services as soldiers in "Direful Swamp Fight," 1675.
9. Elnathan Hanford received thirty acres of land in White Oak Shade from estate of his father Rev. Thomas Hanford who died in 1693.
10. By 1721 farmer John Davenport, son of the Rev. John Davenport of Stamford,
Davenport Ridge. This house is referred to in the will of Rev. John Davenport dated Jan. 6, 1729.
11. Abraham Weed had come from Stamford with his father and built a house on Frogtown Road, near Weed Street, about 1727.
12. From St. Paul's, Norwalk,-Parish Records.
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The two men most prominently associated with "professors of the Church of England" as spiritual pastors during these early days were the Rev. Jeremiah Leaming, D.D., Rector of St. Paul's, Norwalk and the Rev. Ebenezer Dibble of St. John's, Stamford. Dr. Leaming, born in Middletown, Conn., was a graduate of Yale College in 1745. He sailed for England and was ordained there in 1748. From 1758 until driven from the town in 1779 he was Rector of St. Paul's, Norwalk. His Royalist convictions were described as follows by two who knew him. "He was as big a Tory as ever there could be on earth."13 "He continued to pray for the king as long as he dared to."14 Dr. Leaming left with the British after the burning of Norwalk.15
Dr. Ebenezer Dibble was as familiar a figure in the Stamford side of Canaan parish as was Dr. Leaming in that of Norwalk. He was born in Dan- bury, and a graduate of Yale in 1734. He, like Leaming, secured ordination in England in 1748. In 1748 he began his work in Stamford and for a time he labored, too, in Ridgefield and parts of Westchester County. Living in Stam- ford, a greatly beloved figure, until his death in 1799,16 he was able to survive the Revolution without harm either to his person or his property although he constantly referred to it "as an unjustifiable rebellion." His personal popularity was probably his defence.17 These two men will evidence the fact that even in the early days, churchmen in Canaan parish enjoyed the inspiration of men thoroughly trained in theology, strong in their political convictions and of real missionary and pastoral enthusiasm.
The First Church Frame Raised May 13, 1764, on Land Deeded by Thomas Hait
The first date of local interest to churchmen in Canaan parish is that of May 13, 1764, just exactly 170 years ago this very day when the frame of the first Episcopal Church was raised on land, later deeded by Mr. James Hait, about three quarters of a mile northwest from this present Church. This building was erected on the north central portion of what is now known as the "Old Church burying ground." There had been considerable discussion regard- ing its location on or near the old militia "parade ground."18 At this time upper Haines Ridge was thought of as the probable center of the town as it might grow.19 It is my conviction that the gift of the property determined the location. Dr. St. John,20 the Rev. David Ogden and others in historical ad- dresses insist that the property was originally given by a Mr. Husted and ap- parently later deeded by Mr. Hait. His deed refers to a site "whereon the
13. Mrs. Nathanael Raymond-Recollections in Hall's "Norwalk," p. 179.
14. Mrs. William St. John-Recollections in Hall's "Norwalk," p. 180.
15. July 11, 1779.
16. Bolton-"Westchester County."
17. Huntington-"History of Stamford," p. 390.
18. This "Parade Ground," finally bought by inhabitants of Canaan parish in 1778 for 14 pounds current money. From an old deed.
19. Upper Haines Ridge (present Oenoke Avenue) at the "old parade ground" was almost the exact center of Canaan parish and there was quite a "cluster of early houses" there. St. john-"Historical Address of July 4, 1876."
20. Prof. Samuel St. John "Historical Address," p. 25.
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frame of a church now stands." St. John, Ogden and others also state that the church was raised May 13, 1762. Their authority for this exact date prob- ably never will be known. Selleck's "Norwalk" discusses the question and attributes the real gift of land as from Capt. John Alexander of New York.21 There was a complicated real estate transaction as between Mr. Hait (Hoyt), Capt. Alexander and Mr. Jonathan Husted. In any event the entire matter was settled by a deed dated July 18, 1764 and recorded in Stamford. This old deed representing the first property held by churchmen for religious purposes in Canaan parish is one of the real treasures in possession of the parish. It is of interest to note that it is recorded in Stamford with a copy of the deed also in Norwalk while the deed of gift to the Congregational Society is recorded only in Norwalk.22 This indicates that the line dividing the Norwalk and Stamford sides of Canaan parish was assumed to run somewhere between the sites of the two churches.23 The deed is of sufficient interest to be recorded here. (See opposite page.)
At the time of the giving of this deed by Mr. Hait there was no corpora- tion entitled to hold this real estate, but that seems to have bothered no one.
"This first church building though so far completed as to be fit for public worship, remained for many years in an unfinished state. It is the general belief that it was never consecrated to the worship of God, though Bishops Seabury, Jarvis and Brownell24 often visited here and held confirmation."25
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