USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > Chester > For two hundred years the same, an intimate and revealing account of the beginning and growth of the town of Chester, Connecticut, and the Protestant churches therein > Part 2
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On a stormy Wednesday in December of that same year the people dedicated the new building, filing solemnly into the new- fangled "slips" to face a minister in a lower pulpit than that in the old building, a pulpit backed by a slight recess in the otherwise straight rear wall of the building. The recessed organ loft was not added for many years, nor was the basement finished when the new building was dedicated. The first service of Sabbath worship was held in this third meeting house on the first Sunday of the year 1847.
Third Congregational Meeting House
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This meeting house had a bell, the first one of which we have a record. To celebrate its new building, the Society had the bell rung every evening at 9 for four months. It was also tolled for funerals, knelling out the slow age of the deceased. Once, years later, when the Baptists had their church next to this meeting house, both bells were tolled at once for members of the respective churches, the sound rolling desolately across the hills and vales of Chester.
The curfew bell did not ring for long, however, for eighteen months after the church was dedicated we find a vote to discontinue "ringing the bell at 9 o'clock in the evening at the expense of the Society." A month without the familiar sound and the townspeople protested. The church voted, therefore, "That the Public have the Use of the Church Bell to Ring at 9 o'clock Provided the Society have no part of the Expense to Pay", and it was again rung, the sound swelling out over the town until about 1920.
Shortly after the new meeting house was finished, the church sold the old building on the green to the town for $300., including the stove and furniture. At first it was used for town meetings, but gradually these were held in the church buildings, school houses, unoccupied stores, etc., since the old building was in a sad state. For the last year or two before the abandoning of the old meeting house, many of the church services were held in the building now housing the Post Office, since the older structure was considered unsafe.
The basement of the new church was not finished for nineteen years, since the men of the church did not see where they could raise the money. So for many years the Rechebite Hall, (then stand- ing at the head of the stone steps in the lower corner of Mrs. Mon- roe's property ) was rented at $15. per year and used for singing school, church society meetings, lectures, and such. At last, in 1863, the women of the church asked for permission to complete the base- ment. The men, "deeming it a privilege as well as a duty to co- operate", voted to help in the undertaking "so far as funds may be raised for that purpose", but specified no amount they would con- tribute. Thus the ladies got their basement, for which they paid themselves.
The records of the next years are studded with mention of raising subscriptions for painting the church, "procuring suitable lamps for lighting the meeting house", setting out trees and grading the lawn, building a parsonage '(now Alfred Saffery's home) putting flagstones around the meeting house, etc. The ladies took care of
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many details such as putting velvet cushions on the pulpit seat and covering the recess in back of the pulpit with fresco paper, helped with the raising of the subscriptions, and had a large hand in furnish- ing the basement. The Society did vote to buy a "table, stove, sink, etc. for the basement" but the women took care of the carpeting, curtains, dishes, and chairs.
So popular did the new basement become that in December of 1874 the church fathers stipulated that it be used only for lectures on religious or moral subjects except for the ladies society and the Sabbath School. The women were so successful in raising the funds for the projects they undertook that the men finally turned to them more and more for aid. In 1886 we find a record of a committee of "young ladies" appointed to solicit for shingling the roof of the church. So good a choice was made of the church's fairest that more than the necessary sum was subscribed in less than the specified time. The fund raised was sufficient not only for shingling the church, but the barn as well. In addition the stone work around the church was repaired, a pulpit lamp purchased, the fence across the front of the property, built, and $60. paid off on the church debt.
First Baptist Meeting House
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Shortly before the Congregational people left their meeting house on the green, the Baptists in town, who held membership in the First Baptist Church of Saybrook (in Winthrop), decided the journey through the woods was too arduous and that their number was sufficient to warrant a local society. Accordingly, at a meeting held at David Read's in 1823, the Baptists drew up plans for a meeting house of their own, and set to work to raise the necessary funds and procure the necessary permission from the Mother Church to hold services of their own. Apparently the people who gathered at David Read's house had the situation well in hand before they held this meeting, for work was begun at once on the new Baptist meeting house.
About the same size as the Congregational church on the green, and two stories in height, with decorative corner pilasters and center double door, it stood on the site of William Dumont's home. Inside, across the back, was a vestibule, and over it a balcony. Through some quirk of building the chimney was on the opposite end of the structure from the best place for the stove. An assort- ment of pails dangled from the stove pipe which traversed the entire length of the room-pails put there to catch the sap from the green wood which the parishioners provided for heating the church. These pails provided the children with an unfailing source of speculation as to which would overflow first.
There was no basement, but when church suppers came into vogue, they were managed by the resourceful women who utilized the space at the rear and in the two aisles of the building. Stationary. pews were installed in the main portion, while in the balcony the choir was provided with seats of rather unusual construction, whether to keep the singers alert or to provide good singing posture, we do not know.
Services were held in this building for forty-seven years before the question of a steeple and bell arose. Then two women of the church started a campaign to furnish those desirable adjuncts to the building. By that time the Congregationalists had their new church on the hill, with both a steeple and bell, though for a while an argu- ment raged concerning the height and design of the tower. The builders waited with growing impatience while the two factions debated, and then finally settled the matter summarily by setting the spire on at just the point they had reached when the argument broke out. But at least, the Congregationalist possession of the bell was
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enough to spur on the Baptists. So zealous were the two women in their efforts to raise the necessary funds that Elder Russell Jennings decided that the society should be rewarded with a new building, and presented it with the second Baptist church.
On land adjoining the third Congregational meeting house, it was a fine building, complete with steeple and bell, the interior with basement outfitted with pews and pulpit, the second floor a complete church sanctuary, with a large gallery. The good ladies who had raised the money for the steeple and bell on the old building asked that that fund might be used for a ventilating system in the new one, and their request was granted.
The first service in the new Baptist building, on the morning of May 11, 1870, was its dedication as a house of worship. In the afternoon of the same day, the congregation and neighboring pastors ordained Thomas N. Dickinson into the ministry.
BANANINE
Second Baptist Church Building
Side by side, then, the two churches stood, their bells on Sunday morning tolling and ringing alternately by arrangement with the two sextons. Services in one church were usually arranged to coincide with services in the other, and the board sidewalk in front of the buildings was thronged with interweaving worshipers as they passed one or the other building to get to their own place of worship.
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Rivalry there was, but cooperation too. Near the start of every year joint week-long prayer services were held, first in one building, then the other. When one minister was sick, the leaderless congregation was invited to attend services in the adjoining church.
Improvements in one building were soon followed by comparable changes in the other whenever possible. The Baptist parsonage was built next to their building, and the land graded and planted with trees. Three years after the Baptists moved into their new building, the Congregationalists built an addition onto the back of their church to house the new organ. Some few years later the Baptist church installed a new pipe organ, and the Congregationalists fol- lowed suit by purchasing a Hall organ using a water motor-no more hand pumping for them. When electricity was installed and the Baptists purchased an electric motor for their organ, shortly there- after the adjoining church members followed suit. Electricity, meant a new chandelier for the Congregational church, the old ornate kero- sene lamp affair being given to the Hadlyme Congregational Society. The Baptists purchased a new chandelier also (described in the local paper as both "costly and beautiful") and installed lights in the basement.
In 1884 the sanctuary of the Baptist building was kalsomined in the colors found there before the present modernization was be- gun. At about the same time the Congregational church had a carpet laid, the main body of the church being done by the men, the gal- leries by the ladies, who also paid for all the carpet. Next there was a new heater installed in the Baptist church, the basement painted, and the old pews replaced by two hundred chairs. The old pulpit in the basement was removed and a new black walnut reading desk installed in its place, and carpet laid on the stairs, platform and aisles. The Congregational church followed suit by remodeling the interior of their sanctuary. The ceiling was poor, and the side walls needed attention. Loud and long were the discussions and arguments, but eventually the all-too-familiar metal covering was put on ceiling and side walls. New pews were installed after the floor had been lowered four inches. Next came water for both buildings, the Baptists pro- viding theirs from a spring on the hill across from their building, the Congregationalists by tapping the water pipes laid across their property to Russell Jennings factory in the ravine behind.
So it went for years, one church spurring the other along. The rivalry, however, was usually pleasant and certainly beneficial.
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CHAPTER III
"The Meeting Will Come to Order."
In keeping with the old New England tradition, the meeting house was the center of parish life. It was used not only, for Sabbath worship, but also for the weekday meetings which guided the affairs of the community.
In the early days there was no town of Chester as we know it, and the parish itself was the unit, the germ of the town which was to be. The original towns of Colonial Connecticut were extensive. Saybrook included the territory of the present towns of Old Say- brook, Essex (including Ivoryton and Centerbrook), Westbrook, Deep River, and Chester. People living in remote parts of these town- ships found it difficult to attend the Sabbath services and weekday meetings of the parish society. At first the inhabitants of outlying sec- tions asked only, for "winter privileges". When these had been en- joyed for several years and more residents had come into the neigh- borhood, the people applied to the General Assembly for permission to form a church or parish. Thus the large original towns gradually broke up into smaller units. They did not easily, lose their contact with the mother parish, however, and for many years Chester was known as the Fourth Parish of Saybrook.
What we would consider town business was then conducted by the Parish officers under the leadership of the three-man Prudential Committee, elected annually. Meetings attended by men only were concerned with setting the tax rate, appointing the collector for the taxes, selecting the officers for the pound, seating the meeting (for years a subject of great controversy), choosing a janitor, providing facilities for schooling the young of the parish, and settling all other business. These meetings were apt to become heated affairs. Although the women were not admitted to the discussions, they must have had some influence nevertheless. Again and again the men would vote to proceed in a certain manner, and, within a week or two, hold another meeting in which the first vote was rescinded and the exact opposite agreed upon. It is not hard to discern the machinations of the ladies in the background.
There seem to have been no set rules of conduct for the parish meetings, for the records show the passage of several votes concern-
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ing the procedure to be followed. At one of the earliest meetings it was voted that "we would pas all our vots by holding up of the hands." At another it was specified that meetings should begin "within one hour after the time of Day Specified in the warning." The meetings were invariably held in the afternoon, although some may have continued into the evening. A notation in 1748 reads : "no vote shall be passed for the future after sunset."
Although the "Lord's Barn" was the most widely used place for the first parish meetings, gradually the men began the custom of opening the meetings there and then adjourning to some neigh- boring building. Sometimes the nearby, school was used, sometimes a house, and on several occasions a shop in the vicinity. One meeting was adjourned to "Capt. Mitchell's shop on account of the small pox."
At first meetings for parish business were held during the week. Gradually, however, the attendance fell off, for the farmers, mechan- ics, smiths, millers, and other business men did not have the time to spend on such frequent gatherings. For some time thereafter meet- ings were called for the mid-day intermission between Sunday ser- vices. This certainly must have curtailed the discussions and argu- ments that characterized these meetings.
The selection of men for various committees and positions caused some controversy. Often citizens who had not been present at the meeting refused to serve in capacities to which they had been elected. As a result further meetings were necessary for the choosing of a substitute. Few of the town officials were paid, the exceptions apparently, being the janitor of the meeting house and the tax collectors.
The janitors were not highly paid, for in 1759 a Mr. Denison was allowed twelve shillings for sweeping the meeting house. The following year a Mr. Chas. Deming received thirteen shillings for the same job. Forty years later the currency and the system of payment had changed considerably. Bids were asked, the low bidder doing the sweeping for a year for $5.50. The next year a new doctor in town underbid this at $5.25. From this lowly start in parish affairs, however, he advanced rapidly, until by 1778 he attained a position on the Prudential Committee.
The tax collectors had as hard a task as any officers in the parish. As the community grew, the number of taxes increased. Separate levies were made for various functions of the government.
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For many years the collector of church taxes was given permission to retain a certain percentage of the amount he was able to collect, and still later he was allowed to have, in addition, free use of a pew in the meeting house. At first the collector was allowed 1%, later 11/2%, and finally, 2%. Although this was an incentive for him to collect more money, it caused some hard feelings. The whole system was finally discarded when it was once found impossible to obtain from a tax collector all that was due the parish.
At another time when collections had been unusually poor and the parish found itself without funds to meet the minister's salary and other expenses, a meeting voted to exhibit "a Statement of the Debt and credit of the Society and who Due from". In spite of the horrified mutterings of those who owed and felt they should not be forced into paying, the list was published, though in a much shortened form. Publication of the names of tax delinquents brought in most of the back payments and again the parish was solvent for a time.
By 1808 it was felt necessary to have definite rules concerning the procedure in parish meetings and the control of the tax collec- tions. A committee was therefore appointed to draw up a set of "rules and regulations in our Society meetings and Directing the Treasurer in his office and Duty." The results of their deliberations follow :
Rules and Regulations for Society Meetings
We the undersigned being appointed a Committee to Draft and prepare a code of rules to be observed in Society Meeting ; also Directions for the Treasurer in his office, Submit the following for Consideration and Approbation.
Resolved That all Society Meetings Whither Warned or adjourned Shall be opened and Officered Within one hour of the time appointed.
Resolved After the Meeting is opened no man shall Stand or Sit with his head Covered without permission.
Resolved That no man Shall speak in open meeting without rising and obtaining leave of the moderator.
Resolved That no man shall speak more than twice to one point -or motion without sense of the meeting is taken and special permission Granted.
Directions
Resolved that the Treasurer of this Society be and he is hereby Directed to keep his accounts in the following manner (Viz.)
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on the Left hand page of the book a Credit of all money or orders received with their dates, amount drawen and of whom received, and on the right hand page the Debt of all money or orders paid over and to whom.
Resolved That the Credit and debt shall be produced and read over by the Clerk every annual meeting and that it shall be open for the inspection of those concerned at all times.
Resolved That the Treasurer make a settlement with the Pru- dential committee by the first Day of March yearly for the past year and cause their receipts in full to be entered in the book of accounts at the bottom of those Pages containing the accounts for that year.
Resolved That the above rules and directions be read in the hearing of the assembly at the opening of every annual meeting.
Signed Jonathan Warner Grinnold Clark John Mitchel
Committee
The assessing and collection of taxes was not the only means the church Society used to meet its financial obligations. Early in 1800 it was voted that a contribution, to make up the deficit in receipts, be taken on the last Sunday of each quarter. Subscriptions were also tried, especially for repairs and new building projects. In 1822 the first recorded Trust Fund in the parish was set up by sub- scription, the interest to be applied to paying the minister's salary. The list was well subscribed, but apparently some misrepresentations were made by the canvassers, for many people of the parish received the impression that if they gave to this fund they would thereafter be relieved of paying a pew rent.
The idea of renting pews was introduced about 1800. Early in the history of the Society the seats in the meeting house were allocated by, committees chosen for the purpose of "seating the meeting". Originally the "Lord's Barn" had rude seats which were assigned to heads of families or individuals according to their wealth or standing in the community. Naturally the committees found it ex- ceedingly difficult to suit all the people involved.
In 1765 permission was granted to five men of the parish to build pews at their own cost in the gallery on the north side of the meeting house, near the middle window. They agreed to remove these pews at any time the Society should request. By the end of that year, however, the Society voted to take up the seats in the meeting house and build pews by subscription, the subscribers not to have
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a better right to the pews they paid for than anyone else. This settled the matter of "seating the meeting" for a few years, and provided some funds. In 1775, however, the Society returned to the system of having a committee assign the seats. The group appointed pre- sented a plan which was not agreeable to all the church members, and a subsequent meeting voted to change the assignments. Again they held innumerable meetings in which the appointed committee re- ported, someone's feelings were injured at being placed in a less advantageous spot than they thought proper, and a new plan was called for. For thirty-two years the Society struggled to "seat the meeting", until in 1800 it was suggested that the pews should be rented to the highest bidder, the choicest locations being offered first and naturally demanding the highest prices. Thus two things could be accomplished : people could sit where they wanted to if they could pay for that privilege, and a source of revenue would be opened to the Society.
This suggestion was discussed from all angles for nine months. Then the Society voted they would sell the pews, the bids payable within one year or interest applicable, "provided we Raise the Sum of Sixty five Pounds, otherwise void and of no effect." An auction followed, and "Sales of the Pews Amounted to the Sum of Seventy two Pounds, Eighteen Shillings and Six pence & money." At the auction meeting it was voted to give Mrs. Mills, the minister's wife "and fammily the Pew they now Sit in for the year inSuing."
This new arrangement of selling the pews was not completely satisfactory, however, and certain dissatisfied persons asked to be released from their bids and their positions in the meeting house. The Society voted "the Meeting will Do nothing About it," and there the matter rested until the next annual meeting for the sale of pews. At that time those members who did not like the idea of selling pews argued against the matter so successfully that when the auction was finished, the bids amounted to only. £33. All sales were thereupon nullified, and the Society returned to the former system of appointing a committee to seat the meeting. For several years committee after committee labored with this problem, for which no satisfactory solution was ever found.
With the building of the Congregational meeting house on the "Green", the pews were again offered for bid at the beginning of each year. As this procedure resulted in the collection of at least a part of the funds necessary for the Society, it was followed more
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or less amiably for many years. The Baptists used the same system and the money paid for pew rent constituted a large portion of each families' contribution to the finances of the churches, with the excep- tion of special subscriptions and the funds raised through united efforts of various societies.
As the years went on, the Society and Church meetings of both denominations apparently became more routine affairs. After the town incorporated, in 1834, the Society meetings were concerned only with the government of church affairs. For many years the pastors of the churches kept the records, although by the mid-1800's, clerks were elected. Gradually the minutes of the meetings became more formal and routine, although, knowing the temper of the people of the town, it would be natural to assume that these gatherings remained the same lively affairs that they had been in the early days of the parish.
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CHAPTER IV
"Make a Joyful Noise .. . "
On a Sabbath morning when all the inhabitants of the parish who could possibly be out of their beds assembled at the meeting house on the hill, our lusty forefathers sang the psalms with a right goodwill. From Saybrook and Centerbrook they brought their method of "lining out" the psalms, a style used by all the smaller parishes. The congregation was familiar with the few tunes used. Part-singing was unknown. As more and more families came into town, bringing different ideas with them, dissatisfaction grew. One of the earliest entries in the first old record book says "something should be done concerning the way of singing." The older, more conservative folk prevailed for another year, however, in order to have their own way tolerating a deacon who apparently did not have a very good sense of tune or pitch.
Finally the more tuneful among the parish prevailed, and it was voted "Justus Buck shall tune the Psalm on the Sabbath days the year Ensuing." Apparently he did a satisfactory job, for no further mention is made of music in the church for six years. We may be sure, however, that there was plenty of discussion on the subject around the home-fires in the evening, and at market gatherings during the week. Some of the more advanced members of the parish had heard of a new psalm book which contained a greater variety of tunes of a more sprightly nature. At length the matter came up at meeting, and it was voted to leave it up to the new minister as to whether they should sing Watts' Psalms or the older version. The new minister was a young man with young ideas, and the change was made to Watts' Psalms. Thereupon some of the older members of the congregation claimed that they could not manage the new fangled singing and forbore to open their mouths at the Sabbath services.
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