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 4
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For the next half-year the parish hired a man from Pogwonk on probation, with a salary of £30 in produce, the use of half of David Warner's dwelling, his firewood "cut out fit for the fire, the Keeping of his Horse ... and the moving of his family into Sd. House." Those parishioners who paid their assessment in wheat were to have it figured at the rate of six shillings per bushel. The farmers who brought in wheat or food to the parson were apparently given a receipt, for the minutes go on to state that anyone who could produce a receipt for 1779 should be excused from paying his pro- portionable part of an assessment laid on the society members in that year. This minister, Rev. Gilbert Smith, remained on probation for another six months, and for the second period was hired at the rate of four bushels of wheat per week "or other provisions equivalent".
For some years the parish could not agree on a minister (per- haps no minister would accept this flock, who knows?). The affairs of the still young parish were not in a very healthy state. Church membership reached an all time low, and there was a feeling of lethargy that boded ill for the church in Chester. A few of the older devoted parish leaders kept their faith and tried to keep the spark alive. When their efforts seemed unavailing, at a slimly attended parish meeting they voted to send a committee to the Association in June "to Ask their Advice and Assistance for us under our broken and Desolate circumstances." This advice, whatever it may have been, was apparently of some help for the parish struggled on
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a few years longer. Finally a revival of interest prompted them to hire a regular minister, although it took eleven parish meetings to agree on this action. An epidemic of small pox may have hastened their decision, with some people feeling that the visitation of this disease was a warning to them to mend their unsettled ways. At any rate, Rev. Samuel Mills was called, his settlement to be £20 worth of land and a house "as good as Mr. John Buckingham's and as well finished" if he stayed in Chester fifteen years. His salary, was to be £60 a year for the first three years, and thereafter &£65 if the settlement was by that time completed.
It was during Rev. Mills pastorate that parishioners from the west district near the lake, whose grandfathers had travelled a much greater distance to worship in Pettipaug, found it too arduous to travel in to services. Therefore the minister was granted permission to "preach in New school house near the Pond every fourth Sabbath During the winter season." Church attendance was not as strictly regulated as in former days, no fines being laid for non-attendance. Members even asked the minister to have the Sabbath meetings during the three winter months begin at quarter to eleven in the morning and to have a one hour intermission at noon. How the spirits of their hardy grandfathers must have shuddered at these evidences of softness and faintheartedness !
Even Rev. Mills, in his personal affairs, found the times trying. Within two years after the death of his first wife he married again, this marriage lasting only, two years. The advent of a third wife the following year coincided with a revival of Christian faith and works. Parish affairs improved, with a doubling of the church mem- bership.
Perhaps the use of the new church building, (the second meeting house, now the town hall) had something to do with the revival of interest. During the next half century the matter of ministers does not seem to have caused any great concern. They came and went regularly, most of them seeming to be exactly the men the town needed and wanted. The parish was greatly concerned with its spirit- ual health, with the ministers sharing that concern, so that a spirit of harmony prevailed.
The clergymen, as usual, were not highly paid. Often they agreed to take less than the salary, originally stipulated, depending on the amount of money in prospect for the coming year. In 1820 Rev. Neh. Beardsley drew up a paper as follows:
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Saybrook Dec 21st 1820
In the presence of Jonathan Warner Esqr. Capt. Wm. South- worth and Mr. Brader Barker who are appointed by the fourth Society in Saybrooke for a committee to confer with me on the subject of my salary for the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty one, I do agree to accept the sum of Three hundred and twenty, dollars as a recompense for my ser- vices with them in the work of the ministry of the gospel for the year above written. The sum which they raised from the sale of the pews and from subscription was Three hundred fourteen dollars and ten cents. But Jonathan Warner Esqr engaged to make it up Three hundred and twenty dollars-In case however that he should not, I then agree to accept the said sum of Three hundred fourteen dollars and ten cents, as witness my hand
Neh. B Beardsley
Some of the pastors found it necessary to augment their salary by instructing sons of the wealthier residents in subjects not to be found in the public schools of that day. One clever parson, Rev. A. S. Chesebrough, issued regularly a small, exquisitely, hand written "Catalogue of the Inhabitants of the Fourth Parish", listing every family by name and occupation and giving all members of the family even down to servants and boarders. These catalogues were divided into sections according to the divisions of the town, with the minister listing his schedule of visits in several of them. Baptisms, marriages, births, deaths-all are there in copperplate handwriting.
The ministers kept the parish records also, some being more conscientious about it than others. Until 1786, some forty-four years after the parish was formed, no record of church membership, births, deaths or marriages was kept. Thereafter the ministers assumed this responsibility. Frequently when a new man came into town he looked over his flock with practiced eye, made diligent inquiries into the lives of his people, and compiled a new, up-to-date list.
They must have been busy, men, those early ministers of ours. Their duties included the preaching of two hour-long sermons on Sunday (sermons which must be strictly and thunderingly ortho- dox); a preparatory lecture on the Friday or Saturday evening preceding the communion service; frequent calls on the members of the parish; their own private efforts to augment their slim and too often unpaid salary; the keeping of the parish records; attendance
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at out-of-town meetings, an arduous task when travel was by horse- back over bad roads.
Ministers were received into a new congregation by impressive "ordination" services, and all the surrounding ministers attended. They were dismissed by, the reverse of this process, the ordination and dismissal services occupying the better part of a day each, which often meant that the attending ministers were away from home two days or more. Attendance at disciplinary meetings in various parishes was required, since affairs in other towns proceeded no more smoothly than in Chester, and surrounding clergymen were called in to give their advice and counsel. So numerous did these meetings, ordinations, dismissals and conferences become that the poor minis- ters found it hard to supply the necessary money. Eventually. it was voted that the expenses of pastors and delegates to meetings "abroad shall be paid out of parish funds not otherwise appropriated". Those last three words must be noted, however, for there were seldom funds "not otherwise appropriated", since the Society was always in monetary difficulties.
When the Baptist society first started holding services in Chester it had no regular minister. For ten years various godly elders of that congregation acted as pastors, until the first minister was hired in 1834. During the next seventeen years eight clergymen came and went, until in 1851 the men of the parish again acted as preachers.
The years between 1851 and 1868 were crucial ones in the history of the Baptist church. Despite its enthusiastic birth thirty years earlier, it nearly disbanded during this time of national unrest caused by the slavery question and the ensuing Civil War. Many of the members believed that the church should be allowed to dissolve, to be reorganized at a later date. Rev. George Gorham, just returned from his duties as a Chaplain in the Civil War in precarious health, could not bring himself to accept such action. Completely ignoring himself, he worked tirelessly for the larger good of his neighbors, and brought the Baptist church through its crisis, dying soon after- wards worn out by his service to his fellowmen both at war and at home.
Another local minister, Rev. Russell Jennings of Deep River, had at various times preached in the Baptist church and was deeply concerned in its welfare. He was a fairly wealthy man, and, in addi- tion to watching over the spiritual needs of churches in these small towns, gave them buildings when he felt the time was propitious.
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It was he who provided the local Baptist society, with its second church building and a parsonage. Like the Congregationalists, the Baptists were never affluent, and Reverend Jennings paid nearly half the minister's annual salary for several years. In 1882 he estab- lished a trust fund, the interest from which was to be used for paying the pastor's salary.
So for many years there were two ministers in town, Baptist and Congregationalist, sharing the work and guiding their respective flocks in paths of righteousness. For the most part they seem to have been fairly tolerant of each other's activities, although occa- sionally we find mention of overtures made by one which were spurned by the other, or invitations made by one body for joint services and ignored by the other. For years, however, joint prayer services were held nightly, for a week early in the year, the congre- gations alternating in the use of the buildings and the pastors con- ducting jointly. In 1894 the Baptist minister conducted the first Easter "Dawn Service", but held it on Good Friday in the church building. Members of both churches were attracted to this novelty in the observance of Easter. When one parson was ill or had been called out of town to attend a meeting, his flock would worship with the other congregation. More and more this came to be true, and the people of one church came to attend suppers, lectures, and special entertainments in the other. This was especially true when the two church buildings standing side by side on the hill forced the congre- gations into more or less awareness of the other's affairs.
Ministers of the late 1800's were considerably different from their predecessors. One Congregational pastor, Rev. Alexander Hall, gave health lectures on Sunday evening in place of the usual sermon. After this series of lectures were over, he announced that one Sun- day evening a month would be designated as "non-church members night", with only those people not in the habit of going to church invited to attend. To the consternation of the devout church mem- bers, the attendance on those evenings was greater than it ever was for a regular church service. After the first of these services the local paper carried an item which stated "in the auditorium could be seen persons that had not attended religious services for many years."
So ministers came and went. Some were mourned at their going, while others were speeded on their way, The Chester cor- respondent of the local newspaper reported on the resignation of one
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minister of the town: "It is a well-known fact that any pastor of the Baptist Church in this vicinity has a hard and stiff-necked genera- tion to deal with, and if they manage to remain a couple of years, it is quite as well as Gabriel himself could do." Not always was the congregation at fault. In several instances the minister himself was suited neither to his calling nor to the locality. In general, however, 1 the churches seem to have been well supplied with superior guidance in their spiritual affairs, not only in the matter of pastors, but also in their choice of deacons.
Ministers came and went, but deacons were permanent fixtures. They were elected for life, and held a respected position in the parish. Very early in the history of the church they "lined-out" the psalm, rising from the deacon's seat below the high pulpit to face the congregation. For this reason deacons must needs be men with some "book-learning." The first line of a psalm was intoned in a solemn voice, as nearly on key as possible, and the congregation fol- lowed. By the second line the congregation took hold with a will, so that by the third, everyone was singing, and could hardly wait for their leader to give out the fourth line before lustily bawling it out. Although the result was not exactly musical, it was the best they. could do, and the three or four most widely used psalms were sung thus Sabbath after Sabbath.
After the musical part of the service was taken over by others, the deacons kept a stern eye on the congregation. In later church buildings the deacon's seats became those to either side of the pulpit and at right angles to the congregation. There they sat, a larger number now, still showing by stern example and reverent demeanor that they were a group set apart. They also had charge of providing for the poor of the parish. At first this was not too arduous a task, consisting mainly of seeing that any needy were cared for by some more prosperous neighbor. Finally, some ninety years after the Congregational church was organized, there was a fund instituted from the collections taken up at the close of the communion services. Money from this fund, together with a levy of 121/2c per person, was used to support aged and dependent persons of the parish. Also the funds remaining in the Society treasury at the close of a year were supposed to be allocated to the deacons for poor relief. Since the Society, was usually in an indigent state itself, the poor fund benefited little thereby.
Many of the early deacons of Chester are remembered still. It
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was a title not lightly bestowed and indeed, some church members disliked the idea of the entire body voting on so important an office. The responsibilities of the office were taken very seriously. Often son succeeded his father in the position. Thomas Silliman, who was ordained deacon of the Congregational church "on the Green" in January of 1781, was succeeded by his son Samuel in 1831. Samuel Silliman "obtained a good report" through a long period. It was said of him that he "knew how to use the office of deacon well", was possessed of a well balanced mind and sound judgment, and that he was fearless in the defense of what he considered right. When he died in 1874, he and his father together had served the Congrega- tional church for nearly a hundred years.
Once elected a deacon, the "Mister" was dropped by, everyone in town. Respect for the office and for the holder's judgment was universal, although, being human, the good deacons had all the faults and frailities of common folk and suffered an occasional lapse from grace. Once or twice deacons in the same church disagreed on something, and instances are recorded where one deacon resigned not only from the office, but from the church society, and betook himself to the neighboring body. There, like as not, he was soon elected a deacon in the church of his adoption.
Gradually the functions of the deacons became confined merely to assistance at communion. For some years the title has not been referred to in everyday life. Still elective for life unless the incum- bent finds it necessary to resign, the office has gradually changed, being modified with many of the other church offices.
Although most of the ministers who held pastorates in Chester came from out of town, the churches here "raised up" a number of clergymen from among their own members. Amos D. Watrous served his own Baptist church as pastor in 1843, while George Watrous, ordained in September of 1854 went as a missionary to Burma. Hayden Watrous and George C. Chappell entered the ministry from the Baptist church. Near the end of the 19th century a young man, William Johnson, was converted from his life as a drunkard as a result of an invitation to attend services. He became an evangelist and held in the Baptist church a series of meetings which were the means of converting about fifteen people.
The Congregational church has six ministers and a missionary to its credit. Jonathan Silliman and John and William Mitchell became preachers. William Ely and William Baldwin went out from
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Chester to spread the gospel to other communities. Samuel T. Mills, son of the Samuel Mills to whom we are indebted for the first list of church membership, was pastor in his hometown for three years. Miss Katie Wilcox, a member of the family which has given so many deacons and musicians to the service of the Congregational church, left Chester to become a missionary in India. She has been responsible for the formation of a large girls' school in that country, and has made a name for herself in the mission field.
Thus by the example and teaching of pastors, deacons, and missionaries both from without and within, the work of the church has been carried forward in Chester and in other parts of the world as well.
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CHAPTER VII
Saints and Sinners
The hills, vales and woods that made up the Pataquonk section of Saybrook were for many years used only as pasture or woodland by those who had received the land by grants. Perhaps the surround- ing towns or parishes were becoming too crowded for the sort of people who were accustomed to having their nearest neighbor some distance away. The Indians had found the territory, fertile and healthy, so that late in the 17th century, the sons of the early colonists from England began their settlement in what is now Chester.
The first family came from Haddam in 1692, and was followed four years later by a family from Hadley. At about the same time four families journeyed up the river from Saybrook. Starting early in 1700, a steady influx of sturdy folk set up grist mills on some of Chester's many streams, established farms in its sheltered vales, and crowned its hills with huge chimneyed dwellings, reserving one hill- top for the meeting house. At first the land grants were large, but gradually farms were divided among the sons of the original owners, and houses were built near enough together so that the women could call across the fields to each other. A few rude roads followed the first woodpaths, and the people began to feel stirrings of unity in this rugged northern section of Saybrook. Thus the town was born.
Probably there were not more than fifteen or twenty families residing in the Pataquonk section at the time the Fourth Parish of Saybrook broke away from the mother church in Pettipaug (Center- brook). The old records of that church indicate that it lost about thirty members by the withdrawal of the northern brethren. Some of the wealthier people lived in the Pataquonk section, however, and their going was keenly felt by the Pettipaug Parish. In the early meagre records of the Fourth Parish the same names recur with monotonous regularity, indicating either that there was a dearth of members to choose from, or that those chosen were unusually effi- cient men.
Thus the haze of the past obscures most of our knowledge of the number of the early parish members. In 1772, when Reverend
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Robert Silliman, the fourth minister of the parish, had settled in Chester and tried to find membership lists, he wrote in his diary :
I, Robert Silliman, found no records left by Rev. Jared Harri- son, the first minister, nor any, by Rev. Mason, the third minister, but found some records left on a loose paper by Rev. Wm. Stoddard, by reason, I suppose, that there was no proper book provided till now for ye regular recording.
Thirty-seven years after the formation of the Fourth Parish of Saybrook (Congregational), there is recorded the first mention of another religious body when two men presented certificates of attendance from the Baptist Church of a nearby community, asking that they be relieved of paying taxes in the Fourth Parish. The following year four persons presented similar certificates. The move- ment grew, with each year more and more people claiming attendance at and support of neighboring Baptist churches. Most of them were journeying to Winthrop, but a family or two who had come into the parish from Haddam continued their membership in that town. By 1800 the records state that it was feared that many people were presenting illegal certificates of their attendance at Baptist Society meetings, and a committee was appointed to confer with the Baptists in Saybrook with a view to ending "such fraudulent conduct."
When Rev. Samuel Mills came to the pastorate of the Fourth Parish church in 1786, he took count of his flock and wrote down that there were seven men and fourteen women members in full communion, with twelve men and fifteen women "Covenanters" only.
The old New England pioneers originally formed their churches on the theory that church membership should be restricted to those who could give vivid and satisfactory proof of their conversion. Only such persons and their children could rightly be baptised. Gradually there came into the parishes persons of good moral charac- ter who were leading exemplary lives, but who could not give to the stern church fathers a satisfactory account of their religious ex- perience, and consequently could not present their children for baptism. If an individual could not become a church member he had little standing in the community and could hold no political office, whatever his qualifications might be. The more liberal minded folk everywhere protested against this, and in 1657 a ministerial council was called in Boston to consider the matter. It propounded the theory that baptized infants could, on arriving at years of discretion, "own the Covenant" and thus become formal members of the church.
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The church was to accept them if they were of good moral character and understood the meaning of the Covenant they were adopting, and was bound to baptize their children. Thus church membership was made a matter of morals and formality for those who did not have a deep inner conviction and could not outwardly prove their conversion.
Here in Chester, for two hundred years there were two groups in the Congregational church; the Ecclesiastical Society which was the governing body, and the church members. Originally the members of the Ecclesiastical Society were the elect-those who had become converted and were the full and true church members. Gradually, however, this group changed character completely, until the Eccles- iastical Society members were not required to be communicants of the church. The Covenanter group developed into the body of mem- bers who had given proof of their conversion and were the true church members. Unless they were also members of the Ecclesiastical Society, however, they had no say in the election of Society officers or in the Society affairs.
The parish during the first forty-six years had not increased greatly in size, and, for several years after Rev. Mills listed the members, remained fairly static. Throughout all New England this was a period of little interest in religious affairs, but in 1802 a great revival took place in the colonies. The following year Chester caught the contagion and forty-six persons were admitted into the church at once. The first mention of baptisms in any of the ponds of the parish was recorded at this time. Since the affairs of the town then centered around the locality of the present Goose Hill, we may assume that it was in Watrous Pond that the eight children of Rueben Clark were baptized.
The next item in the records, after Rev. Mills' carefully com- piled list of members, is the admission of a negro woman from the grandmother church at Saybrook. There seems to have been some particular significance attached to this action, for in addition to the record in the book, the original certificate is inserted between the pages, an old yellowish cracking paper, marked on the outside "Kate Certificate, April 14, 1787". Inside the faded, old fashioned writing slanted in crowded, brown-inked lines says :
This Certifies that Kate a Negro Woman is a member in full Communion & in Good Standing with this Church & having walked in peace and good order is hereby recommended to
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Christian fellowship & Communion with you in att the ordi- nances of the Gospel.
Frederick Wm Hotchkis Pastor of the First Church of Christ Saybrook
For the first seventy-six years of life in the parish of Chester, church-going was compulsory by law, those able to be out of their beds on the Sabbath and not appearing at Sabbath worship being hailed before the meeting, reprimanded, and fined. Whether the governing powers felt that the current revival was all that was necessary, to keep people in church, or whether the enforcement of this law had become a grievance as tolerance grew, is not certain. After 1815 it was left up to individual congregations to attend to their own means of insuring a respectable number of faces to con- front the parson on a Sabbath morning. By this time the Chester parish listed a membership of thirty-two men and sixty-five women, but it is not specified as to whether or not these were Ecclesiastical Society members or Covenanters.
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