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 7
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CHAPTER X
"When, in the Course of Human Events .. . "
With the church in Chester a re-united body, enlarged and ambitious for the future, it was only natural that the parish should become interested in rebuilding, combining, or otherwise improving the church plant.
Under the leadership of Rev. E. Ray Burchell, a committee worked for over a year to secure suitable plans. Various suggestions were thoroughly considered for one or the other of the buildings, until at last plans for building an addition at the rear of the Baptist building were presented to the church body. As soon as those plans were approved, a financial campaign was undertaken to raise the amount required. When it was reported that only a little more than half the necessary sum had been realized, it seemed necessary to approach the matter from a different angle. Although another com- mittee was formed, it apparently could come to no agreement for some time. After a six months period of inaction, it was finally suggested that the former Congregational building be moved over and attached to the rear of the old Baptist church. This idea caught the fancy of many of the church members, some of whom had been reluctant to discard either building, or had had a definite preference for one building in particular. Apparently, the ideal solution had been found.
Another committee was appointed which procured plans and estimates and presented them to a church meeting in May, 1948. Previously, the architects' plans had been shown to every society and group of the church so that all might be thoroughly familiar with the proposal. Within five days of the meeting which approved the plans, the contractor started work by removing the spire and belfry of the old third meeting house of the Congregational Society. At that time it was discovered that the builders who had erected the steeple, summarily refusing to wait for the ultimate conclusion of the arguments regarding it to subside, had done little more than hang the spire in place. It was suspended from one large beam reaching from the base into the point, and was only connected to the rest of the belfry, by the shingles which covered the outside. Little wonder that it swayed with each ringing of the bell !
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After the work was once started, it moved rapidly. Within a week the bell was resting on the floor of the front entry, to confront the people who, on June 6, 1948, came to worship for the last time in the old third meeting house of the Congregational Society in Chester. By the end of June the galleries, inside partitions, and rear addition of the building were removed. In their place arose the joists and beams for the new partitions, dividing the space as it was to be in the remodeled building.
When the time came to clear out the meeting houses preparatory to joining the buildings, some furnishings and equipment not usable in the new structure were sold. On a Wednesday in early June a carload of people from the First Baptist Church (colored) of Brooklyn, New York, came to Chester, equipped with checkbook, screwdrivers, hammers, and determination. Before nightfall this little group had removed and loaded onto a truck the oak pews from the former Congregational meeting house. On discovering that the pulpit furniture of the old Baptist church matched the pews from the Congregational building, they purchased them as well. On Friday the truck picked up the pulpit furniture, and the committee, aug- mented by others of that church, worked far into Saturday night to install pews and pulpit equipment in their building in Brooklyn so that it might be used on the next day. Thus the old pews did not miss a Sunday's use from the time of their installation fifty-three years before, when the women were allowed to have new seats for the meeting house in return for their help in paying for the metal ceiling.
During removal of portions of the masonry foundation to allow placing of the huge beams on which the building was to rest for its journey across the lawns, the lead box placed under the cornerstone on May 19, 1846, was recovered. It was first seen on Saturday, July 3, and removed in a public ceremony, on the following Wednes- day. At that time the group that gathered in front of the church building followed the exact order of service that was used when the box was placed under the cornerstone, one hundred and two years previously. Three members of the old Congregational Society, dating their membership from 1883, opened the box. Mr. Gilbert Norton pried loose the seal with hammer and chisel, and Miss Elizabeth Smith lifted the cover from the box. It had been planned that Mrs. Elizabeth Goodwin should remove the papers placed in the box so long ago, but when it was found that they were very dry and
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powdery, the box was taken among the congregation so that all might see it and glimpse the papers therein.
As a climax to this service, the building began its actual journey. Those watching saw the old building start moving, with not even a shudder, quietly and purposefully, toward its new resting place next door. There the foundation on which it would rest, was coming into being. With mixed feelings of wonder and awe the group dispersed, to await the next gathering of the church for the dedication of the combined buildings as the sixth meeting house of the parish and town.
The plans for combining the two former buildings were arranged in such a manner that the work could be done in stages as funds became available. The sanctuary, using the auditorium of the old Baptist church, but with a chancel recessed into the attached building, was included in the first stage. The vestry of the West Building was to become the Fellowship Hall, adjoined by a modern kitchen in the added building. Primary and Sunday School rooms were to occupy the remainder of the basement floor. The first and second floors, containing parlor, church office, chapel, and Junior and Intermediate department Sunday School rooms, were to be finished as funds became available.
During the interval when neither building of the United Church was usable, the Chester congregation worshiped in Deep River at the invitation of the Congregational and Baptist churches there. Two miles, in these days of easy travel, is little as compared to the long distances our forefathers journeyed to divine worship in the early days of the settlement of the town.
Thus with the usual attendant struggles-the story of the raising of the church buildings indicates that none of them were built without some commotion and upheaval in the prosaic life of the people of the parish and church societies-the present plant is coming into being. A combination of the two buildings for so many years standing side by side, used by the two congregations for so many years worshiping side by side, it is altogether fitting that the united congregation should have a united church building. Thus the hopes and aspirations; the fears and uncertainties, the love and hard work of the builders and users of these two churches become the heritage of the present generation, which faces a united future in a building in which it can see the older ones, but in which it has the certainty of an enlarged and more valuable service to the community
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and itself. From a sober beginning two hundred and eight years ago in the common room of Jonathan Hough's dwelling to the modern structure to be dedicated this year (1948), the growth of the church in Chester is a story of more than buildings, more than the men who built them and the women who worked for them. It is the history of a town from infancy to maturity; of a society from its birth pangs to maturer years; of a people who toiled side by side that a faith they cherished might be strong and a cause they believed in might prosper.
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Congregational Ministers
Jared Harrison
1742
1751
died
Simeon Stoddard
1759
1765
died
Elijah Mason
1767
1770
died
Robert Silliman
1772
1781
died
Samuel Mills -
1786
1814
died
Neh. B. Beardsley
1816
1822
resigned
William Case
1824
1835
resigned
Samuel T. Mills
1835
1838
resigned
Edward Peterson
1838
1839
resigned
A. S. Chesebrough -
1841
1853
resigned
Edgar J. Doolittle
1853
1859
resigned
William S. Wright -
1861
1869
resigned
William D. Morton
1869
1877
resigned
L. T. Spaulding
1879
1880
resigned
Jabez Backus -
1881
1885
resigned
Alexander Hall
1885
1899
resigned
Dwight C. Stone
1899
1902
resigned
W. A. Kirkwood
1902
1906
resigned
E. O. Dyer
1906
1914
died
Frank L. Garfield
1916
1934
resigned
Roger Hazleton
1934
1936
resigned
James W. Lenhart
1936
1941
die
John P. Hawley
1859
1861
resigned
Edgar J. Doolittle
1877
1878
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Baptist Ministers
Elder Hodge -
1832
1834
William Palmer
1834
1838
Simon Shailer -
1838
1839
A. F. Taylor -
1839
1840
A. Vangilder -
1840
1841
Sylvester Barrows
1841
1843
Amos D. Watrous
1843
1843
Alfred Gates -
1843
1846
N. Boughton -
1846
1849
Isaac Cheeseboro
1849
1851
E. N. Shailer -
1851
Russell Jennings
tc
Wm. Dennison -
1870
Thomas N. Dickinson
1870
1870
John Evans
1875
1876
O. C. Kirkham
1877
1879
I. G. Noble
1880
1881
Joseph A. Bailey
1882
1884
A. Judson Hughes
1884
1887
George Butterworth
1887
1891
W. A. Atchley -
1891
1893
G. M. Evans
1893
1896
Harvey M. Ives
1896
1899
M. Stadtfeld -
1899
1906
J. C. Tibbits -
1907
1910
F. E. Coburn -
1910
1916
Samuel W. Delzell -
1916
1924
Mrs. Samuel W. Delzell -
1924
1925
Willard F. Johnson -
1925
1927
Mrs. Thomas Hughes
1929
1933
Charles E. Butler
1934
1935
Arthur E. Darby
-
1936
1939
United Church of Chester
non-sectarian
James W. Lenhart
1941
1941
resigned
E. Ray Burchell
1941
Geo. W. Gorham
1871
1874
William D. Morgan
-
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Bibliography
Church records, Second Ecclesiastical Society (Centerbrook) - 1722-1745 Historical paper prepared for the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Congregational Church of Centerbrook - - 1925
Church records, Fourth Ecclesiastical Society (Chester) - 1722-1941
Church records, First Baptist Church of Chester - - 1870-1929 Church records, United Church of Chester £ -
1941-1948
Manual of the Congregational Church in Chester - pub. 1871
Manual of the Congregational Church in Chester - - - pub. 1889 Constitution & By-Laws, United Church of Chester - pub. 1943 Historical Sketch of the Congregational Church of Chester, com- piled by A. S. Chesebrough, D.D., and Alexander Hall - - pub. 1892
Historical Paper prepared for the One Hundredth Anniversary, First Baptist Church of Chester 1932
Town Records, Town of Chester -
1836-1845
Field's Statistical Account of the County of Middlesex -
-
pub. 1819
-
A History of Connecticut, Its People and Institutions, George L. Clark - pub. 1914
Records of Congregational Sunday School of Chester -
- 1819-1834
Historical Sketch of Congregational Sunday School, written at the time of the 150th anniversary of the church - 1892
Records of the Baptist Sabbath School, Chester -
-
1873-1900
Secretary's records, Female praying and benevolent Society of
-
1814-1846
Chester
Secretary's records, Ladies Benevolent Society of the Congrega- tional Church - - 1853-1908
Secretary's records, Woman's Baptist Missionary Society 1872-1912
Secretary's records, Temperance Society, Chester
Sketch on Chester Library Association, written at the time of the Centennial of the Town
Subscription list for Trust Fund, Congregational Church
-
1822
Deep River New Era, Centennial Supplement
1936
79
C
The Stewart Press Middletown, Conn.
5991H
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