USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Glastonbury > Glastenbury for two hundred years: a centennial discourse, May 18th 1853 > Part 13
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" Glastonbury, October 12, 1836.
(Signed,)
" Pardon Brown,
Stephen Strickland,
Josiah Hollister,
Howell W. Brown,
John C. Robertson,
Rachel Treat,
Josiah Strickland,
Juliette Tryon,
Russell Taylor,
Sally Caswell,
Horatio Hollister,
Louisa Caswell, Philena Caswell,
John Caswell,
Henry T. Bartlett,
Elizabeth Tryon,
Benjamin Hollister,
Dolly E. Tucker,
Ansel Andrus,
Freelove Pulsifer,
Thomas Hubbard,
Amelia Kinne,
Elizabeth Brown,
Amelia H. Hale,
Mary Strickland,
Louisa Hollister,
Nelly Strickland,
Mary Hollister,
Nancy Striekland,
Catherine Andrus,
Eliza C. Brown,
Mabel Miller,
Abigail Strickland,
Betsey A. Hubbard,
Henry Rich,
Caroline A. Hubbard, Elizabeth Bidwell.
Betsey Taylor,
" Wherefore, it was voted unanimously, that the request of the petitioners be granted, and that the Pastor of the Church be authorized to issue the re- quisite certificates and letters of dismission.
" A true copy.
" Attest, SAMUEL H. RIDDELL, Clerk of the Church."
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" Letters having been issued in form, an Ecclesiastical Council, consisting of Rev. Messrs. Jacob Allen, Harvey Talcott, Samuel H. Riddel and Ben- nett F. Northrop, the Church was duly organized at the house of Pardon Brown, Dec. 22, 1836, by the name of 'The Congregational Church of South Glastenbury.'"
REV. WARREN G. JONES. "The Church met on the 21st of February, 1837, and tendered a call to Rev. Warren G. Jones to become their pastor, which call being accepted, Mr. Jones was installed July 26th, 1837, and dismissed August 27th, 1850." Mr. Jones was born at East Had- dam November 2d, 1802, graduated at Union College, 1831, and pursued his theological studies at Princeton. He went from Glastenbury to Harwinton, where he conceived a wider and more extended field of usefulness opened for him. He published a sermon on the death of Pardon Brown, Esq., and also a "correct account" of a discussion had with a Mr. Turner, on the Immortality of the Soul.
" Rev. FREDERICK W. CHAPMAN was born at Canfield, Trumbull county, Ohio, November 17th, 1806. He fitted for college with Elizur Wright, Esq., at Tallmadge, Portage county, Ohio, (who was a graduate of Yale, of the class of 1781.) He graduated at Yale in the class of 1828, was then employed a year as teacher of the Academy in Sharon, in this State, graduated at Yale Theological Seminary in the class of 1832. Having received and accepted a unani- mous call from the Congregational Church of Stratford, he was ordained and installed their pastor on the 5th of Sep- tember, 1832. He received a unanimous call from the Church at Deep River, where he removed and was installed May 29th, 1839. Having served that Church nearly eleven and a half years, he received a unanimous call from the Church in South Glastenbury, and was installed pastor of said Church, October 24th, 1850, where he now resides. Mr. C. has been somewhat extensively engaged in teaching dur- ing his ministry, and fitted a large number of young men for college, of whom some thirty or more are now in the
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learned professions. He married Emily Hill, eldest daugh- ter of Henry Hill of Westbrook, May 6th, 1833."
THE METHODISTS.
The earliest Methodist preaching of which we have been able to find any account in Glastenbury, was in or about 1793. No parish, however, was organized until 1796, when one was formed in connection with the New London cir- cuit, at Eastbury. At the formation of the parish the mem- bers were: Jeremiah Stocking, Amasa Hollister, Mrs. A. Hollister, Asa Smith and wife. These had all seceded from the Congregational Society, to which several others were subsequently added, so that, when the Congregational Church in Eastbury passed sentence of non-communion against those who had withdrawn up to 1809 and 1810, the persons men- tioned were : " Mrs. Parsons, Lazarus House and wife, Jere- miah Stocking and wife, Eleazer Andrews, David Andrews, Elisha House, Joseph Goodale and wife, Gera Goodale, Mrs. Sparks, Charles Treat and wife, and Gideon Hollister." But though this parish has been in existence many years, and is in a prosperous condition, we have been unable to trace its early history with that degree of minuteness and accuracy which was to be desired. Belonging for a time to the New London circuit, then to Tolland, then to Springfield, 1832 and 1833, and then again to New London, and not having had a resident minister until a recent period, the materials of its history are much scattered, and many of them seem to have been lost We are indebted to the Rev. Samuel Fox, of the parish of East Glastenbury, and to the Rev. David Bradbury of the parish of South Glastenbury, for such mate- rials as the records of the societies or the memories of the people might afford, to which we have added all we could glean from other sources. A complete copy of the Minutes of Conference, which we were so fortunate as to find in Mid- dletown, has furnished us with the data given in regard to the times when the several clergymen were admitted preach- ers, and the Record of Marriages in the town records since 1820, has aided in determining who came to Glastenbury,
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when it was in the circuit with several other towns; while Stevens' Memorials of Methodism, have added some facts to our scanty list.
EAST GLASTENBURY.
This parish was formed, as has been already mentioned in 1796. Among the preachers on the circuit at that early period, the name of Rev. Shadrach Bostwick, admitted preacher, 1791; Rev. Lawrence McCombs, admitted preach- er, 1792; Rev. Daniel Ostrander, admitted preacher, 1793; Rev. Billey Hibbard, admitted preacher, 1798; Rev. Timo- thy Merrit, "and others, are remembered with affectionate regard. At this time the New London circuit embraced a region of country which required two hundred and fifty miles travel, while the arrangements gave about twenty ap- pointments and thirty-two sermons a month. The men placed upon these circuits, were generally men of great physical and strong mental powers, and aided by a prevailing opposition to Calvinism, they swayed the hearts of multitudes and add- ed greatly to their numbers. Stevens has given in the second series of his Memorials of Methodism, (p. 196,) a marvellous account of the results of the first Methodist Camp Meeting in New England, from the pen of "Father Stocking," who was present on the occasion.
The first house of public worship built by this parish was erected at Wassuc in 1810. In 1847, it was taken down and a new house built on the spot where it now stands, and was called East Glastenbury, a name by which it is now known in all their records and minutes. Between 1820 and 1836, we find D. Ripley, L. Bennet, Elder Charles Remington, Hector Bronson, J. E. Risley, admitted to preach, 1822; Philo Havens, R. Ransom, died 1845; Philetus Green ad- mitted to preach, 1833, died, 1841; J. Shepherd admitted to preach, 1833, and J. Leonard, officiating here, but in what capacity does not appear. From 1836 to the present time, we are able to give a better account.
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Year. Name. When Admitted.
1836, Supplied, probably by Rev. Mr. Stocking, 1829.
1837, Rev. Elias J. Scott,
1834.
1838, Thomas W. Gile,* 1835.
1839, Lozein Peirce,
1840, Azariah B. Wheeler,
1840.
1841, Benjamin M. Walker, 1834.
1842, Benjamin M. Walker, 1834.
1843, Chester W. Turner,
1839.
1844, Edmund A. Standish, - 1836.
1845, Supplied, perhaps by Rev. Mr. Stocking.
1846, Lawton Cady, 1842.
1847, Lyman Leffingwell,
1839.
1848, Lyman Leffingwell, 1839.
1849, Rogers Albiston,
1843.
1850, Rogers Albiston, -
- 1843.
1851, Charles Morse.
1852, Samuel Fox,
1844.
1853, Samuel Fox,
- 1844.
The history of Methodism in Glastenbury, and in the east parish in particular, is so identified with the life and labors of " Father Stocking," as to render an account of him requis- ite in this place. The principal materials of this sketch are drawn from the eulogy pronounced at the funeral of Rev. Mr. Stocking, by the Rev. Mr. Snow, the Congregational minister of Eastbury.
Rev. JEREMIAH STOCKING was born at Chatham, Decem- ber 8th, 1767. His early education was conducted in the common school, and closed when he was nine years old. His father being a seafaring man and absent from home most of the time, deprived him of paternal training; but the faithful instrucion of a pious mother supplied this want in a good degree, imbuing his mind with such deep and lasting principles of virtue as were never forgotten. From the age of nine to thirteen he lived in Haddam, when he was put on board a privateer near the close of the Revo- lution. On his return he went to a trade, which he pur-
* Died, 1848. From the Minutes of Conference, there seems to have been some change made by the Bishop, and that Solomon Cushman, (admitted preacher, 1838,) was here part of the year.
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sued until he was twenty-one. In 1790 he married, and the year following removed to Glastenbury. His health becom- ing infirm, his physician advised him to adopt the business of a Post Rider, and in 1799 he commenced carrying newspa- pers from Hartford to Saybrook, to which in 1801 was add- ed the mail. He continued in this business twenty-five years, during which time he travelled 150,000 miles, crossing Connecticut river 8,500 times.
Previous to his marriage and removal to Glastenbury, he had been subject to serious impressions which, at length, through the influence of ultra Calvinistic doctrines then so generally preached, nearly drove him to desperation, and which finally led him to adopt that form of Universalism known as final restoration. After removing to Glastenbury, he joined the church there in that way known as the " half way Covenant," and remained with it five years. About this time a Methodist preacher visited that part of the town, under whose preaching Mr. S. was converted, and at once began with ardent zeal the difficult work of converting oth- ers. He was soon after admitted to preach by the Metho- dists, and though deprived of the benefits of early education, his naturally strong, practical common sense, assisted by the results of a diligent miscellaneous reading pursued for sev- eral years, enabled him to acquire a very considerable reputa- tion as a preacher, and rendered him useful to the people about him. A church was soon formed and a parish organ- ized. The names of the persons who had withdrawn from the church in Eastbury and joined the Methodists with him, have already been mentioned. Others were soon after add- ed, and Mr. S. had the pleasure of seeing one hundred and fifty members in his church before his death. In the beginning of his ministry, Mr. S. indulged in much severity against those of other denominations. But this feeling gave way before greater experience and truer Christian principles, so that in his latter days he was a man of kind and charitable feelings toward Christians of every name. He died March, 1853, in his eighty-sixth year. The following members of his family are, or have been in the ministry :
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Rev. SERVILIUS STOCKING, for some time a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, subsequently became an Epis- copalian, receiving Deacon's orders in 1838, and Priest's or- ders in 1839. He is supposed to have died with the cholera at the South in 1847.
SOPHRONIUS H. STOCKING is a preacher and a presiding Elder in the Methodist church.
SELAH STOCKING is also a preacher and a presiding Elder among the Methodists.
SOLON STOCKING was for several years a local preacher in the same denomination, but is at present disabled from min- isterial duty.
SABURA S. STOCKING was graduated at the Wesleyan Uni- versity, 1835. After preaching among the Methodist for a short time, he entered the Episcopal Church, receiving Dea- con's orders in 1839 and Priest's in 1840. To these may be added :
Septerius Stocking, a dentist of repute in the city of Boston, and also an Episcopalian.
Sabin Stocking, M. D., a graduate of the Medical Col- lege, - a skilful and successful physician in his native place. He is a Deacon in the Congregational Church in Eastbury.
Before closing the account of the Methodist Society of East Glastenbury, it should be mentioned that the Rev. JOHN NEWLAND MAFFITT commenced his ministerial labors while residing in this parish.
SOUTH GLASTENBURY.
The Methodists of South Glastenbury seem to have re- ceived their first impulse from the eastern part of the town- probably through the labors and influence of Mr. Stocking. At what time they first had preaching, we have been unable to learn. The present house of public worship was built in 1828; their services having been previously held in school and private houses. The Parish, however, remained in the circuit until 1836, so that we are unable to give a complete and perfect list of the Preachers, previous to the latter date.
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From 1820 to 1836, we find the following persons performing ministerial labor, but in what capacity they officiated, we have been unable to ascertain. David Riply, L. Bennett, Charles L. Cooley, Elder Charles Remington, V. R. Osborne, Hector Bronson, Heman Perry, Ephraim Scott, John E. Ris- ley, Jeremiah Stocking, Selah Stoeking, Reuben Ransom and J. Shepard. A part of these were probably stationed at Hoccanum, and hence would be likely to perform marriages and burials in Glastenbury; inasmuch as part of their eon- gregation resided in that town. From 1836 to the present time, the following preachers have been stationed at South Glastenbury.
Year.
Name.
Admitted Preacher.
1836, Rev. George May, -
1836.
1837,
Abijah C. Wheat,
1835.
1838, 66 Abijah C. Wheat,
1835.
1839,
Henry Tarbush,
- 1836.
1840, 66 Lorin C. Collins,
1838.
1841, 66
Lorin C. Collins,
- 1838.
1842,
F. Bill.
1743,
Moses Stoddard,
1837.
1844,
Maurice Leffingwell,
-
1844.
1845,
66 Erastus Benton,
1833.
1846,
Erastus Benton,
- 1833.
1847,
66
Moses Chase, -
1833.
1848,
Loren W. Blood,
1839.
1849,
66
Loren W. Blood,
1839.
1850,
Daniel Dorchester, Jr.,
1847.
1851,
Warren Emmerson,
1828.
1852,
66 David Bradbury,
1837.
1853,
David Bradbury,
1837.
SECOND ADVENTISTS.
Both of the Methodist Societies in Glastenbury, and that in South Glastenbury, in particular, received a heavy blow a few years since, by the secession of a body of their mem- bers who had become " Millerites," or " Second Advent" peo- ple, and who, either before or since, have embraced the doe- trine of the soul's mortality and the consequent final annihi- lation of the wicked. There is a small body of people pro- fessing this faith, in South Glastenbury, which still holds
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occasional services, but, we believe, without any regular organization. A public discussion of this doctrine took place at South Glastenbury in the winter of 1849 and 1850, between Mr. Turner, the Second Advent preacher then sup- plying there, and the Rev. Mr. Jones, the Congregational minister of the place, which was published-first by Mr. Turner, and subsequently by Mr. Jones, in order to correct what he conceived to be the unfaithfulness of the first re- port.
BAPTISTS.
There was a small congregation of Baptists in the south part of the town, during the latter part of the last, and the beginning of the present century. Though they seemed to have had an organized society, we have found no account of any settled minister. Tradition, however, informs us, that Doct. Solomon Wheat, who was also a Baptist preacher, officiated here for a considerable time. The Society has now been extinct for many years.
GENERAL HISTORY.
Most of the leading incidents of the Town's History, which can be perpetuated in a work like the present, have already been recorded. The history of our Schools, our Commerce and Manufactures, our Mills, and the like, to- gether with the account of the several Ecclesiastical Socie- ties and their Ministers, since the Revolution, leaves little else to be added. Yet there are various miscellaneous mat- ters of interest which ought to be noticed, which are mainly gathered from the private journal referred to under another head. 1787, Aug. 14th-a violent whirlwind passed over this Town. It arose in Rocky Hill, a little north of the cen- ter, where it demolished a house occupied by a Mr. Baldwin, killing Mrs. B. and a little child. Passing easterly across the river, it intersected the main street a little south of the meet- ing-house, pursuing its course east and north-east to Bolton and Coventry. It unroofed one house, demolished three
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barns, destroyed a large quantity of fence, and overturned acres of wood in its course through the town.
DEATHS AND LONGEVITY.
The mortality of Glastenbury Society, for several years, has been noted in the journal before us, and was copied by the writer from the annual Sermons of Mr. Lockwood: this gives us the Deaths as follows :- In 1787 they were 18; in 1788, 22; in 1789, 16; in 1790, 20, or an average of twenty- one a year. Again in 1803, the deaths amounted to sixteen. In Eastbury, in 1789, they were eighteen. This account does not indicate any unusual degree of mortality, nor, indeed, does the place seem to have been subject to any visitations of this kind. But, though not subject to epidemics or any prevailing disorder, the inhabitants do not often arrive at any great degree of longevity, in proof of which it may be mentioned, that there is not, at the present time, an individ- ual in town that has reached the age of ninety. There is one disease, however, and that a mental one, which has been more than usually prevalent in this Town, and which may well employ the minds of its physicians and philosophers ; leading, as it has done in a number of instances, to self-de- struction.
FLOODS.
No season passes without something of a flood on the river; but in a few instances these have risen to such height as to gain lasting celebrity. Such was that of 1801, since known as the "Jefferson flood," and which rose higher than any before remembered. Nor has it been equalled by any since that time, though those of 1843, and 1852, far exceeded those of common years. These floods are almost always in the spring; but a few years since, one of great power and violence arose in the month of January-and it is only three years since we had one in the middle of the summer.
AMUSEMENTS.
There is nothing that goes to show that the amusements
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of the young people in this Town, in former days, differed materially from those of other towns. Yet we do not meet with the "husking" and "the apple-paring," as we have been accustomed to elsewhere. Indeed, the arrangement of the farms here seems rather to have precluded the former, while custom had not introduced the latter. Dancing, however, seems to have been a leading favorite of the young, and to have been pursued on all allowable occasions. Thus in the journal so often quoted we read- .
"1792, June 27. Mr. Brown ordained-day fine-concourse of people large. Ball in the evening-assembly numerous."
"1796, Aug. 30. Mr. Lockwood installed-audience crowded.
* The Overseers of the day exhibited with propriety a Ball in the evening-54 Ladies-34 Lads."
This, perhaps, was an improvement upon an earlier prac- tice, when large provisions, especially of wines and liquors, were made for making glad the hearts of those who partic- ipated therein, but which often cost the Parish no small sum. The expenses of the early ordinations in Glastenbury have not generally been preserved, but in one instance the provi- sion for the clergy was over £10, or about $40.
ANNUAL ELECTIONS.
How long the practice of having a sermon at Freemen's Meeting was continued in Glastenbury, does not appear; but in 1793 Mr. Brown preached on such an occasion. This Town, as is well known, has been, from an early period, a stronghold of "the Democracy." Of the causes which led to this, or which have perpetuated the power of that party, we can not speak, and we have only alluded to it in order to record, as an item of interest, the relative strength of par- ties as indicated by the votes polled half a century ago.
1803, Spring-Democrats, 136; Federalists, 124; total, 260.
Fall,
148
96
244.
1804,
170
139
309.
1806,
127
104
231.
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SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUSTS.
Glastenbury has long been a locality of these curious and unaccountable creatures. They appeared in 1852 on a piece of land belonging to Capt. J. Post, Esq., situated near the New London Turnpike, about eight miles from Hartford. The same animals were in the same place in 1835, as ap- peared from his books; and in 1835 he obtained satisfactory evidence that they had been there in 1818. In the year pre- ceding or following one of these, 1818, 1835 and 1852, an occasional straggling Locust may sometimes be seen in this neighborhood, but none have ever been seen in any of the intermediate years. In 1818, 1835 and 1852, they came in throngs, covering several acres, but never removing to anoth- er place. They were born, lived and died in the same spot. FELLOW-CITIZENS:
In conclusion, permit a word of reflection and review. Whoever traces an outline of American history, whether in Country, State or Town, and attempts to follow back that great current of human freedom which is here setting down the stream of time with such majestic power and irresistible force; whoever, we say, attempts to trace this back to the rill and the fountain from whence it sprung, will not be able to resist the conclusion that the principles which form the characteristics of our institutions are of divine origin. If we go back to the fountain-head, we shall find the germ of these .in the Gospel. No such free principles as we now inherit ever saw the light of day, except as they beamed through the divine oracles. This germ, planted in an obscure cor- ner of Jerusalem, by the aid of Divine power worked its way through the darkness and gloom of an idolatrous world, up to the imperial throne upon the seven hills of the Tiber, leaving traces, more or less distinct, of its mission, to the governments of the earth. And when Roman civilization and Christian institutions were alike subjected to the bar- barous Goth, the Divine, reared its head from the ruins of Italy to enlighten and to bless the world. Here, in the sun-
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ny cities of Southen Europe, grew up a degree of freedom which the fears of the feudal lords and the humaner policy of the Church, assisted to consolidate and ripen until it became strong enough to assert the rights which belonged to it. And now the Crusades, though having a widely different object in view, became the means of transplanting the same principles of freedom to other countries, there to take root, grow, and produce abundant fruit. And finally, the quarrels of kings and princes were overruled to the good of the com- mon people, and were made the means of their participation in the natural rights of their humanity. Hence, especially in England, rose towns and other municipal corporations- those nurseries and safeguards of Liberty, and also that common law which has ever since governed all their actions.
At this juncture, the quarrels of Churchmen and Puritans drove the latter from their home, to seek that liberty in this Western wild, which they could not secure in their native land. And because they could not bring the State, they brought with them the town; and planting these all over the land they created a State with the freedom of the town, while the town itself remained the depository and the de- fender of those principles which vivified the State. The principles thus derived and transmitted, greatly augmented and increased by the new impulse given to the Gospel by the Reformation, were steadily gaining ground, deepening, widening and extending-increasing the number and power of the States, when an assault upon them from the British throne developed a new aspect of things hitherto unthought of. Men forgot their local interests and sectional jealousies and sectarian prejudices in defense of a common cause. Puritan Massachusetts and Connecticut, Baptist Rhode Isl- and, Episcopal Virginia, Roman Catholic Maryland, Pres- byterian New Jersey, New York with its Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian and Episcopal, and still other States with still other peculiarities, were brought together and consolidated into a single people. All these had been established upon the great principles of municipal freedom of towns peculiar to the English common law. But the development of the
157
consequences legitimately involved in these principles had been aided, counteracted, or modified by the peculiarities of creeds and condition prevailing in the Colonies. It needed a seven years' war, a seven years' sense of common danger and common hope-a holy sabbatism of divine interposi- tion-to wear out and overcome sectional and sectarian bias, and to remove the obstructions which ignorance, illiberality, or misdirected piety had placed in the way of the develop- ment of those free principles which form the characteristic of our free institutions. As in nature "the boy is the father of the man," so with us, the town is father of the State. It is in the history of towns, therefore, that we are to seek alike those principles that guide, and those materials which form the history of the State.
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