USA > Connecticut > New London County > Groton > Groton, Conn. 1705-1905 > Part 12
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These additions were necessary to overcome the drift away from the neighborhood. It was about the beginning of Mr. Wightman's ministry at the opening of the nine- teenth century that the changing conditions of business caused the villages near the mouth of the river to increase, at the expense of the farming districts in the interior. Shipbuilding proved to be more profitable than farming, and with ships came the demand for sailors. Fishing, coasting and finally whaling demanded the services of every available man, and many of these men, after accumulating a little money, abandoned their farms and located in the villages. Then the emigration to the West, which set in with great vigor at about the same time, took away many good workers.
A paper read by Miss Sarah A. Denison at the annual meeting of the Wightman Burial Ground Association in August 1889 gives such a vivid description of the church as it existed in 1800 that we reproduce it in full :
This offering is made from the memory of one (Mrs. Levina Denison) now in her 95th year, whose years of childhood and youth are fall of experiences that hover
* First Baptist Church of Groton, 1705-1900.
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around this sacred spot, memories of the old church edifice and the worshipers.
Here was a house built in the year 1790 under the min- istry of Reverend Timothy Wightman, a "dissenting preacher" who died November 14, 1796, after a pastorate of 42 years. It was on the site of the former original house, and was 40 feet long by 30 feet wide. The "boss carpen- ter" was Squire John Daboll, who was wounded in Fort Griswold. It was framed by "scribe rule" in the pasture belonging to Benadam Gallup on top of Stark's Hill, near the Wightman estate, and raised undoubtedly with the spirit in two senses.
Reverend John Gano Wightman, named for Elder John Gano, a dissenting preacher of New York, of powerful mind and influence, was ordained August 13, 1800, the year of which we speak, and his church comprised about 225 members. The meeting house was an oblong, gable- roofed, two-storied building facing the south, and at the time had no superior in the town. There was neither spire nor bell; such additions, being forbidden to the meeting houses of dissenters in England, they were not customary in this country. Below, it had two windows in front, two on either end, two on the rear, with a high window back of the pulpit. In the second story the windows were the same, with the addition of a window over the front door. A beautiful hexagonal bell-shaped sounding board was sus- pended over the pulpit.
The house was externally painted white, internally ceiled and plastered, and had one wide stone step at the entrance. The seats were of native pine and cedar. The long seats were of hard plank, chestnut and oak. The pul- pit was of native pine and cedar. It projected in the form of a semi-hexagon. Under the pulpit sat the deacons. In front of them was a partition, on the top of which a shelf served as a communion table. The service was a white cloth, large and dark colored bottles, two silver cups, a pewter platter and two pewter plates. Deacon Avery passed around the bread, and Deacon Benadam Gallup the
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wine. The service was observed, as now, on the first Sun- day of each month. The gallery was seated with long seats like those below, on the east and west sides, and in the front on the south side, the last being the singers' seats. Back of the singers were three square pews, like the pews below. Over the gallery stairs were small oblong pews for colored persons.
It contained 19 square and eight long pews below, four of the latter being free. The square pews were owned by the families occupying them. Besides these, were two seats reserved for the colored people under the gallery stairs. Dinah Avery, formerly a slave, was the only attending colored member of the church at this time. But almost every Sunday would be seen two or three others, who be- cause of their living within the limits were members of the congregation. The house was mainly seated by square family pews on aisles running around a little distance from the walls, the main aisle being direct from the door to the pulpit.
Elder Wightman's family sat in the first pew on the right as viewed from the pulpit, a bright promising family of boys and girls, doing credit to their father's example and their mother's training. In the corner pew sat Captain Joseph Packer's good-looking, likely family, coming from the hill on the west of the Mystic River. The next pew was occupied by Isaac Wightman and family, in looks and ap- pearance true types of the Wightman stock. In the same pew sat Joseph Culver and his family. He owned the farm where Samuel S. Lamb now lives.
Squire John Daboll and family occupied the next seat. The Squire and his sons were carpenters. He filled the office of justice of the peace. A dignified man and a man of influence. Next came the Stark family, descendants of the Stark who gave the land for the site of the meeting house. Caleb Haley and family occupied the next pew. Mr. Haley was an enterprising farmer, and Mrs. Haley was often found doing neighborly kindnesses. The pew at the left of the entrance was owned by James and Lodowick Gallup,
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excellent people who resided on Pumpkin Hill. Deacon Peter Avery and family held the pew on the right of the entrance. He was the senior deacon and an influential land owner.
Squire Amos Niles owned the next pew. He lived on a farm near Center Groton and was a practical farmer and prominent man in the town. Nathan Niles, son of Mr. Elisha Niles, was a prosperous farmer living near the church.' The next pew was held by the Hicks family. John Hicks was a mechanic and farmer living near Hicks Hill. The Cheesebro family, industrious and upright, held the next pew. Daniel Cheesebro owned a saw mill, and people from far and near came with logs to be sawed. Squire Ros- well Fish and family owned the next pew. Squire Fish lived on Pequot Hill and was highly regarded. Frederic Denison and family held the next pew. Mr. Denison was a prosperous farmer in the eastern part of the town. One of his sons, Erastus, became an esteemed minister of the Gospel.
Of the seats in the center of the house, the first four rows on either side of the center aisle were free, those on the right however being usually occupied, from force of habit, by prominent members and officers of the church. Those on the left were for visitors. Of the four square pews remaining (two on either side) those on the right belonged, one to Stephen and Elisha Haley, also to John Burrows, and the other to Deacon Sands Fish. Deacon Fish was an active and esteemed officer, living on the east- ern slope of Pequot Hill. Of the two opposite square pews, one belonged to Captain Nathan Crary and Deacon Stanton Babcock, who were neighbors in the eastern part of the town. The other belonged to the Lamb family, living to the northward of the church and honored by all.
The meeting house had neither chimney nor stove. In the winter, footstoves were carried and mufflers for the feet, which were passed around from one person to another in the pews. The men wore great coats with capes.
The house was not used for evening meetings, neither
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was it opened during the week days. The baptistry was a mill pond a few rods northeast of the house, though the minister baptized in different parts of the town. He preached in the different school houses around the town, at Hicks' school house, at the head of the Mystic River, at Center Groton, two in North Groton, and one in the western part of the town. Covenant meeting was held once a month on Saturday afternoon. Every member of the church was expected to be present. If any failed to appear, the minister called upon them on some day of the next week.
Meeting commenced at 10 o'clock a. m. "if so be" there were enough persons present. Just before the time one could see those who were "minded" to hear Mr. Wightman preach approaching the meeting house, the husband with the wife mounted behind him on a pillion, and a child seated before the father. They would ride to the horse-block close up to the north side of the church, space between allowing for the horse to stand while the lady alighted. When every- one had entered the house and was reverently seated, the minister would read a psalm, Deacon Avery would line it (reading two lines at a time) and Deacon Gallup would lead the singing. Then all would rise for the morning prayer, lasting about twenty minutes. The people being seated, another psalm would be read, lined and sung. Then Elder Wightman would take a text, and, using no notes, preach a sermon which would generally occupy an hour; at its close the congregation had liberty "to exhort." Then followed a prayer by the minister or one of the brethren. Elder Wightman's preaching was logical, scriptural and devoid of the ministerial tone which was common at that period. He was always an instructive preacher.
The intermission was one-half hour long, spent as suited the inclination. A good portion of the people would carry their luncheon; some would go to the spring northwest of the meeting house for water. Others would wander around the burying ground to the west of the church, while some would spend the time in pleasant conversation. Some would take a short walk to Mr. Stephen Haley's. Mrs. Lucy
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Haley always had hot tea for those who wished, and in winter fresh coals for the footstoves. The afternoon scs- sion would be the same as the morning.
The young people chose to go to meeting in companies, because there were foxes in those days, and wildcats; the wolves having been exterminated. The young ladies came through the woods wearing calfskin shoes, and, on reaching a slanting rock or some other suitable place, would take off their stockings and shoes, hiding them under the rock, re- placing them with clocked stockings and colored morocco slippers. We have heard of a young sea captain home from a long voyage who, while talking with his friends before meeting, saw a maiden of Puritan parentage, the daughter of a godly deacon, coming along the path. She quickly made the exchange of stockings and shoes, hiding them as was the custom. He told no one his thoughts, but on his. next voyage home he made her his mate.
The people would reach their homes by four o'clock, ex- change their best clothes for their second-best; the women would busy themselves in getting ready something to eat which served as both dinner and supper, the men meantime busy out of doors. The evening would be spent in reading and social conversation, the younger portion of the families often making calls on some neighboring friends. The most ancient custom was to abstain from work on Saturday evening and resume work on Sunday evening.
Once a year, the church and congregation would visit Elder Wightman's home in the shape of a "donation party." By two o'clock in the afternoon a good company would be. gathered together, the women bringing two skeins of yarn apiece, and the men each a sum of money, and sometimes grain; also bread, cake and tea. The afternoon would pass away in conversation and singing, and all would return home in time for the necessary farm work before dark. The annual contribution amounted to more than two hun- dred dollars.
Marriages were always solemnized at the minister's house or at the home of one of the contracting parties. In
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early days, brides would wear white lawn aprons, spun, woven and embroidered by themselves, with silk dresses. They were also worn at church.
In the summer, young ladies wore white cambric dimity dresses, bonnets of silk or straw, nice sleeve silk mitts with ribs or figures embroidered on the back, low laced up shoes of morocco, which were of local make, and, on cool days, dresses of changeable silk, and "patch" or calico procured from New London, Philadelphia or New York. Occasion- ally would be seen a fine shawl.
Just north of the meeting house lived the Misses "Mima and Tenta" Stark, two of the descendants of William Stark, who deeded this land to the church. They dressed in short imported "patch" gowns, made after the fashion of the day, with low neck, elbow sleeves edged with white ruffles, white muslin neckerchiefs crossed in front, mitts of their own making, black satin bonnets, laced gored stockings and low shoes. Most of the men wore home-made broadcloth, as bought broadcloth was for public men and official char- acters. They never wore gloves, but in winter would wear mittens and also large coats or cloaks of heavy wool, and hats of wool or beaver, large crowned and broad brimmed, with boots of home-dressed cow and calf skin, made by local or traveling shoemakers, among whom John Braman and Nehemiah Smith were experts. In winter the ladies would wear cloaks of fine broadcloth or black satin, dresses of home-made or boughten worsted and bombasette, bon- nets of silk, velvet or satin, the latter often worn all the year around, handsome and suitable shoes, knit woolen gloves, and muff and tippet of martin fur. Common winter dresses were made of worsted chain and woolen filling, plaited or mixed.
Fashions were somewhat changeable in those days. In the month of June a farmer's wife would mount her horse and go to New London to buy a bonnet, dress, etc. Benadam Gallup on hearing his wife saying she wished a fashionable bonnet and thought she would soon go to New London for it said: "Cynthia, after you have bought, ride home as
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swiftly as you can." "Why?" said she in a tone of sur- prise. "Why? For fear it will be out of the fashion before you get here."
Also we hear of one Sam Mekins, a colored man who boasted that "when he got some money he should have a black silk shirt."
Some were unmoved by changes of fashion, as was shown by Miss "Katy Coates," who wore a black satin cloak and bonnet of black satin with white satin lining and trimmed with a fall of black lace for 30 years.
A miller lame in his hip, a Mr. Holdridge, living beyond the Four Corners, where there was a little factory and a grist mill, used to come to meeting in a little cart drawn by a steer, his means of moving about the town. As yet the roads were hardly adapted for wagons. A few wealthy persons in the town could afford two-wheeled chaises, the wheels running wide as a cart.
The people raised their own bread stuffs and fodder for stock. They cut salt hay on the marshes and raised an acre or two of flax. The wood was cut and hauled in fall and winter. In early summer the sheep were taken to the nearest stream for washing, in a few days they were sheared, the fleece was sorted, carded and spun all in the house, wool in summer and flax in winter. All sorts of linen work was done, tablecloths, shirting, sheeting and cloths; some of the women most fond of fancy work would find time for embroidering their infants' dresses.
The main winter work for men was hauling, cutting and splitting wood, to keep up the huge fires in the great open fireplaces.
The amusements were hunting small game, such as quails, squirrels and musk-rats, fishing for perch, trout and the like, playing games, eating apples, drinking cider and telling stories. The women were largely engaged in carding, spinning, weaving and knitting.
We have reason to be proud of these ancestors of ours. They laid the foundations of our homes, our churches, ons
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government, and are fitly described by the poet who said they were
"Men whose hands were brown with toil, Who, backed by no ancestral graves, Hewed down the wood and tilled the soil; And thereby won a prouder fame
Than followed a king's or warrior's name."
January 3, 1814, the church called Brother Jonathan Miner to ordination. This was but the beginning of a gracious revival in which the pastor was assisted by Elder James Davis, and which resulted in the largest number of additions of any year of Rev J. G. Wightman's ministry.
The year 1818 witnessed the triumph of the Baptist struggle of years, in the adoption of the State Constitution which gave religious liberty to the people of the State. For this end none had worked harder or more untiringly than the Baptists of Groton, and the pastors of the two churches were foremost in the fight. To Groton belongs the dis- tinction of being the only town in the State to give a unanimous vote in favor of adoption.
As early as 1807 Mr. Wightman was preaching one Sunday in the month in the old Johnson meeting house (Congregational) in North Groton, which for a number of years had been closed. He continued to do so until 1810, when Rev. Timothy Tuttle was ordained and placed over the two Congregational churches in Groton. December 16, 1807, Deacon Peter Avery died. He was a man of marked character and had been a tower of strength to the church for fifty years. "Peter Avery was a missionary to the Indians in western New York. He was a deacon of the Baptist church in Groton for fifty years. He was surveyor of the town; selectman 1778 to 1782 and 1787, in which period the town passed many patriotic measures. He was one of the committee of six who were ordered December 22, 1775, to direct the work on Fort Griswold."* Samuel Lamb
* The Groton Avery Clan, p. 243.
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and Sands Fish were chosen deacons and were set apart by ordination in 1809.
After nearly twenty years of service Deacon Samuel Lamb called the attention of the church to his increasing age and infirmities and asked that his successor might be appointed, so on January 26, 1828, Brother Stanton P. Babcock was unanimously chosen, and he was ordained on November 12 of the same year by the same council which ordained Brother Erastus Denison to the work of the min- istry.
In the Associational year of 1832-3 the church reported forty-four accessions, making the number of members two hundred and eighty-five -- the largest with a single exception in the history of the church, and this notwithstanding that during the previous year-August 20, 1831-a branch had been established in the lower village consisting of five brethren and six sisters, which became the Third Baptist Church in Groton.
The establishment of this church led to an unhappy dif- ference with the Second Baptist Church, resulting in long correspondence, unavailing councils and some degree of alienation, but the matter was amicably adjusted a little later by the admission of the Third Church to the Stoning- ton Union Association with the cordial approval of both churches. In 1834 John P. Babcock was chosen church clerk and in that year the church letter to the Association makes mention of a flourishing temperance society of seventy-five members "and thank God that there are none in the church who traffic in ardent spirits, and but very few who use it as a common beverage."
In 1837 Coddington Colver and James C. Lamb were chosen deacons, the latter continuing in the office until his death January 3, 1903, thus being a connecting link between the old Wightman line and the twentieth century. August 20, 1838, the church lost, by the death of Deacon Sands Fish, one of its most valued members. July 13, 1811, the church was called to part with its beloved pastor, who died in the 75th year of his age and in the 42nd year of his
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ministry. Father, son, and grandson had filled this pulpit for nearly one hundred and twenty-five years, a very un- usual record.
Simeon Gallup says of this ministry :* "It is impossible to justly review the history of this church without carefully considering the lives of these men and their influence upon the people of their day. To them with their unfeigned love of the truth, their piety, their sturdy maintenance of Bap- tist principles in face of all opposition, and to their wise and diligent leadership is due the impression which made all this wide section of country to become special Baptist ground."
Mr. Wightman's health had been failing for some time before his death and this fact coupled with the depletion of membership from causes mentioned above led to a period of discouragement. During the illness of Elder Wightman, Lathrop W. Wheeler, a licentiate, had supplied the pulpit, assisted occasionally by Rev. Erastus Denison, pastor of the Third Baptist Church. August 2, 1841, a committee of five was chosen to provide for the preaching of the gospel up to the first of April (1842) also to inquire into the expediency of building a new meeting house at or near the village of Mystic, &c. This committee consisted of Brethren Avery Gallup, Daniel Lamb, Stephen H. Peckham, Deacon James C. Lamb and Joseph A. Lamb. In November of that year Rev. Earle P. Salisbury of Herkimer County, New York, providentially came to the church and during his ministry of a few months hope was revived and the way was prepared for the coming of a new pastor.
In April, 1842, Benjamin F. Hedden, a school teacher in Mystic, and a licentiate of the Second Baptist Church, was called to the pastorate, and on April 21, 1842, he was ordained. At the same time Avery Gallup, Stephen H. Peckham and Daniel A. Chipman were ordained deacons. During this year occurred the great revival in the lower village under the preaching of Elder Swan, the reflex in- fluence of which was felt in this church, and Elder John
* First Baptist Church of Groton, 1705-1900.
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Green was called to labor with it. Notwithstanding some opposition in the church, about forty were added to the membership. In March 1843, twenty were dismissed to form the Baptist church in Ledyard and fourteen were con- tributed towards the formation of the church at Groton Heights. Some time in the previous October, the pastor had been requested to relinquish his school and to devote his time to raising funds outside the church towards the erection of a new meeting house at the Head of Mystic.
The withdrawal of members to form new interests in the northern and western sections of the town carried the center of the parish nearer to the village, and so when the decayed condition of the old house demanded change, there was little opposition to the removal. A constitution for the new church edifice had already been adopted.
This was amended in March 1843, after which the cam- paign for raising funds took on new life, so that the church reported to the Association in June that a contract had been let for the building of a new house.
Mr. Hedden's pastorate lasted but a year, and he was succeeded by Rev. Charles C. Lewis, who preached first as stated supply but on April 1, 1843, was settled as pastor. It was during his pastorate that the church edifice at the Head of Mystic was built, the dedication occurring Feb- ruary 22, 1844. Rev. A. G. Palmer, D. D., preached the sermon from Psalms LXV, 4. The proprietary distribution of seats that pertained to the old house was continued in the new, the church reserving by vote "six of the poorest slips as free, the four back body slips and the two nearest the pulpit."* The church later by exchange obtained more eligible free seats.
Mr. Lewis' pastorate came to an end in less than a year and Rev. Cyrus Miner was the first pastor to preach in the new house. He commenced his labor in April 1844 and continued for one year to the great satisfaction of the church, which desired to continue the relationship, but the church which he had previously served had released him for
* Judge William H. Potter's manuscript.
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a year and demanded his return, so he went away to the great grief of his Groton parishioners.
In April 1845 the church called William C. Walker, who like his predecessor was a licentiate of the church and he was ordained at the session of the Stonington Union Asso- ciation which was held with this church in June. His sweet spirit and Christian graces greatly endeared him to the church, which prospered under his ministry. He gave special attention to the Sunday school, which from that time became a more important branch of the church work. His health forced his retirement after a five years' pas- torate, during which time it was said that there was not a divided vote on any question.
He was succeeded in the pastorate by Rev. James Squier, who remained with the church one year, beginning April 1, 1850. During the succeeding winter a revival was experi- enced, during which ten were baptized and a number were received by letter. It was during this revival that Rev. Erastus Miner came among the people and preached with such acceptance that Mr. Squier was led to resign the pas- torate and a call was extended to Mr. Miner to fill his place. There was not entire harmony in the matter of his call nor in the deposition of Mr. Squier. March 2, 1851, the follow- ing vote was passed: "Resolved, That we are satisfied with the pastoral labors of Elder J. Squier during the year past and that he has preached faithfully according to the Word of God the doctrines of the Gospel, and that we have im- plicit confidence in his Christian character and esteem him a devoted and faithful servant of Jesus Christ."*
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