USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Cornwall > Historical records of the town of Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut; > Part 16
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They were the joint owners of a slaughtered animal, and in dividing to each owner his share, they had no difficulty until they came to the division of the head. Each asked the other to propose a method of division. After due deliberation Mr. Weston said, " It is an old saying that each part strengthens its part. I preach; you give me the tongue and you may have the remainder." Said Paine in reply, " According to your rule, that each part strength- ens its part, I think you need the whole head. Take it all."
The Strict Congregationalists maintained their standing under their original self-constituted organization for nearly twenty-five years. In one sense they were isolated from the neighboring par- ishes, being, as I believe, the only society organized on that platform on this side of the Connecticut River. They received no sympathy from neighboring parishes, and were merely tolerated, not encour- aged, by the laws of the State. The South Society had the advan- tage in this respect, that every new-comer into the town was, by law, a member of that society, as the legal society, whose limits embraced the whole town, and could not be relieved from his con- nection there without going through with the legal ceremonies which the law provided for such cases. Their ministers, Mr. Corn- wall, and after him Mr. Holley, though on personal friendly terms
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with the neighboring ministers of the standing order, were excluded from all ecclesiastical relations to them, and were shut out from all their official gatherings. Still the parish maintained itself with a considerable degree of vigor down to 1804. I have been shown a tax- list laid on the last of 1795, and signed by Daniel Harrison, Oliver Burnham, and David Clark, committee, to which is annexed a tax warrant in due form, signed by Judah Kellogg, Esq., justice of the peace, and directed to Hezekiah Gold, collector. There were about one hundred tax-payers assessed on the list at different sums, none very heavily, and nearly every name is mentioned as paid or abated. It embraced nearly all the persons liable to pay taxes in the east part of the town, where the Johnsons were thickly planted, all on Clark Hill, and some, Mathew Patterson, for instance, who lived far within the limits of the South Society. It was a seemingly tedious process to collect it, for seven years after the tax was laid I find the following entry on the tax-book in the handwriting of Judge Burnham :
On the 7th day of September, 1802, on view of the foregoing bill, we are of opinion that all that is now due on this bill, after the orders are severally brought in for that is chargeable, ought to be abated, and there- fore do abate the same.
ELIAKIM MALLORY, ( Committee. TITUS HART,
The difficulty of conducting efficiently the affairs of the parish, owing to their ecclesiastical exclusion and the advantages which the law gave the other society, in the acquisition of new members, instigated a movement in 1804 for the legal establishment of a new society with definite boundaries, and for the granting to it all the privileges enjoyed by other societies in the State, the old organiza- tion as Strict Congregationalists to be for ever abandoned. A peti- tion to this effect was presented to the October session of the Assembly for that year, and a desperate struggle with the old society was a natural result of such proceedings. The exciting incidents which accompanied them are just within the reach of my recollection. The word locate and location I remember to have been in very common use, and it was a considerable time after all the pro- ceedings before the Assembly were brought to a close, before the use of these words, as bearing on the condition of the society, was given up. The petition for the location of a new parish probably contained a prayer for aid in some other way if that relief of location could not be afforded, and under that clause of the peti- tion the Assembly passed a resolution in the words following, which I copy verbatim from the records of the State:
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" Resolve, incorporating the Second Ecclesiastical Society in Cornwall, passed October, 1804.
" Upon the petition of Noah Rogers, and others, Resolved by this Assembly, that such of the petitioners and others, inhabitants of town of Cornwall, residing within the limits of the First Ecclesiastical Society in Cornwall, as shall, on or before the first day of December enrol them- selves as hereinafter directed, shall be and constitute an ecclesiastical society by the name of the Second Ecclesiastical Society in Cornwall ; and Noah Rogers JE, of said town is hereby appointed to enrol the names of all such persons as shall by said day elect to be enrolled as aforesaid ; and after such enrollment the inhabitants so enrolled may proceed to form themselves, and choose officers in the same manner as is by law provided for societies in such cases, and the persons who shall not be enrolled as aforesaid by the time aforesaid, shall be and remain members of the First Ecclesiastical Society in said Cornwall."
Thus it may be seen that the petition for a located society was negatived, but permission was given to form what is called in law a poll-parish to act in sympathy with other parishes of the same faith. Although there was a great disappointment in the result of the application to the Assembly, it was deemed expedient to accept it, and the society was duly formed under the Act of the Assembly, and the Article I have just read is the charter of your society. I do not know who, or how many, were members under the first enrolment, nor was it important, as, after a society was formed, the law made ample provision for the accession of new members. Thus while the society had been in existence since 1780, it was not until this time that it came under the privileges and limitations of statute law, for such cases made and provided.
The society being thus organized, the way was prepared for the church, which was formed under an old Strict Congregational organ- ization, to connect itself with the new society, according to the forms and usages of Congregational churches in Connecticut. It had existed for nearly a quarter of a century in a kind of ecclesiasti- cal isolation, holding no religious communion with the established churches in the neighborhood. Tired of this seclusion, it for a short time connected itself with a distant organization of the Presbyterian church, and the late Deacon Nathan Hart informed me that he once went as delegate from the church here to a meet- ing of the Presbytery to which it belonged, which was that of Morristown, New Jersey. It was a most unnatural and inconven- ient union, and Providence kindly opened a way for its speedy dissolution.
After the new society was placed in successful operation here, the North Consociation of Litchfield County, without waiting for
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any action of this church, extended to it a kind and fraternal invi- tation to unite itself in Christian relations to that body, and the union was at once consummated, and I doubt not that all parties concerned felt relieved from a most untoward perplexity. The society and church were thus placed in a good condition to pros- ecute religious enterprises, and well have they performed that duty.
The old meeting-house by the turnpike was the place of wor- ship for the new society for about twenty years. It was an old brown building, open from the ground floor to the ridge, with rafters, beams, braces, and roof-boards in plain view, but it shel- tered many sincere and pious worshipers. Long seats extended from the aisle in the center to the walls, but nearer the pulpit the seats faced towards the center. The males were all seated on the right of the pulpit and the females on the left, and this arrange- ment was continued while I remained in Cornwall; but I was told there was some change in it before the old house was abandoned. Mr. Hawes and Mr. Smith were both ordained there. I attended the ordination of Mr. Smith, and the late Mr. James Wadsworth informed me, many years after, of a circumstance which I had forgotten, and which I still very dimly remember, that the beauti- ful hymn composed by Helen Maria Williams, commencing
" Whilst thee I seek, protecting power,"
was sung at my suggestion, as a part of the ordination services, from manuscript copies in the hands of the performers, the hymn not having then been introduced into any of the books of psalmody in common use.
Before the settlement of Mr. Hawes, those in the hollow who were in the habit of attending congregational meetings went to Goshen for the service of public worship, where the Rev. Mr. Heaton was then pastor. The first outlet for travel in carriages from that locality was furnished by the construction of the Litch- field and Canaan turnpike road, and that circumstance turned the worshipers in that section towards Goshen. But after the settle- ment of Mr. Hawes, we attended meeting here. From my recol- lection of that gentleman I should say he was a very good preacher, and would be so esteemed at the present day. Mr. Hawes lived first in the house called the Tailor Brown house, on the corner south of the meeting-house, but his more permanent residence was in the house north of Judge Burnham's, said to have been
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once owned by the grandfather of President Fillmore. He was in the habit of riding on horseback to meeting with his good lady on the same animal behind him, a method of travel not only not uncommon, but very common among all classes in those days.
Mr. Hawes was a very faithful pastor, and had the confidence and respect of all classes in the parish. I never heard him spoken of from that day to this, but with the utmost respect and defer- ence. He was compelled to leave because he could not live on the salary which the society was able to pay; but he went with the good wishes and respect of the whole community. After leaving this field of labor he was very soon settled over a parish in Lyme, in this State.
The first deacon whom I can remember in active duty here was Deacon Hyatt. I never knew the Deacon Clark who lived on Clark Hill. I remember once attending deacons' meeting, where Deacon Hyatt conducted the proceedings. I was then quite young, and only remember that the sermons were so short that two of them were read in the morning service, the singing of a psalm intervening the reading of the sermons.
The next succeeding deacons whom I can remember were Deacons Mallory and Titus Hart. During the time intervening between the dismission of Mr. Hawes and the settlement of Mr. Smith, it often occurred that there were long intermissions of clerical ser- vices in the parish, and during such intermissions the meetings were conducted by the deacons, assisted sometimes by Mr. Daniel Harrison and Mr. Timothy Johnson. There was no apparent dimi- nution in the attendance at such seasons, as the presiding Deacon Mallory had a method of conducting the proceedings which made them very satisfactory to the congregation. His prayer was very free, appropriate, and fervent, and he sometimes added an exhor- tation of his own, which showed the depth of his christian sym- pathy, and the fervor of his christian zeal. It might have been expected that, as preaching was constantly had in the other parish, many of this congregation, for that reason, would have attended meeting there, but there was a kind of home feeling in those christian gatherings in that old tabernacle of the Lord, which made it very amiable to the worshipers there, and very few de- serted the meetings. Mr. Nathan Hart, afterwards Deacon Hart, well known to this day, usually read the sermon, and I was some- times called upon to perform that service myself.
The first chorister whom I remember to have seen officiating in
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leading the singing in the meeting-house, was Thomas Hyatt, a son of the deacon of that name whom I have mentioned. He was succeeded in that office by Joel Millard, who lived at the foot of Cream Hill, and who, with a clear strong voice, led the choir for several years. He was succeeded by Bradley Mallory, who him- self sometimes taught a singing-school in the parish, and he was in charge of the choral services when I left Cornwall. In the absence of the regular chorister Mr. Nathan Hart usually officiated.
The decayed condition of the old meeting-house, and the fact that it was on the very outskirt of the parish, prompted a move- ment, soon after the settlement of Mr. Smith, to erect a new house of worship. The strength of the parish lay in portions north and west of the old house, but the neighborhood in which it was located, and some others, were strongly opposed to the change of site. The requisite number of two-thirds of the voters at a society meeting could not be obtained to effect the object, although a majority favored the place which was afterward selected. The law provided that in such cases the judges of the county court should be called upon to designate the place for the erection of the building. Those judges, at that time, were Augustus Pettibone of Norfolk, chief judge, and Martin Strong of Salisbury and John Welsh of Milton, associate judges. After a due hearing of all the parties concerned, these gentlemen stuck the stake, as the proceeding was called in those days, at the place now occupied by this house of worship (I will not say church, as applied to the building), and here that house was erected in 1826, fifty years ago. In the interval between the taking down of the old house and the finishing of the new one, public worship was celebrated in an old tenantless house, standing a few rods south of this build- ing, which has a history both in relation to its former occupants and of scenes of suffering by the family dwelling there during the prevalence of the small-pox early in this century, which I have no time to relate.
A few members of the society, living near the old house, felt that they had been deeply wronged by the change, and some threatened secession, but time and reflection smoothed over the difficulty, and with most, I presume, it has long since been forgot- ten. In the height of the conflict an action at law was brought to the superior court in favor of one or more of the original sub- scribers to the building of the old house, against some persons who had assisted in taking it down and appropriating the materials to
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the new structure, and the case was tried vide post, on a plea of abatement to the suit, for the reason that all the parties in interest had not been joined in bringing it before Chief-Justice Hosmer of the Supreme Court of the State. It was elaborately argued by Mr. Wheaton for the plaintiff, and I think by Mr. Bacon of Litch- field, for the defendants. Mr. Wheaton's strong argument was, that, although as a general principle, all the parties in interest should be joined in the suit, yet here was a case of absolute refusal to join, and a refusal which utterly deprived the plaintiffs of a remedy for the wrongs they had suffered, which was a state of things which this bar would not tolerate. The chief-justice was evidently impressed with the force of the argument, and took the case home with him for a full consideration of its merits. His opinion, communicated to Mr. Wheaton in writing, was in sub- stance that the rule that all parties must join in an action for an injury to their joint property was imperative, and that the suit must abate. In reply to the argument so forcibly urged by Mr. Wheaton, he said, that a court of chancery, on proof that a good cause of action existed, could compel the recusant members, under a penalty, to join in the action. I have understood that some adjustment of the matter was effected. At any rate, there was no more litigation in reference to it.
The meeting-house here was fashioned after one in Sharon, which was built two years before. They were on a model somewhat prevalent in those days, with the desk between doors at the entrance of the audience-room, with the seats rising on an inclined plane in front of the pulpit, with the organ-loft behind the officiating clergy- man. Many years after, this society changed the interior structure of the house to its present form, and we in Sharon very soon fol- lowed your example, and I believe the members of both parishes feel that the change has been a decided improvement.
I deem it not out of place here to say, that from my earliest recollection there has existed within the limits of this parish a very estimable body of christians of the Methodist Episcopal denomina- tion, who, in the periods of the early history of that body, prose- cuted religious duties here with great zeal and faithfulness. The Rev. Henry Christie, who was one of the first preachers on the circuit which then embraced Cornwall, afterwards settled here as a local preacher. He was a pure-minded christian man, and faith- ful according to his ability. He preached in the Hollow, once in two weeks, for many years, and thus furnished an opportunity for
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worship for such persons as were unable to attend other meetings. There was not much point or method to his sermons, but they teemed with earnest exhortations. His prayer was very earnest and fervent, and, on the whole, his labors in the Hollow are worthy of a grateful remembrance.
One gentleman of that denomination, Mr. Ozias Hurlburt, who resided in the Hollow, was a remarkable instance of successful self-culture; who, in that way, had schooled himself to the attain- ment of much knowledge and many useful acquirements. But theology was his great study, and in that department he could maintain his own views of the Divine government of man with great ability. I remember to have heard him say that he had read President Edwards's Treatise on the Will, and I should think from what he said that he found no difficulty in delivering his own mind from the stern conclusions of the great theologian. He was very superstitious on some subjects, believing in the significance of celestial omens, as that the appearance of a comet, which he called a "blazing star," was a sure sign of impending war. But with all these vagaries, which themselves gave a zest to his conversation, he was one of the most interesting men in social interviews with whom I held intercourse in my early years.
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I have now presented a very imperfect history of this parish down to a period within the memory of others who are much better able to give the sequel than I can be. It remains only to speak of some individuals who were active in the measures already spoken of, for the organization of the society, and for giving sta- bility to its parochial existence. But before doing this, I wish to say that I know of no rural community-and I do not confine the statement to members of one denomination, but taking the territory as a whole-I know of no rural community which, in the evidence of the industry of its inhabitants, and in the external proof of thrift, taste, intellectual culture, and social enjoyment, can bear any comparison with this. In fact, the whole parish has been
rebuilt. Within my recollection, there were but three white houses in the whole society. Captain Wadsworth, his son-in-law Captain Gold, on Cream Hill, and Lot Hart, at the locality then called Hart's Bridge, now West Cornwall, had given their houses a coat of white paint, and a few of the more aristocratic families, as the Rogerses, Johnsons, and perhaps some others, had painted their houses red; but, with these exceptions, nearly every tenement in the parish was a brown, weather-beaten building; some of them
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mere cottages, with few, if any, outward adornments of shade trees and shrubbery, and, in many cases, the door-yard fence was a huge massive stone wall. These tenements sheltered an honest, indus- trious, painstaking, pious people, who in humble life, and in com- paratively straitened circumstances, were laying foundations on which their children and grandchildren could build beautiful hab- itations, and provide all the appliances of intelligent social and individual enjoyment.
Citizens of North Cornwall! you can scarcely comprehend and estimate the value of your inheritance in the stern virtues of your ancestors.
I have been furnished with a list of the male members of the church, at its formation as an independent church, in 1780-82. They numbered ten. The only members whom I knew were, Eli- jah Steele and Noah Rogers. Mr. Steele was a deacon of the old church of Cornwall, and was one of those who came out in opposi- tion to Mr. Gold, the pastor. He was originally from West Hart- ford, and in this town lived in the east part of the parish next north of the Johnsons. He was of some prominence in the affairs of the town, and in 1768 was a member of the Legislature. He joined the seceders who formed the independent church, as did his colleague, Deacon Waller, but I do not know that he was a deacon in that church. He was called Deacon Steele during his life. He returned to West Hartford during the latter years of the last cen- tury, but in 1805-6 he came back to Cornwall, a full-fledged Quaker, in drab drapery and broad-brim. He lived in the Hollow till 1810, when, on the death of his wife, with his second wife, who was a sister of my grandmother, he went to Albany, and there spent the remainder of his life with his son, Eliphalet Steele. I knew him only after he joined the Friends. He was a mild, intel- ligent, amiable old gentleman, and his wife, whom our family affectionately called Aunt Sarah, was one of the most sweet- tempered, lovable old ladies I ever knew. Her remains repose in the cemetery in the Hollow.
I well remember Noah Rogers, senr., the other member of the church at its original formation, of which I have spoken. He was said to be a descendant in the sixth generation from the martyr of Smithfield, and I believe that the tradition of such descent is toler- ably well authenticated. I remember him as a very old man, who was constant in his attendance at meeting, portly in his physical dimensions, and regarded as a patriarch of the parish. He was
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probably the most wealthy man in the society, and his benefactions, and those of his descendants here, have done much to give strength and stability to the concerns of the parish.
The most prominent man in the affairs of the town and society for many years, was Oliver Burnham, Esq. His early life was eventful. He was born in the parish of Kensington, in Berlin, where his grandfather was an eminent clergyman, and at the age of fifteen enlisted as a soldier in the army of the Revolution. He was in all the battles near New York, and on Long Island, during the operations of the British army, which resulted in the capture of that city, in 1776. He told me that he stood within five feet of the lamented Colonel Knowlton when he was shot dead, at the battle of Harlem Plains. He was one of the forlorn hope who defended Fort Washington, the last foothold of the Americans on York Island, to the last extremity, and was one of the 2,000 prisoners who there surrendered to the British. He was confined, with comrades, in a loathsome prison called the Sugar House, and there suffered from the infection of the small-pox, from which his recovery was very protracted. He told me that he believed that the British officers connived at his escape on account of his ex- treme youth. At any rate, he was allowed to depart quietly from the city, and when he presented himself to his captain, within the American lines, it was with much difficulty that he could persuade that officer that he was the identical young Burnham who belonged to his company, so great a change had the small-pox made in his personal appearance. He came to Cornwall about 1790, and gradually acquired an extensive and commanding influence in the town and society. He was a member of the legislature at more than thirty sessions. He also was for a time a judge of the county court, and for some forty years a magistrate of the town. It was sometimes said of him that he used his opportunities to acquire and retain popularity with great cunning and sagacity, but it can be truly said of him that his influence was always exercised in promoting peace, quiet, and good order in the community. His influence was so persuasive that he was able to do much in healing contentions in families and neighborhoods. I have often said, since his decease, while contentions and litigations were rife among those who were his own neighbors, that I wished Judge Burnham could come back for a few weeks in the plenitude of his influence to put an effectual quiet upon the storm. He never united with the church, but it was said that in difficult matters before it he
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was often consulted, and his good counsels in such matters were duly heeded. Towards the close of his protracted life he con- formed to the Episcopal church, received confirmation at the hands of its Bishop, and was buried in its rites.
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