History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 55

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572

USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 55

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" After preaching acceptably to the church for twenty-five years, Mr. White changed his theological views, adopting substantially the Sandemanian belief. He was complained of to the Association in 1763, 'as holding and teaching false doctrine, and presented to the council of the Consociation for trial.' The council met at Danbury Aug. 1, 1763. The church (a major- ity of whom sustained Mr. White) objected to the authority of the council on the ground that it was a Congregational Church, and not amenable to any outside body. The objection was not allowed; from which we may infer that councils in those days (at least in Connecticut) were something more than 'ad- visory.' After a five days' session the result reached was 'that Mr. White should have a three months' probation to see if he would not preach to the ac- ceptance of his hearers.' He did not, however, give satisfaction, and on Jan. 3, 1764, a joint council of both the Fairfield Consociations met to consider his case. Mr. White, with a majority of the church, de- nied the jurisdiction of the council and renounced the platform; but the council went forward and found him guilty of heresy, and put him on probation again until the last Tuesday in March. At that time the

council met again and dismissed him from his pastor- ate under censure. The majority of the church still adhering to Mr. White, the council recognized the minority as constituting the First Consociated Church in Danbury, and left the seceding majority to them- selves. At the solicitation of Mr. White the council convened again the following September to state upon what terms he could be relieved from censure. The terms given were declined by Mr. White, and he was never restored to fellowship.

"The seceding party, declaring themselves inde- pendent of Consociation, formed a new church organ- ization, which received the name of the 'New Dan- bury Church.', Retaining Mr. White as pastor, they built a meeting-house in 1768, which nine years later was burned by the British. The church was greatly weakened by the loss of their meeting-house and by defections to the Sandemanians, among which was that of Rev. Ebenezer Russell White (son of Rev. Ebenezer White), who in 1768 had become colleague pastor with his father. In 1779, Rev. Ebenezer White died, and shortly thereafter the 'New Danbury Church' became extinct.

" The name White has been a prominent and hon- ored name in Danbury for the last century, the line of Rev. Ebenezer White's descendants having been continuous to the present, and finding its representa- tives in Danbury to-day in the families of Mr. Wil- liam R. White, Mr. Philo White, and Col. Nelson L. White.

" This church, weakened by the secession of a ma- jority of its members, did not secure another pastor after the dismission of Mr. White until two years had elapsed. In February, 1765, Mr. Noadiah War- ner was ordained pastor, but his pastorate was brief and much interrupted by efforts that were made to secure the return of the seceders, he on two occasions consenting to relinquish his pulpit for several months that candidates might be listened to by both parties, it being understood that if a man was found upon whom all could unite Mr. Warner would resign in his favor. Variances about pecuniary matters and a lack of the spirit of concession thwarted these efforts, but they disturbed the relations of Mr. Warner to the church to the extent that he sought a dismission at the expiration of the third year of his pastorate.

" From the society records, which date back to 1755, it appears that on April 3, 1769, a call to the pastorate was given by the church and society to 'the worthy Jeremiah Day,' who had for a few weeks supplied the pulpit, but, the vote of the society standing twenty- eight opposed to the call to forty-seven in favor, and the vote to give him a yearly salary of seventy-five pounds, with a settlement of one hundred and fifty pounds standing forty-six in favor, opposed forty- three, he did not accept. Doubtless this result seemed disappointing at the time, but Providence was not altogether unkind, as by his brief connection with the church he gained for himself a wife, he being

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married the following year to Miss Luey Wood, one of the young-lady members of the church.

" In the summer of 1770, Mr. Ebenezer Baldwin accepted a call to the church. The earliest records of the church in existence begin with the minutes of the council that convened for his settlement, Sept. 19, 1770. The sermon upon the oceasiou was preached by President Daggett, of Yale College. The brief statement of Robbins' sermon respecting Mr. Bald- win is that 'he officiated with great reputation to the ministry till a sudden death terminated liis labors, Oct. 15, 1776,-a man of great talents and learning' (he was the second scholar of his class in college), 'a constant student, grave in his manners, a constant and able supporter of the sound doctrines of the gos- pel.' (After the defection of Mr. White, soundness in the faith would beyond question be the first qualifica- tion demanded in a pastor.) During his ministry of six years there were added to the full communion of the church fifty-four. Ten were admitted to the half- way covenant.

"The practice of the churches of that day was to allow baptized persons who did not profess conversion to assent to the church covenant, which aet brought them into connection with and under the jurisdiction of the church, although they did not join in con- munion.

"Mr. Baldwin married sixty-eight couples. He baptized one hundred and thirteen children, and attended one hundred and forty-nine funerals. The summer of 1775 was a period of great mortality in Danbury, and of the one hundred and thirty deaths in town that year eighty-two were within the limits of the First Society, and sixty-two funerals were attended by Mr. Baldwin in the three months of June, July, and August.

"The pastorate of Mr. Baldwin covered those exciting years in the national history that preceded and marked the commencement of the Revolution. At that day no class of citizens was more conspicuous for patriotism, or more powerfully contributed - to arouse the spirit of resistance to the despotie acts of the British government and to prepare the minds of the people for the great struggle of the Revolution, than the Congregational clergy of New England, and among them Mr. Baldwin was conspicuous by his zeal and signal ability. Almost all the writing for the public prints at that day was done by the clergy. In 1774 he prepared and published a spirited address to the people of the western part of the colony to arouse them to a sense of the danger in which their liberties were involved. In November, 1776, on the day set apart for Thanksgiving in the colony of Con- nectieut, at a period which he regarded as the most calamitous the British colonies ever beheld, lie preached a sermon designed to wake up the spirits of the people in the important and dangerous strug- gle in which they were engaged. This sermon had at the time great celebrity. So excellent, encouraging,

and appropriate was it that it was called for and printed at the expense of a leading member of the Episcopal Church. A copy of it is preserved in the archives of the New York Historical Society. Mr. Baldwin, with the other ministers of the Association, arranged a series of circular fasts in the churches of Fairfield County, in the spring of 1776, on 'account of the threatening aspeet of the public affairs.'

" A memoir of Mr. Baldwin, prepared by his brother, Ilon. Simeon Baldwin, formerly judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, may be found in Sprague's 'Annals of the American Pulpit.' Mr. Baldwin's brother Simcon and James Kent, after- wards Chancellor Kent, of- New York, and author of 'Kent's Commentaries,' were members of a class of young men who studied under the direction of Mr. Baldwin while pastor of this church. Chancellor Kent, in a Phi Beta Kappa oration given at Yale in 1831, paid a beautiful tribute to the memory of Mr. Baldwin. Speaking of the tutors in that eollege, he said, ' And suffer me for a moment to bring to recol- lection from among this class of men the Rev. Ebell- ezer Baldwin, of Danbury, for it is to that great, excellent man that the individual who has now the honor to address you stands indebted for the best part of his early classical education. Mr. Baldwin was tutor in this college for the period of four years, and he settled as a minister in the First Congregational Church of Danbury in the year 1770. He was a scholar and a gentleman of the fairest and brightest hopes. He was aeeustomed to read daily a portion of the Hebrew Scriptures, and he was extensively acquainted with Greek and Roman literature. His style of preaching was simple, earnest, and forcible, with the most commanding and graceful dignity and manner. His zeal for learning was ardent, and his acquisitions and reputation rapidly increasing, when he was doomed to fall prematurely in the flower of his age and while engaged in his country's service. Though his career was painfully short, he had lived long enough to attract general notice and the highest respeet by his piety, his learning, his judgment, and his patriotism. He took an enlightened and active interest in the rise and early progress of the Ameri- can Revolution. In the gloomy campaign of 1776 he was incessant in his efforts to cheer and animate his townsmen to join the militia which were called out for the defense of New York. To give weight to his eloquent exhortations he added that of his heroic example. He went voluntarily as a chaplain to one of the militia regiments, composed mostly of his own parishioners. His office was pacific, but he neverthe- less arrayed himself in military armor. I was present when he firmly but affectionately bade adieu to his devoted parishioners and affectionate pupils. This was about the 1st of August, 1776, and what a mo- ment in the annals of this country! There never was a period more awful and portentous. It was the very crisis of our destiny. The defense of New

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York had become desperate. An enemy's army of thirty thousand men, well diseiplined and well equipped, was in its vicinity, ready to overwhelm it. Gen. Washington had, to oppose them, less than eighteen thousand men, and part of them were ex- tremely sickly. Nothing could have afforded better proof of patriotic zeal than Mr. Baldwin's voluntary enlistment at this critical juncture. The militia, much reduced by sickness, after two months' service were discharged. Mr. Baldwin fell a victim to the sickness that prevailed in the army, having only strength sufficient to reach home, where he died on October 1st, 'honored by the deepest sympathies of his own people, and with the public veneration and sorrow.' "

WEST STREET CHURCHI.

This chureh originated with Mr. Horace Bull. He was impressed by reading a series of letters, pub- lished in the New York Observer, on the duty of large churches to colonize. They were written by Rev. Dr. Humphrey, of Massachusetts. He claimed "that the activity of a churchi would be increased by sueh a les- sening of its members, and that new churches would draw in strangers, and thus increase the number of church-goers." Mr. Bull liad a little property, and he gave one-third of it to start the enterprise. He had been for many years a member of the First Con- gregational Church, and contributed to its permanent fund, but was in no way distinguished except as a leader of singing. It was no part of his wish to depreeate other churches, but only to extend more widely the influence of a joyful gospel. Twenty members joined him in leaving the "old hive;" one came from the Methodist Church, one by letter from Poughkeepsie, and another from New York City.

" At a meeting of individuals in favor of forming a new organization for religious worship, held in the basement of the First Congregational chureh in Dan- bury, May 20, 1851, on motion, Horace Bull was ap- pointed ehairman, and a committee of two, consisting of Henry Lobdell and L. C. Hoyt, were appointed to confer with the Universalist Society to engage their house of worship, now St. Peter's Hall, for one year, and were authorized to correspond with Mr. William C. Scofield, of New Haven (Theological Seminary), and, if they deemed it necessary and expedient, to engage his serviees as pastor for the term of two months from the first day of June."

At a meeting held on the evening of May 23, 1851, the committee reported that they had hired the Uni- versalist church for one year, and that Mr. Seofield would preach eight Sabbatlıs. Permission having been obtained from the First Church, by a vote of fourteen yeas to seven nays, to attempt the experiment of forming a new church, it was resolved to go forward notwithstanding that the First Church granted its per- mission only with the condition that it was not to be held responsible " either for its success or support." After voting to hold the first religious services in the

new place of worship, June 1, 1851, the meeting ad- journed. In 1851, July 9th, the church was organized by a Congregational Ecclesiastical Council, meeting in First Church. Oct. 15, 1854, the corner-stone of a church edifice was laid. This building is now in the possession of the Catholic Church, west of the park. May 6, 1852, the new church building was dedicated. On June 18th of same year rules of government were adopted and a resolution passed to organize an eccle- siastical society.

Mr. Scofield was ordained to the gospel ministry and installed pastor of the new church on Sept. 15, 1852. Thus it will be seen that within about a year from the preliminary meeting the infant society had attained to a formal and regular ecclesiastical organi- zation, built a house of worship, and obtained a set- tled pastor. April 26, 1854, the pastoral relations of Mr. Scofield with the church were dissolved by mutual consent. From this time until the spring of 1858 the church was without a settled pastor. During the in- terim, however, the pulpit was supplied for more than two years by the Rev. E. S. Huntington, a friend of the church and a resident of Danbury.

In 1857, from July 1st until September 17th of the sanie year, Rev. William Page supplied the pulpit. From November, 1857, until April 1, 1858, Rev. S. H. Howell made the supplies. The Rev. David Peck, of Woodbridge, received a call March 26, 1858. On June 23d, Mr. Peck was regularly installed. Mr. Peck served acceptably until Jan. 2, 1861, when he was dismissed at his own request. Rev. Ezra D. Kenny was invited to supply for three months. Mr. James Robertson, a licentiate of Union Theological Seminary, New York City, also was engaged to sup- ply for a time. On Dec. 20, 1861, the church voted to engage Mr. Robertson for twelve months. His ser- vices were so acceptable that the church voted to have Mr. Robertson ordained March 30, 1862. As the con- gregation grew and their wants increased, tlie neces- sity of a larger and more commodious building be- came apparent. Measures were taken to construct such edifice, and the result was that in May, 1865, the new West Street ehureh was dedicated. July 1, 1865, Mr. Robertson severed his connection with the ehureh. The Rev. Henry Powers was immediately called, and began his duties as acting pastor. He was installed April 15, 1868, and was dismissed at his own request after serving about nine months. May 30, 1869, Mr. D. A. Easton, a licentiate from Andover Theologieal Seminary, Massachusetts, began to supply the pulpit. On June 3d he received and accepted a call as stated preacher. Mr. Easton was finally called to the pas- torate and accepted, and Dec. 29, 1869, he was or- dained to the gospel ministry, and installed pastor of the church Oet. 10, 1870. Mr. C. A. G. Thurston, a licentiate of Andover Theological Seminary, Massa- ehusetts, and more recently stated preacher at Brad- ford, N. H., began his duties as associate pastor and preacher with Mr. Easton, whose health, being im-

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paired, rendered him unable to perform the duties of the pastorate without assistance. Sept. 20, 1871, Mr. Easton was dismissed as pastor on account of ill health, but, preserving membership of the church, he often supplied the pulpit and greatly aided in clear- ing off a funded debt which was burdening the church. The Rev. S. B. Hershey, the present pastor, was in- stalled Oct. 27, 1874.

ST. JAMES' EPISCOPAL CHURCHI.

The earliest records of St. James' Church, Danbury, now in possession of the church go back only as far as the year 1812. The second missionary sent to this State by the venerable "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,"-a society still in vigorous existence in the English Church,-the Rev. Henry Canes, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1728, and who went to England for holy orders in 1727 and became missionary to Fairfield late in the autumn of the same year, sought out the churchmen scattered in the contiguous regions. In his first report, made to the soeicty in 1728, he speaks of a " village northwest- ward of Fairfield about eighteen miles, containing twenty families; the name of it is Chestnut Ridge (Redding), and where I usually preach and lecture once in three weeks." He also visited Ridgefield and Danbury as often as his duties would permit, and stated that there were in most of these places seven, ten, or fifteen families professing the doctrine of the Church of England.

About 1763 the first Episcopal church was erected in this place, and opened, on its partial completion, by the Rev. Ebenezer Dibble, a native of Danbury, and missionary at Stamford and Greenwich. Occa- sionally ministrations were held here by the Rev. Mr. Leaming, and by the Rev. Mr. Beach, of Newtown. A charitable layman, Mr. St. George Talbot, residing in the province of New York, who presented the church with a Bible and Prayer-book and had assisted the people here towards the erection of their church, was one of the gratified congregation at the opening services. In 1769 the faithful missionary at Newtown, reporting his occasional services in the newly-erected church at Danbury, speaks of the edifice "with a decent steeple" and large enough to accommodate from "four hundred to five hundred people." In 1777, Gen. Tryon, commanding a detachment of two thou- sand of His Majesty's troops, penetrated to Danbury, a place which the commissioners of the American army had selected for depositing military stores; and while both church and meeting-house there were used as depositories, his troops are said to have taken the stores out of church and burned them in the streets, saving the sacred edifice, but they devoted the meet- ing-house to the flames. In 1784 the Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., was consecrated Bishop of Connecti- cut in Aberdeen, Scotland, the first American prelate. In 1794 the Rev. David Perry, of Ridgefield, resigned the pastoral charge of the parishes of Ridgefield, Red-

ding, and Danbury, and in due time the Rev. David Butler suceceded him in the cure, and the Rev. Elijah G. Plum from 1808 to 1812. Bishop Jarvis conse- crated the church here Oct. 6, 1802. Bishop Hobart, of New York, officiated in Danbury on a Sunday in August, 1817. In 1809 there were reported 70 families and 22 communicants. In 1816, 41 communicants. In 1822, 44 communicants. In 1824, 49 communi- cants.

The Rev. Reuben Hubbard was instituted rector, Sept. 1, 1812, to 1819; the Rev. Ambrose S. Todd from 1819 to 1823; Rev. Samuel B. Hall from 1823 to 1836. In 1836 only 40 communicants and 5 families of the original churchmen were remaining. Up to this time the parish had had clerical services once in three or four weeks, and from 1808 had always been associated with Christ Church, Redding, and part of the time also with Ridgefield. The Rev. Mr. Hull confined himself to Danbury and Redding, and after the chapel, now St. Thomas' church, Bethel, was built, in 1835, the services were divided between the two alternately onee in four weeks. The year 1836 was the first time that the parish of St. James' Church and St. Thomas' Chapel had attempted to have the services of a clergyman the whole time, and this came near failing for the want of means. From Easter, 1838, to Easter, 1839, Dr. Short officiated half the time in Brookfield and the other half here, and the Christian Knowledge Society aided in the pay -. ment of his salary. The Rev. David H. Short was rector from 1836 to 1840, and the Rev. Thomas T. Guion from 1840 to 1847. In 1844 the first church built at the lower end of Main Street, a wooden build- ing, the frame of which has been converted into a dwelling-house, was abandoned, and a new church was erected in a central position on West Street near Main. The Rev. Henry Olmstead and the Rev. John Purves were associated with the Rev. Mr. Guion, re- siding in Bethel and having charge of the chapel there. In 1844 the whole parish, including Bethel, reported 100 families and 130 communieants, with 80 Sunday- school scholars and 20 teachers. In 1846, on the sepa- ration of Bethiel from this parish, Rev. Guion re- ported 75 families, 65 communicants, and 45 Sunday- school scholars, with 9 teachers. From 1847 to 1854 the Rev. William White Bronson was rector. In 1853 he reported 70 families and 77 communicants. From 1854 to 1864 the Rev. I. Lcander Townsend was rec- tor. In 1855 he reported 70 families and 107 com- municants. In 1859 the church was enlarged by the addition of a chancel and new furniture, the latter being used in the new stone church. In 1863 he re- ported 130 families and 189 communicants. The Rev. Mr. Townsend was also rector of " Deer Hill Insti- tute," a church boarding-school for boys. The Rev. Dr. Hawley entered upon his duties on the 1st of March, 1864. He reported this year 145 families and 278 communicants. In 1867 the present chapel and the chancel and the first bay of the nave of the new

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stone church was erected, and in 1872 the nave and the tower were completed all save the stone spire.

An ex-editor of the Church Review speaks of this sacred cdifice as "one of the most beautiful churches in the country." The memorial and other windows were made by Messrs. Moore, Doremus, Henry E. Sharpe, Morgan & Bros., Slack & Booth, and are among the finest specimens of their best workmanship. The present rector, Rev. Arthur Sloan, assumed charge May, 1875. ·

FIRST UNIVERSALIST CHURCH.

On the 9th day of December, 1822, a little company of men, twelve in number,-as were the earliest dis- ciples,-met at the school-house in Great Plain Dis- trict, in the town of Danbury, to organize a Univer- salist society.

These twelve men were Ebenezer Nichols, William Patch, Miles Hoyt, Philo B. White, Stephen Ambler, Zadock Stephens, Ira R. Wildman, Thomas P. White, William Peck, Joel Taylor, Andrew Andrews, Stephen Gregory.

Previous to this time Universalism had taken root in Danbury, in consequence of the preaching of itin- erant ministers, or missionaries, who traveled through this part of the country from time to time, holding services in towns where opportunity offered, speaking in public halls, in school-houses, private dwellings, and, when no other place could be found, in barns or in the open air. In 1807, probably in September of that year, the Rev. Hosea Ballou, one of the fathers of the Universalist Church in America, having jour- neyed into Connecticut for the purpose of attending the annual meeting of the United States Universalist Convention, which was held at Newtown, September 15th, 16th, and 17th, conducted religious services in Danbury, preaching in the court-house. This was the first service ever conducted in Danbury by a Uni- versalist clergyman of which any record has been found. There are traditions to the effect that the Rev. John Murray, a disciple of Wesley, who first planted Universalism on the shores of the New World, preached once in Danbury before the be- ginning of the present century, but of this service the present pastor can find no written record.

After 1807 occasional services were held in the town by various itinerant ministers, among others the Rev. Solomon Glover, of Newtown. At this time the so- cial ostracism, amounting in some cases to actual per- secution, which had been meted out to the Methodists in England, to the Baptists and Quakers in America, and to every religious sect at some period of its his- tory, fell to the lot of the American Universalists. Their testimony was not taken in court; they were pronounced little better than atheists ; were charged with being haters of religion and teachers of immoral doctrines. One of the twelve men who organized the society in 1822 attended the meetings for some time in secret, " going across the swamp to the court-house,

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History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 55

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1572

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572