History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 86

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 86

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account is found further than several of the members lic in the old burying-ground.

"Rev. Noah Hobart, who had been invited to as- sist Mr. Webb a few months before he departed this life, was called Oct. 30, 1732, to be pastor of the church. The salary promised was two hundred pounds, current bills of credit, or in silver money at eighteen shillings the pound, provided he resign the whole use of the parsonage to the society. This par- sonage land seems to have been a somewhat extensive tract, and it was ordered by the society to be leased.

" He accepted the call and conditions, and was or- dained by the Consociation of Fairfield County on the 7th of February, 1733.

" Mr. Hobart was born in Hingham, Mass., Jan. 12, 1706. He was the son of David Hobart, and grand- son of Rev. Peter Hobart, first pastor of the church in that town. President Dwight gave this testimony concerning him : He possessed high intellectual and moral distinction. He had a mind of great acuteness and discernment, was a laborious student, was exten- sively learned, especially in history and theology; adorned the doctrine which he professed by an exem- plary life, and was holden in high veneration for his wisdom and virtue. His ministry here covered a period of forty years, 1733 to 1773, and was one of great activity. He was largely engaged in contro- versy, especially with respect to the validity of Pres- byterian ordination, which he successfully defended. Dr. Sprague writes of him that he lived to bury two wives, eight children, and one thousand and ninety- three parishioners. He died in great peace on the 6th of December, 1773, having on the Sabbath previ- ous to his death preached twice with more than his

usual animation. During his ministry David Row- land and Nathan Buckley were elected deacons. The old meeting-house seems to have been fast hastening to decay, and December, 1739, two disinterested per- sons, Messrs. Edward Lewis, of Stratford, and John Betts, of Norwalk, were appointed a committee to see and give their opinion whether it were worth repair- ing. Whatever the report of this committee may have been, the society decided to make repairs, and we may judge something of the nature of the building by the resolutions that were passed. It was voted 'to put in new sills, two lites between the posts, ex- cepting where the doors are and that square where the pulpit is dark ; the meeting-house to be covered with white-wood siding, the seats (benches, I sup- pose) to be put closer together, and pews to be built in convenient places, to be sold to pay for these re- pairs.' This luxury of pews (probably square with high baeks over which the children could scarcely look ) seems to have somewhat perplexed and troubled the good people of these early days. A committee had to be called in from Norwalk and Stratford to say who shall have the pew places and what price they should pay for them, and when some persons on their own responsibility creeted something like

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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

them in the meeting-house, the society ordered these to be removed and such persons to be hereafter prose- cuted. Time and again afterwards at the annual meetings of the society, and after a new mnecting- house had been built, it was voted 'that no person should hire one who was not the head of a family, that no one should hire more than one, and that no one should bid for one unless he belonged to Mr. Ho- bart's meeting.'

"Six years after making the repairs alluded to a- new meeting-house was ordered to be built, its dimen- sions to be sixty by forty-four feet, and twenty-six feet in height, with a steeple one hundred and twenty feet high. A bell was subsequently procured and the County Court asked to help obtain it and to use it, with which request it is uncertain whether the court complied.

" This bell was rung every night at ninc of the clock, and afterwards also at noon. Thus the new sanctuary was finished, but not to be so lasting as its predeces- sor. The bell that tolled at the funeral of Mr. Hobart, in December, 1773, was doomed within less than six years to fall with the burning stecple on which it was hung.

" On the 7th of February, 1774, the society sent Mr. Elijah Abel to Cambridge, to wait on Mr. Andrew Eliot, Jr., of Fairfield, and as the result of this mis- sion, Mr. Eliot was called to the pastorate of the church on the 4th of the following April, and, accept- ing the call, was ordained and installed on the 22d of June, 1774. On this occasion his father preached the sermon, and Messrs. Mather, Dickinson, Wells, Sher- wood, and Lewis, all pastors of churches in the Con- sociation of Fairfield West, performed other parts of the service.

" Mr. Eliot was the son of Rev. Andrew Eliot, D.D., the distinguished pastor of the North Street Church in Boston, and was born in that city in 1743. After his graduation, in 1762, at Harvard, he was appointed to the office of butler in that college, and at a fire which destroyed the old building lost all his personal property. In 1768 he was chosen tutor, and in 1773 fellow of the corporation, which offices he resigned on coming to Fairfield. During his connection with Harvard, he preached often and with great acceptance at Boston and Cambridge, and brought gratifying testimonials from the ministers there of his learning, prudence, and piety, which his ministry of thirty-one years among this people fully justified. The society prom- ised for his support one hundred and twenty pounds lawful money and use of the parsonage, he to release all claim and demand or use of lands called parson- age lands, except the lot called Applegate's lot, ad- joining the house where Jolin Whitear, Sr., once lived. The early part of Mr. Eliot's ministry was passed in the troublous times of the American Revo- lution.

"The latest record concerning the meeting-house built during Mr. Hobart's pastorate is as follows: At

a church-mecting, April 25, 1779, voted that Messrs. Diodate Silliman, Peter Hendricks, Samuel Sturges, David Allen, Peter Jennings, James Penfield, Israel Bibbins, Jeremiah Jennings, and any others of the church and society who are skilled in psalmody, be desired to sit together in the gallery on the Lord's day and lead the congregation in that part of divine worship, they to agree among themselves as to the person who is to pitch the tune.

"May 6th, voted that the thanks of this church be given to Mr. Daniel Osborne, for his services in set- ting the psalm for the two years past. Here then we have another advance, showing that it is just ninety years ago last April since the occupation of precentor ceased, and a choir was introduced into the public services of the church. Although the names of only eight persons are mentioned, and these all men, -- probably young men,-there can be no reasonable doubt that the others who were skilled in psalmody were of that gentle sisterhood, without whose presence the choir would have lacked the needful constituents of full and perfect harmony.

"There are several pages in the old record in the clear and beautiful handwriting of Andrew Eliot.

"The resignation to the will of God in this dispen- sation appears all the more beautiful when we re- member that Mr. Eliot's house, which, with a few others, had been marked for preservation, was by some accident consumed, together with his furniture and a large and choice library. Thus for a second time was he called to pass through the fire.

"It was on Thursday morning that the church building was consumed.

"On the next Lord's day the church and the so- ciety met with the pastor and carried on religious exercises as usual at the house of Deacon Bulkeley.

" Afterwards, for five successive Sabbaths, public worship was conducted at the dwellings of Diodate Silliman, Peter Perry, and Justin Hobart, the Lord's Supper being celebrated at the usual time at the last- named place.

" An interval of three weeks followed, in which there was no service on account of the illness of the pastor, and then, after an afternoon service at the house of Elizabeth Morehouse, in Jennings' Woods, Mr. Justin Hobart's house was appointed the stated place of public worship, except that once in a month it was agreed to hold it in Jennings' Woods.

"This arrangement continued for a year, until Sept. 10, 1780, when the public service was carried on and continued afterwards in the new court-house.

"The conflagration of Fairfield in 1779 brought much distress upon the people, and an abatement of society taxes was made to those not able to pay. Mr. Eliot received some aid at the hands of his friends in Boston, but his salary was for a number of years sadly behind in its payments. The society sold the iron and nails of the burned meeting-house, and applied the proceeds to the building of the town-house.

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FAIRFIELD.

Thither they were summoned for more than five years by the beating of a drum," and meanwhile were making efforts to rebuild their own sanctuary. An application was made to the General Assembly in 1782 for a grant of one thousand pounds, from confis- cated estates, and such grant seems to have been made to them, as well as to Green's Farms and Nor- walk. On the 19th of January, 1785, after inquiries as to the estimated cost had been made, it was voted and agreed in society meeting, more than two-thirds of those present voting in the affirmative, to proceed to the building a new meeting-house. The honor- able court was petitioned at its next session to fix the place and set up a stake where it should be built. It was further resolved to have it made of the same di- mensions as the last, and within the same foundations, if the honorable court approve. A tax of six pence on the pound was laid, and a subscription paper started.

" The frame was raised in June, 1785, and on the 26th of March, 1786, it was so far advanced towards completion that divine service was held in it, the pas- tor preaching both morning and afternoon from Gen- esis xxviii. 17 : 'This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven.'

" The appearance of the building on this day of its dedication must have been far from prepossessing. The walls were unplastered, the gallery floors unlaid, and with no stairway. There were no casings around the steeple doors or gallery windows; the only seats were rough benches, and there was no permanent pulpit. Yet the people acknowledged God's good- ness in bringing them on thus far. It was not until some eleven or twelve years after the meeting-house was occupied that it was fully equipped with a pulpit 'after Mr. Bullfinch's plan,' and with long pews, having a door at each end in its centre, and others, like those in the former church, next to the wall.

"In March, 1799, the following resolution was passed:

"' Whereas, Col. David Burr has generously offered to paint the pulpit in the meeting-house at his own expense, he have liberty to do the same, provided the paint be of a light stone color.'

" It may be in keeping here to say that the generous spirit which actuated Col. David Burr is still alive in the society, as the fence they have put up bears testi- mony. Mr. Burroughs, the efficient and persevering pastor, endeavors to preserve it with various original and commendable efforts, which, united with the co- operation of the church, must certainly be successful. "To return to the old meeting-house in which so many were wont to gather on every Lord's day. Eight of the long pews in front and eight in the rear were at first reserved in common, but subsequently some of these were ordered to be leased. A bell was

procured and rung every day during the summer at twelve o'clock noon, and in the winter at nine o'clock at night.

" Mr. Eliot pursued the even tenor of his way, and among the earliest of the many children he baptized was William Henry Bibbins, who afterwards married his grand-daughter and died in July last. During his ministry four deacons were at different times ap- pointed and solemnly ordained with prayer and the laying on of hands: David Judson, Jan. 7, 1787 ; Gold Selleck Silliman, at a date not ascertained; Daniel Osborne, Sept. 5, 1790; and Moses Jennings, 1804.

"Mr. Eliot died on the 26th of September, 1805, in the sixty-second year of his age. He left a widow and six children. One of his sons graduated at Yale College in 1799; was ordained pastor of the church at New Milford in 1808, and died in 1829.

"One of his daughters became the wife of Rev. Dr. Hewit; another of Deacon Bibbin3; a third of Dr. Wm. B. Nash, of Bridgeport; and a fourth of -

- Burr. His children's children are with us unto this day.

" Dr. James Dana thus wrote of him: 'In Mr. Eliot the bereaved flock have lost a judicious, affec- tionate, and faithful pastor, to whom God had given the spirit of fortitude, love, and a sound mind,-who attended continually on his ministry unentangle:1 with the things of this life. The steady affection and esteem, the deserved estimation in which he was ever held by his brethren in the ministry, and his accept- ance in the churches, are honorable testimonies to his worth, candor, and unaffected piety, which, with the wisdom that dwells with prudence, were distinguish- ing parts of his character. His acquaintance with general science, his urbanity and friendly and social affections, conciliated the esteem of all ranks.'

" After Mr. Eliot's decease it was agreed that his salary be continued to the widow so long as the min- isters of this district supply the pulpit, each one Sab- bath, which probably they did.

" In March, 1806, Mr. Porter was invited to preach on probation, and ou the 12th of January, 1807, He- man Humphrey was called on a salary of six hundred dollars. His history is well known by the whole church in New England, and his life-labors have left a deep and lasting influence for good upou the whole country. He was ordained April 16, 1807, and dis- missed May 15, 1817. After a ministry here of ten years he was settled as pastor of the first church in Pittsfield, Mass., and subsequently became president of Amherst College, an office which he filled for many years with distinguished success. He was the first pastor of this church who did not die in the office. Dr. Humphrey prepared the confession of faith and covenant still in use. Two deacons were chosen during his pastorate, both in 1810, viz., Elijah Bibbins and Roger M. Sherman. The memory of both of these is fragrant, and to the latter, who adorned the

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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

Church and State alike by his wisdom, cloquence, and piety, the society is indebted for the commodious parsonage which it possesses.

"In the year of Mr. Humphrey's installation a re- monstrance was made by the society against the removal of the court to Greenfield. Another specimen of the trust reposed by the society in the generosity of indi- viduals appears in the following vote, April 4, 1815: ' Voted, that any person may at his own expense paint the outside of the meeting-house, under the direction of the society's committee.'

"On the 1st day of May, 1817, Consociation was called to dismiss Mr. Humphrey. He was an able and faithful minister, and among the fruits of his labors were eighty-nine persons who made confession of Christ during his pastorate of ten years. Of these, three remained on the roll as late as 1867. The last of these, Mrs. Deborah Bennett, died early in 1880, in New Haven, at an advanced age. Dr. Humphrey died in Pittsfield, amid the scenes where he had pre- viously witnessed the greatest and richest trophies of the gospel, in the year 1861."

The successors of Dr. Humphrey were as follows : Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Hewit, Dr. Hunter, Dr. Willis Lord, Alexander McLean, Edward E. Rankin, D.D., and G. S. Burroughs. The present church edifice was erected in 1849.

Engraved on a stone in the foundation of the church, near the entrance, is the following inscription :

" First Church built about A.D. 1640.

" Second Church built A.D. 1675,

" Third Church built A.D. 1747, and burned by the British, 1779.

" Fourth Church built A.D. 1785."

On a tablet on the other side of the entrance is the following :

" This Church erected MDCCCXLIX."

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHI, GREENFIELD.

The petition for the organization of this parish was granted by the General Court, Oct. 14, 1725. It was incorporated as the Northwest Parish, and two years later its name was changed to Greenfield. At its organization Greenfield Parish embraced all the northern part of the original town of Fairfield, and in Dr. Dwight's days numbered one thousand.

CHURCH EDIFICES.

The first move towards the erection of a church edifice was made in 1726, when it was voted that a meeting-house, fifty-two by forty-two feet, and twenty- two or twenty-five feet between joints, should be built, but it was not completed and occupied until 1743. In 1760 a new meeting-house was voted, and completed in the following year. This was occupied as a place of worship until the completion of the next church, in 1848. This was destroyed by fire on the night of Nov. 14, 1853. In the following March it was voted to build a new church, which is the present structure.

LIST OF PASTORS.

The pastors of this church have been as follows : Rev. John Goodsell, who was ordained at the time of the organization of the church, May 18, 1726. He officiated until 1756; Mr. Pomeroy, from 1757-70; William Mackey Tennant, 1772 to about 1780 ; Timo- thy Dwight, D.D., 1783-95; Samuel Blatchford, 1796- 97, as supply; Stanley Griswold, 1803-4, as supply ; Horace Holly, 1805-8; David Austin, 1810-12; Wil- liam Belden, 1812-21; Richard Varrick Dey, 1821, -he remained but a short time, and was succeeded for a year or two by Charles Nicoll ; he was followed by Nathaniel Freeman, who remained nine years. In 1840, Rodney G. Dennis preached for some months ; Thomas B. Sturges, 1842-67 ; R. P. Hibbard, 1868-72; Henry B. Smith, 1873; he was succeeded, in 1878, by I. O. Rankin, who continued six months. Rev. Chester Bridgman commenced preaching Oct. 1, 1879, and is the present pastor.

The following persons were pew-holders in the first church edifice erected : Joseph Wheeler, Benjamin Banks, Joseph Diamond, Nathaniel Hull, Daniel Brad- ley, Benjamin Gilbert, John Thorp, Joseph Banks, Samuel Wakeman, Daniel Burr, John Gilbert, Samuel Bradley, Benjamin Sherwood, heirs of Eliphalet Hull, Joseph Hill, Jabez Wakeman, David Williams, and Samuel Price.

The covenant in 1726 was signed by John Goodsell, Cornelius Hull, Obadiah Gilburd, John Hide, George Hull, Peter Burr, Daniel Bradley, Theophilus Hull, John Burr, Stephen Burr, and Ebenezer Hull.

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, SOUTHPORT.

The village of Southport was originally included in the parish of Fairfield. A general desire on the part of its residents to enjoy the privileges of the sanctuary within a more convenient distance led to the comple- tion of a church edifice in their village in the year 1843.

A meeting of the brethren of the Fairfield Church residing in the village was held Feb. 18, 1843, at which it was resolved to take the necessary steps to organize themselves into a separate church of Christ, to be de- nominated "The Congregational Church of South- port." Letters were accordingly sent to five churches in the vicinity,-namely, the First Church in Fair- field, the First Church in Bridgeport, the Second Church in Bridgeport, the church in Greenfield, and the church in Norwalk,-inviting them by their pastors and delegates to meet in council "for the pur- pose of organizing a church of Christ in the Borough of Southport."

The council thus called met March 7, 1843, and, after hearing and approving the purpose of the peti- tioners, proceeded to organize them into a church of Christ. The number of members so organized into the new church was twenty-eight. The sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Atwater, of Fairfield. In the evening the house was dedicated to the worship

351

FAIRFIELD.

of Almighty God, the Rev. Dr. Hewit, of Bridge- port, preaching the dedication sermon. On applica- tion, the church was received into the Consociation of the Western District of Fairfield County, June 6, 1843.

The house completed in 1843 was used by the church as its place of worship until 1874, when it was removed and the present handsome and substantial stone edifice erected on its site. This was completed and dedicated Feb. 2, 1876. The Rev. S. J. M. Merwin, of Wilton, the first pastor of the church, preached the dedica- tion sermon from the text, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts, and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts." Hez. ii. 9. He was assisted in the services by the Rev. Dr. Atwater, the Rev. Charles E. Lindsley, and the Rev. George E. Hill.

The first members of the church were Mrs. Eliza- beth B. Alvord, Elias P. Benham, Mrs. Rachael M. Benham, Mrs. Miranda Bulkcley, Levi Down, Mrs. Peggy Lacey, Frederick Marquand, Mrs. Hetty Mar- quand, Anna Osborn, Mrs. Eleanor Osborn, Jeremiah Osborn, Mrs. Abigail Osborn, Austin Perry, Mrs. Emily A. Perry, Mary A. Perry, Delia F. Perry, Francis D. Perry, Mrs. Ann Eliza Perry, Oliver H. Perry, Mrs. Eliza P. Robinson, Mrs. Mary A. Sher- wood, Mrs. Mary B. Sherwood, Mrs. Catherine G. Sherwood, Edward A. Smith, Mrs. Esther M. Smith, Walter Thorp, Mary C. Thorp, and Maurice Wakeman.

The pastors of the church have been as follows: Rev. Samuel J. M. Merwin, ordained Dec. 18, 1844, dismissed May 3, 1859; Rev. Charles E. Lindsley, installed Feb. 29, 1860, dismissed Feb. 16, 1869; Rev. George E. Hill, installed March 22, 1870, dismissed Dec. 27, 1876; Rev. William H. Holman, ordained June 12, 1878, present pastor.

The officers of the church are as follows: Deacons, Frederick Marquand, Charles Lacey, Oliver H. Perry, E. Cornelius Sherwood, and Levi T. Sherwood. Su- perintendent of Sunday-school, John H. Perry.

The membership of the church Jan. 1, 1880, was one hundred and sixty-seven.

TRINITY CHURCHI, SOUTHIPORT.#

It appears from letters preserved in the archives of the society, that in the year 1723, Dr. James Laborie, a French physician of eminence, who had left his native country towards the closc of the seventeenth century and been "ordained by Mr. Kinglet, antistes of the Canton of Zurich," in Switzerland, taught and held service according to the usage of the Church of England, in his own house in Fairfield, on those Sun- days on which Mr. Pigot preached in Stratford or some other place. In one of those letters, Dr. Laborie says, moreover, that he " came to this country as a teacher under the patronage of the Bishop of London,t and

being disturbed by Indians in the vicinity of Boston, came to the colony and county of Fairfield, and began by an introductory discourse to act as missionary to the English and native inhabitants, but was inter- rupted immediately by one of the magistrates." This commencement of his efforts in Connecticut was probably made at Stratford, where he seems to have resided from 1703 till 1717 .; But it appears from the records of this town that he resided in Fairfield as early as 1718; having bought at that time of Mr. "Isaac Jennings" a place known as "the stone house on the rocks," probably the same of which he after- wards said, in the letter just referred to, that he had "destinated it to the service of the Church of Eng- land." It seems probable, therefore, that some steps were taken at that time for the formation of an Epis- copal parish and the stated performance of its relig- ious services in this town. But I find no record of the organization of a parish herc, separate from that of Stratford, until the year 1724. At the close of the preceding year, Mr. Pigot, removing to Providence, had been succeeded in the mission at Stratford by the Rev. Samuel Johnson, who, with another Congrega- tional minister, the rector or president of Yale Col- lege and a tutor of the same institution, embraced the doctrines of Episcopacy in 1722, and was ordained in England, with his two friends and companions, by the Bishop of Norwich, acting in behalf of the Bishop of London. In one of his earliest communications to the society from Stratford, Mr. Johnson stated that his parishioners in that town had " lately opened their new church, called Christ Church," and that at Fair- field the people were also " vigorously going forward in building a church."? Soon afterwards he reported that "the church at Fairfield was going on apace," and that "the people at New London would also build with all expedition." And on the 10th of November, 1725, the day of the annual thanksgiving of the colony, he opened, with a " suitable discourse," the church which the Episcopalians of Fairfield had built, and which they then named "Trinity Church." In that church, which seems to have stood on Mill Plain, a few rods northeast of the place where the

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History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 86

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