USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartland > History of Hartland, the 69th town in the Colony of Connecticut > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
Many of those still residing within its borders, however, still con- sider the 45% of Hartland's land area left to individual ownership as one of the best locations for the practice of "life, liberty, and the pur- suit of happiness."
CHAPTER V
The Churches
HISTORY OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN HARTLAND, CONGREGATIONAL
(By Judith Franzen Devlin)
A total understanding of the beginnings of the First Church in Hartland, Congregational, cannot be achieved simply by reviewing the chronological development of Hartland itself. The story actually begins with the first colonists who came to New England in 1620. These col- onists were Separatists, Puritan extremists who would not compromise with what they felt to be the Catholic tendencies of the Church of Eng- land. The slightest tie between Church and State, the barest inkling of centrally organized government within the Church-either was felt to endanger the movement to purify the Church from within. They landed in what is now southern Massachusetts and proceeded to estab- lish an ideally Separatist community, which they named Plymouth.
They prospered, managed to buy out the owners of stock in their London backed enterprise, and were as free-living and as tolerant of their own and others' weaknesses as their rigorously Separatist Puritan- ism allowed them to be. In the end, however, they had neither the stam- ina nor the deep conviction to hold on to their Separatism. As a result, Plymouth Colony was merged in 1684 with that of Massachusetts Bay to the north.
The founders of Massachusetts Bay Colony did have the determ- ination and the inner drive to survive. Moreover, their whole outlook on life was witness of that drive and determination, serving to shield and strengthen them so that they could master whatever they had to in order to survive-Indians, disease, a hard land, their own human inabil- ity to submit. They were not Separatists, but, so they thought, the purest of the Puritans, determined to purify the Church of England from with- in, determined to establish a pattern of life in Massachusetts which would preserve the true nature of the Church abroad though it was be- ing corrupted at home. They were not, in any sense, liberals or revolu- tionaries. They had discovered the truth as it was revealed in the Bible, and they were determined to establish a society in which that truth would be dramatically evident.
30
History of Hartland
....
.........
TENENILER
-From drawing by Charles McDonough
First Congregational Church of Hartland, East Hartland, Connecticut
31
The Churches
The society of this colony was one of small towns and farms, pros- pering in trading, fishing, farming and shipbuilding. It was a much better informed and better educated society than that at Plymouth had been. In addition, it was much more tightly knit, because it had been better planned. It was theocratic, ostensibly ruled by laymen, yet virtu- ally in the control of its ministers. Suffrage was limited to Church mem- bers; and power and property came quickly into the hands of an ortho- dox minority, a group all the more powerful because it was God- ordained to rule. To find joy, which lay in the discovery of one's proper place, so the Puritan of Massachusetts believed, one must submit to one's leaders, and thereby doing, to God. This role of leadership gave to the orthodox minority the right to control the lives of the members of each little Puritan community - the levying of taxes, the schools and what was taught therein, the pastures, the morals, the social and economic structure, and needless to say, the Church itself. The result was a closed and strict corporation.
The social and economic structure of the Colony thus depended upon the Puritan's understanding of his relationship to God. It was to the study of this relationship that he devoted his greatest energy; and around this relationship he shaped his life. The writings and examples of Saint Augustine, and his spiritual descendants, Calvin for example, lent themselves to a pattern which indicated just what this relationship between God and Man should be. This is embodied in what they called their Covenant Theology. "According to this pattern, at the beginning of man's history God had contracted with Adam in a Covenant of Works, by the terms of which Adam had agreed to perform certain duties and in turn was to be allowed to live in his God-given paradise. But, as God had foreknown, Adam wilfully broke this contract, gained knowledge but lost his simple intuitive clarity of understanding, and so doomed all men after him."1 The second Covenant made between God and man took place at the sacrifice of Isaac where God foretold the Covenant of Grace, by the imparting of righteousness to Abraham because of his great faith. "Then God's Son contracted with his Father in a Covenant of Grace, by the terms of which the Son would sacrifice Himself so that God would save a few of the children of Adam. As a result some men were visited with God's irresistible Grace and thus elected to eternal salvation. Men had no choice in the matter only that hope which could be sustained by faith and intense study and interpretation of the Bible."2 Following this pattern of the search for establishment of a relationship between God and man came the tradition whereby each Congregation banded together and wrote, in its own language, a Covenant to which each member then and subsequently would swear to bind himself.
The members of the First Church in Hartland, Congregational, in 1768 hammered out and arrived in agreement at the following Covenant which is recorded in Records 1768-1931, First Ecclesiastical Society and Congregational Church, Volume II:
We do solemnly Avouch the Eternal God Father Son and Holy Ghost to be our God & do devote ourselves & children to him Promising as He shall by his Grace enable us believe
32
History of Hartland
his Truths obey his Will run the Race of his Commands walking before him in uprightness united by with dili- gence maintaining and attending his Worship exercising ourselves in the Duties of Sobriety Justice & Charity watch over one another in the Lord
And forasmuch as Christ the Head & King of the Church hath appointed Spiritual Administration on his House as censures for Offenders Consolations for the Penitents and Quickening for all such as the Word & Sacraments We do promise by the Grace of God we will truly Countenance faithfully and orderly to the regular Administration of them in the Place & carefully perform our respective & enjoined Duties that we may all be saved in the Day of the Lord.
Amen.
There was a blank space after " ... united by". In the recording of the Covenant as voted by a church meeting on July 14, 1815, the words " ... united by" were omitted. It is interesting to note that there is no punctuation and that the sign "&" is used is place of "and" throughout. Volume III of the above mentioned Records indicates that in 1815 the following Confession of Faith was used along with the Covenant.
You believe
that there is but one only living and true God subsist- ing in three persons, the Father Son and Holy Ghost, possessed of equal excellence & glory
that God worketh all things after the council of his own will, & that He made & governs all worlds, creatures and things
that the holy Scriptures of the Old & New Testaments are the words of God & the only rule of faith and practice
that God created man in his own image under the laws of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge upon pain of death; that he fell from that state by transgression & plunged himself and his posterity into a state of sin and death
that all men are by nature totally depraved. & that God for his own glory has chosen all believers in Christ to eternal life through sanctification of the Spirit & belief of the truth
that Jesus Christ has made atonement for sin by which alone we must be saved
that the Holy Ghost regenerates, sanctifies & prepares for future glory all who put their trust in Christ for salvation
that the righteousness of Christ is the only ground of justification in the sight of God
that all true believers will perservere through faith to final salvation
that the Sacraments of the New Testament are Bap- tism & the Lord's Supper
that baptism is to be administered to adult believers and their infant children
that the Lord's Supper is an holy ordinance instituted by Christ as a memorial of his death to be received by all who publicly profess their faith in him
33
The Churches
that you believe in the resurrection of the body & a future general judgment when the righteous will be re- ceived to glory & the wicked be sentenced to endless punishment
This you believe
The Covenant of 1815 is the same as that of 1768 except for these changes: "You" and "yourselves" replace "we" and "ourselves" in the original; the end of the second line of the original which states "do de- vote ourselves and our children to Him" is changed to read "do devote yourself (yourselves) & all you have to him." At the end of the Coven- ant these words have been added:
Thus you covenant & engage
We the members of this church do now cordially receive you into our communion & promise to watch over you with Christian affection and tenderness, imploring the great Shepherd of Israel that both you & we may have wisdom & grace to be faithful in his covenant & glorify his name forever
On page five of Volume IV of the Records the Confession of Faith is again recorded, with some changes. Each paragraph is indicated as an Article and is numbered I to XIII, and each begins with "You be- lieve that ... ". Also between Article VII and VIII there is added a par- agraph which reads as follows:
Version-that regeneration, sanctification & preparation for future glory is all the work of the Holy Spirit.
A footnote states that this had been added to the confession "by special vote of the church April 1, 1848".
The Covenant of the First Church in Hartland, Congregational, to- day is much the same as that first ascribed to by the founders of the church. In keeping with our present understanding and word usage, the word "Ghost" in the second line has been replaced by "Holy Spirit", and the words "united by" have been restored to their original place, followed by the insertion of the word "love". The Covenant has also been punctuated.
There is one particular phrase which on the surface appears to be a benevolent, innocent statement, but oh the injustices which sometimes issued from its adherence. The phrase is this: " ... watching over one another ... ". Today it may be interpreted as a friendly concern for the other members of the congregation, but in the Puritan days it meant what its face value indicates, and these Puritans tended to watch over each other with a jaundiced eye. The records of the First Church in Hartland contain many accounts of "trials" before the elders of the church to atone for "Slipping from the path of the Godly".
The rule of discipline, as defined on page thirty-nine of Volume III, September 1, 1843, was Matthew 18:15-17, which reads,
If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth
34
History of Hartland
of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee a heathen man . . .
This rule was followed to the letter; warnings were passed out to the offender, with suggestions for mending his way. If he did not comply, he was called before a meeting of the congregation to account for his actions. One case of this order involves a man who was guilty of absent- ing himself from worship for "two summers" in addition to the use of profanities on the Sabbath. He was called before the meeting and kept the moderator busy, "being guilty of trying to out-talk him". Evidently no confession was forthcoming. The case carried on to the displeasure of the Church and to the nonconcern of the individual involved. The case was finally closed when the entire family of the man was dropped "from the Christian care" of First Church. The family subsequently joined the Methodist Society.3
In the early Puritan society, all were Christians. When a problem arose, be it an affair of the Church, or some business of the town, the people who met with the problem were the same. The men who attended the town meeting and the men who prayed in the church were the same. As time passed, however, "the ungodly" and less zealous generations began to ask for a part in the running of affairs. The Congregationalists were determined to carry out their own religious notions undisturbed; one of them wrote, "All families, Antinomians, Anabaptists, and other Enthusiasts shall have free liberty to keep away from us." From this sort of statement we can discern that for a period of time the struggle for control was carried on between the zealots and the "ungodly". It is for this reason that the history of nearly every New England town is fraught with references to and conflicts with the Church members who were reluctant to loose their grip on the control of the town.
Although Hartland cannot be classified as an early Puritan commnu- nity, the influence of the First Church was strong in the community for many years. This strength arose out of its priority of establishment and the theocratic manner of organization in the original community. Hence, the relationship of the First Church in Hartland to the parish surround- ing it was in the beginning an organic and entangling one.
In order to qualify for incorporation, the parcelling of each town had to include plans for "the Preaching of the Gospel". Thus an unques- tioned part of the business of Hartland was the setting aside of the "parsonage lots" for the use and support of a minister. These lots amounted to seventy-five acres, for the pastor had to be able to support himself to some extent, or the lands might be used to help defray the expense of a minister. These seventy-five acres were later to play an important part in the establishment of an Ecclesiastical Society in Hart- land. Page four of Volume I of the Records shows the following agree- ment between the townspeople and the first minister of the Hartland Church :
1. Agreed to give Mr. Starling Graves for his Settlement, one Hundred Pounds Lawful money & the Seventy-five
35
1233681
The Churches
acres of Lands which is the just Write of the first minister which settles in said Town which Seventy-five acres of Lands lies on the East mountain, & in the Second Division in said Town ... and fifty pound of said Settlement to be Paid next Christmas & fifty the Christmas come twelve months with the Lawful interest from the time due till paid.
Again civil law entered the picture to establish a meeting house. In 1675 a law was enacted which required that a meeting house must be erected in each town within the colony. If the people failed to comply with this ediet, the magistrates were empowered to see to the construe- tion and to lay the charges on the townspeople. As the word implies, the meeting house was to be used for all meetings-civil and religious. It was necessary then that Hartland have such a building. In August of 1764 it was decided to make particular plans for one. The town eom- mittee had petitioned the county court in Litchfield earlier to appoint a committee to "fix a place for the meeting House here in Hartland". The Court Committee presented the following report in respect to the above request.
Litchfield County Town of Hartland April 22nd A.D. 1762
We the Subscribers being by the Honorable County Court of said County at their session January last ap- pointed a Committee to State and Fix a Place for to Erect and Build a Meeting House in Said Town and to Make a Return of Our Doings to said County upon the Fourth Tuesday of April instant ... In pursuance of said Appoint- ment We have repaired to Said Town, and Viewed the Same, and Search, and Examined a Place of Said Town presented to us by Said Towns Committee who were chosen and Appointed by Said Town Inhabitants, to Represent their Circumstances to us, and having also heard the Said Committee Relating to Said Affair, etc. .. . We have fixed and Stated the Place for to Build Said Meeting House upon the East Side of the River, on the East Mountain So called in Said Township on or near upon a Lot of Land Laid out for a Parsonage Lot in the Second Division and Second Tier of Lots (so called) from Simsbury West Line near or partly upon a Highway Running Eastwardly and West- wardly; a little Westwardly from the Burying Place, where We have Set a stake and Stones about it which Stake is to be Enclosed by the Sill of the Meeting House near which Place we have marked Diverse Trees, and do order that said Meeting House shall be built, and Set up by the In- habitants of Said Town of Hartland for a House of public Worship at Said Place as aforesaid as witness our hands Sam A. Pettibone John Owen Hez. Humphrey,
Committee
The church was built between 1764 and 1771 for it was voted on Decem- ber 17, 1771 that a public meeting be held in the Meeting House. The records state that the dimensions of the structure were forty-five feet by thirty feet, with twenty foot posts.
The construction of the Second Meeting House, the one which stands today, was brought about by the Eeelesiastical Society in 1800.
36
History of Hartland
Here one notes the transfer of concern regarding the affairs of the church from the town to a more specifically church-oriented group. However, by the very nature of the Ecclesiastical Society, the people who decided the matter were, as a group, not totally members of the Church. In 1800 a committee reported to the Society that repair of the standing Meeting House would cost three hundred pounds, and that the cost of constructing a new House with a steeple would be "716 Ld. 17s. 6d.". (Without a steeple the cost would have been reduced to "531Ld. 16s. 6d.) In November of that year the Society voted to build a new Meeting House, and appointed a committee to find a location for it. At a subsequent meeting the following minutes were recorded:
The committee appointed for the purpose reported that the new meeting house ought to stand equi-distant be- tween the dwelling house of James Frances and Eben B. Clark. The South end of the body of the house on the south line of the land to be purchased of said Clark . . . 4
The Society accepted the report and voted to build a new church fifty feet by forty-five feet, twenty-five foot posts, with a steeple and spire. They voted to pay for the same by a forty-seven mill tax on the years 1799 through 1801, and during 1801 to pay three mills extra. (The people also paid a nine mill tax on town expenses, and this made a total of fifty-six mills.) The record says that at least one family moved from town to Ohio because of the stiffness of the taxes. What a delightful way to escape taxation!
-Courtesy Catherine Wright
Original Methodist Church, East Hartland, now used as Community Building by First Congregational Society.
37
The Churches
The present day Society Hall was acquired by the Ecclesiastical Society in 1875. Prior to that time the building had been the site of Methodist services on the East mountain. The Methodists were an ex- ample of the lessening of the religious domination over community members by the Congregational Church. The Methodist Episcopal Society was strong when it began, but over a period of thirty years it dwindled down to three members. There is a tale told that these three members, in the true spirit of Christendom, closed their door one Sun- day and came across the street and gave the key to the First Church for its own use.
In 1768, under the provisions of the will of the Reverend Starling Graves, the First Ecclesiastical Society, which has been mentioned above, was formed. Reverend Graves' will gave to the people of Hartland the seventy-five acres which they had originally set aside as the parsonage acres, with the stipulation that they be used for the "support of the Gospel Ministry among them" and for the support of schools in the "Easterly part of said Town". Being a "religious body" rather than a "corporate body", the Church could not legally hold property or admin- ister its own business affairs. The Society was allegedly a body to hold and administer property. Many persons belonged to the Society who were not actual members of the Church as time went by. On the whole, the relationship between the secular and the religious groups has been cooperative, each recognizing the boundaries of its jurisdiction.5
The reading of the minutes of the Ecclesiastical Society shows the wide and varied concerns it had with the town and the Church. They record, for example, that "a tax laid equally on the folks of the Scollars that attended School to be appropriated for the purpose of supplying the school with wood .. . "6 Key #30 in the Records deals with the ap- pointment of a committee to build a fence around the burying ground. In 1784 a committee was appointed to look into the revival of singing in the Church. Later minutes tell that the third pew from the East side in the front gallery, and second from the North in the side gallery were to be reserved for singers. Key # 103 provides that :
Matter of the ringing of the Bell for the yr. ending Oct. 1834, or until the Annual Meeting shall have been noticed -(Viz) It shall be rung on the Sabbath as usual, on the days of public meetings and rung and tolled on funereal occasions-The person who rings the Bell shall make the fire in the stoves when necessary-and shall at all times when the Meeting House is not wanted, see that it is kept locked.
Key #83 reveals that the pews were "sold" to the members of the con- gregation in order to meet Mr. Animi Lindsley's salary. Several entries in the minutes are concerned with the upkeep and repair of the church properties. It was this body which decided to build the present Meeting House, and which, by 1905, had either purchased or inherited the rights to the parsonage, built in 1848 by the Reverend Nelson Scott. Even to this day it is the Society which hires and dismisses the ministers of the First Church. From this smattering, one can readily see that the concerns
38
History of Hartland
of the Society, though primarily religious ones, also included secular affairs.
Just as the influence of the Church was felt locally from its begin- nings, so did the Church, through the shaping of lives in the Christian Way, send out beams of Christianity to the world. Fourteen men whose characters and religious lives were molded in the First Church went out to fields of missionary service in India, West Africa, and, although it does not seem very far afield today, in Illinois and Missouri. Many sup- plied New England parishes. One, Lorin S. Gates, missionary to the Marathe Mission, lost his life at the hands of an insane Mohammedan. Another, Aaron Gates, was instrumental in the founding of Amherst College.
Courtesy Alice Emmons Parmelee
Interior View of First Congregational Church Decorated for Old Home Day Celebration
The total impact upon the world delivered by these fourteen men amounts to the establishment of seventeen churches and three schools in the home mission field, nearly seventy years total missionary service in the foreign field, and the establishment of a New England college. Sure- ly if the First Church in Hartland, Congregational, should fade from the horizon tomorrow, the service she rendered to the world through these men alone would gain for her a place of honour in the memories of men.
39
The Churches
MINISTERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN HARTLAND, CONGREGATIONAL
From
To
Starling Graves
June 29, 1768
1772*
Aaron Church
Oct. 20,
1773
1814*
Ammi Linsley
July 19, 1815
Nov.
1835
Aaron Gates
Jan.
1, 1836
1841 ***
J. C. Houghton Nelson Scott
Sept. 24, 1846
June 4,
1857
Aug. 16, 1857
May 1,
1858
# John Hartwell Ogden Hall *
Sept. 18, 1858
April 28, 1859
David Beals
June 30, 1860
Feb. 5,
1865
John B. Doolittle
July 30,
1866
June 19,
1872
Lyman Warner
1872
March
1876
N. G. Bonney
Oct. 9, 1876
Oct.
1878
J. G. Willis
1879
Jan. 14,
1880
Merrick Knight
1880
1890
C. H. Riggs
1890
1891
C. H. Pease
Oct. 30,
1892
Mar. 13,
1894
A. C. Davies
April 8,
1894
Dec.
1895
Wm. E. Moore
Jan. 26,
1896
April 1,
1903
E. L. Sanborn
May 1,
1903
Oct. 15,
1906
Benj. A. Dean
July 1,
1907
Aug. 5,
1908*
James A. Osborn
July 1.
1909
Nov. 1,
1912 **
T. W. Spanswick
Aug. 31, 1913
Oct.
1916
R. P. Dougherty
Summer of 1917
Miss Estelle A. Dickenson
Summer of 1918
James F. English
Summer of 1919
A. W. Solandt (Rev.)
Oct. 1, 1919
Jan. 18, 1925
Paul Snyder
Summer of 1925-6
Edw. S. Hickok
Summer of 1927-8
Fred V. Winnett
Summer of 1929-30
Douglass Maclean
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.