History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 184

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317

USA > Connecticut > New London County > History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 184

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women" believing in Christ, regardless of the fierce opposition which met him. But his bold and open advocacy of Baptist sentiments, and the doctrine of religious and civil liberty in general, procured for him and the intrepid Green and many of their followers a lodgment in New London jail for several weeks in midwinter, and where they were allowed no fire or bedding, and but insufficient food.

The imprisonment of these brethren called forth the deepest sympathy from many of "the Standing Order." The president of Yale College, Col. Elisha Williams, issued immediately a pamphlet, entitled " The Essential Rights of Protestants," in which he gave a masterly exposé of the intolerance of the exist- ing ecclesiastical laws, and advocated the rights of conscience and the principles of civil and religious liberty, which have in every age beeu cherished by Baptists.

This church was also visited from time to time by Elders Cooley, Mack, and Sprague, whose labors were owned of the Lord among them. Elder Mack, who was ordained in Lyme in 1749 over a Separate Con- gregational Church, on becoming a Baptist, frequently visited this church, and carried the gospel to the Montauk Indians, on Long Island, where a branch of this body was planted among that tribe, which continued for more than a half-century.

About this time (1752) the attention of the church was attracted to the gift of Nathan Howard, one of the constituent members of the church, who seemed designed of the Lord as their future pastor. He was called to ordination and the pastoral care of the church, and for more than twenty years served his brethren in this holy office. He died suddenly, of. smallpox, March 2, 1777, aged fifty-six years. The praise of his life still lingers in the church. His oc- cupation in life, like some of the apostles, was that of a fisherman. He discovered a favorite fishing-ground, now well known to navigators of the Sound, which still bears the name of Howard's Ledge. He was eminently a man of faith and prayer, and earnest in his warnings to sinners in public and by the wayside. His memory is yet cherished with a hallowed enthu- siasm by the aged pilgrims in Zion, and the precious influence of his pious example and unwonted faith are yet in the church he loved so much and served so long. His remains were interred in a burying-ground given by himself to the church, which has since been enlarged by purchase.

It was during the ministry of Elder Howard that Elder Eliphalet Lester resided at Jordan, near the spot where the present house of worship is located. It was in this vicinity Elder Lester was born in 1730, and here he buried his first wife, who died of small- pox. He had been awakened and converted under the preaching of Whitefield in 1745 or 1746, and was reputed to be "a man mighty in the Scriptures." The efficient aid he rendered to Elder Howard and' the church, previous to his removal, causes his name

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to be embalmed in the early history of this body. After his settlement at Saybrook, in 1776, his frequent visits in these parts made him, under God, the instru- ment of much good.

Zadoc Darrow, the third pastor of the church, was born in New London, (O. S.) Dec. 25, 1728. He was the only son of Ebenezer Darrow, and his mother was a Rogers, "a lineal descendant of him that was burnt at Smithfield in the reign of the Bloody Mary." That the blood of the martyr flowed in his veins has been several times before published to the world. The evidence on which this claim is based is, so far as we know, undeniable. Though educated in the forms of the Church of England, he had never en- tertained very serious impressions till he went, out of curiosity, to hear Elder Joshua Morse, then known as a great "New Light preacher." The thoughtless young man was unexpectedly arrested by the impor- tant truths he then, for the first time, heard, and after a severe struggle with the pride of his heart, he was led to embrace the Saviour. Though surrounded by friends that despised "this way," and treated his newly-adopted opinions with worse than mere con- tempt, he nevertheless boldly confessed Christ, and was not ashamed to identify himself with the infant Baptist cause. Following up the preaching of Elder Morse, whom, it is said, he uniformly went several miles to hear, he persuaded his spiritual instructor to hold meetings near the city, and from these meetings a small Baptist Church arose, "of which," the account says, "young Zadoc became the first deacon." This church secured the pastoral services of Elder Noah Hammond, and attempted to build a meeting-house just west of the city of New London; but things wearing an unfavorable aspect, Elder Hammond ac- cepted a call from a church on Long Island, where he resided some twenty years, a useful minister of the gospel. His bereaved church, from the smallness of their number and their proximity to Elder Howard's church at Niantick, was dissolved, and united with the First Church. The accession of Deacon Darrow and his brethern to the body of which Elder Howard was pastor bears date of about A.D. 1756.

His views in regard to "mixed communion" were said to be rather stricter than those generally enter- tained by the brethren to whom he had now attached himself, and this accounts for his attempt to estab- lish the Hammond interest. But in 1756 the old church seem to have been returning to their original ground of admitting only such to the communion of the church as " were baptized into it" according to apostolic usage. Mr. Darrow's growing public gift, the well-known "good report" of his integrity, his intimate knowledge of the Scriptures and soundness in the faith, his undaunted zeal for the doctrines of the cross, and his fearless advocacy of the rights of conscience, then so little understood, all seemed to lead his pastor and his brethren to regard him as their future leader. Unconscious of his own qualifi-

cations for the sacred office, he steadily declined re- ceiving ordination till the failing health and resigna- tion of Elder Howard induced him to give way to the unanimons call of the church and entreaties of his beloved pastor, whom he finally succeeded in office about A.D. 1775, possibly a little earlier, as we have lost the exact date. Ebenezer Rogers was chosen deacon in his stead.

The number of communicants at this time was small. There were many trials incident to the pas- toral office which the present generation can but faintly appreciate.

The law of the colony, which at first enacted "That no persons within this Colony shall at any time embody themselves into Church estate without the consent of the General Court and the approbation of neighboring Elders ; That no ministry or Church administration shall be attended by the inhabitants of any plantation or colony distinct or separate from, and in opposition to, that which is openly observed and dispensed by the approved minister of the place" ( ¿. c., standing order). These laws had been so far modified as to secure the Baptists from open per- secution, but securing little beyond it. Elder Darrow witnessed with pleasure the catholicity of Messrs. Adams and Byles,-successive Congregational clergy- men of New London; men ahead of their times in their enlightened views of the rights of conscience, -who did not permit their names to come down to us as the abettors of those petty annoyances to which his brethren in less favored parishes were then ex- posed. From these and other streaks of light that began to illuminate the horizon of the church of God he anticipated the not distant rising of the sun of religious liberty. But there was a darker shade upon some parts of the picture which at times led him and his Baptist co-laborers to despond. The process of exemption from taxation to support the religion of the State was difficult and often extremely vexatious, and there had grown up among the " steady habits" of the good people of Connecticut an almost holy horror of dissenters of the Roger Williams school, who were said to seek the undermining of all the staid religious institutions of the land founded by the pious Pilgrim fathers.

Time-honored prejudice so blinded the eyes of many good men in the church and in the State that they could not (it seems as if they dared not) distinguish between a conscientious opposition to religions intol- erance and an opposition to religion itself. The Bap- tists of Connecticut were then few in number,-their churches counting less than twenty,-their aggregate membership less than a thousand,-withont meeting- houses, or with but poor apologies for them, located at a most obsequious distance from thickly-populated points, as if afraid to offend the eye of the multitude. As a sect, taunted with their poverty of this world's goods and honors, accounted but illiterate and design- ing men, they felt that they were made the common

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pack-horse of all the sins of all the opprobrious sects from the days of the first Baptist to that time. In ad- dition to these general discouragements, there were some special trials which Pastor Darrow had to en- counter. The exciting scenes of the Revolutionary war were nowhere in the land more strikingly ex- hibited than in this patriotic portion of our State. But while the soul-stirring call of a suffering country aroused the patriotism of all good men, and resulted in the nation's liberty, yet the war was undeniably attended and followed by an alarming increase of in- fidelity, with a consequent laxity of morals, which were felt most where the martial influence entirely pre- vailed, as it did for a long time in this unhappy region where the treachery of Arnold, the abandonment of Fort Trumbull, the sacking of New London, the mas- sacre at Fort Griswold, then the sight of families fly - ing from the city to the country, and of warriors hast- ening to the points of danger,-all together had fanned the hitherto gentle flame of liberty into a sublime and sweeping conflagration, which not only threatened destruction to the common enemy from abroad, but menaced the quiet fireside of our brave ancestors with a more insidious and not less dangerous foe at home, Infidelity, an ever-present ally of war. It re- garded not the sacredness of the cause for which our fathers mingled in the strife of arms. Infidelity, keenly scented on the track of war, like the jackal on the battle-field, cares not whose cause is just, or who triumphs, so it can find victims to gorge a carrion, craving appetite.

Against this new and formidable enemy Father Darrow arrayed himself, conscious of the power of the gospel to subdue the hearts of the wicked, and to roll back the swelling tide of skepticism which came from the camp or had been brought from France. The gibes of the open unbeliever and the ribald songs of the free-thinker made both pastor and people their unblushing butt of ridicule, as we are told by men who remembered the shameless songs and coarse jests of a large class in this vicinity at the close of the war. It was at this time that all his energies were called forth to stand in defense of the gospel ; and signally did the cause of Christ triumph in that day that tried the fidelity of his people. The discipline of the church, which the war had affected unfavorably, was restored with gospel strictness ; the articles and cove- nant of the church were carefully digested and placed on record ; mixed communion formally, as it had long been practically, renounced; backsliders reclaimed, and scores, from time to time, brought into the church, many of whom had been revilers of the truth, till this ancient body, which at Elder Dar- row's accession in 1756 had numbered, as we learn, .but twenty-five, rose to be, numerically, one of the largest Baptist Churches in the State.

from its early date and singular origin, deserves to be mentioned. It seems the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut had authorized the Governor to invite every religious society in the Commonwealth to contribute funds for the support of missionaries, to be sent out under the patronage of the (Congregational) Association of Connecticut to " preach the gospel in the Northern and Western regions of America." A scheme so fraught with benevolence would, it was hoped, reconcile even dissenters from the State estab- lishment to a temporary and indirect alliance between it and the churches. Here was a dilemma. To com- ply with the request would be to countenance this alliance; to reject it was to disregard the cause of missions. The church, having received His Excel- lency's proclamation and request, promptly voted,- 1. Their cordial approval of missionary objects as "a laudable and benevolent design." But 2. This par- ticular request could not be complied with in the manner suggested, because "the Association of Con- necticut did not appoint the said missionaries in what we (the church) consider an equal and impartial manner, the Association representing but one denom- ination." 3. They wished to have it distinctly un- derstood by all that they " do not recognize the right of the General Assembly to control them as a religious body, but only as members of civil society." Yet, 4. Lest this refusal to meet the Assembly's wishes might be interpreted by the world as a virtual disapproval of sustaining missionaries, the church "appointed a special committee to solicit subscriptions for mission- ary purposes," voting further, that "such funds, so raised, should be placed at the disposal of any ' Bap- tist Missionary Society' that might be formed; and to promote this good object the church stood pledged to co-operate with any sister church or churches, or with any individual brethren who might be disposed ' to unite in carrying out this worthy object." Accord- ingly the subscription-paper was circulated, and some fourteen dollars raised, which was not so small a sum for a church to raise in those days. And from that time to the present, it is believed, this branch of Zion has continued to cherish a steady attachment to the cause of missions, which, if not manifested in casting munificent sums into the treasury, has yet been felt as a duty and prized as a privilege.

The field of Elder Darrow's labors at this time was wider than that of modern Baptist pastors. His little army lay encamped on the shores of the Niantick and in the valley of Jordan, but his outposts were scattered over New London, Montville, Black Point, Colchester, Norwich Plains (Bozrah), and even Long Island. The " Norwich Plains" Church (as it stands on the record) was for some time held as a branch of this body, the names of all the constituent members being on the books of the mother-church. Busy in strengthening feeble interests around him, constantly holding forth the Word of life to the destitute, plant-

It was during this season of prosperity, some sixty or seventy years since, that the first decided "mis- sionary movement" in this church occurred, which, 'ing new churches abroad, for which his own flock

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furnished a liberal quota of original members, he did not on that account neglect his duties at home. Be- sides attending to his farming, he yet found time to hold meetings at River Head, Harbor's Mouth, Great Neck, Lake's Pond, Jordan, Rope Ferry, and Quaker Hill. He preached on the Sabbath and administered the sacrament monthly, except at stated intervals, at the house of one of his deacons-John Beckwith- till 1788, when the unfinished " Hammond meeting- house" was removed from its old site, near Finger's Brook, placed on land given by Elder Darrow, near the " Howard burying-ground," and put in comfort- able order by the church. It continned to be their principal place of worship till 1848, having been from time to time enlarged and repaired to accommo- date a growing congregation. At stated times the church held their meetings on the Sabbath, and com- munions in the court-house, or at the dwellings of Coit and Clark, in the city of New London, and at the old "Groton meeting-house," on East Neck. The latter was from time to time repaired, and oceu- pied for one hundred and twenty or thirty years.

This church united with the Second Groton and other churches in forming, at Elder Burrows' meet- ing, an association called the "Groton Conference," which body in 1789 embraced fourteen churches, fourteen ministers, and about thirteen hundred com- municants. But Elder Darrow and his people not approving of mixed communion, as practiced by some of the associated churches, withdrew and united with the "Stonington Association." The minutes of sev- eral of the first sessions of the "Conference," com- mencing with 1786, are written out in full on the records.

To give an idea of the flourishing state of this Zion in the palmiest days of Father Darrow's ministry we subjoin a few statistics :

In 1786, added by baptism, 6; in 1787, 58 ; in 1788, 30; in 1789, 13; in 1790, 5; in 1794, 91.

It was during the extensive revival of 1794 that Francis Darrow was converted and united with the church. A late act of the General Assembly, which took effect about this time, graciously exempted all dissenters from the ecclesiastical establishment from paying for its support, provided they "certified their attachment and aid to dissenting bodies of their choice." To show how grateful an almost disfran- chised people were for small concessions, we need only to remark the lively joy which the Baptists of that day manifested for this deliverance. True, it was not the complete enfranchisement which was embodied in the constitution of our State at a later period. But it was hailed with a delight which was never surpassed by our Baptist fathers at any period of their history, for in it they realized the speedy tri- umph of full religious liberty. From the point of time which they occupied they could review the per- secutions, the ignominy which their predecessors and some of their contemporaries had suffered for vindi-

cating the very principle which the masses in " the land of steady habits" were beginning to understand. By none was this reaction in favor of liberty of conscience received with more unmingled satisfaction than by Father Darrow. For his tenacious memory, had it been disposed to forget (as his heart was to forgive), conld scarcely fail at times to recall the position which himself and brethren had occupied when branded as " followers of the mad men of Munster, aiming to sub- vert all the established forms of religion in the land," and this slander reiterated till it came to be believed by many good men. He could not wholly forget the open opposition, the civil disabilities, and the count- less embarrassments which had been imposed upon them solely for a steady but respectful adherence to their convictions of truth and duty.

In 1801, Budge Smith, an intelligent colored man, licensed some time before, was ordained as an evan- gelist. He was a sound, edifying preacher, whose memory is yet precions in Zion, but he did not live many years to serve his heavenly Master in this field. Budge had been a slave. The little property he had accumulated he left to the church.

George Atwell, another licentiate of this church, was ordained in 1802, and settled over the Saybrook Church. He finally finished his useful life at Enfield in 1814, aged forty-eight years.

About this time Father Darrow's health had be- come so impaired by his extraordinary labors, by age and consequent infirmity, that the church, by his advice, extended a call to the Rev. Samuel West, of Bozrah, to become associate pastor with Elder Dar- row (then in his seventy-fifth year), which he accepted, and came to reside among them in 1802. Elder West, who had at first been a Seventh-Day Baptist, was born in Hopkinton, R. I., in 1766. After embracing the Christian Sabbath, he was ordained at Norwich in 1799, and the same year settled over the Bozrah Church.

Two years after his settlement in Waterford the First Baptist Church of New London was formed by the dismissal of about fifty members from the old body. The new church called Elder West to the pastorate, but he continued, by agreement, to break bread to the Waterford brethren till 1809. After twelve years of successful labor with the mother and daughter in Waterford and New London he removed to Saybrook, and remained connected with that ancient church till his death in 1837.

Francis Darrow was associated with his grandfather Zadoe in 1809. But the latter continued to preach occasionally, as he was able, and when no longer ca- pable, from the weight of years, of blowing the gospel trumpet, as he had been wont, his tremulous voice was sometimes heard exhorting his spiritual children, counseling the youth, and affectionately inviting all to come to the Saviour. Deep and lasting impres- sions were made on the minds of his auditors as they heard these last appeals from this patriarchal servan

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of God, who had worn himself out in the service of their fathers. But the time of his departure was at hand. He had " fought the good fight" for almost fourscore years since his conversion and union with the church militant. He had ministered in the dea- con's and pastoral office more than three-fourths of a century.

Zadoc Darrow " fell asleep in Jesus" Feb. 15, 1827, in the ninety-ninth year of his age. His funeral ser- mon was preached by Elder West, his former col- league, from Deut. xxxii. 7: " Ask thy father," etc. Elder Darrow was three times married. His first wife was Hannah Lester, by whom he had no chil- dren. His second wife was the sainted Hester Lee, sister of Elder Jason Lee, of Lyme, by whom he had four sons and four daughters, all of whom lived to have families, and several of whose descendants have been or are still ministers of the gospel. His third wife, the pious Widow Pember, was united to him late in life, and died but five days before him, aged ninety-four years.

From the time of his conversion to God and con- nection with the church in 1794, Francis Darrow, who was the son of Deacon Lemuel Darrow, and grandson of Rev. Zadoc Darrow, had felt his mind occasionally called up to the subject of "preaching Christ." In 1809 he was ordained, at the unanimous call of the church, and made associate pastor with his aged grandfather. Elder Wilcox preached, and Elders Burrows, Lee, and West assisted in the exercises on the occasion. At that time this church did not, it must be confessed, present an inviting field. Its ag- gregate membership, which at one time had arisen to nearly three hundred, was now diminished to about half that number, and these so rent by divisions as to require the wisdom of an experienced leader to harmonize and build up this ancient Zion, which seemed to be threatened with dissolution. Among the causes of this diminution and unhappy declen- sion we may mention,-1. The protracted infirmity of the senior pastor, whose wonted efficiency in doctrine and discipline was no longer directly felt as it had been in the days of his vigor. 2. It lost some of its most efficient members by the rising of new Baptist interests around it,-a loss, however, which she ever felt to be a gain to the cause of Christ, and which she could not feel it in her heart to deplore. 3. The dis- traction of what has since been called the "Great Schism" had not been fully healed. This schism had originated upon matters of church discipline, in the progress of which the administrators had been obliged to refuse to break bread to the church. Coun- cil after Council had failed to accommodate the differ- ence, and when the body was supposed to be brought into " a gospel travel" the deacons refused to officiate, and one of them had to be suspended, and at last ex- cluded ; the church clerk refused to record what he considered "ungospel acts," and resigned ; several of the best brethren stopped the travel with the

church when the majority had believed the difference settled, which opened the wound afresh, and which was now pronounced by the desponding "incurable." 4. But the absence of any considerable revival since 1794 was a cause not to be overlooked in accounting for the deplorable state of things in which Francis Darrow found his beloved brethren when he was called to tend the scattered flock. Not discouraged by these things, but relying on help from God in the hour of extremity for those who tried to help them- selves, the young pastor cast his burden on the Lord, and soon had the happiness of seeing an improved state of affairs. The Lord remembered Zion.

From 1827 to October, 1850, Elder Francis Darrow was the sole pastor ; he completed in September, 1850, the fortieth year of his pastorship, and attended, in usual health, the New London Baptist Association, held at Norwich (which he assisted in organizing in 1817), where he took a part in its services, but returned to close his labors on earth. He preached his last sermon on Sabbath, Sept. 29, 1850, in usual health and strength. The latter part of the following week he became unwell, and continued to fail every day till Tuesday, the 15th of October, 1850, when his happy spirit, like a peaceful angel, fled to the bosom of his God. His age was seventy-one. His funeral was attended by an immense concourse of people from the surrounding region on Thursday, October 17th, when an appropriate sermon was delivered by Rev. C. Willett, of New London, from 1 Kings xx. 11. Rev. E. R. Warren, of New London, P. G. Wightman, of East Lyme, and Augustus Bolles participated in the services of the mournful occasion. Several other ministers were present and followed his remains to the grave. He left behind three children,-two sons and one daughter.

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History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 184

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1317

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317