USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Wethersfield > History of Saint Mark's Church, New Britain, Conn., and of its predecessor Christ Church, Wethersfield and Berlin : from the first Church of England service in America to nineteen hundred and seven > Part 13
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Berlin > History of Saint Mark's Church, New Britain, Conn., and of its predecessor Christ Church, Wethersfield and Berlin : from the first Church of England service in America to nineteen hundred and seven > Part 13
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > New Britain > History of Saint Mark's Church, New Britain, Conn., and of its predecessor Christ Church, Wethersfield and Berlin : from the first Church of England service in America to nineteen hundred and seven > Part 13
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It reads as follows :-
"Berlin, 7th of Decem'r, 1801.
Reverend Sir-We hereby address you as our patron bene- factor and most worthy guide in the Episcopal Persuasion. We ourselves being fully satisfied therein tender unto thee our truly sincere and most cordial thanks for the tender regard thou hast been pleased to discover towards us, and that you many long live for the instruction of us and our fellow-creatures and thy own satisfaction is our sincere prayer, and let us give glory unto Him to whom glory is due.
Nextly, we recommend unto thee the very amiable and pious Mr. James Kilbourne, who has preached with us alternately for the year past to the universal satisfaction of his hearers, and do assert that at a meeting of the Episcopal Society called Wethers- field and Worthington, legally warned and assembled on Thurs- day, the 3d of instant December, for the purpose of trying their minds for the treating with and further employing Mr. Kil- bourn to preach to them in case he can be obtained. We, the subscribers, do hereby certify that they were unanimous, not a dissenting vote, and that he may still long continue to persevere in the vocation whereunto he's called is our sincere desire.
Accept, kind sir, these from your acknowledged constituents and truly obedient Very Humble Serv'ts,
John Goodrich,
Jonathan Gilbert, Wardens.
Selah Buckley, Clerk.
Asahel A. Kellsey, 1
David Beckley, Societies Committee.
John Goodrich,
Joseph Sage, Societies Clerk. David Gilbert, Jonathan Gilbert, Jr., Joseph Goodrich."
Mr. Kilbourne had probably been for two years a candidate for holy orders and as shown by this recommendation began his services at Berlin in 1800, probably in the spring of that year.
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IN WETHERSFIELD AND BERLIN.
This recommendation also confirms the cemetery record that Jonathan Gilbert was one of the first wardens, besides showing that John Goodrich was the other. Selah Buckley, (Beckley,) who signed as "Clerk" was only clerk pro tem. of the meeting of Dec. 3, 1801. The name Joseph Goodrich which is signed to the document does not appear in the book of records. The records are evidently incomplete. Jonathan Gilbert, Jr. was elected warden, April 18, 1808, to fill the vacancy caused by his father's death in 1805. We have no record of the election of any other warden and who the other wardens were we do not known. We have no record of the election of any vestry- men, but we are informed by the Rev. N. S. Sage that Oliver and Joseph Sage were both vestrymen.
Pursuant to this recommendation, Mr. Kilbourne was made deacon, at Cheshire, by Bishop Jarvis, Jan. 24, 1802, as is shown by the following certificate :
"By the Tenor of these presents, we Abraham, by divine permission Bishop of Connecticut, do make it known unto all men, that on Sunday, the twenty forth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and two, under the protection of Almighty God, administering holy Orders, in St. Peter's Church, in Cheshire, did ordain our well beloved in Christ, James Kilburn ; concerning whose morals Learning, Age & Title we were well satisfied, unto the holy Order of Dea- cons: According to the manner and form prescribed, & used by this protestant episcopal Church, in the United States of America ; and him, the said James Kilburn did then and there rightly and canonically, ordain Deacon. He having first, in our presence freely & voluntarily, subscribed the declaration
required. In Testimony, whereof, we have hereunto affixed our Episcopal Seal, the day, and Year above written, and the fifth year of our Consecration.
Abraham Bp seal Connecticut.
fee I dollar"
This certificate is on parchment. The seal is not wax, but is an impression on another piece of parchment, pendantly attached by a small strip. Mr. Kilbourne is next referred to in the records, Nov. 30, 1802, as the Rev. James Kilbourne, when
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the committee were instructed to engage him one quarter of the time from Christmas until Easter and then half of the time until Christmas, 1803. He was residing in Granby in Septem- ber, 1801, but his residence was given as Berlin, in December, 1802, when he signed the articles of agreement of the Scioto Company. We may therefore call him the first resident minister of the Church in this place. In the summer of 1802, he made his first trip to Ohio, preparatory to settling there, and it seems that the Bishop thought he was neglecting his parish, as is shown by the following letter :
"Berlin, July 29, 1802.
Right Reverend Sir :- We are informed that the Bishop is displeased with Mr. Kilbourn's calculation, in leaving this Parish to take a journey into the Northwestern Territory- fearing that it will prove a disappointment and a damage to the church here.
We beg, therefore, humbly to represent to the Bishop That Mr. Kilbourn has long contemplated this journey and often declared it to the wardens and others from the first of his reading here, and it was fully understood in the last contract made with him by the committee a short time before he was ordained, and was a condition in the contract, that he should be at liberty to make this particular journey if he should think it expedient-and he did not engage so much as to supply the pulpit during his absence; but he has, notwithstanding, been so thoughtful of our interest and prosperity as to agree with the Rev. Mr. Warren, the Rev. Mr. Ives, and Mr. S. Griswold, a Candidate, to supply us as usual while he shall be absent, which is more than we expected, but is in full unison with the wishes of all the parish.
We understand the contract which he has made with Mr. Griswold and fully approve of it, and as we have once heard Mr. Griswold read to the satisfaction of the whole Society pres- ent, we must request the Bishop to forward Mr. Kilbourn's design in this respect, encouraging Mr. Griswold to come for- ward agreeably to the encouragement he has given. We believe it would be an injury to the Society if he should not. We could all wish, to be sure, that Mr. Kilbourn did not wish to take this
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IN WETHERSFIELD AND BERLIN.
journey, but inasmuch as he does, we ought to and we do hereby certify that it is no more than we agreed to at the time when we made our contract with him, which contract on the part of Mr. Kilbourn has been observed with honor.
We subscribe ourselves, with all due submission and respect,
Your very Humble and Obedient Servants,
Johnì Goodrich, Jonathan Gilbert.
Wardens of the Church in Wethersfield and Worthington. To the Right Reverend Abraham Jarvis, Bp. of Connecticut."
The certificate of Mr. Kilbourne's ordination was copied for us from the original, by Mr. F. T. Cole, editor of the "Old Northwest Geological Quarterly," and the recommendation and letter to the Bishop are copied from Vol. 6, pp. 122, 123, of that magazine. The Rev. Joseph Warren referred to in this letter was the Rector at Middletown, and the records of the said Church show that he baptized one adult and eight children at Wethersfield, Jan. 17, 1801. No doubt these baptisms were at Christ Church, Worthington. Mr. Ives was the Rev. Reuben Ives of Cheshire, and probably Mr. Warren and Mr. Ives both officiated here occasionally during all of Mr. Kil- bourne's time, to perform such offices as a deacon could not perform. Mr. Kilbourne left here with his family for Ohio, in April, 1803, and founded the town of Worthington, Ohio, which he named in honor of his old parish. The S. Griswold referred to in this letter was Samuel Griswold, brother of Bishop Griswold. He was made deacon at Cheshire, Nov. 27, 1803, and ordained priest at Middletown, June 6, 1805, at which time he is described in the " Churchman's Magazine " as Rector at Great Barrington, Mass. He preached at Granby in the spring of 1802, and as he was then taking Mr. Kilbourne's place we infer that Mr. Kilbourne then had charge of the Church at Granby. Mr. Griswold continued to preach at Worthington as late as March 18, 1805. He was present at the Diocesan Convention of Connecticut in June, 1805, which implies that he was still residing here, and no doubt he continued to offi- ciate at Christ Church, Worthington, until he was relieved by the
10
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Rev. Roger Searle. The "Churchman's Magazine" called Mr. Searle Rector of Christ Church, Berlin, and a Church at Dur- ham, when he was ordained to the priesthood, on June 8, 1806. We have no doubt but that he officiated here in the year 1805. He resided for a time at Durham, but probably resided here in 1806 and 1807, as he was a member of Harmony Lodge of Masons, Berlin, from June 16, 1806 to Jan. 27, 1807, or later. Some time during the year 1807, Mr. Searle took charge of the Churches at Northfield and Harwinton and removed to the latter place. He appears however to have retained his care of Christ Church, for he preached here Aug. 7, Oct. 2 and 30, and Nov. 27, 1808 and Jan. 1, 1809. If any other ministers have been settled over the old Church we do not know who they were. There is no record between that of the annual meeting April 2, 1810, and June 29, 1826, a gap of more than sixteen years. At this annual meeting, 1810, they elected the regular officers, laid a tax of two cents on the dollar and appointed a delegate to the Diocesan Convention. There were no signs of decay and we have reason to believe that the Church was more or less active during these sixteen years. The Rev. N. S. Sage, a Universalist minister of Junction City, Kansas, writes me that his mother, (whose maiden name was Susan Mallory,) was a member of Christ Church, Berlin, and that she was confirmed in 18II, at which time she was presented with a prayer book inscribed " From Christ Church, Berlin, Established 1797." The Rev. Asa Cornwall, Rector at Southington, reports in the Journal of Convention for 1816, that he had during the year officiated occasionally at Berlin. We learn from the Rev. Nathaniel E. Cornwall, of Stratford, (a grandson,) that endorse- ments on Asa Cornwall's sermons and his diary show that he preached at Berlin, April 15, 1804, Newington Dec. 6, 1812 and Jan. 3, 1813, Berlin Sept. 11, 1814, Sept. 25, 1814, Oct. 30, 1814, June and June 30, 1815, (charged for two Sundays,) Aug. 13, 1815, at the funeral of Mrs. Lucy, wife of David Gilbert, of New Britain, and Dec. 11, 1818, at the funeral of Mrs. Lucina, wife of Elizur Deming. Although these endorsements are for Newington and Berlin, they all refer to Christ Church, Worth- ington. On Oct. 8, 1815, the Rev. Roger Searle visited his old Church at Worthington, and preached two sermons. He also
IN WETHERSFIELD AND BERLIN. 159
baptized Mr. John Dunham and his two children, and Jerusha, infant daughter of Thomas and Jerusha Deming. Mr. Deming was elected treasurer, April 19, 1802 and held that office until his death, more than twenty-five years later. Mr. Searle again came to Berlin, Feb. 28, 1816, and baptized two adults, but does not appear to have preached a sermon. Although the records stop in 1810, the parish was assessed in August, 1813, for the Bishop's fund, showing that the Diocese did not then consider it a dead parish.
Jonathan Gilbert, Jr., one of the wardens of Christ Church, lived in the southeastern part of New Britain and died 1809. His son Raphael afterwards became a Methodist preacher. It was largely through his influence that the Methodists were established in New Britain. He obtained preachers and held meetings in various places. One of these meetings was held, without permission, at Christ Church, Worthington, and thus the last service, so far as we know in this old Episcopal church, was what we would now call an old-fashion Methodist revival meeting, and it is said that soon after this the church steeple fell over northeasterly into a hole. We have the tradition of the steeple falling over from three different sources, and one old lady, (non-Episcopal,) who lived near by as a girl, has no recol- lection of the church, except that for years it was a habitation for owls and bats, with its steeple lying in a hole.
We do not know the date of this Methodist meeting, but we learn from the " American Mercury " issue of Sept. 1I, 1821, and the " Connecticut Mirror " issue of Sept. 20, 1821, that one of the " severest gales within our recollection " commenced at Hartford about 7 o'clock P. M. Sept. 3, and that not less than forty buildings in the town of Wethersfield were blown down, unroofed, or otherwise damaged. "In the Newington Society the steeple of the Episcopal church was blown down.", The steeple of the Episcopal church at Middletown was blown down during the same storm. This makes the date of the Methodist meeting at about the summer of 1821.
The references to this old church in the Journals of Con- vention are as follows :
John Goodrich, Wethersfield, Delegate. June Convention 1798.
Rev. Mr. Kilbourne, present. April Convention 1802.
1
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Selah Brockley, (Beckley,) Berlin, Delegate. April Conven- tion 1802.
Rev. James Kilbourne, present. Oct. Convention 1802.
Uri (Unni) Robbins, Wethersfield and Worthington, dele- gate. Oct. Convention 1802.
Rev. Samuel Griswold, president. June Convention 1805.
John Goodrich, (of Newington,) Wethersfield and Worth- ington, delegate. June Convention 1805.
Rev. Roger Searle, present. Oct. Convention 1806.
J. Goodrich, (of Newington,) Wethersfield and Berlin, dele- gate. June Convention 1807. Grand Levy, $4,320.00.
Rev. Roger Searle, present. June Convention 1808.
Middletown, Durham and Berlin, vacant, assigned to one cure. June Convention 1808.
Rev. Asa Cornwall's report, "Officiated occasionally" in Berlin. June Convention 1816.
Berlin, one of the Parishes that " have as yet paid nothing " on the 1813 assessment for the Bishop's Fund. June Conven- tion, 1817.
Berlin, assessment of $129, for the Bishop's Fund unpaid. Convention of 182I.
Two baptisms reported at Berlin, Journal for 1823.
Berlin, Wethersfield, Worthington and Newington, referred to in report of Ancient Parishes, page 179, Journal for 1896.
The Journal for 1897, p. 175, says of St. Mark's Parish, New Britain, that "There seems to be reason for believing that the present parish is identical with that organized in Worthington Society, Berlin in 1797."
In 1826, the Society was without a clerk, owing to the removal of Oliver Sage to Greenfield, Mass., and consequently a meeting was warned by Luther Beckley, Esq., Justice of the Peace, " for the purpose of appointing the necessary officers, and doing any other business which said meeting may find proper and necessary." The meeting was held at the church July 10, 1826, and the usual officers elected. A com- mittee was also appointed to "enquire into and try to ascer- tain who has robbed and plundered our Church building of the books, seats and other property" and to take means to bring such persons to justice. The meeting then adjourned to Aug.
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IN WETHERSFIELD AND BERLIN.
8, 1826, when a committee was appointed to sell the church building " at public auction on the first Monday of Oct. next, if not sold at private sale before that time." Meetings were held Sept. 25, Oct. 2, 9 and 23, and Nov. 17, 1826. Mr. Ralph Dickinson bid $85, Oct. 2, Jabez Dickinson bid $108, Oct. 23, but the record says he "was a by bidder" and so it was not sold. The meeting of Nov. 17, 1826 was the last meeting ever held in the old church, at which time the building was sold to Jabez Dickinson for $115. The formal transfer was made by the committee on the same day, as follows :
" To whom it may concern, Know ye, that we Thomas Dem- ing, Ralph Dickinson, Linus Gilbert & Samuel S. Goodrich a committee appointed for the purpose of selling the Church building belonging to the Episcopal Society of Wethersfield & Worthington, being directed & fully authorised by said Society at a meeting legally warned & held at the church on the 8th. day of August A.D. 1826. Having given public notice by advertis- ing, that we should sell it at public vendue ;- and Mr. Jabish Dickinson of Berlin being the highest & last bidder: we do therfore sell & dispose to said Jabish Dickinson, said church building standing in Wethersfield in Hartford County, for the sum of one hundred & fifteen dollars; the receipt whereof we hereby acknowledge .- Accordingly we do grant, sell & confirm unto Jabish Dickinson said Building with the under-pinning stone & all other appurtenances belonging to said church build- ing .- And said Dickinson is to have the full term of one year to move said building from the spot on which it now stands. And we do warrant and covenant with sd Dickinson that we · have full power & authority to sell & dispose of sd building in manner & form as is above written; & that the same is free of all incumbrances whatsoever .-
In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands & seals this 17th day of November A.D. 1826.
Signed, seal'd &c. In presence of Thomas Deming (seal) Ralph Dickenson (seal)
Luther Beckley
Jerusha Dickenson Samuel S. Goodrich (seal)
Hartford County ss. Berlin Nov. 17th. 1826.
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Personally appeared Thomas Deming, Ralph Dickinson & Samuel S. Goodrich signers & sealers of the foregoing instru- ment and acknowledged the same to be their free act & deed .- Before me
Luther Beckley Just. of the Peace."
Mrs. Harriet H. Dickinson, widow of Nathaniel, the son of Jabez, says that Ralph Dickinson bought the building and that Jabez had no interest whatever in it. A close study of the records relating to the sale appears to confirm this statement. Ralph was evidently the real buyer, although he bought it in the name of his brother.
The building was torn down; a part of the timbers were used to build a cider mill at the Oliver Richards place on the Hart- ford and New Haven turnpike, in the south part of Newington. The rest of the building and its contents were taken to the Ralph Dickinson place. Here part of the timbers were worked into another cider mill, which is now a part of Mr. Richard Bol- ton's barn. Later some of the timber was used in repairing the old shop opposite the house of Mr. William Bulkeley in Berlin. The Richards cider mill has recently been worked over into a wagon shed, so that the old church timber is still in use.
Having disposed of the church, there naturally came the question of what should be done with the money. When the old church building at Southington was sold, they gave the pro- ceeds to the Christian Knowledge Society. There was no way by which such money could be equitably distributed among the people, and we may assume that some one connected with Christ Church referred the matter to the Bishop. He made an order that the assets should be turned over to the Episcopalians who should first erect a church building within three miles of the old site. A meeting was held at the house of Mr. Nathaniel Dickinson, Dec. 28, 1827 for the election of officers, Mr. Dick- inson being then elected treasurer. A committee was also appointed to take possession of the treasurer's book, money and all the property belonging to the society, showing that they still intended to keep up their organization although they were house- less and homeless. We found in the attic of the old Ralph Dick- inson house the round portion of the tops of the windows from the old church and in the barn we found the square portion
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IN WETHERSFIELD AND BERLIN.
A WINDOW FROM CHRIST CHURCH
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from which the round part had been cut, and thus we are able to present the accompanying illustration of the windows. Pointed panes in round top windows are not common. Christ Church in West Haven, built 1740, and the old North church on the New Haven green, have windows of the same style, and from the illustration of Christ Church, Hartford, in Dr. Rus- sell's History of that Church, we judge that the windows were of the same pattern. In the same attic there was a grand old table that belonged to the Church. It is hand-made of syca- more, framed together without screws or nails, and the top is a single board over thirty inches wide. Mr. Richard Bolton has presented it to St. Mark's Church. It has been refinished and is now in use at their parish house. In the same Ralph Dick- inson family was one of the old communion cups, which is illustrated on another page. Mrs. Selden Deming also has a table that formerly belonged in the old church.
The last record belonging strictly to the old parish of Christ Church, Worthington, is the following receipt which was found among papers belonging to the Dickinson family.
"$152.33
Berlin, Feby. 4th. 1837.
Recd. of Nathaniel Dickenson late treasurer of the Episcopal Society of Wethersfield & Worthington one Note of seventy five dollars dated Nov. 17th. 1826 payable six months from date & one of seventy two dollars 2% dated Nov. 25th. 1828 payable on demand Also seven dollars and 3% cash
Selden Deming Treasurer."
We have no record of the election of Selden Deming as treasurer. He was the son of Thomas Deming, who had been treasurer for more than 25 years. Nathaniel Dickinson, aged 78, died March 30, 1837, less than two months after the date of this receipt. He was the last treasurer of record and his recognition of Mr. Deming as treasurer, indicates that he was duly elected. It is probable that owing to Mr. Dickinson's infirmities and age, a new treasurer was elected about the date of this receipt, in order to maintain their organization, so that the proceeds from the sale of the old church could be paid over to their proper successors in due time.
CHALICE, FROM CHRIST CHURCH.
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IN WETHERSFIELD AND BERLIN.
The active life of the old Church was only about 18 years. It was never very large nor rich. In fact we have called it the "lost Church", as its existence was apparently soon forgotten. Beardsley wrote a history of the Church in Connecticut and does not appear to have found it. Some half dozen or more families followed Mr. Kilbourne to Ohio, and before 1822, it had lost more than that number of its leading men by death, such removals and deaths taking away most of the liberal sup- porters of the society, enough to cripple even a stronger society than this ever was.
A biographical sketch of the Rev. Roger Searle, by the Rev. A. B. Chapin in the "Calendar" of Nov. 4, 1854, says that Mr. Searle "first preached about two years in a Parish in Durham and Berlin which soon became extinct by the removal of the principal inhabitants to the West." This statement made thus early may be accepted as the real cause for the decline of this Church. According to the census of 1830, the entire population of the town of Berlin was only 3,037. The town then included the three parishes of Worthington, Kensington and New Britain.
It has been stated that the formation of this Church grew out of dissensions in the Congregational Society of Newington as to the location of the meeting house, but this is erroneous. It is true that after an 18-year contest, the Newington Society located their meeting house in the summer of 1797 farther east than some of the people wanted it, and this only a few months before Christ Church of Worthington was started. But there is no evidence that any one of the dissatisfied parties had any- thing to do with the formation of Christ Church, other than to contribute towards the building. It was an opportune time to get subscriptions and may have caused the Episcopalians to start then, but this is practically all the effect that the Newington quarrel ever had on Christ Church.
The real founders of the Church were the seven men who signed the first paper, Sept. 4, 1797. This paper is dated at Berlin, not Newington. Of the seven founders, six lived at that time in the Worthington parish, and one, Stephen Webster, lived in Newington. He was never a member of the Newing- ton Church nor of the Society, except by residence, and he is
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not known to have had any part in the meeting house contro- versy. Four of these founders had been previously identified as Episcopalians by their associations with Christ Church, Middletown. There were only nine persons whose subscrip- tions to the building fund amounted to $50 or more, viz: John Goodrich $190., David Goodrich $170., Jonathan Gilbert $100., Daniel Steele $100., Jonathan Gilbert, Jr. $60., David Gilbert $60., Elizur Deming $60., David Steele $56., and David Dickin- son $50. Three different persons by the name of John Good- rich, (with their families,) are recorded in the Wethersfield records as married from 1770 to 1776. In this record they are designated as John Goodrich, John Goodrich 2nd. and John Goodrich 3rd. Besides this, they are uniformly thus designated throughout the land records. The two first lived in the parish of Wethersfield. John 2nd was a deacon in the Congrega- tional Church and John 3rd lived in Newington. The name of John 3rd does not appear in the subscriptions to the building fund, nor anywhere in the records, until April 6, 1801. There was also a John Goodrich and John Goodrich Jr. living in the Kensington parish within less than a mile of Christ church, but they are supposed to have always been Congregationalists. John Goodrich of Christ Church lived in the town of Wethers- field and not Berlin, as is shown by the lease of the land for the church and the deed of land for the cemetery, dated respec- tively, April 5, 1798, and Dec. 24, 1803, in both of which he is called John Goodrich of Wethersfield. While the clerk of the society might carelessly record "John Goodrich" for John Goodrich 3rd, this would not be the case in legal documents. This lease and deed, beyond any reasonable doubt, identify the John Goodrich who subscribed the $190., as John Goodrich of the Wethersfield parish and not John Goodrich 3rd of Newing- ton. David Goodrich lived in Newington but had been pre- viously identified as an Episcopalian by the baptism of his children at Christ Church, Middletown. Jonathan Gilbert, (he was Jonathan, Jr. in 1776,) Daniel Steele, Jonathan Gilbert, Jr., David Gilbert and David Goodrich all lived in Worthington and were all Episcopalians. Elizur Deming lived in Newington. The only member of Christ Church that was ever prominent in the Congregational Society of Newington was Unni Robbins, but he
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