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 17
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 17
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 17
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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 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
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orders at the time of his death. He read and translated the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages with great ease and fluency. Mr. Griswold removed to this country about the year 1828, and has continued to reside here since. On coming here he embarked in the mercantile business. Although leaving the pul- pit, he continued to be a most zealous Churchman, always aiding and sustaining by purse, precept, and example the denomination of his choice. By great prudence, economy and industry, he acquired a large fortune. His business habits were peculiar. He made a memorandum in writing of almost all his business transactions, however small. Hence his papers are very volu- minous. There was method and system in all he did. Within the compass of his vigilance and circumspection, nothing was wasted. He was a man of the strictest integrity. He demanded the same of others. He sometimes seemed to fail a little in charity for the shortcomings of those who were not possessed of the same strength of character that he had acquired. He was very indulgent to his debtors, particularly those who were honest and industrious, or those who could not be prompt by reason of misfortune. He was warm, generous and faithful as a friend, almost implacable as an enemy, stead- fast in his attachments, inexorable in his dislikes, a keen dis- cerner of human character. He abhorred snobbery in every form. He had an utter contempt for shams of every phase. Such men will have enemies. He had them. Mr. Griswold was a great reader, especially of standard and gifted authors. He possessed fine conversational powers, and conversed with great freedom with those who shared his confidence. For others he had but few words. He seldom sought others for sympathy. No matter how great his afflictions or adversities, he never obtruded his grief upon the attention of others. With a stern and unbending will he locked his troubles within the recesses of his own heart. Mr. Griswold has ceased a long, honorable and useful life, leaving a record of numerous virtues, deserving our remembrance and emulation. His errors it becomes us to avoid and forget."
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THE REV. ROGER SEARLE, A.M.
The first person to inform the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America of the state of the Church in Ohio, was the Rev. Roger Searle. He represented the Diocese before there was a Diocese to represent. He was then making the Diocese. His nine years of energetic labor in Ohio have placed him on record as one of the most noted pioneer missionaries of the West, a devoted and "zealous worker for the Glory of God, and the extension of His Kingdom."
A plain marble slab marks his grave in Chestnut Grove Ceme- tery, Ashtabula, Ohio, upon which is inscribed :
"Rev. / Roger Searle / first Rector of St. Peter's / Church Ashtabula - a / man distinguished for virtue / piety, and labor in the Gospel - / Died / Sept. 6, 1826, / Aged 52."
His seventh child, Mrs. Peter B. Johnson of Paola, Kans., now, (1906,) 89 years of age, says he was born at Willington, Conn. The record of his marriage at Middletown, Conn., in 1800, describes him as of Coventry, Conn. The "Christian Journal" for January, 1827, says that he "was a native of Stafford, Tolland County, Conn., born of respectable and pious parents, July 25, 1774." Another account says that he was born July 8, 1775, but July 25, 1774, is thought to be correct. The name of Searle does not appear in the town records of Willing- ton or Stafford and we cannot find the name of Roger Searle in the records of Coventry, Conn. But Lorenzo Dow's Journal shows that Mr. Searle was living at Coventry about 1791 ; went with young Dow to hear the Methodist preacher Hope Hull ; "found the pardoning love of God" and was one of the thirteen original members, Nov. 12, 1792, of the first Methodist Society in those parts. He was a second cousin of the eccentric preacher Lorenzo Dow, and Dow says that Searle and his sister "were the only young persons" he then had "to associate with on religious subjects."
Mr. Searle entered the ministry at the age of nineteen and for more than ten years was a reputable preacher in the Wesleyan connection.
REV. ROGER SEARLE, A.M.
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The minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Vol. I, show that he was admitted into full connection as a preacher in 1796, and under their rules he should have been admitted on trial two years before. This agrees with the statement that he began to preach at the age of nineteen. In 1790, there were only four Methodist clergymen in New England. [Holister's History of Connecticut, Vol. 2, p. 555.] He was appointed to the Saratoga Circuit in 1796. Was in the list of "Deacons" in 1797, and then appointed to the "Bath" Circuit. He was assigned to the Kennebeck Circuit in 1798, the Dutches Circuit 1799, the Middletown Circuit 1800, and the Cambridge Circuit 1801 and 1802. As showing how exten- sive a field these circuits covered, it may be remarked that the Middletown Circuit of Connecticut in 1800 practically covered the whole of the present Middlesex and New Haven Counties, and a few places in Hartford County. The lines were not clearly defined and perhaps overlapped each other. James Coleman was assigned to the Middletown Circuit with Mr. Searle, but they probably served alternately in the various places, both going over the same field. In 1803 and 1804, Mr. Searle is put down as a "Supernumerary," followed by his withdrawal some time before the Conference in the spring of 1805. For this Methodist record we are indebted to Messrs. Sylvester Smith and Eugene C. Hill, of New Haven, Conn.
Mr. Searle's name is not found in any list of graduates respec- tively of seventeen of the Colleges that were organized in the United States before 1800. He was married by the Rev. Enoch Huntington, (Congregationalist,) at Middletown, Conn., Aug. 7, 1800, to Sarah, daughter of Adino and Lois (Strong) Pome- roy of Middletown, Conn., born April 21, 1772, died at Ogdens- burg, N. Y., Jan. 17, 1849. It is probable that he was preparing himself for holy orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church dur- ing his two years as "Supernumerary" in the Methodist Church. He applied for Episcopal ordination from a conviction of the insufficiency and irregularity of the Methodist ordination, was ordered a deacon by the Rt. Rev. Abraham Jarvis, D.D., at Middletown, Conn., June 6, 1805, and ordained a priest by the same Bishop at New Haven, June 8, 1806. The "Churchman's Magazine" of New Haven, Vol. III, page 240, refers to this
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ordination as taking place at Trinity Church, and describes Mr. Searle as Rector of Christ Church, Berlin, (parish of Worthing- ton,) and what is now the Church of the Epiphany, Durham. These two Churches were probably his first Episcopal cure, and both of them were in the field of his labors in the Methodist Church, a few years before. Being Rector of these Churches at the time of his ordination to the priesthood, he had probably been officiating there while a deacon. The record of the ves- try meetings of Christ Church do not disclose who their preachers were after 1803, and the notice before referred to in the "Churchman's Magazine" is the only positive proof that Mr. Searle was the Rector at Worthington, although a later number of the "Churchman's Magazine" says he was Rector for two or three years at Durham. His second son was born at Durham, Conn., Nov. 25, 1805, from which we may infer that he was settled over these Churches before that date and that his residence was at Durham. Perhaps he changed his residence to New Britain or Worthington, about 1806, for we find that he was initiated into Harmony Lodge of Masons, Ber- lin, June 16, 1806, "date of passing," Oct. 27, 1806, and "date of raising," Jan. 27, 1707, with a memorandum that he was Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of the State in 1815. The records of the Convocation of the clergy of Connecticut show that he was present at Middletown, June 4, 1805, and was then recom- mended to the Bishop for deacon's orders, to which he was admitted two days later. He was present at the Convocations twice in 1806, once in 1809, once in 1810, twice in 1812, three times in 1813, twice in 1814, twice in 1816 and for the last time June 3, 1817. He was present at the Conventions of the Diocese of Connecticut, October 1806, June 1808, June and October 1810, June 1811, June 1812, June, August and Novem- ber 1813, June and October 1814, June 1815, June and Octo- ber 1816, and for the last time at Guilford, Conn., June 4, 1817. We may assume that he resided in or near New Britain at the date of being raised to the Degree of Master Mason, Jan. 27, 1807, and that he removed to Harwinton, Conn., between that date and Feb. II, 1808, at which time he was admitted to Aurora Lodge of that place. His residence at Harwinton is also shown by the birth of a son at that place, March 5, 1808.
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In the Journal of the General Convention, May, 1808, he is reported in the list of Connecticut clergy, as Rector of St. Mark's Church, Harwinton, and the Church at Northfield. D. C. Kilbourne, Esq., of Litchfield, Conn., gives his record from a manuscript history of Aurora Lodge, as follows :- Admitted as before stated. "Was Senior Warden, 1809-10, and Worshipful Master 1811-12. Chaplain of Grand Lodge 1815-16. Was a Protestant Episcopal minister at East Plym- outh. His last attendance at Lodge, Jan. 9, 1815. Was a zealous Mason as well as Churchman. Lectured for the Masons on several occasions. In 1817 he was sent by the P. E. Church as a missionary or organizer of parishes to 'New Connecticut,' Northern Ohio. Served his Church faithfully in that capacity. Died in Ohio in 1826." He was installed High Priest of Darius Chapter, Litchfield, Conn., Dec. 27, 1815. In the Journal of Convention, June, 1808, the committee on the bounds of the several cures reported the parishes of Harwinton and East Plymouth' as under the care of Mr. Searle.
The Bishop's address to the Convention, June 1, 1810, says "St. Peter's Church in Plymouth, having become vacant by the removal of the Rev. Mr. Prindle the Rev. Mr. Searle has resigned St. Mark's Church in Harwinton and taken the cure of St. Peter's Church, and St. Matthew's, in Plymouth." In a historical sermon, 1868, by the Rev. X. A. Welton, now residing at Redlands, Cal., it is stated that "in 1809, the two Plymouth parishes entered into a written contract, (which is on record,) with the Rev. Roger Searle, who agreed to give two-thirds of his time to St. Peter's, which contracted to pay that proportion of his salary of $450, and to furnish him yearly thirty cords of good fire wood if he would reside in the parish." He purchased one acre of land near the church at Plymouth center, Feb. 19, 1810, and had a house thereon in which he lived Jan. 13, 1814, when he gave a mortgage to raise $1,000. At the meeting of St. Peter's Parish, April 23, 1810, he was pres- ent as "Rector Elect." He was present as Rector, June 2, 1817, and at every vestry meeting save one, between 1810 and 1817.
A note book, formerly belonging to Roger Searle, is now in the possession of Mr. Wm. H. Searles of Elyria, Ohio, by
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whose courtesy we have many items of interest. It begins Sept. 24, 1815, by charging St. Matthew's Parish $9.00 for his Sunday services. It refers largely to farm affairs both in Con- necticut and Ohio. The only Connecticut parishes named in the book outside of Plymouth is a record of services at St. Mark's (Harwinton,) Dec. 8, 1816, and at Warehouse Point, July 6, 1817.
This note book contains the following entry :- "Nov. 10, 1816. This closes my seventh year's services in Plymouth, and I am at least seven hundred dollars poorer than when I came to this town."
Mr. Searle also left a diary of his clerical work in a separate book, which shows that he preached many times in Plymouth before November, 1809, from which we suppose that the seven years service relates to his permanent engagement there. This diary is now in the archives of the Diocese of Connecticut. The first twenty-six pages are missing. The first places recorded in the remaining pages are Harwinton, Dec. 25, and Northfield, Dec. 27, 1807. He then preached at Harwinton from two to four successive Sundays, (in one case for seven,) until March 5, 1809, when he preached his first sermon at St. Peter's, Plymouth. His first sermon at St. Matthew's, East Plymouth, was May 29, 1808. Although he relinquished his charge at Durham about 1807 and removed to Harwinton, he appears to have retained his care of Christ Church, Worthing- ton, (which he designates as Berlin,) and preached there four times during the year 1808 and again Jan. 1, 1809. His last services at Berlin were Oct. 8, 1815, and Feb. 28, 1816. Between March 5, 1809 and May 7, 1809, he generally alter- nated between St. Mark's, Harwinton, and St. Matthew's, East Plymouth, and then St. Peter's, St. Matthew's, and St. Mark's, each received about one-third of his time until his closing ser- vice at Harwinton, May 27, 1810. From this time on he gen- erally devoted about one-third of his time to St. Matthew's and two-thirds to St. Peter's. On May 24, 1810, he preached a fun- eral sermon in the Baptist meeting-house at Bristol. Other places, where he preached, not elsewhere mentioned in this paper, are Burlington, Litchfield, Middletown, Watertown, Windsor, Wolcott and Woodbury. This diary records the text
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of all the sermons mentioned, the funerals attended after Sept. 13, 1809, and the names of those he baptized and married, after June 13, 1813.
The Convocation of the clergy of Connecticut assembled at Plymouth on the first Tuesday of June, 1810. On the day following they met again and marched in procession to the church. "Morning Prayer was read by the Rev'd. Samuel F. Jarvis and a sermon was delivered by the Rev'd. Chauncy Prindle, and the Rev'd. Roger Searle was duly, and canonically instituted into the Rectorship of St. Matthew's and St. Peter's Churches in Plymouth, by the Rev'd. Philo Shelton." In October, 1810, he had the honor of reading Morning Prayers for the Diocesan Convention at Cheshire. At the June Con- vention 1811 he was appointed one of the committee to take into consideration the dissolution of the Rev. Smith Miles' connec- tion with the Society of Chatham. He was admitted an elector at Plymouth, 18II. That his two parishes in Plymouth were prosperous, is shown by the Bishop's address to the Convention in 1812, stating that "The holy rite of Confirmation was admin- istered to 122 in St. Peter's Church in the town of Plymouth," out of a total of 464 for the entire State. This is by far the largest confirmation class reported in the Journal of Con- vention, prior to 1820. He records in his diary the confirma- tion of 141 persons by Bishop Hobart at St. Peter's, Oct. 25, 1816. His first report of his parishes to the Convention appears in the Journal for 1812, after which they are reported every year to 1817. He was at Philadelphia Nov. 19, 1815, and witnessed the consecration of Bishop Croes. On his return he stopped at New York and preached in St. John's Church Sunday morning, Nov. 26, and in the evening at St. Paul's. He read the lessons at New Haven, Feb. 22, 1816, for the institution of the Rev. Harry Croswell to the rectorship of Trinity Church. He read Morning Prayer at the Conven- tion for the second time at New Haven, in June, 1816, at which Convention he was elected as one of the deputies "to the next General Convention," to be held at New York, in May, 1817.
On December 27, 1813, the anniversary of St. John the Evangelist, Mr. Searle delivered an address before Harmony Lodge, at Berlin, Conn., which was published at Hartford,
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1814, by a vote of the Lodge. Referring to the burial office, Mr. Searle says :- "These last offices the brethren of this Lodge have performed for several of their members, since the speaker had the honor of receiving among them the three first degrees of the order. No unhallowed hands inflicted the strokes which brought those Brothers and Companions to the dust; therefore no confusion hath taken the precedence of order among the workmen. It was a visiting messenger sent from the high court of all human destinies, to execute its man- dates; it was Death. But Charity whispers a hope, that, like the 'Widow's Son' those Companions have fallen maintaining their integrity. It was the pleasure of the Grand Master of the universe, that they should be called off. And it ill accords with the fidelity of the workman to murmur at the plans and pro- ceedings of the wise Master Builder. However arduous the task assigned may seem, in dutiful submission, and faithful performance, consist their greatest security and highest felic- ity. They are not to expect, in this terrestrial Lodge, those high attainments in the mysteries, and plans of operation, pecu- liar to the Great Architect, 'what I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter.' Then may we not indulge the fond hope, that the recording angel hath enrolled their names in the archives above; not as transient visitants, but, as perpetual members of the Celestial Lodge which is far away." This address is the only publication from Mr. Searle's pen that we have found.
The name of "Rev. Sir Roger Searle appears in the Charter of Mt. Vernon Encampment, No. I, Worthington, Ohio (now Mt. Vernon Commandery, No. I.) June 5, 1818; he received then the Red-Cross and the Orders of the Temple and Malta.
In 1817, Mr. Searle was well established at Plymouth and had become well known and esteemed throughout the State. He had his marriage and the birth of six children recorded on the town records at Plymouth. From this record, which gives the places where his children were born, we get something of an idea of the migratory life that he had lived. His seventh child, Nancy Sarah Maria, (now Mrs. Johnston,) was born at Plym- outh, Conn., Feb. 7, 1817, the very day that he first entered the State of Ohio on his missionary work. The great tide of
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emigration to the Western Reserve, started by Moses Cleveland in 1796, reached Plymouth about 1813. [Atwater's History of Plymouth.] Many of his flock were moving to Ohio, In his two parishes, according to his reports to the Convention, there was a loss of twenty-eight families out of one hundred and thirty-nine, between 1815 and 1817. His people were poor and his salary small at best, and insufficient for his proper sup- port. In the great West, he could easily obtain land and cattle, and his grass and his cattle would grow while he was preaching, as well as while he was sleeping. His former service of ten years as a Methodist circuit rider perhaps led him to dream of the privations and self-sacrifice of a pioneer missionary and made him once more long for "the unfathomable feeling of pleasure in new and exciting work."
The missionary spirit had been for some time working in Connecticut. The matter was first considered in Convention in 1792. After the annual Convention of 1816 the Bible and Prayer Book Society was formed, and according to Swords' "Almanac" Mr. Searle was one of its directors 1816 and 1817. "His labors here were much blessed and he gained the esteem and affection of a large circle of friends." His well known qualifications for a pioneer missionary caused some of the Bishops, many of his clerical brethren and "many gentlemen of distinction in Ohio" to urge him to go West and gather and organize into parishes the dispersed members of the Church. As early as 1816 he had contemplated a radical change.
The story "of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Medina, Ohio," by the Rev. Francis E. McManus, says, "An exceeding flutter of excitement was experienced in the little village of Plymouth, Connecticut, when it was noised around the place that the Rec- tor of St. Peter's Church would resign and become a missionary in the 'Reserve' The Rev. Roger Searle had been Rector of St. Peter's seven years, and becoming restless under the monotony of the work, asked for a 'leave of absence from January thirtieth to May thirty-first, to visit the New West and perhaps live there.'" "On the first day of February, 1817, he left his family and parish in Connecticut, and proceeded on his way to Ohio, with letters of credence and recommendation from the Standing Committee of this Diocese, Bishops, and many
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respectable clergymen and laymen in other Dioceses. After a cold and tedious journey, in which he suffered much, he reached the borders of Ohio on the morning of Feb. 17, 1817. As he approached the dividing line between Pennsylvania and Ohio, he desired Mr. Talbot, who was his companion from Springfield, Penn., to Ashtabula, Ohio, to stop his sleigh on the line. The request being complied with, Mr. Searle kneeled down in the snow, and in the hearing of Talbot only, put up a fervent prayer to Almighty God for the blessing of His aid upon the contem- plated researches and labors in the wide field which he was now entering, the greater part of which had been untrodden by the feet of any Clergyman of the Church. The prayer ended, Mr. Searle resumed his seat by the side of Talbot and drove on to Ashtabula, where they arrived at one o'clock, Feb. 19, 1817. Here with great joy he was welcomed by several families who had been his parishioners in Connecticut, and who had been, since 1813, in the practice of assembling on Sundays for public worship conducted by a lay reader." [The Jarvis Centenary, pps. 45, 46.] In like manner, Mr. Searle proceeded from place to place and in the short space of about two months organized seven new Churches as follows :
St. Peter's, Ashtabula.
St. Paul's, Medina.
Trinity, Cleveland. St. Luke's, Ravenna.
St. John's, Liverpool. St. Mark's, Columbia.
St. James', Boardman.
The party who came to Ohio with Mr. Searle rested at Ash- tabula for a week and then proceeded to the residence of Zenas Hamilton, a former resident of Danbury, Conn., who had erected a log cabin in the wild tangle of woodland, into which he moved his family October, 1814. More than two years passed before Mr. Hamilton saw a soul aside from his own family. The ever active Mr. Searle promised to meet them there in a few weeks. While he was organizing the Churches at Cleveland, Liverpool, and Columbia, his companions from Connecticut had selected their home sites and established the Colony at Medina, where they were joined by others and anx- iously awaited the arrival of Roger Searle. On Monday night, March IO, a solitary wanderer of robust build, rather corpulent
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and six feet in height, reached a turn in the road where the cabin of Zenas Hamilton was visible. Pushing his broad-brim- med hat back on his head, and throwing his cloak ends back over his shoulders, he called aloud. Here the settlers had gathered to talk over their prospects and rehearse events of the past. The wanderer knocked at the cabin door, and the startled party soon saw their old friend, Roger Searle, who greeted them cordially by saying, "I'm true to my word." A log fire burned cheerily on a hearth built of stones turned up by the plow, Mrs.
REV. ROGER SEARLE, M. A.
Hamilton had in preparation a steak of bear meat and a bowl of rye porridge for supper. After the usual questioning con- cerning the latest news, Roger Searle had them in earnest con- versation on the question of establishing the Church in their midst. For be assured, he said, "that where religion is not foremost, there is no permanent home." The first religious ser- vice of any name in Medina was held by appointment in Zenas Hamilton's cabin the day following Mr. Searle's arrival, and immediately after the service, a Church was formally organized. "The good words from those pioneers," wrote Roger Searle
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later, "encouraged me not a little." "I was free here to travel unbeaten paths, and in a land where there were great needs of Missionary effort."
"One Lord's day, after service in the house of Miles Ferris, it was decided to build a church. So on the tenth day of April 1817, the whole community 'rose early and cleared ground enough to build a log house.' Trees were felled, the logs hewed, and by four o'clock in the afternoon the house had been built and divine services conducted." It was built in the usual fashion of log houses and roofed with bark and clods. "The seats were rough poles supported between the logs and stakes driven into the ground. There were no aisles, and those who wished front seats stepped over the poles to their places. A small table served as the lectern and pulpit, and a three legged rustic chair completed the chancel furniture." [Story of St. Paul's E. C. Medina, and Howe's History of Ohio, Vol. II, p. 459.] In many places Mr. Searle found "Churchmen and com- municants, waiting for the clergyman's presence to organize into parishes, and gladly receiving at his hands the sacraments so long denied them in this newly settled land."
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