USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Stamford > History of Stamford, Connecticut : from its settlement in 1641, to the present time, including Darien, which was one of its parishes until 1820 > Part 10
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That a practical answer was made to such an inquiry is shown in the following record :
" In March 1672, Francis Bell, Francis Brown, and John Green were appointed a committee to treat with the 'Engins,' and understand what they have to say to the town, and to make return of what they have to say to the town, that the said In dians may receive an answer from the town."
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What report this committee made is not to be found on record. That it did not allay the fears which had been excited, the fol- lowing records of a later date will show. The first of these is found in a letter, dated Stamford, Dec. 29, 1673, and directed to the General Court at Boston. It was intended as an earnest plea for help :
" Wherefore, in expectation of the armies coming against this open declared enemy we have been hitherto silent, but by the long retard and no intelligence upon any prosecution upon that account we are afraid (it) is laid aside, whereby we shall be much endangered if not ruined, if your honors do not by some speedy means relieve us, for we are frontiers and most likely assaulted in the first place."
The above plea for help seems to have been made jointly by Stamford, Greenwich and Rye. Again, on the tenth of October, 1675, governor Andros sends word to the governor at Hartford that five or six thousand Indians are in league and ready to fall upon Greenwich, Hartford and other places still further east at the next full moon.
On the nineteenth of the same month he sends word that it is rumored that the Stamford Indians are in arms; and he com- mends the colonists in the state for putting themselves "in a fitting posture for all events." What this means we may learn from our records, which show that in March 1675 '6, Mr. Bell, sen., John Green, Peter Ferris, John Bates and Daniel Weed were chosen to attend to the work of fortification, according to the order of the council; and another vote requires that the stockading of the town shall be fully finished.
Under date of Sept. 22, 1676, we find the following vote : "The town agrees that all those soldiers that went out upon service, out of Stamford, against the common enemy, shall have land of the town; namely, all that did service." In carrying this vote into effect, the town then voted the following persons these lands: to Serg. Daniel Wescott, one and a half acre home lot on the north side of Joseph Webb's lot. and that swamp by the flood gate; to Thomas Lawrence an acre and a half house
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lot on the south side of Joseph Webb's, to be laid out, having due respect to the highway ; to Samuel Hoyt, Increase Holly, David Waterbury, Obadiah Seely, John Waterbury, Thomas Newman, Joseph Fish, Obadiah Stevens, Benjamin Stevens, John Jagger, Moses Knapp, Daniel Ferris, Jonathan Seeley, Joseph Jones and William Penoyer, severally, house lots for their services.
At the end of the list is this record: "the town doth give unto John Green two house lots for his sons, next to Abraham Ambler's front, which homelots were given as they were sol- diers."
In Dec. 1677, the town votes to Capt. Jonathan Sellick, "as was upon service against the common enemy, all that piece of land lying upon the west side of the landing place, beginning at the mouth of the brook commonly called Hardy's Hole, in length to the Southfield fence."
The only other local record which refers to these local strug- gles with the Indians are those in which, occasionally, a citizen asks for an appropriation for his services. The last of these claims was preferred in 1692, when Joshua Hait asks for a piece of land on account of his going out, a soldier, against the com- mon inimy;" and two acres in the ox pasture were given him "as a gratuity for his good service in the late war." At the same time a piece of land is "layed out " to Simon Chapman, probably for the same reason.
Already our townsmen had felt themselves relieved of fur- ther danger so that they might safely order a final disarmament as the following record shows.
" 18 Dec. 1695, per vote outery the town doth sell the fort wood about ye meeting house to Stephen Clason for seventeen shillings and ninepence." "The town by outery doth sell ye fort gates ye wheels of ye great guns and all ye wood belonging to ye guns it is now sold to Nathanall Cross and Jonathan Holly for five shillings and sixpence."
And who shall say that such was not a worthy disposal of the last witnesses to the struggles which the pioneers of the town
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encountered, with the raee that had now almost entirely disappeared.
CHAPTER VII.
ECCLESIASTICAL, 1640-1746.
That the founders of this ancient town were men of religious principle, and that at the commencement of their settlement here they had an ecclesiastieal organization, needs no labored proof. Their leader was a minister of religion. The church was the sacred body they were here to preserve, and the society was only the appointed means for her preservation. Whether fewer or more of the settlers here were of the seleet and honored company of the saints, all felt themselves to be the authorized defenders, and all were practically the cheerful supporters of the church. Had not the most of them left their homes in the fatherland from the love they bore the church ? Had they not already attested by their patient and heroic suffering their de- votion to the church ? And was not their very mission hither an attempt to establish the church, where in purity and simple faith she might train her children by her simple and holy rituals for the service of her divine Lord ?
We may never know how many of the first settlers were actually members of the church when they came here. That the most of them were afterwards united with it is more than probable. The first church of Stamford had already been or- ganized in Wethersfield. Of the seven men who constituted the Wethersfield church, we have seen that four came to Stani- ford. These were the Rev. Richard Denton, who became the pastor of the church when transferred to Stamford, Jonas Weed, Robert Coe and Andrew Ward. It is probable that others of
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the Wethersfield party, immediately on the separation, attached themselves to the new body. How many of them may have done so, or how soon, no existing records probably will ever reveal.
But, whether larger or smaller, the church was the center and soul of the new society here formed ; so much so, that of all the organizations formed, that only which had for its specific aim the care and maintenance of the temporalities of the church, came to claim for itself the title of " The Society." And so, in the view of those days, the very term society seemed to mean that visible company whose most characteristic object is the preservation and welfare of the militant church. To this organ- ization every voting man among our Stamford settlers belonged. For its support every frecholder contributed, and this, at first, not from compulsion, but rather as a matter of course. The social necessity for it was as valid and potent as any legislative enactment could be. In Stamford, as in other of the early Con- necticut towns, the church edifice was one of the first to be built. Though the local records of that transaction are now gone probably beyond recovery, we do not need to attest the fact. We may see the form of that rude mecting house, not many rods from where the present Congregational Church now stands, almost as distinctly as though it were standing there still. Square built and low ; its posts scarcely a dozen feet in length ; its four roofs meeting over the centre at a hight not much less than thirty feet ; one generous door on the front open- ing into an arca which was undivided by partition, and unseated save with rude benches around the three sides looking toward the minister's stand; unadorned by art of sculpture or of paint- ing, and never relieved of summer sun by blinds, or of keenest winter's cold by furnace or stove.
Eyes that did not fear the light and stoutly beating hearts that could not well be chilled, were to be provided for in that primitive place for worship ; yet neither the movable curtain, suspended as the movement of the sun might require, nor the
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tin hand-stove with its solid coals taken right from the great hearth-stone at home, was deemed needless or intrusive. No bell rang out its Sabbath call from that untowered house, but when occasion called for it, the beat of drum never failed to line the only paths that met at its door ; and so, more promptly than now, the gathered congregation were awaiting the solemn and reverent invocation with which the minister was wont to open the important service of the day.
There was sanctity in those rude materials of that pioneer house. IIallowed place was that, where the man of God stood his two hours each Sabbath morning, and two hours more each Sabbath afternoon to feed those hardy pioneers with the bread of life. Solid thoughts were those which could minister to such hearers amid such surroundings. Nor has more acceptable worship been paid to Him who dwelleth in temples not made with hands, in any of the costlier sanctuaries whose graceful spires and polished altars and cushioned seats have sinee that day borne witness to the spiritual glory and power of that first house of the Lord in Stamford.
One, only incident detracted from the pleasant and grateful memories of that house. Tradition has it, and in this case the witness is so respectable as to justify the record of it on these pages, that when the assembled pioneers in our settlement had reached the point in the raising of the building, of fastening together the heavy timbers over its center, a lad, the son of one of the principal citizens, was sent up to insert the key pin. He bravely mounted to the perilous hight and his nerve failed. " Which of the holes shall I put the pin in, father; " asked the lad, with wavering tones. "O, my God!" exclaims the agon- ized father, "my child is dead."
Turning suddenly over and falling headlong, that little boy had sealed with his instant death, his deep interest in that house for his parents' worship, almost before the father could give that passionate expression to his agonized heart.
Nor was that rude and uninviting meeting house allowed to
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be neglected. Every settler here was expected to report him- self and his family cach Lord's day. And on no account could the people consent to have its door closed when that holy day, the Puritan's only holiday, called them to worship. If the min- ister was sick, had they not men of " gifts in prayer," who could " orderly lead them " in every act of reverent and acceptable worship ? Should the minister leave them, need they abandon their "altar of hope ?" We shall see. Scarcely three years had passed over the colony before some disagreement between the minister and the people led to his removal. And what can this isolated people do ? There were no ministers as now within calling distance in readiness to fill such openings. Coming to- gether, after much deliberation and prayer, the people selected two of their most trustworthy number, Lieut. Francis Bell and George Slauson, furnished them with food for the way, and sent them on foot to Boston to see if they could not find one John Bishop, whose name had been reported to them, or some minis- ter whom they could persuade to come back with them, that so this people might not be scattered and " suffered to sin against the ordinances of God."
They providentially find Mr. Bishop, then a young man, on whom was the seal of consecration and of promise, and with much persuasion, they prevailed on him to accept this pressing call from the Lord. Taking his staff and his well-used Bible in his hand, he starts with the two brethren for the field of his labors ; and the meeting house thenceforth, as long as it stands, bears weekly witness to his faithful and acceptable labors.
Twenty eight years did that house magnify its office. The fathers of the town had most of them gone from its instruction to their final rest. One generation of children had been nur- tured by its ministries up to a mature and vigorous manhood. One generation of adults had been made strong and patient to endure the service and fulfill the high responsibilities of their manly years. And so, after its noble work was done, that sanctuary of the fathers gave way to another,
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But the rest and prosperity of the church during these twen- ty-eight years was not uninterrupted. Their minister found his work seriously hindered by the many trials incident to pioneer life. It was with the people a season of extreme phys- ical activity. Their physical wants were all to be supplied- their homes were to be built-their lands must be cleared. Roads must be cut through hitherto pathless woods ; and all those conveniences which, ordinarily, one generation finds prepared for them by the preceding, these fathers of Stamford had to gather about their new homes by the most unwearied industry.
Besides, the privations and discomforts incident to such a life are not helpful to a true social or spiritual culture. They try the tempers and often seriously compromise the manners of those who experience them. And their influence is still more disastrous upon the condition and character of that generation of children that are molded by them. The very rudeness and savagery of a wilderness home would reach the spirit and rule to some extent, at least, the manners of any community exposed to them. There is philosophy, as well as fact, in the sharply defined thesis ot Dr. Bushnell, that barbarism is the first dan- ger of colonization. Even when the leaders of such a commu- nity are men of culture and refinement, the very hazards and chances and excitements of the life itself will draw into it the restless and adventurous and unprincipled.
It would be very remarkable, if among so many men as set- tled at Stamford, there should be none who were impulsive, wayward and insubordinate. In the local government, commit- ted to the settlers, it would be very strange if there were not diversity of views, both as to the ends to be secured, and the methods of securing them. It would be strange if religion itself, which pledges eventually the peace and millenium of the world should not prove in such a community a source of alien- ations and of carnest conflict ; and especially when, as in this case, its professors alone were to hold all the responsible and coveted offices in the people's gift.
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Besides, in the case of our Stamford settlers, there were special reasons inducing disturbance. Their previous discipline had been amid the conflict of an exciting strife. They were, themselves, protestants, and among protestants, they had achieved divisions. What more could be expected from them than that sharp divisions should arise, and that heated and ob- stinate maintenance of perpetual views and opinions would end in new animosity and feuds ? When the leading men who composed the new community had already rendered themselves obnoxious to the civil power in the colony from which they had come, as several of them had, who could hope that they would carry everything along in quiet, in the colony they were to form ?
That there were immoral and dangerous men among the set- tlers, is manifest from repeated records. That great trials came upon the church, testing the patience and faith of the minister and his brethren, is also apparent. The first great division of this body in 1644, already recorded in a preceding chapter, though mainly a political movement, is in proof. The contest with the Quaker element is still another proof. And after these temporary settlements,still other troubles introduced themselves, to such extent as to threaten more serions disaster to the use- fulness and existence of the church.
At the May session of the general court in New Haven in 1659, report is brought that Mr. Bishop at Stamford finds so much discouragement that he thinks of leaving his post. The court refer to Mr. Bell, then one of the deputies from Stamford for his account of the matter. He acknowledged the existence of cvils, but thinks the pastor should be sustained and encouraged. After giving the report due attention, the court declared that if no reformation should be reported from Stamford, they. would send down a commission to examine the case, ascertain the cause of the complaints, and remove what- ever may "hinder the work of God " under Mr. Bishop's care,
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adding this quaint reason for their decision: "for if the minis- try and ordinances fall, what will the people do ?"
The same case appears again in the October court of magis- trates. Mr. Bishop, in the presence of two of the brethren of the church, made a formal statement of the "uncomfortable unsettled state of the affairs of the church and town." The court advised and ordered : that on returning home, they should seek, within twenty days, some effectnal course of making a satisfactory settlement of their difficulties among themselves. They were then to forward to court a certified record of such a settlement. If they could not effect the settlement, within that time, two of the magistrates and two of the elders, (pastors), should be sent down before winter, if the weather should prove suitable; if not, then early in the spring, to help towards the settlement.
In May, 1660, at the request of Mr. Bishop, the general court desired Rev. Mr. Davenport, of New Haven, and Pierson, of Guilford, to go to Stamford " to afford their counsel and help for the well settling of their church affairs." These elders were to have "a man to attend upon them at the jurisdiction charge, excepting expenses at Stamford, which were to be paid by the Stamford people. I have found no record of the meeting held in Stamford by the court then appointed, but that they did not heal all the difficulties existing between the pastor and the people, is evident from another petition from Mr. Bishop and others, sent to the general court at their session in May 1662. The court authorized the governor, William Leete, and magis- trates Fenn, of Milford, and Crane, of Branford, to repair to Stamford, with the authority of any plantation court, extraor- dinarily assisted, to settle any matters in controversy there. And by such methods the disturbing elements at work in the church and community were apparently overruled or expelled, and further and more serious evils averted.
Meanwhile, from the increase of population, the old meeting house had become too strait for their accommodation, and
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doubtless, also, was felt to be too rude for their improved con- dition. If the Lord's people were now beginning to dwell in their ceiled houses, it was every way fitting that they should honor the place of their worship. No one, probably, had yet thought of such a result as a division of the territory into two or more parishes ; and there was no serious thought of any other denominational service to divide the people. And so the necessity, besides that of repairing, of enlarging, also, the Lord's house, began to press upon them. The steps taken towards this measure, will show how inseparable the civil and ecclesiastical matters of the colony were.
The first public vote on record is that of March 1669, at a town meeting, orderly warned, when it was voted that there shall be a new meeting house built. Voted, also, "that this new meeting house, before mentioned, shall be a stone meeting house."
And so, not the congregational church for its sectarian uses merely, but all the dwellers in the town, with a unanimity which on no other subject will they ever again attain, agree to enlarge and improve the House of the Lord. There must be room in it for all who shall dwell within its reach. From the Reeds, near "the stadle by the oke tree," on the margin of the Rowalton, to the Crabbs, who live on the outskirts of the parish, near where the Mianus seeks its cove, all the dwellers on hill top and in vale, must be provided with at least one place of resort. Did they not all of them need the instructions of the sanctuary ? Had not the whole community with one voice, and with a hearty godspeed, sent those venerable fathers, Bell and Slawson, on foot, through the wilderness, out to the Massachu- setts eolony, to procure a man who should be to them and their children a religions teacher and spiritual guide ? And how could he ever accomplish the work to which they had called him without a larger and better house for worship ?
Accordingly, in October of the same year with the above votes, a committee was appointed by the town, (Mr. Law, Good-
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man Holly, Goodman Webb, Goodman Ambler, and Joshua Hoyt,) and invested with full power from the inhabitants of the town "to make a bargain with a workman, and so to agree with him as to suit men's convenience in point of pay, and if they cannot get a house built with stone they have liberty to get it done with timber, and to endeavor to get it done with as much speed as they can with convenience."
On Feb. 18, 1670, of this year, the town decided to rescind the former votes, and resolved to repair the old meeting house "forthwith for the safety of the town." This decision seems not to have been satisfactory to the town, any more than the former one. At any rate, if repairs were made, they must have proved their own insufficiency; for again, on the 25th of the same month, a vote is passed to build a new meeting house. On the 26th of the next month, Mr. Law, Left. Bell, goodmen Holly, Ambler and Newman have " full power committed to them to procure a stone new meeting house, and to fully finish agreement with the workman that hath been treated with ; and to have an oversight of the work, and to choose overseers and to call men and teams forth to get stones and other necessary things." The house was to be " for the worship of God, accord- ing to the word of God," and was to be thirty feet square.
In September, provision is made to assess the cost of the meeting house equitably on the town; the vote respecting the form of the house is reconsidered, and instead of thirty feet square it is changed to forty-five feet in length and thirty-five in breadth, "with a honse roof, abating two feet in the hight of the wall, from the first figure, viz: twelve feet hight."
In the following January, 1671, they vote that the "ould meeting house shall be taken down forthwith by a committee called forth by Joshua Hait."
In April, finding it impossible to come to any agreement in the town, they resolve to leave the determination of the form or figure of the church to the solemn decision of God in the casting of lots. They only decided that if the lot should re-
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quire the house to be square, it should be thirty-eight feet square and the posts twelve feet ; and that there should be a funnel on the top, of such hight and size as the committee should direct. Then follows this record as a part of the doings of that town meeting ; "The solemn ordinance being as above had, the lot carried it for a square meeting house as above."
Under such auspices the new house was erected. It was en- trusted to the sole management of the committee appointed in April of the preceding year. In case they needed advice of the town, provision was made for them to call a legal meeting " about an hour by sun in the evening," and whatever the major part of the voters who should gather within a half hour of the summons should decide upon, if not in conflict with the previous vote of the town, should be deemed valid.
The way was now elear for a new house, and without needless delay, it was doubtless completed. It must have been a great improvement upon the old one, in size at least, if not in archi- tectural proportions. It must have constituted the most notice- able work of art in the town. There could have been nothing else here comparable to this pyramidal block, with its triple stories ascending, as if to furnish a trinity of steps heavenward. For more than half a century it was the only house of worship in the town. In it, six ministers, John Bishop, Eliphalet Jones, John Davenport, Ebenezer Wright, Noah Welles, D. D., and John S. Avery, none of them unworthy the sacred trust, made proof of their fitness for their work. About two generations of the entire town, and four of the congregation of the first church of Christ in Stamford, here received their spiritual training, and from its training went to their final account.
It must have been in this meeting house that the first bell in Stamford was hung. There is no record, I think, of this trans- action now existing, but tradition is very distinct as to an accident which occurred at the hanging of the bell. It hung over the center of the house and had to be raised up through the building. Just as it had reached the frame which was to
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