USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut > Part 28
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In 1746 the matter of the public highways appears to have fallen into neglect. In that year Isaac Burnap and Joseph Hunt- ington were appointed a committee to provide suitable accom- modations for all the people of the town to travel " to the several places of public worship." The bridge across the Shetucket, between Windham and Lebanon, which had for many years been maintained by private enterprise, was consigned to the care of
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Windham in 1735, by an act of the assembly. Robert Hebard, Jr., was chosen by the town to inspect and take care of it.
The burden of bridge making, always heavy in Windham, was greatly augmented by the increase of travel consequent upon the popular emigration to Wyoming and other new sec- tions of the country. An extraordinary flood and great accumu- lation of ice in 1771 demolished and carried away nearly every bridge in the whole county, making a clean sweep of the Nat- chaug, Willimantic and Shetucket. As these bridges were upon public highways much frequented by trains of emigrants travel- ing from other towns of this colony, as well as Rhode Island, to parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York, the authorities of this town refused to reconstruct them without aid from other quarters. Several roads were thus rendered impas- sable, travelers were compelled to go many miles out of their way to find suitable fording places, and were then often flung from their horses and placed in imminent danger of drowning. Complaints were laid before the general assembly in regard to the refusal of Windham to rebuild her bridges. In answer the town replied that within a few years five large bridges had been built at an expense of £800, all of which had been swept away by the floods; that the floods seemed to be increasing in frequency and force, and that these bridges were more for the accommodation of other towns than Windham. Relief was therefore petitioned. This, however, was denied, and the town was ordered to rebuild and maintain a bridge over the Shetucket on the road from Windham to Hartford, known as the Old Town bridge, and another over the Willimantic called the Iron Works bridge. Mansfield was directed to rebuild the bridge over the Natchaug. In 1774 the town of Windham was ordered to build and maintain a bridge over the Shetucket upon a road lately laid out to New Hampshire, to accommodate the travel to the new college in Hanover.
About the beginning of the present century considerable at- tention was renewed in behalf of the improvement of highways. The town was divided into districts for the purpose, these dis- tricts being made identical with the school districts, and author- ity was obtained to levy a tax to keep the roads in order. The organization of turnpike companies now began to agitate the public mind. The Windham Turnpike Company was organized in 1799, for the purpose of constructing a turnpike from Plain-
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field to Coventry, past Windham court house. The original members of the company were Jeremiah Ripley, Timothy Lar- rabee, Moses Cleveland, Luther Payne and James Gordon, the charter being granted to them and their associates. This turn- pike became a part of the great thoroughfare between Hartford and Providence. Efforts were made by the town to compel this company to lay its road over the Shetucket where the bridge was already standing, so as to place upon the company the burden of maintaining the bridge to the relief of the town, but a new cross- ing was determined upon by the company, and the old town bridge was in 1806 abandoned. The Windham and Mansfield Turnpike Society was incorporated in 1800, having for its object the opening of a turnpike from Joshua Hide's dwelling house in Franklin to the meeting house in Stafford, connecting with a turnpike leading from New London and Norwich. The leading men in this enterprise were Timothy Larrabee, Charles Taintor, Eleazer Huntington and Roger Waldo. Some other turnpike projects were opposed by this town with such energy that they were abandoned, or at least diverted from the designed course. A proposed turnpike from the Massachusetts line to New Lon- don was projected to run through Scotland parish, but this town
opposed it so vigorously that it was laid out further eastward. Another road was planned to run from Woodstock through Ash- ford and Mansfield to Windham court house, but this also was defeated by Windham. The town, however, manifested a favor- able spirit toward its local roads and bridges. At the request of Joseph Skiff and others, the Horseshoe bridge was taken under the charge of the town, and two hundred dollars were appro- priated from its treasury for reducing the hills and mending the road from Scotland meeting house to Jared Webb's.
Still, as the years advanced, additional responsibilities forced themselves upon the town, in the line of road and bridge main- tenance. Five great bridges, requiring constant supervision and frequent repairs or renewal, were not sufficient to meet the wants of the growing communities. The growing village around Taintor & Badger's paper mill required a new bridge and a bet- ter road to Willimantic. A new turnpike to Killingly, and other roads, were demanded. The petition for a bridge and road from the paper mill, referred to above, headed by John Taintor, was opposed by a committee appointed for the purpose in 1815, but without avail, and in 1818 the selectmen were authorized to
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contract for the building of Horseshoe bridge over the Natchaug river on the road leading to the paper mill. The six bridges thus maintained at the expense of the town were placed in charge of overseers, as follows: Manning's bridge, Nathaniel Wales; Newtown bridge, Zenas Howes; the Iron Works bridge, Alfred Young ; the Horseshoe bridge, Waldo Cary ; Badger's bridge, Edmond Badger ; the Island bridge, Joshua Smith. A few years later two new bridges over Merrick's brook were granted to Scot- land ; one near John Burnett's house, called Church bridge, and the other near Zaccheus Waldo's mill. Willimantic manufac- turers in 1826 petitioned for roads and bridges to accommodate more fully the needs of their growing business, but for a time such matters were compelled to wait while the entire energies of the town were engaged in the contest for the court house. But after that absorbing question was decided they were able to gain a hearing. A new bridge was built to accommodate the Wind- ham Company, and the old public highway was widened and transformed into Main street of the village of Willimantic, and along its sides buildings for stores and other public uses soon sprang up.
CHAPTER XV.
THE TOWN OF WINDHAM (Concluded).
Employing a Minister .- Building a Church .- Withdrawal of Mansfield .- Succes- sive Pastors .- The Separate Movement .- Religious Declension .- The Father of President Cleveland .- Gradual Dissolving of the Town Church into the Windham Centre (local) Church .- Schools of the Town .- Early Newspaper. -Old-time Taverns .- Manufacturing Begun .- Gunpowder, Silk and Paper. -Windham Centre .- Cemetery .- Congregational, Episcopal and Baptist Churches .- South Windham .- Manufacturing Enterprises .- Congregational Church .- North Windham .- Manufactories .- Church, Cemetery and School. -Biographical Sketches.
T' HE civil and ecclesiastical association of the people kept pace, each with the other, so uniformly that it is hard to tell definitely which one took the lead. We have endeav- ored to notice in the preceding chapter the founding and growth of the town of Windham in its civil capacity. We shall now turn our attention to a brief review of its founding and growth as an ecclesiastical body. Having held its first town meeting June 12th, 1692, the town was not complete until a Gospel min- ister was settled among the people. This, in fact, was one of the most conspicuous conditions of the charter granted by the general court of Connecticut on the 12th of May, preceding, the language of which ran as follows: "And the inhabitants are obliged to improve their utmost endeavor to procure and main- tain an able and faithful ministry in the place, and bear all other town charges as the law directs."
In pursuance of this requirement the town, at its first town meeting, after asking advice of a Mr. Fitch, probably Reverend James Fitch, appointed a committee to go to Milford and ar- range, if possible, for the services of Reverend Samuel Whiting as a minister to the town. Pending such negotiations, religious services were conducted by Mr. Jabez Fitch, at his own house. After repeated applications Mr. Whiting was induced to accept the proffered position, and began his ministry on the first day of January, 1693. In appropriate harmony with the circumstances
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he began on the first day of the week, month and year by preach- ing from the first verse of the first book of the Bible. His stip- ulated salary for the first half year was twenty pounds in pro- vision pay and four pounds in silver. Collectors were duly au- thorized by the town to collect the rate "and if need be sue or distrain for it." His labors seem to have proved satisfactory, and during the year it was determined to offer him, as a more permanent inducement to remain with them, an allotment through the several divisions of land that should be afterward made, and fifty pounds salary, and to build for him a house two stories high and eighteen feet square, "said house in capacity like Joseph Dingley's, provided he would stay four years." Mr. Whiting accepted the offer. In 1694 it was decided that services should be held three Sabbaths at the Hither Place and two Sab- baths at the north end of the town. Mr. Whiting was a young man, a son of Reverend John Whiting, of Hartford, and as yet unmarried. In 1694 the town agreed, among other encouraging inducements, to increase his salary if he would continue, so as to make it sixty pounds a year for three years, seventy pounds a year for the next three years, and eighty pounds a year for the following three years.
Up to this time the town had no meeting house. Early in 1695 an attempt was made to find a place to erect such a building. A committee was instructed to measure the town from north to south, " where the path goes, and so to find the senter for meet- ing house." Two settlements, " four miles apart and with a bad river between," were to be accommodated. The spot determined upon as most desirable was at the Crotch or Horseshoe, where a little settlement was then just commencing. Its prospective selection as the site of the meeting house drew other settlers to it and increased its importance. Here the minister's house was built in 1696, and here also divine service was held during the following winter, in the house of Goodman More. This arrange- ment was adopted in compliance with the request of Mr. Whit- ney. The ancient "Crotch " in later years is known as " Brick- top."
The people of the southeast quarter objected to building a meeting house at the intermediate point, believing that they were able, or soon would be, to build a house of worship in their own locality. They therefore favored a division of the town into two parishes, at least as far as the erection of houses of wor-
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ship was concerned, even though they should both unite in the support of the same minister. But the people of the northern settlement, who were not as strong as the former, desired to build the meeting house at the Crotch. The town, however, voted, January 14th, 1697, that each locality might build a meet- ing house as soon as it felt strong enough to do so, but not to be exempt from its obligations to the town until they should be set apart in two distinct societies. But after much discussion of the matter, a committee appointed for the purpose decided in De- cember, 1697, that the town should not be divided, but that the original design of building a meeting house at the Crotch should be carried forward. Before the work was begun, however, the question was again opened, and discussion followed which re- sulted in an agreement, March 16th, 1699, that each settlement should build a meeting house as soon as it could, at its own charge, the house to be large enough to accommodate the whole congregation, and that services should be conducted in each place one-half the time between the middle of March and the 25th of December, for seven years, after which each place should endeavor to support a minister by itself. By authority of the general assembly, a church was now formally organized. The organization took place at what was known as the Dingley House, a mile north of Windham Green, December 10th, 1700, the following being the names of original members, as far as the list can be read, names of two males and ten females being now illegible : Samuel Whiting, Thomas Bingham, Joseph Carey, Joshua Ripley, Thomas Huntington, John Backus, Joseph Huntington, Jeremiah Ripley, Jonathan Crane, Joseph Hebbard, Samuel Abbe, John Abbe, Robert Hebbard, Mary Hebbard, Hannah Abbe and Rebecca Huntington. The deacons at this time chosen were Thomas Bingham, Joseph Carey and Nathan- iel Wales. Mr. Whiting had been ordained on December 4th, 1700, and the thousand-acre right reserved by the legatees for the minister was soon afterward made over to him, "for his faithful labors eight years in the work of the ministry."
January 30th, 1700, the front part of William Backus's home lot at the southeast quarter was purchased for a meeting house plat or common. This was the nucleus of Windham Green, and the first meeting house was soon after erected upon it. This was completed and opened for worship in April, 1703. The building was " clabboarded from sill to girths" around the in-
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side, and furnished with a pulpit and seats and pews. Then a committee was appointed to designate the particular places in the house to be occupied by the several attendants upon service : "Deacon Bingham in the right hand seat below the pulpit, and his wife in the pue answerable thereto; Deacon Cary in the left hand, and his wife in the pue adjoining ; Joshua Ripley and Lieutenants Fitch and Crane in the foremost pue; Abraham Mitchell at the head of the first, and Josiah Palmer of the sec- ond seat, with their wives against them-and the remainder of the congregation in due order." The Green around the meeting house was now enlarged and appropriated ; the town voting De- cember 23d, 1702, "That the land east from Goodman Brough- ton's, south from Thomas Huntington's, north of the road by Goodman Broughton's, extending to three or four acres of land onto Stony Plaine, should lay common to perpetuity."
The division of the town having been effected, the Windham church prospered and rapidly increased in strength. The Mans- field people, not finding it convenient to support a minister by themselves, continued to worship with the Windham people until the year 1710. After the adoption of the Saybrook platform in 1708, as the established form of church government in Connecti- cut, Windham, by provisions therein contained, was included in the North Association of Hartford county. Mr. Whiting contin- ued to retain the affection of his people, neither his land opera- tions nor his interest in public affairs interfering in the least with his ministerial duties and usefulness. As his family increased his salary was proportionately enlarged, although the yearly allow- ance of eighty cords of wood which had been given him was gradually reduced to forty, each man being required to provide according to his list or forfeit six shillings a cord. This allow- ance was finally superseded by a ten pound rate for ministerial fire-wood. The meeting house was supplied in 1708, by vote of the town, with the luxury of a "pulpit cushion." During the same year a committee was also appointed "to agree with work- men to finish the galleries, repair the underpinning and the breaches in the seats."
The growth of the society demanded more room, and in 1713 it was resolved to enlarge the meeting house, but before the work was done it was decided to build a new house altogether on the site of the first. Deacons Cary and Bingham, and Lieutenant Crane were a committee to conduct the work, which was speedi-
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
ly accomplished. The house was much larger than the former one, and on its completion the usual designation of seating places was secured. Messrs. Ripley and Fitch were honored with the chief seat in front. The venerable Joseph Dingley was allowed to sit in the pulpit because of his deafness. Mr. Whit- ing was allowed to build at his own expense such a pew as he saw fit for his family to occupy "by the east door." Several of the young men, Joseph Crane, Josiah Bingley, Zebulon Webb, Jeremiah Ripley, Jr., Jonathan Huntington, David Ripley and Ebenezer Wales, were allowed to build a pew for themselves, probably in the gallery, on condition "that if they removed out of the pue they should deliver it to the town without demolish- ment." To modify the temperature of the unwarmed house as far as possible, it was ordered that in cold and windy weather the windward doors should be kept shut, leeward ones only opened. Two pounds, provision pay, were allowed annually for sweeping the meeting house.
In 1720 and 1721 the church enjoyed a season of revival, a cir- cumstance quite remarkable by contrast with the generally cold condition of surrounding churches at that time. Residents of neighboring towns were drawn to the meetings, and young men were converted who were among the most prominent actors in the religious developments of a later period.
Mr. Whiting died suddenly, of pleurisy, while on a visit to Enfield, September 27th, 1725, being then in the fifty-sixth year of his age. He left a widow and thirteen children, the young- est, Nathan, then being but little more than a year old. The sudden death of their beloved pastor filled the people of Wind- ham with mourning, and they appointed a day of special humili- ation and prayer for guidance in the work before them of secur- ing a minister to be his successor. The labors of the committee were successful in securing the services of Reverend Thomas Clap, of Scituate, Mass., a graduate of Cambridge in the class of 1722. After a trial of his gifts the town gave him a call, which was accepted, and he was duly ordained August 3d, 1726. The call to settlement offered him three hundred pounds for settle- ment and an annual salary of one hundred pounds and fire-wood. The church had received three hundred and eighty-three mem- bers during the ministry of Mr. Whiting, and had dismissed colonies to Mansfield and Windham Village (Hampton) and still numbered two hundred and sixty-four. The recent revival had
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increased its strength and spirituality, and Mr. Clap began his ministry under the most favorable auspices. New deacons were now chosen-Eleazer Cary, Joseph Huntington, Nathaniel Wales and Abel Bingham, with whom were also elected to act in advis- ory counsels three others, Joshua Ripley, John Fitch and Jona- than Crane.
The church was now prosperous. Mr. Clap developed remark- able administrative capacities, and brought all ecclesiastical af- fairs under stringent laws and discipline. In 1728 it was voted, " That all baptismal persons have a right to hear confessions for public scandal, and that no such confessions shall be accept- ed unless made before the congregation on the Sabbath, or some public meeting wherein all baptized persons have warning to at- tend." These confessions were very frequent. The number of delinquents arraigned under the strict regimen of Mr. Clap was very large. Though not brilliant or eloquent, he was a forcible preacher, and greatly impressed the community by his earnest- ness and strength of character. He was married November 23d, 1727, to Mary Whiting, daughter of his predecessor. He was called from this field of labor to the presidency of Yale College, and the reluctant people allowed him to be dismissed from this pastorate, December 10th, 1739, and April 2d, 1740, he was in- stalled as president of Yale. He had served Windham fourteen years. And in return for having taken their pastor from them, on whom a settlement had been made by the Windham people in expectation of his life services, the general assembly, in May, 1740, voted to reimburse Windham to the amount of three hun- dred and ten pounds, in the then depreciated currency of Con- necticut, which was equal in value to about fifty-three pounds sterling.
Another pastor was now secured in the person of Reverend Stephen White, of New Haven, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1736. He was mild and gentle in character, and rather defi- cient in that administrative capacity which had been so marked in his predecessor. He nevertheless appears to have been ac- ceptable to the people. A settlement of six hundred pounds, and an annual salary of two hundred pounds were given him, and he was ordained December 24th, 1740. The membership of the church was then two hundred and eighty-seven, and such was the excellent condition of the society that every head of a household was connected with the church, either by profession
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of faith or by owning the covenant. Family prayer was observed in every household, and every child was consecrated by baptism. Profane swearing was but little known, and open violations of the Sabbath were very rare. Soon after his settlement Mr. White was married to Mary, daughter of Major Thomas Dyer. The management of ecclesiastical affairs by the civil town was no longer the custom, but an organized society, connected with the church, had control of its material affairs. The deacons then in service were Joshua Huntington, Ralph Wheelock, Eleazer Cary and Nathaniel Wales.
In the time of the great revival and the Separate movement, which took place soon after the settlement of Mr. White, the church of Windham received large accessions, and on the other hand suf- fered somewhat from the withdrawal of some to join in the Sep- arate movement. During this period over one hundred mem- bers were received. A number of these converts a little later withdrew and organized as a Separate church in 1747, ordaining their brother, Elisha Marsh, as their pastor. It does not appear that this church was ever very thriving or vigorous. The mild temperament of the pastor prevailed among the church to re- strain the more rigid disciplinarians from exercising their extreme authority toward the Separatists, and they apparently allowed the seceding brethren to retire without resistance. The Sepa- rate church, thus left to itself, without any breeze of opposition to fan its energies into a flame, soon fell to pieces. Its pastor became a Baptist, its more moderate members returned to their allegiance, while others were absorbed into the more vigorous churches of Mansfield and Scotland parish.
After order and the usual even tenor of life were restored the church began to consider the question of enlarging and rebuild- ing their house of worship. This work was begun about 1753, and completed in 1755, the new church being large and elegant, with a lofty and beautiful steeple, in which was hung the first church bell of Windham county. This latter accessory was pur- chased by a legacy of twenty pounds left for that purpose by Mr. Jonathan Bingham, who died in 1751, having already greatly aided and encouraged the erection of the new house of worship. It is also stated by Doctor Samuel Peters that this church had a clock in its steeple. Eighty members had been added to the church between 1746 and 1760. Mr. White was greatly respect- ed for his amiability and uprightness of character, but had no
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very marked influence upon the community. The senior dea- cons, Joseph Huntington and Ralph Wheelock, died in 1747 and 1748. Deacons Eleazer Cary and Ebenezer Wales died in 1757, and their places were filled by Joseph Huntington and Nathan- iel Skiff. The latter died in 1761. Jonathan Martin and Elijah Bingham were chosen junior deacons in 1765.
Now, we are told, there followed a time of religious declension, which lasted for many years. During the period covering the revolution, and for several subsequent years, Universalism and infidelity had come in and drawn away multitudes from the re- ligious faith of their fathers. A reaction seemed to have taken place. Free-thinking and free-drinking were alike in vogue, and a looseness of manners and morals had replaced the ancient Puritanic strictness. Any sect or church within the state was allowed the privilege of worshipping according to its own no- tions, but still the state insisted that every man should worship somewhere, or at least bear his part in maintaining some religious worship. The Saybrook Platform was dropped from the statute book in the revision of 1784, but the society organization was retained. Every man within the limits of a stated society was taxed for the support of its religious worship, until he lodged with the clerk of the society a certificate of membership in some other society.
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