USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Woodbury > History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut : from the first Indian dead in 1659 to 1854 > Part 24
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"2 Voted and agreed that Capt Andrew Hinman (If he will accept it) be the person to set the psalm, and Lead us in the publick praises of God, and that, if Capin Hinman do not accept, then Joseph Hlinman shall be the man.
" 3 Voted and agreed that he who Setts the psalm shall be at his Liberty what tunes to Sing on Lecture days."
On the 1st of July, 1765, and again on the 18th of August, 1766, the society voted to give Rev. Benjamin Wildman a call to settle over the church as " Colleague with the Revd Mr. Graham," with a settlement of £350, to be paid in four equal yearly payments, and an annual salary of £50, together with his firewood ; and after the fourth year this salary was to be raised to £75 per annum. The firewood judged necessary for his family was thirty cords, which might strike one, at first glance, as a liberal allowance for a single family, but a little reflection will show, that it was quite a different matter to pro- vide a year's fuel for a house in those days, not well finished, with its huge stone chimney, and all-devouring fire-place. Mr. Wildman's letter of acceptance of this call, is a model, brief, to the point, and covering the whole ground :
" To the Society of Southbury in Woodbury in Litchfield County, grace, peace, &c.
.. Whereas sd Society in Their Meeting on the Isth of August 1776, by their vote called and invited me to Settle with them in the work of the gospel minis- try, I having weight the Call and Votes of the Society for my Support Do agree to accept their offers, and hereby do accept and engage Thro' Divine Assist- ance to serve them in the great work unto which they have called me so far as my abilities admit.
" Benj. Wildman."
Although the first meeting-house had been so long " in building," yet in about twenty years after it was fully completed, another was thought necessary. Accordingly, the society voted to build a new one, Nov. 30th, 1760, during the latter part of Mr. Graham's active ministerial labors. But the great bane of religious and school socie- ties, the question of location, intervened at this point, and a vigorous and somewhat bitter contest was carried on for many years, so that it was more than twelve years before the house was completed. In November, 1760, the county court, which now had jurisdiction over this matter, appointed a committee to locate the new house, which duty they performed in April, 1761, and placed a stake " on Benja- min Ilinman's lot." A remonstrance followed, and another commit- tee was appointed, which located it three-fourths of a mile further north, at which place they could not get a vote of the society to
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build. The Assembly was asked by the society's agent, May, 1762, for a new committee to locate, but the request was denied. The same request was renewed at the next May session, stating that the house was located within one mile and a fourth of the northern boundary of the society. The doings of the county court were set aside, and a committee appointed, who reported at the October ses- sion, the same year, that they had located it in the "Main Street, 40 rods South of the last location." The northern part of the soci- ety remonstrated, but the location was confirmed. In May, 1764, fifty-five of the southern inhabitants of the society represented to the General Assembly, that they " cannot get a vote to build in the last place fixed upon, and mountains separate the western inhabitants, some of whom go round South, and some go round North ;" and therefore pray that there may be a division into north and south so- cieties ; but this petition was not granted. Finding that no more committees would be appointed, the society, in some measure, acqui- 'esced in the stern necessity, as they thought it, and laid a land tax of one shilling in the pound to build the edifice. In 1770, a further tax of sixpence in the pound was laid to complete it. In December, 1767, a vote was passed to " get all ready to frame the meeting-house by the 1st of April next," and in December, 1770, another vote was passed, " to proceed to finish the meeting-house by the 1st of January, 1772." The church was finally finished, and a bell procured for its use in 1775. This was one of the largest, and most expensive churches in this region, and was an imitation, in its architecture, of one previously built in Litchfield. It was located, as will be seen, in the street near the lane that leads down to the new burying-ground, and was used as a church seventy-two years, till the dedication of the present church edifice in 1844.
Mr. Wildman became pastor in the midst of these troubles, but soon after his accession, a better feeling began to prevail, and the re- sult was a fine church edifice, as we have seen. His ministry com- meneed October 22d, 1766, and closed, with his death, in 1812. Dur- ing his ministry, the prosperity of his church was at first impeded by the meeting-house controversy, and immediately after by the events of the Revolutionary War ; yet one hundred and one persons were added to its members, and two hundred and twenty-one were bapti- zed by him. Under his ministry, Stephen Curtiss, Samuel Strong and Jonathan Mitchell, acted as deacons-perhaps others ; the rec- ords are very imperfect.
Mr. Wildman was a native of Danbury, and was a man of noble
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bearing, both in stature, manners and mind. He was easy of access, pleasing and instructive in his conversation, and warm in his friend- ship. He graduated at Yale College in 1753. It is not known how he spent the eight years between his graduation and his entrance on his ministerial duties. Perhaps he had not the moral qualities deem- ed necessary to fit him for that high calling, for in playful allusion to the name he bore, in former years, he frequently remarked, that when in college, he was a wild-man ! Even after he had become a minister, an humble, pious man, his forte was wit and humor. Not even se- vere and long protracted trials and afflictions, were sufficient to drive from his temperament this constitutional tendency to wit. In this department, he was always the equal of his Bethlehem neighbor, Dr. Bellamy, although the Dr. was his superior in some other things. Hle once consulted Dr. Bellamy as to the best means to be used to get his people to meeting. The specific recommended by the learned Doctor, was to place a barrel of rum under the pulpit. " Ah," said Mr. Wildman, "I am afraid to do this, for I should have the attend- ance of half of the church in Bethlehem every Sabbath." As a case of discipline for intemperance was then pending in the Doctor's church, the witticism eut close home. The people of his parish were accustomed to have, every year, what was termed a " wood bee," to furnish the pastor with the quantity of wood stipulated in their arti- cles of settlement. It was also in accordance with the customs of the times, for the pastor to invite his parishioners to " take something to drink," on arriving at his wood-yard, before unloading their wood. A certain poor, but jocose man, who had no team, but who liked well the customary " treat," on one occasion, took a large log on his shoul- der, and bore it with much difficulty into the yard. His pastor was ready to welcome him, and said, " come, come, good friend, come in and drink before you unload !" Some one once spoke to Mr. Wild- man about his pleasant relations with Mr. Benedict of Woodbury, and the remarkable coincidences in their lives. They were origin- ally townsmen ; settled unusually near together ; had lived long and harmoniously in the ministry ; had acted much in concert, and for their mutual accommodation and gratification. " Yes," said he, "it has been remarkable and pleasant ; but there has been one great con- trast ; brother Benedict was born a minister, but I was born a wild- ass' colt;" On all occasions, whenever wit was possible, he was ever ready with his joke.
His afflictions were numerous, of great severity, and of long con- tinuance. The unfortunate habits of a son-in-law, made it necessary
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for him to support a daughter with her large family of children. His wife was an invalid, and suffered great pain, which for many years she could only endure under the constant influence of opiates. None of these things bowed him down, for he had a constitution, and a grace to be buoyant to the last. " He was fitted not only to endure, but to be a submissive and exemplary Christian ; an active and faithful pastor; a preacher orthodox, instructive, animated, able and popu- lar." His death, August 2, 1812, at the age of seventy-six, termina- ted a ministry of more than forty-five years. Rev. Dr. Backus, of Bethlehem, preached his funeral sermon, in which occurs an account of what Mr. Wildman said to one of his ministerial brethren a short time before the close of his life. It was on an occasion of a public meeting of ministers. " I feel," said he, " that this is the last time I shall ever meet you. I shall soon go the way of all the earth. I wish for no parade at my funeral. If, as usual, many good things are said of my character, they will not be truth. I was a gay, and alas a thoughtless youth-a Wildman by name, and a wild-man by nature ! If the Lord has ever made me to differ from others, it has been wholly an effort of divine power, and by a series of merciful and fatherly chastisements. I bless God for them, for I needed more chastisements than any two men I ever saw. Of all saved sinners, it will be most proper for me to cast my crown at my Saviour's feet."1
In 1813, the year succeeding the death of Mr. Wildman, Rev. Elijah Wood was ordained pastor over the church and people of Southbury. During the year of his ordination a revival took place which added twenty members to the church. He was a good man and devoted Christian, but his ministry was short. He died in June, 1815.
In January, 1816, Rev. Daniel A. Clark was called and ordained over the church, and dismissed September, 1819, after a ministry of a little less than four years. As a vigorous writer and an eloquent preacher, Mr. Clark was considered by good judges as having few equals in the county. Yet he was regarded by some as unfortunately deficient in some important qualifications for usefulness in the sacred office. After leaving Southbury, he was successively settled in Am- herst, Mass., Bennington, Vt., and in a town in the state of New York. He was the author of a premium tract, "The Rich Believer
1 For the principal part of this sketch of Mr. Wildman, the author is indebted to Dr. McEwen's Discourse at Litchfield in 1852, and to the minutes of Rev. Williams II. Whittemore.
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Bountiful ;" also a highly popular sermon, "The Church Safe," he- sides three volumes of sermons, and some posthumous works. Ile departed this life about 1842, and his remains were carried to New Haven for interment.
After Mr. Clark's dismissal, there was no settled pastor over the church till June, 1826. Among the ministers who preached there for a longer or shorter time, during these years, the names of three occur to the writer, Rev. Levi Smith, the eloquent Carlos Wilcox, and a brother of the Rev. Dr. Payson.
In June, 1826, Rev. Thomas L. Shipman became pastor, and con- tinued in that relation till June, 1836. He graduated at Yale Col- lege in 1818. While here he proved an intelligent, faithful and suc- cessful minister. In 1821, during the great revival of that year throughout the country, twenty-five were added to this church, and in 1827, was another in which eight were received as members. On occasions like these, he was ardent and successful in his labors.
On the 16th of November, 1836, Rev. Williams H. Whittemore was installed into the pastoral office over the church, and remained till his dismissal in 1850. He graduated at Yale College in 1825, and preached three years each at Rye, N. Y. and Charlestown, Mass., before his settlement in Southbury. He is now Principal of a Young Ladies Seminary at New Haven. Since his removal, there has been no settled preacher over this church. The pulpit is at present sup- plied by the Rev. George P. Prudden, a graduate of Yale, who gives good satisfaction to the people. The state of his health does not allow him to make a permanent engagement anywhere.
Among those who have held the office of deacon in this church since the days of Rev. Mr. Wildman, are Timothy Osborn, Adam Wheeler. Marens D. Mallory, and Noah Kelsey. There have been others, but their names are unknown to the writer for reasons here- tofore given.
Thirty years after the incorporation of Southbury society, and a few years after the purchase of lands made of the Indians, called the South Purchase, had been settled, there was a desire to have reli- gious meetings during the winter months, in a place beyond the "mountains," now called South Britain. The high hills between the eastern and western parts of the present town of Southbury had very soon after the settlement beyond them, made differences among the members of that society. Accordingly, we find twenty-nine persons, who lived in " Southbury new purchase," petitioning the Assembly in October, 1761, for four months' "winter preaching" each year, on
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the ground of their "living far from the place of worship," and the bad state of the roads. The prayer of their petition was granted at the same session, and they were allowed to "choose the necessary officers." Three years later, thirty-eight petitioners said the society was nine miles in extent east and west, and seven miles north and south, and had a list of £12,000. On account of the mountains, no spot for a meeting-house could accommodate all the society, and they therefore prayed for another ecclesiastical society, the line to be run by the course of the mountains. Sixty-nine persons signed a remon- strance, alleging that this would leave the society in a bad shape, that it was a time of heavy publie taxes, that Mr. Graham was old, and they must proceed to settle another minister, that the memorialists are not able to pay the expenses of a new society, that those within the proposed limits were not united, and that those limits did not fol- low the natural boundary. Fourteen other persons, living within the proposed new society, remonstrated, asserting that the lines were not such as would accommodate a society, that the "winter parish" is now divided, and that the application was got up by a few, who wished to live in the center of a society. The application, in conse- quence of these objections, and somewhat numerous reasons, failed. At the May session of the Assembly, 1765, the petition for a new society was renewed by forty-five individuals. They urged that it would save them more than one-half of their travel to a place of pub- lie worship. "No one place can accommodate the whole society." A tax of " 12d in the pound" had been laid to build a meeting-house. They therefore prayed for a new society, or a release from taxes. The petition was signed by the following persons : Wait IIinman, Ebenezer Down, James Edmonds, Samuel Wheeler, Ebenezer Hin- man, John Pearce, Samuel Hinman, Eleazer Mitchell, Ebenezer Squire, Benjamin Allen, John Garrit, Aaron Down, Zebulon Nor- ton, David Pearce, Robert Edmonds, John Mallory, Moses Johnson, Abraham Pearce, Gideon Curtiss, Michael Han, Samuel Curtiss, Joseph Darling, Ichabod Tuttle. John Park, Timothy Allen, Gideon Booth, Matthew Hubbell, Amos Brownson, Comfort Hubbell, Samuel Ilicock, Thomas Tousey, Moses Down, John Hobart, John Johnson, Solomon Johnson, James Edmonds, Jr., Silas Hubbell, Russell Franklin, James Stanelift, Joseph Baldwin, Joseph Baldwin, Jr., Elijah Hinman, Ebenezer Downs, Bethel Hinman, Samuel Pearce.
The petition was continued to the October session of the Assembly, when a committee was appointed to inquire into the matter and re- port. The committee reported at the May session, 1766, that the
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"mountain renders the meeting in one society impracticable," an ! recommended the incorporation of a new society. The report was accepted. the society incorporated, called South Britain. and released from the 124 tax, notwithstanding twenty-one persons remonstrated. preferring to remain with the old society, as they had joined with them in a contract for a new meeting-house. In October, 1770, they report to the General Assembly that they have settled a minister. have begun to build a meeting-house, that the list of the society was only £4,379, 4s. 6d., that a large land interest was owned by persons living in other parishes, which was increased in valne by the incor- poration of the new society, and that they therefore asked a land tax. The request was granted, and a tax of 24 per acre allowed for three years. The society had previously voted a tax of 4ª in the pound of the grand list for each of the two preceding years, toward building the house. In December, 1770, the building committee report it - enclosed, and the society in debt £80 or £90 in consequence.
From the foregoing, it will be perceived, that the people of South Britain had " winter privileges" for five years before their ir- corporation into a distinct society. The particulars of the organiza- tion of the church can not now be ascertained, on account of the almost entire want of church records. A few entries, on loose sheets of paper, are all that remain to east a glimpse of information on the benighted world. No minister was settled over the church till three years after the incorporation of the society. Rev. Jehu Minor, the first pastor, was settled early in 1769. The society gave him a set- tlement of £200, and a salary of £70 per annum. The settlement granted the ministers on their being installed over a church, in those early days, was a very convenient thing for a young man, who per- haps had spent his last penny in fitting himself to assume the respon- sible duties of his high calling. It enabled him to sustain himself with dignity and independence among his parishioners, and to di -- pense charities among the needy of his congregation, instead of being as now-in some sense a beggar-dependent upon niggardly salaries for a livelihood. Under the old regime, the ministers held a respect- able position among the wealthy families of their parishes, and their descendants could remain in the town of their birth, and become prominent in the various relations of life. For instance, we have to- day, in the ancient town, the descendants of a Bellamy, a Brinsmade. a Stoddard, and a Graham. One or two hundred years have not been able to scatter their descendants from the territories their an- cestors did so much to improve and bless. Heaven knows where the
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children of later ministers are, or where those of the present will be after the lapse of a few years. Under the present system, the de- scendants of the ministers are doomed to be poor, and to be scattered from the place of their birth to seek a better fortune elsewhere. Change is the order of the day-nothing is stable. However much men may regard the "higher calls of duty" to enter this holy em- ployment, yet many will feel themselves imperatively called to other fields of usefulness, when they behold in this, only a moderate sus- tenance for themselves, and pauperism for their children. Much of the best order of intellect is and will be engaged in other profes- sions and employments, which would be found in this, but for this ever-present spectacle of sadness. "The laborer is worthy of his hire," saith the " Book of Books." There is no reason why he who labors in " things spiritual," should be reduced to starvation in per- son, or in posterity, any more than he who labors in " things temporal." This is a matter which needs reformation.
At the organization of the church in 1769, John Pearce and Eben- ezer Down were chosen deacons, and the church consisted of forty- two members. Their names were John Minor, Ebenezer Down, James Edmonds, John Pearce, Ebenezer Hinman, Ebenezer Squire, Silas Hubbell, John Parks, Timothy Allen, Justice Hicock, John Garret, Samnel Pearce, Nathan Pearce, David Pearce, Aaron Down, Matthew Hubbell, Eleazer Mitchell, Joseph Pearce, Stephen Brown- son, John Skeel, William Youngs, Gideon Booth, Abraham Pearce, Prudence Johnson, Dinah Down, Mary Edmonds, Hannah Pearce, Elizabeth Hinman, Ann Squire, Ann Hinman, Rebecca Wheeler, Sarah Allen, Lois Hicock, Mary Edmonds, Jr., Eunice Pearce, Pru- dence Johnson, Jr., Olive Mitchell, Mary Pearce, Mary Brownson, Mary Youngs, Sarah Booth, Elizabeth Pearce. The church, during Mr. Minor's ministrations, was prosperous. Twenty-two were added to his church in 1785, and 109 during the twenty-one years he resided with his people ; and five were added during the five years' ministry of his successor. One hundred and thirty-eight persons were baptiz- ed by him. He was dismissed by the mutual consent of himself and his church, June, 1790. He was a native of Woodbury, gradu- ated at Yale College, and was settled in the ministry over the church in South Britain, two years later. He was a good man, and served his people acceptably for many years. Toward the close' of his min- istry he became much engrossed in farming, to the neglect of his pa- rochial duties, which was the ultimate cause of his asking a dismission from ministerial labor. His successor in the pastoral office was Mat-
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thias Cazier, who was settled in 1799, and dismissed in 1804. On his dismission, the church voted, "that they very cordially esteem their pastor, the Red Matthias Cazier, as of good moral character, and as an able and conscientious Minister of the New Testament, and sound in the faith." He was of French extraction. His father and mother were born in France, but he was born in New Jersey, and married a Miss Crane, of Newark. Previous to his settlement in this place, he had preached in Vermont, and Pelham, Mass. After his dismission here, he removed to the State of New York. Previous to his settlement, there had been an interregnum of nine years, after Mr. Minor's dismissal, during which time, the pulpit was sup- plied by various ministers, and in which had occurred one revival, and eleven admissions to the church. The church was again with- out a settled pastor for four years, when Rev. Bennett Tyler, D. D., was ordained, June 1, 1808. He remained in this pastoral charge fourteen years, when he was dismissed at his own request, March 26th, 1822, having been elected President of Dartmouth College. Under the ministration of Dr. Tyler, the church enjoyed great peace and prosperity. A hundred and eight persons were added to the number of its members.
Dr. Tyler was born in that part of Woodbury which now belongs to Middlebury, near Quassapaug Lake, July 6th, 1783. IIe gradua- ted at Yale College in 1804, and after graduation was for one year preceptor of the academy in Weston, now Easton, in Fairfield county. He studied theology with the Rev. Asahel Hooker, of Go- shen, and was licensed to preach in the fall of 1806. He was or- dained pastor of this church two years later, and after a pleasant ministry of fourteen years, he was, in 1822, appointed President of Dartmouth College, as stated, soon after which the degree of doctor in divinity was conferred upon him by Middlebury College. He filled this office six years, during which time he had the satisfac- tion to witness the constantly increasing prosperity of the institution. In June, 1828, he unexpectedly received a call to take the pastoral charge of the second church in Portland, Maine, as successor of the Rev. Dr. Payson," in "the great congregation where he had long .. preached, and prayed so like an angel." After much serious de- liberation he was induced to accept this call. Here he enjoyed the confidence and affection of a large and united church and society, till he was appointed President and Professor of Christian Theology in the Theological Institute of Connecticut. He entered on the dis- charge of the duties of these offices in 1834, and continues to dis-
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charge them still. Dr. Tyler " still lives," "his praise is in all the churches," and comment on his life and character is unnecessary.
Immediately after the dismission of Dr. Tyler, Rev. Noah Smith was invited to settle over the church and society, which call he ac- cepted, and his pastoral labors immediately commenced. His ministry was of considerable length, useful and happy. He died in the midst of his labors, among his people, October 10th, 1830, at an early age. During his ministry,eighteen members were added to the church. In the following seven years the church was without a settled pastor, but was supplied by various ministers. During this vacancy in the pas- torship, the church enjoyed unusual prosperity. No less than six revivals took place, and 162 persons were added to the church. Mr. Smith was born in Hanover, N. H., March 8th, 1794, made a profes- sion of religion at Albany, N. Y., March 6th, 1813, began to prepare for college, March, 1813, graduated at Dartmouth College, Angust, 1818, studied theology at Andover Seminary, was licensed to preach June 6th, 1821, ordained " Evangelist," October, 1821, and installed pastor over this church, October 9th1, 1822. On the 28th of June, 1837, Rev. Oliver B. Butterfield was ordained, and continued to dis- charge the duties of his pastoral relation to his church, with pleasure to himself, and profit to his people, till his death in 1849. Forty-five were admitted to the church during his administration. Mr. Butter- field was born in Montrose, Penn., June 18th, 1804. He entered Yale College, and pursued his studies there for three years, until ill health compelled him to desist. He traveled about two years for his health, when he returned, and entered the Yale College Theological School, where he graduated in 1836. He received the honorary de- gree of Master of Arts from Yale in 1845. In 1851, the present pas- tor, Rev. Amos E. Lawrence, was settled.
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