USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Woodbury > History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut : from the first Indian dead in 1659 to 1854 > Part 26
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1 Dr. Trumbull.
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Dr. Bellamy's church also, in reference to this law, had a meeting, and passed the following vote :
" June 18, 1742. At a church meeting unanimously voted and agreed, that whereas an aet prohibiting the ministers of Christ preaching in another minis- ters parish without the consent of the major part of the church there, as well as of the minister has been passed by our Gent Assembly :
" Voted by the Ch of Christ in Bethlehem A general and universal invitation to all approved, orthodox preachers and ministers of the gospel, that manifestly appear friends to the present religious concern in the land, that they would, as they have opportunity, come in to the help of the Lord among us. The same publiely coneurred with by the pastor."
We can gain a slight conception of the difficulties which surround- ed the first settlers of this society, by the prices paid for provisions, and other articles necessary for sustaining life, and later from the ex- treme difficulty which attended the building of a second meeting- house. In 1747, Mr. Bellamy's salary was £190, payable in wheat at 12s. per bushel, rye at 9s. and Indian corn at 7s. per bushel. In 1754, we learn by a vote of the society that ". 27 shillings were paid for a Lock & Kee for the Meeting House." The settlers here, as in the " ancient society" were hardy, enterprising, self-denying men, and nearly all of them were of large stature, and athletic frames. Their traits of character are indicated by their readiness to encounter the labors, perils and privations to which they were subjected in the set- tlement of the wilderness. The men of the present day may smile at the idea of our fathers thinking so much of a journey from the sea- coast, or even from Woodbury to Bethlem, as we are told they did. But they forget the obstacles and dangers they had to encounter. They forget that there were then no publie roads ; no vehicles which could be employed for the transportation of their goods. There were no steamboats, nor railroads, running with the swiftness of the wind in all directions. The first females, as well as the males, went on foot, or on horseback, through a trackless wilderness, guided by marks upon the trees, or feeling their way wherever they could find room to pass. In the midst of the first drear winter, their provisions gave out, and the inhabitants had to take their way through the pathless forests to the older settlements for food to sustain themselves during the remaining winter months. Samuel and John Steele went to Farmington with a hand-sled, and returned loaded with ears of corn for their pressing necessities. The men of the present day can not imagine the dangers and difficulties that surrounded those early pioneers, exposed to all the perils and privations of the interior for- ests. But they were men fearing God, and putting their trust in His
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promises. That fourteen families in the wilderness, before they had had time to provide for their own pressing wants, should undertake to support a preacher of the gospel, shows the enduring confidence, the lofty trust of those men of iron nerve.
It is related that the first currant bushes ever planted in this society were brought from Guilford, by a Mrs. Parks, on horseback. So in the first society, the first elm tree ever set out was used as a whip to drive a horse from Stratford to Woodbury. It was employed by an ancestor of the late Reuben Walker, for the purpose indicated, and then stuck down in a wet place north of John Bacon's house. It be- came in time the enormous tree so well known to the inhabitants of the town, which was struck by lightning about two years ago, and so much injured that it has since fallen down. That tree had watched over the town as a sentinel through all its varying interests-through prosperity and adversity-and it is a pity it could not have been pre- served as a matter of historical interest.
The first house in the society after a time was deemed too small for its accommodation. Accordingly on the 4th of January, 1764, when there were about one hundred within its limits that paid taxes, they voted to build a second church. On the 28th of the next month, they voted again to build the house, " and to begin and go on moder- ately and Little by Little." At the same time it was voted that no tax higher than four pence on the pound should be paid at one time, till the house was completed. But this was soon violated, and more than once they laid a tax of more than 1s. on the pound. They then adjourned for the purpose of viewing a place of location, and set their stake " at the north-east corner of Mr. Daniel Thompson's lot, next to the Rev. Mr. Joseph Bellamy's House." This location was on the common in front of the residence of the late Hon. Joseph HI. Bellamy, grandson of the pastor. On the 24th of May following, Samuel Jack- son, Archibald Kasson and Lieut. John Steele, were chosen building committee, to take charge of building the house, on the spot thus selected, and approved by the county court ; the house to be " 60 by 43 feet, and just as high as ye Meeting House in ye old Society." Three years later, the society voted to " hire the Meeting House raised, and to give each man 4s. per day, that shall raise ye Meeting House, they find themselves all but Ruum, and their wages shall go towards their Meeting house Rates." By a vote of the society, Octo- ber 20thi, 1768, directing the society's committee to "seat the new Meeting House," "and dignify the Pues" therein, we learn when it was finished and ready for worship. In December, 1793, a tax of
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sixpence on the pound was laid to build a steeple, provided money enough to purchase a " good decent bell and a Lightning rod" for the same should be raised by subscription. Eighty pounds were soon subscribed, and the bell was obtained. In September, 1774, the society
" Voted that the singers may sit up Gallery all day, if they please, but to keep to their own seat, the men not to infringe on the women pues."
From this it appears, that at this date the old method of performing this part of divine service by the congregation was not yet dispensed with in this society, but for what reason it was necessary to pass a solemn vote to keep the males from infringing on the ladies' rights, does not appear.
On the 28th of February, 1764, " the people of Woodbury Farms1 by their representatives, Barzillai IIendee, Oliver Atwood and Chris- topher Prentiss, petitioned to be admitted into Bethlehem society, and were admitted on condition that they would help build a Meeting House in Bethlehem center." This request was made as this society was the most convenient place at which to attend church. Perhaps the fame of the pastor had not a little to do in indueing them to make this application to their Bethlehem neighbors.
As will have been seen by what has preceded, the church in Beth- lehem, under the ministrations of Mr. Bellamy, was generally pros- perous. There were several occasions of revival of religion, and a considerable number of members were added to his church. It is not possible now to relate the particulars concerning them, as the records of the church throw no light on the subject, and no accounts of them have ever been published.
Rev. Dr. Bellamy, who became so celebrated as a divine, and who was in very many respects extraordinary, not only as a minister but as a man, was a native of Cheshire, in this state. He was edneated at Yale College, and graduated at that institution in 1735, at the age of sixteen years. Soon after this he became a religious youth, and at the age of eighteen, a minister of the gospel. It was a spectacle not often to be met with, at the present day, to see a youth of eight- een years, traveling from place to place, and preaching to the ae- ceptance of his hearers, in the various Congregational pulpits of this state. In this manner he itinerated for about four years, as he was not settled in Bethlehem till he was about twenty-two years of age.
1 Litchfield South Farms probably.
17
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For two of these years, however, he spent the larger part of the time in this society, as he was engaged to supply the pulpit during the season of the " winter privilege." In 1740, he was regularly settled over the church ; but at that time, the " Great Awakening" having attained its height, and Mr. Bellamy's heart and mental powers being enlisted in it, having procured a supply for his own pulpit, he went everywhere he was invited, preaching especially in places where there was a "revival." His labors were much blessed, wherever he went, especially to the people of the new and small parish of his usual abode. " When that revival began to be marred by wildness and disorder, the prudent young minister retired to his little church, and here, with few books, and with small opportunity for improve- ment by association with men, he bent himself to a course of study, which resulted in attainments in the science of theology, which gave him rank among the great divines of every country and every age. He never displayed, nor tried to display himself, as a general scholar. In theology, he read deeply, but more deeply thought. Vigilant to defeat error, he was sagacious and powerful to refute it. His two great companions in this country were Edwards and Burr. His principal foreign correspondent was Rev. John Erskine, D. D., of Edinburgh. Human nature-men in their varieties-he knew re- markably well. But the action of his mighty intellect in retirement, contributed mainly to his greatness." At the age of thirty, he pub- lished his greatest work, "True Religion Delineated." At forty- eight, in 1768, he was made doctor in divinity by the University of Aberdeen. In May, 1762, he preached the " Election Sermon" to the Assembly. When he was about twenty years of age, the Rev. Jon- athan Edwards, Jr., of Northampton, published an able and interest- ing work on the qualifications for church membership. The object of the book was to overthrow the practice of the half-way covenant in the churches, and to abolish the use of baptism and the Lord's Supper, as converting ordinances. Before the book appeared, Mr. Bellamy, though living in a region where the practice was prevalent, dissented from it, and had prepared and preached to his people a sermon agreeing in sentiment with the Northampton publication. As soon as the book came to hand, he was so much interested in it, that he immediately set out to find its author. Arriving at Mr. Ed- wards' house on Saturday, and acquainting him with the faet of his being a licentiate, he was invited to stay, and preach a part of the next day. In the forenoon he preached that sermon. During its delivery, Mr. Edwards was seen to be much interested and excited,
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and constantly bending forward to get a full view of the young man's face. When the service closed, and the " great congregation" were retiring, the two ministers were seen in the midst of them, engaged and lost in earnest conversation. Indeed they had gone some dis- tanee from the door, before either discovered that Mr. Edwards had forgotten to take his hat.
Dr. Bellamy was a large and well built man, of a commanding ap- pearance. He had a voice of great power and compass. He could fill the largest house with the utmost ease, and without any forced elevation. Hle possessed a truly great mind, generally preached without notes, and having some great point of doctrine or practice to establish, would keep close to his point, till he had clearly and fully illustrated it, in the most clear, ingenious and pungent manner, eare- fully making some striking application. So well was he acquainted with the various matters, things, and business of common life, that he had a vast storehouse of imagery to draw from, suitable to his hearers of every class. " _ reaching once to farmers, the doctrine that, in man, sin is indigenous, but holiness is the product of grace, he said, . Sin is bent-grass, holiness, herds-grass.'" " When he felt well, and was animated by a large and attentive audience, he preached incomparably ; though he paid little attention to language, yet when he became warm with the subject, he would, from the native vigor of his soul, produce the most commanding strokes of eloquence, mak- ing his audience alive. There is nothing to be found in his writings, though a great and able divine, to be compared with what was seen and heard in his preaching." His pulpit talents exceeded all his other gifts. It is difficult for us of the present day, who have never heard him, or perhaps any like him, by the description we have from those who did hear him, to form any just idea of the power and beauty of his preaching.
The following extract from Dr. MeEwen's Centennial Discourse at the Litchfield County Consociation anniversary, will illustrate a trait in Mr. Bellamy's character :
" He became early in his ministerial life, a teacher in theology ; and at Beth- lem, for years, he kept the principal school in the United States, to prepare young men for the ministry. The great body of the living fathers in this pro- fession, who adorned the elosing part of the eighteenth century, were his pu- pils. A volume of anecdotes, related by thein concerning his teaching, and discipline, and his domestic habits, might be collected. He reigned as a sove- reign in his school : still the members of it venerated and loved him. Ilis erit- jeisms were characterized by sarcasin and severity. Dr. Levi Hart-who ul- timately married his daughter-said that he observed that Dr. Bellamy allowed
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himself great latitude in expressing the faults of the first sermon preached by a candidate. When Hart's turn came, he said, that he determined that his ser- mon should be faultless. A lecture was appointed for him, at a small house in a remote part of the parish, and the procession started on horseback ; the preacher at the doctor's right hand, and the sirs, two and two, in due order, following. The sermon, on delivery, seemed to Hart better than he expected, and raised him above fear from remarks of his teacher. The troop remounted for their return. The whole body of rear riders pressed as closely as possible to the two leaders, to hear what might be said by the chief in wisdom and au- thority. The doctor talked on different subjeets, and the orator of the day said that his fears of criticism diminished at every step, until he triumphed in the ' eonvietion that he had sileneed the wily remarker. When near home, they passed a field of buckwheat? The stem was large, reaching to the top of the fenee, but there was no seed. 'Ilart,' the doctor exclaimed loudly, 'you see that buckwheat ? There is your sermon.' One student in the school, had the taet to ask erotehical questions. In the midst of a favorite diseussion of the teacher, he was brought up by one of these annoying interrogatories. 'Nat Niles,' said the speaker, ' I wish you was dead.' These pupils, long after they had entered the pastoral life, said that some of Mr. Bellamy's playful reproofs and commendations were true propheey. In the presence of his family and school, on one oeeasion, he said, Some years henee I shall take a journey. Coming into a parish, where I shall be a stranger, I shall stop at a tavern. When the landlady is pouring the tea, I shall inquire, ' Who is your minister ?' ' Mr. Benediet,' her reply will be. 'Mr Benedict ! What Benedict ?' ' Mr. Joel Benediet,' she will answer. ' What sort of a man is he ?' I shall ask. 'Oh, he is a prudent, good minister ; he gives great satisfaction to this people.' I shall, the doctor remarked, be glad to hear this, and shall journey home.
" Some time after this, as we are sitting here by the fire, a man will come in, and say, 'Does Mr. Bellamy live here ?' ' Yes, sir, Iam the man.' The stranger will proceed, ' I live away up the country-was coming down to Con- neetient, and the eonimittee of our parish told me, that I must get a candidate ; if I did not hear of one, I must call on Dr. Bellamy, for information.' I, said she doetor, shall inquire, ' Who, sir, was your last minister ?' 'Mr. Niles.' * What Mr. Niles ?' ' Mr. Nathaniel Niles.' I, said the doetor to his wife, shall turn to you and say, ' Nat Niles is dead.' ' Oh no,' the man will reply, " he has turned infidel.'"]
He was married twice. The name of his first wife was Frances Sherman, of New Haven, whom he married about the year 1744, and who died in 1785, aged sixty-two years. In 1786, he married Mrs. Storrs, widow of Rev. Andrew Storrs, of Watertown. One year after this, he was prostrated by paralysis, and after languishing three years, he died March 6th, 1790, in the seventy-second year of
1 This sketch of Dr. Bellamy is taken principally from Dr. Trumbull's History of Connecticut, and Dr. MeEwen's discourse at the Centennial Anniversary of the North and South Consociations, at Litchfield, 1852.
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his age, and the fiftieth of his ministry, after his regular settlement in Bethlehem.1 Two of his children died before him-Jonathan, a young lawyer, who was a soldier of the revolution, and Rebecca, the wife of Rev. Levi Hart, of Preston. David, his son, lived to a good old age in his native place. The late lamented Hon. Joseph H. Bel- lamy, was the son of the latter, and named after his distinguished grandfather. After Dr. Bellamy's death, his library was advertised for sale, and there was a large attendance of the clergy in the neigh- borhood at the auction, in order to secure some of his valuable books. But their disappointment may be imagined, when on examination, it was found to be made up, principally, of the publications of infidels and heretics. The good man sleeps among his people, and the cem- etery of Bethlem is honored with his sacred dust.
After the death of Mr. Bellamy, a Rev. Mr. Collins supplied the pulpit for a time, and received a call from the church and society to settle among them ; but although they offered him a settlement of $900, and an annual salary of $900 more, yet he did not, for some reason, think proper to accept it.
In 1791, Rev. Azel Backus received a call from this church, which he accepted, and was installed on the 6th of April in that year. He was dismissed in October, 1812, that he might accept the presidency of Hamilton College. lle remained in this situation till December 9th, 1817, when he was removed from his useful labors, by the hand of death, aged fifty-three years. During his residence in Bethlem, in addition to his pastoral labors, he established and instructed a school, and acquired a distinguished reputation as a man of science, and an instructor of youth. This undoubtedly procured for him his appointment as president of the college. He was distinguished for remarkable vigor of mind. IIe was both respected and beloved by his pupils. Ile was not only an able divine, but also eminent for his social virtues, the mildness of his disposition and the complacency of his temper.
The church under Dr. Backus' care was highly prosperous. In
1 The origin of Sabbath Schools, and the name of their founder, has always been a matter of interesting inquiry to the friends of those nurseries of morality and religion. It is deemed proper to state a fact here, which there is no reason to doubt, that Dr. Bellamy had a Sabbath school in his church from the beginning. The school was composed of two classes, the eldest instructed by Dr. Bellamy himself in the Bible, from which they learned portions, and were questioned upon them, and the second class studied the " Assembly's Catechism," under the instruction of a deacon, or some other prominent member of the church .- Dr. Hooker's Discourse at Litchfield, 1852.
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1792, the second year of his ministry, eighteen were added to it; in 1800, eighteen more, and in 1808, twenty. In 1815, while the church was without a pastor, seventeen were added. During the la- bors of Mr. Langdon, the third minister, in the years 1821 and 1822, forty-two members were received, and twenty-three in 1824. Dur- ing the last year of Mr. Couch's ministry, in 1834, thirty-eight mem- bers were added to the church, and numbers more in other years.
Perhaps the sketch of Dr. Backus could be closed in no better way, than by an extract from Dr. McEwen's Discourse, so frequently quoted in these pages. After having given a sketch of Dr. Bellamy, he goes on to say :
" This unique pastor of the church in Bethlem was sneeeeded in office by a man quite as extraordinary, and of little less celebrity. The Rev. Azel Backus was ordained pastor in the year 1791. Comparisons are said to be odious ; but odious or not, these two men, occupying in succession the same station, chal- lenging attention and admiration-and as unlike as two good and mighty men could be-have inevitably been compared with each other. A pions and aged negro in the church, was asked how he liked Mr. Backus, the pastor, and whether he thought him equal to Mr. Bellamy. His reply immortalized him- self, and his two ministers. 'Like Master Backus very much-great man, good minister, but not equal to Master Bellamy. Master Backus make God big ; but Master Bellamy make God bigger.'"
"Soon after his settlement, Mr. Backus preached one of his poignant, awful sermons in a neighboring parish. A hearer, alarmed for the young preacher, asked him, 'Mr. Backus, dare you preach such sermons as this at home in Bethlem?' 'Yes,' he replied, ' I am obliged to preach there in this style ; the people have been so long kicked and spurred by Dr. Bellamy, that they will not feel gentle preaching at all; this sermon which you have heard is a mere hazel switch ; when I am at home I use a sled-stake.' Neither his wit, nor even his drollery, could he keep out of the pulpit. Ilis preaching was of the most popular kind. The effect, however, of some of the most touching sermons which were ever delivered, was diminished by this contraband article, which he perhaps unconsciously smuggled in. Ile could weep whenever he pleased-in the pulpit or out of it-and make others weep more frequently than any man whom I ever saw. Ile could not refrain from tears ; his quickest and most profuse sensibility was religious. Almost every occurrence reminded him of human depravity, and the peril of the soul-of divine grace-its mercy and richness ; and lo, his head was waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears. He could laugh himself-a passion and power he had for making others laugh. He could take a joke, but woe to the
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man who gave it. If in any particulars he excelled Dr. Bellamy, he did in repartee, and in the delineation of character. When he preached his unrivaled election sermon, in which he portrayed the demagogue from the words of Absalom, 'Oh, that I were made judge in the land,' &c., his classmate, Gideon Granger, said to him, as he came from the pulpit, 'Backus, had I known what was coming, I should have stood up.' Down to this day, the parish of Bethlem continued to be of moderate size ; his salary was not large, and was quite insufficient to meet the wants of a man of his generosity and hospitality. He instructed a few individual candidates for the minis- try in theology ; but his great expedient for eking out a livelihood, and for serving efficiently his generation, was that of fitting youth for college. In teaching Latin and Greek, and in disciplining boys of every grade and constitution, he had unborrowed tact, and unrivaled success. In this employment, of so little pretension for a great man, he became renowned. From the north and the south, young candi- dates for public education flocked to his house ; and there many a twig was so bent that it is now a trec, stately and prolific. With whom the instructor was the most popular, it were difficult to say, the pu- pils, the parents, or the faculty of college. Gen. Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, placed his sons there, visited them and saw the scanty resources, and the deviees and labors of the great man for a living ; and the general inquired of the doctor why he did not avail himself of owning and cultivating land. The reply was, 'Land can not be procured.' ' Whose lot is that ?' said IIampton, pointing to a fine mowing-field adjacent to the clergyman's garden. 'Mr. Bellamy's,' was the answer. 'Is Mr. Bellamy fond of land?' the inquirer added. 'Not very,' said Backus; 'he only wants that which joins him.' After the visitor had left and gone homeward, a letter came back, inclosing a deed of the mowing-field. Though David Bellamy was reluctant to let Backus have his land, even for money, still as neighbors, and as minister and parishioner, they lived on excellent terms. Bellamy took the large newspapers-did not read them-but on their arrival, sent them over to Backus. His duty, delight and glory it was, to keep his patron well posted up in the news."
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