USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Goshen > History of the town of Goshen, Connecticut, with genealogies and biographies based upon the records of Deacon Lewis Mills Norton, 1897 > Part 25
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As a pastor, he was untiring in ministrations; and in at- tendance upon the sick he was as assiduous as the physician. As a preacher, his sermons were marked by deep spirituality and made impressive by his great felicity of illustration. His ministry was blessed by repeated outpourings of the Spirit, in which he rejoiced, with more incessant labors, but in the epoch of what may be called Theological Radicalism, he stood for conservatism, and steadfastly refused to admit within his parish the methods of factitious awakening of religious interest that rent in sunder so many of the churches in his neighbor- hood.
There are none left of his beloved brethren in the minis- try who could testify to the affection and reverence with which he was regarded by them. They have all gone to join him, and their works, like his own, do follow them.
Mrs. Powers survived her husband to a vigorous old age, and died in Washington, D. C., August 24, 1887, at the age of 85. She held an honored place among the women who labored for the relief of our suffering soldiers during the Civil War, and was laid in her grave wearing the badge of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was wrapped in the flag which they fought to maintain. Although Mrs. Powers' early marriage and her manifold cares - she had borne her husband eight children before she was twenty-nine - would seem to have precluded the possibility of study, yet her eager appetite for knowledge devised means for its gratification, and, to the end of her long life, she held her own among the most success- ful students of the higher education.
Of the four children who survived their parents, the son is a merchant in Boston, one daughter is married, residing on the Isthmus of Panama. Of the two widowed daughters, one resides in Washington, D. C., and the other makes her home in Smyrna, Turkey.
Lavalette Perrin was born in Vernon, Conn., May 15,
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1816, and was graduated at Yale College in 1840. After his graduation he taught two years in Miss Comstock's school for young ladies in New Haven, studied theology in the New Haven Seminary and in the Seminary at East Windsor Hill, Conn. Having been licensed to preach, he was ordained to the Gospel ministry December 13, 1843, in the town of Goshen, Conn., and at the same time installed pastor of the Congregational Church in that place, where he remained in active service until September, 1857. In June, 1844, he was married to Ann Eliza Comstock of New Haven.
In Goshen his pastorate was marked with the usual features of interest in a first ministry; features, however, of a more than usually striking character. Such a ministry is always and especially a time of beginnings: new plans, new hopes, new attachments, while, as yet, disappointment and sorrow are scarcely known. The new home, the new work, the first people, and the young pastor, all together make a happy scene that can never be duplicated in one pastor's life. Mr. Perrin's home from the first took on the character of intellectual ac- tivity and social refinement quite in advance of the average country parsonage at that time. Books, magazines, music, en- tertained and educated it. Its refined and generous hospitality cheered and gladdened the whole parish.
And it must be said here that the young and accomplished wife had uncommon adaptations in her sphere. She had a bright and beaming face, buoyancy of spirits, a beautiful hope- fulness which gave a constant charm to the home, maintaining in it an almost girlish exuberance of life; all which, chastened by the Christian faith, brought unfailing strength to the pas- tor's heart in the grave problems of his work. Mrs. Perrin was the exact completion of his own life. Her sprightly ways and high cultivation, her good sense and warm heart admir- ably qualified her for leadership in the various departments of woman's work in the parish, and gave her a wholesome and decided influence among all varieties of disposition and habit.
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In this field he very soon found an opening for work not specially included in the professional routine, but which made a strong appeal to him as a minister of Christ. He saw the havoc made by the drink habit, and eagerly seized the oppor- tunity to reclaim the drunkard, and gave himself to that work, till he saw his church thoroughly aroused, and the contagion of its zeal extending to other churches in the vicinity, till the Goshen church stood as a pronounced force with the young pastor in this work of love. It was the time of the Washing- tonian movement, and not far from Litchfield, where Dr. Beecher, a few years before had sounded his alarm; but be- sides this, is interesting as showing how Mr. Perrin watched for souls, and sought to save men by whatever neighborly and sympathetic efforts he could. To him the field was the world, and therefore the church must be in the world also, in the midst of the wide world's wants.
This may fairly describe the situation as he enters upon his ministry in the goodly town of Goshen, among the far-famed hills, and in the bracing air of Litchfield County. Here began lifelong habits of method and self-discipline with the un- faltering purpose of making the most of that life in behalf of his fellowmen. In leaving this for another field of labor he could not but carry with him pleasant memories of a most efficient ministry, and devout gratitude for the 117 accessions to the church.
In February, 1858, he received and accepted a call to the First Congregational Church in New Britain. This call placed him in a quite different environment, a large and grow- ing community, already pushing on to be one of the liveliest and most important business centers in the state. Here a greater variety of interests and new lines of effort opened to him. The Civil War broke out, and made him a prominent " civic " leader, as well as an ethical and religious teacher. The public schools also came in for a share of his attention, in-
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volving details of location, construction, organization, and various practical matters of municipal interest, which should always find in the pulpit a firm ally. It could not be other- wise than that the business constituency in which he was now placed should, in many respects, be very different from the agricultural one he had left. Not only did it lay upon him heavier responsibilities, but also taught him new lessons in ad- ministration, and discovered to him his talent for " affairs " on which great demands were to be laid in the future, and which was already bringing him into prominence as an influen- tial factor in the social and business life of men.
Here also came the severer discipline of domestic trials. Sickness and death invaded his home and took from it two sons, a bright boy of four years, and a youth of nineteen, already fitted for college, whose gradual decline through a period of two years made him the chief and tenderest care of the home; and a little later (in Torrington), the only daughter in her early married life. At the time it seemed almost too much to bear. " Bitter, bitter," as he called it. But it is God's way of re- fining the man for whom He has a great work in view. How often he puts him into prison or a desert, into some strangely woven net-work of circumstance, partially shut away and shut up alone with Himself, to give him a deeper experience and a larger furnishing for the work that is in waiting for him. Thus these " bitter " draughts from the cup of sorrow wrought in the sufferer " the peaceable fruits of righteousness," made the ministry a more sacred calling to him, deepened his spiritual life, and became to him an element of further and more vigor- ous growth. Indeed, it became more than ever evident that growth, in all providential fortunes, was the law of his being. As his spirit was chastened, his life was enlarged. It could not be confined within parish limits.
Toward the close of his pastorate in New Britain the State Conference of Congregational Churches was formed, in which
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he took a deep interest, and of which he was a great part. As events have proved, he is probably more conspicuously identi- fied with the early history of the Conference than any other man, as we shall see in reviewing his Torrington ministry. In 1869 he received from Yale College the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
To characterize the New Britain period of his life I should say it was the time when his views of church life and respon- sibility were perceptibly broadened, and a wider range of service opened to him, and many seed thoughts of progress were lodged in his mind to germinate and become fruitful.
How he continued to live in the hearts of this people, after the pastoral relation was dissolved, is touchingly evident from their mourning at his death (nine years afterward) in that remarkable memorial service which they held in his honor around the pulpit he had filled; a hearty and beautiful com- memoration of the pastor who had gathered 356 members into its fold.
After leaving his pastorate in New Britain, May, 1870, he needed rest. The twelve years of service, with the addition of repeated and bitter afflictions, left his nervous energies in a low condition, and for a year or so he traveled abroad. Even in this season of recuperation the ruling passion continued. One day in London he visited a locality unusually interesting for its historic associations. It was remembered as having been the place where in other days dissenters had been con- fined and executed. Near it, or upon it, there had been erected a memorial building, and appropriately named " Mem- orial Hall." Dr. Perrin could not but make a study of it. He could not but think of the relationship of the Congregational Churches of his own state to those brave and devoted men whose memory was now honored by that Memorial Hall. Then thinking of the Connecticut State Conference of Congrega- tional Churches, so recently launched and started on its promis-
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ing career, he conceived the idea of another Memorial Hall as a suitable equipment for it, and brought home with him the fond hope. That hope he cherished and it grew upon him, until he saw his way clear to present it to the Conference. Conference considered it favorably, referred it largely to his management, and from year to year, as it developed under his hand, adopted his reports of progress, until it became a histori- cal fact; a commodious building for the uses of the denomina- tion in the state which could not now be dispensed with. In all the initial steps for the purchase of the Memorial Hall property, continued for years, including the raising of the money through the hard times of '73 and '74, the minute personal superintendence of the building and its furnishings, the tinting of the rooms, matching of colors, in short, in all the details of plan and method, Dr. Perrin was the sole manager and organizer from start to finish. Added to this, there was all along the natural caution, perhaps inertia, to be overcome in the minds of a great many as to the expediency of the enterprise itself. Through all this he moved forward with the step of a master, as if in the fullest confidence in every plan, till the building was finished, furnished, and paid for, with ample room for committee meetings, an office for the secretary of the Connecticut Home Missionary Society, deposi- tories for books, manuscripts of historical value, besides an annual income from rents of about $2,000. And it is not remembered that in all this responsibility he ever presented to the Conference a single plan of action which the Confer- ence did not adopt. A remarkable tribute, surely, to his judg- ment and sagacity, that he could carry to a popular assembly with all its liabilities and uncertainties, for a series of years, an enterprise involving such expense, and receive its uniform sanction; and none the less so that he could so approve himself to the sharp scrutiny of individual business men like John B. Eldridge and Roland Mather, who generously contributed
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respectively $25,000 and $1,000, and who are ever held in grateful remembrance.
But our survey is not complete till we take into view the Congregational Club, third in the series, completing the unity of the three. For it is not until they are thus grouped that we get the full meaning of either one. Nothing is plainer than that the Conference led the way to the Memorial Hall, and the Memorial Hall to the Congregational Club, and that Dr. Perrin was as influential a factor in the last move as in the last but one. All three bear the indelible marks of his construct- ive mind.
On his return from Europe, being without a pastoral charge, he ministered for about nine months to the church in North Stonington, and, while supplying there, received and accepted a call to settle with the third church in Torrington, and was installed July 31, 1872. It was, therefore, during his earlier ministry in that place that the Memorial Hall work was on his hands, and also when the formation of the Congrega- tional Club was receiving so much of his attention. At the same time also, he became editor of the Religious Herald, and continued in that service seven years. A little later he interested himself in the formation of the Naugatuck Valley (district) Conference, which involved a change of boundary lines in contiguous Conferences, but which seemed necessary on account of changes in the lines of public travel. This was due in its beginnings to the inspiration of Dr. Perrin, and largely to his guidance all through to its consummation. It was in this ministry also (1880) that he was elected treasurer of the National Council of Congregational Churches; also (1882) was elected corporator of Yale College, in both which offices he served till his death.
On the whole, his Torrington ministry was his best. As he neared the mark towards which he had been "pressing " for forty years, he ran with swifter steps. For while his serv-
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ice was thus continually broadening out to include so many matters of general interest to the churches, he was still mainly concerned with his own distinctively parish work. To this he gave himself with a passionate devotion, and for his re- ward saw his church in Torrington come to a degree of strength and stability it had never before attained, having made in that time the remarkable record of 415 accessions to its member- ship.
We may now close this sketch by drawing a few lines of what may be called the personal portraiture of the man. He was a man of fine presence, dignified address - qualities due in part to an uncompromising conscience, a sense of living and acting all the while amid great realities. This being so, conscience being the regnant power of his soul, he set duty above everything else in life, and taught others to do the same. So that his preaching was ethical, and, in style, clear, forcible, and practical. Had he given freer scope to sentiment and imagination his preaching might have gained in popu- larity. But whether it would have made a more lasting im- pression may be doubted. To this day his people in New Brit- ain, now in middle life, remember how impressively he taught them in their youth to fear and love the claims of duty. " We can never forget it," they say.
Yet, his sympathy was, if possible, still more marked. He never tired of ministering to the weak and the needy. His strong manhood never impressed one more than in this service, reminding one of the words, "gentle as a nurse cherisheth her children." Sickness, poverty, bad contagions, whatever the risk or sacrifice, never failed to bring him to the sufferer, with the sufferer's comforts.
He was a man of rigid method, upon which point I may quote: "Careful, methodical preparation, and methodical record characterized all his parish work. His daily journals, covering his forty-five years of ministerial service, are models
PT. FTİ
OSSF
RESIDENCE OF REV. LAVALETTE PERRIN -NOW OWNED BY ELISHA TURNER.
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of minute observation and serviceable record, and they show always, from first to last, one ambition - to promote the glory of God in his fellowmen. They are a history of souls saved and souls edified.' "
He was a man of most unrelenting purpose, like the Freuch Huguenot from whom he descended. In the course of his work on the Memorial Hall problem, he encountered, of course, many serious difficulties, many obstructive contiu- gencies. But, as the matter gradually passed along and came within hailing distance of success, the late lamented Dr. N. J. Burton, talking of it with a friend at his side, remarked in his playful way, "Isn't it curious how much one demonized man can do! "
In his home life there was a charm of which the outside world can hardly be aware. The sickness and death of those nearest to him brought out the great wealth of his heart and chastened his spirit to the sweetest temper. His home ties were strongest of all, and made him great. "It is my wish and prayer," said his devoted wife to him, " that we may die near together." The prayer was answered on that dreadful night when the bursting of the steam boiler in the cellar de- molished the building and buried them together in its ruins.
The Rev. William T. Doubleday was the son of Dr. Ammi and Susan Pierce Doubleday, and was born in Binghamton, N. Y., March 28, 1819. He studied in the schools of that place until he was fifteen, when he entered the Academy at Amherst Mass. He was a member of Amherst College from 1834 to 1836, and of Yale in 1836 and '38, when he was graduated. His father intended that he should enter the legal profession, but after a struggle for more than a year with his religious convictions he gave himself to the work of the minis- try. Some time after his decision had been made he learned that a granddaughter of President Edwards, who was a resi- dent of Binghamton, had been praying that he might be led
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to enter the ministry. In a letter to the writer Mr. Doubleday says: " I do not know when I was converted, probably in my infancy, and consecrated in my mother's arms; for I cannot recall any period in my long life when I went through the orthodox process, or when I was not trying to be a Christian." He pursued his theological course at the Union Seminary be- tween 1839 and 1843, being absent one year on account of sickness. His work in the ministry commenced in 1843, and from that time until and including 1845 he supplied the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in Bainbridge, N. Y. He was ordained by the Cortland Presbytery March 3, 1847, in Truxton, N. Y., having been supplying the pulpit in 1846 and remaining until 1849. In 1850 he accepted an invita- tion to the pastorate of the church in Gilbertsville, N. Y., where he labored for ten years. His ministry was greatly blessed and accompanied by revivals of remarkable power and extent; but having only occasional assistance in the pulpit during these seasons, that called for much extra labor, his health suffered, and, finally, to that extent he was compelled to resign. From 1860 to 1863 he was pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Delhi, New York, but, the climate proving unfavorable, he was compelled to resign and take a rest of several months.
He was called to the church in Goshen near the close of 1863, and, after preaching one Sabbath, December 6th, he was seized with a dangerous illness, and only after an intermission of eleven weeks was lie able to re-enter the pulpit. His in- stallation took place June 1, 1864, and he continued the pas- tor of the church until October 31, 1871. His ministry here was marked by an earnest fidelity, wisdom, and interest in the people of his charge, that won for him their universal esteem and such blessing from God that seventy-nine members were added to the church during his pastorate. The Civil War was in progress during these years, and many of the young
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men who went into the army from Goshen were slain in battle or returned broken in health to die among their kindred. The pastor was compelled to minister comfort and sympathy often during these years, and his words and tender sympathy will never be forgotten. His sermon on the death of Henry Beach was published by the society, that its words of wisdom and com- fort might be of help and consolation to many who could not hear them and be the longer remembered by those who listened to their delivery. Mr. Doubleday was always proud of the war record of this town - its contributions both of men and money.
During his pastorate a young lad lived in his family one winter that he might attend the Academy. His name was George Henry, and during this time he was converted, and, later, joined the church. He was from a Roman Catholic family, but he was full of zeal and continued his studies until he was lieensed to preach in Brooklyn, N. Y., and became pastor of a mission connected with the Rev. Dr. Duryea's ehurch.
In 1871 Mr. Doubleday became so completely prostrated in health that he was compelled to resign, and since that time he has been able to preach only occasionally. He removed to Vineland, N. J., where he remained seven years. He resides at present in Binghamton, N. Y., and it is very little to say that he has the love and respect of all who know him.
His ancestry and kindred have been characterized by qualities which ensure respeet and honor. His grandfather, Ammi D., born 1759, served in the War of the Revolution; died in New Hartford, N. Y., 1839. His grandmother was Lois Tilden, sister to the father of Gov. Tilden of N. Y. His mother's father was Thomas Pierce, also a Revolutionary sol- dier, at one time a prisoner in the prison ships in New York harbor. His father, Dr. Ammi D., Jr., was born in New Lebanon, N. Y., July 3, 1790; died in Binghamton July 23,
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1867. His mother was Susan Pierce, born in Plainfield, Conn., April 13, 1793; married February 3, 1814; died in Bingham- ton September 11, 1856.
Mr. Doubleday was married May 14, 1844, to Frances M., daughter of Francis Doremus, Esq., a merchant of New York city. Her father served in the War of 1812, and died Decem- ber 12, 1876, aged 89. Her mother was Eliza DeH. Canfield, a great-granddaughter of the Rev. James Caldwell, who served on Gen. Washington's staff in New Jersey during the week, and preached Sunday in his church in Elizabeth. He was the man who brought out the hvmn books when their wadding failed and gave to the soldiers, telling them, " Give them Watts, boys; give them Watts." Mrs. Doubleday died in Binghamton April 5, 1882. They had two daughters, Susan Caldwell, who died in infancy, and Frances C., who lives in Binghamton with her father.
The church was not long without a pastor, as a call was ex- tended to the Rev. Timothy A. Hazen in December, 1871, was accepted by him, and followed by his installation, Febru- ary 7, 1872.
Mr. Hazen was born at West Springfield (now Agawam), Mass., June 24, 1826, the son of the Rev. Reuben S. and Mary Ann (Wood) Hazen. His father was a Congregational clergyman, graduated at Yale in 1818. After graduating he taught the grammar school at Goshen for one year, and dur- ing that time studied theology with the Rev. Joseph Harvey. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. Luke Wood, a Con- gregational clergyman. He prepared for college at the West- field Academy, Westfield, Mass., and was graduated from Williams College in the class of 1849.
His theological studies were pursued at the Theological Institute, East Windsor Hill, for one year, and later at the Union Seminary, New York, where he graduated in 1853. He married Sarah A. Ives of Lenox, Mass., August 23, 1853.
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His pastorates have been at Dalton, Mass., 1854-1859; Broad Brook, Conn., 1859-1863; South Egremont, Mass., 1863-1869; Housatonic, Mass., 1869-1871; Goshen, 1872-1883; and Cur- tisville, Mass., 1883-1889. He is now, 1896, residing at Springfield, Mass. While at South Egremont he delivered a Historical Sermon of that church, which was published.
During his pastorate a manual was prepared and adopted; the work of which was done with great care. A ladies' prayer-meeting was established. The death of Deacon Harvey Brooks, a man greatly beloved, occurred February 17, 1873. In 1875 the present arrangement of weekly offerings to be deposited in boxes by the doors was made. In 1876 the pas- tor took the lead in furnishing the Conference Room in the second story of the district schoolhouse. The same year there was an awakening of religious interest, as the result of which the church received upwards of thirty members. In 1877 a census of the town was taken, and it was found that there were 109 Congregational families, 62 Methodist, 6 Baptist, 8 Episcopal, and 34 Roman Catholic. There were 237 families having the Bible; 19 without; 8 supplied free; 10 refusing. In 1880 Miss Lyman's bequest of $1,500 was received by the parish. Miss Lyman desired this to be used for building a chapel for social meetings, and this was the wish of the church, but the parish, having the power under the terms of the be- quest, and deeming it wise, used it otherwise.
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