USA > Connecticut > New London County > Ledyard > History of the town of Ledyard, 1650-1900 > Part 4
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48
. HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEDYARD.
Crouch, Forsee (Forsyth), Hillam, Lee, Turner, Wilkinson and Willoughby. The single names were Allyn, Ashcraft, Barker, bassett, Barnard, Bennett, Bordish, Button, Cleveland, Cramer, Davis, Dean, Dickinson, Dood, Downing, Doyle, Fanning, Fountain, Frink, Gray, Grist, Hancock, Holdridge, Holly, Houghton, Hutchinson, Larkin, Lancasta, Leeds, Malason, Mc- Cloughton, Meach, Norton, Nuton (Newton), Parish, Randal, Ranger, Raynolds, Rouse, Samson, Thiton, Utley, Welsh, Wick- wire and Weeks."
[See Rev. X. A. Welton's article in Episcopal Herald for July, 1891].
CHAPTER IV. The Separatist Church.
ONE result of "The Great Awakening," which began in the early forties of the last century, was the formation of Separate Churches in various parts of the country, but especially here in Eastern Connecticut. There was hardly a town, either in New London or Windham Counties which did not have one or more of these churches within its borders. The state of things, in the older churches, had come to be such that a change for the better was demanded ; and some of the clearer headed and more spirit- ually-minded members were beginning to see it. These churches though they had previously been in a much better condition, were now rapidly drifting into formalism. The Half-Way Cove- nant plan, which permitted parents, of fair moral character, who were not church-members, to have their children baptized, and, in some churches, to partake of the communion, had been wide- ly adopted. The feeling seemed to be everywhere gaining ground, that the outward observance of the rites and forms of religion was all that was required, and that the spiritual renova- tion of the heart was altogether unnecessary. It was this gen- eral drift of things, away from the high standards set up and maintained by the first settlers in the country and their more immediate successors, that roused the spirits of Edwards, White- field and their co-adjutors, and called forth from them such earnest protests and such thrilling appeals that "The Great Awakening" was the result. The hearts of these conspicuous leaders in the work were fired with the loftiest enthusiasm; and their preaching was of such a character that immense numbers of people, in every walk in life, were intensely moved by it. Very soon movements were set on foot which resulted in serious divi-
4
50
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEDYARD.
sions in many of the churches, and at length in the formation of Separate Churches in the same communities with the Churches of the Standing Order. The followers of the Reformers, in their aspirations after greater spirituality and a higher style of Chris- tian living, were often over-zealous and fanatical in their pro- ceedings, while those who did not adopt their views were often excessively conservative in their action. Hence, in nearly all the churches, there were opposing parties which were frequently in violent conflict with each other. And whenever a separation took place the Conservatives succeeded in retaining possession of the Church already established, and the Reformers were obliged to establish a new church. And then there were long and bitter controversies between the two. The Conservatives had everything in their favor, so far as law and authority and prec- edent were concerned; the Reformers were obliged to work at tremendous disadvantage. The storm-center of this violent commotion, here in Eastern Connecticut, was in the town of Canterbury. Here a young man, John Cleveland by name, a student in Yale College, was expelled from that institution for attending a Separate meeting with his parents during his vaca- tion. A prominent citizen, Mr. Elisha Paine, a lawyer by pro- fession, for espousing the cause of the Separates, and laboring to promote it, was imprisoned for months in the Windham County jail. Very many persons, for declining to pay the "minister's tax," which was levied upon them for the support of the minis- ter of the old established Church, had various articles of property taken from them by due process of law-sold at public auction, and the whole amount of money received-whether more or less-retained by the officials-not a penny returned to the right- ful owners. Says Miss Larned, in her "Historic Gleanings in Windham County, Conn .: " "Separates were excluded from town offices; men of substance and character, like Obadiah Johnson, of Canterbury, when elected representative to the As- sembly by a majority of his fellow-citizens, was not allowed to take his seat because of holding the office of deacon in the re- bellious church. Ordained Separate ministers were shut up in jail for joining in marriage their own church members. Bap-
51
THE SEPARATIST CHURCH.
tisms and marriages performed by them were pronounced illegal. And worse than all in its effects, touching all classes, were the rates extorted for the support of the established churches. In the eyes of the law each Separate was still a member of the parish in which he resided, and obliged to pay for the support of its stated religious worship. Refusing to pay, his goods were forcibly taken by the collector, and, however much exceeding the amount due, no overplus was ever returned. If goods were insufficient the men were carried to prison. These were the days of Connecticut's 'religious persecution,' not bloody, indeed, but most harrassing and persistent. All over the colony were heard the cries of these afflicted Separates-men dragged to jail by force, wives and children left helpless at home. Instances of special hardship are noted, the poor man's only cow driven away from his door, the meat or grain laid up for winter sustenance carried off by the merciless collector. Windham jail was so crowded with victims as to require an additional story. In Nor- wich, where there was a strong New Light element, the contest was very bitter. The venerable mother of the church historian, Rev. Isaac Backus, was taken from her home and confined thir- teen days in jail for refusing to pay her church rate" (pp. 42, 43).
It was long before the liberty for which these Separate people contended was secured. Concessions were made to the Baptists, the Episcopalians, and the Quakers, long before they were to them. In due time, however, the ends which they sought were obtained. "The voluntary principle" in the support of religion was universally accepted. And the churches of every name and denomination were left perfectly free to govern themselves in whatever ways they chose-to make whatever spiritual attain- ments seemed to them desirable; all this without any interference from the State or from any rival religious denomination. It is an historic fact, therefore, not to be overlooked, that this town once had a Separate Church within its bounds, and that that church was in hearty sympathy and cordial co-operation with a large number of sister churches, scattered all over the country, each one of them contending earnestly for those broad principles of religious liberty which, more than anything else, help to make
52
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEDYARD.
our land the glory of all lands. At what time the Separate Church here was formed we do not definitely know. Mr. Tuttle, in his forty-eighth anniversary sermon, says it was probably "some time between 1742 and 1748." On Nov. 14, 1751, Na- thaniel Brown, Jr., was ordained as.its pastor, and held the office about four years. He was probably a native of the place. His successor was Park Allyn, who was born here, June 15, 1733, and died Feb. 13, 1804. He lived in the house now occupied by Mr. Amos G. Avery. Nothing has come down to us indicating that he had a long continued ministry or any permanent successor, though services, conducted by different persons, continued to be held. The church edifice stood a little to the west of the house of Mr. A. G. Avery; and the step-stone is there to this day. The building was removed to Gale's Ferry in 1803; and, for more than fifty years, standing where the Methodist Church now stands, was occupied by the Methodist people as their place of worship. Nearly the whole of the ministry of Rev. Ralph Hurl- butt was accomplished in that church .. It gave place to the present Methodist Church in 1857.
CHAPTER V. The Methodist Episcopal Church At Gale's Ferry.
METHODISM seems to have gained little, if any, foothold in New England, until after the close of the Revolutionary War in 1783.
The descendants of the Pilgrims were Orthodox Congrega- tionalists, and for many years, no man could vote or hold of- fice unless he was a member of a Church of "The Standing Or- der."
The land was di- vided into "Parishes," and the clergy were maintained by public tax. Jesse Lee, born in Virginia, in 1758, entered the itinerant ministry of the Meth- odist denomination in 1783, and was ap- METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, GALE'S FERRY. pointed to preach in New England at the New York Conference of 1789.
He preached the first Methodist sermon, in New London, in the court house (now standing), at early candle light, on Sept. 2, 1789, and the first Methodist sermon in Norwich, at the house of Mrs. Thankful Pierce, on June 25, 1790.
On August 11, 1793 a conference was held, at Tolland, at
54
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEDYARD.
which George Roberts was placed as Elder in charge of a circuit that covered nearly the same territory that is now known as the Norwich District of the New England Southern Conference. Elder Roberts, who is said to have exhibited "extraordinary pulpit power," appears to have preached a sermon, in the open air, to a large congregation, at Gale's Ferry, in July, 1793. This was followed by occasional preaching by different men, and it is presumed that R. Swain and Fredus Aldrige, who were junior preachers, at that time, might have been among the number.
In 1803, Gale's Ferry was taken into the New London circuit, and in May of that year, a class was formed, consisting of eight persons, namely-Ralph Hurlbutt, Jonathan Stoddard and wife, Nathan Avery and wife, Hannah Hurlbutt, Lucy Hurlbutt and Lydia Stanton. Ralph Hurlbutt was appointed class-leader and eleven more names were added to the class during the year.
About this time, the Separatist Congregational Church, which stood on the road leading from Gale's Ferry to Ledyard Center, near the present residence, in 1900, of Amos G. Avery, was taken down, removed and rebuilt, on a little elevation of land, near the residence of Rev. Ralph Hurlbutt; where it remained and was occupied as a place of worship, until 1857.
Among the early preachers at Gale's Ferry in the former part of the nineteenth century, we find the names of Amos T. Thompson, Jesse Stoneman, Daniel Ostrander, Timothy Dewey and Lorenzo Dow.
In 1806, Ralph Hurlbutt, son of Rufus Hurlbutt, who was killed at Fort Griswold, Sept. 6, 1781, was licensed to exhort, and he obtained a local preacher's license in 1810. Ralph Hurl- butt seemed to have been a more than ordinary man, in his day and generation, for in addition to his being a Methodist preacher with a power to sway the minds of his audiences, we hear of him in the capacity of school-master, farmer, justice of the peace, money-lender, administrator of the estates of deceased persons, and he was quite extensively known, and also feared, more or less by the degenerate, and was generally spoken of by all classes, in the vernacular of those times, as, "The Square," or "Square Hurlbutt,"
55
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
Being industrious, frugal, temperate and intelligent he naturally became more thrifty than those of opposite traits, and when once in a general conversation, in a store in the vicinity, where both wet and dry groceries were vended, the question as to the probability of "land in the moon," was being dis- cussed, one man wittily re- marked that he could settle that question by asking Square Hurlbutt, for if there were land in the moon, the Square had a mortgage on it.
Ralph Hurlbutt's wife was Polly Jones, daughter of John Jones, an immi- REV. RALPH HURLBUTT. grant from Wales, who married Sarah Boles, and her memory is revered, as that of a most excellent woman. She had a sister, Judith, who married Elijah Newton, and became the mother of John J. Newton, who married Charity Norman, one of the Norman family, who in recent years have contributed $3,000 as a permanent fund, the interest of which is applied to the support of preaching in the Gale's Ferry Church.
Ralph Hurlbutt and wife, for many years seem to have kept a "Methodist minister's tavern," or, in other words, to have sheltered, lodged and fed, the circuit preachers, who happened around from 1810 to 1840, and during that time, on alternate Sundays or more often, Rev. Ralph Hurlbutt preached the Gos- pel without charge for his services.
From 1840 to 1846, other ministers assisted Mr. Hurlbutt, and since 1846 the Church has been supplied with preaching by Conference appointments.
Other donations and bequests, besides those of the Norman
56
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEDYARD.
family, previously mentioned, the first $100 of which was by Phillis Daniels, a colored woman, whose mother was a slave, by different individuals, at sundry times, have helped to establish the permanent fund for the support of preaching, the total amount of which, at present writing, is about $4,000.
In 1857, during the pastorate of Rev. Jesse E. Heald, Chris -- topher Allyn, John E. Perkins and Ralph Scott Stoddard were constituted a building committee, and the present Church edifice was constructed by Courtland Chapman and Nelson Gallup, at a cost of $3,221. The subscription being inadequate to meet the expense of building, the committee assumed the debt of $969.75, which amount was cancelled, by voluntary subscriptions, a few years later, mainly by the persistent efforts of Rev. Warren Emerson.
The new Church edifice was dedicated in October, 1857. It has a seating capacity for 250 people, is nicely frescoed, carpeted and cushioned, and with necessary repairs, as occasion demands, ought to be a comfortable place of worship for many future years.
The parsonage, which stands a short distance to the west of the Church, is a fairly comfortable dwelling place for the preacher in charge. The main part was built a little previous to 1850, and two ells have since been added, the last at an expense of some $400, during the pastorate of Rev. W. A. Taylor.
Both Church and parsonage are unencumbered by debt and are kept insured.
The following is a list of the Conference appointees since 1846. as nearly as can be readily ascertained :
Daniel Dorchester, 1846. L. D. Bentley, 1858-59.
Dickson, 1848. David Bradbury, 1860-62.
Jesse Denison,
1850. Warren Emerson, 1863-65.
Dunham,
1851. G. D. Boynton, 1866-67.
E. F. Hinks,
1852.
D. G. Ashley, 1868-70.
O. Huse,
1853. J. M. Worcester, 1871-73.
J. W. Case, 1854-55. F. C. Newell, 1874-75.
J. E. Heald,
1856-57. Wm, Turkington, 1876-78.
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THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHI.
Nelson Goodrich, 1879-81. Thos. Denman, 1892-94.
Wm. Turkington, 1882-84. John Q. Adams, 1895-96.
C. H. Dalrymple, 1885-86. J. B. Ackley, 1897.
Wm. A. Taylor, 1887-91.
The present membership of the Church in January, 1900, is as follows : Members in full connection, 51 ; Probationers, 22. The Church officials at the same date are :
Trustees : C. A. Satterlee, D. C. Perkins, Thomas Latham, C. A. Brown, N. B. Allyn, Elmer Tubbs, C. E. Colver, C. H. Chapman, Henry Hurlbutt.
Stewards: C. A. Brown, C. H. Chapman, E. E. Tubbs, D. C. Perkins, C. E. Colver, Mrs. Lucy Palmer, Mrs. Sarah Perkins, Mrs. Sarah Latham, Mrs. Frances Rogers, Mrs. Lydia Maynard, Mrs. Susan Satterlee, Mrs. Hannah I. Chapman and Mrs. Kate B. Colver.
Sunday-school: Superintendent, Courtland Colver; As- sistant Superintendent, D. C. Perkins; Secretary and Treasurer, Miss Alice Satterlee ; Librarian, Elmer Satterlee; Organist, Mrs. H. Chapman.
Teachers: Rev. J. B. Ackley, Kate B. Colver, Mrs. S. E. Latham, Hattie Brown, Laura A. Perkins, Bertha Maynard, C. H. Chapman, Fanny R. Hurlbutt, Mrs. Hannah I. Chapman.
The Church has had its season of spiritual refreshing when several have been added to its membership. The most promi- nent revivals occurred in 1814, 1815, 1816, 1818, 1820, 1833, 1841, 1868, 1875, 1884, and 1899.
[T. L.]
CHAPTER VI. The Baptist Church.
IN Oct., 1842, a movement was set on foot to organize a Baptist Church in the town of Ledyard. The first decisive step taken was a petition to the First Baptist Church in Groton, signed by twenty persons - ten males and ten females-all of them members of said Church, praying that they might be permitted to organize as a branch of the Church of which they were already members. Steps were taken also with reference to the ordination of Mr. Stephen H. Peckham as pastor of the proposed branch Church. On March 2, ELDER PECKHAM. 1843, a council, composed of ministers and delegates from neighboring Baptist Churches, met at the house of Mr. Aaron Brown, and, after due deliberation, decided to organize the Church, and ordain Mr. Peckham. Public services were held ; a sermon preached by B. Cook ; other parts by E. Denison, B. F. Hayden and A. Avery.
The names of the persons who signed the petition for the formation of a new Church were as follows: Stephen H. Peck- ham, Albert Brown, Aaron Brown, Elias Brown, Daniel Brown,
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THE BAPTIST CHURCHI.
Avery W. Brown, Thomas Prosser, Randall Holdredge, Daniel Main, Robert Willcox, Esther Peckham, Lois Main, Mary Brown, Annis Brown, Anna Prosser, Harriet Stanton, Lura Ann Barnes, Caroline Woodmancy, Mercy Brown, Emeline F. Hold- redge.
Within a few months after the formation of the Church, there were additions which carried the membership up to about forty.
A house of worship was felt to be a necessity, and arrange- ments were made for building. The result was consummated before the close of the year. The church edifice, located about a mile and a half north-east of the Congregational Church at the Centre, was dedicated Nov. 21, 1843. The cost of the edifice was about $1,000. In raising this amount considerable aid was received from outside.
Elder Peckham received no regular salary. The people met at his house about once a year, and made him presents, whose annual value varied from $20. to $40. in money, with other arti- cles useful in his family.
There were frequent, though never very large, accessions to the Church. The largest number belonging to it at any one time was ninety-seven.
Discipline was maintained in the Church, as the records abundantly show. Members were called to account for their delinquencies, and, failing to give satisfaction, were cut off ; and, whenever proper amends were made, they were restored.
Elder Peckham held the office of pastor up to the time of his death, which occurred, Dec. 18, 1863. There were only a few Sabbaths, near the close of his life, on which he was unable to officiate.
Rev. Stephen Hazard Peckham was born in Ledyard in 1805, the youngest of fifteen children. His parents were Benjamin and Lucy (Wilcox) Peckham. He was thrice married. First, to Phebe Esther Barber, Nov. 20, 1825. By her he had three sons and four daughters. She died April 4, 1843. On Nov. 30, 1843, he was married to Phebe F. Gates, who bore him one son and two daughters, and died Nov. 15, 1849. His third mar- riage was to Almira Holdredge, Sept. 2, 1850, by whom he had
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEDYARD.
three daughters. While pastor of the Church, Elder Peckham lived in the house at the foot of Rose Hill, which has since been owned by Mr. John Main; and later, in the house which his son, Stephen H. Peckham, Jr., took down a few years since and re- placed by a new one. Since the death of this faithful and beloved pastor, the Church has had no regular minister for any great length of time. Sometimes the meeting-house has been closed for several months in succession. Then, again, services have been held with considerable regularity, conducted by ministers or lay-preachers from neighboring places. The names of some of them are M. G. Smith, P. Kinney, Elder Tilness, A. E. Goff, Vine A. Starr, Lorenzo Williams Tillinghast. At present, Mr. Frank S. Robbins, of Preston, holds a service on the third Sabbath of each month. The names of the men who have held the office of deacon in the Church are John Myers, Thomas Prosser, Nelson Chapman, Stephen H. Peckham, Jr., John Ben- nett. In 1892-3, the church was shingled and otherwise repaired at an expense of over $70.00.
CHAPTER VII. The Rogerene Quakers
MADE their appearance in New London in the year 1674. Their leader, John Rogers, belonged to a prosperous and in- fluential family that had, for quite a number of years, been con- nected with the First Church of Christ in that place. After breaking off from the Church of the Standing Order and adopting peculiar views and peculiar practices, they still continued to be orthodox in respect to many of the essential doctrines of the Gospel. As Dr. Blake, in his "History of the First Church of Christ in New London," says of them : "They held to salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, to the Trinity, to the necessity of the new birth, to the resurrection of the just and the unjust, and to an eternal judgment." Some of the respect in which they dif- fered in belief from the Christian people, among whom they dwelt, were these: They held and stoutly maintained that all days were alike; that the Sabbath was no more sacred than other time; that the established ministry of the Gospel, with its paid officials, was an abomination; that a place for public worship. where people might assemble statedly to be instructed in spiritual things and to engage in prayer and .praise, was an unnecessary and indeed a very improper thing. As Dr. Blake has expressed it : "They regarded a church-tower, a pulpit, a cushioned pew, a church, a salaried minister, in a black suit of clothes, with peculiar aversion. * They did not believe in the use of medicines for the recovery of health; nor in any civil or religious rite in marriage." If they had simply adopted and adhered to these peculiar beliefs, without any offensive demonstrations of them in opposition to the beliefs and practices of other people, there might have been no serious collisions between themselves and
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEDYARD.
those from whom they differed. But they were not content to do this. On the contrary, they felt themselves called upon to interfere with, and, so far as lay in their power, to obstruct and hinder the religious observances of those whose views and practices were at variance with their own. For this purpose they would hang around the doors of churches Sabbath mornings, and do things calculated to annoy the people, and especially the ministers, who entered. They would make boisterous and offen- sive noises under the open windows and in the porches of the churches, while the people were engaged in worship. Their women would walk into the churches with their spinning wheels, take their places in the aisles, and proceed with their work in the presence of the congregations, and in the very midst of the serv- ices. And some would even go so far as to rise up in the con- gregation, while the minister was preaching, and contradict what he was saying. Dr. McEwen, giving a historic sketch of these proceedings, uses the following language : "They regarded wor- ship performed on the first day of the week as a species of idolatry, which they ought to oppose. They held it to be their special mission to destroy priestcraft. In carrying out their peculiar notions, they used a variety of measures to disturb those who were assembled for public worship on the Lord's day. They traveled about in small companies, and entered churches and other places of worship in a rude and boisterous manner, and sometimes engaged in different kinds of manual labor in order to break up and interrupt the religious services." Says Dr. Blake: "They would often rise up in worshipping assem- blies and interrupt the preacher and call him a hireling, accuse him of making merchandise of the flock, telling the people that they were sunk in the mire of idolatry, and entangled in the net of anti-Christ, and calling the preacher a liar, if he said anything which they did not believe. They even went so far as to rush into church and interrupt the preacher to declare their violations of the laws respecting the keeping of holy time. Bathsheba Fox, a sister of John Rogers, went openly to church to proclaim that she had been doing servile work on the Christian Sabbath. John Rogers went with her, and interrupted the preacher to proclaim
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THE ROGERENE QUAKERS.
a similar offence. On one occasion he trundled a wheel-barrow into the porch of the church during divine service." (Pages 83-4). John Rogers took it upon himself to show his defiance of all laws and statutes in regard to marriage in this way. After his first wife, Elisabeth Griswold, had been divorced from him and he had lived without a wife for twenty-five years, he assumed to marry himself to his maid-servant by going into the county court and there, in the presence of the court and a great crowd of spectators, declaring that he and the woman he had with him were husband and wife; and presently going to the house of the Governor, and repeating the same performance there. Some time after this, as Mr. Rogers and his so-called bride were walk- ing upon the street they fell in with Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall, the pastor of the Church to which Mr. Rogers had formerly be- longed. Mr. Saltonstall questioned them as to the report in cir- culation of their being married, and said : "Why, John, do you mean to say that you take this woman to be your wife?" "I do," said Mr. Rogers. And turning to the woman, Mr. Saltonstall addressed a similar question to her : "Do you mean to say that you take this man, who is so much older than yourself, to be your husband?" "I do," said she. "Well, then," said Mr. Sal- tonstall, "I pronounce you husband and wife-united in mar- riage according to the laws of this colony." The Quaker, seeing that the minister had stolen the march upon him, and that he was now legally married, in spite of his determination not to be, could only reply : "Ah, Gurdon, thou art a cunning creature."
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