USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Plymouth > History of the town of Plymouth, Connecticut : with an account of the centennial celebration May 14 and 15, 1895 : also a sketch of Plymouth, Ohio, settled by local families > Part 4
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When first erected the building stood in front of its present location with its entrance at the south end, but in IS42, or soon after, was turned around and placed where it now is. The old square pews were removed about 1830. At a meeting held June 2, 1792, at the dwelling house of Ensign Robert Jearom, Captain Thomas Jearom, moderator, it was voted "to give David Butler a call for three-quarters of the time, to be our min- ister; also to give him £55, and his firewood yearly, three- quarters of the time ; to be paid, two-thirds in farmer's produce and one-third in cash."
The church was built in 1792, but was unfinished inside, for at a meeting held March 5, 1793, Isaac W. Shelton and Stephen Graves were appointed a committee to " lay out the money, and procure somebody to do off the inside of the church." And again, at a meeting held at the church December 31. 1793. the following committee was appointed to "examine and find the most convenient way of doing off the church and make report at the next meeting :" Noah Andrews. Ira Dodge, Isaac W. Shelton.
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
Rev James Gammack.
St Peter's Episcopal Church Parsonage.
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CHURCH IHISTORY.
Calvin Woodin, and Timothy Sperry; at which meeting held January 13, 1794, it was voted to "finish the church in the following manner : to make a broad alley through the center of the lower floor, and finish the sides with pews in the most con- venient manner, also to finish the gallery by making two rows of seats round the whole square, and a row of pews across the south end." It was voted that the church be called St. Matthew's at a meeting held October 19, 1795. On November IO, 1794, it was voted to adopt the constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Connecticut, and Caleb Matthews, the parish clerk, was instructed to attend the convention at Cheshire and request the Right Rev. Dr. Seabury to consecrate the new church.
Among the early moderators of the parish meetings we find the names of Noah Welton, occurring twenty-three times ; Stephen Graves, twelve; Captain Thomas Hungerford and
St Matthew's Episcopal Church, East Plymouth.
Ambrose Ward, nine each; and later, Lyman Preston, twelve times ; also frequently, Captain Nathaniel Jones, Captain Thomas Jearom, Ensign Ozias Tyler, Lieutenant David Marks. and Isaac Atwater.
One of the clergymen who preached at St. Matthew's was Rev. Alexander V. Griswold, who was afterwards Bishop of New England except Connecticut. He was here when the church was consecrated by Bishop Samuel Jarvis, second Bishop of Connecticut, in 1795. He lived in the house belonging to Cyrus Gaylord, grandfather of the present Cyrus Gaylord, who now owns the place. Isaac Atwater came from Wallingford that same year, and lived in the old Joseph Gaylord place, now occu- pied by Henry Loomis. The house was then a tavern and Mr. Atwater kept it for several years; it was the only stopping place between Bristol and Harwinton, and letters and news- papers were brought by the horseback travelers passing by, also left in the bar room for others to take who were passing.
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTHI.
Congregational Church, Terryville.
Interior, Terryville Congregational Church.
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CHURCH HISTORY.
Mr. Atwater removed from Wallingford from a wish to change the scene, after losing four children. Two were then living ; one a boy of ten, James Dana, who afterwards married Betsy Benham, and died soon afterwards, was buried with Masonic honors, and a gravestone, with Masonic emblems engraved on it, was put up and is still standing. The other child, a small girl, Lucy, always lived in this vicinity until she was ninety-eight, dying in 1892, one hundred and one years old, after her oldest sister was buried in Wallingford in 1791. Mr. Atwater moved from East Church to Chippen's Hill, in 1814 or so, where he lived until almost 1825, when he moved to a house just east of the town line by the old marsh pond, where his descendants now live. Mr. Atwater was a Revolutionary soldier for a time and also had a brother who died in that war. He was a man of much genius, was fond of writing, sermons and poetry of his being now in the possession of his grandchildren. His youngest daughter married Enos Rice or Royce, of Hartford at that time, but afterwards living on the old Atwater place.
The Rice family were very prominent in St. Matthew's parish ; Jeremiah Rice often read the service. He married an aunt of Mrs. Cyrus W. Field, of New York, who was his own cousin. She lived in Bristol.
The parish of St. Matthew's furnished three clergymen. The first is the Rev. Collis J. Potter, of Stratford ; second, Rev. X. A. Welton, of Pequotonnock, Conn., and the Rev. Alfred L. Royce, U. S. N., now chaplain of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. He is the son of Enos Royce and the grandson of Isaac Atwater.
In 1871 or '72, the church was remodeled, a chancel arranged, the old towering pulpit taken down, and doors taken off the small pews, also a ceiling made to reach across from one gallery to another. There is no chimney, and when a stove was put in the people thought that no one could speak in such close atmosphere. It used to be a large and full congregation, but has dwindled down to half a dozen old decrepit ladies, and service is seldom performed there.
The first use of the cemetery at East Plymouth for burial purposes seems to have been coeval with the formation of the parish and the building of the church, for we find a grave digger appointed in 1793 and the oldest tombstone bears date 1795. At the present time it is impossible to give a list of the interments. as of the large number of early unmarked graves scarcely a trace remains. However, the number cannot be less than 500, as about 300 monumental stones have been erected. No record remains of interments for the first half century, excepting those shown upon the tombstones, until Junius Preston was appointed sexton in 1846, which office he continued to fill for forty-one years.
TERRYVILLE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
Nearly a century after the organization of the first parish in Plymouth, forty-nine persons came off by letters of dismissal,
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
Rev. Nathaniel Richardson.
Rev. Merrill Richardson
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CHURCH HISTORY.
dated November 20 and December 31, IS37; and, with the exception of four of them, who were absent on the occasion, were organized as the Congregational Church of Terryville, January 2, 1838. The articles of faith and covenant adopted were those of the consociated churches of the southern district of Litchfield county. The four persons absent at the organization were soon received; and on March 2, eighteen others joined from the church at Plymouth. Charles H. Porter, then a junior in Yale College, spent the month of January in the place, and many persons were hopefully converted. Two young ministers, viz., C. S. Sherman and David Dobie, followed up the labors of Mr. Porter, and in the six months between the organization of the church and the settlement of the first pastor, thirty-nine per- sons were added to the membership.
August 8, 1838, was a great day with this people. In the forenoon the completed house of worship was dedicated, and in the afternoon three young men were ordained to the gospel
Parsonage, Terryville Congregational Church
ministry, one of whom, Nathaniel Richardson, was installed (first) pastor of this church. The preacher upon this occasion was Rev. Dr. Noah Porter of Farmington. The ministry of Mr. Richardson extended to July 2, 1840.
Rev. Merrill Richardson was the second pastor. He was installed October 27, 1841. He was born in Holden, Mass., in ISII-brought up on a farm a healthy, sturdy boy, until he was sixteen. His father then gave him his time and two hundred dollars (which was all the help he received for his education ). and he went to Leicester Academy, Worcester county. Mass .. to fit for college. He always spoke of his mother with the greatest love and reverence, and said it was owing to her influence that he decided to become a minister of the gospel. He graduated at Middlebury College, Vt., taught the academy there two years, and then went to New Haven to study theology under Dr. Taylor. whose instructions he gratefully prized. He was deeply inter-
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
Rev. Edwin R. Dimock.
Rev. Franklin A. Spencer.
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CHURCH HISTORY.
ested in everything that pertained to the well being of his parish, and loved study and pastoral work. He did not believe religion to be a thing of melancholy and gloom, but rather that the Christian ought to be the happiest and most cheerful of persons. He was interested in the schools of the town, and introduced many new methods of teaching. The Terryville Institute was built during his pastorate and a public library and lyceum were established. Four young men of the church commenced fitting for college with him and are now all useful ministers of the gospel. It is doubtless owing to his influence that it is said, Terryville has fitted more young men for college than any other place of its size in the state. In the summer of 1846 he was dismissed, and was employed two years by the state, in holding Teachers' Institutes and inciting the people to establish a Normal School for the training of teachers. The State Normal School was soon after established. During this time he supplied the church in Durham, Conn. He was re-settled in Terryville in May, 1849, where he remained until January, IS5S. Preaching was his delight, and the church was built up in numbers and character. The late Dr. Bushnell said, after an exchange with Mr. Richardson, that he had never preached to a more responsive audience, or one where the majority were men, and most of them intelligent looking young men.
He was settled in Salem Street Church, Worcester, Mass .. in 1858, going back to Terryville in the early spring, to receive forty into the church, as they had no settled pastor at that time. He was strong in body and strong in soul. He was a philan- thropist, Christian abolitionist, and during the war all his energies were given to sustain the government and secure the overthrow of slavery. During the second year of the war, when many were feeling that in order to put down the rebellion, all the means God had placed in our hands must be used, and that liberty throughout the land should be proclaimed, a mass meet- ing was held in Mechanics' Hall, Worcester, under the following call : " Is the President waiting to hear from the people? Will they speak?" The leading men of the town were on the plat- form, and the hall was packed to overflowing. After the opening remarks by the president, J. S. C. Knowlton. Mr. Rich- ardson, in behalf of a committee, presented the first resolutions sent to President Lincoln, asking him to proclaim emancipation to the slave.
More than a hundred young men went from his church to the war (his oldest son, Willis Terry, among the number), who felt as they went, that the cause was more sacred, because he had said to them, " God bless you."
After the war he was urged to represent the people at Washington, but he refused all office, clung to the pulpit as his throne, and was a happy and successful minister of the gospel. Ill health overtook him at last and he was obliged to take rest for a time. Receiving a call to the New England Congrega- tional Church in New York, which the Rev. Lyman Abbot had just left, he accepted, but only remained two years. Needing a
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
Rev. H. B. Mead.
Rev. L. S. Griggs.
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CHURCH HISTORY.
quiet home, he accepted a call to the church in Milford, Mass., where he died December 12, 1876, aged sixty-four years. His remains were brought to Terryville for burial.
Mr. Richardson was twice married. His first wife was Emily Allen, daughter of Deacon Ira Allen, of Middlebury, Vt. Their children were Merrill, Cheney and Martha Allen. His second wife was Eunice Terry, daughter of Eli Terry, Jr. Their children were Willis Terry, Charles Holbrook, Leila and Franklin Whittemore.
During the time between the periods of Mr. Richardson's labors, Rev. Judson A. Root was nominally pastor. He was settled October 7, 1846, and dismissed May 16, 1849. But ill health had incapacitated him for the performance of the duties of his office after April 30, 1847, at which time he resigned the pastoral charge. He continued to decline until his death. During a portion of the time in which Mr. Root was pastor, Rev. Samuel J. Andrews was employed as a supply. He acted in that capacity for at least six months. After the last dismissal of Mr. Richardson, Edward A. Walker, a student from Yale Theological Seminary, supplied the pulpit. In connection with his labors, an extensive revival began, which continued under the efforts of his successor.
John Monteith, Jr., was ordained pastor October 27. 1858. His ministry is a memorable era in the history of the church. A great accession of converts was received; sixty-four in 1858, seven in 1859, four in 1860.
Following upon Mr. Monteith, who was dismissed July 31, IS60-the dismissal to take effect the first Sabbath in September -came another minister directly from a theological seminary. A. Hastings Ross, who supplied the pulpit for six months. His successor was Rev. Edwin R. Dimock, whose labors covered a period of eighteen months. After Mr. Dimock, Rev. H. H. McFarland supplied for six months, and was succeeded by Rev. Franklin A. Spencer, who was installed pastor June 24. 1863, and was dismissed May 1, 1865. A revival attended his labors, and upward of thirty were added to the church by pro- fession of faith.
Rev. E. M. Wright began labor as acting pastor, March 11. IS66, and resigned April 17, 1870, broken down in health and spirit by the sudden death of his wife. Henry B. Mead was ordained June 7, IS71, and dismissed May 12, 1874. During his ministry there was an accession of thirty-three by profession of faith.
Rev. Leverett S. Griggs began labor as acting pastor Octo- ber 25, 1874, and continued until October 17. 1SS7. During his ministry, covering a period of thirteen years, 163 were added to the church by profession of faith. Rev. Wm. F. Arms next followed as acting pastor on March 5, 1SSS, and remained for five years until May, IS93. There were thirty-six added by profession during these years. Rev. Wm. Alfred Gay, D. D .. has been acting pastor since October 1, 1893.
The following figures in part show the growth of the church.
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTHI.
Rev. W. F. Arms.
Rev. Wm. Alfred Gay.
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CHURCH HISTORY.
Starting with a membership of 45 in 1838, it had an enrollment December 31, 1850, of 128; January 1, 1858, 149; December 31, 1860, 219; December 31, 1865, 231 ; February 1, 1879, 277; April 1, 1895, 288.
During the fifty-seven years of its existence, it has had the privilege of furnishing four candidates for the gospel ministry. viz., Edwin Johnson, lately pastor of the Second Congregational Church of Bridgeport ; Linus Blakeslee, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Topeka, Kan. ; Horace R. Williams, pastor of the Congregational Church of Almont, Mich. ; and Moseley H. Williams, engaged in the work of the American Sunday-school Union, Philadelphia ; also Clara M. Beach, one of its members. is a Bible teacher in Cawnpore, India; and Ralph C. Goodwin, secretary of the Y. M. C. A., at Cam- bridge, Mass.
The Sabbath-school preceded the organization of the churchi. being first held in the old red school house in 1834. There were four classes, taught by Milo Blakeslee, Philo Lewis, Miss Rhoda Swift (later Mrs. James Hunter), and Mrs. Sherman Guernsey. The session was at nine o'clock in the morning, giving an oppor- tunity to attend the morning service at Plymouth. After this. Bible classes were held at private houses, until the new church edifice was occupied. From that time until 1857, the school was organized every year in the spring, and closed in the fall.
There were no records kept during those years, but it is remembered that Deacon Milo Blakeslee was first elected super- intendent, followed by Warren Goodwin, Phineas Hitchcock. James Edmunds, with Miss Hannah Goodwin, assistant ; Deacon S. B. Terry, with Miss Eliza Bunnell (Mrs. Carpenter), assistant ; Warren Goodwin, N. C. Boardman, Gaius A. Norton, and per- haps others, each serving one or more years. In May, 1857. R. D. H. Allen was elected, and it was decided in the fall to continue the school through the winter. The school had numbered about forty in 1845, and forty-five in 1849. During the revival of 1858, and under the ministry of E. A. Walker, the school received a new impulse, calling into its membership nearly the entire congregation. The school was reorganized, R D. H. Allen was again elected superintendent. B. S. Beach. chorister, which position he filled with little intermission until his death; and A. H. Beach was elected secretary, acting also as assistant superintendent, to which position he was elected in 1859. Mr. Allen continued to hold the office of superintendent until February, 1865, with the following assistants: O. D Hunter, appointed October 26, 1860, W. H. Scott. February 1, 1863, and A. H. Beach, February 8, 1864. During all these years Mr. Allen had charge of a class of young men. and at his request, A. H. Beach acted (perhaps with the exception of one year) as an extra assistant, by relieving him of many of the details of the superintendent's office. During one year, also. Miss Margaret McClintock assisted. having the arrangement and oversight of the younger classes. February 10. 1865. James C. Mix was chosen superintendent, and M. D. Holcomb assistant.
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTHI.
Both having removed from that place, J. P. Crawford was elected superintendent, October 29, 1865, and selected W. H. Scott for assistant, who has served in that capacity ever since.
Mr. Crawford was succeeded in 1866 by James Hunter for five successive years, and he by N. T. Baldwin for two years, then followed F. W. Mix for seven years, James B. Baldwin for four years, Wm. B. Ells for three years, E. L. Pond for one year, E. G. Woodward for two years. In 1890 James B. Bald- win was again chosen, and served for three years more, making seven years in all. George A. Scott was appointed in 1893, and is now serving for a third year.
The house of worship was erected with funds secured by a subscription bearing date September 13, 1837, which amounted to $3,558. A small additional sum was raised subsequently to complete the building. The chairman of the building committee was Wyllys Atwater, and the builder was Riley Scott.
Terryville Congregational Church Clock
The parsonage was donated to the ecclesiastical society, August 26, 1841, by Eli Terry, Sr.
In IS53, in the period of the ministry of Rev. Merrill Richardson, an enlargement of the capacity of the house of worship became necessary, and the galleries were introduced : for which the sum of $467 was provided by subscription. In IS78 the building was raised up and thoroughly renovated, and the lecture room and ladies' parlor constructed underneath. The total outlay was something more than $8,ooo, including the cost of the organ, which was contributed by the Sabbath-school. The chairman of the building committee was O. D. Hunter. Services of re-dedication were held November 6, 187S. In the spring of I891 the ladies of the church raised something over $400 and added a commodious kitchen, opening from the south
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CHURCH HISTORY.
end of the lecture room. In 1893 the Sabbath-school fitted up the southwest corner of the audience room for the infant class.
The deacons of the church have been Milo Blakesley, Eli Curtiss, Silas B. Terry, Gaius A. Norton, R. D. H. Allen, Ira H. Stoughton, Homer Griswold, George M. Allen, Andrew S. Gaylord, Jason C. Fenn.
The clock in the tower, an illustration of the mechanism of which is shown on the preceding page, was presented to the church by Eli Terry, and is one of the first tower clocks made by him.
TERRYVILLE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHI.
In the early days of Terryville there was no Catholic ser- vice held there, and the first Catholics attended the Congrega- tional Church regularly. Later the Rev. Michael O'Neill, of Waterbury, drove up once a month and mass was said in the house of Philip Ryan until the use of the school house was pro- cured. Father O'Neill was followed by Fathers Hendrickson. Bohen, Cody, and others. Some of the first Catholics to reside
.......
Interior, Terryville Roman Catholic Church.
here were Philip and Denis Ryan, William Roach, Martin Kear- ney, Thomas Keefe, John Byron, John McNamara, Timothy Keefe, Thomas Higgins, and Timothy McNamara. The five first named are now dead.
No church edifice was erected until thirteen years ago, when the present church was built by the late Rev. Eugene Gaffney. The lot on which it is built was bought by John McNamara and the citizens, irrespective of creed, contributed generously to the building fund. After Father Gaffney's death the parish was for some years attended by Rev. J. W. Fones. He was succeeded
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
Rev. M. J. Daly.
Terryvi.le Roman Catholic Church.
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CHURCH HISTORY.
by Rev. M. J. McGivney, both since deceased. At present divine service is held every Sunday and holy days, and frequently on week days. Rev. M. J. Daly is in charge, assisted by Rev. P. Byrne. The church is entirely out of debt and has a mem- bership of about 400.
The Catholic cemetery was purchased by Philip Ryan September, 1858. The first interred in said cemetery was Denis Ryan, who died September 3, IS58, aged fifty-eight years.
THE ADVENT CHAPEL.
There are probably few in Plymouth who remember that near the Levi Bassett farm there once stood an Advent Chapel. It was built during the Millerite excitement, or when it was at its height. Rev. Lewis Gunn preached or lectured there for about a year, but was finally forbidden to continue as he was not an Adventist. The building was finally sold and changed into a dwelling. Probably owing to the fact that Mr. Gunn preached in that Advent Chapel, a number of people assumed that he was a believer or follower of their peculiar doctrines. This was not so, as he was never anything but a Methodist. He withdrew from the conference before the war, at the time of the north and south church troubles, as he was an ardent Abolitionist, and would not be muzzled in his utterances by the church. After the war he again joined the conference and preached as a regular pastor in various places. Senator O. H. Platt said of him : " He was a man of strong and unique character, he espoused the cause of the slave, denounced the slave-holder and his abettors. and encountered the persecution which befel the outspoken Abolitionist. As a clergyman he was practically silenced ; the conference would give the Abolition preacher no charge, and he retired to the seclusion of his modest farm. Lewis Gunn was a moral hero. The weapons of his warfare were not carnal. but few men ever wielded the sword of the spirit or the battle-ax of the reformer more fearlessly. Had he lived in Boston or Phila- delphia, he would have been noted as a leading champion of human rights." Mr. Gunn was able, independent and broad, his discourses were always interesting, instructive and accept- able to all who were followers of Christ, without regard to denomination or creed.
CHAPTER IV.
THE "WILDERNESS" AND INDIANS .*
Most of Litchfield County in 1712 an Unbroken Forest as Absolute as any on the Continent-Last Deer Shot in Northbury-Indian Jack and Two Companions Were the Only Indians in Plymouth Within the Remembrance of People Now Living.
W TESTBURY was a society in Waterbury, which town as has been said, was settled in 1677, and at this date ( 1739) was in New Haven county, having been transferred to it from Hartford county, where it originally belonged, in 1728. Bethle- hem was a parish of Woodbury, which was settled in 1673, and belonged to Fairfield county until the organization of Litchfield county in 1751. Judea, now Washington, was formed in part from territory of New Milford, which was settled in 1712, and belonged to New Haven county, until, like Woodbury, on the organization of Litchfield county, it was set off to the new county. North of this frontier line at the date of the last named settle- ment, that of New Milford, in 1712, stretched an unbroken wilderness, as absolute as any on the continent at the time ; a rough region of rocks and hills and swamps and pathless woods, which the white man's foot had never traversed, in which not even the Indians made their abode ; De Forest, in his history of the Indians of Connecticut, telling us that when the Mohawks made their raids through to the Connecticut river, as they used to do in the seventeenth century, they traversed the whole breadth of Litchfield county without meeting a single human being; the whole region a wild, lonely, gloomy solitude of nature, the haunt only of wild beasts, and stretching north con- tinuously to the settlements of Canada. It is difficult for us in our day, looking upon the cleared farms, the smiling homes, the thronged and busy towns of Litchfield county, to realize the condition of the region above the Woodbury and New Milford line at that early day. There was not a single cleared field, nor smoke from any white man's dwelling. It was called the " Wilderness" and made good its title to the name. In the patent of Litchfield, given in 1724, the town is bounded "west, part on Shepaug river and part on the wilderness; north, by the
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