USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Readings in New Canaan history > Part 12
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The Psalm tunes, whether reformed or still barbarous, must, under such a mighty precentor have been an oasis in the desert stretch of the Sabbath service to the boys and girls. Doubtless there was, as in the parent church in Stamford, an officer appointed to "oversee and keep good decorum," with a "small stick," when necessary. We are relieved to learn that he was desired to use it with "clemency." As boy psychology has not materially altered, we suspect that some
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services sadly lacking in decorum must have inspired the provision that an "incoridgeable" was to be presented to parent or master, and in the last resort to "authority."
VOTE PASTOR'S DISMISSAL
The Rev. John Eells continued in the ministry for nearly eight years, and during that time there were sixty-nine admissions to the church. We have seen with what care the first minister was chosen, but Mr. Eells must through those nine months of probation have been suppressing a certain eccentricity which, when he allowed it expres- sion, caused twenty-four of his flock to become so "uneasy" with him that they voted his dismissal.
He is said to have been able, learned and pious, but to have been blessed, or shall we say cursed, with a sense of humor that broke out in tall stories, and a certain levity about solemn things. One of these yarns relates how, approaching his home one moonlight night he heard a great noise in an adjoining field. Upon looking over the fence he discovered that the buckwheat which had lately been sown was growing so fast that it was pushing through the ground at an amazing rate, and scattering the stones and dirt all about. When reproved for this sort of prevarication, he explained, plausibly enough, that he did not consider it deceit to relate what no one could be foolish enough to believe.
This excuse should certainly hold good for the only other one of his tales that has come down to us. It is the story of an impromptu meal miraculously provided for the minister. "One Sunday before going to church he left his gun standing within the fire-place, also a kettle of water hanging upon the crane. A flock of wild geese were flying over the house, and at that instant the gun went off killing one and blowing the feathers off; coming down rapidly it struck upon the wooden bar upon which the large tramels hung, thus throwing out the intestines completely, and falling into the pot of water. On his return from church he found a delicious dinner already cooked."
Thus ended the first and only ministry of the engaging Mr. Eells, who resigned in 1741, but continued for the rest of his life, forty-four years, to live in the house on Clapboard Hills which he had received from the Society. We are happy to be assured of his having "not a single eccentricity which stains his character or scars his memory."
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PRIEST EELLS HOUSE
The house on Clapboard Hills in which the Rev. Mr. Eells lived for over fifty years was none other than the famous "oldest house" which was for long known as the "Priest Eells house." John Benedict 3rd, for whom this dwelling had been built by his father, had lived in it only two years, and had then sold it to Benjamin Gregory for 240 pounds. In 1732, when it was necessary, as the custom was, to provide a house and land for the minister, to eke out his weekly salary of $6.30, the Society authorized Ebenezer Carter and John Benedict to buy this house back from Benjamin Gregory, who made twenty pounds on the transaction. The Society prepared the new home for the minister, defrayed the expenses of his moving, and paid him an annual salary of $313.00. The deed, designating eighteen and one- half acres, a mansion house, and a barn, is dated the same day as the ordination and signed by a committee of two, John Benedict and Ebenezer Carter.
The story of Ebenezer Carter is one of the most interesting of the tales of the early settlers. His father, Samuel Carter, of Deerfield, had lost his wife and eight children in the Deerfield Massacre in 1704. All nine were taken captive by the Indians and marched over the snow for twenty-five days to Canada. Little Ebenezer, then seven years old, had shared this bitter journey, and then had seen his mother and three of the other children killed by the Indians. The year after this tragedy, his father moved to Norwalk, and later he bought from the Indians various tracts of land covering a large extent in the eastern part of the Parish of Canaan. Little Ebenezer, meanwhile, after three years of captivity, was restored to his father in Norwalk by payment of "twenty-four pounds current money," the only one of his family the father ever saw again. This son married Hannah St. John of Norwalk in 172 1 and the next year was presented by his father with 152 acres on Clapboard Hills. It was not until 1731 that he came with his young family to live in the woods. He and his wife were the first to unite with the church after its organization. After passing through such experiences, it is not to be wondered at that he was foremost in defending home and country. He is described as "very large, strong, able, and courageous, resolute and fearless." We shall come upon him again as the first commander of the Train Band.
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Ebenezer Carter died in 1774, and was buried on the east side of the Meeting House burying ground.
His house, on the opposite side of the road from the "Priest Eells" house and a little north of it, was destroyed by fire in 1852. The house of Mr. Ernest Greene Jr., was built on that site. Mr. Carter had five daughters and two sons. John Carter, the only son who lived to grow up, settled opposite his father and married Hannah Benedict of Norwalk, famed as a patriot in Revolutionary days. The first son, Samuel Carter, had died in 1735 at the age of ten, and had been buried on the east side of the Meeting House cemetery. His head- stone, later moved to the Carter family burying ground, bears the earliest date found on any headstone in the town.
The next year, in 1736, sorrow visited the house across the road likewise. Anna Eells, wife of the minister, died in her thirty-fifth year, leaving three little children. Mr. Eells afterwards married Abigail, daughter of Moses Comstock of Norwalk.
EARLY HOUSES DESCRIBED
We can form a pretty accurate idea of all these early homes from this dwelling of Mr. Eells, the Benedict House, which still stands on Carter Street, very much as it was two hundred years ago, with the original cedar shingles on the front and north side, and innocent of paint for the last hundred and thirty-seven years at least. It is of two stories in front, allowing for two bedrooms upstairs, while the rear roof slopes off to the height of seven or eight feet above the ground.
It is with the window of one of these upstairs bedrooms that we associate the oft-told story of the unique wedding ceremony per- formed by this temperamental minister. "A couple came in a thunder storm to the house of Priest Eells to be married. It was late in the evening and the minister had retired. From the window he asked who was there and what was wanted. The errand was told, and Mr. Eells said, 'Come around under this window here and I'll marry you' and this is the formula which he used:
'Under this window, in stormy weather, I join this man and woman together; Let none but him who made this thunder, E'er part these married two assunder.'
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CANAAN PARISH CIRCA 1772
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Readings In New Canaan History
"Tradition adds to this story that when the anxious couple came to the open summer window, Parson Eells, about to perform the ceremony, remarked that it was customary on such an occasion to make a prayer, but it was nothing essential; also to sing a hymn, but it was nothing essential. Then, directing them to join hands, the ceremony was performed in the manner above indicated. The happy groom replied, on leaving, that it was customary to pay a dollar, but it was nothing essential. 'Good night.' "
In the center of the house was the chimney with its huge fireplace. There is a tradition that in the Rev. Mr. Eells' day a whole cord of eight-foot logs was burned upon the hearth at one time, a story that sounds as if it might have emanated from the minister himself. The wide, open jambs could accommodate all the children as well: a large order in those days, especially in the case of that Ebenezer Carter, who bought the Eells place ten years after the minister's death, and there with Rhoda Weed, his wife, reared eleven children.
One almost envies those children of Minister Eells or Captain Carter gathered close in the great fireplace, their wide eyes shining in the firelight, while they drank in fantastic yarns worthy of Baron Munchausen, or tales even more thrilling, full of Indian warwhoops and tomahawks. But then to leave the glowing fire, and creep up the steep, narrow stair to the icy bed chamber - that must have taken a childish fortitude that was to develop into the courage of the heroes of 1776.
Professor St. John describes the rooms of the old houses, ranged around the chimney. "The keeping-room and parlor on either side in front, the latter with its beaufet displaying the glittering plates and platters, and a slender assortment of china cups and saucers; the kitchen in the rear with bedrooms on either side; the hall in front, with winding stairs leading to chambers above; these all communi- cated by doors, so that on festal occasions, in families moulded not according to the strictest sect of the puritans, this arrangement furnished ample scope for merry games and dancing." He reluctantly leaves the garret with a suggestion of festoons of dried apples, peaches, and bunches of herbs, and later, its Revolutionary guns, bayonets and swords.
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NEW MINISTER IS SECURED
Upon the dismissal of the first minister, the Society promptly set about filling his place, and a committee was appointed which, in the titles of its members, was significant of the church in a militant age. These were Captain Carter, Sergeant Tuttle, and Ensign Seymour, who waited upon the Rev. Robert Silliman of Stratford (originally of Fairfield) who had graduated from Yale only four years before. The Society gave him a "call upon probation," offered him one hundred pounds a year, and prospered under his ministry for nearly thirty years thereafter.
It was in his time that the meeting house had to be enlarged to accommodate the increasing congregation, and the seating capacity was almost doubled by an addition of eleven feet on each end, and twelve feet on the south side. At this time also was built the Society or "Sabba Day" house, 2 1 x 16 feet, with seven-foot posts.
But the congregation did not remain long contented with the enlarged meeting house, for in the eighth year of Mr. Silliman's ministry, a new one was planned, to be 50 feet by 40, with one tier of galleries, and a turret, or belfry. It was voted that the "cills" of the new building should overlap by three rods the site of the first meeting house. The congregation moved into its new home in 1752, but they waited for 35 years for the tier of galleries, and 45 for the turret. One writer says that this structure was built to withstand everything but lightning, a statement elicited by its destruction in a storm in 1842. The present church, built the next year, was, as before, so placed as to overlap the site of its predecessor, this time by two feet, and to stand on a portion of the original grant to the Society from the proprietors of Norwalk in 1732.
Professor Samuel St. John, to whose historical address of the Fourth of July, 1876, every chronicler of New Canaan must be indebted, gives an interesting description of the second Congregational meet- ing house. "For ninety years," he says, "it was in constant use as a place of worship. Every Sabbath, Thanksgiving, and Fast Day its courts were filled with devout worshipers, and by many of us now assembled in this, its comely successor, the memory of the old meet- ing house will ever be hallowed." The present building may well be called comely in contrast to the stark, barren looking structure of
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which we have a picture, of the style, we are told, quite common in that day. The interior, also, was evidently planned for utility alone. The center space was filled with slips, on each side of a broad aisle, leading from the south door to the pulpit on the north. Around the center space ran a narrow aisle, giving access to the square pews around the walls. We are impressed to hear of a choir that sometimes extended nearly the entire length of the galleries, around three sides of the church.
"The pulpit," says Professor St. John, "was an hexagonal structure, placed upon a pillar, about eight feet above the floor, and reached by a flight of stairs; was neatly finished, and painted white. Above it was suspended a canopy, or sounding board, hexagonal in shape, about seven feet above the floor of the pulpit, with a screw at the top of the iron rod supporting it, so that its height might be adjusted to the proper distance for reflection of the sound. The arrangement was indeed stiff and awkward, and was severely criticized. I remember hearing one clergyman - a man of large size - remark that he would as soon get into a hogshead and preach from the bung."
Such was the edifice that served five generations of worshipers. It was also the place where all public business was transacted for many years until the first town house was built. Some of the earliest settlers participated in its erection: Professor St. John's contemporaries could remember it.
The Rev. Mr. Silliman, during his long service, had taken in 155 members, married 173 couples, and baptized 907 children, and by the end of his ministry, the church could look back across a genera- tion of growth to a small beginning - the valiant twenty-four from Norwalk and Stamford. Nevertheless, there were some who had become "uneasy" with their minister, and in 1769, the Society voted his dismissal.
At that time the church was under state control, so that Mr. Silli- man was able to make an appeal to the legislature at Hartford. The committee sent here to restore peace decided that the end could be better attained by separating; consequently, in 1722, Mr. Silliman was dismissed by mutual consent, or as the records have it, "he complains of his parish and is righted and dismissed." He moved to the parish in Saybrook, but the name by no means departed from Canaan Parish. It has descended honorably to our own time, and for most of the
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History of Canaan Parish
century and three-quarters since the Rev. Robert Silliman first came from Stratford the family of that name has occupied the same house, now at last the residence of Mr. Philip Houston, on Oenoke Avenue.
Robert Silliman had eight children. The eldest, Samuel Cook Silli- man, born in Stratford, lived and died in this old house, but had no children to leave it to. Another son, Thomas was born here, and remained for two years teaching school after his father's departure. Here in 1771, is the very first mention we have by name of a school teacher in New Canaan. Thomas lived to the ripe age of 91. The youngest son, Joseph, who had moved with his family to Chester, returned and became a popular physician and a leading man of the village. He married Martha Leeds, daughter of a farmer on Talmadge Hill, who, it is said, was so successful with his crops that any less for- tunate could always find there a supply of grain. The scriptural- minded villagers, accordingly, used to call that vicinity "Egypt," noting perhaps that there was even a Joseph in the picture, though Joseph Silliman was not the dispenser of the grain, but merely his son-in-law.
THIRD MINISTER INSTALLED
In the winter following the dismissal of Robert Silliman, a third minister was installed. This was a Scotchman named William Drum- mond, born and educated in the old country, and loyal to King George. We are not surprised that such a ministry, beginning in 1772, should have lasted but five years.
His successor, the Rev. Justus Mitchell, ministered here for 25 years, nearly as long as the second pastor, Mr. Silliman. But Mr. Mitchell's ministry, unlike Mr. Silliman's, ended only with his death, "in the hour of his sleep," in 1806, five years after Canaan Parish had become the town of New Canaan.
Professor St. John pays a glowing tribute to the life and service of the Rev. Justus Mitchell, "who by his scholarship and devotion to his calling, and to the cause of education, secured the prosperity of the entire community, and gave the Parish a desirable fame throughout the state." A fame still wider was attained by a great grandson of Justus Mitchell, Chauncey Mitchell Depew.
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NEW RELIGIOUS GROUPS
From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the newly incorpo- rated Town of New Canaan took over the public matters uncon- nected with the church, such as highways and schools, so that the village history was no longer synonymous with the old Society of Canaan Parish. Moreover, the Congregational Meeting House was no longer the only church in the village. There were a number of fami- lies belonging to the Episcopal Church who were accustomed to attend service at Norwalk or Stamford, the rates which were col- lected here being paid over to the rectors of those churches. When the second meeting house was only ten years old, in May, 1762, an Episcopal church was started on Haynes Ridge, on land given by James Hait within the present enclosure of the old Church Hill burial ground. This building, although made fit for use, was not com- pleted for many years and was never consecrated. In 1791 the mem- bers organized themselves into a distinct parish, and 43 years later the present church was built in its more convenient location.
The Methodists and Baptists were represented before the end of the 18th century. There were Baptist meetings held about 1773 and occasionally thereafter. We hear of a Methodist sermon preached here in 1787. These beginnings fell in the ministry of the Rev. Justus Mitchell, when there seems to have been an increasingly liberal spirit, expressed by votes on several occasions releasing those not Congre- gationalists from paying Society rates.
The emphasis on ecclesiastical matters is unavoidable in writing any account of early New England. It certainly would not have occurred to those pious forefathers that their history could be writ- ten in a wholly secular vein. Their most outstanding characteristic was their rigid observance of their religious duties. But we cannot think of their piety without thinking of their patriotism, for their civil duties were a vital part of their religion, both in their conscience, and in the workings of their everyday life. "Church membership," we are told, "was a test of citizenship. No man could vote or be eligible to any civil or military office who did not first qualify him- self by a credible profession of religion."
The two great festivals of the year were representative of these two paramount interests - Thanksgiving and Training Day. Christmas was not observed by the Puritans: it smacked too much of the
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History of Canaan Parish
pageantry of the English Church. But Thanksgiving, now a holiday, was then a "holy day," set aside as a time in which to praise God for his mercies. To this end every one attended the service in the meeting house, except those who had to stay at home to get dinner. The service began with the Governor's proclamation, which always closed with the grave injunction, "All servile labor and vain recrea- tion on said day are by law forbidden." The men's side must have had the bulk of the congregation on those occasions. For it was the custom then, as it is now, to express gratitude for the harvest by consuming a generous sample of it, and to gather all the relatives about the well- filled board. The sacred character of the day, which was regarded almost like the Sabbath, prevented any boisterous festivities, but we may imagine that the joys of plenty and of social intercourse made of Thanksgiving a bright spot in a rigorous year.
TRAIN-BAND ORGANIZED
Hardly had the Society been organized and the meeting-house built, when the Train-Band was organized in 1733. With every able-bodied man of a certain age required to appear for inspection and drill, it is not surprising to find the roll-call of the Train-Band almost identical with the list of church members. The first one to command this company was the valiant Ebenezer Carter, of the Deer- field Massacre experience, whose lieutenant's commission, received from Governor Talcott, is now in possession of the New Canaan Historical Society. It was not until 1778, the time of the Revolution, that the plot known as the Old Parade Ground was bought by the inhabitants of Canaan Parish for 14 pounds. This tract, about three- quarters of a mile north of the Meeting House, is a part of the present estate of Mr. Payson Merrill, on Oenoke Avenue, and according to a record in the Town Hall is still available for military purposes. Here the military company drilled many years on "General Train- ing Day."
An old resident, writing in 1881 about the early years of the century, says that in his boyhood there were but two jubilees in the year - Training Day and Thanksgiving. Training Day was a great event. At ten o'clock on the first Monday of May and September, two companies gathered on the Old Parade Ground; one in uniforms, dignified by the name of "grenadiers," and pronounced "pretty
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Readings In New Canaan History
nice" by our chronicler, the other called the "militia," without uni- forms, and said to be "quite rusty." These performed, to fife and drum, what Mr. St. John called "wondrous evolutions," and "when they marched down the Ridge to the meeting house hill, the martial ardor of the boys was at boiling point."
A community so martially trained was all ready for the stirring events of the Revolution. Actual warfare did not come nearer than Norwalk and Middlesex, now Darien, but there was many a Canaanite who could say, "Magna pars fui." The Historical Society, after four- teen years of effort, finally succeeded in finding the roll-call of the Train Band, as it stood in 1777. The names are 73 in number, the Revolutionary heroes of Canaan Parish.
Their captain was Daniel Benedict, who was succeeded by John Carter. The latter was taken prisoner by the enemy and died under the frightful horrors of the Old Sugar House Prison in New York. In his company were Isaac and John Benedict, the latter being that first boy baby born in the first house 52 years before. On this roll of honor were three sons of Priest Eells, also many whose names are still familiar to us, such as Hoyt, Raymond, Kellogg, Weed, St. John, Selleck and Silliman. One of these heroes of Canaan, Isaac Keeler, later became a captain, and passed that terrible winter at Valley Forge with Washington. Others performed active guard duty on the border of the colony and on the coast, and some were engaged in the Battles of White Plains, Crown Point, and Ticonderoga. We have an original order dated March, 1777, from Lieutenant Colonial Mead to Captain John Carter, to move his company forthwith and immedi- ately to Horse Neck, on the state border.
HANNAH BENEDICT CARTER
Some of the ancestors of present old New Canaanites were among the unfortunate congregation at Middlesex on a July Sunday in 1781, when all were seized by their Tory neighbors in the midst of the service, and forced to follow their patriot pastor into captivity. Forty-eight men were taken to Long Island, half of them paroled, and the rest imprisoned in New York until the following December.
We have one little picture from the year before of the patriot whose memory is perpetuated in the name of the New Canaan Chap- ter of the D. A. R. Hannah Benedict was the wife of Captain John
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History of Canaan Parish
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