USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Litchfield > St. Michael's Parish, Litchfield, Connecticut, 1745-1954; a biography of a parish and of many who have served it > Part 6
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Among persons mentioned again and again by Dr. Beecher in his narrative and correspondence are Judge Reeve, Miss Pierce and her nephew John P. Brace, and Dr. Sheldon, but except to list them in passing as among the distinguished men living in Litch- field during this time, no mention is made of Judge Ephraim Kirby, Seth P. Beers, the remarkable Seymour family, and many others who were members of St. Michael's. One reads with inter- est, however, that when the Beecher children visited their maternal grandmother at Nutplains they heard her read prayers from a "great Prayer-book which was her constant companion" and Har- riet recalled these prayers later as having "a different effect on me from any other prayers I heard in early life." Speaking of her aunt Harriet Foote, her mother's sister, Harriet Beecher says:
In her own private heart my aunt did not consider my father an ordained minister; and, as she was a woman who always acted up to her beliefs, when on a visit to our family she would walk straight past his meeting-house, as she always called it, to the little Episcopal church, where the Gospel was dispensed in what she considered an orderly manner.
Again Harriet writes:
So dear was everything that belonged to grandmother and our Nut- plains home, that the Episcopal service, even though not well read, was always chosen during our visits there in preference to our own. It seemed a part of Nutplains and of the life there.
Thus we find some Episcopal influence even in the Beecher house- hold!
Another source of information about happenings in Litchfield
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during this period is the diaries of the students at the Litchfield Female Academy, many of which have been brought together in the Chronicles of a Pioneer School, from 1792 to 1833. Constant reference is found in the diaries to church attendance, but it is al- ways the Congregational Church, which most of the scholars attended twice every Sunday. Not only is the fact of having at- tended church recorded, but the text and sometimes the content of the sermon are also given. There were, we must suppose, Epis- copalians among the "young ladies," but they apparently were not diary-minded, for references to St. Michael's in those diaries which are extant are few. On October 26, 1816, a young diarist records:
This week on Thursday went to the Church to hear the Bishop preach. He did not come in untill some time after the people got there. They sung untill he came. The chorister had a great deal of trouble to get the young ladies put in the singers seat and a great deal of trouble to make them sing well. We had an excellent sermon. I was much pleased with the meeting.
And on July 15, 1822, another enters the following:
Lorenzo Dow, the famous Methodist preacher, is to preach in Mr. Jones' meeting house this evening. I have a violent curiosity to see him, but I fear it would not be proper for me to go.
A lady writing years later of her mother says:
At the age of twelve years she was placed by her father in this School. It was her first experience away from home and of course she suf- fered from homesickness. She made the acquaintance of a day pupil, Henrietta Jones, the daughter of the Rector. As my mother had left a little baby sister at home it was a great delight to go to the Rectory and rock the cradle of Henrietta's baby brother.
A subscription list for the Academy, dated April, 1827, con- tains the names of many Episcopalians. In October, 1833, the trus- tees of the Academy made a statement of the condition and pros- pects of the school, which they considered necessary owing to recent changes. We read:
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Notwithstanding the removal of these eminent instructors (Miss Pierce and her nephew Mr. Brace), the Trustees state, with high gratification, that in their opinion this institution has never been more worthy of public confidence and patronage, and its prospects have never been more flattering than at the present time. Miss Henri- etta Jones, the present Principal, appointed by the Trustees, received her education in this academy. She has had five years' experience as an instructress; and the Trustees, from regard to her feelings, will only add in her commendation, that they consider her, by her talents and acquirements, as eminently qualified for the station they have assigned to her.
Miss Henrietta Jones was the only daughter of the Rev. Isaac Jones. She later opened a school of her own in her father's house, which was on the southwest corner of South Street and Wolcott Lane. Years later someone writing in the Litchfield Enquirer about South Street and those who lived on it, speaks of this house as
the site of the female seminary established and for many years ably kept up by the enterprise of Miss Henrietta Jones, a lady celebrated for her wit and her energy of character.
Another aspect of the ministry of the two clergymen whose rectorate we have been considering is their place in diocesan councils. The name of Truman Marsh appears in the list of those present at the Convention of 1792, the first convention of which Proceedings were printed. Records of earlier conventions, held annually from 1783, have been lost. The list of names of those at- tending the conventions of which we have record is short, but among them always appeared that of Ashbel Baldwin, and almost always that of Truman Marsh. We find him taking a part in those early meetings; he read prayers at the opening session of the 1792 convention; he preached the sermon at the opening session of that of 1797. From 1795 his name is found on committees, often those connected with the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, of which he was a trustee for a short time. He served as secretary pro tem in 1805, and in 1819 he was appointed to the committee to notify
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Bishop-elect Brownell of his election, and to "solicit his accept- ance." Mr. Jones' attendance at conventions began in 1812. He was not active in diocesan affairs, perhaps because he was the junior clergyman from Litchfield. We find both ministers present at conventions subsequent to their resignation from St. Michael's. The last convention Mr. Marsh attended was that of 1842, and Mr. Jones that of 1846. In Bishop Brownell's address to the con- vention of 1850 he notes the death of the latter as follows: "The Rev. Isaac Jones was taken away from us in a good old age after much faithful labor in his Master's vineyard."
Little is known about Mr. Marsh during the long period follow- ing his resignation from St. Michael's until his death. We know that although his health was not good, he conducted service from time to time when occasion demanded it. We read of young men who received their preparation for college from "Parson Marsh," a fact which gives a partial glimpse of the life he engaged in. On his death he was described in the Litchfield Republican as "an able instructor of youth, a man of pure character, sincere piety and unblemished reputation." He died on March 28, 1851, after a lingering illness of fifteen months. Since the church in which he had so often led his congregation in worship was in process of demolition preparatory to a new building, his funeral service was held at the Congregational Church where he had received his or- dination so many years before. Here "the proper burial service was used and a funeral discourse pronounced by the Rector of St. Michael's" in the presence of an immense concourse of his fellow citizens who thus showed their respect and affection for him.
Before leaving Mr. Marsh, mention should be made of his wife. Truman Marsh married his first cousin, Clarissa Seymour, on Oc- tober 27, 1791. She was the only daughter of Moses and Molly Marsh Seymour, whose five sons have been called by one historian "the most remarkable family of sons ever raised in Litchfield County." The following is an account of the Marshes' wedding
THOMAS DAVIES, 1763-1766
ASHBEL BALDWIN, 1785-1793
TRUMAN MARSH, 1799-1830 INACTIVE FROM 1812
DAVID BUTLER, 1794-1799
ISAAC JONES, 1811-1826
JOHN S. STONE, 1826-1829
WILLIAM LUCAS, 1829-1832
SAMUEL FULLER, 1832-1837; 1845-1849
WVILLIAM PAYNE, 1838-1845
BENJAMIN W. STONE, 1849-1851
JOHN J. BRANDEGEE, 1851-1854
JUNIUS M. WILLEY, 1855-1858
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journey to New Milford, where Mr. Marsh's parish was, and shows the affection in which the young husband was held.3
The wedding party left Litchfield in the morning after the wedding services, and proceeding toward New Milford, were met by a num- ber of carriages and escorted to the parsonage where the ladies had provided an introductory dinner and greeting. After dinner Mr. Marsh and Mr. Griswold, the Congregational minister, devoted the passing hours to a review of earlier years etc. etc.
Mrs. Marsh returned to New Milford fifty years after this event and is said to have remarked of it that she had never seen such "harmony, union and good feeling between all churches and among all people." Of Mrs. Marsh it was said that
if her husband was the pastor, she was a noble mother in the church where he had long been head and pioneer and had availed so much to give St. Michael's its present and commanding position in the diocese.
Let us take leave of this revered rector of so many years by using the words of Bishop Brownell. At the Diocesan Convention meet- ing in the June following Mr. Marsh's death, in his address to the Convention the Bishop said,
The Rev. Truman Marsh has departed this life within the last few weeks, being eighty-four years of age. Though suffering under bodily infirmities during the latter years of his life, he had passed through more than an average period of useful labor in his Master's service. Few of his brethren have surpassed him for clearness of mind, sim- plicity of character, purity of life, and faithfulness to the trust com- mitted to him.
3 D. W. Marsh, Marsh Genealogy.
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1830-1849
WILLIAM LUCAS . SAMUEL FULLER, JR.
WILLIAM PAYNE SAMUEL FULLER'S SECOND RECTORATE
FROM October, 1784, the Episcopal Society and St. Michael's Parish were synonymous terms, except during the period from 1797 to 1799, when the second, or West, Episcopal Society was in existence. St. Michael's Parish up to this time has included three churches: St. Michael's in Litchfield, the West Church in Bradley- ville or Bantam, and the Milton Church. With the end of Mr. Marsh's rectorate a separation of the three parishes had come about. In a sketch of the parish written after his retirement by Mr. Marsh himself, he described the situation thus:
The churches in Milton and Bradleyville still continue component parts of St. Michael's Church. They have never legally nor canoni- cally been separated. Notwithstanding, they have for some years conducted their concerns in their own way as independent parishes.
This was a natural development, since each parish had grown larger and stronger and desired more of the rector's attention. In his last complete report to the Bishop from the Milton Parish, in 1829, after giving the usual statistics of ministerial acts Mr. Marsh adds:
The prospects of this Church are much more encouraging than at any former period. The congregation is generally large and attentive.
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And as evidence of its increasing prosperity it has for a part of the last, and the whole of the present year, made provision for having divine service one half of the time. Previous to the last year it has never been able to secure the services of a clergyman more than one third of the time.
Although there was a return later to the old arrangement, from this period the churches at Bradleyville and Milton had their own rector or officiating clergyman, usually the same for both, and not the rector of St. Michael's. The Episcopal Society continued to elect the officers of each parish annually, and always there has been among the three the close connection of sister parishes. Because it should interest all who are interested in St. Michael's, a list of clergymen in charge of the two churches in Bantam and Milton from 1828 is given in Appendix II.
On November 27, 1830, the Rev. William Lucas was made rec- tor of St. Michael's, coming to Litchfield from Woodbury and Washington where he had had temporary charge. He had been ordained priest at Woodbury on September 3, 1829. He continued to officiate at Washington for a time after January, 1831, during which period he requested Mr. Marsh to officiate at St. Michael's. He made but one report to the Diocese during his rectorate, as follows:
116 families, 69 communicants; 10 new communicants; 26 baptisms; 15 marriages; 18 funerals; 130 in the Sunday School, 30 Sunday School teachers.
In March, 1832, Mr. Lucas resigned from St. Michael's to become assistant minister at Trinity Church, New Haven.
William Lucas was born in Ireland in 1799. He was graduated from the General Theological Seminary in 1828, and was ordered deacon by Bishop White on July 9, 1828, in Christ Church, Phila- delphia. He came to the Diocese of Connecticut from Pennsyl- vania in 1829 and took charge of Woodbury and Washington. After leaving Trinity Church, New Haven, in 1833, he went to St. Peter's Church, Auburn, New York, where he died August
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27, 1839, at forty years of age. He was greatly beloved by his parishioners at Auburn, and apparently, indeed, by all who knew him, as the affectionate tribute to him found in Isaac Jones' his- torical sermon seems to prove.
After Mr. Lucas' departure the Rev. John Dowdney, Jr., offi- ciated here for about three months. In July, 1832, the Rev. Henry V. D. Johns of Maryland was invited to be the rector here. He came, officiated for one Sunday, and declined the invitation.
In October of that year the Rev. Samuel Fuller, Jr., was elected rector and entered upon his duties immediately. The first com- plete report he made to the Bishop, in 1835, shows him as a vigor- ous gentleman. After the usual statistics of ministerial acts he writes:
The monthly missionary lecture has been continued. The collections taken at the lecture have doubled during the year. About 30 copies of the Missionary Record are taken. A young ladies' Missionary So- ciety has been formed, and has recently forwarded to the mission at Green Bay articles valued at $114; missionary contributions during the year from all sources amount to $2 50. A parish library was formed in January, commenced by the ladies, which already contains 120 volumes; 12,000 pages of Tracts from the Protestant Episcopal Press have been circulated in the congregation, among which are 100 copies of the Churchman's Almanac, and 100 copies of Davy's Conversations on the Liturgy.
During Mr. Fuller's rectorate a very convenient basement room in the church was fitted up and furnished at a cost of about $300, raised by subscription. This was used by the Sunday school, and quite probably for the missionary lectures and for the parish li- brary. In his report for 1836 he again speaks of the lectures and the library. He reports, too, that the parish has lost 30 communi- cants during the period of his rectorate, families who have moved to the West and South. He ends by saying:
To meet the spiritual wants of the people, religious services were, during portions of the year, multiplied, not only "publicly, but from
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house to house." The public services during the year, on Sundays and on other occasions, have been 2 12.
In his next report to the Bishop, that of the year 1837, Mr. Fuller says:
Expecting, as I do, to resign the rectorship of this Parish as soon as a clergyman can be obtained to succeed me, I might do injustice to a most worthy and affectionate people were I not to add that the conditions and prospects of this Church have not been better since my connection with it. The experience of nearly five years enables me to say that there are no insuperable obstacles in the way of build- ing up in this place a substantial and efficient Parish. Neither its members nor its friends have reason to be disheartened. Wealth and numbers are certainly not wanting, and what is of the greatest im- portance, the people are at unity among themselves. The difficulties which exist are not peculiar to Litchfield, and all may be overcome by zeal and perseverance, by faith and prayer.
This is the first intimation that there were any "disheartened" about St. Michael's. If the parish had suffered and become run down after a long rectorate such as Mr. Marsh's, that would not be unnatural. If so, the Rev. Mr. Fuller seems to have been an ex- cellent prescription. Unfortunately he left St. Michael's in Oc- tober, 1837, to become rector of Christ Church, Andover, Massa- chusetts.
Again there were some months during which the pulpit was filled by various clergymen. In 1838 the Rev. William Payne re- ceived a call and entered upon his ministry here on July 22 of that year. He was in deacon's orders when he came to Litchfield, but was ordained priest in St. Michael's on September 29, 1839, by Bishop Brownell.
The outstanding contribution to our parish which Mr. Payne made was the beginning of a parish history and record. In a large volume obtained for the purpose, on the first page he cites a Gen- eral Canon of 1832 according to which every minister is required to keep a register of baptisms, confirmations, etc., as well as a list of families within his cure "to remain for the use of his successor, to
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be continued by him, and by every future minister of the same Parish." Following this reference to the Canon, Mr. Payne writes: Notwithstanding the above requirements, the undersigned found no regular Parish Record when he took charge of this Church. He therefore commences the present Register into which he shall gather as many items relating to the past history of the Parish as can be obtained from the private papers of individuals, and afterwards transcribe his own acts while its minister. He can not but hope that his successors will take some pains to continue what he has begun with no little labor and care.
The pages that follow this introduction are an invaluable record of the parish's history from its earliest years, copied from manu- scripts left by earlier church officers and members, with notes added by later members from their memory of incidents, or from hearsay from older generations. He acknowledges especially the help received from Mr. Isaac Jones. Mr. Payne's record was very largely copied into the Appendix added to Isaac Jones' historical sermon. Besides the early history of the parish, Mr. Payne gave an example to later rectors for recording interesting events. Not that all his successors followed his excellent precedent, but from time to time there were rectors who made it their duty to bring the record to date. It is very doubtful if, except for Mr. Payne, any- thing detailed about the history of St. Michael's would now be known.
Unfortunately, about his own rectorate Mr. Payne wrote little in the Parish Record. Again we turn to the diocesan reports in which, in his report on St. Michael's, he often recorded more than bare statistics. Without quoting all, a few excerpts are interesting. In 1839 he recorded:
There is no unusual degree of religious sensibility among us, but a manifest improvement in many respects.
In 1840:
A comparison of these statistics with those of last year will show that if numbers be a true index this venerable Parish continues to
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increase and improve slowly and gradually. Situated among an in- tellectual, reading, and refined people, and in a town where popu- lation is stationary, it can not be expected to be moved by excite- ments, or to exhibit many changes. What it needs is patient and persevering labor on the part of its minister; and this with the bless- ing which Almighty God has vouchsafed to it, will, it is firmly be- lieved, result in a deeper realization of the saving truths of his Gospel, and a more correct appreciation of the institutions of his Church in the hearts of the community. May the Lord give his weak and un- worthy servant grace to discharge his duty to a people to whom he feels himself a debtor, not only for Christ's sake, but also on account of the innumerable tokens of affection which he has experienced from their hands.
In 1841 he speaks encouragingly of the young people of the vil- lage whose attention has been directed to the Church to an extent heretofore unknown, but in his last report, that of 1844, his tone is one of discouragement that he has so little change to report as compared with his brethren in growing communities. His conso- lation is that
the minister who is sustaining one of our old depopulating Parishes, though the visible effects may not seem as great, is doing a work . .. which they whose lot is cast where everything is new and thriving might find it difficult to perform.
At a special meeting of the Episcopal Society on March 4, 1839, action was taken on a bequest from the will of Nathan Landon, who had been on the Standing Committee of the Society from 1787 to 1792, and again in 1798 and 1799. A committee was appointed to sell the property left by the will, if an advantageous sale could be made, otherwise to rent it, and to invest the proceeds, properly designated as derived from Mr. Landon's will, in bank stock. The dividends from this investment were directed to be paid according to the provisions of the will, one half for the sup- port of preaching at St. Michael's Church, and one half for the same purpose at the West Church.
While Mr. Payne was rector the members of the West Church
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petitioned to be allowed to take down their church and build a new one farther west. The request was granted, the church was built near Bantam Falls, and paid for, and the Rev. Mr. Eastman performed the first service in it on December 24, 1843. At a meet- ing of those present it was voted to name the new church St. Paul's.
In 1845 Mr. Payne resigned the rectorship of St. Michael's at the Bishop's urgent request to become editor of the new diocesan newspaper, the Calendar. He had, as a matter of fact, been editor of the paper from its first issue on January 4, 1845, but it had be- come desirable to have more time devoted to it. On Easter after- noon, March 23, he preached his farewell sermon on the text "Peace I leave with you."
William Payne was born in Chatham (now Portland), Connect- icut, May 13, 1815. He was graduated from Trinity College in 1834 and from the General Theological Seminary in 1838. He was ordered deacon by Bishop Brownell at Chatham on July 8, 1838, and as we have seen was ordained priest at St. Michael's. After leaving Litchfield he was missionary of Hartford County, while editing the Calendar. In the years that followed, in addition to his editorial duties he was active in affairs of the Diocese and in those relating to Trinity College. He was Diocesan Secretary from 1846 to 1848, as well as secretary of the Board of Fellows of Trin- ity College. In August, 1848, he received a call to St. George's Church, Schenectady, to succeed Dr. John Williams, who left to become President of Trinity College. Dr. Payne, after thirty-six years at St. George's, resigned on September 29, 1884, owing to ill health. His rectorate had been one of outstanding success and achievement. He was greatly beloved by the parishioners in both parishes of which he was rector. When he left St. Michael's, Mr. Jones wrote of him: "No man has been more deservedly admired, loved and respected by the congregation of St. Michael, than their late Rector." When he retired as rector of St. George's the title of Rector Emeritus was bestowed upon him, and the vestry voted
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him $500 a year "as long as the church was able to pay it." On his death he was laid to rest in St. George's churchyard, on March 22, 1891.
After a short interval following Mr. Payne's resignation, dur- ing which the Rev. George Huntington Nichols was employed here, the Rev. Samuel Fuller was called and on July 27, 1845, re- turned a second time as rector. His expenses in moving to Litch- field from Gambier, Ohio, where he had been since 1843, were defrayed by St. Michael's Parish.
Dr. Fuller, as he now was, found the parish larger than he had left it. He found 100 families, whereas he had reported 75 in 1837; the communicants numbered 128 as against 83. He recorded that the congregations on Sunday were large and "would be larger were there more free seats." He made frequent reference to the inadequate size of the church, and recommended speedy measures to provide for the growing congregations. In 1848 he reported that the Ladies' Sewing Society bought a set of communion plate at a cost of more than $100, and also a large Bible and two Prayer Books for the desk. He spoke in the same report of the need of a separate building for the accommodation of the Sunday school where, he said, divine service could also be held during the cold seasons when it was thought inexpedient to open the church. In his last report he spoke bluntly about the parish's need of greater ac- commodation for its members. "Indeed," he said,
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