USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Warren > The Congregational church, Warren, Connecticut, l750-1956 > Part 3
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"Given under my hand, this First Day of May, 1775 th Jon Trumbull"
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Action was prompt, for ten days later Capt. Curtiss and his men took part in the capture of Ticonderoga. His fourteen- year old son, Augustine, accompanied him as his "waiter".
How many men from East Greenwich enlisted, or in how many engagements they took part, it is impossible to tell. Some are known to have participated in the disastrous cam- paign of Quebec, and others were quick to respond when the British looted and burned the towns of Fairfield and Danbury. Major Curtiss was at the Battle of Danbury and caught General Wooster as he fell from his horse, mortally wounded. A Minute-Man monument near the shore at Compo Beach, marks the spot where the general fell.
Mr. Bassett, in his centennial sermon, preached in 1876, says: "Eleazer Curtiss was a Major in the service; Joseph Carter and Peleg Sturtevant were Captains; Dea. Ebenezer Tanner, Samuel Carter, and Nathaniel Swift were Lieuten- ants. Besides these, Augustine and Lysander Curtiss, Dea. Fowler, Philip and Eben Strong, George Batterson, Wm. James (colored), Chauncey Dennison, John Holloway are known to have been connected with the army, and there were doubtless others."
Many others, surely, for twenty-eight Revolutionary sol- diers lie buried in the old cemetery, and others, after the close of the war trekked northward into Vermont, or accepted "Bounty Lands" on "The Western Reserve" in Ohio, which the state offered in lieu of pay. Mr. Starr himself is listed in Captain Shute's company, where he served perhaps as chaplain.
Litchfield was the rendezvous for the soldiers and the depot of supplies for the county. Possibly some of the volun- teers from East Greenwich fired bullets made by the ladies of Litchfield from the leaden statue of George III, which had originally stood on the Bowling Green in New York. Perhaps they peeped through the bars at William Franklin, traitor son of the patriot Benjamin, royal governor of New Jersey, who
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was confined in Litchfield jail without pen, ink, or paper. They may have marched away from Litchfield Green with the prayer of Judah Champion ringing in their ears: "O Lord, we view with terror and dismay the enemies of Thy holy religion. Wilt Thou send storm and tempest to toss them upon the sea, and to overwhelm them in the mighty deep, or to scatter them to the uttermost parts of the earth. But, peradventure, should any escape Thy vengeance, collect them together again O Lord, as in the hollow of Thy hand, and let Thy lightnings play upon them. Amen." These were stirring days in Litch- field County, and we may be sure that the inhabitants of East Greenwich in the town of Kent played their full part in the great struggle.
There were other difficulties to be met besides those of war. Winters were long and severe. In 1768, according to a note in an old diary* there were twenty-nine snows during the winter and "on the tenth of April people went over the Great Pond on the ice." Or again, there was "the tremendous month of March &c of the year 1772", when snow fell "every other day for about Ten Days", then "Sometimes Snow three days agoing & then 2 or 3 Days fair", until the supplies of hay and grain ran low "and truly the times looked malloncholy". 1816 was christened "Eighteen hundred and-froze-to-death", for there was frost in New England every month.
Terrible epidemics swept the town from time to time. Such a tragedy is recorded in a poem of thirty stanzas by Joel Finney, who was evidently regarded as the local poet :
"In seventeen hundred seventy-four, we see, A raging sickness seiz'd the family
Of Thomas Carter, as you now shall hear, Which filled the place with dread and awful fear.
"The fever rag'd to that extremity Of fourteen persons six, we see, must die,
And change their life for that which is to come, Their earthly ones for their eternal home."
*Pages from the diary of Major Eleazer Curtiss.
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Another similar epidemic occurred in 1812-1813. In the absence of hospitals and trained nurses, neighbors rallied to meet the emergencies, and the church served as the chief or- ganizing medium of assistance. "Often at the close of the Sunday service", wrote Dr. Julian Sturtevant in his Autobio- graphy, "it would be announced from the pulpit that serious illness had visited some home. The benediction was not pro- nounced until volunteer nurses had been supplied for every night in the week. The same provision would be made on each successive Sabbath until the necessity had ceased".
Smallpox was all too common, brought often by returning soldiers. In 1791 it was voted "to give liberty to Doct. Syrus Berry to set up anoculation under the Direction of the Author- ity & Selectmen of the Town of Warren." The following year it was voted "to set up a pest House where and under the direction of the Select Men". This pest house must indeed have been a dreaded place, for when the disease was dis- covered in any household, the infected person was hurried thither. Family and friends cautiously deposited food and other necessities within reach, and if possible some one who had recovered from the disease was secured as nurse; but even if the patient recovered, he was likely to carry disfiguring scars for the rest of his life.
The year after the pest house was set up conditions had apparently improved, for it was voted "to Discontinue the Small pox till further orders". Unfortunately, the disease did not remain discontinued, for in 1798 it was again voted "To give Liberty to the Physicians of this Town to inoculate for the Small Pox any of the inhabitants that may wish to take it". The following month, however, it was again decided "to discontinue the Small Pox in this Town from this date".
Such incidents highlighted the need for a new cemetery. Some burials had previously been made in a field at the foot of the hill below the meeting house, and in 1795 a deed for this land was obtained from Mr. Starr and the selectmen were instructed "to build a good Stone Wall in front of the Burying
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Ground". There, in the words of Dr. Sturtevant, "We deposited the sacred dust of our dead in God's Acre, near by the humble temple where they had worshiped".
But fortunately not all was hardship, pestilence, or war; there were brighter lights in the picture also. One event that followed soon after the close of the war must have brought genuine satisfaction throughout the community. As we have seen, the inhabitants of the eastern and the western parts of the town of Kent had, from the beginning, acted in very large measure as separate units. Now at last the natural division became officially recognized. In 1786 the town was incorporated under the name of Warren, a name suggested, it is said, by the Major because of his admiration for General Warren who had fallen at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
At the first town meeting, over which Jedediah Hubbel presided as moderator, officers were elected: Eleazer Curtiss, town clerk; Capt. Joseph Carter, Nathaniel Swift, and John Brownson, selectmen; Benoni Carter, treasurer. Besides such familiar officers as constable, surveyor of highways, grand jurors, (grand jourers, gran jourers, grand juryrs, grand- jours) sexton, and tithingmen, there were others whose duties sound strange today. The fence viewer, for example, inspected fences in order to protect the public from roving animals, while the "kee keeper" had the power to seize strange animals and impound them until they were redeemed by their owners. The duty of the packer was to instruct people in the art of preserving meat and other food through the winter. The leather sealer, after making sure that hides had been properly tanned and dried, would stamp or "seal" the leather as ap- proved. The sealer of weights and measures had correspond- ing authority as indicated by his title, while the gauger was responsible for the standard size of casks and other containers of liquids.
Committees were also appointed at this first town meeting to "Settle the Line of Prembleration between Warren and
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Kent" and "to Settle all company accounts with Kent & Debts that had accrued while the Tow towns were one".
Other practical matters had to be attended to, some of which had hitherto fallen to the over-burdened Society. For example, the preceding year it had been voted "that the So- ciety agree to have Six Boers in the Society in Districts that will accomodate the hole and the owners of the Boers to Re- ceive one Peck of Corn for each Sow that is took to Boer and no other Boer Suffered to run at large in the Society on Pen- alty of Castoration". Now it was the town that took such mat- ters into consideration and voted "that Sheep Rams be con- fined from the 20th of sept. to the 10th of November from run- ning at Large on pain of the owners paying a fine of Six Shil- lings L.M. [legal money } to the Town Treasurer". Also "to give nine pence for every Crow that is killed within the limits of the town". Truly, the town fathers had many cares!
Modern tax collectors may be interested in the following : "Voted that a Rate of one penny on the pound on the list of 1788 be raised, payable in Wheat, Rye, Indian Corn, Buck Wheat, Bar Iron to be delivered at the House of Mr. Ephraim Tanner, Receiver of Sd Rate, to be paid in January, A. D. 1790, at the prices Affixt to those Articles by Messrs. Joseph Peters, Peleg Sturtevant, and Nathaniel Swift Ju. Committee for the Purpose. Also voted, Ephraim Tanner be Store Keeper to receive the above Sd Rate." The tax rate varied in these early years from a high of three pence on the pound to a low of three farthings.
However, amid all the detail of launching itself upon its independent way, the town did not neglect its weightier re- sponsiblities. At a meeting called to consider the proposed national constitution the freemen, "After having Largely de- bated the Matter", voted forty to nineteen to recommend adop- tion, and Major Curtiss was chosen to represent the town at the convention in Hartford.
Of great importance was the construction of roads, pro- viding easier access from one part of the town to another.
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"The Swamp Road", a corduroy road built primarily that people from the western part of the town might get to church more easily, was a difficult undertaking, passing as it did over seemingly bottomless marshes. Local roads were gradually built also to connect Warren with the neighboring towns of Litchfield, Washington, and Cornwall, and with the "Great North Road", which, laid out in 1758, followed the old pioneer trail from Hartford to Albany, a road which, passing through dense jungles and over steep, rocky hills, had been considered the wonder of the age.
In 1791 a postoffice was established in Litchfield. Riders could usually be depended upon to make the journey from New York to Hartford once a week during the summer and once a fortnight in winter. Mail could then be transported from Hartford to Litchfield and anyone who happened to be in Litchfield would accommodatingly bring along any letters that were addressed to residents of Warren.
Educational opportunities, too, were improving, though the ambitious boy or girl of today has little reason to be en- vious. Two additional schoolhouses had been built, one in the "Pond District" (1778) and the Brick Schoolhouse (1784) in the northern part of the town, the latter being perhaps the oldest schoolhouse still standing in Connecticut. The bricks were laid by Sylvester Finney, father of the great evangelist. In 1802 ground was broken across the road from the present firehouse for a two-room school to be known as the "Center School".
Firewood was furnished by the families who had children in school. "Some fathers brought fine, round loads of hickory wood, while others brought only scanty, scraggy, ill-looking heaps of green oak, white birch, and hemlock. Indeed, about all the bickerings of quality among the children centered in the quality of the woodpile."*
* Article on "The Schools", by Mrs. Fred Ashman, in the booklet, Con- necticut Tercentenary Celebration at Warren, 1935.
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The winter term of two or three months was taught by a man at the princely salary of sixteen dollars a month. In sum- mer, when the older children were busy helping their parents on the farm, the teacher was usually a woman, whose services could be obtained for a dollar and a half a week. In both cases the teacher "boarded around", the length of the sojourn in any given home depending upon the number of children enrolled from that home. In the summer of 1806, however, the pattern seems to have changed, as there is record of an agreement with a certain Harvey Platt "to teach them for the term of three Months a good regular school in reading Writing and Arithmetic if required-beginning May 12-and to pay him eight dollars and fifty cents for each Month". Mr. Platt, on his side, promised: "And further I the sd Platt if I am sick Loose time anyway am to Make good My three months in every Particular". (Apparently spelling, punctuation, and grammar were not in the required curriculum!)
And what of the church while these momentous events were taking place in the town and the nation? In spite of war and all the hardships of the post-war period-perhaps in part because of those very hardships-the church under Mr. Starr's leadership grew in numbers and strength. Here, as elsewhere throughout the country, waves of revival alternated with periods of lethargy and discouragement. At the be- ginning of his ministry, the membership numbered fifty-two. In 1783 there came "an awakening" in which sixteen were added to the roll. Then followed a period of which Mr. Starr, looking back over the half-century of his ministry, said: "There was a general decay of religion among us till it seemed there was little more than the form of it left." Then came a second revival in which eighty-four united with the church. "It pleased God", he wrote, "in His free and sovereign mercy to think of us in our low estate, and pour a shower of Divine Grace upon us." During his pastorate he received into mem- bership 363 persons, all but 57 of them on confession of faith. He baptized 70 adults and 530 minors. Yet the membership of
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the church at the close of his pastorate was only 208, out of a population of about 900; this apparent discrepancy was due in very large measure to the amazing migration to the North and West that followed the Revolution-of which more will be said in a later chapter.
The minister, like his parishioners, had to consider the practical business of making a living. Some of the minutes of the Society are revealing, concerning both pastor and people. For example: (Dec. 6, 1779) "Voted to pay Rev. Mr. Starr sixty pounds old way in Wheat Indian Corn Rye Oats Peas Pork Beef Mutton Wool Flax Iron or Labour. Estimating things in their Valuation according to Wheat at four Shillings per Bushel-(By the first of April next) or Continental Money Equivalent as determined by a Committee chosen for that purpose by the Meeting."
Or again; (Dec. 21, 1780) "Voted that Mr. Starr's Sallery be stated in silver Money or Paper equivalent, also Voted to choose a Committee to state paper currency monthley".
In 1810 a motion to increase his salary to $300 was de- feated. Even under the "old way" the minister might wait a long time for any portion of his stipend; then one day he might look up from the sermon he was writing to see a flock of sheep being driven into his yard, or a few bars of iron de- posited at his door. Truly, the minister had his problems!
Fortunately, Mr. Starr had other resources. He owned a large farm at the foot of the hill below the church, and he was part owner, in company with Abel Comstock and Captain Justus Sackett, of a grist mill that had been built soon after he came to the town on a stream across the road from the present cemetery. In 1786 he built the house which in later years has been occupied by the Swift family. He married for his first wife Sarah Robbins, daughter of the minister in Branford and sister of Rev . Ammi Rehamah Robbins, who was ordained in Norfolk in 1761 and remained there until his death fifty-two years later. Of nine children, five survived
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their father. After the death of his first wife in 1909, he married Phoebe, widow of John Stevens.
Mr. Starr made two missionary journeys into Vermont (1794-1795) by appointment of the General Association of Connecticut, in company with his brother-in-law from Nor- folk; there they preached, performed marriages and baptisms, gathered new churches, and in general ministered to the scat- tered population of that newly settled land. A third journey was made later with the Rev. Asahel Hooker of Goshen. On one of these trips he visited two of his former deacons, Abel Comstock and Jonathan Hitchcock, who had joined the migra- tion into the northern wilderness.
One achievement of Mr. Starr's pastorate, an achieve- ment for which the church from his day to ours should be exceedingly grateful, was the creation of a permanent fund to assure the continuance of the Christian ministry in Warren. Scarcely recovered from a great war, struggling to make a living on small and often unproductive farms, hampered by an unstable currency, citizens of a country whose future was by no means assured-surely pastor and people were acting with amazing vision and faith, far beyond the actual call of duty. Yet there were one hundred two subscribers, with pledges ranging from two pounds to forty. The total amount sub- scribed was £1182, or the equivalent of $3,880. Money in any form was scarce, and as usual notes were payable in wheat, rye, Indian corn, neat cattle, sheep, or bar iron. If any donor failed to meet his pledge, the Society was bound to make good the loss. Some men even mortgaged their farms in order to meet their pledged obligations. Truly, this fund was a noble legacy to future generations, a legacy not only of money, but also of high courage, devotion, and faith. Additional dona- tions have been made from time to time, so that the amount stands at the present writing at somewhat more than $19,000.
The War of 1812 was generally unpopular throughout New England. Probably few Warren men participated in the actual fighting, though it is known that Col. Dan Carter led a
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company on foot to New London to help in the defense of that city. Col. Carter and Samuel Gilbert are buried in the Warren Cemetery. Indirectly, however, the entire population was affected by the dislocation of agriculture and commerce resul- ing from the war. These conditions were responsible, in large measure, for the tremendous migration of the next few years, a migration which removed from the town many of its most outstanding citizens, but which, by the same token, made an invaluable contribution to the rapidly expanding West.
Meanwhile, the plain little meeting house on the hill, which had served the community for fifty years, had long out- lived its day. People gibed that they had heard of the Lord's house but never of his barn! A committee which had been appointed (1814) to "Examine the old house and report whether it is worth a repairing", reported unfavorably, and the people were faced with the almost superhuman task of erecting a new and more adequate building.
On a Sunday in the year 1818 Mr. Starr, now nearly seventy-five, preached from the text in Haggai 1:4: "Is it time for you, oh ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses and this house lie waste ?"
Loyally and vigorously his people took up the challenge. Committees were appointed to consider the design, arrange for construction, and solicit subscriptions. It was decided to build the new meeting house, complete with steeple and bell, slight- ly to the west of the old building. Many of the early towns are justly proud of their beautiful "greens", about which were grouped church, schoolhouse or academy, and stately colonial homes. These greens, attractive as they are, were probably originally laid out less for civic beauty than for prac- tical purposes, since they served both as common pasturage for cattle and as training grounds for the "train-bands" that must always be ready to defend their homes and families. The Warren church stands, not upon a level green, but upon a hill- top, overlooking a wide expanse of country-side-truly a beacon "set on a hill that cannot be hid".
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Many other Connecticut towns were finding themselves in the same situation as Warren .* The old seventeenth century meeting houses, which had been fairly adequate for the needs of pioneer days, were now outgrown, outmoded, and in many cases dilapidated beyond repair. After the close of the War of 1812 there occurred, therefore, a wave of church building which lasted about a decade. Delegations were sent from one town to another to inspect the new edifices, with the result that a number of meeting houses were erected with the same general design but each modified to meet the needs of the in- dividual community and the ideas of the local builder. Ex- amples of this trend may be seen in the churches of Norfolk, 1813, (the front portico added later), Avon and Woodbury, 1818; Derby, 1820, East Canaan, 1821, Milford, 1823, Sharon, 1824, South Britain, 1825, North Cornwall and Cheshire, 1826, Litchfield and Southington, 1828.
The architect of the Norfolk meeting house, David Hoad- ley, was, according to Mr. Kelly, one of the two men of this period who could be considered professional church architects, and he had great influence in the creation of better design and the promotion of more impressive church architecture. Mr. Starr would naturally have taken special interest in the Nor- folk church, where his brother-in-law, Dr. Robbins, had been pastor for more than half a century until his death shortly before the completion of the new building. Mr. Hoadley was also the architect of the meeting houses of Avon and Cheshire.
The Warren committee engaged as builder James Jen- nings of Weston, who later built the Sharon church, which is of brick. A committee from Derby was evidently impressed by a visit to Warren, for it issued instructions that window frames, exterior ornamental work, steeple and belfry "shall
*Much of the following material is taken from Early Connecticut Meet- ing Houses by J. Frederick Kelly, noted church architect, under whose direction the Restoration Committee worked at the beginning of its career. Unfortunately, Mr. Kelly did not live to see the completion of the project. His book contains a detailed description of the Warren church.
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I
DOOR
PULPIT
DOOR
DOOR
PLAN OF SECOND MEETING HOUSE, 1818
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LIST OF PEW HOLDERS IN NEW MEETING HOUSE, 1822
Rev. Peter Starr
Widow Eyles
Widow Martha Carter
Widow Morris
Widow Lydia Tanner Samuel Eldred
Aaron Coleman
Benjamin Carter
Homer Sackett
Benjamin Sackett
Salmon Bronson
Chauncey Denison
Whiting Rouse
Ethel Peet
Arnold Saunders
Widow Hopkins
Widow Hill
Mary Carter
Isaac Sturtevant
Eben Strong
Rufus Swift
Abel Fuller
Daniel B. Smith
Amasa Strong
Justus Sackett
Abner Welch
John Taylor
James Beardsley
Isaac Hazen
Stephen Strong
Homer Curtis
Levi Shove
George Starr
Nathan Wood
Salmon Weston
Seth Shove
Charles Everett
John Welch
Enoch Hawes
Benjamin Seelye
John Stone
Silas Wedge
Julius Swift
Elias Merwin
Ebenezer Tanner
Abel Osborn
Daniel Beeman, Jr.
Edmund Saunders
Joseph A. Tanner
Joel Potter
Amasa Strong, Jr.
Samuel Wedge
Austin Fuller
Jonothan Todd
Enoch Taylor
Burton W. Abbott
Seymour Hopkins Ashman Hall
Newton J. Morris
Sears Taylor
Thomas Beeman
Robert Hoyt
Aaron Mallory
Jason Welch
Josiah Webb
Andrus Potter
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Widow Strong
John Talmadge
William Strickland Harvey Mallory Joseph Carter Amos Fowler
John Griffin Banajah Mallory Aaron Sackett Adonyram Carter Buell L. Bates Lucius P. Rouse
Joseph Peters Nathaniel Swift
Asahel Wedge
Moses Sackett
Reuben Fox
Joseph Bennett, Jr.
Widow Beardsley
Chandler Taylor John M. Curtis
Isaac Hawes
Harmon Peet
Dan Page Judah Eldred
Ezra Shove
Adonijah Carter
David Wood
Widow Baldwin
Heman Shove
Widow Palmer
Alexander Sackett
Widow Bull
Samuel Weston
Widow Webb
Abner Everett
Elias Taylor
Joseph Taylor
Josiah Strong
Phineas Peck
Platt Starr
Widow Wickwire
Augustine Curtis
Widow Wedge
Lysander Curtis
Buell Carter
Daniel Beeman
Milton Curtis
Isaac Bates
Joseph Bennett
Ira Stone
Keziah Bliss
Anna Willcox
John Eyles
Jonathan Reynolds
Alfred Brownson
Elnathan L. Hall
Lemuel A. Bronson
Aaron Mallory, Jr.
Samuel Gilbert
Dan Carter
George W. Curtis
Asahel Wedge, Jr.
Lucina Curtis
Sherwood Thomas Widow Lyman Elijah Hayes
Swift Eldred
Ward Carter
Sherman Hartwell
Augustus Coleman
Erastus Curtis
Elias Carter
Darius Webb
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Daniel Taylor
Sanford Peck
Lucy Swift
George Batterson
Polly Swift Amzi Hazen W. Leonard John Hamlin
Samuel Swan
Reuben Parmalee
William Bradley Merwin Buck
Lorren Taylor
Rachel Beardsley
Alanson Morgan
Widow Taylor
Cyrus Shove
be modern & conformed as near as the house will admit to the style adopted in finishing the same parts of a Meeting House in the Town of Warren erected by Jennings". And the South Britain committee was instructed to build a steeple "like Derby Steeple except that it is to be inclosed like that in Warren instead of standing on pillars".
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