USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Litchfield > The bi-centennial celebration of the settlement of Litchfield, Connecticut, August 1-4, 1920 > Part 3
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I remember that once I saw an old apple tree from which a great limb had been torn by a sudden storm. Upon this limb which lay outside the orchard and along the road was half-formed fruit, and I grieved at what seemed to be the loss and waste of it. But when the autumn came I found that this fruit on this torn limb had come to fullness and ripeness
equally with the fruit on the boughs of the parent trunk.
I
learned then that when that limb was torn away, enough of the life and sap of the tree were torn away with it to bring to fruitage the fruit that was already half-formed. But when the next spring time came, on the boughs of the parent tree there were springing leaves and bursting buds and the promise of harvest again. On the torn limb there was no springing leaf and no sign of bud or blossom and no promise of any harvest or fruitage.
Men and women separated from the Church, whole gener- ations separated from the Church, may carry away with them
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sufficient of the Christian principle, of the Christian message, of the Christian ideal to bring to fruitage in their lives many Christian graces. But this is not to say that without the Christian institution of religion ministering in the life of man, you can bring to fruitage, generation after generation, the 'Christian virtues of love and joy and peace, either in the individual life or in the social relationships of men.
Let us therefore affirm the mission of the Meeting House to bear witness to the spiritual elements of life and their val- ues, to exercise life in the practice of communion with God and to train life that it may conform to the precepts of the Kingdom of God and may achieve the ideals of the Kingdom of God.
As the Meeting House in Litchfield has served these pur- poses through the noble generations that are gone, so may the Meeting House here serve the generation that now rejoices in this goodly heritage from the past, and those other generations yet unborn that will surely need like ministry from the God of the fathers, who will keep His covenant with their children.
1
Note: While the associations in Mr. John Davies' mind with the name of St. Michael may never be determined, it is worthy of notice that a recent English author writes of another "St. Michael's Church, situated, as all St. Michael's Churches are, upon a height". Might not Litchfield's elevated situation have thus suggested the name?
THE FIRST EPISCOPAL SOCIETY OF LITCHFIELD. Address by Admiral G. P. Colvocoresses, U. S. N. (retired). St. Michael's Church, August 1, 1920.
Two weeks ago our Rector placed in my hands an old manuscript volume of Records with the request that I would give on this occasion a sketch of the First Episcopal Society during the one hundred and seventy five years of its existence in this town. These old Records contain memoranda and annotations copied from Mss. of Rectors and clerks of the Parish and collated by the Rev. Isaac Jones. A compendium of these early notes also appears in the handwriting of Dr. Algernon Lewis, long-time Clerk of the Parish, which he states was mainly based on the papers of the Hon. Seth Pres- ton Beers, a prominent layman of St. Michael's for half a century. This abridgment ends in 1864, from which time it has been continued by succeeding Rectors.
The traditional and historical annals of Litchfield have been so ably presented in the recently published "Ilistory of Litchfield" that there remains but little to be gleaned from other sources and this sketch must appear largely as a work of supererogation.
The history of the First Episcopal Society may be chrono- logically divided into four periods: First, From the meeting of the little company of Church of England followers in 1745 to the building of the first church in 1749.
Second: From 1749 to the erection of the church in the village in 1812.
Third: From 1812 to 1851, when the present St. Michael's was built.
Fourth: From 1851 to the beginning of the memorial church.
First Period.
Our interest centers primarily on the beginnings of the Society among a community of Presbyterians inhabiting the western hills of Connecticut. Its foundation was due, under
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God, to the zeal of that stanch churchman, John Davies, who came from the Parish of Kington, Herefordshire, England, in the year 1735 and purchased a tract of land, then called Birch Plain, within the bounds of Litchfield, but subsequently a part of Washington. It is known to this day as "Davies' Hollow".
Davies was the only churchman in this region for several years until joined by Samuel Cole and a number of families from Northbury, now Plymouth, recent conformers to the Church of England. Mr. Cole was a man of education and was later appointed a teacher by the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. In the mean- time the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, afterwards President of King's College (now Columbia) was invited to preach and lecture, and he performed the first service of the English ritual in this town.
From the statement of Daniel Landon, the first clerk of the Society, we learn that the little band of church people met for worship in the house of Capt. Jacob Griswold in the western part of the town. A record of their first meeting was preserved on a blank leaf in the prayer book of Mrs. Deborah Plumb, the first person baptized by Episcopal rites in Litchfield. Therein are given the names of thirteen heads of families who assembled on November 5th, 1745. These members of the First Episcopal Society were mostly seceders from the Congregational church; they were excused from pay- ing taxes to that church by vote of their townsmen in 1746.
The Rev. Truman Marsh gives in a note the reason for this defection, which he attributes to the preaching of the Rev. Mr. Whitfield, whose "new divinity and new measures produced great excitement and led to investigations of the truth by which many were persuaded that peace, order and Christian Charity were alone to be found in the Episcopal Communion". Another reason is ascribed to the unpopularity of the first Congregational clergyman in Litchfield.
Second Period
The next step warmly advocated by Mr. Davies was the building of a church, and after considerable discussion, it was decided to erect it a mile west of the town, on the road to Milton near the little brook that was then called "Hatter's
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Run". The site was about opposite the present residence of Mr. Hunt. Mr. Davies gave fifty-two acres of land for this purpose and fifty acres more were given by the Society. Mr. Davies' deed ran for 998 years and stipulated that the con- sideration was to be one pepper-corn, paid annually, if demanded, on St. Michael's day; this no doubt suggested the name of the Parish. The frame was raised on April 23, 1749, covered in and partially finished; it remained in this condition for twenty years. The first service was performed by the Rev. Mr. Mansfield.
Mr. Davies lived to a good old age and was buried in the West Cemetery; it is to be regretted that no stone marks his grave. His grandson, the Rev. Thomas Davies, was ordained a priest in England, appointed a missionary to Litchfield and succeeded the first Rector of this Parish, but died at the early age of thirty years. John Davies, Jr., came with his family from England at the time the church was built and settled in Davies' Hollow. It was his wife, who in writing to friends in England, described herself as "entirely alone, having no society, and with nothing to associate with but Presbyterians and wolves".
Those who read that vivid description of the life of the early settlers given by Horace Bushnell in the "Age of ITome- spun", may in some measure realize the hard conditions of frontier life and comprehend that the Episcopal Church was distinctly an exotic in the forbidding atmosphere of New Eng- land. Two hundred years ago the life in the colonies centered in the churches and religious societies. Men brought their religion with them in the westward march of empire as they did their families and household goods.
The only encouragement received by Church of England settlers was from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which up to the time of the Revolution gen- erously aided the struggling missions. It is difficult for us now to fully appreciate the debt of gratitude that we owe to the brave and devoted founders of the First Episcopal Society. Among them two names will always stand pre-eminent,-John Davies, benefactor, and Daniel Landon, the first clerk of the Parish and holder of that office for forty years. The latter is described as a man of sound intellect and extensive reading.
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He was buried in the West cemetery and his stone bore the following quaint inscription composed by himself :
"Lo! here I leave this earthly clay And fly beyond the etherial blue, Unchained into eternal day To sing the praise of God anew".
The first. Rector of the Society was the Rev. Solomon Palmer. He had been Congregational pastor in Cornwall for six years, when one Sabbath morning, to the surprise and sorrow of his congregation, he announced his conformity to the Episcopal church. Ordained in England he was appointed missionary for Great Barrington, Litchfield and Cornwall with an annual stipend of £60-"old tenor currency"-in value one- fourth the present £, and the glebe.
To give consecutively the many worthy Rectors who min- istered to the Society is beyond the scope of this sketch, and only the most notable occurrences during their incumbencies can be mentioned.
After Mr. Palmer's death, Mr. Benjamin Farnham, a pious and talented candidate for Orders, officiated in the Society. In the meantime the Rev. Mr. Moseley was sent from England to fill the mission. The congregation refused to receive him and he returned to London. As a consequence of this insub- ordination the funds were suspended for a brief time. Later they were restored at the reduced sum of £20, and the use of the glebe. The above incident throws a light on the causes for dissatisfaction preceding the Revolution which was soon to be so painfully felt by the parishioners of St. Michael's. The Rev. Truman Marsh records their hardships and perse- cutions. He states that he "had been ridiculed and persecuted in going to and from the church on the Lord's day". The win- dows of the church were broken and wooden shutters were substituted for them. When General Washington passed through Litchfield some of his troopers threw stones at the church and the General rebuked them in the following words: "I am a churchman and wish not to see the church dishonored and desecrated in this manner". It may be recalled that on another occasion associated with the history of this town, the
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General showed his high sense of law and order: When the statue of George III was pulled down in the Bowling Green in New York, he characterized it as the work of a lawless mob. He did not condemn the act but the fact that it was not decently done by authority.
During the Revolution the devoted Mr. Landon and others met every Sabbath and read prayers and a sermon. At the close of the war the Rector, Rev. James Nichols, by his efforts did much to remove prejudice and promote good will.
Whatever were the bitternesses excited between Whig and Tory, and the differences among Churchmen and Presbyterians, much allowance should be made for the animosities engendered by a fratricidal war. There appears to have been but little persecution in Litchfield compared with conditions in some of the colonies at that time. And it should be remembered that Presbyterians here tolerantly sold church lands to Epis- copalians, and magnanimously remitted the taxes of their seceding members.
On October 26, 1784, the Society was legally incorporated by Act of the General Assembly of Connecticut.
The Rev. Ashbel Baldwin in the following year was installed Rector. He was a native of Litchfield and had the distinction of receiving the first Episcopal ordination in this country from the hands of Bishop Seabury.
During the Rectorship of the Rev. David Butler a number of the members of the Society in Bradleyville, now part of Bantam, seceded and built St. Paul's church, 1797, but later returned to St. Michael's.
In 1799 the Rev. Truman Marsh assumed charge of the Society, at that time also comprising the associated Parishes of New Milford, New Preston and Roxbury.
Third Period
In 1802, Trinity Church, Milton was commenced but not completed for several years. During a period of high political excitement in Litchfield some fifty persons joined the Episcopal Society owing to their differences with the Congregational minister.
A meeting of parishioners was held at the residence of the Hon. Seth P. Beers in this town in 1811 to consider the
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building of a church "on the hill". The land on which St. Michael's now stands was deeded by Samuel Marsh, Esq., and a subscription of $1,600 was raised. The West, or first church, was taken down and some of its timbers used in the new edifice. The Rev. Isaac Jones officiated as the first Rector of the new church: December, 1812. The sermon preached by him on the hundredth anniversary of the formation of the Society, with its appendix, is a most valuable contribution to the history of the Parish. Consecration was performed by Bishop Brownell in 1824.
Fourth Period
The first church on the hill was used but a quarter of a century when it became evident that the needs of the Parish required a larger building. The corner stone was laid of the present St. Michael's, July 15, 1851; the former structure was taken down and the Court House used as a temporary place of worship. The total cost of this third church, including fur- nishings, was $7,241.31. The Rev. Jno. J. Brandegee was the first Rector.
In 1857 the Parish received from the widow of the Rev. Truman Marsh the gift of the Rectory; also a donation of $1,000 from Mr. Hosea Webster for a permanent fund. Since that time many benefactions of stained glass windows, chancel furnishings, a fine organ and various adornments have con- tributed to the beauty of the edifice and dignity of the worship, endearing it to our hearts with loving and sacred memories.
On Sunday, October 26, 1884, was observed the one hun- dredth anniversary of the organization of the Parish and a notable sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. L. P. Bissell, the Rector, that was printed by resolution of the Vestry. Ten years later the spire of St. Michael's was blown down by a high east wind; it remained in its truncated form, thus justi- fying the architectural views of the late Bishop Williams of blessed memory, who exclaimed when he heard of the catastro- phe-"Towers for the hills and steeples for the plains!"
November 5, 1895, was commemorated as the 150th anni- versary of the first meeting of the founders of the Episcopal Society in Litchfield. The lessons were read by Thomas Davies, Jr., at that time a theological student, and son of the
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Bishop of Michigan, lineal descendant of John Davies, the founder.
The Rectorship of our Parish was held for twenty-eight years, with but one interval, by the Rev. Dr. S. O. Seymour. When his eightieth birthday was reached he assigned the charge and was appointed Rector Emeritus. On September 8, 1918, he passed peacefully to his final reward, deeply mourned by his congregation, his townsmen and the clergy of the state and country with whom he had so long been associated.
Among the good works of our. Parish, accomplished by willing hands and pious hearts, that of St. Michael's Guild should not be forgotten. For many years it was superin- tended with great zeal and efficiency by the late Mrs. Cornelia B. Hinsdale and added greatly to the support of the church and rectory. In the late World War the Parish of St. Michael's was efficiently employed in patriotic and charitable activities. Twenty-four men and five women entered public service in various capacities.
In 1912 the Bronson house and lot were purchased for the Society, largely through the initiative of the late Dr. S. O. Seymour. The removal of this dwelling in 1918 and the acqui- sition of other minor additions to the close have given a suit- able site for the handsome memorial that is now being erected. This ends the fourth period.
Under happy auspices a new era has begun for St. Michael's; may we not hope and believe, in the words of good Bishop Berkeley :
"The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last".
X
STATE DAY : LUNCHEON IN WEST PARK
METHODISM IN LITCHFIELD.
Address by Miss Esther H. Thompson. Methodist Church, August 1, 1920.
Members and Friends of Litchfield Methodist Episcopal Church : ,
When it was proposed that a paper concerning the forma- tive period of Litchfield Methodism, should be written for the Bi-Centennial Sunday the question arose, what items from our Litchfield note-book would be of most interest to the church of today ?
"As we mused the fire burned".
The early years of the Society chronicle customs, speech and hymns so radically different from those of the present time that it will be difficult for the younger people to under- stand.
"In memory of our friends above
Who have obtained the prize",
we offer this sketch knowing that they would now sing :-
"One army of the living God, To His command we bow, Part of His host have crossed the flood, And part are crossing now".
The establishment of Methodism upon "Litchfield Hill" is vague, and can be fully traced by neither time nor place. Like Melchisedec of old it was "without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life". For years it was literally "The church that is in their house". The spirit of Methodism was abroad and brooded here and there. Where there was an adherent of more than ordinary strength-there, at his or her house-would be an opening for occasional prayer meetings, held in the kitchen, barn or under nearby trees, to which sympathizers for miles around would come. At rare intervals an "Exhorter" or
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"Itinerant preacher" from the nearer "circuits" would find his way hither and hold a service. Even when a foothold for the denomination was gained churches were first built in Milton and Gooseborough and not till many years later in Litchfield Village.
A few dates only stand out against the dim past by which the origin and growth of the denomination is traced. The new "White's History of Litchfield", to which we refer you for further details, quoting from early chronicles fully states all that is known of what are supposed to have been the first Methodist sermons preached in town-those of the Rev. Freeborn Garretson, Superintendent of Northern District, and his colored servant Harry, in the first St. Michael's Epis- copal Church one mile west of town, and in "The Old Church on the Green", on Wednesday, June 23rd, 1790, when on their horseback journey from Hudson River to Boston; and again, July 13th, 1790, on their return. It is quite possible that earlier sermons may have been preached in private houses in this town as "Litchfield Circuit", comprising the northwest section of Connecticut, was organized in June, 1790: and at the spring "Conference" held in New York in May, 1791, the first "Circuit Riders" were appointed to take charge -Mathew Swain and James Covel.
July 21st, 1791, Bishop Asbury-"The Prophet of the Long Road", as he has been called, because of his extensive "Itin- erant" journeys, preached in St. Michael's.
These dates, coupled with that of the death of Rev. John Wesley in London, March 2nd, 1791, are most interesting. The Methodist Meetinghouse in Litchfield was not built until 1837 -nearly fifty years later, and the first Methodist Society in New England was formed by Rev. Jesse Lee in Stratfield, Con- necticut, Sept. 26th, 1789, less than a year before "Litchfield Circuit" was organized! Nor was it a mark of special liber- ality of sentiment that St. Michael's opened her doors to Gar- retson and Asbury, for, until after Wesley's death, the Metho- dists were considered classes or missions of the Church of England. John Wesley had not wished to break from the established church. Until quite a recent date, even within my memory, church organizations were usually called Societies, and their places of worship were simple meeting houses or chapels.
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The first great break occurred when John Wesley, after repeatedly urging that some of his preachers should be conse- crated Bishops so they could come to this country prepared to ordain other ministers authorized to perform marriage cere- monies, administer the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, etc., among the American Societies which were then in a most chaotic state for lack of Episcopal leadership; he shocked his brother Charles and others by a most audacious deed ! Privately, in his own room, Sept. 20th, 1780, he "set apart" Dr. Thomas Coke to the office of "Superintendent of the Societies of America"-virtually ordained him Bishop! Coke returned to this country and performed the same office on Francis Asbury. For this irregular act-ignoring "Apostolic Succession"-Wesley has been severely criticized. It was specially bold and unexpected as during early life he was an ascetie-a most strong adherent of the high church class of the Church of England-and for years it was uncertain whether he would turn to Catholicism and become a monk or devote his life to mission work in his own church. The pendulum swung far!
In 1805 the names of twelve men were recorded on the Grand List of Litchfield, as Methodists. They were Noah Agard, Isaac Baldwin, Ebenezer Clark, Thos. F. Goss, Elisha Horton, (said to have been one of the "Boston Tea Party") Samuel Green, Jonathan Hitchcock, Roswell McNeill, Jona- than Rogers, Daniel Noyes, John Stone and Arthur Swan.
The descendants of several of these men are traced to other towns and churches but only one has left a family representa- tive of his name, in Litchfield church-little Lucy Baldwin, great-great-great grand-daughter of Isaac Baldwin 1st, of Mil- ton society. This list hints of the law concerning church rating. Until the ratification of the new Constitution of the State of Connecticut, Oct. 5th, 1818, Congregationalism was the established church and supported by the State, or com- pulsory "rates" which left all dissenters, Methodists and others, at great disadvantage. Unless specially, (and grudg- ingly) excused by the town, they must pay their church "rates" to the Calvinistic church which they did not attend, and shoulder a double burden by supporting their "Circuit Riders" from private gifts. Little money was in circulation any-
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where at that time, and the carly Methodists were usually from the poorest strata of society. No wonder that Wesley and others discouraged marriage among the "Itinerants", for how could a minister glean a support for a family!
If such laws regarding the union of Church and State now seem unfair and oppressive, we may not censure, for Cal- vinism had fled to this wilderness country to establish a home for her church-and religious toleration as now understood, could nowhere be found in any land at that time.
A staunch Methodist barber who lived in some town in the lower part of the State-the names and locality are now forgotten, dared to protest against such unjust taxation-his argument being that he should not be compelled to help sup- port a church which neither he nor his family ever attended, while his denomination received no public money! His peti- tion was refused and he was told that his non-attendance was no excuse. The church was open every Sunday and he was free to attend if he wished. He paid his dues, and soon after the Congregational minister was astonished at receiving a large bill for shaving and hairdressing. This he returned,
indignantly declaring that he owed no such amount. He had never employed the man, and he would not pay the bill. The barber coolly replied that the bill was all right. It made no difference whether the Parson had really been shaved by him or not-the shop was always open and he might have availed himself of its privileges had he so wished! That town recognized the significance of the argument and soon after abolished "church rates" from members of other denomina- tions!
While Congregational pastors were paid a fixed salary from the town treasury, Methodist ministers were never voted a salary, simply took what the church was able to collect- "The Lord's money"-and no obligation to do more was ack- nowledged by parson or people. The "deficiency" at close of Conference year was not considered a debt. The Bishop appointed a preacher to a circuit or charge. When he reached his new post the church called an official meeting and pro- ceeded to "make an estimate" as it was termed, what they thought they could raise -- one year only at a time-appropriat- ing separate amounts for the various needs of the society for
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