USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The churches of Mattatuck : a record of bi-centennial celebration at Waterbury, Connecticut, Novermber 4th and 5th, 1891 > Part 13
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" expressed a wish that he would still serve, as far as he should be able."
No sooner was Mr. Southmayd relieved from his duties as pastor than other obligations were almost forced upon him. He had the care of letting out the school money, and taking security, by mort- gage; he kept the notes and "bonds of interest" that the ministry land was sold for, and was to deliver the just proportion to the several societies' committees, and he was appointed town treasurer. The number of bargains still in existence, written by Mr. Southmayd, and the indentures, with their peculiar and rhythmic phraseology, prepared by him, attest the confidence placed in him by all sorts and conditions of men. The General Assem- bly placed his name on committees requiring firmness and discretion united with good judg- ment. During all these useful years Mr. South- mayd seems to have carried on his landed estate with good husbandry, and it was constantly grow- ing around him. He could stand in his door at one time, and, looking southward, say that he owned all the land lying between that door and the Naugatuck river. A goodly inheritance it would be to a descendant of his in 1891.
The attitude of Mr. Southmayd toward the Church of England, in its earliest manifestations in our town, is worthy of note. Not a hostile thought appears to have been evoked in his breast, when certain men "with Church of England pro- clivities" voted against the payment of a one hun- dred pound obligation held by Mr. Southmayd against the town. He gave his consent as guardian to Oliver Welton, a minor, who desired to
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convey a house lot adjoining Mr. Southmayd to " the professors of the Church of England as a glebe lot, for the use of the church forever." We may believe that his voice was heard and his influence felt in the town meeting of 1742, when liberty was given to Dr. Benjamin Warner and others, “ to set up a church on the highway, north of Edmund Scott's house lot, against the apple tree in said lot, by the highway," and in the meeting when the town agreed to "give twelve pounds old tenor bills out of the town treasury, to purchase land for the church to be placed upon, that the highway be not cumbered," and also in the meeting when the town voted that it would not oppose a petition of the "churchmen " to the General Assembly for parish privileges.
During the first half of the eighteenth century Mr. Southmayd's name must have been honored in all the region. It certainly did very much in many ways for Waterbury township, and up to the present time it seems, at least to the writer, not to be too much to say of him, that no man who has ever lived within the original bounds of the town has done as much for Waterbury as did John South- mayd. It is true that he had more than a half century to do his work in; and it was at a time when all things were in a formative stage, and in a period when the minister was to his people a law- giver. It was during his ministry, and in attend- ance upon his preaching, that the great Samuel Hopkins grew up; who was able to say that "he never had heard a profane word in Waterbury." Was that an unconscious tribute to John South- mayd ?
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We go back once more to the town books; and there we find inscribed certain family records, in Mr. Southmayd's hand, that tell, each and every one in its own words and way, how sorrows entered his soul. The first bears date August 13th, 1741, and records the death of Susanna Southmayd, wife of Thomas Bronson. This is the daughter who was born when the house was fortified in 1704. Next, we find, " John Southmayd, son of John Southmayd, died February 28th, 1742-43, about twelve of the clock, in the thirty-third year of his age." And then we come to this: "Anna Southmayd, wife of Joseph Bronson, died August 11th, 1749, in the forty-third year of her age." In less than two years, his hand had written on the page, " Susanna Southmayd, wife of Mr. John Southmayd, died Feb- ruary 8th, between ten and eleven of the clock at night, 1751-2." But not yet had the final stroke fallen. His son Daniel was yet alive. Two years later we find written, " Daniel Southmayd, son of John Southmayd, died about eleven o'clock at night, January 12th, 1754." And thus John Southmayd, of whom we have said too little because we feared to say too much, was left in his last years alone. (His only daughter was living at Middletown.) But not for long. Once again we glance at the old record. Thereon we find: "Mr. John Southmayd, died November 14th, 1755, in the eightieth year of his age."
Earth's highest station ends in " Here he lies,"
And " Dust to dust " concludes her noblest song .*
*Alas ! we may not add: "And where his pilgrim feet have trod,
The God he trusted guards his grave."-S. J. P.
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MARK LEAVENWORTH.
MARK LEAVENWORTH.
BY THE HON. FREDERICK J. KINGSBURY .*
The Rev. Mark Leavenworth, the third minister settled over this church, was the sixth son, as well as the sixth child, of Dr. (and Deacon) Thomas Leavenworth of Stratford, Conn., where he was born in 171I. His mother's name was Mary Jen- kins. When he was six or seven years old his father moved to Ripton parish, quite at the north end of the town (and now the town of Hunting- ton), and there spent the remainder of his life. His house was near the Housatonic river and about two miles northward from the new village of Shel- ton. Mark was probably fitted for college by the Rev. Jedediah Mills of Ripton, as he was a teacher of great reputation at that time. He was graduated at Yale College in the class of 1737, under the presi- dency of the Rev. Elisha Williams. The year that he entered college, namely 1733, the Rev. George Berkeley, dean of Derry, and afterwards bishop of Cloyne in Ireland, who had come to this country with the idea of founding an institution of learn- ing, but afterward abandoned the plan, had pre- sented to the college a valuable farm near Newport on the island of Rhode Island, the income of which should be used for the benefit of three resident graduates who should pass the best examinations in Latin and Greek. This income they were to enjoy for three years, if they remained so long at
* Mr. Kingsbury, who is a lineal descendant of Mr. Leavenworth and of his two predecessors, is a member of St. John's church.
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the college. They were known, and are still known, on the college books as "scholars of the house." One of these valuable scholarships young Leavenworth obtained, and remained in New Haven two years, pursuing a theological course. He was licensed to preach by the New Haven East association of ministers, October 10th, 1738. In June, 1739, after preaching a few Sundays on trial, here in Waterbury, he was unanimously invited to succeed the Rev. John Southmayd, who had resigned his charge on account of enfeebled health. Mr. Southmayd had been the minister here for nearly or quite forty years. He was a strong man in character and intellect, a man of wealth, and a man of great influence in the community. His change of occupation seems to have been ben- eficial to his health, for he lived seventeen years after this, acting as magistrate and filling various offices of public trust, and doubtless remaining by far the most influential member of Mr. Leaven- worth's congregation. It has always seemed to me that the relation of these two men to each other during this period was the highest possible evi- dence of the superior character of both. It speaks of broadness, of judicial fair-mindedness, of great natural amiability, and of much Christian charity. The relations between a new pastor and an old one who remains a member of the congregation are proverbially difficult and very apt to become strained; nor is this wholly the fault of the men themselves, but it is largely referable to that instinct of humanity in the members of the con- gregation which leads so readily to the formation of parties, cliques and schools. Mr. Southmayd
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and Mr. Leavenworth did not always think alike; they differed and differed widely on matters that were regarded then as of the highest importance. But they never lost their mutual respect and affec- tion, and-as a final evidence of confidence and esteem-after seventeen years of intimate acquaint- ance Mr. Southmayd made Mr. Leavenworth the executor of his will.
In February, 1740, a month before the time for his ordination, perhaps in order that he might be fully equipped for his work, Mr. Leavenworth was married to Miss Ruth Peck, daughter of Deacon Jeremiah Peck of Northbury parish, now Plym- outh, and granddaughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Peck, the first minister of this church. The people of Northbury had been very insistent in their demand for what they then called "winter privi- leges," and although at this time I think they had gained their point, perhaps to some of them the young Waterbury minister was a "winter privi- lege " by no means to be despised.
A great-great-granddaugter of Mr. Leavenworth, living on the ground where he lived, and perhaps partly in the same house (for a portion of it is said still to exist), has discovered among his papers a poem addressed to the bride and groom on the occasion of their marriage. It bears the signature of " J. G.," which are doubtless the initials of the Rev. John Graham of Southbury. The penman- ship is bold and elegant, and the writing, although more than one hundred and fifty years old, is clear and distinct. The composing and sending of such a poem on such an occasion is a pleasant indication of the amenities and aesthetic susceptibilities of a
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time that is apt to seem to us cold, hard and un- joyous. Doubtless it was written in haste and sent as a pleasant, friendly greeting, without thought of critical eyes, but the glimpse it gives us of a life of culture and refinement and of an interchange of courtesies, makes it an object of interest far beyond its intrinsic merit. This is the poem :
TO MR. M. LEAVENWORTH AND MADAM RUTH PECK HIS BRIDE. Hail, happy pair, long may you prove The Joys of chaste connubial Love. To Heaven and to each other true Be Eden's joys revived in you. In honorable wedlock dwell, Like our first parents ere they fell. No fretful strife or anxious care Or pining jealousy be there. May a fair progeny presage Comfort to your declining age, And when you late to Heaven remove There flourish in immortal love .- J. G.
Having referred to Mr. Leavenworth's residence, I may as well say now that it was the place next east of the church, and that this church building stands in part at least upon what was his home- stead. But the church in which he preached-I beg his pardon, the "meeting house," for, although he was a liberal-minded man even towards dissen- ters, I don't think he would ever have permitted the building to be called a church-the meeting house, then, in which he preached, stood at the east end of the green on the ground now occupied in part by the Welton drinking fountain.
In March, 1740, he was duly ordained, with a five hundred pound settlement and a one hundred and fifty pound salary. But the woeful tergiversation of Cutler and Johnson had produced a wholesome
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distrust in men's minds, and he was required to give a bond for five hundred pounds to be paid to the society "if he should, within twenty years from that time, become a churchman, or by immorality or heresy render himself unfit for a gospel minis- ter,-to be decided by a council." Undoubtedly the becoming a churchman was the thing to be specially provided against, the other general forms of misdemeanor being mainly added by way of rhetorical balance. In about nine years, however, whether they had ceased to care, or ceased to fear, the society, apparently of their own motion, released him from his bond.
Mr. Leavenworth had hardly become fairly set- tled in his ministry when all his tact, judgment and influence were put to the test. Dr. Bushnell says that our early settlers came into the wilder- ness to be tempted of the devil. And in the matter of resistance they were not altogether successful. There had been a great deterioration in morals, and doubtless some lapses in religious doctrine; but when, in 1740, the Rev. George Whitefield went through the country speaking, in words such as few men have the power to utter, of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come, all New Eng- land trembled, and the cry rose up, "What shall we do to be saved?" Young men like Mr. Leaven- worth, with high hopes and earnest enthusiasm, threw themselves into the movement, fully believ- ing that it was the Lord's doing; while the older and more conservative people of longer experience, of whom Mr. Southmayd was a representative, saw in it but a temporary wave of excitement, already accompanied by some excesses, and doubted much whereunto the thing would grow. Cries of heresy
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were in the air, the odium theologicum was aroused, and in 1744 Mr. Leavenworth and two others, for assisting at the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Lee of Salisbury, who was supposed to be in sympathy with the new movement, and whose church was gathered under the Cambridge platform, were tried and suspended from all associational communion. It does not appear, however, that the relations of Mr. Leavenworth to his people were very seriously affected. And here again I suspect we see the broad, kindly and judicious nature of Mr. South- mayd, who, though not in sympathy with the new movement, perhaps saw some good in it, and at least knew how to make allowances for youthful enthusiasm.
Mr. Leavenworth was evidently a man of broad charity himself, and of a liberal and catholic spirit, for in 1747 he declined that part of his salary which was raised by tax on the Episcopal portion of the inhabitants, although I suppose his legal right to it was clear; but his sense of justice rebelled, and he seems always to have had the courage of his con- victions.
In 1749, a great and fatal sickness appeared in the town. Dr. Bronson estimates the deaths at six per cent. of the whole population. There were hardly enough of the well to care for the sick and bury the dead. There was difficulty in getting medicine, and Mr. Leavenworth volunteered to go on horseback to Norwich and procure a supply.
In 1750, after several years of enfeebled health, the first Mrs. Leavenworth died, and not very long after, he married Sarah, daughter of Captain Joseph Hull of Derby. She was a person of much charac- ter, dignity and influence. She was the mother of
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all his children except one. She survived him several years, dying, as you will have seen by her tombstone, in 1808. She was universally known as Madam Leavenworth, a title which was perhaps due to her position by the etiquette of the time, but was due to her personality also, and perhaps in part to her two wheeled chair or chaise-the only vehicle of the kind in town.
In 1754, Daniel Southmayd died. He was the pride of Waterbury. A son of the Rev. John, a graduate of Yale college, a young man of only thirty-seven years of age-he had filled almost every position of honor, trust and profit in the gift of his fellow townsmen. His death after a brief illness was a cause of public mourning. Mr. Leav- enworth improved the occasion by a sermon of such power that the whole congregation were "dissolved in tears." The sermon was printed and is still extant; but the excitement, the personal element and the sense of loss can not be reproduced; like many another traditionary burst of eloquence, its power can only be estimated from our knowledge of its effect.
In 1760, when about fifty years old, he accepted the position of chaplain in Colonel Whiting's regi- ment, called into service to repel the attacks of French and Indians on our northern frontier. He was away from home on this service eight months. Hollister says :* "The amount of fatigue endured by the Connecticut troops was almost incredible." Putnam was there as lieutenant-colonel, and where- ever he went there was very apt to be fighting and sure to be work. Mr. Leavenworth was appointed
* History of Connecticut, Vol. II., p. 97.
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chaplain again, the following year, but probably felt that he was needed at home.
In 1772, he received that highest compliment to a Connecticut clergyman of the time, the appoint- ment to preach the election sermon. That also still exists, in printed form, and doubtless compares fairly, if not favorably, with the rest of the collec- tion. I believe there has generally been but one edition called for.
When the Revolutionary conflict came on, there was no doubt where Mr. Leavenworth would be found. He threw himself into it with all the enthusiasm and energy of his nature. He prayed, doubtless "straight from the shoulder," when it became his duty to open the first town meeting on the subject with prayer. He was early on the state committee for raising troops. Were it not that he was now well on in years, he would probably have been found again at the front. Three of his sons did go,-one with Arnold on his first trip to Bos- ton, another serving as surgeon during the whole eight long, tedious years. All three were graduates of Yale. But this part of Mr. Leavenworth's life, so important to him, to his people and to his coun- try, must be dismissed with few words.
In 1793, at the age of eighty-two, when the incon- sistency of freedom and slavery began to impress itself on the public mind, we find his name on the list of the new "Society for the Promotion of Free- dom,"-a fact showing again his ready sympathy with new ideas whenever their tendency was to the uplifting of humanity, and his promptness to act in the line of his convictions.
The last prominent public act of his life was when in 1795, at the age of eighty-four, he laid the
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corner stone of a new meeting house for his people, the third erected by the old society. This stone, which was at the north-west corner, bore upon its west side in conspicuous letters, his initials, M. L., and the date, 1795. When the meeting house was removed, in 1835, to the site now occupied by the Second Congregational church, the stone was pre- served and placed in the south-west corner. When the building was again moved, to the rear, the stone disappeared. There is a brown stone in the foundation of the Second church on the south side, not far back, which is perhaps the missing one; and when the Second society builds its new church, and the present edifice is removed, I hope the stone may be found and presented to this society to be preserved with its relics.
Mr. Leavenworth is described to us as a man of medium size, erect figure and quick movement. He had much dignity of manner, but a quick sense of humor and was on terms of familiarity with his people, though the distance which in those days existed between the minister and his flock was doubtless duly maintained. Dr. Bronson has pre- served several anecdotes illustrating these traits in his character, but I must not stop to repeat them here .*
On August 26th, 1797, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and the fifty-eighth of his ministry, he closed his long career, having publicly officiated only a short time before his death.
The life of a New England country minister, however busy, useful and influential it may be, leaves behind but a meagre record for historic uses, and it is only by detached facts accidentally pre-
* Bronson's History of Waterbury, pp. 289-290.
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served, that we are able to reproduce, to any degree, the times in which he lived and his influ- ence upon them. We have enough to show that Mr. Leavenworth was a man of affairs, that he took an active interest in everything relating to the public welfare. That he was a good business manager appears from the fact that he lived in a hospitable and somewhat elegant manner, and sent three of his sons to college. He also became a large landholder, in the days when land was the principal source of wealth. That he was always right, or always wise, or even always good, we know too much of human nature to believe or even to imagine; but, whatever his shortcomings may have been, their proportion was so small that time and the mantle of charity have hidden them from us.
The two published sermons which have come down to us, both prepared for special occasions, and well received at the time, though good, can hardly be called great. A much more vivid notion of his pulpit power is given us in the recollection of the late Dr. Samuel Elton, who remembered the impression made upon him as a boy, when Mr. Leavenworth, then certainly not less than eighty years of age, preached in Watertown. He remem- bered him as a man of medium height, of erect figure, bright, dark eyes, and a commanding voice. He stood for a moment in the pulpit, looking around upon his congregation, and then announced his text: " The fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, do they live forever ?" His theme was, the changes that had taken place in that congrega- tion within his own memory, and the impression
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he produced upon his youthful hearer remained vivid and profound after seventy years.
It is said that he was a favorite teacher, and attracted here many young men. They must have been advanced students, as I know of no evidence of his having had anything like a school .* But we can easily see that in his superior scholarship, his prompt and decided ways, his sense of humor, his breezy companionship, and his ready sympathy with all that was truest and best, he possessed those rarest gifts which make one a teacher of young men.
The long period of Mr. Leavenworth's ministry was one of upheaval and excitement. First came the "great awakening," and soon afterward the seven years' struggle of the French and Indian war; and this had hardly closed when the conflict began with the British government, which ended in the war of the Revolution, when neighbor was set against neighbor and friend against friend. A large part of the Episcopal society, which had now grown to be quite strong, sided with the mother country, and the town was almost equally divided in opinion. But there were sensible men in both societies; the division was not wholly on religious lines, and Mr. Scovil, the Episcopal clergyman, was an own cousin of the first Mrs. Leavenworth-a fact which perhaps had an ameliorating influence extending beyond their own families. There was
* General Elias W. Leavenworth (in the " Leavenworth Genealogy," p. 54 ) says: "Joshua Perry graduated at Yale in the class of 1775; studied theology with his uncle Mark Leavenworth, of Waterbury, who often had a large number of young men with him preparing for the ministry Dr. Brace informs me that sometimes there were fifteen or twenty." The Dr. Brace referred to is David Brace of Syra- cuse, N. Y., a grandson of the Rev. Joshua Perry, and a townsman of General Leavenworth.
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dissension, friction, and doubtless much hard talk- ing, but on the whole, things went quite as peace- fully as could have been expected. After the Revo- lution came the perhaps still more trying period of almost anarchy, so that nothing was settled or sure until after the adoption of the constitution and the inauguration of Washington as first presi- dent, in 1789.
What a half century for a man to have lived through! and what an experience-to have carried the burden of responsibility for the religious, moral, social, secular and political welfare and training of two or three generations, in such a time of turmoil and unrest! Doubtless such periods develop men of courage and of action. They are not favorable to the growth of churches. A cynic might perhaps say that the times which develop the best men make the poorest Christians. It would not be true, but it would be one of those rather mean half- truths which are more perplexing than pleasant. To have successfully carried a church and a town through such a period and maintained the love and respect of the people implies a character and an ability well worthy of our admiration and our praise.
An obituary notice of Mr. Leavenworth, pub- lished at the time of his death, closes with these apparently just and well considered words:
To the endearing qualities of a kind and affectionate hus- band and parent were very apparently united in this reverend father that piety towards God, that diffusive benevolence toward men, that undisguised frankness and dignity of deport- ment, that persevering faithfulness in office, that unshaken trust in the merits of the Saviour, that heavenly-mindedness and calm converse with death, which abundantly evidenced to all his acquaintance the child of God and the heir of heaven.
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THE REV. DR. ELLIOT'S ADDRESS.
ADDRESS BY THE REV. H. B. ELLIOT, D. D.
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