USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 35
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His death was followed by a season of trouble and disquietude. The people were divided in their wishes and opinions : some opposing the settlement of a minister, because they doubted if they could properly support one, while others desired a dissolution of the Society. During this period the Revs. Asahel Hathaway, Ebenezer Guild. and Oliver Noble, a former pastor of Coventry, Conn., were among the occasional supplies obtained at long intervals. In August, 1763, a meeting of the Society was called to invite a Mr. Collins to the pastorate. Three years later. September. 1766, a meeting was called to see if a man should be employed as a candidate. Three years later still, November, 1769, a Mr. Church of Springfield was paid 20x, for preaching.
Separatists, also, " attending on what they call laymen extraordina- rily qualified to preach," became a disturbing element in this parish, as elsewhere. Petitions to the Assembly to be annexed to Wintonbury par- ish, or to the Old Society ; applications to associations and councils, and committees, whose decisions always failed to give satisfaction to the in- flamed prejudices of the disputants, followed each other with ceaseless rapidity. but all to no purpose.
The only knowledge we have is the following doenment (for which we are indebted to Mr. Elibu Marshall of Poqnonock ). dated in 1771. fourteen years after Mr. Tudor's death :
" We the Subscribers members of re Second Society of Windsor Reflecting on the Melancholy state of sd Society in this Very great Partienlar viz our having for a Long time and still Continuing to be Destitute of a settled minister & some part of y' time without a preached Gospel among us and also Reflecting on ye great Improbability of ever being able to bring about ye settlement of a Gospel minister in ye Common & or- dinary way y ye Gospel is settled and supported in other Societys; and also being sensi- ble of yo Solemn obligations yt are upon us to support y. Gospel in a Regular and Hon- ourable way & manner in Tenderness to our own souls & those of our Children & friends & for ye promoting out ward good order among us have agreed to make one Effort more for the Quiet and peacable Settlement & Support of y Gospel, hereafter in sd Society, y' is to say ye Supporting a sound orthodox Dissenting Congregational or presbyterian Minister, & whereas it appears [ to be the most ] likely method to bring sd ye same quietly to maintain & support
(also being of oppincon yt Sixty Pounds Law[full money per ann ]um sallary a sufficient sum to sup]port & main tain a Gospel Minister among us) this is to Bind [ ourselves] to pay according to ye pro portion we Shall Hereunto with our names annex according to List with those y' here unto annex their names ye whole of our proportion according to our Lists. In consideration of what is above written we promise to pay our several proportions as Subscribed Hereunder to a Com" we shall appoint for ye use above said when & so long as a Gospel minister remains settled among us & to be by s4 Com" levied & Collected pr
286
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
annum for y' use abovesaid by a rate or Tax made on all ye members of sd Society & Collected in yr usual way & manner as Done heretofore.
"In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands this 14th day of January Ano Domini 1771.
" Isaac Pinney.
Ezekiel Clark.
Edward Barnard,
Joseph Alford,
Hez. Griswold,
Timothy Phelps, Jr.,
Geo. Griswold, Jr .. Simeon Moore, Reuben Denslow.
Elisha Phelps.
Isaac Griswold,
John Phelps, 4th.
John Phelps,
Francis Griswold,
Isaac Phelps,
Aaron Griswold.
John Griswold,
Samuel Holcomb,
Martin Holcomb,
Nath. Griswold,
Math'w Griswold,
Nathaniel Owen, Jr.,
Alex'r Griswold,
William Phelps,
Moses Griswold,
Edward Griswold, Jr.,
Phin's Griswold, Noah Griswold,
Abel Wright,
John Ross,
Thomas Griswold,
Joab Griswold.
Moses Griswold, Jr.,
Gro. Griswold.
Alven Owen."
It may be noted here, that comparing this list with that of half a century before, we find the new names of Wright, Ross, and Alford.
(From this point until the present time, we present the history of the Poquonock Church, as given, from authorities not attainable by us when we published the first edition of our history, in the Rev. N. G. Bonney's Centennial Sermon.)1
The result of this effort was that the following spring Mr. DAN FOSTER of Stafford was invited to become pastor of the Poquonock Church, and was ordained at the meeting-house then standing south of Mrs. Niles's present residence, June 12, 1771. His father, Rev. Isaac Foster, the pastor at Stafford, preached the sermon, which was published.
We have better means of informing ourselves concerning the third pastor of Poquonoek and his ministry than of either of the others. Men and women are living who, in other parishes, saw Mr. Foster and heard him preach. The church book kept by him has survived the ex- tinetion of his church.
The church numbered twenty-four on the day of Mr. Foster's ordina- tion, all of whom had either reached or passed middle life. It was substantially the church which Tudor left, diminished only by the death of some. The following were the twenty-four members of the Poquonock Church one hundred years ago :
I Centennial Sermon, commemorating the Settlement of Rer. Dan Foster, Last Pastor of the old Poqueneck Church, preached in Poquonock by Rev. N. G. Bonney, June 11, 1871.
Isaac Phelps, 311,
287
WINDSOR THIRD ( POQU'ONOCK ) SOCIETY.
Edward Griswold, Sr.
William Phelps, died Sept. 22, 1775.
DEA. John Phelps, died Sept. 1, 1777. Isaac Phelps.
DEA. Joseph Barnard.
James Phelps.
Edward Barnard.
Gideon Case, died 1800.
Matthew Griswold, died Jan. 19. 1776. Abigail Griswold.
Ruth Griswold. Zeruriah Griswold.
Hannah Barber. Mindwell Griswold.
To these names Mr. Foster adds eight others upon the first page of records : Samuel and Bathsheba Holcomb, William and Lucy Britain, Nathaniel and Mary Owen, Rebecca Walkley Foster (the pastor's wife), and Sarah Phelps, wife of Dea. John. The latter died Sept. 4, 1777.
Six others appear to have united with the church previously to its adoption in 1775 of the "half-way covenant." Their names were : James and Anna Rogers ( slaves of Lt. Noah Griswold ), Thomas Negro, Cato Rogers, Zacchens Leonard, and Hezekiah Griswoldl. The last was chosen deacon of the church after the death in 1777 of Dea. John Phelps. James Rogers died May 9, 1776.
At a meeting of the church, held Angust 20, 1775, it was
"Voted, 1st, that all baptized persons are members of the Christian Church, and subjects of the godly discipline, watch and care of the same: and that it is the inenm- bent duty of the church to treat them as such.
"2d. That this church does approve of, and cheerfully consent to what was rec- ommended concerning the discipline of the church, and of all baptized persons in par ticular by the General Association of the consociated churches, in the Colony of Connecticut, convened by delegation at the house of the Rev. Daniel Welch, in Mans field, June 21st, 1774, and that we chuse a Com" for the purpose mentioned by ye Gen- eral Association in their 4th article of advice."
October 27th of that year. a meeting was held which unanimously elected for their committee or ehlers for the purposes aforesaid, the deacons, John Phelps and Joseph Barnard, Capt. Hezekiah Griswold, and Mr. Nathaniel Owen, Jr.
After the adoption of this " half-way covenant," the following per- sons were admitted to full communion, namely :
May 26, 1776. June 16, .. March 1, 1575, .. . .
Martin and Hannah Pinney.
Thomas Griswold.
James and Susannah Wilson.
Isaac Phelps, 30, and Lydia his wife.
Abin (wife of Elihu) Mather.
August 30, 1778, April 4. 1779. 1 . . . ..
Sarah Barnard.
Mary and Medusa Holcomb, daughters of Lient. Martin.
Elihu and Mary Griswold.
.. 44 " 29. 1781, Rosannah Griffin. May 20, " wid. Elizabeth Phelps.
Mary Phelps. Anne Phelps. Jerusha Phelps. Sarah Griswokl. Ruth Palmer.
Jerusha Palmer. Mabel Barnard. Elizabeth Barnard.
Ruth Griswold.
Elizabeth Griswold
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
It thus appears, from the records, that twenty-nine united with the church during Mr. Foster's ministry, twenty-five by profession, four by letter. At least twelve of the twenty-four died at an advanced age dur- ing Mr. Foster's ministry.
Of those added to the church. at least two, Mrs. Foster and widow Elizabeth Phelps, died previously to his dismissal. Thomas Griswold. who married Rhoda Tudor, daughter of the former pastor, died in 1805. While her husband joined the church she appears not to have made a profession of religion. The last member of the church, Nathaniel Owen, died, according to the date upon his tombstone, in 1821, aged 90. Two of his grandsons, one a clergyman, the other a lawyer, were a few years since men of reputation in New York. The clergyman, John J. Owen, D.D., was the editor of several standard classical works, and of a com- mentary upon the New Testament. Hezekiah Owen, father of the divine, left Poquonock in 1792. soon after united with the Congregational church in Colebrook, Connecticut, and afterward removed to Kingsboro, N. Y. A son of the minister, of the fourth generation from Nathaniel Owen. is also a lawyer in New York city.
Rev. Dan Foster was dismissed from Poquonock Oct. 23, 1783. the last two or three years of his pastorate having been years of friction with his people.
It is important to know whether those thirty-six parishioners of Po- guonock succeeded in their attempt of 1771 : - whether they found in Mr. Foster " a sound orthodox Dissenting Congregational or Presbyte- rian Minister." There is no doubt that Mr. Foster, and his father, who preached the sermon at his ordination, both sustained the reputation of an orthodox minister. Mr. Foster not only came as an evangelical preacher, but he for several years zealously advocated evangelical doc- trines. The following sentences, copied from his own record, form the close of Mr. Foster's address to an excommunicated person. Feb. 15, 1778:
" Nevertheless, we shall not cease to pray for you, that God would have mercy on you, and prevent you in your course of folly and great wickedness, by his Holy Spirit and grace. Take heed, we admonish you, lest being thus bound on earth, you be bound also in heaven, to your eternal shame and perdition. We leave you in the hands of God, whose bowels of mercy towards repenting, returning sinners, are infinite, but whose wrath and vengeance lowards hardened and persisting sinners are dreadful, and will burn to the lowest hell.
Signed, " DAN FOSTER. Pastor."
Three years later, namely, in 1781, Rev. Isaac Foster at West Stať- ford, father of the Poquonoek pastor, in consequence of embracing and preaching Universalist views, was deposed from the ministry. The church at Stafford was greatly divided. A large minority adhered to the deposed minister. Dan Foster, brought up there, seems to have retained
289
WINDSOR THIRD. OR POQUONOCK SOCIETY.
his connection with that church. At all events, his name does not appear as a member here. He still communed with that church. This fact came to the notice of his brethren in the ministry. He was called to account by the North Association of Hartford County, of which body he was a member. The last item of business, at their meeting of Oct. 5, 1784, a year after Mr. Foster's dismissal, is the following -I quote from the records, as copied by Mr. J. H. Hayden :
" Mr. Dan Foster moved to this body for a recommendation as a regular Christian and Minister. Upon which this Association proposed to him several things, by way of inquiry as to his sentiments relative to his adhering to the church in West Stafford, as to terms of communion, and also relative to his communing with them in special ordin- ances. lis answers not giving satisfaction, or appearing well to coincide with his pub lished sentiments,' this Association are of the opinion that the way is not clear at present to grant his request, and therefore propose that the whole matter be deferred to farther consideration at their meeting June next, at which time they will be ready to pay a farther attention to it ; provided, Mr. Foster shall then and there appear to desire a farther conference."
The Association met at Windsor, June 7, 1755.
" Rev. Dan Foster, formerly of Poquonock, a Parish in Windsor, requested again a letter of recommendation as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ from said Asso- ciation. As the said Foster was examined in a formal manner two years ago, June, 1783, and professed his belief of the doctrines of the gospel, called Calvinistic, and now before the same body athrms himself solemnly to be of the same sentiments, in this view the Association, confiding in his honesty, think they may recommend him to be employed as a regular gospel minister in the church of our Lord where Providence may call him."
Three times he was before the Association when his soundness was in question, the first time a few months previously to his dismissal here. He endeavored to remove the suspicion that had fallen upon him. He valued and took pains to secure credentials from Calvinistic ministers. Therefore he could not have preached Universalism while at Poquonock. Had he done so, the record of the Association in regard to him would have been shorter than it was, and different.
Mr. Foster was next installed pastor of the Congregational Church in Weathersfield. Vt .. in 1787. This fact would indicate that he made use of the recommendation, hesitating as it was, of the Hartford North Asso- ciation. He won the reputation in Weathershield of an evangelical and a powerful preacher. For several years he gave general satisfaction. But after a long time he appeared " to swerve from the evangelical faith to Universalism." He became loose in observing the Sabbath. This change occasioned his dismission, which occurred in 1799.
He went the same year to Charlestown. N. H., preaching there a funeral sermon at the death of General Washington, but he was not in- stalled there. He declared himself a Universalist, but the condition of
1 Tradition says that he published a book.
VOL. I .- 37
290
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
the church in that town was such that he supplied their pulpit for the most part, during the remaining years of his life. He died October, 1809, and was buried in his last field of labor.
In both of his last parishes he kept a classical school and fitted young men for college. Ile had himself never graduated at college, but his classical attainments and his scholarly reputation were such, early in his ministry, that Yale and Dartmouth colleges the same year (1774) conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. Mr. Foster's dwell- ing in Poquonock stood where Mr. W. Scott Loomis' house has since been built. He bought the house and four or five aeres of land of Abel Wright, and sold to Frederick Winthrop. The house was afterwards burned to the ground ; and in the flames perished an apprentice boy em- ployed by Winthrop. Mr. Foster also owned forty acres of land on Tinker's farm, as it was called, including land which Mr. Salisbury now owns. Isaac Griswoldl was the purchaser from Mr. Foster of that lot.
The third pastor of Poquonock is remembered by old people in his later parishes as small in stature, but portly, gentlemanly in manners, a good man, an able classical teacher, a powerful preacher.
The church and society here were left by their last pastor in an in- happy condition. They did not rally from the effects of their altercations with him sufficiently to procure another pastor. It is understood that the Universalists became a majority in the Society, seized the meeting- house (built about 1800) and the funds of the Society, and used both for their purposes.
They had, however, occasional preaching. Rev. Elam Potter, pastor of the Congregational church af Enfield from 1769 to 1776, preached here at intervals. Mr. Marshall states that after the building of the second meeting-house, in 1796, the association supplied its pulpit one year. Later still, about the year 1806, Rev. David Anstin preached there a year. But the church continued to diminish until 1821; with the death of its last member, it vanished away. Yet a few Christians had their abode in Poquonock. Mrs. Rowland of Windsor, now over ninety years of age, resided here from 1816 to about the year 1822. At that time Christian men came from Hartford to hold religious meetings. These meetings were sometimes held with the Rowlands at the old public house, and sometimes with the family of Mr. William Soper, who, with his wife, Rebecca, had joined this church at its formation.
Among those who came from Hartford were the late Norman Smith, Governor W. W. Ellsworth, and Anson Gleason. afterwards a mission- ary to the Choctaw Indians. Edward Beecher once preached in those times in the old schoolhouse. "Father Gleason records that one of the most earnest and faithful laborers in Poquonock within the period referred to was Albert Judson. student at Yale and teacher at Windsor. Mr.
291
WINDSOR THIRD, OR POQUONOCK SOCIETY.
Gleason studied with Rev. Luke Wood, who taught a private school in this parish. He further writes, " We used to think the Rowland family a kind of lighthouse there. There is a kind of charm to me," he says, " in speaking to any interested person about that old place where, if ever I prayed in earnest, it was there." Mr. Gleason was a member of Dr. Hawes' church in Hartford, as were also several others who conducted the meetings.
" But these efforts were no equivalent for the preached word. The loss to Poquonock in the absence for fifty years of a vigorous church with its stated ministry, was beyond comprehension. Even the pecuniary loss a million dollars would scarcely supply. Time was when men in need of capital, men from Windsor and from Simsbury, came to Poquonock to borrow. Here was the wealth of old Windsor, wealth which had been accumulated when the gospel here was in high repute.
"The loss in morals, for example through intemperance, the loss in education, in publie spirit, in all that elevates society, the loss in Chris- tian character, in consequence of the past scarcity of God's word here, was incalculable. Had the church been upheld, had it been kept vigor- ons, society, improvements, business, every interest of this community would have been widely different for the two and three generations past From what they have been. The present church, the growth of a single generation, can never repair the damage which Poquonock has sustained. A church cannot go back and cancel the old mistakes of a community."
Congregational preaching was kept up at Rainbow from 1835-1841, and 2d of June of the latter year a church of forty members was formed at Poquonock, the sermon on the occasion being by Rev. Dr. Hawes, of Ilartford, from text Psalms Ixxiv. 22.
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CHAPTER XVI.
ECCLESIASTICAL-WINTONBURY PARISH, OR FIFTH SOCIETY IN WINDSOR (NOW BLOOMFIELD).
1734-1891.
A § to the time when, or by whom, that portion of Old Windsor for- merly known as " Greenfield," then as - Wintonbury Parish," and now as the town of Bloomfield, was first settled, we have no very definite data.' Barber, in his Hist. Coll. of Conn., says that "at the period of the first settlements on the Connecticut River the Windsor people sent out a number of men to explore the tract since named Win- tonbury. These men returned and reported that there was good land sufficient for the maintenance of three families." It is scarcely probable. however, that this exploration could have been at the " period of the first settlements."
By 1734, however, the inhabitants of this outlying territory had so increased in numbers as to be desirous and able to support, partially at least, a gospel ministry in their midst. And the Assembly, at the May session of that year, received a petition, signed by twenty-seven residents of the district known as " Messenger's Farms," in the southwest part of Windsor (now called Old Farms). praying that they might be allowed " winter privileges." This, in view of the distance (six miles) from the house of worship of the North Society in Windsor, was deemed a reason- able request, and " winter privileges" were granted them from the first of November to the last of March, and for two years .? At the end of
1 Edward Messenger and his son-in-law, " Peter Mills the Dutchman, " were among the first, if not the first, to settle at " Messenger Farms." Messenger bought his land in 1661, and, in 1666, derded to Peter Mills " as a free gift " twenty acres, " whereon he has builded."
II.
2 Names of petitioners: -
Thomas Rowel, Solomon Clark,
David Grant,
Robert Walley, Zebulon Hoskins,
Nath'l Cook.
Robert Barrett, Isaac Skinner,
John Soper,
Isane Brown. Enoch Drake, Ir ..
Alex. Hoskins.
David Brown,
Daniel Mills,
Joseph Hoskins,
Peter Mills,
David Buttolph.
Anthony Hoskins,
John Loomis, Abel Gillet.
I saar Eggleston,
John Hubbard.
Jonathan Brown, Peletiah Mills, Moses Cadwell.
Daniel Eggleston. John Eggleston.
293
WINDSOR FIFTH. OR WINTONBURY PARISH.
this time, during which they probably hired a minister and maintained regular worship, another petition was presented to the Assembly, May, 1736, by thirty-one persons in Windsor, with twelve in Simsbury and eight in Farmington, who were similarly situated, and earnestly praying for "parish " privileges. Accordingly, in October, 1736, a parish was set off, bounded on the north by Simsbury and Windsor Third (Poquon- nock ) Society: east by Windsor First Society: south by Windsor and Hartford, and west by Farmington and Simsbury. Of this parish, which was nearly four miles square, about seven-tenths lay in Windsor, one- tenth in Farmington, and two-tenths in Simsbury, and it was named in consequence from the towns of which it was composed - WIN-TON-BURY.1
The first society meeting was held November 16, 1736, at which it was unanimously voted to build a meeting-house and hire a preacher. They informed the Assembly at its next session, May, 1737, that they had voted to erect their meeting-house on the east side of Wash Brook ; but fearing that they might intrude upon the prerogatives of the legisla- ture in the matter, they requested the appointment of a committee to locate the said meeting-house. The desired committee was appointed, and located the meeting-house near the bank of the hill, about twenty rods from the center of the parish, and the site was duly approved by the Assembly. This edifice-45 by 35 feet - was " a plain, barn-like structure. unpainted, with no steeple or the slightest mark to distinguish it as a church. Swallows made their homes in the rafters, and squirrels so abounded that it soon became necessary for the safety of the pulpit cushions to keep them over at the tavern between Sundays. A hewn log lay along the middle aisle beside the raised pews for the little child- ren, who generally came barefoot in the summer time ; and from this they would rise deferentially and "make their manners" as the minister walked among them to the pulpit. The square pews, straight-backed and high, were annually assigned to the attendants, according to rank and age. In the gallery was a high pew, set apart for colored persons. The tithing-man, from his post in the Singers' Seat, kept watch over the demeanor of young and oldl, and not seldom some playful or weary urchin was rapped with his long stick, or pointed out to notice, or even treated with harsher measures. All the men sat on one side of the church, and all the women on the other. East of the church a great horseblock of hewn logs stood ready to receive from their saddles and billions those who had come mounted." ? This building was never fully finished.
1 The act creating this society also created three others, viz .: Salmon Brook (now Granby): Turkey Hill (now East Granby), and Simsbury, and was the termination of a bitter controversy of a dozen years relating to the site for the second meeting house in Simsbury. - & Phelps' Hist. Simsbury.
2 Mrs. E. S. Warner in Mem. Hist. Hartford Co.
294
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
A church consisting of 67 members (31 males and 36 females ) was organized on the 14th of February, 1738, and on the next day the Rev. HEZEKIAH BISSELL was ordained as its pastor, on which occasion the Rev. Jonathan Marsh of Windsor preached from 2d Corinthians, iji. 6; the Rev. Samuel Whitman of Farmington gave the charge, and the Rev. Benjamin Colton of West Hartford the right hand of fellowship.
The names of these original members, as copied from the Rev. Mr. Bissell's Mss. record, are:
Isaac Butler and wife,
Daniel Foot and wife,
David Grant, Nathan Burr.
Thomas Adams and wife,
Job Drake.
Robert Barnett and wife,
Hezekiah Drake,
Cornelius Gillet and wife.
Jonathan Hubbard's wife,
Peletiah Mills and wife,
Peter Mills's wife,
Joshua Case and wife,
Anthony Hoskins' wife,
Samuel Case and wife,
Hezekiah Parsons' wife,
Solomon Clark and wife.
William Webster and wife.
Ephraim Brown's wife. Noadiah Burr's wife,
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