USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Hamden > The history of Hamden, Connecticut, 1786-1959 > Part 8
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1795. Miss Hotchkiss has span 3 runs and six nots of linen yarn, ten nots of cotton. She made part of a pair of trousers. She spun 2 run and 8 nots-30 nots of thread.
Miss Ball staid at my house three weeks wanting one day.
Contracted to support the town poor for the year 1800 for two hundred and fifteen dollars.
This last item was his first to be entered in American money. The first Hamden town records to mention the "dollar" as American currency was in 1799 when a six- mill tax was laid. The amount collected was $253.65 for that year.
Javin Woodin's next entry was, "Contracted with Mr. Moses Potter to keep Mrs. Deming and her chil- dren for two dollars a week." Whatever number of
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children Mrs. Deming may have had, it is easy to be- lieve that $2 a week did not allow them anything beyond the barest necessities.
In 1791, President Stiles stated that the population of Hamden was 1,427, of New Haven 4,510, North Haven 1,259, and Cheshire 2,230.
A few of the townspeople, headed by Captain John Gill, made application in 1788 to the General Assembly for annexation to North Haven, but a town meeting voted to oppose such secession "so far as the same affects this town."
It was not as easy for Hamden to set up the machin- ery of her separate government as it had been for New Haven and other shore and river towns of Connecticut which began as villages with a common center-church, market, military organization, and town meeting. Ham- den began as outlying farms adjacent to the New Ha- ven center, to which the inhabitants journeyed the long distance for their necessary interests. But they had no social or neighborhood activities in which to become well acquainted with each other and to begin the foun- dations for a cooperative society. The town of Hamden faced a slower and more difficult task of putting gov- ernment into proper action than most of her neighbor- ing towns had experienced.
THE MOUNT CARMEL CHURCH
After the formation of Mount Carmel Parish in 1757, the people of that section enjoyed certain village activities, centering about Joel Munson's mill, the Bel- lamy tavern, and the church, which was the natural place, although not geographically central, for holding
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The History of Hamden
the town meetings. After the unfortunate dismissal of Pastor Nathaniel Sherman in 1770, there had been no settled minister for twelve years, although the Ecclesi- astical Society met regularly and maintained some church activities, including the baptism of 107 children by ministers who came long distances on horseback from other towns to perform such services, administer the communion, conduct funerals, and comfort the sick and sorrowing. The pulpit was supplied for Sunday preach- ing by men from Yale College. The college tutors were more often than not Congregational ministers- 61 out of 110 in the first hundred years of Yale's his- tory (1701-1801).
In 1783, soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, Joshua Perry was called to the pastorate of the Mount Carmel Church, and was serving his third term when Hamden was incorporated, so his parish was then no longer an ecclesiastical part of New Haven.
Both the war and the new Federal Constitution affected the manner of raising money for the mainten- ance of churches. In 1784, the state granted to all reli- gious bodies freedom from paying taxes toward the support of the Congregational church; but people who were not connected with any church were still com- pelled to pay them. Exemption from the payment of this tax was granted locally to anyone who attended services elsewhere; and many property owners chose to pay no tax to the Mount Carmel church. Jonathan Dickerman, Bazel Munson, and Samuel and Jacob At- water were first of an increasing number of larger prop- erty owners to withdraw from the church, which by 1790 had not enough funds to maintain it, and the pastorate was closed.
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For ten years, again there was no settled pastor, and the young men from Yale and the ministers of the neighboring churches conducted the services. By 1800, when the membership had fallen below one hundred, a fund of $8,000 was miraculously raised by subscription "for the support of the ministry," and Asa Lyman was called to the pastorate. The pastors of this church for one reason or another served brief encumbencies, Mr. Lyman for only three years. For another three years the pulpit was filled by supply ministers, then John Hyde was the pastor from 1806 to 1811, and after him, Eliphalet Coleman until 1825.
CONGREGATIONS ON THE PLAINS
The southern end of the town-the district which had belonged to the Seventeenth Company of the Sec- ond Regiment, was occupied by many families con- nected with the Fair Haven Church on the New Haven Green, but the inconvenience of attending services there, especially in bad weather, prompted a group to hold religious services in their own neighborhood. President Ezra Stiles made the following notations in his diary:
Feb. 28, 1784. Rode out 4 miles to the Plains where I find there are about 60 families who have agreed to set up winter preaching; they began this winter for the first time, and hold their meetings at Gov'n. Matthew Gilbert's. North of the city line up to Carmel line, & from the Mill River to the top of the West Rock, or the dividend line of Amity [the present Woodbridge], being a tract about 3 miles square, or 31/2 miles long and 3 miles wide. On this tract we counted 71 fami- lies down to Mr. Hubbard's stone house, and including all to the south end of the Rock and city line, one hundred families.
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The History of Hamden
Feb. 29 Lord's Day. The coldest day in the year. I preached all day at Mr. Gilbert's at the Plains, 4 miles northwest of the College.
Jan. 26, 1790. There are about 100 families belong- ing to the congregation for divine worship and upheld it for 2 years or more, about 4 miles off at the Plains. They have this day applied to me again to assist them in gathering a Congregational Church there.
When Captain Caleb Mix's house was suggested as a more convenient place of meeting-it was just north of the present Hamden Plains Methodist Church-vio- lent opposition was evidenced on the part of some, who preferred to accept the invitation of Caleb Alling 3d to meet thereafter at his home. So a separate group, which subsequently became known as "Strict Congre- gationalists," was established by Caleb Alling 3d; and it remained active for twenty-six years, notwithstanding the fact that he was imprisoned for refusing to pay taxes to the Fair Haven Church. Members of this group bore names that are still common in Hamden Plains: Dorman, Warner, Munson, Gorham, and Woodin.
Caleb Alling 3d was a selectman of Hamden in 1791-93, and again in 1797 and 1798, serving in that capacity at the same time that he was leader of the "Strict Congregationalists." How reminiscent of New Haven Colony's early government, to find a man en- trusted with authority in both church and state!
Those who met at Captain Mix's for worship, organ- ized the Hamden East Plains Society (the present Whitneyville Congregational Church). Erection of the church building was begun in 1793, on what is now the property of the Hamden Plains Methodist Church at the corner of Dixwell Avenue and Church Street, and
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it was completed in two years. It was a brown, barnlike structure, unbeautiful and unheated. The audience room was bare except for high, straight-backed seats. A later pastor, in speaking of it, said: "It stood on a cold, bleak place; if the wind blows anywhere it is sure to blow on Hamden Plains." Until 1822 there was no heat in the church, and when the first stove was set up, it was bitterly opposed by many on the ground "that the churchgoing zeal of the people was better cultivated by means of a cold church." Perhaps the old-fashioned "hell-fire and brimstone" sermons were warmth enough! There were no lights, and at evening services people carried their own candles.
On August 18, 1795, an Ecclesiastical Council, com- posed of ministers and delegates from New Haven, West Haven, Mount Carmel, and Woodbridge, voted to accept the group as a sister church. Twelve people were the charter members, and three men-Moses Ford, Jabez Turner, and Timothy Andrews-joined that day.
The covenant which they signed showed no spirit of discord with the New Haven churches, only a desire for greater convenience in attending services:
We agree to be established as a regular distinct church for the greater convenience of attending gospel wor- ship and ordinances. We profess ourselves in charity with the regular churches and standing ministry. . . . We mutually ask forgiveness of one another for every- thing which has been unworthy of the Christian pro- fession; fervently praying for the spirit and presence of Christ in the present transaction, and all our future proceedings. . . . We agree and covenant with each other to walk in fellowship as a church of Christ, acknowledging Him as our only Head, and taking His instruction for our guide in faith and practise, in wor- ship and discipline. We promise to counsel and ad-
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The History of Hamden
monish one another, as it becometh saints, and with Christian humility to be subject one to another.
So fifteen members were the nucleus who began that day to lay the foundations of a church; and in no more fitting way could they have insured the success of its future than by the baptismal service which they ob- served, in which nineteen infants were baptized. What matter if the meetinghouse was plain and bare-it must have been a scene of great beauty from the presence of those children.
The church's Ecclesiastical Society was incorporated in May, 1795, and their tax was set as 4 d. in the pound. In June they named the school committee: Amos Bas- sett, Asa Gilbert, Charles Alling, Stephen Ford, and John Hubbard.
The next problem was the search for a pastor. Some- times a visiting preacher conducted the worship, and more often they depended upon one of their own mem- bers for this leadership. In the course of the next two years, Abraham Alling gradually became the one who led their prayers and songs and read sermons written by others and, in time, of his own composition. He was given a unanimous call to serve in the capacity of pastor. He was forty-four years of age and occupied a small farm three miles beyond the church. He was one of Hamden's five selectmen in 1787-89-once more a civic leader was favored to guide the religious life of a community.
At first he refused the offer of the pastorate, because the salary, £60 lawful money, seemed too small, but after thoughtful consideration he accepted it. Mean- while, alas, more members left the group while he was
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hesitating, and attached themselves to Caleb Alling's flock, making the second disaffection in the Congrega- tional ranks.
For twenty-five years Abraham Alling tilled the soil and also served in his Master's vineyard. As so many of his parish were also farmers, he had a double bond of interest with them, for he could intelligently discuss the important matters pertaining to crops; and on their part, the church members, who took their religion so seriously, could join him in exploring difficult questions of theology. In those days people were not ashamed to discuss their religion openly-morals, death, and eter- nal life were of vital and supreme importance to them.
He was respected as a preacher, and particularly praised for his "happy manner of conducting funerals." On an unusually wintry Sunday-the congregation pinched with cold in the unheated church-the pastor, after the lengthy preliminary service, announced the text of his sermon from the 147th Psalm: "Who can stand before His cold?" There was then no such thing as a short sermon, but this one ended abruptly when Mr. Alling, wringing and rubbing his hands, said, "Dear brethren, I should be glad to say more on this deeply interesting subject, but who can stand before His cold?"
Reverend Mr. Marvin of Woodbridge once told of remembering Abraham Alling's sermons,
which made an impression not soon to be forgotten as to their length! Dividing his discourse into two heads, he would preach until he reached the 23rdly for the first division of his subject, and to the 16thly for the second; after which he would come by way of appli- cation for some 15 minutes to the conclusion, which took 10 minutes more.
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The History of Hamden
In 1800, a committee of the Society was appointed "to seal up the windows in the Territ and coller them black." No logical reason can be imagined for this ac- tion-surely not due to the fact that at the same meet- ing at which the committee was named, it was voted to engage a suitable person to conduct a singing school two nights a week, for which they taxed themselves $16!
An interesting study in relationship is the Alling family: Caleb Alling, 1694-1756, married three times. The first wife left no children; the second (who was Caleb Mix's daughter, Thankful) had sons Asa and Charles, and one named Caleb, 2d, died in infancy; the third wife named her son Caleb, 3d.
Asa's son Abraham was brought up in Hamden by his childless uncle Charles. Abraham meant to go to Yale to study for the ministry, but his early marriage prevented it. Here the picture becomes somewhat com- plicated-for Ezra Dorman's three sisters married Charles, Caleb, and Abraham Alling, respectively! So in thinking of the two Congregational groups, it appears that Caleb was not only uncle to Abraham, but also brother-in-law!
During Abraham Alling's ministry, there were eighty-one members added to the church, and some of his pastorate was prosperous, but he suffered from the all-too-common cross of the pastors of his day; a con- troversy arose over church discipline, in which he was accused of being partial, and he sorrowfully resigned his pulpit in 1822.
EPISCOPAL WORSHIP
The end of the eighteenth century was marked by great religious fervor and the founding of many church
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groups. Concurrently with the Congregational activity in Hamden Plains was the establishment in Mount Carmel of the Grace Episcopal Church, one of the ear- liest parishes in the Diocese of Connecticut.
After Samuel Seabury had been chosen by Anglican clergymen at the Glebe House in Woodbury (Con- necticut) in 1783, he was made the first American bish- op by consecration in Scotland in 1785, and the Episco- pal churches gained heart and strength to worship in their differing way to the Congregationalists.
Bishop Seabury (who had graduated from Yale in 1748) attended the Yale Commencement exercises in 1784. When Congregationalist President Ezra Stiles was urged to invite the bishop to sit among the distin- guished guests upon the platform, he testily and quite ungraciously said, "We are all bishops here, but if a chair can be found for Mr. Seabury he may have it." It was nearly 125 years later that sweet retribution was accomplished, when a portrait of Bishop Seabury was hung among the other illustrious Yale graduates in the Yale Dining Hall. The oak frame was carved at the top in the likeness of the bishop's mitre. And so, in time, a Congregational president's rebuff was at last avenged!
At a convention held in Philadelphia, the Protestant Episcopal Church was established in 1789, while at the same time the Federal Government was being inaugur- ated in New York.
There may have been some impetus to the establish- ment of Episcopal churches at this time because George Washington was an Episcopalian. In 1793 he became a Freemason, and Masonry too may have become more popular thereby. Day Spring Lodge of Hamden Free-
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The History of Hamden
masons was organized in 1794 in Samuel Bellamy's tavern. The charter was granted by the Grand Lodge of the State of Connecticut to Samuel Bellamy (first master), Ezra Kimberly, George Bristol, Levi Tuttle, Amasa Bradley, Leverett Kimberly, Tully Crosby, Simeon Goodyear, and Job Munson.
Samuel Bellamy, always active (as was his father before him) in Hamden affairs, had become a Hamden selectman in 1793, and served five terms as such, up to 1801.
Two other reasons for the formation of an Episcopal group at this time were that many Mount Carmel peo- ple left the Congregationalist fold after the law con- cerning compulsory payment of taxes to it was changed, thereby releasing them from membership; and when the Congregational pastorate was closed in 1790, they were easily attracted by the extremely zealous leaders of the Episcopal church, who had for more than sixty years been aggressively decrying the ecclesiastical usages prevalent in the New England Congregational churches.
The warrant which Ezra Kimberly was "command- ed" by Simeon Bristol, justice of the peace, to serve upon Hamden Episcopalians, read as follows:
By authority of the State of Connecticut you are hereby commanded to warn all the inhabitants that live within the parish of Mt. Carmel in said Hamden, who belong to the Episcopal Church (so called) and ordinarily attend public worship according to the forms, rites and ceremonies of said church, to appear and meet at the house of Stephen Pardee in said Hamden, on the six- teenth day of March, inst. at three o'clock in the after- noon, then and there to form an Episcopal Society con- sisting of the inhabitants aforesaid and of all such living within said limits who shall join and adhere to said
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Church, and to choose all the officers necessary to such Society and to do other business requisite to said So- ciety. Dated at Hamden the first day of March 1790,
SIMEON BRISTOL, Justice of the Peace. Alvin Bradley, Abraham Gilbert, Joel Bradley, Joseph Gil- bert, Abijah Brooks; Principal inhabitants of the Epis- copal Society.
Ezra Kimberly and Amasa Bradley were charter Masons, and they also joined the Episcopalians after deserting the Congregationalists, perhaps illustrating a general growing interest in liturgy and colorful cere- mony which these groups offered in sharp contrast to the severity and coldness of the older church.
Services were begun in private residences, chiefly that of Stephen Pardee, who received 2 s. a day for the use of his house. Warnings of the services were posted at Theophilus Goodyear's at the southern end of the par- ish, and Samuel Bellamy's at the north. By 1794 the members were desirous of a church building, and they voted that: "The committee shall look and see where they can procure the most convenient spot for building a church, between the Steps and the road below Heze- kiah Dickerman's." The committee looked and saw with favor the site on the main road across from the Mount Carmel Congregational Church, and a tiny building 34 x 44 feet (early Connecticut Episcopal churches averaged 30 x 40 feet in size) was erected in 1796. A year later the members voted that
any number of men may build pews or seats in the church under the inspection of the committee for that purpose; and the proprietors of such pews or seats shall hold them till the time that the Society pays the first cost of the building of said seats to the proprietors.
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The History of Hamden
It was two years before this cost was met, and the pulpit was not added until 1812.
Services were conducted by various members- Amasa Bradley was lay reader for 25 years-or by visit- ing clergymen throughout the time in which this little church was used. Not only were Episcopal ministers scarce, and pastors in near-by churches forced to divide their time with churches in other towns than their own, but money too was scarce. It is easy to see that those Mount Carmel people who left the Congregational church because they did not wish to pay religious taxes would not be generous in their contributions to the Episcopal group either.
SCHOOLS
In 1794 Connecticut school districts were given the power and authority to tax themselves for the purpose of building and repairing a schoolhouse in every such district, and the power to choose a clerk and a collector of taxes.
The town was beginning to relax its control of both church and school matters, giving the ecclesiastical so- cieties jurisdiction over church affairs, and yielding some of its powers in educational matters to the State.
A committee of the General Assembly was named in 1795 to sell Connecticut's Western Reserve land, which stretched for 120 miles westward from Pennsylvania and north to Lake Erie-3,300,000 acres within the present State of Ohio. The total receipts from this sale -$1,200,000 by 1800, and $15,000,000 by 1935- were set aside by the General Assembly as "a perpetual fund appropriated to the support of schools." The in- come from this fund, together with money from the
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State Treasury which was based on tax lists, was paid out annually to the school societies for the benefit of local schools. Hamden did not rely upon this fund alone, as many other towns did, for the support of edu- cation. On October 26, 1798, the records read:
School meeting held at the house of Timothy Andrews. Voted that we do lay a direct tax of two pence on the pound of all the rateable estate we possess according to the list of 1797, payable the first of December next. JOHN HUBBARD.
In 1799,
at a school meeting held at the schoolhouse-voted that a part of the public money shall be laid out this summer in a free school taught by a mistress. Voted that not more than one half of the public money shall be laid out this summer. Voted that the free school begin the first day of August next.
The Mount Carmel Ecclesiastical Society voted in 1795 on the question of "new modling" the school districts.
Educational matters were still settled in the Samuel Bellamy tavern. In 1792 a Cheshire town meeting voted that
several of the clergy make inquiries of their neighbor- ing towns and see what can be done towards erecting an Episcopal Academy. Voted that a committee be chosen with full powers to contract with the committee of the Episcopal Convention to convene at Samuel Bel- lamy's in Hamden on the first of July next-and estab- lish the academy in that town they consider most eligi- ble.
Cheshire was the town that was deemed most suitable in which to establish Cheshire Academy, but the decision to locate it there was made in Hamden's famous tavern.
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THE TAVERNS
Jesse Goodyear conducted a tavern in Centerville on the site of the present town hall. His grandfather, Captain Jesse, had fought in the Revolution, and his father, Jesse, Jr., manufactured bells in Centerville in 1794. The following advertisements appeared in New Haven newspapers:
BELL FOUNDRY
The subscriber informs the public that he is erecting a Bell Foundry in Hamden, six miles from New Haven, where bells of all sizes will be cast in the neatest man- ner.
Those towns or parishes who want bells cast over, or new ones, may be provided on the shortest notice on the lowest terms.
He gives the highest price, in cash, for old Copper and Block Tin, for any quantity.
JESSE GOODYEAR.
Hamden, March 17, 1794 Bell Founder.
Sept. 4, 1794:
JESSE GOODYEAR has cast two bells, of 600 weight each, one for Milford and one for Salem. Both finished in three weeks. Sound gives good satis- faction. Also makes and repairs vanes, clocks and watches in the neatest manner, and is plating buckles as usual.
In 1797 Justus Cooper was the proprietor of the Old Red Tavern on the Old Cheshire Road (Dixwell Av- enue) in Hamden Plains. He was probably there in 1780. Innkeepers were highly respected, important leaders in their communities; they had to be property owners, and the rules which they were expected to en- force in the conduct of their business required them to
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be of exemplary character. The use of spirituous liquor was common in every walk of life, even in the churches. George L. Clark, in his History of New Haven County, says: "Ordinations, church dedications, donation par- ties and pastoral calls were scarcely sacred without the 'beloved flip' in the 1790's." Account books which recorded the cost of erecting church buildings contained as many items for liquor as for lumber and nails. At the time of the invasion of New Haven by the British in 1779, John Lothrop of New Haven presented a bill to the state as follows:
Dr, State of Connecticut to John Lothrop
1779 To 20 gallons of Rum delivered to the Troops under command of Col. Hezk. Sabin on the day of the late incursion of the Enemy into this Town. The Troops greatly fatigued, and by desire of Sabin 180.00 of old Chease 20.00
New Haven, August 30, 1779. 200.00
Colonel Hezekiah Sabin approved the bill, saying that the troops had received "rum and refreshments."
Javin Woodin's account book is interspersed indis- criminately with notations about his care of the poor, school meetings, and charges in the store which he kept. One of the latter read:
Mother Blakesly, Dr. Quart of rum o/1/6, one quarter tea, brown sugar, wheat flour. To gin, cod- fish and molasses, 0/5/47/2. To quart rum, to two fowls.
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