USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Harwinton > The history of Harwinton, Connecticut > Part 7
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*Ecclesiastical Society Records, Book I.
¿Church Records, Book II.
#History of Western Massachusetts. §See, in Appendix, Note D.D.
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to a good standing in the Church-of which but few refused to avail themselves. Henceforward the Church became so united as to apply to several Candidates* to preach with them, with a view to their Settlement over them."+
5 March, 1787. The following votes passed. To make Proposals of Settlement to M' Lemuel Tylert etc. etc.§ [Whether the Church concurred in this action of the Society, is not manifest. The vote cited implies that Mr. Tyler had preached here for a considerable time. The period was, probably, nearly or quite a year.]
25 Feb., 1788. Voted That this meeting is Willing to Settle Mr Rowland.§ [It does not appear that the Church took any action concur- ring with this expression. During nearly one year preceding, Mr. Row- land, probably, preached here.]
23 April, 1788. Voted This Society Proceed to make proposals of Settlement to Mr. Rowland.§ { [It does not appear that, with this more decisive expression, any action by the Church was in concurrence. ]
9 April, 1789. Voted to Give M' Aaron C. Collinst an Invitation To Settle With us in the Ministry in this place, etc.§ [The Church by * theirs, not effectually, it seems, concurred with this vote of the Society. By this vote, as connected with other circumstances known respecting Mr. Collins, it appears that he, too, had officiated in Harwinton for seve- ral months preceding.]
12 Aug., 1789. Voted the Committee apply to Mr White to sup- ply the pulpit.§ [One finds not, by record, whether Mr. White did sup- ply the pulpit. If he did, it was for only a few Sabbaths. The aged who were here in 1837, of him said nothing.]
In the six or seven years thus barely touched upon, there must have been, to a thoughtful and good man resident here, many hours, if not days and months besides, in which his heart felt sad. However brightly above him shone the sun, or around him waved the green growing grass and the yellow ripened
*Since, along with those usages which gave occasion for the employment of the word 'candidate,' with reference to parochial concerns, the word itself, as to such a reference, is, in New England, so rapidly passing away that it must soon be ob- solete entirely, in parish vocabularies ; there properly might in this connexion be furnished a Note explaining the word for the benefit, possibly, of future parish his- torians and 'painful antiquarians' generally. There is, however, entertained (ven- turously, perhaps,) the hope that, for some few years to come, inquisitive people may, on this, enlighten themselves sufficiently by carefully consulting the memory of such aged persons as can be relied upon for recollecting with precision.
+Church Records, Book II.
¿See, in Appendix, Note DD.
§Ecclesiastical Society Records, Book I.
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grain, yet, as to the moral state of Harwinton, there were scenes, indeed dark and drear, on either hand. In respect to matters directly affecting man's highest concerns, all around him, and haply within himself, too, he saw great cause for grief. Espec- ially, if such a man was then at the head of a household the children of which already were, or soon would be, in the most formative period of their life, he could not refrain from asking even with anguish, when and in what would end the existing lamentable things. Yet to come after the dark of that night, there was predestined a day that at length gave signs of its dawn; and to banish the drear of that winter, there drew nearer every minute the longed-for spring. The moral revolution that for a ten years' space wrought and progressed by battles, in the six years' time thereto succeeding laid even its skirmishing by, and through peaceful methods perfected and established the victory it had gained. Sixteen years are not ill spent, when in such a period are well removed the evils that, by nearly forty years in- dulgence and defence, have, as reputedly good things, been made strong. By Mr. Alexander chiefly, indeed, but in some degree by the others who after him ministered here for a season, were labors done the effect of which, as of the pioneering work of our Savior's harbinger, had been "to turn the hearts of the fa- thers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Than a preparation for him, none is better for a pastor whom he sends. Not here only had there been preparation. That which the people had been fitly prepared for, had been fitly prepared for them.
28 Dec., 1789. Voted Revd M' Joshua Williams [an] invitation To Settle With us in the Minstry in this Place .*
Mr. Williams, whose preaching began with approbation from "the Hartford South Association"+ received the same month (, Oct., 1782,t) in which a pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Southampton, L. I., died,¿ was in that place ordained and in-
*Ecclesiastical Society Records, Book I.
+MS. Autobiographical Sketch of Mr. Williams.
#Journal Book of the Proceedings of the first Church of CHRIST, Southampton, January Ist 1785. This Journal, now in possession of Mrs. Orinda Catlin, of Har-
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stalled by the Suffolk Presbytery, as pastor the fourth or fifth there in succession, 26 May, 1785 .* During the first year of his pastorate in that Church, forty-two persons were added to its number .* He also performed an evangelist's work successfully, while pastor at Southampton, and so, as he expressed it, he "was made an instrument of good by circulart preaching on the Isl- and."¿ At his own request, his pastoral relation in Southamp- ton was sundered by the Suffolk Presbytery, 21§ April, 1789.} He was qualified, by the experience he had gained, for the work greater and more successful, as it proved, which here awaited his installation. "Previous to this, it was thought proper that the Church should renew their Profession and their public Cov- enant with each other."| Such "Profession and Covenant," __ in substance identical with the (" Articles of Faith," the) " Con- fession of Faith," and the "Covenant," since used here,-" was agreed upon, at a Church Meeting, on the 15th of February, 1790, and signed by the" members of the Church; "and [the same], on the Day of the Fast preceding the installation, was publicly read and solemnly agreed to,-each Member present standing up."| There was, at the same time and in the same manner, "publicly read and solemnly agreed to," an engagement which seemed to be as scriptural as, explicitly set forth, it may be found unusual, viz., "We also solemnly promise, that we will not encourage among us any Speaker or Preacher of Whatever Denomination, by asking him to preach or going to hear him; unless he have the Countenance of our Watchman, or [we shall] have consulted and obtained Liberty from those whom we shall appoint as helps and Officers in the Church."| This engage-
winton, a daughter of Mr. Williams, contains in his chirography, "The Confession of Faith and Covenant unanimously voted by this [the Southampton] Church," on the eve of his settlement there; and embraces business accounts of his, the record of which was kept simultaneously with that of the " Proceedings."-See, in Ap- pendix, Note HH.
*Journal Book, etc., as in note next above.
+Itinerant. ¿ MS. Autobiographical Sketch of Mr. Williams.
§Prime's History of Long Island.
"Church Records, Book II.
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ment,-" Article of" Practice, we may term it, adapted as well as adopted to make due 'works' attend "Faith,"-is a rather significant suggestion, both of what 'the pastor elect' had else- where, and of what the flock 'elect' had here, seen of the 'Sep- arates' of that day. Those people were disorderly. 'Their ministers were generally of the order of Jeroboam,' it was af- firmed. Erratic as comets, rushing within the orbits, disturbing the "stars"; it could not always be easily said, that, when at the farthest aphelion to which they wandered, they owned the attraction of the great moral Sun .*
Having accepted the call which this Church and Society had unanimously given to him, Mr. Williams, "by the Consociation of Litchfield County, was installed over them, March 3d, 1790."+ His pastorate was, for the most part, the equable motion of a stream with no cataract's plunge and roar. The events most no- ticeable in it are those which betokened a peculiar success in his work. These excepted, it had no incident of more consequence than the erection of another Church edifice.
In the early part of Mr. Williams' ministry here, several of the founders of the Town, among them Dea. John Wilson and other original members of the Church, were still surviving. These, so long as their life was continued, had a natural satisfac- tion in seeing, and a spiritual pleasure in using, the temple that, like themselves, had belonged to former days. Their age, ma- king them forgetful of other things, kept them mindful of how they once were here without any temple, and of the painful pro- tracted endeavors by which they, with the rest of "your fathers," completed the first. In no other one could they become so at home. There was to be no other for them. The undertaking to build a second one was by this Society not attempted, it seems to have been not projected, until the last living of the first dwel- lers in Harwinton had passed away. Then the ancient one was in such a decayed condition as not to afford sufficient protection against either rain or snow, either the heat or the cold. Its hold- ing capacity was not large enough. Its attractive capability was too small. As to the worshippers, it did not meet their demand
*See, in Appendix, Note GG.
+Church Records, Book II.
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for convenience, it did not satisfy their taste; while, as to the Object of their worship, it did not correspond to what, in their view, the proprieties of his service by a congregation required. The primitive structure had well answered the primitive design .* It must, as being superannuated, be superseded. The Commit- tee, with whom the Society, in 1807, entrusted the work of su- perintending the erection of a new structure, were Messrs. David Candee, Isaac Catlin, Daniel Holt, John Hungerford, Jonathan Rossiter, Sen., Daniel S. Wilson, Dea. Abner Barber, Dr. Tim- othy Clark, with James Brace, Lewis Catlin, Sen., and Benjamin Griswold, Esqs. What was begun under favoring auspices, was happily prosecuted and successfully finished.
The existing temple, beautiful and commodious and hallowed by religious anticipations then, by religious remembrances now, was in 1808, near the end of that year, thankfully and with ser- vices appropriate to the occasion, set apart to the high end it was designed to advance-the honoring of God, through those assembled within it seeking to render due homage with obedi- ence to him. It cost about $8,000 (eight thousand dollars).+ As such things are usually estimated, this outlay in a rural Town should be considered for that time, and might be for this, as gen- erous in amount. At least, a mind not illiberal would regard it as such. To some persons so great a sum, by such a Town to such a purpose applied, would appear to be a needless and waste- ful expense. But how can any thing be needless, which helps best what all men need most? and how is any thing wasteful which is helpful thus? Wherever men having bodies would offer social worship publicly, there accommodations suitable for their rendering it in that manner are required. The importance of such accommodations is in proportion to the necessity for them. The benefits which experience shows to result from them,
*When the new building had been completed, the old one, its gallery and pulpit and pews taken out, was removed to near the South Burial-place where, as pre- viously said, it did service as a Town House and otherwise, until 1840. On its final dismemberment, there were, however, found remaining in it some parts serviceable for entering into the construction of other buildings. A house having in its frame what suggests so much would, to some persons, have special value.
+Ecclesiastical Society Records, Book II., etc.
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are ever more than any expense they occasion. Omit reference to such influences as, from a temple which saints in it make a sanctuary, flow into the individual heart, ever prompting anew the utterance, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of Hosts;" it still is true, that our choicest civil immunities, the most valued of human institutions, derive thence, as from a cit- adel, their firmest support. Omit, with those personal spiritual ones, these municipal and civil advantages, also; it still is true, that a sanctuary *- the Church building, set up for, and put to, and held to its proper use-always gives to any community more than it takes from that community. Even in a commercial use of the phrase, 'it is good property.' It is such, not only indi- rectly, by making other property 'safe' through its effect in be- getting and upholding honesty; but directly, too, by its very existence operating to add to what is called 'real' estate more value than it subtracts from it. That this fact led to the reser- vation of two 'Town rights' for the support of the ministry in each of the townships made by the Legislature of Connecticut from their moiety of "the Western lands," or led other Ameri- can Legislatures to do the like, is not said. This fact shrewd . builders of villages well know, and they act on the principle it suggests to them. An immediate effect of erecting the present Congregational Church edifice demonstrated it. As soon as this was finished, farms in Harwinton, so it was told, were marketa- bly worth one dollar per acre more than they were by the pre- vious appraisement; yet the cost of its erection, had all the acres in town been taxed to provide the means for defraying it, would have been forty-four cents, plus a microscopic fraction, per acre. Facts like this retained in memory, funds for meeting the cur- rent expenses of an 'Ecclesiastical Society,' and for repairing or beautifying a Church building, would be readily furnished; even at times when simply for duty's sake they might but reluctantly be given.
Mr. Williams officiated in this newer structure more than two- thirds as long a time as he had officiated in the older one. For the period of an entire generation, "he was happy in the affec-
*Sancta [saint] -area.
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tions and confidence of a large people prospering under his min- istry. It was in his heart to die, as he had lived, with them; but," in 1817, being then "at the age of fifty-six, [and] worn down by the labors of a revival [of religion], he was attacked by a disease which confined him seventy-seven days to his house, and for several weeks raged so violently that each successive day was expected to be his last,"*+-occasioning, as one result, so much continued impairment of his constitutional vigor, as " rendered it proper that [he] should seek a dismission or a col- league."* He, therefore, "petitioned for a release," and "a dis- mission took place, Jany 9, 1822."* He removed, in 1823, to Bethlem; and, in 1831, to Middletown (Upper Houses, now Cromwell). An invitation which he received, to become again a pastor, considerations regarding his health induced him to de- cline .* In the place last specified he deceased, 8 Feb., 1836. The event, soon afterwards, was appropriately noticed in a ser- mon delivered to this congregation by his second successor in the pastorate here.
Mr. Williams was born at Wethersfield (, Rocky Hill), 3 Feb., 1761. He graduated at Yale College, in 1780 .¿ His autobiog- raphy is silent, as to theological studies. Of a stature not above the medium, he was in neither body nor mind massive, but in both agile. Confessedly a man not perfect in piety, his religion was sincere and, like his temperament, ardent. Ingenuous, his failings had one trait which relatively is almost a virtue, that they were neither from himself nor from other men concealed. If through sensitive feeling or otherwise he had wronged any one, with characteristic quickness he both saw and, at once, by due methods made due amends for the wrong. "His faith was Calvinistic; but it was not a mere form of doctrine for curious disquisition or subtile disputation. It was a living principle op-
*Autobiography of the Rev. Joshua Williams, in MS.
+Obituary Notice, in the Connecticut Observer, 5 March, 1836 ; prepared by Rev. Noah Porter, Sen., D.D., of Farmington.
#At College his studies were much interrupted by the events of that stormful period. Not overrating his 'literary acquirements,' he reasonably expressed hum- ble views respecting them.
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erating in his daily thoughts and feelings of action. It was taught him, as he supposed, the last year of his connection with College, not by men, but by the Spirit of God." "Mr. Williams was an instructive example of the good which may be done by the more private offices of the Christian ministry. His sermons were less interesting than they might have been, if he had given them more time and thought. He may have erred in this. Still, his ministry was unspeakably more useful than has been that of many, whose sermons, painfully wrought out by prolonged la- bors of the closet, have called forth the applauses of delighted auditors, while the people of their charge have been left, in re- spect to pastoral care, as sheep having no shepherd. Often in every part of his parish, free and open-hearted in his addresses to persons of every age and class, affectionate, skilful, and often exceedingly pungent and powerful in his instructions, reproofs, and persuasions;" "he was directly instrumental in the awaken- ing and conversion of many, and very successful in carrying forward the members of his church in the unity of the faith and in habits of constant piety and usefulness."* As a Christian, he had been "much in prayer," and "an example of the believ- ers." As a minister of Christ, both in Southampton and in Har- winton "he had been wise to win souls." Though not distin- guished either as a scholar or [as] an orator, he was more than
*Early in enlisting himself and his people in the missionary cause, he once re- marked (to his grandson, Hon. Abijah Catlin), "that he with the neighboring min- isters was the first in the world, so far as he knew, to set up and establish the Monthly Concert of Prayer that now prevails all over Christendom." A similar relation of their beginning that movement, as not aware that their fellow-Christians both in this country and elsewhere had equally begun it, various other persons have made. A like movement, from a like common impulse, originated in Scotland in 1747, in England in about 1752. Such a movement, renewed in England not far from 1790, was again renewed there in 1816-20 and special efforts made to extend it through our land. In the Harwinton Church Records, Book II., is this entry: "February 27th 1815. Conversed on the Subject of a monthly prayer Meeting."
When Mr. Williams had become aged, he was 'not backward' as to reform. His Autobiography has this passage: "Jany 1829, I renounced Free-Masonry, fulling believing that I had done wrong in uniting with it, tho' at the time I was deceitfully persuaded to it as a matter of duty. I must, I ought to confess, that I have found it an unchristian and deceptive institution. The same year also, I put my name to the Temperance list."
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either, "for he was a good man and full of faith and of the Holy Ghost; and much people was added unto the Lord."* 'Ac- counts,' respecting those years of his ministry here in which such additions were most numerously made, are the only printedt productions known of his pen.
THE FOURTH PASTOR.
The Church Recordst since Mr. Williams' time, are ample. Many persons have in memory his successors in office here. Those successors are, in other places, still actively engaged in affairs. Of their work in Harwinton, therefore, brief notices will suffice.
Rev. George Edmond Pierce, D.D., was "invited to preach to this church and people as a candidate for the Gospel ministry," in Feb., 1822. He was invited to become their pastor, in May, 1822. He was ordained to that office by the Litchfield South Consociation, 10 July, 1822. He was dismissed from it by the same Body, "at their Annual Meeting, at Watertown, [10] July, 1834."
Dr. Pierce, born in Southbury (, South Britain parish), 9 Sept., 1794, was graduated at Yale College, in 1816, and at Andover Theological Seminary, in 1821. He was Preceptor of the Acad- emy at Fairfield, Ct., in 1817 and 1818. He entered upon the duties of the Presidency of Western Reserve College, then but recently established at Hudson, O., 5 July, 1834. He re- mained in that position, until "the burdens of office, the failure
*The quotations in the above paragraph are mainly from the Obituary Notice, a quite extended one, before adverted to.
+An account of a Revival of Religion in Harwinton, Conn., in the year 1799; published in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, June, 1801. An Account of a Revival of Religion in Harwinton, Conn., in the years 1805 and 1806; published in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, April, 1807. An account of a Revival of Religion in Harwinton, Conn., in the year 1816; published in the Religious Intel- ligencer, April 11th, 1818 .- The narratives published in the Connecticut Evangeli- cal Magazine form with others, and with a Preface written by Bennet Tyler, D.D., New England Revivals, a work issued in 1846 by the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society.
¿See, in Appendix, Note HH.
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of health, and the correct advice of the Medical Profession in- duced [him] to resign." His letter of resignation, dated 31 May, 1855, took effect at the next following Commencement, 12 July. After his resignation, President Pierce supplied the pul- pit in Hudson, O., for nearly a year. Still residing in that place, he preaches occasionally, though he is mainly engaged in other employments. Of his printed productions the principal ones are: The Importance of Religious Knowledge, a sermon published in The American Evangelist, Boston, November, 1827; The Tears of Jesus, a sermon (whose title would have been The Com- passion of Christ, had its author's preference as to a name for it been adhered to), published in The American National Preacher, New York, April, 1833; A Report on the Study of the Bible and Christian Authors, instead of Heathen Classics, published, by request of the Trustees of Western Reserve College, in The Ohio Observer, Hudson, O., 9 Oct., 1834; The Streams of the River of Life, a Sermon preached at the Dedication of the Chap- el of Western Reserve College, August 23, 1836, published at New York, 1836; A Plea for Stability and Permanence in In- stitutions of Learning, delivered before the Trustees, Officers and Students of the Cleveland Medical College, February 26, 1845, published, by request, at Cleveland, O., 1845; An Address in Commemoration of the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the Settlement of the town of Hudson, O., delivered 18 June, 1850, repeated 18 June, 1856, and, with the other Proceedings of the Fifty-Sixth Anniversary of the Settlement of Hudson [O.], pub- lished at Hudson, O., 1856; The Heavenly Throne, a Baccalau- reate Sermon, delivered in the Chapel of Western Reserve Col- lege, July 9, 1854, published at Hudson, O., 1854. From Dr. Pierce appeared in the Ohio Observer, 10 July, 1840, and on, articles in defence and advocacy of the American Education So- ciety and of its principles; in the New England Puritan, 1846, 1847, articles "giving some historical, statistical and religious account of the Western Reserve;" and in the Independent, 23 November, 1854, and on, communications, "over the signature, of Prudential Committee and with their [viz., such Committee's, as connected with the institution named,] examination and ap-
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proval, giving in part the history of the Western Reserve Col- lege, and also the principles on which a College is to be conduct- ed." It is understood that their author designs to publish those communications in a more permanent form.
THE FIFTH PASTOR.
The Congregational Society, 13 Oct., 1834, invited Mr. Wil- liam James Breed,* who had for some time preached here, "to return and preach as a Candidate for Settlement." He did not so return. Following him a Rev. Mr. Church* supplied the pul- pit a few Sabbaths.
Mr. R. Manning Chipman, whose first sermon here was preached 14 Dec., 1834, was invited to become pastor of the Congregational Church, 26 Jan., 1835. He was ordained and installed in that relation, 4 March, 1835, by the South Consocia- tion of Litchfield County. He was dismissed from it, by the same Body, 13 March, 1839.
Richard Manning Chipman, Jr., a native of Salem, Ms., where still his father Richard Manning Chipman, Sen., re- sides, was graduated at Dartmouth College, in 1832. He pur- sued professional studies in the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church at Princeton, N. J., and in the Theological Department of the University of the City of New York, a De- partment suspended from operation since the establishment, in that locality, of the Union Theological Seminary. In 1833, 1834, he was Corresponding Secretary of the American Peace Society and Editor of their Periodical, the Calumet, their office being at that time in New York. He received approbation to preach from the Litchfield South Association convened at Washington, 20 Oct., 1834. He declined an invitation, given to him 27 June, 1839, to become Professor of Theology in the Oneida Institute, at Whitesboro', N. Y., and a call, given to him 7 July, 1839, to be pastor of the Second Congregational Church in (Old Well, now) South Norwalk, Ct. He was in stalled pastor of the Evangelical Congregational Church in Athol, Ms., 15 Aug., 1839; from which relation he was dis-
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