USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Harwinton > The history of Harwinton, Connecticut > Part 8
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*See, in Appendix, Note DD.
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missed, 23 Dec., 1851. He was installed pastor of the Third Congregational Church in the borough of Guilford, Ct., 14 Jan., 1852. His release from that position was obtained, 19 May, 1858. Accepting an invitation "to discharge the duties of a pastor" to the First Congregational Church and Society in Wol- cottville, (, Torrington), Ct., he has discharged there such duties since 15 May, 1859; though, in accordance with his preference expressed, the formality of an installation has been waved. Of his writings, other than anonymous contributions in journals, have been published : A Discourse on the Nature and Means of Ecclesiastical Prosperity, delivered at the Dedication of the House of Worship in Terrysville, Ct., August 8th, 1838,-Hart- ford, 1839; A Discourse on Free Discussion, delivered in Har- winton, Ct., February 17th, 1839,-Hartford, 1839; A Discourse on the Maintenance of Moral Purity, delivered, 13 September 1840, in the course of his ordinary pastoral instructions to the Evangelical Church and Society in Athol, Ms.,-(in The Friend of Virtue,) Boston, 1841; Memoir of Eli Thorp,-(by the Mas- sachusetts Sabbath School Society,) Boston, 1842.
During the fifth pastorate of this Church there were, as re- spects matters pertaining to public worship, some changes for the better introduced. The Society, 29 Oct., 1837 :
Voted to Slip [put 'slips' into] the meeting house.
That work, done in the winter following, occasioned a second beneficial innovation,-as expressed 19 March, 1838:
Resolved By this meeting that this Ecclesiastical Society will on the 2nd Monday of April next procede to lease the slips in the meeting house for one year from the 1st day of April [, etc.]
Thus passed away, with the old pews,* the ancient custom of 'dignifying' them and 'seating the Meeting-house ;'t and, at the same time, was commenced a different method of raising the means by which the cost of sustaining religious services is pro- vided.
Within the same period, as also previously, there lived here a few individuals of the Methodist Episcopal Church. No
*See, in Appendix, Note BB.
+See, in Appendix, Note AA.
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organization of them has here been effected. A young minister of that denomination, for a few months before his decease resi- dent but not officiating in Harwinton, Rev. Myron W. Peck, died 23 May, 1837. Amiable, devout, resigned; though disap- pointed in his hope of spending years in the work he had cho- sen, the hope itself showed that, as in Josiah, so "in him there was found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel."
THE SIXTH PASTOR.
Rev. Charles Bentley was invited to become pastor of the Congregational Church, in the summer of 1839. The action of the Society to that effect was taken, 16 June, 1839. He was duly installed in that relation, 11 Sept., 1839; and dismissed from it, 15 Jan., 1850.
Mr. Bentley is a native of Tyringham, Ms. He graduated at Amherst College, in 1824. He studied theology with Rev. Al- len McLean, of Simsbury. He was ordained and installed pas- tor of the Congregational Church in (Middle Haddam,) Chatham, 16 Feb., 1826; and dismissed thence, 22 May, 1833 He was installed pastor of the Congregational Church at (Salmon Brook,) Granby, in Aug., 1833; and dismissed thence, in April, 1839. He was installed at (Greens Farms,) Fairfield, 22 May, 1850; and dismissed thence, 18 May, 1858. He was installed pastor of the Congregational Church at (West) Willington, 27 Oct., 1858.
In 1843, the galleries in the Congregational Church edifice were made lower, the 'sittings' in them differently arranged, and those in the Choir gallery brought farther forward; while the arch in the ceiling ceased to be, and the stately but too elevated pulpit gave way to one which quite as well answers a pulpit's especial design. These changes in its interior, if they have not added to the architectural effect, have increased the convenience, of the building. Although of those worshipping in it some can easily remember when it was reared, and can as easily recal the time when with those of a former generation they worshipped in the older one; yet this, too, has about it now that venerable- ness which a religious use long-continued gives; and, preserved
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well in the future, as it has been in the past, may it, touched softly by the hand of time, remain yet many years, undefaced, cherished, loved, "the house of God " and "the gate of heaven."
As before referred to, in 1840 the Town erected a Hall above which the Episcopal Society constructed an edifice for worship. The renewed ministrations in Harwinton of Rev. Frederick Holcomb, D.D., of Watertown, were contributive to the prose- cution of that design.
THE SEVENTH PASTOR.
Rev. Warren G. Jones was installed pastor of the Congrega- tional Church, 3 Oct., 1850; from which relation he was dis- missed, 7 June, 1853.
Mr. Jones, born at (Millington,) East Haddam, graduated at Union College, 1831. Having studied a year and a half at the Theological Seminary in Princeton, N. J., he finished his profes- sional preparation under the care of the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, Pa., and by that body, a licentiate of which he became 6 June, 1833, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Drawyers (Presbyterian,) Church, in St. George's Hundred, New Castle Co., Del., 20 Nov., 1833. After three years, his pastorate there was terminated by dismission. He was installed pastor of the Congregational Church in South Glastenbury, Ct., 26 July, 1837, and dismissed thence, 27 Aug., 1850. He com- menced, 1 May, 1853, the enterprise which resulted in the for- mation of the Market Street (Congregational) Church in Hart- ford. His labors in that relation were relinquished, 1 April, 1858. He resides in Hartford still; officiating, since 1859, in the Second Congregational Church in Manchester. Writings of Mr. Jones published, otherwise than in journals, are: Piety Honored after Death, a sermon preached on occasion of the death of Pardon Brown, Esq., a Deacon in the Congregational Church in South Glastenbury; A Correct Account of the Dis- cussion held in the Meeting House of the Congregational Church in South Glastenbury, Jan. 30 and 31, 1850, between the Pastor of that Church and Elder Joseph Turner, on the Immortality of the Soul; Assured Hope, a sermon occasioned by the death of Truman Kellogg [, Esq.], at Harwinton.
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THE EIGHTH PASTOR.
Rev. Jacob Gerritt Miller was installed pastor of the Congre- gational Church, 13 July, 1854. He was dismissed from that relation, 11 May, 1857.
Mr. Miller, a native of Sandlake, N. Y., graduated at Wil- liams College, 1848, and at the Theological Seminary, Auburn, N. Y., 1851. He was ordained as an evangelist by the Presby- tery of Troy, N. Y., at Whitehall in that State, 13 Dec., 1852. After his dismission from Harwinton, he ministered to the Pres- byterian congregation at Green Island (near Troy), N. Y. He was installed, colleague pastor of the Congregational Church in Branford, Ct., 20 Oct., 1859.
THE NINTH PASTOR.
Rev. John Alexander McKinstry was installed pastor of the Congregational Church here, 1 Oct., 1857.
Mr. Mckinstry, born at Chicopee (, then a part of Springfield), Ms., a graduate of Amherst College, 1838, and of the Theological Institute, East Windsor, Ct., 1841, had been ordained and installed pastor of the Congregational Church in Torrington (parish, Tor- rington) 5 Oct., 1842, and dismissed thence, 28 Sept., 1857.
"And the prophets, .....? " Of the nine persons, successively pastors of the Congregational Church in Harwinton during the one hundred and twenty-two years of its existence, all, except him who now sustains to it that relation, have been separated from it by dismission. All of those dismissed hence, the first excepted, have subsequently to that event performed the stated work of ministers, most of them as once or oftener pastors, to other congregations. Of this number, elsewhere as in Harwin- ton successful in their ministrations to a degree requiring of them gratitude to God, all, the two eldest excepted, are still liv- ing and working. Of the three deceased ones, the first was freed from his pastorate, before he died in Harwinton; the sec- ond, from his with another people, before he died in their Town; the third, after his pastoral relation here ceased, did not form such a connection again. Just the incumbent omitted, of only the two first among the nine, though all of them have been par-
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ents, are there any descendants who at the present time are resi- idents here; and to these descendants, comprised mainly in two households, pertain other surnames.
DEACONS.
The persons whose names follow, the first date adjoined to each denoting the year of election, were in succession chosen to and have sustained the relation of deacon in the Congregational Church : Jacob Benton, Sen., 1738; Daniel Phelps, 2d, 1738; Capt. John Wilson, Jr.,* 1760, died 12 Dec., 1799; Daniel Cat- lin, Sen., 1779 ; died 25 Aug., 1795; Maj. Cyprian Webster, Jr., 1793, died 14 April, 1809; Daniel Catlin, Jr., Esq., 1795, died 8 July, 1804; Col. Abner Barber, 1802, died 30 Nov., 1815; Noadiah Hart, 1802, removed from Town; Benjamin Griswold, Esq., 1804, died 14 July, 1827; Enos Frisbie, Sen. 1809, died 4 April, 1829; Benjamin Catlin, 1814, died 11 July, 1835; Richard Bristol, 1820, removed from Town, 1838; Minor Smith, 1829, died 10 Aug., 1832; Norman Wilson, 1832, died 27 Aug., 1841; Jonathan Balch, 1835; Samuel Wilson, Sen., 1841; Wyllys Clark, 1841; Hart Barker, 1847.
May 24th, 1838. [The Church] met according to adjournment ; and, taking into consideration the matter of choosing a deacon,
Voted, that we will choose a deacon, to continue in office the term of ten years.
The present deacons having expressed a wish to have their term of office [placed] on the same footing as [that of] the deacons to be chosen ; the brethren concurred in such an arrangement, having previously ex- pressed by uplifted hands their unanimous desire to have the existing deacons retain their offices until that extent of time may have come.t
The "extent" was subsequently reduced to five years. Of course the figures suffixed to the names of Messrs. Balch, (ex- deacon as on his own application dismissed,) Wilson, Clark, Barker, (present incumbents,) specify the times when these were first chosen. The other gentlemen are deceased. Such were their works, such was their characters, such influence from them
*His father held the same office in Windsor Church. Deed in Harwinton Rec- ords, Book I.
+Church Records, Book III.
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is still perceptible, as to make the apostolic words their appro- priate memorial : "They that have used the office of a deacon well."
CHAPTER IV.
DIVINE WORDS AND STATUTES TAKE HOLD.
The earliest dwellers in Harwinton did not come hither in vain. The Town and the Church which, Providence favoring them, they established, still bear and always will bear an im- press which they gave. In the effects of the work which they wrought are monuments, all around those who now dwell here, of their enterprise and their energy, of their wisdom and zeal and love. Influences which emanated from them come on you every day. You should be as ready to imitate their character, in whatever excellence it had, as you are to revere their memory. So much, in respect to them, remains ; but themselves "your fathers, where are they ?" That one of the first comers hither who lived the longest, not many now alive saw. He that died the last of their number was buried about the time when the present century begun. Indeed, the years now are not few since, from the soil which they broke to the plough, their chil- dren, too, have all passed away .* Of the fair and fruitful fields which they once tilled, the beauty is seen by the eyes, and the harvest is reaped by the hands, of the children of their chil- dren's children. Useful as sad are the thoughts, "Your fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, do they live forever?" In their frailty, as in a mirror, is seen our own. Yet, surely, it is not less useful to hear that voice which invites us to connect such humbling reflections on man's weakness, with consoling re- membrances of God's strength : " All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the field, but the word of the LORD endureth forever; and this is the word which by the gos- pel is preached unto you."
*See, in Appendix, Note II.
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To communities, as to individuals, the interests most impor- tant are those which relate to religion. For the reason that these interests are as unobtrusive as they are urgent in their de- mands, it is not always that either themselves, or the events which most signally illustrate them, appear prominently in a community's history. In Harwinton, during two-thirds of the time it has existed, no other events have been so conspicuous and impressive.
It is not improbable that the influence, which led the Church at its origin to adopt and through forty years thereafter to main- tain 'the half-way covenant' practice, came from that leading portion of our first settlers who emigrated from the Town where, in 1657, views favorable to that practice were held, and where, in 1696, that practice was strongly established. It seems certain that the character which the Church, and through the Church the Town, has borne in more recent times, may be attributable, so far as such agencies can be traced, to the circumstance that the other principal part of our earliest immigrants were emi- grants from the Town where, in 1734, began in this Colony a memorable revival of religion which afterwards overspread New England. That manifestation of "power from on high," since referred to as 'the great awakening,' "commenced in the First Parish in Windsor [, Ct.], about the same time as at Northamp- ton [, Ms]. It was remarkable at East Windsor."* As it extend- ed and wrought out its effects, it arrested the progress of many evils. It set up barriers against that corruption of principles and deterioration of morals which had for more than half of a century been like a violent tide rolling in. It showed that the lamentations of patriots over this degeneracy, and the prayers of good men that it might be stayed, had not in vain ascended to Heaven. So many Windsor people came hither, with the influences of that "power" fresh in their minds that if they did not give body and shape, they at least imparted a manifest col- oring, to all that has here become history. To them, under God, do we ascribe the facts, that a religious spirit has been so preva-
*The Great Awakening. A History, &c. By Joseph Tracy.
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lent in Harwinton, and that this spirit, especially at some sea- sons, has been made remarkable by so decisive manifestations.
There being found no records of the Church kept while Mr. Bartholomew was its pastor, we are without evidence, either that the tone of its piety was increased, or that the number of its members was enlarged, on special occasions in his ministry. Such augmentations there may have been. It might seem from the absence of direct testimony to that effect, that such did not happen; but an argument from the same premise would prove as conclusively, that in his ministry the Church had no deacons. Only indirect evidence, the title applied in the Town's Rec- ords to their names, is furnished that such officers existed here in his time.
Visible tokens of the divine approbation accompanied Mr. Perry's ministrations. Since the cessation of that great religious movement whose origin was coeval with Harwinton's; similar seasons had been so few that, till the year when he began his pastorate, "we cannot find more than fifteen places in New Eng- land in which there was a special work of grace."* There were admitted to this Church in that year, in April, 15 members; in May, 15; in June, 9; in July, 43; in October, 1; in Novem- ber, 2; in the remaining time of his ministry, 38.+ Two thirds of the accessions to church membership, while he was pastor here, resulted from religious revivals.
As has in a previous connexion been mentioned, in the som- bre years, 'dark ages' in miniature they were, that came after Mr. Perry had gone, the way became gradually prepared for those times of brightness to follow which never, since their re- turn, have wholly withdrawn. In the first year of the pastorate of Mr. Williams, there was evident an improved state of things. The number of members of the Church increased, in that period, from 131 to 153 .¿ Fifteen of the persons then admitted Mr. Williams regarded as the "converts," made during " a small re-
*Christian Spectator, June, 1833.
+Church Records, Book I.
#Church Records, Book II.
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vival of religion."* In 1799, such a season more extensive was experienced. It commenced in February on a week-day, at a meeting in which "a lecture had been previously appointed. The congregation was very large, and the effects of the Word were very visible. In the evening another sermon was preached and some exhortations given. The effects were still more visi- ble. It is believed that, on this and the two succeeding days, more than a hundred persons received deep impressions of their miserable state; and many of them were feelingly convicted of their total depravity of heart ... Many were brought to see that a selfish religion, such as theirs was, was unsafe; and that they must have a principle, higher than the fear of hell or desire of happiness, to prompt them in the path of life ... Several were brought under sorrowful and distressing conviction at midnight, on their beds-and many in such circumstances that it could not be accounted for on any principle, but the sovereign power and mercy of God." "From the 14th to the 20th of April, there were eighteen instances of hopeful conversion;" from the be- ginning to the close of the season under review, "about one hundred and forty," principally of persons who were from twen- ty-five to forty-five years of age. Mr. Williams, in his "ac- count"+ from which these statements are taken, said: "Some of the most unlikely to human appearance have been the subjects of this work. The high and the low, the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor, the mere moralist and the scoffer, the professor and the profligate, the profane and the inconsiderate ... have been wrought upon ... Surely it is all done by the blessing of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace." The number of admissions to the Church thus occasioned was, in 1799, one hun- dred. Mr. Williams described another season of this kind.t Beginning "about the middle of September, 1805," "its prog- ress was very rapid, attended with marks of divine sovereignty." It continued, "without very sensible abatement, for nearly six months; in which time numbers were hopefully converted, and
*His Autobiography.
+See herein, at p. 79, Note (+).
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such visible tokens of divine grace ... were exhibited, as gave oc- casion for the warmest thanksgiving." "The wicked heart seemed to be overawed by the majesty and the sovereignty of the work; and to appear as an opposer was to appear to be led, not by rational views of things, but by the spirit which actuated the Jews in their opposition to the work of God, when Paul and Barnabas were preaching successfully at Antioch ... Like the form- er, this awakening has extended into almost every part of the society, but the converts [in this] are not so numerous. The number now is seventy-five." "Though a few were of middle age, yet generally they were between the age of thirteen and twenty-five ... In the former awakening it was observed, that the subjects of it being principally heads of families cast a delight- ful aspect on the rising generation; and now with pleasure we record that many of the late converts are the children of those who then introduced family instruction and prayer." The ac- cessions to the Church, in 1806, were sixty-two. Another sea- son of peculiar attention here to religion was more remarkable, both in the evidence of divine power which it exhibited, and in its enduring great results. God's work in the heart, as Mr. Wil- liams represented it,# was, at this time, effected with such rapidi- ty that human instrumentality seemed almost entirely excluded. The reading of the Scriptures was in a wonderful degree effec- tive. 'The sword of the Spirit appeared as if drawn from its sheath, and, in the hands of a more than human agent, glisten- ing with a surprising brightness.' The stoutest spirits were laid low. Those who at this time seemed to have become in- deed 'renewed in the temper of their minds,' were not mere chil- dren, who might be deemed to have been effected by sympathy or excited by impassioned appeals, but, for the most part, adult persons, varying from twenty to seventy years in age. It was disclosed, however, in regard to some of the youngest of that company, that they were those for whom mothers had spent many a midnight hour in beseeching that spiritual blessings might be given them, and over whom now those same mothers, their prayers answered in fulfilment of the promises, were re- joicing that the relatives so dear to them had, in the highest
*See herein, at page 79, Note (+).
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sense, become indeed "children of God." The number of per- sons added to the Church, in 1816, was one hundred and three .* Its members, 5 Jan., 1817, eleven having on that day been re- ceived, were three hundred and forty-one; 2 May, 1819, three hundred and twenty-six .*
The second year of the pastorate of Dr. Pierce " was distin- guished as a season of special grace. In the latter part of Feb- ruary, 1824, there appeared a deep and solemn impression on the minds of the people, manifestly the effect of divine influence. The work, at its commencement, was powerful and rapid. In the space of about three weeks seventy, a large proportion of them men and heads of families, expressed hopes of having ob- tained an interest in Christ. The work afterwards was more gradual and regular in its progress. It lasted till September or October when it gradually declined."+ "During the second or third week of the revival, thirty expressed similar hopes." " Among the means blessed in promoting it, were religious visi- ting and conversation on the part of the members of the church. The scene was active, rather than passive; yet there was great reliance on divine influence." " While it continued, the impres- sion was very general, 'It is the work of God;' and there was little or no opposition to it."; "As the result of this revival, on the first Sabbath in September, a day of great interest and solemnity, one hundred and twenty-six, most of them people in mature life and many of them advanced in age, were added to the Church; the first Sabbath in November, twenty more were added, and four afterwards; making a total of one hundred and fifty [additions]. The principal part of the adult population, who were in the habit of attending on the means of grace, were now members of the Church, and the Church, embracing four hundred members, enjoyed a season of unexampled prosperity."+
*Church Records, Book II. In that, on a cover, Mr. Williams has written : "By my records it appears that, during my pastoral connection, 3 years, 11 months at Southampton, and 32 years at Harwinton, the number of those admitted to com- munion with hopeful evidence of true piety is 486." See, herein, at page 73.
+MS. of Dr. Pierce.
#Church Records, Book III.
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" No general revival was experienced from 1824 to 1831. Af- ter seven years of captivity, God appeared to redeem his people, to sound the trump of jubilee and bid the slaves of sin and Sa- tan become the freemen of the Lord." "This revival, like the former, commenced not far from the first of March, and from the first [it] was very powerful among the youth in different parts of the town. A large number of hopeful conversions took place, during the first few weeks of its progress." "In Novem- ber, when the work had in a great measure declined, it was deemed expedient to hold a protracted meeting, in the [then] usual form, of five days continuance. The exercises of this meeting, upon which large congregations attended, appeared to be accompanied with great power from on high, and, during the meeting and the few succeeding weeks, more than fifty [persons] of different ages supposed they had reason to believe, they had "passed from death unto life." There were additions, [made] to the Church at five successive seasons of Communion, in all amounting to one hundred and fifty [persons]. In a new year's sermon, [preached] the first Sabbath in January, 1832, which [time] was about the close of this revival, it was stated that there were four hundred and forty members in the Church, which is probably the largest number that were ever in the Church at one time."*
Bythe fourth pastor of the Congregational Church baptism was "administered to forty-one persons at the time of their ad- mission to the Church, also to about two hundred infant children of church members."* Records of the baptisms administered here by his predecessors in the pastoral office do not appear, ex- cept those for the years 1816-1821 inclusive.
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