USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Redding > The history of Redding, Conn., from its first settlement to the present time : with notes on the Adams, Banks Stow families > Part 7
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Rev. Daniel Crocker, of Bedford, N. Y .. was called in August, 1809, as colleague with Rev. Na- thaniel Bartlett. He was a good man and a success- ful pastor, and served the church fifteen years, being
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
dismissed in 1824. The Rev. Charles De Witt Tap- pen was called, but not settled. The next pastor chosen was Mr. William C. Kniffen in 1825. He was dismissed in 1828. The Rev. Burr Baldwin was next called, but not settled. The next pastor was the Rev. William L. Strong, formerly pastor at Somers, Tolland. Co., Conn. He was installed June 23d, 1830, and dismissed Feb. 26th, 1835. In Sep- tember, 1835, following Mr. Strong's dismissal, a sub- scription was commenced for the erection of the pres- ent church edifice, which was built in 1836. The expense was not to exceed $2500 with the old meet- ing-house. In December of the same year a unani- mous call was extended to the Rev. David C. Com- stock, but was not accepted at that time. In March, 1837, Rev. Daniel E. Manton was called, but not set- tled. In June of the same year the Rev. Jeremiah Miller was called, and was installed July 12th, 1837. Mr. Miller was dismissed in 1839. In the following year, 1840, Mr. David C. Comstock was ordained and installed pastor of the church. He was dis- missed in 1845. After him Daniel D. Frost, after preaching as stated supply for eighteen months, was ordained December 30th, 1845. He continued pas- tor ten years, being dismissed October 13th, 1856. In 1857 the pulpit was supplied by the Rev. Mr. Root. In 1858 the Rev. Enoch S. Huntington supplied the pulpit one year. He presented the communion ser- vice to the church, for which he received its thanks. In 1859 the church was remodelled and painted, re- ceiving the beautiful fresco which still adorns it. In 1860 Rev. W. D. Herrick became pastor, and so con- tinued until 1864. After him Rev. E. B. Hunting- ton, and also Rev. Mr. Barnum, preached for a short
HISTORY OF REDDING.
time. Rev. S. F. Farmer supplied in 1865. Rev. K. B. Glidden was installed September 12th, 1866 ; resigned December, 1868. In 1869 the Rev. Charles Chamberlain became acting pastor. He resigned in September, 1871.
Rev. Sidney G. Law, to whom I am indebted for the above summary of the later history of the church. became acting pastor June 1st, 1872, and after a prosperous ministry of six years resigned in 1878.
Rev. W. J. Jennings, the present pastor, was in- stalled December 17th, 1879. Some statistics of this ancient church ready gathered to my hand will prove interesting and valuable. The complete list of those who have served it as pastors, with the date of their ordination and dismissal, is as follows :
MINISTERS.
SETTLED.
DISMISSED.
DIED.
Nathaniel Hunn.
Mar. 21, 1733. .
1749 ..
Nathaniel Bartlett.
May 23, 1753. .
Jan. 11, 1810.
Jonathan Bartlett ..
Feb. 3, 1796. ..
June 7, 1809 .. .
Mar. 22, 1858 .
Daniel Crocker.
Oct. 4, 1809 .
Oct. 24, 1824.
William C. Kniffen. .
June 8, 1825. . .
Dec. 17, 1828.
William L. Strong.
June 23, 1830. .
Feb. 26, 1835.
Jeremiah Miller
July 12, 1837. .
July 23, 1839 . .
David C. Comstock.
Mar. 4, 1840. . .
April 8, 1845. .
Daniel D. Frost. .
Dec. 30, 1846. . 1858.
Oct. 15, 1856. . 1859
W. D. Herrick
1860.
1864
K. B. Glidden
Sept. 12, 1866 ..
Dec., 1868.
Charles Chamberlain.
1869.
Sept., 1871.
Sidney G. Law
June 1, 1872 ...
June 1, 1878.
DEACONS.
APPOINTED.
DEACONS.
APPOINTED.
Stephen Burr 1733
Lemuel Sanford. 1808
Theophilus Hull.
1733
Aaron Read.
1808
Lemuel Sanford. .1740
Joel Foster. 1820
Daniel Mallory 1740
Lemuel Hawley .1832
Joseph Banks. 1776
Samuel Read. . 1832
Simon Couch. 1776
Charles D. Smith 1854
Lemuel Sanford.
1785
Rufus Meade. . 1854
Stephen Betts
1785 Thaddeus M. Abbott.
1854
Enoch S. Huntington.
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
REVIVALS.
YEAR.
CONVERSIONS.
YEAR.
CONVERSIONS.
1808-9
1838. 30
1823
40
1852.
2-4
1829
8
1855.
12
1931
.20
The present membership of the church is 119. Males, 40 ; females, 79.
CHAPTER VI.
CHRIST CHURCH.
1722-1879. BY REV. ALANSON WELTON.
THE present town of Redding is one of the few places in the old Colony of Connecticut where the Episcopal ministry is entitled to the distinction of having been first on the ground, laying foundations, and not building upon those already laid. The Church of England was not planted in New England without strenuous and bitter opposition from the Puritans, who were first in the field. By old Eng- lish law, indeed, that church was established in all the plantations ; yet it is manifest from the records of the colonial legislation of the charter government of Connecticut, that previously to 1727, the church of which the king was a member was not recognized as having a right to exist. Congregationalism was the established religion. "in opposition to which there could be no ministry or church administration entertained or attended by the inhabitants of any
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
town or plantation, upon penalty of fifty pounds for every breach of this act ;" and every person in the colony was obliged to pay taxes for the support of this establishment.
In this uncongenial soil the Anglican Church of Connecticut was planted-strange to say, not by foreign-born missionaries, but by seceders from the ministry of the Congregationalists. The pioneers in this movement were Timothy Cutler, Rector of Yale College, Daniel Brown, Tutor ; James Wetmore, of North Haven ; and Samuel Johnson, of West Haven, a former tutor in the college. These gentlemen, after a professedly careful and prayerful examination of the subject of church order, discipline, and worship, which resulted in a conviction that the English Church followed most closely the teaching of the Scriptures and the practice of the church of the first ages, sent to the trustees of the college a formal statement of their views, and declared for Episcopacy -- to the no small surprise and consternation of their colleagues in the college and church. The four went to Eng- land for Episcopal ordination, where Brown died. The three survivors returned in 1722, as missionaries of the " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
in Foreign Parts," Johnson only being sent to Con- necticut. The ante-Revolutionary history of the church at Redding Ridge is mostly to be found in the archives of this Society, as published in the " Documentary History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Connecticut," and the Rev. Dr. Beards- ley's "History of the Episcopal Church in Connec- ticut''-from which sources, mainly, this sketch has been compiled.
.
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IHISTORY OF REDDING.
A letter was addressed to the secretary of the S. P. G., dated October 19th, 1722, signed by John Glover and twelve other heads of families in New- town, Thomas Wheeler, of Woodbury, and Moses Knapp, of Chestnut Ridge, thanking the Society for the services of the Rev. George Pigot, missionary at Stratford, and earnestly soliciting the appointment of a missionary for themselves at Newtown.
The next year, 1723, Mr. Pigot was transferred to Newport, R. I., and the Rev. Samuel Johnson, his successor at Stratford, " accepted all his missionary duties in Connecticut."
In 1727, the Rev. Henry Caner [pronounce Canner] was sent to Fairfield, of which town Chestnut Ridge was a part. After having named in his report the several villages or hamlets in the vicinity of his sta- tion, he says : "Besides these, there is a village northward from Fairfield about eighteen miles, con- taining near twenty families, where there is no min- ister at all, of any denomination whatsoever ; the name of it is Chestnut Ridge, and where I usually preach or lecture once in three weeks." In 1728 he says there are four villages " about Fairfield, -Green Farms, Greenfield, Poquannuck and Chestnut Ridge, three of them about four miles distant, the last about sixteen. The same year, the name of Moses Knapp appears as a vestryman of the church at Fairfield.
In 1729, " Moses Knap, Nathan Lion, and Daniel Crofoot" objected, in a meeting of the [Presbyteri- an] " Society of Redding" "against" the " hiering" any other than a minister of the Church of England. These three names appear again in the list of Mr.
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
Beach's parishioners in 1738. The Rev. Dr. Bur- hams [Churchman's Magazine, 1823] says : " The first Churchman in Reading was a Mr. Richard Lyon, from Ireland, who died as early as 1735." He also says on the authority of " an aged member of the Church in Reading," that "Messrs. [Richard ?] Lyon, [Stephen] Morehouse, [Moses] Knapp, [Joshua] Hall, [William] Hill, [Daniel] Crofoot, and [Lieut. Samuel] Fairchild, appear to have composed the first Church in Reading." Nathan Lyon died in 1757, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. Mr. Caner reported in 1728 seven families at Chestnut Ridge ; the number reminding us of the "House of Wis- dom" with its " Seven Pillars," as the first Puritan organization at New Haven was named.
Mr. Caner was succeeded at Chestnut Ridge, in 1732, by the Rev. John Beach, a pupil of Johnson in Yale College, and afterward Presbyterian minister at Newtown for several years. As Mr. Beach was a resident of East Redding for about twenty years. and pastor of this church full half a century, his history is substantially that of the parish, or mission, over which he presided. His pastorate was the longest of all the ante-Revolutionary clergy. He was born in Stratford, October 6th, 1700 ; graduated from Yale at the age of twenty-one, and licensed to preach soon afterwards. He is said to have been selected for the Presbyterian pastorate at Newtown as a " popu- lar and insinuating young man," well fitted to check the growth of Episcopacy, which was there thriving under the ministry of Caner and Johnson. Many Churchmen must have " joined in settling him with Presbyterian ordination," for in 1722 they claimed
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
to be a majority of the population, whereas, for some- time after his " settlement," Mr. Johnson ministered to only about five families. "From these visits . . . frequent and earnest discussions resulted be- tween the two teachers, the influence of which was soon evident to Mr. Beach's congregation. After two or three years of patient study and meditation he alarmed his congregation by his frequent use of the Lord's Prayer ; and still more by reading whole chapters from the Word of God. Next he ventured to condemn a custom, common in their meetings, of rising and bowing to the minister, as he came in among them, and instead of which he begged them to kneel down and worship God. At length [in January, 1731], " after he had been a preacher more than eight years, he told them from the pulpit that, ' From a serious and prayerful examination of the Scriptures, and of the records of the early ages of the Church, and from the universal acknowledgment of Episcopal government for fifteen hundred years, compared with the recent establishment of Presby- terian and Congregational discipline,' he was fully persuaded of the invalidity of his ordination, and of the unscriptural method of organizing and governing congregations as by them practised. He therefore, ' In the face of Almighty God,' had made up his mind to ' conform to the Church of England, as be- ing Apostolical in her ministry and discipline, ortho- dox in her doctrine, and primitive in her worship.' He affectionately exhorted them to weigh the sub- ject well ; engaged to provide for the due adminis- tration of the sacraments while absent from them, and spoke of his intended return from England in
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
holy orders. So greatly was he beloved, that a large proportion of his people seemed ready to acquiesce in his determination." But the others, in evident alarm and consternation at this " threatened defection from their ranks," held a town meeting " to consult" as to " what was possible to be done with the Rev. Mr. John Beach, under present diffi- culties ;" "voted to have a [day of] solemn fasting and prayer ; . to call in the Ecclesiastical Council of Fairfield to direct and do what they shall think proper, under the . difficult circum- stances respecting the Rev. Mr. Beach, and the in- habitants of the town of Newtown-also that the first Wednesday of February [1732] be appointed for the fast."
The council met, and in spite of Mr. Beach's re- monstrances proceeded to depose him from the min- istry. "From this resulted a printed discussion" between him and his deposers, which ultimately helped rather than hindered the Church of England.
Mr. Beach returned from England in Episcopal orders, and took charge of the Newtown and Red- ding mission in the autumn of 1732. From this pe- riod his history and that of his mission may be more accurately told in the language of his own letters to the Secretary of the S. P. G.
"NEWTOWN IN CONNECTICUT, August 2th, 1235.
" REVEREND SIR, I think it my duty to acquaint the venerable Society with the present state of my parish, although the alteration since my last has not been very considerable. I have baptized twenty- nine children and admitted twenty-five persons more to the communion, so that the number
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
now at Newtown, Reading, and the places adjacent, is ninety-five. I preach frequently and administer the Sacrament at Ridgefield . about eight- een miles distant where there are about fourteen or eighteen families of very serious and religious people who have a just esteem of the Church of England, and are very desirous to have the opportunity of worshipping God in that
way. I have constantly preached, one Sunday at Newtown ; and the other at Reading ; and after I have preached at Reading in the day-time, I preach at Newtown in the evening ; and although I have not that success I could wish for, yet I do, and hope I always shall, faithfully endeavour (as far as my poor ability will allow,) to promote that good work, that the venerable Society sent and main- tained for me. I am, Rev. Sir,
" Your most humble servant, " JOHN BEACH."
As a specimen of his manner of defending himself against personal attacks we have the following from a controversial pamphlet, in reply to John Dickin- son, of New Jersey, in 1736 :
" I have evened the scale of my judgement as much as possibly I could, and to the best of my knowledge, I have not allowed one grain of worldly motive on either side. I have supposed myself on the brink of eternity, just going into the other world, to give up my acccount to my great Judge ; and must I be branded for an antichrist or heretic, or apostate, be- cause my judgement determines that the Church of England is most agreeable to the Word of God ? I can speak in the presence of God, who knows my heart better than you do, that I would willingly turn Dissenter again, if you, or any man living will show me reason for it. But it must be reason (whereby I exclude not the Word of God, which is the highest
ยท
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
reason. ) and not sophistry and calumny, as you have hitherto used, that will convince a lover of truth and right."
In 1739 he says: "I have one hundred and twenty-three communicants, but they live so far dis- tant from cach other, that commonly I can adminis- ter to no more than about fifty at once, which occa- sions my administering it the more frequently ; and, though I meet with many discouragements, vet I have this satisfaction, that all my communicants (one or two excepted) do adorn their profession by a sober, righteous and godly life." In 1743, some three years after Whitefield began his famous "re- vival of Puritanism," Mr. Beach says : " My people are not at all shaken, but rather confirmed in their principles by the spirit of enthusiasm that rages among the Independents roundabout us ; and many of the Dissenters, observing how steadfast our peo- ple are . while those of their own denomi- nation are easily carried away with every kind of doctrine, have conceived a much better opinion of our Church than they formerly had, and a considera- ble number in this colony have lately conformed, and several Churches are now building where they have no minister.
Were there in this country but one of the Episcopal order, to whom young men might apply for ordination, without the expense and danger of a voyage to England, many of our towns might be supplied which must now remain desti- tute." (This letter is dated at " Reading, in New England," as all his published reports are, between 1740 and 1760.) "My people are poor, (he con- tinues) and have but few negro slaves, but all they 8
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
have, I have, after instruction, baptized, and some of them are communicants." In October of the same year he says : "I beg the venerable Society's direction in an affair I am just now perplexed with. There are about twenty families at New- Milford and New-Fairfield, which are about fifteen miles hence. I preach to them several times a year, but seldom on the Lord's day. They frequently come to Church at Newtown ; but by reason of the distance, they can't attend constantly, and their families very seldom, and, when they can't come to Church, they meet together in their own town, and one of their number reads some part of the common prayer and a sermon. They are now building a
Church. But the Independents, to suppress the design in its infancy, . have lately prose- cuted and fined them for their meeting to worship God according to the common prayer. The case of these poor people is very hard ; if, on the Lord's day, they continue at home, they must be punished ; if they meet to worship God according to the Church of England in the best manner they can, the mulet is much greater ; and if they go to the Independent meeting they must endure the mortification of hearing the Church vilified."
After the death of the Rev. Joshua Honeyman missionary at Newport R. I. in 1750, the church of which he had the care, petitioned the Society that Mr. Beach might be sent to them, as their minister. The petition was granted, but Mr. Beach felt con- strained, on account of feeble health to decline the appointment ; fearing, as he said, that " the people might complain that a wornout man was imposed upon them."
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
The first church on Redding Ridge, which was built in 1733, and was quite small, was in 1750 re- placed by another on the same site, fifty feet long and thirty-six wide, surmounted by a turret, which, in 1797, was replaced by a steeple in which was placed the first bell. This church, according to the style of the period, was furnished with square, high- backed pews, with seats on their four sides ; so that some of their occupants had to sit with their backs to the minister. And though others doubtless be- sides Bishop Jarvis " could see no necessary con- nection between piety and freezing," there was no heating apparatus in the churches until considerably past the beginning of the present century. "Trinity Church, New Haven, had no means of being warmed until 1822, and none of the rural churches were sup- plied with stoves until a much later period." Many persons in the rural districts were in the habit of walking several miles, barefooted, to church in sum- mer, and probably did not feel the lack of shoes a great privation. So common was it for men to go to church without their coats, that the first time Bishop Seabury preached in New Haven, a dissenting hearer reported that " he preached in his shirt-sleeves." Often the family was mounted, the parents with a child in arms to be christened, upon one horse, and the older children upon another. Sometimes the whole family were clustered together upon the ox- cart or sled, and thus they went up to the house of God.
In 1759, three years after the breaking out of the "Old French War," Mr. Beach, writing from " Reading, Connecticut, in N. England," says :
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
"My parish is in a flourishing condition, in all re- spects, excepting that we have lost some of our young men in the army ; more, indeed by sickness than by the sword, for this countrymen do not bear a campaign so well as Europeans."
Dr. Johnson's playful remark to his son that, " Mr. Beach had always these seeming inconsisten- cies, to be always dying, and yet relishing mundane things," would seem to indicate that his friend was not really so near death's-door as he often imagined himself : for example, in 1761, when he says : "My painful and weak state of body admonishes me that, although this may not be the last time of my writ- ing, yet the last cannot be far off ;" and he had sup- posed himself a " worn out man" several years be- fore.
Writing from "New-Town Oct. 3, 1764," he re- ports : "My congregation at Reading has increased very little for some years past, by reason that many who were wont to attend there, though living at a distance of 6, 8, or 10 miles, have lately built [each] a small church near them, where they can more conveniently meet ; viz., at Danbury, Ridgbury, North Fairfield and North Stratford ; which has very much retarded the growth of the congregation at Reading : which now consists of about 300 hearers at one time." Under date of April, 1765, he says : " I am now engaged in a controversy with some of the Independent Ministers about those absurd doctrines, the sum of which is contained in a thesis published by New Haven College last Sep- tember. . . They expressty deny that there is any law of Grace, which promises eternal life upon
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the condition of faith, repentance and sincere obe- dience ; and assert justification only by the law of innocence and sinless obedience. Though my health is small, and my abilities less, I make it a rule never to enter into any dispute with them unless they begin, yet now they have made the assault, and ad- vocate such monstrous errors as do subvert the Gos- pel, I think myself obliged by my ordination vow, to guard the people as well as I can against such strange doctrines."
Again he writes in October of the same year, after the publication of that precursor of Revolution, the memorable "Stamp Act," of 1765: "My parishes continue much in the same condition as in my last. I have of late, taken pains to warn my people against having any concern with seditious tumults with re- lation to the stamp duty enjoined upon us by the Legislature at home : and I can with truth and pleas- ure say, that I cannot discover the least inclination towards rebellious conduct in any of the Church people." A year later he says : "For some time past, I have not been without fear of being abused by a lawless set of men who style themselves the Sons of Liberty, for no other reason than that of en- deavoring to cherish in my people a quiet submis- sion to the civil government. It is very re- markable, that in part of this Colony, in which many missions and Church people abound, there the people are vastly more peaceable and ready to ren- der obedience to the Government of England ; but where there is no mission and few or no Church peo- ple, they are continually caballing, and will spill the last drop of blood, rather than submit to the
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late Act of Parliament." In 1767 he says : "It is some satisfaction to me to observe, that in this town [Newtown], of late, in our elections, the Church people make the major vote, which is the first in- stance of this kind in this Colony, if not in all New England." Again in 1769: "There are in these two parishes about 2400 souls, of whom, a little more than half profess the Church of England. Here are about fifty negroes, most of whom after proper instruction have been baptized.
Here are no heathens or infidels. I commonly bap- tize about 100 children in one year, among them some black children. My actual communicants are 312. Here are no Papists or Deists." In 1771 he writes : "In Reading, my hearers at once are about 300. There is a meeting of Presbyterians about two and a half miles from our Church, in which the con- gregation is not so large as ours. In a manner, all . who live near the Church join with us ; scarce any go by the Church to meeting." "The Church, (he says in 1774) stands not in the centre of the town, but on one side, to accommodate the Church people, who live near, though out of the bounds of Reading."
One of the most interesting of his reports is that of May 5th, 1772 :
" It is now forty years since I have had the ad- vantage of being the venerable Society's Missionary in this place. Every Sunday I have per- formed divine service, and preached twice, at New Town and Reading alternately ; and in these forty years I have lost only two Sundays, through sick- ness ; although in all that time I have been afflicted
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
with a constant cholic which has not allowed me one day's ease, or freedom from pain. The distance be- tween the Church is between eight and nine miles, and no very good road ; yet I have never failed . to attend at each place according to custom, through the badness of the weather, but have rode it in the severest rains and snow storms, even when there has been no track, and my horse near sinking down in the snow-banks ; which has had this good effect on my parishioners, that they are ashamed to stay from Church on account of bad weather. I have performed divine service in many towns where the Common Prayer had never been heard, nor the Holy Scriptures read in public, and where now are flourishing congregations of the Church of England ; and in some places where there never had been any public worship at all, nor ser- mon preached by any teacher, of any denomination.
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