USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Redding > The history of Redding, Connecticut : from its first settlement to the present time > Part 11
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Some statistics of this ancient church ready gathered to my hand will prove interesting and valuable. The complete list of those who served it as pastors, with the date of their ordination and dismissal, is as follows :
MINISTERS.
SETTLED.
DISMISSED.
DIED.
Nathaniel Hunn.
Mar. 21, 1733.
I749.
Nathaniel Bartlett.
.May 23, 1753.
Jan. II, 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.
Oct. 15, 1856. 1859
W. D. Herrick.
I860.
1864.
K. B. Glidden. .
.Sept. 12, 1866.
Dec., 1868.
Charles Chamberlain
I869
Sept., 1871.
Sidney G. Law.
.June 1, 1872.
June I, 1878.
DEACONS.
APPOINTED.
DEACONS.
APPOINTED.
Stephen Burr
I733
Lemuel Sanford.
.1808
Theophilus Hull
I733
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
Deacons serving since 1854 have been, John H. Lee, Henry S. Os- born, Ebenezer Hill, and Jonathan B. Sanford.
YEAR.
CONVERSIONS.
YEAR.
CONVERSIONS.
1808-9
.75
1838
.30
1823
40
1852
24
I829
8
1855
.12
1831
.20
.1858.
Enoch S. Huntington
.
CHRIST CHURCH, REDDING RIDGE.
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
On Wednesday, Sept. 5, 1883, with appropriate ceremonies, the church celebrated the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its birth.
CHAPTER X.
Christ Church, 1722-1906.
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 English 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 Con- necticut, that previous to 1727, the church of which the king was a member was not recognized as having a right to exist. Congregation- alism was the established religion, "in opposition to which there could be no ministry or church administration entertained or attended by the inhabitants of any 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 sece- ders 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 pro- fessedly 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 col- lege a formal statement of their views, and declared for Episcopacy-to the no small surprise and consternation of their colleagues in the col- lege and church. The four went to England for Episcopal ordination, where Brown died. The three survivors returned in 1722, as mission- aries of the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," Johnson only being sent to Connecticut. The ante-Revolution-
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
ary 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. Beardsley's "History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut"-from which sources, mainly, this sketch has been compiled.
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 Newtown, Thomas Wheeler, of Woodbury, and Moses Knapp, of Chest- nut 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 Fair- field, of which town Chestnut Ridge was a part. After having named in his report the several villages or hamlets in the vicinity of his station, he says : "Besides these, there is a village northward from Fairfield about eighteen miles, containing 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 [Presbyterian] "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. Beach's parishioners in 1738. The Rev. Dr. Burhams [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 Wisdom" 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 Presby- terian minister at Newtown for several years. As Mr. Beach was a
95
HISTORY OF REDDING.
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 "popular 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 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 discus- sions resulted between 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 be 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, 4 From a serious and prayerful examination of the Scriptures, and of the records of the early ages of the Church, and from the universal ac- knowledgment of Episcopal government for fifteen hundred years, com- pared with the recent establishment of Presbyterian 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 being Apos- tolical in her ministry and discipline, orthodox in her doctrine, and primi- tive in her worship.' He affectionately exhorted them to weigh the sub- ject well; engaged to provide for the due administration of the sacra- ments while absent from them, and spoke of his intended return from England in holy orders. So greatly was he beloved, that a large propor- tion of his people seemed ready to acquiesce in his determination." But the others, in evident alarm and consternation at this "threatened defec- tion 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 difficulties"; "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 circumstan- ces respecting the Rev. Mr. Beach, and the inhabitants of the town of
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
Newtown-also that the first Wednesday of February [1732] be ap- pointed for the fast."
The council met, and in spite of Mr. Beach's remonstrances proceed- ed to depose him from the ministry. "From this resulted a printed dis- cussion" 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 Redding mission in the autumn of 1732. From this period his history and that of his mission may be more ac- curately told in the language of his own letters to the Secretary of the S. P. G.
" NEWTOWN IN CONNECTICUT, August 7th, 1735.
"REVEREND SIR, I think it my duty to acquaint the venerable So- ciety 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 now at Newtown, Reading, and the places adjacent, is ninety-five. I preach frequently and administer the Sacra- ment at Ridgefield about eighteen 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, faith- fully endeavour (as far as my poor ability will allow), to promote that good work, that the venerable Society sent and maintained 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 Dickinson, of New Jersey, in 1736:
"I have evened the scale of my judgment 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 account to my great Judge; and must I be branded for an antichrist or heretic, or apostate, because 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
97
HISTORY OF REDDING.
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 reason), and not sophistry and calumny, as you have hitherto used, and will convince a lover of truth and right."
In 1739 he says: "I have one hundred and twenty-three communi- cants, but they live so far distant from each other, that commonly I can administer to no more than about fifty at once, which occasions my ad- ministering it the more frequently; and, though I meet with many dis- couragements, yet 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 "revival of Puritanism," Mr. Beach says: "My people are not at all shaken, but rather confirmed in their principles by the spirit of en- thusiasm that rages among the Independents roundabout us; and many of the Dissenters, observing how steadfast our people are while those of their own denomination are easily carried away with every kind of doctrine, have conceived a much better opinion of our Church than they formerly had, and a considerable 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, with- out the expense and danger of a voyage to England, many of our towns might be supplied which must now remain destitute." (This letter is dated at "Reading, in New England," as all his published reports are, between 1740 and 1760.) "My people are poor, (he continues) and have but few negro slaves, but all they 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 dis- tance, 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 Inde- pendents, to suppress the design in its infancy, have lately prosecuted 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 punish- ed; if they meet to worship God according to the Church of England in the best manner they can, the mulct is much greater; and if they go
98
HISTORY OF REDDING.
to the Independent meeting they must endure the mortifica- tion of hearing the Church vilified."
After the death of the Rev. Joshua Honeyman missionary at New- port, 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 constrained, 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."
The first church on Redding Ridge, which was built in 1733, and was quite small, was in 1750 replaced 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 occu- pants had to sit with their backs to the minister. And though others doubtless besides Bishop Jarvis "could see no necessary connection be- tween 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 supplied with stoves until a much later period." Many persons in the rural districts were in the habit of walk- ing several miles, barefooted, to church in summer, 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 up- on 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: "My parish is in a flourishing condition, in all respects, excepting that we have lost some of our young men in the army; more, indeed by sick- ness 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 al- ways these seeming inconsistencies, to be always dying, and yet relish- ing 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 writing, yet the last cannot be far off"; and he had supposed himself a "worn out man" several years before.
99
HISTORY OF REDDING.
Writing from "New-Town, Oct. 3, 1764," he reports: "My con- gregation 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, Ridg- bury, North Fairfield, and North Stratford; which has very much re- tarded 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 Septem- ber. . They expressly deny that there is any law of Grace which promises eternal life upon the condition of faith, repentance and sincere obedience; 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 advocate such monstrous errors as do subvert the Gospel, I think myself obliged by my ordination vow, to guard the people as well as I can against such strange doc- trines."
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 relation to the stamp duty enjoined upon us by the Legislature at home: and I can with truth and pleasure 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 submission to the civil govern- ment. It is very remarkable, that in part of this Colony, in which many missions and Church people abound, there the people are vastly more peaceable and ready to render 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 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 instance of this kind in this Colony, if not in all New Eng- land." 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
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
have been baptized. Here are no heathens or infidels. I com- monly baptize 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 congregation 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 accom- modate 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 advantage of being the venerable Society's Missionary in this place. . Every Sunday I have performed divine service, and preached twice, at New Town and Reading alternately ; and in these forty years I have lost only two Sun- days, through sickness; although in all that time I have been afflicted with a constant cholic which has not allowed me one day's ease, or free- dom from pain. The distance between the Church is be- tween 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 Scrip- tures 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 sermon preached by any teacher, of any de- nomination.
"In my travelling to preach the Gospel, once was my life remarkably preserved, in passing a deep and rapid river. The retrospect of my fatigues, lying on straw, &c, gives me pleasure; while I flatter myself that my labor has not been quite in vain; for the Church of England people are increased more than 20 to I, and what is infinitely more pleas- ing, many of them are remarkable for piety and virtue; and the Inde- pendents here are more knowing in matters of religion, than they who live at a distance from the Church. We live in harmony and peace with each other, and the rising generation of Independents seem to be en- tirely free from every pique and prejudice against the Church." In a previous report, he said: "They who set up the worship of God accord-
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HISTORY OF REDDING.
ing to our Liturgy, at Lanesboro', at Nobletown and Arlington, proceed chiefly from my parishes. But notwithstanding these frequent emi- grations, my congregations increase."
His last report, which was made about six months before his death, is dated October 31st, 1781, and is as follows :
"It is a long time since I have done my duty in writing to the vener- able Society, not owing to my carelessness, but to the impossibility of conveyance from here. And now I do it sparingly. A narrative of my troubles I dare not now give. My two congregations are growing : that at Reading being commonly about 300 and at New Town about 600. I baptized about 130 children in one year, and lately 2 adults. New Town and the Church of England part of Reading are, I believe, the only parts of New England that have refused to comply with the doings of the Congress, and for that reason have been the butt of general hatred. But God has preserved us from entire destruction.
"I am now in the 82d year of my age; yet do constantly, alternately, perform and preach at New Town and Reading. I have been 60 years a public preacher, and, after conviction, in the Church of England 50 years ; but had I been sensible of my inefficiency, I should not have un- dertaken it. But now I rejoice in that I think I have done more good towards men's eternal happiness, than I should have done in any other calling.
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