USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Litchfield > The history of the town of Litchfield, Connecticut, 1720-1920 > Part 23
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It was not till about 1900 that the great growth of Bantam began. In twenty years the population has grown from 400 to 1,000, actually stemming the tide of declining population which for over a century has steadily been depleting the whole township. If our resident population is again to increase materially, the impetus will probably continue to come mainly from this growing industrial center. Besides the Flynn and Doyle Co., should be mentioned the Litchfield Electric Light and Power Co .; the Connecticut Electric Co., manufacturers of electric fixtures; the Trumbull-Vanderpoel Co., manufacturers of electric switches; and the Bantam Ball Bear- ing Co., manufacturers of ball and roller bearings. Further particulars regarding the business of these several plants will be found in the Appendix.
Another extensive industry of quite another kind is situated just outside of Bantam, on the north-west shore of the Lake. This is the Berkshire Ice Co., whose long trains pull out daily in the summer, carrying concentrated relief from the Litchfield Hills to the larger cities to the southwards. Some idea of the work done by the Company on the Lake during the coldest days of the winter may be gathered from the single fact that it takes forty acres of ice one foot in thickness to furnish the 75,000 tons required to fill the ice-house of the Company. In the harvesting of ice, the electricity furnished by the harnessing of the Bantam Falls does the work of great bodies of men.
The village of Bantam has been incorporated as a Borough since 1915. The incorporation was due to the energies of W. S. Rogers, when he was a member of the state legislature, and it has resulted in furnishing the village with many advantages, such as sidewalks, sewers, fire protection, and the like. Mr. Rogers has been in many respects the presiding genius of Bantam. The pros- perity enjoyed by the Bantam Ball Bearing Co., has been translated by him into terms of civic improvement which have benefited the whole community. About five years ago, he purchased the present Borough Hall from the old Bantam Village Improvement Society, and made it a gift to the borough. It is largely used for borough uses and for social entertainments. During the war it furnished indoor drilling space for the Bantam platoon of the Litchfield Home Guard.
Other gifts of Mr. Rogers have been made in connection with his factory and the welfare of his employees, which has always been a prime consideration with him and his assistant, Miss Nellie M. Scott.
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The recreation theatre and club-room in the new building of the fac- tory is also used for certain entertainments of the churches, and for moving picture plays for the school-children, and for other popular purposes. An Athletic Field is also one of the assets of Bantam, through this company, with its baseball teams, a gun-club, and similar organizations.
Besides its extensive manufacturing growth, Bantam is also gaining in prestige through its nearness to the Lake. While the summer resort region of the Lake, with its several Hotels, numerous boarding houses, boys' and girls' camps, and many private camps, is over the border in the town of Morris, the railway connection for the district is principally through Bantam, which also furnishes extended shopping facilities.
Originally, Bantam Falls and Bradleyville were divided like the rest of the town into several school districts, each with its separate school building. In 1893 the new central school in Ban- tam was opened, replacing the several scattered older little build- ings by a large and commodious edifice, which for some years Bernard M. Roberg, Miss Josephine Mitchell, and Miss Baker have made one of the most successful and popular schools in the town. The old Bradleyville schoolhouse has now been converted into a hen house by Teed Loveland.
Bantam's churches have been of the Episcopal, Methodist and Baptist denominations. It is significant that there has been no Congregational church, so that the village was not set off as a separate parish, as were Milton, Northfield, and South Farms. This undoubtedly contributed to retard the growth of the settlement, from the subordinate position so long occupied by the other denomi- nations.
St. Paul's Episcopal church, as is told elsewhere, was born of a temporary division in the First Episcopal Society. It was located opposite the Bantam Burying Ground, and completed in 1797. It was a building 50 by 36 feet, with a steeple, deep galleries, and an old fashioned high pulpit and sounding board, with all of the antique surroundings corresponding to the age of its erection. The new church, somewhat to the west, was built in 1843, and consecrated the following year. Additions have since been made to it, including a fine chancel with ornamental windows and a beautiful pipe organ. The pastor of St. Paul's shares the pulpit in Milton.
The Baptist church in Bantam is not at present in use for ser- vices. The Methodist church, however, which was built in 1901, is very active, with a membership of over one hundred. The church is a handsome one, free of debt, with an attractive home for its pastors, and with a record of earnest endeavor which is leading to continued growth.
It has seemed better to treat of the outlying villages of the town separately in this chapter, so as to indicate something of their individual characters, but their history is really inextricably inter-
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woven in that of the whole township. Many details regarding each of these outlying districts will therefore be found elsewhere, in the general accounts of the industries of the town, of its churches, and of the parts played by the citizens in our wars. Many of the names of the heroes of each village appear only under the combined Honor Rolls of the whole township. Exact statistics for a sub- division are not available, and after all the separate villages still form, save for the loss of South Farms, one township. Litchfield claims as its sons Horace Bushnell, who was born in Bantam, and John Pierpont, who was born in South Farms, ahead of any other ministers born on its soil, excepting Henry Ward Beecher; and the future of the township, as well as its past, is dependent on a united growth, which will be brought closer by the gradual improvement in the roads between villages, and in the organizations, like the Farm Bureau, which unite the corresponding interests of the separate sections.
THE THIRD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 1827-29
THE FOURTH (present) CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 1873
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CHAPTER XIX.
THE CHURCHES.
THE THIRD AND FOURTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES.
In 1827 the First Ecclesiastical Society voted to erect a new church, on the site occupied by the present (fourth) Congregational Church. The church was completed in two years, and dedicated on the same day that the installation took place, July 15, 1829, of the new pastor, Rev. Laurens P. Hickok. A copy of Park Street Church of Boston, standing high above a flight of massive granite steps, with tall pillared porch, it was a well built, imposing edifice. It stood until the building of the fourth church in 1873; it was then moved to the Torrington Road, where for many years it was known as Armory Hall, while about six years ago it was bought by George Barber and the name changed to Colonial Hall. It is used as a public Hall for general purposes and more particularly for a Moving Picture Theatre.
The first pipe-organ of the Society was installed in August 1829. It was made by Jackson, in New York, and was sent by boat to New Haven, from whence it was brought in three great loads. It was the gift of Jabez W. Huntington, William H. Thompson, and Dr. Sheldon.
The Congregational Church has been fortunate in having a long series of devoted ministers, the names of a few of whom are especially connected with Litchfield. Admirable biographies of them are to be found in a scrap book of the Church compiled by Miss Anna W. Richards, and preserved in the collections of the Litchfield Historical Society.
Miss Richards' father, Rev. George Richards, was the pastor of the church from 1860 to 1865, during the troubled days of the Civil War. He assisted largely in moulding the loyal public opinion of Litchfield, and stood steadfast and strong in maintain- ance of our endangered institutions.
Rev. Allan McLean, who was minister from 1875 to his death in 1882, is remembered as a man of high literary gifts as well as of a sympathetic and kindly nature. On October 1, 1876, he delivered an address on the History of the Litchfield church, which remains a valuable source of information about the early years of the parish.
His successor, Rev. Charles Symington, was the pastor from 1883 to 1894. Like the Rev. Allan McLean, he died before he was
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forty five years of age, while in the full vigor of his ministry, much lamented by his parishioners and fellow-townspeople.
The Rev. John Hutchins, who succeeded him, was his brother- in-law; he was a deep student and his researches had a wide range, covering the fields of astronomy and natural history. His love of flowers and birds, and his knowledge of them, was very extensive, and his influence was especially helpful in stimulating additions to the scientific collections now owned by the Historical Society. He died on February 20, 1915.
The modern Gothic church now used by the Society was built in 1873, and the Chapel in the same year. The prayer, at the dedi- cation services, was offered by Rev. Laurens P. Hickok, who had dedicated the previous church in 1829, forty four years before.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
The following account of the early days of the Episcopal Church in Litchfield is from Kilbourne's History, pp. 177-182:
"In 1735, John Davies, of Kinton, Hertfordshire, England, pur- chased a tract of land in the south-west corner of the township, and not long after took up his abode in that wild and unfrequented region. He was warmly attached to the doctrines and forms of the Church of England, and was for some time the only Episcopalian in Litchfield. The unpopularity of Mr. Collins, of the Congre- gational Society, at length induced several of the leading members of his congregation to withdraw themselves from his ministry and to look elsewhere for religious instruction. On November 5, 1745, a meeting was called at the house of Captain Jacob Griswold at which the First Episcopal Society of Litchfield was organized. The first service after the English ritual was performed in this town by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, President of King's (now Columbia) College in the city of New York. At an adjourned Town-meeting, held February 16, 1747, it was voted, that 'those who declared themselves members of the Church of England last year, shall be discharged from paying two-thirds of the Rate that was made for them to pay the last year'. This was one short step towards Toleration. In that year John Davies deeded to the Episcopal Society in Litchfield a tract of land situated about one mile west of the present Court House, containing 52 acres. This deed was in the form of a lease, for the term of 999 years, for the use of the 'Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts', for which there was to be paid 'one pepper-corn annually, at or upon the Feast of St. Michael the Arch- angel, if lawfully demanded'. ... The first church edifice of the Parish was raised upon this tract, April 23, 1749. It was covered; seats, pulpit, reading desk and chancel were made; and it was used in this condition for about twenty years before it was finished. It was named St. Michael's, by request of Mr. Davies". This church stood on the south side of the Bantam Road, about a mile from the center, at the top of the hill beyond the little Hatters' Brook. From
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the notes published with the Centennial Sermon of the Rev. Isaac Jones, November 5, 1845, it would appear that the original gift of Mr. Davies included about fifty acres, that Daniel Landon gave a second tract of fifty acres adjoining, and that Mr. Davies bought two acres more, so as to give the Society access to the Brook. Kil- bourne says the gift of Daniel Landon was 50 acres "lying west- ward of the Great Pond, near a mountain called Little Mount Tom". However this may be, when the church was given up for the one built on South Street in 1810, all the outlying land of the church was sold and the proceeds invested for the benefit of the Society.
"In 1749, John Davies, Jr., the only surviving son of the first benefactor of the parish, came over from Hertfordshire, with a wife and several young children, and settled near his father, south-west of Mount Tom, at a place still known as Davies Hollow. As he was a gentleman of good estate and an ardent churchman, his arrival was regarded as an important accession to the Episcopal Society. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Powell, was very reluctant to leave her native land. That she should have regarded her new home in the wilderness as cheerless and lonely, compared with the scenes she had left, is not to be wondered at. In writing home to her English friends, she is said to have described herself as 'entirely alone, having no society, and nothing to asso- ciate with but Presbyterians and Wolves'. The reader may be interested in the fact, that though the wolves long since disappeared from Davies Hollow, some of her own descendants are now num- bered among the sect of Christians which she seems to have regarded with such abhorrence.
"From the organization of the society in 1745, to 1754, they were without a settled minister. The Rev. Drs. Mansfield, Johnson, Cutler and Beach, occasionally officiated here; and in the absence of a clergyman, prayers were sometimes read by Mssrs. Davies, Landon and Cole. The first rector of St. Michael was the Rev. Solomon Palmer, who had been pastor of the Congregational Church in Cornwall from 1741 to 1754. In March of the preceding year, to the great surprise and grief of his people, he on the Sabbath publicly announced himself an Episcopalian in sentiment. He soon after sailed for England, where he was ordained Deacon and Priest; and returned to this country during the same year, 1754, bearing a commission from the Venerable Society as missionary for Litchfield, Cornwall and Great Barrington".
Owing to the disfavor with which the Church of England was looked upon during the Revolution, St. Michael's was closed for three years, and re-opened in 1780. The Rev. James Nichols was the rector at the time, and resumed his duties when the church was re-opened. The Society from that time gradually increased in numbers and in public favor. On the 26th of October, 1784, it was incorporated by an Act of the General Assembly, and thereupon it was duly organized according to law.
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The Rev. James Nichols was the last man who went from Con- necticut to England to secure ordination, and his successor, Rev. Ashbel Baldwin, a native of Litchfield, was the first man to be ordained in the United States, upon the return of Bishop Seabury, who had gone to Scotland to be consecrated. The ordination was held at Middletown, August 3, 1785.
In 1796, a large number of Episcopalians residing in the west- erly part of the town seceded and formed the Second Episcopal Society. In 1803, the two Societies were amicably re-united, and so continue at the present time. During this interval of disunion the Second Society built itself a church opposite the Cemetery in Bantam, which became known as the Old West Church and was occupied for worship until 1843; when a new edifice was built a short distance farther west. The new church was called St. Paul's.
The churches of St. Michael in Litchfield, St. Paul's in Bantam, and Trinity in Milton, all form part of the First Episcopal Society; while Trinity Church in Northfield belongs to a separate society.
In 1810 there was still no Episcopal Church within the present limits of our Borough. This served to help in retarding the growth of the congregation, and in that year it was decided to give up the original church and to build on the site now in use. This second St. Michael's church was retained until 1851; when the third church was built on the same site. A fourth church, in stone, is in course of erection at the time of writing, 1920, a gift to St. Michael's Parish from Henry R. Towne, in memory of his wife, Mrs. Cora White Towne.
The history of the Litchfield parish during the nineteenth century was uneventful. One of the rectors, Rev. H. N. Hudson, who was in charge from 1858 to 1860, is remembered for his Shakespeare studies, his edition of the Plays having remained the standard American edition for many years. Part of his great work was carried out while he was resident here.
On April 11, 1894, in a great storm, the steeple of the church was blown over. It was not replaced.
No mention of St. Michael's parish would be adequate which did not speak of the Rev. Storrs O. Seymour, who was the rector from 1879 to 1883, and again from 1893 to 1916, and Rector Emeritus until his death in 1918. Dr. Seymour, was born in Litchfield in 1836, the son of Judge Origen Storrs Seymour. He was educated at Andover, and graduated from Yale in 1857, and from the Berkeley Divinity School in 1861. During the years that he was absent from Litchfield he was successively rector of parishes in Milford and Bethel, Conn., Pawtucket, R. I., and Norwich and Hartford, Conn. He was a member of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Connecticut from 1876 until his death, and was the chairman of the Committee since 1896. He received the Honorary Degree of D. D. from Trinity College in 1897. He was also for many years a Trustee of Berkeley Divinity
THE THIRD ( Present) ST. MICHAEL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 1851
THE FALLEN STEEPLE AT ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, APRIL 11, 1894
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School. The affection which Dr. Seymour inspired in everyone in Litchfield, in his church and outside of it, is a recent and tender memory.
THE METHODIST CHURCH.
Of the beginnings of Methodism in Litchfield, Kilbourne tells us the following, pp. 183-184: "In June, 1790, the Rev. Freeborn Garretson, one of the ablest and most earnest Apostles of Method- ism in America, visited Litchfield on his way from the Hudson river to Boston. He was at that time Superintendent of the North- .ern District, and, in his itinerant journeyings, was almost invariably attended by his colored servant, Harry, who was himself a licensed preacher of no mean distinction. They traveled together on horse- back apparently vieing with each other in their zeal for the pro- motion of the cause of their common Master. On Wednesday, June 23, (as we learn from Dr. Stevens' Memorials of Methodism), Mr. Garretson "rode seven miles to Litchfield, and was surprised to find the doors of the Episcopal church open, and a large congre- gation waiting for him. He discoursed from the words: 'Enoch walked with God', and believed good was done. He left Harry to preach another sermon, and went on to the centre of the town; the bell rang, and he preached to a few in the Presbyterian meeting- house, and lodged with a kind churchman". On the same day, Mr. Garretson wrote in his diary: "I preached in the skirts of the town, where I was opposed by -, who made a great disturbance. I told him the enemy had sent him to pick up the good seed, turned my back on him, and went my way, accompanied by brothers W. and H. I found another waiting company, in another part of the town, to whom I declared: 'Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish'. In this town we have given the devil and the wicked much trouble; we have a few good friends". On his return from Boston, Mr. Garretson again preached in Litchfield, Friday, July 13, 1790".
The Rev. Geo. C. Boswell adds, Book of Days, p. 99: "It is pleasant to remember that the Episcopal and Congregational churches in Litchfield were open to the early itinerant. His colaborers in other parts of the State did not generally fare so well".
Kilbourne, continuing, says: "The Litchfield Circuit was organ- ized during the spring of 1790, and embraced the north-western sec- tion of Connecticut. ... On July 21, 1791, the famous Bishop Asbury preached in the Episcopal church in this town. In refer- ence to his visit here, he wrote: 'I think Morse's account of his countrymen is near the truth; never have I seen any people who could talk so long, so correctly and so seriously about trifles. ... '
"In 1837, a handsome church edifice was erected by the Method- ists, in Meadow Street, which was dedicated on July 27 of that year. The dedication sermon was preached by Professor Holdich, of the Wesleyan University; and an appropriate discourse was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Washburn.
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"The late Rev. Horace Agard and the Rev. Joseph L. Morse are, so far as I can learn, the only natives of the town who have become Methodist ministers".
In 1885 the present Methodist church on West Street was built to accomodate the increasing congregation, and the old church was converted into the Masonic Hall of St. Paul's Lodge, No. 11, F. and A. M.
In addition to the church in the center, there have been three other Methodist churches in the town, one at Milton and one near Mount Tom, but the use of these two is at the present time dis- continued. The third is the Methodist church in Bantam, an account of which is given elsewhere.
THE BAPTIST CHURCH.
There is at the present moment no Baptist church in active use within the township. The Clergy of Litchfield County tells of very early churches in Northfield and in Footville, the westerly part of South Farms; but both of these have disappeared long ago. Their only successor still standing is the building of the Baptist church in Bantam. The Baptist Society of Bantam Falls was formed on January 18, 1853, with ten charter members. This society was merged, January 4, 1891, into the Baptist Society of Bantam, Conn., which continued to hold services until about 1903. In 1908, a new and very unusual opportunity came to this church. The opening of a saloon was contemplated opposite the factory of the Bantam Anti-Friction Co., now the Ball Bearing Co. Relying on the law that no saloon can be opened within a given distance of a church, W. S. Rogers, with characteristic energy, offered to bring the Baptist church up from its location near the falls to a position on South Street, near the factory. On June 19, 1908, a committee was appointed by the church to make arrangements with Mr. Rogers, and soon after the little building began its march up the hill into its new field of action. It was nearly two weeks upon the road, and appropriately rested on the two Sundays of its journey in turn opposite to the Methodist church, which had developed through the separation of a group of members from the Baptist Society itself, and then opposite to the Episcopal church of St. Paul. On its new site and under a new environment, it renewed its activities, with new members, new financial support and a new social order of affairs. In May, 1909, Ray H. Legate was called to the pulpit, and services were conducted under several pastors until 1915, when the services were discontinued. During the European War, the build- ing was turned over to the Bantam branch of the Litchfield Chapter, American Red Cross, where yoeman service was performed by the ladies of Bantam.
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
"The first Catholics to come within the confines of Litchfield were three Acadians, the victims of English oppression. Sybil Shear-
THE SECOND ( Present) METHODIST CHURCH, 1885
INTERIOR, THE SECOND ( Present) ST. ANTHONY'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1888
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away, one of them, married Thomas Harrison in 1764 and their descendants are still residents of Litchfield". (Rev. J. H. O'Don- nell, History of the Diocese of Hartford, 1900, p. 293).
"It is not until January 1759", (Kilbourne, p. 77), "that our town records make any allusion to these people. At this date it was 'voted that the Selectmen may provide a house or some suit- able place in the town, for the maintenance of the French'. In the County Treasurer's book, also, occurs the following entry, 'To paid John Newbree for keeping William Dunlap and the French persons, 54s. 6d. which the County allowed, and R. Sherman, Justice of the Quorum, drew an order dated April 25, 1760, as per order on file' ".
"From this time on we find no trace of Catholicity in Litchfield until the period when Irish emigration was at its height. Irish people settled here in the rural districts and devoted themselves to the pursuits of agricultural life. ...
"The first priest to visit Litchfield was the Rev. John Smith, of Albany, who made a missionary tour through this section of the State in 1848 on horseback, seeking out and ministering to the Catholics whom he might find here. On one of these tours he tarried at Litchfield and said Mass, but where, has passed from remembrance. Bishop O'Reilly visited Litchfield on February 25, 1851, as his journal informs us. .
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