USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Litchfield > The history of the town of Litchfield, Connecticut, 1720-1920 > Part 5
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The pews opened onto two aisles, which ran up and down the church, the seats occupied the other three sides of each pew, so that when the pews were full one-third of the congregation were seated with their backs to the pulpit.
The first church was never heated, though individual members of the congregation would bring their own foot-stoves in very cold weather. No stove was introduced into the second church until 1816, when there occurred the great Stove War, about which much has been written. Kilbourne, p. 165, quotes the account of the editor of the Hartford Courant, who claims to have been a pro- tagonist in this famous struggle: "Violent opposition had been made to the introduction of a stove into the old meeting-house, and an attempt made in vain to induce the Society to purchase one. The writer was one of seven young men who finally purchased a stove, and requested permission to put it up in the meeting-house on trial. After much difficulty, the Committee consented. It was all arranged on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday we took our seats in the
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Bass, rather earlier than usual, to see the fun. It was a warm November Sunday, in which the sun shone cheerfully and warmly on the old south steps and into the naked windows. The stove stood in the middle aisle, rather in front of the Tenor Gallery. People came in and stared. Good old Deacon Trowbridge, one of the most simple-hearted and worthy men of that generation, had been induced to give up his opposition. He shook his head, however, as he felt the heat reflected from it, and gathered up the skirts of his great-coat as he passed up the broad aisle to the Deacons' Seat. Old Uncle Noah Stone, a wealthy farmer of the West End, who sat near, scowled and muttered at the effects of the heat, but waited until noon, to utter his maledictions over his nut-cakes and cheese at the intermission. There had in fact been no fire in the stove, the day being too warm. We were too much upon the broad grin to be very devotional, and smiled rather loudly at the funny things we saw. But when the editor of the village paper, Mr. Bunce, came in, who was a believer in stoves for churches, and with a most satisfied air warmed his hands by the stove, keeping the skirts of his great-coat carefully between his knees, we could stand it no longer, but dropped invisible behind the breastwork. But the climax of the whole was when Mrs. Peck went out in the midst of the service! It was, however, the means of reconciling the whole society; for, after that first day, we heard of no more opposition to the warm stove in the meeting-house".
Once they became accustomed to the stove, even the opponents to its introduction must have appreciated its warmth in the very cold weather. The services were very long, and were continued in the afternoons. The congregation went home for a meal between the two services, but those from out-of-town had to rely on the hospitality of those near the church, or on the convenience of the Sabbath-day Houses, Sabbaday Houses, as they were colloquially called.
"At a town meeting, December 1753, liberty was voted to Isaae Hosford and others 'to erect a house for their convenience on Sab- bath Days, east of the meeting-house'. In January 1759, liberty was granted to John Farnham to 'set up a Sabbath-Day House in the highway a little north of the School House'. Capt. Edward Phelps erected a similar house in the middle of East Street nearly opposite the present Congregational church; and still another was remembered by the late Elisha Mason, which stood on the south side of East Street, near the present Hinsdale house .... These houses generally consisted of two rooms, each about twelve feet square, with a chimney between them and a fire-place in each room; and in such cases were erected at the expense of two or more families. If the cold was extreme the hired man or one of the sons might be sent forward in advance of the family, to get the room well warmed before their arrival. The family, after filling the ample saddle-bags with refreshments, took an early start for the sanctuary. Calling first at their Sabbath-Day House, they
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deposited their luncheon. At noon, they returned to their room, with perhaps a few friends. The fire was re-kindled, the saddle- bags were brought forth and their contents placed upon a prophet's table, of which all partook. The patriarch of the household then drew from his pocket the notes he had taken of the morning ser- mon, which were fully reviewed, all enjoying the utmost freedom in their remarks. All then returned to the church. Before start- ing for home at the close of the afternoon service, they once more repaired to their Sabbath House, gathered up the saddle-bags, saw that the fire was left safe, and in due time all were snugly seated in the sleigh, and bound homeward". (Kilbourne, p. 74).
"The subject of seating the meeting-house often came up for action in town meeting and produced not a little commotion. Vari- ous standards were used in other towns to secure a fair seating list, such as, Long public service, Dignity of descent, Rank in the Grand List, Age, and Piety. In December 1735, a Committee was appointed in Town Meeting to proceed as follows: 'Every man's list for four years past shall be added together, and every man's age be reckoned at twenty shillings per year, to be added to his list; and for them that have not four lists, they shall be seated by the last list, or according to the discretion of the committee'. The Committee pro- ceeded according to these instructions, but the result did not suit. Their doings were ordered to be set aside; on April 12, 1736, a new committee was appointed, with no other instructions than to act in accordance with their best judgment. Their action, for a won- der, was acquiesced in". (Kilbourne, p. 58).
"All ecclesiastical as well as school affairs were transacted in town meeting until the year 1768. The Second Ecclesiastical Society having been incorporated in South Farms in 1767, the First Society met for the first time, May 9, 1768. There was little done at these Society's meetings, from year to year, except to appoint officers, Committees and Choristers. Now and then we find an entry of a different character. Thus, December 1772, measures were 'taken for coloring the meeting-house and putting up Electrical Rods'. At the same meeting, the Society's Committee were directed 'not to let the Town's stock of Powder and Ball to be stored in said house'." (Kilbourne, p. 173). To this Miss Esther H. Thompson (Water- bury American, March 8, 1906) has added the following reflections: "This measure may have been taken because some of the more con- servative men were not quite sure whether increasing safety or danger might be the result of the other vote to provide Electrical Rods for the church! When we remember the comparative isola- tion of our town and the slowness with which changes of any kind were then effected we are surprised at the intelligence and enterprise of our former townspeople as shown by this record of December 1772, only 20 years after Benjamin Franklin, far away in Phila- delphia, was flying his first kite to bring down lightning from the skies, and only 17 years after his invention of the lightning rod! Ninety years later, when in the winter of 1861-2, the Third Con-
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gregational church was struck by lightning it is curious that dam- age should have been caused by a defective lightning conductor, possibly the identical rod of heavy links that had served on the old church !"
After Mr. Collins had left the church, in February 1753, the Town voted to call the Rev. Judah Champion, of East Haddam, a graduate of Yale 1751, and to offer him two thousand pounds in old tenor money for his settlement, and a yearly salary of eight hundred pounds, old tenor money.
Mr. Champion accepted the call, was ordained July 4, 1753, and continued in the ministry till 1798. His salary was continued till his decease in 1810, in his S2nd year. For the purpose of paying the settlement of Mr. Champion, it was voted, on June 14, 1753, to lease to him so much of the Parsonage Right as should be necessary for that purpose, for the term of 999 years. And on January 15, 1754, a lease of the home lot and twenty acre division adjoining, was given to Mr. Champion, in consideration of said settlement. This land was known later as the glebe land, and the title is pre- served in the name of the house owned by Mrs. W. W. Rockhill, which is called The Glebe.
In personal appearance, Judah Champion is described as short, erect, with an elastic gait; he had a frank, open countenance, that bespoke his sincerity and fearlessness. He exercised unbounded influence over his parish. As a preacher, he was ardent and elo- quent, though he is said to have lacked somewhat of 'discrimination in his theology'. This was so severe a fault in those days, that Dr. Bellamy, the great theologian of Bethlehem, once jocosely said that 'he would like to have brother Champion made over again'. During his pastorate, 1753 to 1798, 280 persons were added to the church upon the profession of their faith; he officiated at 2,142 baptisms, 658 marriages, and 1,530 funerals.
The subject of the minister's salary still gave continued trouble, owing to the fluctuating currency. Judah Champion was so uni- versally beloved, however, that the matter was never allowed to make the personal difficulty which it had caused with Timothy Col- lins. In 1779, the Society, in an endeavor to stabilize his salary, voted to pay him seventy-five pounds sixteen shillings, as a year's salary, "in the following articles at the prices affixed, Wheat at four shillings per bushel; Rye at three shillings; Indian Corn at three shillings; Flax at sixpence per pound; Pork at twenty-five shillings per hundredweight; Beef at twenty shillings per hundred- weight; Tried Tallow at sixpence per pound; Lard at fivepence; Oats at one shilling per bushel".
Mr. Champion's successor was the Rev. Dan Huntington, a tutor at Yale College. He was ordained in October, 1798. "During his ministry, a remarkable religious awakening overspread this and the adjacent parishes, resulting in the conversion of about three hundred persons among the different denominations of Litchfield,
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af Sitenfield town Exclus in 116%. Jaktendown in 1827 by 124: Marythan, 11000. Epied try torely Noyes Vanderpoel, Sept. 10 was it white house the one on the winkte Its horaires theusa THE SECOND CONGREGATIONAL. CHURCH, 1762 From a Sketch by Miss Mary Ann Lewis
REV. LYMAN BEECHER
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"This town', says Mr. Huntington, 'was originally among the num- ber of those decidedly opposed to the movements of former revival- ists; and went so far, in a regular church meeting called expressly for the purpose under the ministry of Mr. Collins, as to let them know, by a unanimous vote, that they did not wish to see them. The effect was, they did not come. The report circulated, that Litchfield had 'voted Christ out of their borders'. It was noticed by some of the older people, that the death of the last person then a member of the church, was a short time before the commencement of our revival'." (Kilbourne, p. 174).
Again the difficulties of salary arose, and finally in 1810, Mr. Huntington decided to leave, though with much mutual regret. In March, 1810, the Society voted a unanimous call to the Rev. Lyman Beecher, which was accepted, and he was installed on May 30, 1810. Litchfield was so fearful that the salary might be inadequate to a preacher of the reputation which Lyman Beecher had already estab- lished at East Hampton, that it awaited his arrival with some trepidation. Happily all turned out for the best, and the sixteen years of Beecher's pastorate were memorable ones for the town.
He has left us his own first impressions of his reception. (Auto- biography, Vol. I., p. 185) : "I found the people of Litchfield impatient for my arrival, and determined to be pleased, if possible, but somewhat fearful that they shall not be able to persuade me to stay. The house yesterday was full, and the conference in the evening, and , so far as I have heard, the people felt as I have told you they intended to. Had the people in New York been thus pre- disposed, I think I should not have failed to give them satisfaction. My health is good, and I enjoy good spirits some time past; am treated with great attention and politeness, and am becoming acquainted with agreeable people".
The following notice of Lyman Beecher is abbreviated from Morgan's Connecticut as a Colony and as a State, Vol. IV., pp. 285- 286: " ... Lyman Beecher, great father of great children, who, on the bleak Litchfield hills and in the seething discussions of Boston, brought up his children in such fashion that they became a power for good in their generation.
"Possibly his life did not seem to him successful; it was at least full of struggle. Descended from one of the original settlers of New Haven, he was graduated from Yale in 1797, and after a brief settlement in Easthampton, Long Island, went to Litchfield, where he remained for sixteen years. Dr. Beecher was a preacher of powerful sermons, rather than a writer of monumental works ... Removing to Boston as the pastor of the Hanover Street Church, he encountered the Unitarian movement in its aggressive stage; and so strong was the feeling against such rebutting influences as his that when his church burned down, the firemen refused to put out the fire. Again at Lane Seminary, Cincinnati. he struggled for twenty years to found a Western institution, only to be defeated at
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last by the triumphant pro-slavery party. Here, all unknown, were influences that were shaping the future Uncle Tom's Cabin. Dr. Beecher's sermon on Duelling at the time of Hamilton's death at the hands of Aaron Burr, was very impressive; and his Views on Theology, and Political Atheism were read with much attention, Dying in 1863, he sleeps in New Haven, the place of his birth".
E. D. Mansfield wrote of him, ( Personal Memories, p. 138) : "His house was just across the street from Mrs. Lord's, where I boarded, and as my window was on that side of the house I used often to see him and hear his violin, of which he was very fond, sending forth merry tunes. It is said that he would return from a funeral and send forth the quickest airs from his fiddle. He was of the most cheerful temperament .... He was called the 'great gun of Cal- vinism', and it seemed to me the very irony of fate to see him tried ten years after by the Presbytery of Cincinnati for heresy in Cal- vinistic Theology".
Theodore Parker once said that Lyman Beecher was the father of more brains than any other man in America. Little can be said here of these children, as only their childhood was spent in Litchfield. The lives of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Isabel Beecher Hooker, the pioneer of women's rights, Thomas Beecher, and the rest belong elsewhere. We may at least give an anecdote of each of the first two during their lives in Litch- field.
It was while a pupil at Miss Pierce's Academy that Harriet Beecher first distinguished herself in the literary line. At a public exhibition of the school, three of the best compositions of the year were read aloud by the teacher. "When my turn came", she wrote in after life, "I noticed that my father, who was sitting on high by Mr. Brace, brightened and looked interested, and at the close I heard him ask, 'Who wrote that composition?' 'Your daughter, Sir,' was the answer. It was the proudest moment of my life". The subject of this essay by so young a child is perhaps the most remarkable part of the story. It was: 'Can the Immortality of the Soul be proved by the light of Nature?'
Clarence Deming had many stories of the Beechers, which he collected from David C. Bulkley and William Norton. He has described the Henry Ward Beecher of Litchfield as a stout, florid youngster of the stocky type, running around in short jacket, with a fresh and rather moonish face, fair hair, pretty closely cropped above, but with one of those curls plastered before the ear which our ancestors used to style 'soap-locks', from the chief agent used in their construction.
"A little way back from their school", Mr. Deming used to tell, "was an old barn with full hay mow, where the boys played during recess. On the crest of the mow, Henry built himself a ridge of hay into the rough likeness of his father's pulpit. ] By making a hole behind it. he lowered himself so as to bring the pulpit's edge
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1227121 THE HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD
to his chest; in some way he got hold of an immense pair of blue goggles. which gave him a most whimsical air. Then he would mount his airy perch, and begin his sermon to his school mates; he used no articulate words, but a jargon of word-sounds, with rising and falling inflections, wonderfully mimicking those of his father. The rotund phrasing, the sudden fall to solemnity, the sweeping paternal gesture, the upbrushing of the hair, were all imitated perfectly by the son. At the end of this novel service, by way of benediction, he would take off the goggles, dash away the front of the pulpit, double himself up and roll down the slope of the hay mow into the midst of his merry congregation".
Harriet Beecher was born in Litchfield, June 14, 1811, and Henry Ward Beecher, June 24, 1813. The Beecher house was the scene of many happy days with all the children. Here too occurred some of those famous showers, of which the minister's home was the recipient in those generous old days. Catherine Beecher has left us an account of one of these, in the Beecher Autobiography, Vol. I., p. 325: "The most remarkable and unique of these (demon- strations of the affection of his parishioners after his wife's death) was what in New England is called the minister's wood-spell, when, by previous notice, on some bright winter day, every person in the parish who chooses to do so sends a sled load of wood as a present to the pastor. On this occasion we were previously notified that the accustomed treat of doughnuts, and loaf-cake, cider and flip, must be on a much larger scale than common .... When the auspicious day arrived, the snow was thick, smooth, and well packed for the occasion; the sun shone through a sharp, dry and frosty air; and the whole town was astir. Toward the middle of the afternoon, runners arrived with news of the gathering of the squadrons. Mount Tom was coming with all its farmers; Bradley- ville also; Chestnut Hill, and the North and South settlements; while the Town Hill gentry were on the qui vive to hunt up every sled and yoke of oxen not employed by their owners. Before sun-
down the yard, and the lower rooms of our house were swarming with cheerful faces. Father was ready with his cordial greetings, adroit in detecting and admiring the special merits of every load as it arrived. The kind farmers wanted to see all the children, and we were busy as bees in waiting on them. The boys heated the flip-irons, and passed around the cider and flip, while Aunt Esther and the daughters were busy in serving the doughnuts, cake and cheese. And such a mountainous wood-pile as rose in our yard never before was seen in ministerial domains!"
In this connection we will reprint the following account of a shower to the second minister at South Farms, from the columns of the Litchfield Monitor, May 16, 1798. It has already been quoted by Elizabeth C. Barney Buel, (Mrs. John L. Buel), in her admirable essay, The Spinning-Wheel, 1903: "On Wednesday the second instant, visited at the house of the Rev. Amos Chase about 60 of his female friends parishioners, who made the very acceptable
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presentation of seventy run of Yarn to his family. In the course of the decent and cordial socialities of the afternoon, the ladies were entertained by their pastor with a sermon adapted to the occasion,-from these words, Gen. XXXI. 43, 'What can I do, this day, unto these my daughters?'"
Clarence Deming has told many anecdotes of the elder Beecher, as well as of his children. Several have to do with two of his chief characteristics, his absent-mindedness and his love of fishing, and one combines both; sometimes when the hour for a week-day service came, he would still be down on the Little Pond, a mile away, in his boat, the Yellow Perch. Then would follow the hasty dash up the hill behind his pastoral nag. At the end of one of the hasty returns, it is related that a small fish dropped from his coat tail pocket as he mounted the pulpit stairs.
Lyman Beecher's sermons were never inferior; but they were long, as was the wont of the day, and Mansfield has told us that they were also sometimes dull, but always likely to become inspired again with a fresh burst of eloquence. "The long, closely argumenta- tive discourses of 100 years ago", says Miss Esther H. Thompson, in the Waterbury American, 1906, "while drilling the hearers to be close listeners and deeply logical thinkers, most certainly were wearisome. An old friend remembered the time when on warm summer afternoons frequently men took off their coats in church and sat in their shirt-sleeves. One of our own earliest memories is that of a good old neighbor, who, following the custom of long ago, often walked by to church with no coat, only a vest and the whitest of shirt-sleeves. Farmers, wearied with the week's unceas- ing toil, found their best clothes and cramped position on hard seats all too trying for them easily to keep awake. As sleep threatened to overpower them, one and another man would arise, shake his cramped and tired legs, stretch well his arms above his head, then fold them over the top of the pew door, while he stood for a little time before settling down again in his seat, refreshed to endure the remainder of the service. All was so decorously and solemnly done, and the occurrence so common. that no one thought of smil- ing or criticising. Nor was it unusual for many a wearied woman to take her handkerchief, a corner of her shawl, anything, to cushion the hard rest for her head on the seat back in front of her, and soothe eyes and brain by a change of position. The much ridi- clued carrying of dried orange peel, 'meetin' seed' (fennel and carro- way) to be frugally distributed among the family and munched during service time, was almost an act of devotion, a visible struggle to keep awake and receive the benefits of the exercises. In still earlier times the same end was accomplished through the services of a Tithing man, who with long pole, spiked at one end, and with knot or squirrel tail at the other, would prick or tickle into wake- fullness the sleepy or punch into submission the disorderly. Tithing men continued to be appointed for all the churches in town till after 1815".
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Lyman Beecher was very much liked and admired throughout his stay. Col. Tallmadge, especially, was always endeavoring to do something to give him satisfaction. In the last years of Rev. Dan Huntington's ministry, he was instrumental in obtaining the Christening Bowl for the church, and in 1825 he and Julius Deming purchased the Communion service which is still in use.
With the departure of Lyman Beecher, the old Church on the Green was taken down, and the third church erected on the site of the present Congregational church. We have lingered on the old churches for several reasons. In the first place their ministers, especially Judah Champion and Lyman Beecher, were very remark- able men; but further than this, the early Congregational church in New England was typical of the whole population. It was
the established church, so far as there has ever been any such in our country. The church affairs were voted upon in town meetings, the rate to maintain the church was laid alike on all citizens until the first steps in toleration began to be taken, and politics even found their way into the pulpit. The North and South Consociations, which included all the parishes in the County, were reputed to have a great power in the nominations for local and state officials. And finally the customs of this church were the customs of all the people. They gave the early settlers of Litchfield much of their character.
To quote the explanation of Arthur Goodenough, made in a like case: in The Clergy of Litchfield County, published by the Litch- field County University Club, 1909, p. xiii, "From my own point of view I excuse myself in part for the lack of proportion in treatment by assuming that the Congregational ministry was a part of the indigenous element which made Litchfield County to differ from the rest of the world, and so to be worthy of special mention, while those of other name represent the invasion of a cosmic influence that is making us like other people".
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