USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. II > Part 45
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Simsbury and Westfield retained their ancient boundaries, being first incorporated, leaving west of the mountain a strip of land about one mile in width between the two, for Suffield. Our proprietors mourned the loss of that part of their grant secured by Simsbury, as it was supposed to be rich in mines of copper and iron. They were con- soled by the Massachusetts Court, in 1732, granting them a township six miles square (now Blandford), as an equivalent. They sold it to Christopher J. Lawton, of Suffield, receiving but little therefor. Our bounds, with Simsbury (now East Granby and Granby), settled in 1713, and perambulated in 1734, were re-established in 1883. That part of Westfield projecting into Connecticut, between the top of the mountain and the ponds, was annexed to Suffield and Connecticut in 1803. The remainder (now Southwick), containing the ponds, is in Massachusetts, causing the curious notch in the boundary line between the two States.
The first recorded act of the inhabitants was ecclesiastical, and the town constituted one religious society until 1740, with its ecclesiastical, civil, and political affairs inseparably blended. The grant required " the procuring and maintaining some able minister." In 1678 the committee " laid out thirty acres as a house-lot for a first minister," on the cast side of High Street, near where the Baptist parsonage now is. In 1679 the inhabitants voted : -
" For ye incouragement of Mr. John Younglove, to build him a house, forty foot in length, twenty foot in bredth, and ten foot between joynts : and to shingle and clapboard the same, and to set up a stack of chimneys, either of brick or stone, as shall be judged most easy to accomplish ; onely, Mr. Younglove giving ten pounds of the three score we engaged, this present year, and to finde all nailes for the shingling and clapboarding ye same."
This house and lot, and fifty acres of wild land, were given him for a " settlement." His yearly salary was sixty pounds. He brought his family here about the year 1680, when the first meeting-house was built upon the common, southeast from the present Congregational Church. He was one of the committee for settling Brookfield in 1667, and preached there before the Indians burned it in 1675. He taught a grammar school at Hadley, 1674-1680. He died June 3, 1690, aged about forty-five years.
The Rev. Benjamin Ruggles, the town's second minister, was a native of Roxbury, Mass., and a Harvard College graduate in 1693. He began to preach here in 1695, and after nearly three years' " tryal " and negotiation, was settled, April 26, 1698, with a yearly salary of £15 in money, and £45 provision pay, and his fire-wood, sixty cords a year. For his " settlement " he had a house-lot of twenty acres, with a dwelling-house and barn, and a well that still remains upon the house-lot (the homestead of the late Henry A. Sikes). The town
391
SUFFIELD.
agreed to " clear up five acres " of it for a meadow, and fence it. He also had eighty acres of wild land. The little known of his pastor- ate must be inferred from the town records. During it, a new meeting- house, and the first school-house, were built, and a representative at the General Court at Boston maintained. It is easy to believe that Mr. Ruggles was the prime agent in these progressive movements. He died Sept. 5, 1708, in the eleventh year of his ministry and the thirty- fifth year of his age. In 1709 the town voted "to set a decent tomb upon his grave." In 1858 the First Congregational Church erected the present monument to their "First Pastor;" while no slab or stone marks the resting-place of Mr. John Younglove, the town's first minister.
The Rev. Ebenezer Devotion, the third and last "town minister," was born at Brookline, Mass., and settled June 28, 1710, with a salary of £80 a year, and a dwell- ing-house and lot, opposite and Olinezr Devotion west from the south end of the Park, for his " settlement." His ministry was very successful, but his closing years were imbittered by divisions and dissensions in the town and church. He died April 11, 1741, in the thirty-first year of his ministry, aged fifty-seven.
The Rev. Ebenezer Gay, the fourth minister, was born at Dedham, Mass., May 4, 1718, - a Harvard College graduate, 1737. He preached Ebenezer Gay !! his first sermon at Suffield, Aug. 9, 1741; was ordained to the ministry there, Jan. 13, 1742; and was acting pastor of the First Congregational Church fifty-one years. His son, Ebenezer, Jr., was appointed his assistant, March 6, 1793, and his active labors ceased. He died March 7, 1796. Dr. Lathrop's funeral discourse says : " He was a man of strong mind and superior learning, of a clear and discerning intellect, a cool and penetrating judgment, unshaken fortitude, a most obliging neighbor, and a lover of mankind." His successors in the first Con- gregational Church and society have been : -
Rev. Ebenezer Gay, Jr., settled 66 Dec. 1826,
" Joel Mann,
Henry Robinson,
66 June, 1831, dismissed April, 1837.
John R. Miller,
Dec. 1853,
Dec. 1864.
Walter Barton,
Dec. 1869,
66 Nov. 1875.
William R. Eastman,
66 Jan. 1877,
66 Feb. 1879.
Charles Symington,
supply July, 1879,
Dec. 1882.
Hiram L. Kelsey,
1793, died Jan. 1, 1837. § dismissed Dec. 1829, died July 21, 1884.
Asahel C. Washburn,
66
Jan. 1838, 66 July, 1851.
June, 1883 (present incumbent).
The Second Ecclesiastical Society was incorporated Jan. 1, 1740. A single meeting-house had sufficed for the town. The extensive re- vivals of that period, and increasing numbers, necessitated a larger meeting-house, or a division of the town. The Second Congregational Church was embodied Nov. 10, 1743, and their meeting-house was built the same year. It stood on the highway on Ireland Plain, in front of
392
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
the burying-ground, until 1795, when a second one was built on the site of the present. The second was torn down in 1839, and the present one on the same site was completed in 1840. The parsonage was built in 1843, upon a lot given by the heirs of the first minister, the Rev. John Graham, Jr. He was ordained and settled Oct. 22, 1746. He was the son of the Rev. John Graham, of Woodbury, a Yale graduate John Graham Sin? June. 1746 in 1740, and a chaplain in the Havana expedition in 1762. His yearly salary was £50, half in provision pay, and forty cords of wood piled in his door-yard. The " Graham Lot," of about thirty acres, southwest from the meeting- house, was his settlement and homestead, where he lived and died. The infirmities of age preventing active duties, the Rev. Daniel Waldo became his colleague and successor. Mr. Graham died April 22, 1796, in the fiftieth year of his ministry, and in his seventy-fourth year. He was twice married, and was the father of seventeen children, who survived him. The youngest was Dr. Sylvester Graham, the dis- tinguished vegetarian, for whom Graham flour and Graham bread are named.
The Rev. Daniel Waldo, the colleague and successor of Mr. Graham, was ordained and installed May 23, 1792, and dismissed Dec. 20, 1809. His was a long and eventful life. He was a native of Windham, born in 1762, was a soldier of the Revo- lution, and was taken prisoner Danie/ Walho Aged 10 years at York Island ; he was confined in the fatal Sugar-house Prison at New York, and barely escaped alive. He was a Yale graduate in 1788, and was actively en- gaged in the ministry seventy years. He was chosen chap- lain of the United States House of Representatives in 1855, then in the ninety-fourth year of his age. He revisited West Suffield in September, 1858, and in this last visit preached an excellent discourse, ascending and descending the pulpit with the sprightliness of a boy, though ninety- seven years of age. He died at Syracuse, New York, July 30, 1864, in the one hundred and second year of his age. His successors, with time of service, have been : -
Rev. Joseph Mix, settled Dec. 14, 1814, dismissed Nov. 23, 1829.
" Erastus Clapp,
supplied from 1833, to April 1, 1839.
" Benjamin J. Lane,
from June, 1839,
June,
1841.
" Joseph W. Sessions, settled Jan. 11, 1843, dismissed Nov. 23,
1852.
" Henry J. Lamb,
supplied from June 15, 1853, to Mar. 11, 1857.
" Henry Cooley,
settled June 6, 1857, dismissed Feb. 23,
1864.
" Charles B. Dye, " William Wright,
supplied from July, 1864, 66 April, 1866,
to
Nov. 1, April, 1869.
" Stephen Harris,
66
April, 1869,
66
April,
1871.
" Augustus Alvord,
66
66 Oct., 1871,
66
October, 1872.
" Austin Gardner,
66
Jan., 1873,
April 1, 1876.
" John Elderkin,
66
June, 1876,
66 December, 1879.
" Edwin G. Stone,
" Newell A. Prince, 66
66
1882.
May, 1880, 66
May, 1882.
1865.
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SUFFIELD.
The church of the " Separates," or "New Lights," was composed of dissenters or seceders from the "Standing Order," led by Joseph Hastings, who was ordained the first minister, April 18, 1750. The separation began about the year 1742, and meetings were held in private houses, where exhorters and shouters 'enjoyed religious freedom. A. church was probably formed when Mr. Hastings was ordained, though no record of it is found, and no roll of its membership exists. Sept. 20, 1763, the town voted " That the Separates shall set their Meeting-House on the Highway that goes by General Lyman's, West, viz. on ye north side of the Highway between the foot of the hill and Mr. Gideon Granger's Lot." It was built soon after. The Rev. Israel Holley was ordained its pastor, June 29, 1763. Soon afterward Baptist sentiments crept in, and the doctrines of baptism, infant sprinkling, half covenant, etc., separated the Separates. Again, Joseph Hastings (who had withdrawn or been dismissed) marshalled the disaffected, and led them to " pastures green " on " Zion's Hill." The Separate society lost the larger part of its membership, but maintained a feeble existence until about 1784, when its meeting-house was sold, and the members mostly returned to the ancient fold. Mr. Holley became a Congregational minister, preaching at Granby and North Cornwall. He was a man of ability, and a patriot, as shown by his printed address, delivered at Suffield the Sunday after the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor. The origin, growth, and collapse of the Separatists make an interesting episode in Connecticut history. Only ten or twelve towns had the "New Light" societies; Suffield, Enfield, and Windsor being of the number.
The first " Baptized Church " and society was an offshoot from the Separates, and was organized in 1769, with Joseph Hastings for its first minister. It built a brick meeting-house on Zion's or Hast- ings Hill, about that period. No church records exist, and little is known of its history under Joseph Hastings's pastorate. His son John was the second minister; he was ordained in 1775, and served with marked snecess as a revivalist until his death. He is said to have baptized eleven hundred persons during his ministry, and he was one of the most eminent ministers of the Baptist faith. Few men have lived whose influence has been more potent in shaping the religious, social, and political character of the town. Nine churches were formed by colonies from this. The little brick meeting-house gave way to a large barn-like structure, without tower, bell, or steeple. At the beginning of this century the pilgrims who wended their way to Zion's Hill were numbered by scores and hundreds. These scenes are now tra- ditional memories. In 1846 the present more cheerful edifice was built upon the site of the old.
These inscriptions are copied from gravestones in the Hastings Hill churchyard :-
"In memory of Joseph Hastings, who died Nov. 4, 1785, in the 82d year of his age. He was the first Baptist minister in Suffield.
"Depart my friends, dry up your tears, Here I must lie, 'til Christ appears."
" Sacred to the memory of the Rev. John Hastings, who died the 17th of March, A.D. 1811, in the 68th year of his age, who was the 2d Baptist minister in Suffield.
" Who like the Apostles, called from men's employ,
Made sinners tremble, filled the saints with joy."
394
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
The Rev. Asahel Morse succeeded Elder Hastings in 1812. He was one of the delegates from Suffield to the Constitutional Convention of 1818, and the article relating to religious liberty is said to be from his pen. He died June 10, 1836, in his sixty-sixth year. The Rev. James L. Hodge succeeded him ; and among the very numerous successors none have been more eloquent, genial, and successful than the Rev. James L. Hodge.
The Second Baptist Church was colonized from the first, and was constituted May 22, 1805, with fifteen members ; namely : -
John King.
Elisha Adams.
Cynthia Brunson.
Rufus Granger.
Jonathan K. Kent.
Tabatha Symans.
Chester Stebbins.
Theodore Symans.
Hannah Pease.
Seth King.
Aurelia Granger.
Polly Adams.
William Levee.
Anne Kent.
Lorain Peirce.
This small church body was reinforced by a large number styled " Baptist People," who in 1806 began preparations for building a meeting-house on High Street, which, after many trials of various kinds, was erected and occupied in 1810. This edifice possessed all the architectural beauties of its prototype on Zion's Hill. This, with the parsonage and the "horse houses" (where the brethren discussed con- stitutional amendments and the crops, and drank each other's cider Sunday noons), stood a little south from the bank, on land now Charles L. Spencer's. In 1839 this lot and buildings were disposed of and the present site bought. The present church was completed and occupied in September, 1840. This church property, with all its improvements and appointments, represents a cost of about $50,000.
Elder Stephen Shepard and Elder Tod were pioneer itinerants, and preached here in 1805. Elder Joseph Utley, of Groton, first officiated in administering the sacrament, but no permanent minister was " called" until 1810. The following is a record of ministers " called," with term of service : -
Rev. Caleb Green, 1810-1815.
66 Bennet Pepper, 1815-1823.
Tubal Wakefield, 1823-1824.
66 Calvin Philleo, 1825-1830.
Amos Lefevre, 1830-1832.
66 George Phippen, 1832-1834.
Nathan Wildman, 1835-1837.
Rev. Miner Clarke, 1837-1838. 66 Horace Seaver, 1838-1839.
Dwight Ives, Sept. 29, 1839- April 5, 1874.
66 John R. Stubbert, 1874-1882.
66 Burton W. Lockhart, 1882 (present incumbent).
Its church-roll numbers thousands, and its present membership is about six hundred and fifty.
The Rev. Dwight Ives was an able man, eloquent in the pulpit, prac- tical and sagacious in business affairs, strong in the hearts of his people at their homes and firesides. He was pastor thirty-four and one half years, or one half the period of the church's existence, and longer than his ten predecessors combined. He removed, with his family, to his early home in Conway, Mass., where he died, Dec. 22, 1875, in his seventieth year.
Before 1830, itinerant Methodist exhorters occasionally visited the town, but gained no apparent foothold. The Methodist Society of West Suffield dates its beginning from a Quarterly Meeting service held by
395
SUFFIELD.
courtesy at the Congregational church there. Meetings were held in school-houses, private dwellings, and barns. In 1833 the Rev. Charles Chittendon, a revivalist, was placed here by the Conference with much success, and since that time (except 1854) the Conference has supplied its ministers. In 1839 the society built and dedicated their meeting- house, with the present bell in its tower. The leading men in this work were Gustavus Austin, Charles Denison, David Hastings, Horace Tuller, Curtis Warner, Warren Case, John Johnson. A parsonage was built in 1856, mainly through the efforts of the Rev. Frederick Brown. Olin L. Warner the sculptor was born here, April 9, 1844, his father, the Rev. Levi Warner, being minister in charge. The father of the Rev. Dr. Burton, of Hartford, was the minister here in 1857.
The first Episcopal service here was held at the town-hall, May 14, 1865, and regular services were continued. The Episcopal Society of Calvary Church, of Suffield, was instituted Ang. 4, 1865, at the dwelling- house of George Williston. Its first officers then appointed were Archi- bald Kinney, warden senior ; Anson Birge, warden junior ; vestrymen, George Williston, Sands N. Babcock, Alfred Owen, Robert E. Pinney, Timothy Kinney, Burdette Loomis, Ashbel Easton ; parish clerk, Robert E. Pinney ; treasurer, George Williston. Initiatory steps were taken at that time toward securing a site for a church, resulting in its present neat edifice. Its corner-stone was laid May 7, 1872; the first service in it was held June 21, 1874; it was dedicated July 7, 1874. Its cost, with one acre of land, was $13,750. The church now numbers forty communicants. The Rev. Augustus Jackson was the first rector. His successors have been numerous. The Rev. William L. Peck is now rector.
The first Roman Catholic service held in Suffield was at the house of John Gilligan, June 18, 1882 : and the second was in the school-house hall, in West Suffield, July 30, 1882, conducted by the Rev. Father Michael Kelly, of Windsor Locks. Services have been continued regu- larly since, and the members have bought a site midway between the villages, and are about to erect a church thereon. The ground was broken for it, with proper ceremonies, April 20, 1885.
Eight churches have been established here, including the Roman Catholic. The tolerant reception accorded the last two is in striking contrast with the history of the five preceding, - each in turn meeting opposition, if not persecution, from those who should have extended the welcoming hand. Education has done much toward dispelling bigotry and intolerance in the good old town.
Two lots of land, one of sixty and one of twenty acres, on the east side of High Street, were set apart in 1671 " for the Ministry, to con- tinne for that use forever." The former is now occupied by E. A. Fuller and J. F. Fairchild, and the Knox Hotel is on the latter. In the second division of proprietary lands the " Ministry Meadow " was added. The minister occupied portions of these lands to eke out a sup- port. After 1740 the Second Ecclesiastical Society shared in the income, if any, and the town had charge of the lands, properly applying the avails. In 1790 the Rev. Ebenezer Gay asked the town " to devise some way to make the land more profitable." In 1791 the sixty-acre lot was leased for nine hundred and ninety-nine years to Elijah Granger
396
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
for an annual interest on the sum of £351. It is still occupied under this lease. In 1797 the two ecclesiastical societies, by mutual agree- ment, divided the fund, the first society receiving three fifths of the interest from the sixty-acre lot and the whole of the twenty-acre lot ; and the second receiving two fifths of the interest money and the whole of the Ministry Meadow. In 1844 the leaseholders paid the £351 to the societies. In 1803 the " Baptist People," having a majority, voted in town-meeting that the Ministry Lands should be divided among the three religious societies, and took measures to carry the vote into effect. The courts were applied to, and after a period in which social, political, and religious affairs here were distractingly mixed, the Supreme Court decided that the town had no jurisdiction over the Ministry Lands, but they belonged to the first religious society of the town. The second, being a branch of the first, retained its share.
Most of the early settled towns were founded under grants from the General Court to companies or individuals with certain conditions, with- out a formal act of incorporation. The date of Suffield's incorporation (if such we may call it) was June 3, 1674, when the General Court gave the town its name, defined its bounds, and gave it some corporate advantages. At the first town-meeting, March 9, 1682, no moderator was chosen ; but Major John Pynchon, who was one of the thirty-four qualified voters present, probably served in that capacity. Five select- men were chosen by papers (ballots), a town clerk, two highway survey- Mayor John Pynchon: March the 9th 16-02 81 ors, a land-measurer, and a sealer of leather, - all to serve for one year. No treasurer was chosen, or needed, as taxes, salaries, and debts were paid only in grain, pro- visions, etc., the price-current of which was regulated by town vote, and was called " town pay." The 82 town government was thus or- ganized : "leaving ye affaires of ye Towne henceforward to ye Inhabitants hereof according to Law ; " and there is an unbroken record of their transactions down to the present time.
In 1693 the town sent Captain George Norton as its first represen- tative to the General Court at Boston. On the 3d of July, that year, " The Towne being legally met together, and considering the state of the Towne, that they are poor, and not able to beare the charges of sending a Representative, and paying him for his time, have agreed to discharge, or free their Representative from that service and to ly at the mercy of the honorable assembly, hoping they will consider our poor and low condition, and not take advantage against us, soe as to impose any fine upon us."
The second representative was Captain Joseph Sheldon, in 1703, also in 1705-1708. He died at Boston, Aug. 2, 1708, the Governor and both branches of the Assembly attending his funeral. His suc- cessors were : Jonathan Taylor, 1709; Jacob Adams, 1711, 1714, 1717 (he also died at Boston) ; Atherton Mather, 1712, 1713, 1715, 1716; John Austin, 1718-1720, 1723 ; John Kent, 1724, 1725, 1727-
397
SUFFIELD.
1731; John Burbank, 1726; Christopher Jacob Lawton, 1732-1735; Captain Josiah Sheldon, 1736; Samuel Kent, 1737; Samuel Kent, Jr., 1738 and 1742. He was the last representative at Boston, from Suffield.
The year 1749 was a notable one in the town's history for its revolt from Massachusetts. The settlement of the colony line in 1713 was never satisfactory to the people of Suffield, when it was known to be within the Connecticut Patent. The people had not been consulted about so grave a matter, and their dissatisfaction soon took form, as seen in the following town votes : -
" Nov. 17, 1720. Voted, that John Burbank shall take care and see what encouragement he can find for us, to get to the Government of Connecticut to bring to the town the next March Meeting."
" March, 1723-4. The Town by a clear vote made choice of John Kent to be their Agent to manage according to the best of his discretion, in and for the procuring for ye said Town, the privileges of Connecticut Government."
The town voted him six shillings a day for sixteen days as agent to Connecticut. No change was effected at this time, but the people were no less determined " to procure the privileges of Connecticut Govern- ment," and for many years declined to send representatives to Boston.
" March 20, 1747. Voted, to appoint Capt. Phinehas Lyman an Agent for this Town, and in our name to joyn with the Committee or Agents appointed, or to be appointed by the Towns of Woodstock, Somers and Enfield, to make application to ye great and General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and General Assembly of Connecticut, or to either of them, as the Committee or major part of them shall by good advice think best, to obtain our right in being released from ye sd Province and set off and allowed to belong to ye Colony of Connecticut, as by Law and Justice we think we ought to be. And our sd Committee are to take ye best advice they can obtain, in the sª affair, in order to obtain the sd end, and to be at a proportionable part of ye cost, that shall be expended in sd affair with ye sd Towns, according to our List. Capt. Lyman as an agent not to take out of the Treasury above twenty pounds old tenor."
Phinehas Lyman, of Suffield, was at this time a leading member of the Hampshire County Bar, and as principal agent of the revolting towns, prosecuted the matter with great energy and success. In May, 1747, petitions were addressed to both Assemblies, stating grievances, and asking for the appointment of Commissioners of Conference. Con- nectient appointed and reappointed Commissioners, but Massachusetts declined. After two years of ineffectual negotiation the Connecticut General Assembly, May session, 1749, cut the " Gordian knot" by a single act which succinctly states the whole case, and is found in Hoadly's " Colonial Records," vol. ix. p. 431.
Aug. 10, 1749, " Voted to raise 340 pounds old tenor to pay for our getting off into Connecticut." Two elections of town-officers were held this year : the first in March, under Massachusetts government, and the other in December, which was the first town-meeting under Con- necticut laws. Massachusetts assessed the seceding towns for twenty years, but the taxes were not levied.
Great interests connected with the succeeding French and Revo- lutionary wars overshadowed, but did not terminate, the boundary question.
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