USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Mount Carmel > The old Mount Carmel parish, origins & outgrowths > Part 9
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For the ordinary public worship on Sunday, a pulpit sup- ply was usually obtained from the college, where graduates were to be found who were pursuing a course of study in preparation for the ministry. These were often young men of ability and acceptable preachers, as is shown by the influ- ential positions they held in after years. One who was early employed in this way was Joseph Howe,* the best scholar of the class of 1765, and for three years a tutor of influence in the faculty. He received calls from the First Church in Hartford and the South Church in Boston, the latter of which he accepted, entering on a happy ministry, which was interrupted by the invasion of British soldiers in 1775. Next in order, as the records show, was David Ely,f a classmate of Nathan Hale and Timothy Dwight, who was afterward the pastor at Huntington for forty years and in his later years a member of the Yale Corporation. A third was Lyman Potter,¿ who was the pastor at Norwich, Vermont, for twenty-five years, then a Presbyterian missionary in Penn- sylvania and Ohio, and, in the end, the owner of a large farm in Ohio, where he died in his eightieth year. In 1775,
* Yale Biographies, Third Series, pp. 264-265.
t Ibid., pp. 334-335.
į Ibid., pp. 452-453.
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The Ministry and the People.
mention is made of Joseph Baker, who afterward held pas- torates in Massachusetts and became distinguished as a poli- tician, a member of the Massachusetts legislature, and a member of Congress. A little later appears the name of Reu- ben Holcomb,* who became pastor of a church in Lancaster, Massachusetts, where things had been about as turbulent as at Mount Carmel. He was successful, however, in straight- ening out affairs and stayed there thirty-five years; after which he devoted himself to farming and became eminent as a fruit-grower. Then comes Nehemiah Prudden, who went to Enfield, Connecticut, another community torn by dissen- sions, where he became distinguished as a peacemaker and continued for thirty-three years, till the end of his life. An- other was Rozel Cook,¿ who had a pastorate at Montville in the neighborhood of New London.
Most of these were Yale graduates, able men, whose pres- ence in the pulpit was in keeping with New Haven standards of scholarly thought and earnest conviction. Some of them may have been looked upon as candidates for the pastorate, but probably the embarrassing position of the church in re- lation to Mr. Sherman prevented any serious thought of an- other pastor till that affair was out of the way, and these stu- dent preachers were heard as only temporary supplies. Very likely there were others whose names do not appear in the records. But those who have been mentioned may be taken as examples. It meant a great deal for this congregation to be led in their worship by young men of such gifts. Especially for the more youthful portion and the children, there was a certain inspiration to noble thought and worthy ambition in listening to a man not many years older than themselves, catching the glow of his ardor for worthy living, and per- haps talking with him of their own half-formed wishes and impulses. And it was not a slight privilege to have some ac- quaintance with these men of such great promise and to have a continued personal interest in their achievements as years
* Yale Biographies, Third Series, pp. 527-529.
t Ibid., pp. 583-585.
# Ibid., pp. 668-669.
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went by and brought them well-earned laurels. In all this there was not wanting a certain compensation for not having a regularly settled pastor .*
At length, however, after Mr. Sherman's claims had been adjusted, the people began once more to set about having a settled minister, and in due time they united in calling Joshua Perry, a Yale graduate of 1775.1 He was a son of Joshua Perry, a farmer of Ripton, now Shelton, Connecticut. His mother was a sister of the Reverend Mark Leavenworth of Waterbury. Another Leavenworth sister was the wife of
* Evidence of the results of such wholesome influence may be found in the number of young men from Mount Carmel who entered Yale College:
Class of
Austin Munson 1749, physician at Claverack, New York.
Simeon Bristol
1760, from Cheshire, Justice at Mount Car- mel.
Noah Atwater 1774, minister at Westfield, Massachusetts.
Stephen Row Bradley
1775, from Cheshire, Vermont pioneer.
Jason Atwater 178I, minister at Branford.
Simeon Bristol, Jr., student, killed by a fall May 23, 1782.
Dan Bradley 1789, minister, New York pioneer.
Joel Bradley 1789, minister, New York pioneer.
Ezra Bradley 1797, minister and farmer in Massachusetts.
Ezra Ives 1797, physician in South Carolina.
William Bristol 1798, Judge Supreme Court, Connecticut, etc.
The following were Yale graduates of the nineteenth century:
Class of
George Goodyear 1824, minister in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Jason Atwater, 2d
1825, minister in Connecticut.
Francis Ives
1845, lawyer in Bridgeport.
George Arba Dickerman
1855, minister in Illinois.
Wilbur Ives
1863, died soon after graduation.
George Sherwood Dickerman
1865, minister, author, etc.
In more recent years, a number of others whose boyhood was partly passed in this neighborhood have been graduated from Yale; among whom may be named:
Class of
Chauncey B. Brewster 1868, Bishop of Connecticut.
Stanley P. Warren
1869, physician in Maine.
William J. Brewster
1881, minister.
Benjamin Brewster
1882, Bishop of Maine.
+ Yale Biographies, Third Series, pp. 581-582.
+
House Built by Rev. Nathaniel Sherman
House of Jonathan Dickerman, 2d Jonathan Dickerman, 2d, was married by Rev. Nathaniel Sherman in 1770 and this house was probably built about that time
%
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4
The Ministry and the People.
Nichols Moss of Derby, after whose death she married Jonathan Dickerman of Mount Carmel as his second wife .* This aunt was living at Mount Carmel when Perry was in college, so that he doubtless visited there from time to time and became somewhat familiar with the people. He studied theology with his Uncle Leavenworth, who was famed for being an independent and original thinker, a progressive theologian upon whom ministers of the old school looked with alarm. Perry was licensed to preach by the Fairfield East Association in 1776, the year of the Declaration of In- dependence, and in the years immediately following was temporarily employed by a number of different churches, among which was that of New Canaan. As people's thoughts were chiefly of the war that was going on, they were not in much of a mood to settle a pastor. As the war drew to a close, he was engaged to supply the pulpit at Mount Carmel, re- ceived a call to the pastorate, and was ordained October 15, 1783.
Although he had been taught in theology by Mark Leav- enworth, who was out of favor with the New Haven Asso- ciation, Mr. Perry seems to have commended himself to the ministers who met for his examination, and neither records nor tradition tell of any discordant notes at his ordination. His uncle came over from Waterbury to stand by him and preach the sermon, and thus his ministry opened with prom- ise. He bought a homestead in the north part of the Parish, above the Steps, where the road eastward to Wallingford branches off from the main street, on the southeast corner. The purchase was made from Hiel Peck; and, on leaving Mount Carmel, in 1790, he sold the property to Tully Crosby, from whose heirs it passed to Hezekiah Brockett, now being known as the "Hezekiah Brockett Place."
Early in the third year of his ministry, the General As- sembly of Connecticut incorporated the town of Hamden, covering the territory which previously belonged to the Par- ish of Mount Carmel, with a district to the south in "the limits of the 17th Military Company in the Second Regi-
* Dickerman Genealogy, pp. 403-406.
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ment of State Militia." With this Act, the territory named passed out from under the jurisdiction of New Haven and the old Parish of Mount Carmel became an institution of the past. Mr. Perry therefore began his ministry in the town of New Haven and closed it in Hamden. This speaks merely of change in the name; but it marks the coming of a new order. In the following year, 1787, there met in Philadel- phia the convention which framed the constitution of the United States. Among the many changes consequent on the Revolution was a modification of the manner of raising money for the maintenance of churches which made the min- isters' tenure of office more uncertain.
Previous to this, indeed, for some fifty years, exceptions in regard to ecclesiastical taxation had been made on behalf of Episcopalians, Quakers, and Baptists. But now exceptions became more general. In 1784, a law was passed allowing any individual exemption from taxes to support the ministry established in his locality, provided that he regularly at- tended worship elsewhere and contributed to its mainte- nance. This opened the way for property holders to escape taxation by an easy subterfuge.
In Mount Carmel, four at least of the larger property holders soon availed themselves of this privilege. They were Jonathan Dickerman, Baszel Munson, Samuel Atwater, and Jacob Atwater. Bending to the necessity thus forced on the Society, Mr. Perry good-naturedly offered to remit from his salary an amount equal to that of the taxes unpaid by all who had been legally excused. The amount was £50, a large part of the salary, inasmuch as the whole amount stipulated was only £80 with firewood. The Society acknowledged the gift with gratitude and the immediate crisis was bridged over. But it was not for long. In the following year, the rec- ords speak of "uneasiness in the parish, many respectable in- habitants having withdrawn to join other societies, so that the list of tax-payers was greatly reduced, nearly one-third part, necessitating a dissolution of the pastorate." Accord -. ingly a council was convened on January 12, 1790, which re- sulted in a close of the pastorate.
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The Ministry and the People.
President Stiles, alluding to the event in his Diary, re- marks upon Mr. Perry: "He dies a martyr to New Di- vinity."* No doubt this reflects the opinion of some who were disaffected, but as Stiles adhered to the Old Divinity, we need not accept his judgment as unbiassed. He seems not to have made quite fair allowance for the exigencies of the times.
Mr. Perry's wife was Marah Strong, a daughter of John Strong of Farmington, and after his dismission he retired to a farm not very far from her old home, in what is now Bur- lington, and devoted his attention to cultivating the ground and raising stock. He died in 1812, and his wife ten years later. They had one daughter, who never married. His estate was appraised at $6,390 which indicates that the years sub- sequent to his pastorate were passed in comfortable circum- stances.
After Mr. Perry's departure, there followed a period of ten years without a settled pastor. During these years, there was a return to the practice of depending on ministers in neighboring towns for various services, while Sunday sup- plies were largely afforded by young men from the college. In the list of those who thus maintained the offices of the church there was a goodly number of men of eminence, whose interest and personal efforts did much to hold up the standards of religious thought and moral rectitude. There was a decline, however, in membership, from one hundred and nine in 1783, when Mr. Perry was ordained, to eighty- seven in 1800.
With the beginning of the new century, the people united in calling the Reverend Asa Lyman to be their pastor .; He was ordained September 9, 1800, and continued till April 26, 1803, when ill health made it necessary for him to give up his work while it was full of promise. He was after- ward a pastor in Maine, first at Bath and later at Windham. For many years he was a teacher, at one time in Buffalo, New York, and then at Skaneateles. He had one son who be-
* Stiles, Diary, Vol. III, pp. 374, 377.
1 Yale Biographies, Fifth Series, pp. 296-297.
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
came a Bishop of North Carolina and another son who was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. There were also five daughters in his family. He died at Clinton, New York, January 20, 1836.
After Mr. Lyman's departure, the church was without a pastor for three years, and then called Mr. John Hyde,* who was ordained May 21, 1806, the ordination sermon be- ing given by the Reverend Samuel Nott, D.D., the father of Mrs. Hyde. This pastorate seems to have been happy and fruitful. Mr. Hyde at his own request was dismissed in January, 18II, after which he held pastorates at Preston, Connecticut, and Wilbraham, Massachusetts. He had a family of three sons and three daughters. He died at Frank- lin at the house of his father-in-law on August 14, 1848, at the age of seventy-two.
Soon after Mr. Hyde's dismission, the Reverend Elipha- let Coleman was engaged to supply the pulpit and proved so acceptable that in the following year, on February 5, 1812, he was ordained to be the settled pastor. Mr. Coleman was a son of Deacon Seth Coleman of Amherst, Massachusetts, a physician, who was distinguished for his religious earnest- ness and for an extraordinary influence in the community where he lived. Eliphalet was the seventh in a family of eight children. He was a graduate of Williams College in the class of 1800. Thus his antecedents and education were a little different from those of the ministers coming from Yale, to whom the Mount Carmel people were accustomed. His pastorate continued till November, 1825, over thirteen years, quite a variation in point of stability from previous experiences.
* Yale Biographies, Fifth Series, pp. 594-595.
XI.
Revolutionary Times.
D URING the entire period of the War of the Revo- lution, the people of Mount Carmel were without a settled minister. They seem, however, to have joined in the movement for independence in the same spirit as the people in adjacent parishes and to have borne their share of its burdens with similar credit. This is shown very early in the list of members contributed to the Committee of Inspection.
When the First Continental Congress, in 1774, started its Association to combine the colonies against the crown, through a non-importation agreement enforced by means of a system of committees operating in every community, the Connecticut General Assembly, meeting in October, im- mediately ratified its action; and New Haven, in a town meeting a few days later, on November 14, confirmed the recommendations of the Assembly and chose a Committee of Inspection having thirty-one members. Before this action was taken, it was voted that the major part of the Committee be chosen within the limits of the First Society. There was reason for this in the difficulty of deciding on such short no- tice what men were best fitted for the work in localities re- moved from the center, such as East Haven, West Haven, Woodbridge, North Haven, and Mount Carmel. A few, however, were chosen from these parishes, and among them was Joel Bradley, Jr., of Mount Carmel, who is to be dis- tinguished from another, much older man of the same name who belonged to North Haven.
The Committee was enlarged at another town meeting, December 20, by the addition of twenty more members, covering the ground more completely. Among the new members were Samuel Atwater and Jonathan Dickerman of Mount Carmel, who undoubtedly brought to this patriotic service the same commanding influence, energy, and persist-
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
ence which characterized them in other fields of activity. In January, 1776, Jonathan Dickerman was chosen a grand juror in place of Jason Bradley, which may have had some relation to his duties as an inspector. A year later, in January, 1777, in pursuance of a war measure of the General Assem- bly for the regulation of prices, another Committee of In- spection was appointed to fix prices and enforce their observ- ance by civil authority, a committee of sixteen, among whom were three from this part of the town, John Gilbert, Jona- than Dickerman, and Joel Gilbert. Still later, in March, 1780, a committee of forty-one members was chosen. The members of this committee were to be Inspectors of Provi- sions, and, among them, Jonathan Dickerman, Abner Todd and Captain Jesse Goodyear were from Mount Carmel parish.
The presence of such representative citizens on these sev- eral committees is proof of an active interest in the cause of independence and an intelligent appreciation of the great leadership of the Continental Congress, and indicates their willingness to keep diligent watch over whatever was going on in their particular neighborhoods, to be on the alert for every sort of mischief, and to promote the patriotism of their community.
Nor were the people of this parish less ready for military service. There is a record which reads as follows: "In North Haven a number of volunteers of more than 60 men, having enlisted themselves into the service of their country, chose the following for their officers, January 13, 1777, Revd. Benjamin Trumbull, Captain; John Gilbert, Ist Lieuten- ant; Joel Bradley of Mount Carmel, 2nd Lieutenant; Lieut. Jared Hill, Ensign." As Mount Carmel and North Haven had always been closely associated, they naturally united in forming this company of "minute men" for any emergency that might arise. The distribution of the offices is especially significant. Trumbull of North Haven, who had already served as chaplain with two regiments in the field, and who was known and honored in both parishes, was commanding officer; next came John Gilbert, who lived at the south end
IO3
Revolutionary Times.
of the Mount Carmel parish; and third, Joel Bradley, whose home was at the north end, toward Cheshire. Thus three widely separated neighborhoods were represented, and we may conclude that each had its contingent of volunteers in the company.
Two years later, on July 5, 1779, when the British troops made their incursion into New Haven, the worth of such precautions was put to the proof. The same John Gilbert, who was then spoken of as captain of a company, fought at the head of his men, whom he had rallied to resist the attack, and in the gallant fight that ensued he was killed by the enemy. His brother Michael was also killed in the same en- counter, and his neighbor, Joseph Dorman, with a number of others.
It is recorded, besides, that Captain Jesse Goodyear of the 2d Militia Regiment "turned out at the invasion of New Haven." Other captains of this Regiment are named as Caleb Gilbert, Moses Gilbert, and Baszel Munson. Baszel Munson was also a member of a Committee of Inspectors chosen December II, 1775, and was active in the support of the War in many ways.
In the Lexington Alarm list of April, 1774, occur the names of Samuel Atwater, Hezekiah Dickerman, John Goodyear, Theophilus Goodyear, and Ebenezer Warner.
In the company of Captain Samuel Peck, in General Wadsworth's Brigade of Washington's Army, are found the names of Sergeant Allen Ives, Theophilus Goodyear, Jo- tham Atwater, and John Atwater. Of these, Jotham Atwater was killed in the Battle of White Plains. His brother, Enos Atwater, was also in the Army, but in the company of Cap- tain Joel Clark, in the 8th Regiment, commanded by Colo- nel Jedediah Huntington.
Isaac Dickerman was a 2d Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion of General Wadsworth's Brigade in 1776.
Enos Dickerman died of disease in New York in 1776. In family tradition he is understood to have been in the Army, but his name does not appear on the official rolls and
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
he may have been in New York on some duty other than that of a soldier in the ranks.
Hezekiah Dickerman was a corporal in Captain Bunnell's company, of Wallingford, in 1776.
Jonathan Alling and his brother Isaac enlisted early and continued in the service till the close of the War.
The Goodyear Genealogy states that Theophilus Good- year was in the battles of Long Island and White Plains and afterward drew an invalid's pension. His son, Theophilus, 3d, was also in the Army in 1778-79, and another son, Ed- ward Goodyear, served as a corporal in 178 1 and in 1783.
Daniel Bradley entered the service in 1778, was a corporal in 1780 and a sergeant in 1781.
Joseph Peck was in the service three years, from February 23, 1778, to 1781.
Benjamin Warner was in Arnold's company, May 15 to September 1, 1775, and was in the Siege of Boston.
Lazarus Ives and Elijah Woolcot were in the service in the spring of 1777.
Jesse Bradley, a brother of Daniel and Joel, having re- moved to Lee in Berkshire County, actively supported the Revolution in Massachusetts; and Eli Bradley, who had also gone from Mount Carmel to Lee, was with him in this. Elisha Bradley had removed to Stockbridge and his three sons, Lent, Josiah, and Asahel, all served in the Army from there. So did Joel Dickerman, a brother of Enos and Heze- kiah of Mount Carmel. Four sons of Moses Bradley, whose farm was on the Cheshire line, served in the Army; they were Moses, 2d, Reuben, Oliver, and Stephen Rowe Brad- ley.
There is much to show that the people of the Thirteen Colonies were not by any means all of one mind in regard to the Revolution. It is said on good authority that: "In the city of New Haven, in 1776, nearly half the people were British sympathizers." If this was so in the city, something of the same sort must have been true in regard to the people on the farms in the neighborhoods around. Country people are no quicker than those living in a city to be carried away
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Revolutionary Times.
with an enthusiasm for the vindication of rights. But if the people in general were reluctant to break with the mother country in the earlier stages of the struggle, the movement of events steadily worked to overcome their reluctance; even as it did in the Civil War, and again in the World War. The story of the World War throws a great light upon the popu- lar movement of the Revolution, which grew, step by step, with every fresh aggression and every new act of defiant re- sistance, till the colonies became united, the convictions of the people were solidified, and the spirit of independence dissolved the historic bonds of reverence and love for the British crown.
Even to the end of the Revolutionary struggle, however, there were not a few courageous men and women who stead- fastly held to their faith in King George the Third and sided with the British armies. There may have been more of these than we know in the Parish of Mount Carmel. If so, they must have kept very still about their devotion to royalty and left few traces of such sympathies.
A single example of downright loyalist devotion was Lemuel Bradley, whose wife was Esther Stiles, a sister of Mrs. Baszel Munson and of President Ezra Stiles of Yale College. A number of entries in President Stiles's Diary dis- close Lemuel Bradley's attitude and tell of the hard vicissi- tudes in which it involved his family. On August 24, 1779, is this: "Noon sailed my sister Esther Bradley, with her five children, in a Flag for Long Island where her husband is, having joined the enemies of the United States." Six years after this, July 5, 1785, Stiles wrote: "This even arrived here my sister, Esther Bradley, from St. John, New Bruns- wick"; then, on November I, "Sister Esther's cause heard before the Assembly"; and two weeks later, November 17, "I rode to North Haven with my sister Bradley, who took possession of her house and lot"; and in the following year, May 9, 1786, "Rode to North Haven and lodged at Sis- ter's." Six years had gone by when he wrote again, Decem- ber 15, 1792, "Cousin Bradley came here from St. John, New Brunswick," which is to be connected with an entry in
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
the following spring, April 10, 1793, "Sister Bradley and her son Leverett sailed this day for Georgetown in the Prov- ince of New Brunswick to her home and children there. She has lived here and principally at my house these five years." These fragmentary jottings tell a story on which it is idle to enlarge.
With the close of the War came the hour for amnesty. At a town meeting in New Haven, March 8, 1784, a committee was chosen "to consider the propriety and expediency of ad- mitting as inhabitants of the town persons who in the course of the late war adhered to the cause of Great Britain against the United States." The committee were Pierpont Edwards, John Whiting, David Austin, David Atwater, Samuel Hug- gins, James Hillhouse, Jonathan Ingersoll, and Jonathan Dickerman. They drafted a report which was laid before the meeting, accepted, approved, and adopted. Probably this re- port was largely the work of Pierpont Edwards, who was afterward a member of the Continental Congress of 1787- 88 and an able advocate of the Constitution of the United States in the convention held to ratify it.
A part of the report has significance for the ending of every war; for appropriate conduct at other times, as well as for 1784. Some passages are as follows:
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