USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Salisbury > The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Congregational Church in Salisbury, Conn., Friday, November 23, 1894 > Part 2
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The progress toward a completion was necessarily slow,
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and, in all probability, the building was not occupied until 1751. Various entries which appear on the Records in 1750 show that the house was furnished with pews five and one half feet in width set close to the walls, and that the body of the church was filled up with seats, allowing an alley four feet in width from " ye great door to the deacon's seat," also another aisle three feet wide in front of the pews. Galleries . jutted from the walls probably on three sides, and at a rough estimate the house cost $6,000, present currency. As com- pared with a modern church building it was absolutely comfortless. The seats were cushionless, the floor without a carpet, and the house practically without warmth. To be sure, foot-stoves were in vogue, but the heat from them must have been but an aggravation. The services continued far into the afternoon, and, had it not been for the "Sabba-day" houses, where the nooning was spent in cheer and warmth, we can almost believe that even our rugged ancestors would have wavered in their constancy upon divine worship.
The subsequent history of the church is a checkered one. It was all that the people could afford, or even desired, until some years after the close of the Revolution. By that time the population had outgrown it, and the more progressive in- habitants were agitating the question of building a new home for the church. The matter was finally brought to a head in 1799, and this church building was the outcome. The meeting-house of 1750 was literally over-topped by its successor, and, being no longer needed for strictly religious purposes, it became the abode of secular affairs. Town and society meetings were held there. In 1813 it was sold to Simeon Granger, with the provision that he and his heirs should at all times provide a suitable room for the use of the town and society. Mr. Granger kept a tavern here for a number of years, and was succeeded by Mr. Moses Wells, and he in his turn by Mr. William Bushnell, and the build- ing was known as " Bushnell Tavern " until a comparatively recent date. In 1877-8 it was radically altered and stands to-day in the form of the present town hall.
Returning to the agitation attendant upon the building of a new meeting-house, perhaps this extract from the Town Records will best show the divided state of feeling. On "Apr. 22, 1793, on a motion to see whether the town will
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build a new meeting-house, voted in the negative ; a further motion being made to see whether or no we will make thorough repairs, voted in the negative ; a vote being called for to see if we will make any repairs to the meeting-house, voted in the affirmative, with a sum not exceeding £10." But, whereas in 1793 the majority of church members were against building a new church, in 1797 they were in favor of the scheme, for at a town meeting in January of that year more than two-thirds of the society members, " after discus- sion and mature deliberation," voted to build a new meeting- house near the old one. A question of law now arose, at first threatening to check the movement, but which fortu- nately, upon investigation, was adjusted to the satisfaction of all concerned. It will be remembered that one of the pieces of land which Col. Walker deeded to the town in 1750 was to be used for the purpose of a parade ground. In May, 1785, the General Assembly granted a charter to Salisbury, which allowed the inhabitants to hold a mart or fair twice a year upon the training field, or, as it was better known, "the meeting-house green." On this account a dispute arose as to the legality and propriety of erecting a church upon this ground, and Capt. Elisha Whittlesey was appointed agent to make application to the county court to fix the place for the new meeting-house. No further trouble was encountered, for the court set the stake and active operations were at once entered into.
Lot Norton, Esq., Col. Nathaniel Buell, and Mr. John Whittlesey were appointed a committee to contract for building the house, and, eventually, accepted the specifica- tions of Capt. Thos. Dutton of Watertown. The written agreement drawn up between them on Nov. 21, 1798, is to be seen to-day among the relics in the town hall. According to the contract the new church was to be 64 feet long and 45 feet wide, and to be modeled after the meeting-house which had just been erected at Richmond, Berkshire Co., Mass., with a tower 16 feet square, and a projection of 8 feet for a porch, and 28 feet at the base. The cupola was to be sur- mounted by a decent vane and ball, and glass to be provided 24 panes to a window, and the edifice to be completed by July, 1800." Strange as it may seem, the cost of erection was
* The following entry occurs in the Diary of Thos. Robbins, D.D., of Norfolk, Conn. "June 12, 1800. My Brother went to Salisbury to-day to the dedication of the new meeting-house, which is supposed to be the best in the state."
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not as great at that of the first meeting-house. In October, 1799, Mr. Peter Farnam was appointed a committee to pro- cure step-stones, and the steps then procured have been worn away by the tread of families of this society to the sixth generation. The town took vigorous measures to com- plete the meeting-house. Various committees were ap- pointed for various purposes, and, but for the noise, the work might have been likened to that of Solomon's temple of old, for at least the same spirit of concerted action pre- vailed. In January, 1800, the town issued votes of thanks to the building, timber, and seating committees, and three months later John Whittlesey, Lot Norton, Esq., Col. Nathaniel Buell, Col. Adonijah Strong, Capt. Jared Harrison, and Capt. Milo Lee viewed the meeting-house to see if it was carried out according to contract. Also, about this time, a vote of thanks was sent to Mr. Caleb Bingham of Boston for, to use the words of the record, " his valuable present of an elegant folio Bible," which he had presented to the church as a token of attachment and affection for his native town.
The new church was furnished with a high pulpit and square pews. No central aisle existed then, but access to the middle seats was gained by entrances on the side aisles. There were pews under the galleries, and so-called " amen- pews " flanked the pulpit. In the galleries, which ran around three sides of the room, the children of the congre- gation and the singers sat.
In connection with the former a word or two about the tithing-man. At the present time a supposition exists that the tithing-man held sway in Mayflower days alone, and that this office is too remote to enter into the history of this church. Not so; the tithing-man was appointed annually, and the custom did not come into disuse until this century was quite well advanced. There is at least one member of this church now living who remembers the ministrations of this officer perhaps as vividly as any recollection of her earlier years. It is improbable that the exercise of actual chastisement was ever resorted to here, but the authority to report the conduct of any child to his or her guardians or parents was undisputed.
As to early church music there is not a great deal to be
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said. As early as April, 1801, liberty was given to persons so inclined to procure instruments for church music. In all probability, at first, the violoncello alone was used, as this instrument was in almost universal use until the more recent introduction of organ music into New England churches. Shortly after 1830 the 'cello was supported by a big bass viol, upon which Mr. Wolcott Turner is said to have played most beautifully. John Hutchinson was the first chorister of the church in the seventeen-forties, but who held the office in 1800 I have not been able to learn ; among the later choir- leaders were Loring Bartlett, Dea. Whittlesey, and Eliphalet Buell ; also Mr. W. K. Peck, Deacon Graham, Dr. Henry M. Knight, and Mr. G. B. Burrall. The form of congrega- tional singing existed then as now, but custom and, in fact, necessity rendered vocal music more general than it is at present. A choir of twenty or thirty voices existed until quite late in the present century. In 1867 the stringed instruments gave place to the organ which is still in use and cost about $2,500.
The methods of heating the new meeting-house seem to have been but little in advance of those of previous genera- tions. Stoves of some kind were very probably used from the very first. In June, 1833, two box-stoves were procured, and it was voted that no person be allowed to fill a foot-stove from the stoves in the meeting-house. Not until about 1850 was furnace heat introduced.
In 1801 or 1802 a bell was purchased by subscription and placed in the steeple. It weighed about six or seven hundred pounds and was of exceedingly fine metal. The people, however, feeling little association with it, and thinking that with the advance of time a new bell was necessary, deter- mined to purchase one. Consequently the first bell was taken to Troy in 1852 and sold. With the proceeds and an additional amount raised by subscription a new bell, weighing between 1,000 and 1,300 lbs., was purchased and placed in the belfry, but cracked soon after, and was exchanged for the one now in use, which was cast at Troy in 1853.
The interior of the church was altered just 50 years after its erection. In the summer of 1850 the services were held at Academy Hall, and the people attended worship at Lake- ville and Chapinville. The work of reconstruction was
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carried on from May to November, and 44 years ago this month the church was again ready for occupancy. The committee of 1800 would have had difficulty in recognizing their old meeting-house. The square pews, the high pulpit, and the Ionic pillars which supported the gallery, were all swept away by the modernizing wave, and in their stead ap- peared slips, a reading desk, and the pillars which now uphold the galleries, and lack the substantial qualities of their predecessors. Two curtains frescoed in red adorned the pulpit end of the church, and formed a sort of vista in which the minister appeared. The effect must have been somewhat dramatic, but the alteration, incongruous as it ap- pears to us, has, perhaps, called forth no more censure than the last change may inspire in the coming generation, with their new architectural innovations. This alteration cost about $2,000.
The church remained thus through the remainder of Dr. Reid's pastorate and the beginning of that of Rev. Mr. Kitchel. In 1880, however, the curtains were abolished and a new fresco took their place. The pulpit was slightly lowered. It is unnecessary to expatiate at length upon the last renovation, that of 1889. The most noteworthy changes were the taking out of the amen pews, the removal of the organ from the rear of the church to the northeast corner beside the pulpit, the making of a pastor's room corre- sponding on the other side of the pulpit, the procuring of a new pulpit and pulpit-furniture, with new carpets, uphol- stery, curtains, and paper throughout, and the substitution of wood-work for fresco. At this time also were placed back of the pulpit, in appropriate art mouldings, two brass memorial tablets.
[They are the gift of Messrs. Jonathan and N. Church Scoville. They were executed by Lamb Bros. of New York, and are very beautiful and artistic. The one on the left, to Rev. Jonathan Lee, has an oak border, that on the right, to Rev. Adam Reid, an ivy border, both being surmounted by Greek crosses in a circle of oak and ivy respectively.
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THE SANCTUARY, 1894
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In Memory of
In Memory of
REV. JONATHAN LEE.
BORN IN COVENTRY, CONN.,
JULY 10th, 1718.
DIED IN SALISBURY, OCT. 8th, 1788.
PASTOR OF THIS CHURCH
FROM ITS ORGANIZATION
IN 1744 UNTIL HIS DEATH.
44 YEARS IN THE SERVICE OF CHRIST.
The righteous shall be in everlasting re- membrance. - PSALMS cxii, 6.
Donated by Jonathan Scoville, A.D. 1889.
REV. ADAM REID, D.D.
FORTY YEARS
PASTOR OF THIS CHURCH,
FROM SEPT. 29th, 1837, TO SEPT. 23d, 1877.
BORN IN WISHAW, SCOTLAND, JAN. 4th, 1808.
DIED IN SALISBURY, CONN., Nov. 2nd, 1878.
And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Donated by N. C. Scoville, A.D. 1889.
In 1893 another tablet was placed in the north wall, in range with Gov. Holley's pew, in memory of himself and sons. It is of brass with raised letters and bordering, set in a black marble slab, a beautiful piece of work, executed also by Lamb Bros. It is interesting to note that Governor Holley is grandfather of Malcolm D. Rudd, author of this paper. The inscription is:
In Memory of ALEXANDER HAMILTON HOLLEY.
BORN IN SALISBURY, AUG. 12, 1804: ENTERED INTO LIFE OCT. 2, 1887. FOR THIS MORTAL MUST PUT ON IMMORTALITY.
ALSO In Affectionate Remembrance of Dis Two Sons, ALEXANDER LYMAN HOLLEY AND JOHN COFFING HOLLEY.
The asked life of Thee and Thou gave it bim, even length of days for ever and cvcr.
- EDITOR.]
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The temporal welfare of a church does not pretend to vie with the spiritual. The renovations and alterations of the church building can in no sense be compared with the revivals and awakenings of religious feeling which the church has experienced at different times, notably in the years of 1815-16. But the history of these spiritual movements has been recorded by worthy chroniclers, while the setting down of the humbler portion of the church life has been left to this late day; and if this collation of facts shall prove of value to the participants of coming celebrations, the means will have justified the end.
MALCOLM DAY RUDD.
November 22, 1894.
THE ANCIENT COVENANT OF THE CHURCH.
Read by the Senior Deacon, JOHN L. MERWIN.
R EPRINTED verbatim et literatim from the first book of the Church Records, dating from 1744, an old folio bound in pigskin. The covenant was adopted Jan. 25, 1793.
THE COVENANT.
" You do now Avouch Father son and holy Ghost to be your Covenant God, and you promise (so far as God by his grace shall assist you) to live a life of Holy Obedience to all Gods Commands and a Cairful attendance on all gods Gospel Ordinances and Institutions.
" You do Likewise submit yourself to the disapline of this Church, and engage to a faithful watch over your breathren in the Lord, According to the rules and regula- tions pointed out in Gods word.
"And you promise that your Visible Conduct shall be regulated in such manner as shall be most for the Glory of God, the honour and Interest of Religion, and the Everlast- ing Welfare of your own precious and immortal Soul.
" Thus you Covenant and Promise.
" THE CHURCHES ENGAGEMENT.
"This Church doth now receive you into Christian fellowship in all Gospel Ordinances; and promise to walk with, and watch over, you in the Lord.
All members taking upon themselves the aforesaid Cove- nant, and being a head of a family, are required to instruct all those under their care in the doctrines of the Gospel, keep good orders and maintain family Worship; and to abstain from the appearance of Vice, and keep close to all gospel ordinances, As time and Circumstances will admit."
ADDRESS BY THE REV. LEWIS H. REID, D.D., OF HARTFORD. Acting Pastor of this Church from 1882-4.
S ALISBURY has always had a good name. Its healthful location, picturesque scenery, rich iron mines, and solid people have made it conspicuous among the towns of Con- necticut. It was not strange that Henry Ward Beecher should have found here an inviting resting-place for many successive summers. As you know, the boulder above the schoolhouse yonder bears the name of Beecher's Pulpit.
I have personal reasons for loving Salisbury. Fifty years ago Mrs. Reid was a school-girl in this village. She had her home at her grandparents, and in the family was her uncle, the late Robert N. Fuller. The Academy at that time was well known and attracted students from a distance. The principal was Frederick Sedgwick, who devoted his life to teaching. Among the scholars of those days were Robert Averill, Lyman Brewster, Alexander Lyman Holley, Olive and Louise Pratt, and Cornelia Landon (Mrs. Silas B. Moore). Young Holley then gave promise of a marked career. A few years ago when I was serving this church, I was to preach a Preparatory Lecture in the Academy Hall. Mrs. Moore, meeting Mrs. Reid at the door, said, "Come, Maria, let's go in and take our seats together, just as we used to forty years ago." Mrs. Reid's memory goes back of that. She was present, as a child, at the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the town in 1841. Judge Church then made the address. She remembers the occasion, and the little bonnet that she wore trimmed with plaited pink ribbon.
It has been to the credit of this church that it has had few pastors. The church has been loyal, and the pastors have stayed. The pastors, too, in some instances, were men of marked ability. The two whose tablets are here were men whose memory you do well to honor.
THE REVEREND LEWIS HUBBARD REID, D.D ACTING PASTOR, 1882-1884
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It served to knit the ties of affection between you all and myself, in that I was permitted to occupy the pulpit for a brief interval between the ministries of Mr. Kitchel and Mr. Goddard. I recall that service with much interest now. I seem to have stood between these two dear friends holding each by the hand. My service lasted a part of three years. In that time fifty-six new members were added to the church, of these twenty-two were by letter, and thirty-four by con- fession of faith. Some of you will remember that Sabbath, May 4, 1884, when twenty-three new members were added, all of them by confession except one. During my residence of seven years in Lakeville I united ten couples in marriage and officiated at fifty-two funerals; a few of these services were held out of this town. Thus you will see that my life has inwoven itself closely with the life of each of you. It was with regret that we removed our home from among you, but "there is a Divinity that shapes our ends." It seemed a clear case of Providence, and so we went.
It gives me pleasure to think that the classical school which my son and myself established at Lakeville was, in some sense, the pioneer of the present institution, which Mrs. Hotchkiss has so liberally endowed. Now The Hotch- kiss School ranks with the first schools in this country, and will attract to it, and send forth continually, a goodly com- pany of promising young men. I am happy to unite with you in expressing thanks to this Salisbury friend for the lasting memorial which she has reared, and our apprecia- tion of the generous deed which she has performed. In addition to the John C. Coffing bequests to the church and town, the Scoville Family, who have expressed interest in their native town in other ways before, have now, in the gift of this library, laid the people of this community under a debt of gratitude, which can never be repaid.
I congratulate the people of Salisbury on its past history and its future prospects. More and more strangers from abroad are coming to find out the attractions that center here, and in the years to come the dwellers here and those who have gone and shall go from here will be proud to have their names associated with this good old town.
It is a matter of comfort to myself and wife to think that here - where your dead are sleeping and where you expect
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sometime to sleep - where you have in sacred keeping the remains of our youngest son, who died at the end of his college course, a member of this church, and who gave great promise of usefulness, that here, when our day of toil is ended, we shall in that sweet, quiet cemetery find our place of rest.
Let us cultivate these sentiments of affection, aim to dis- charge our duties well, waste no time in idle regrets, have no foolish fears for the future, live as in the living present, do the best we can, and, loving and serving the dear Lord Christ, wait the summons that shall call us home.
A GREETING FROM OUR FORMER PASTOR.
A LETTER FROM THE REVEREND CORNELIUS L. KITCHEL OF YALE UNI- VERSITY, READ BY MR. THOMAS L. NORTON.
NEW HAVEN, NOV. 20, 1894. REV. J. C. GODDARD,
Dear Friend .- Nothing would be more delightful to me than to accept your kind invitation and be present with you at the cele- bration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the found- ing of the church in Salisbury. The uncertain state of my health and the constant pressure of the duties here, which I must keep able to perform, make it unwise for me to attempt it. I am grateful therefore that I am permitted to appear by this letter and have a little word in this very interesting celebration.
What I have to say is hardly ancient enough yet to be called history, but reminiscence, I am sure, is what the occasion de- mands, and of reminiscence my heart to-day is full. You will yourself give the full-length account of this church's rise and progress on a larger canvas. I would like to sketch in as a smaller cabinet picture - a pendant to the main history, some features of the life of this church in the four years from 1877 to 1881,* in which I was with it as pastor. They were very quiet uneventful years, yet, when carefully viewed, they seem to me to have a real interest as illustrative of the life of the church in general and honorable to this church in particular.
In the autumn of 1877 the forty years of the pastorate of Dr.
* [Mr. Kitchel was away much of the last two years by reason of ill health, but his pastorate was really six years in length, extending to '83. In spite of Mr. Kitchel's modest characterization, they were very fruitful and blessed years .- ED.]
THE REVEREND CORNELIUS LADD KITCHEL SIXTH PASTOR, 1877-1883
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Adam Reid had expired, and his resignation at that time left vacant the place to which I was called. The power of Dr. Reid as a pulpit orator I do not need to recount. To those of this congregation who are too young to have listened to him it is surely a familiar tradition. Nor do I need to speak of the dignity and worth of his personality. They have left their im- print, deep and indelible, upon the character of this community. But at the time to which I refer, advancing years, while they had little, if any, impaired his pulpit performance, had rendered it more difficult for him to attend to the distinctively pastoral part of his work. He had also by nature the reserve which often attends the scholarly temperament, so that he came at last to spend nearly all of his time in his study with his Greek Testa- ment open before him, or else engaged in the occupation in which he so much excelled, of preparing sermons.
A church thrown thus largely on its own resources, espec- ially a country church and one in which the male membership is proportionately very small, might easily have fallen into a low and lifeless spiritual condition. But very far from such was the state in which I found it. It had just passed through a not inconsiderable revival and ingathering, which came about in this wise.
There was at that time prevalent an atmosphere of revival which manifested itself in many places in the State in outpour- ings more or less abundant, of the Divine Spirit. Some indica- tions of religious interest became evident here, which under the existing conditions might very easily have been dissipated and come to naught, had they not been promptly recognized and developed. It was the good fortune of this church to have at that time certain lay members who were sensitive to discern the motions of the Spirit and endowed also with the gift of lead- ership. These devoted Christians saw the opportunity and did not neglect it. Special meetings were held, an evangelist helper was called in, individuals were encouraged to press on in the spiritual life and unite with the church of Christ.
Of these workers one man, I think, was felt to be the leading spirit, who, perhaps more than any other, typified the qualities I have referred to. Dr. Knight went on before, because he was fitted to by many gifts, but led the way with so much tact and grace that all were glad to follow and work with him. It was a sad day for this church and community when he was taken from us in the prime of his manhood.
Among the Christian women who were equally devoted in
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this work some are still with you, but just as true is it that here also there was one who led among her sisters by virtue of her positive character and sincere devotion. Mrs. Maria H. Wil- liams was not striken down suddenly, as was Dr. Knight, but lingered into the time of your own pastorate, though kept by physical weakness, to a large degree, from the abundant labors which in my day distinguished her.
It is a wonderful privilege when a pastor can have such help- ers to stay his hands on the right and the left, and it is a dear pleasure to me to-day to testify how readily and entirely these masterful spirits, when a new pastor came, resigned the leader- ship and subordinated themselves in the general work of the church.
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