USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Salisbury > The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Congregational Church in Salisbury, Conn., Friday, November 23, 1894 > Part 3
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These were the circumstances under which I began my work in Salisbury. As a companion-piece I might rehearse the con- ditions under which I left it; how the church bore with me in my protracted illness with a patience and tenderness surpassing any I have seen or heard of in other churches, binding my heart to it in ties of grateful recollections, which time seems only to strengthen and which can never be severed.
Such are some of the features in the life of this church in four short years. If we could know that life intimately in all its one hundred and fifty years we should find just such flowers of beauty and fruits of sweetness all along the way. They are the natural expression of the life of Christ when it becomes em- bodied in the lives of believers. Therefore we love the church. We love the church in general and we love this church in par- ticular, and we pray that its long and beneficent history in the past may be duplicated many fold in the future. Surely the church is like the river of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, on either side of which is the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits and the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations.
Fraternally yours,
C. L. KITCHEL.
AN HISTORICAL DISCOURSE,
ON OCCASION OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNI- VERSARY OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN SALISBURY, CONN., NOVEMBER 23, 1894.
O NE hundred and fifty years ago to-day this church was formed. By a curious coincidence we celebrate the fact on the same day of the week, and thus, like the discovery of America itself, it affords one more illustration of how good a thing can come out of Friday. George the Second was then on the throne, and began, that very year of 1744, the great struggle of 19 years' duration, which was to determine whether England or France should control this continent. Washington was then a boy of twelve, just come into posses- sion of a hatchet. Franklin was beginning his scientific researches in the intervals of editing The Pennsylvania Gasette and Poor Richard's Almanack, although it will be eight years yet before flying his famous kite. It is the era of The Great Awakening, so-called, in New England, largely fostered by Jonathan Edwards, who is still preaching at Northampton, but in a few years he will move to Stockbridge, within twenty-five miles of us, and there write the Treatise on the Will. The nearest church to us in 1744 was Sharon, then four years old, who, with ourselves, were living in "The Wilderness," in New Haven county, in the colony of Con- necticut, commonly spelled with a double t. The town then contained but eighteen English families, though there were several Dutchmen among us, good honest fellows, who recorded their daughters' births in our town register with such pleasing names as Areonchee, Yockamenchee, and Yacimitia. The Dutch families had come into the place as early as 1720, first settling near Mr. Robert Little's at Wetaug, which Wetaug was the Indian name of this locality, just as Sheffield was styled Staytooc, and Sharon Mashapoag. In 1737 the town had been surveyed, divided into twenty-five lots, and sold at Hartford .* Some of the original purchasers
* Twenty-five only, instead of the usual fifty, because it was represented as poor land. They did not imagine that in after years Salisbury would have the third highest grand list in the county, about $2,000,000.
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of these lots have descendants here to-day bearing the same name, as Reed and Norton. By 1741 the town had been chartered by the General Court and named Salisbury, after the English original, doubtless, just as Cornwall, Kent, and Norfolk had their names.
The first movement toward a church may be traced as far back as the memorial addressed to the General Court in 1741, praying for "town privileges and liberty to imbody in church estate." Observe how their two desires, for politics and for religion, went together and were not deemed incon- gruous. Observe also that, whereas the people began by praying for the church, the church ends by praying for the people. The prayer was granted and the General Court, acting as a kind of home missionary society, directed in the charter that one of the shares of the public domain should go to the first settled minister, and one go to the perpetual sup- port of the ministry. So the town was chartered, and joy- fully proceeded to elect officers from selectmen down to " sealer of leather " and " brander," along with which last named office the legislature gave a device (*), like a Greek cross, which we may call the original seal of the town; and every four-footed inhabitant of the place had to have this "mark of the beast " branded upon him.
It is instructive to read in those early pages of the town records what things of moment weighed upon the minds of the Freemen. They resolved, among the first, that hogs should run at large upon the common ; that a bounty of three pounds should be paid for each wolf killed, and one shilling per rattle for every rattlesnake done to death; and in the midst of these matters of state, while voting the hogs in and the snakes out, they voted for a minister .* A com- mittee was at length empowered by the town to look up the right man, and from time to time for the next two years an assortment of pulpit wares was brought before them. But, hungry as our fathers were to take bait, they would not bite at every worm, as several good men discovered, who, after
* We learn that Mr. John Smith was granted "{2 and 18 s. old tenor" for going for a minister ; nor was Mr. Smith the last man in these one hun- dred and fifty years who succeeded in going for a minister, as we shall see, " but that is another story."
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preaching a course of sermons in Salisbury, had to go where glory waited them. The same reluctance to being pleased showed itself fifty years later and at other times; in fact, this discriminating faculty has been characteristic of them ever since, and to this day the congregation feel perfectly compe- tent to pass judgment on every preacher who trembles before them. While the matter of a minister was in abeyance, the town voted to build a parsonage. It was getting the bird- cage before getting the bird. The first parsonage stood nearly opposite the present one, and served as meeting-house, too, for five years, no doubt to the great discomfort of the parson's wife, whose grace was exercised thereby.
In 1743 a young man of Coventry, Conn., twenty-five years old, one year out of Yale College, during which he took his entire theological course, came here to preach. He was acceptable to the congregation and the next January they gave him a call. His name was JONATHAN LEE, and a brass tablet to his memory lies upon the wall back of this pulpit. After the mature deliberation of seven months, he accepted the call, married, two weeks thereafter, Elizabeth Metcalf, the step-daughter of President Clapp of Yale Col- lege, and brought her up here into the wilderness to do home missionary work among us. The log-house parsonage was not finished, and for several months they pioneered it, spending their honeymoon in the back-end of a blacksmith's shop. The young minister frequently trudged down to the mill at Lime Rock (then called The Hollow), with his bag of grain on his back, and on Sabbath days held a circuit of services at The Hollow, at Lakeville, and at Wetaug. Meanwhile the parsonage was building, and here, in a room 24 by 30, the council was held that gathered the church and settled the minister. Observe that the order of procedure was first to get a building, then to get a minister, lastly, to get a church.
The church thus formed consisted of eleven men, whose names are recorded; probably also of as many females, whose names are not recorded till afterward, owing to the view then prevailing that Adam was first formed. The council is described in our records as consisting of three " Reverend Elders " and three "Worthy Messengers." They followed the Cambridge platform in their procedure,
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instead of the Saybrook platform, which had been made that very year the law of the land, which thing became a snare unto the elders in question, and led to their suspension from the ministry. The reasons may not be enlarged upon now, but they were all connected with the council's and Mr. Lee's sympathy with Jonathan Edwards in his revival principles. For one, I honor those three martyrs to ecclesiastical perse- cution, and rejoice that the founding of our church stands for evangelical fervor of the Edwardsean order.
Under the pastoral care of Jonathan Lee the church pros- pered. In eight years more there were eleven hundred people in the town. In 1749 the first meeting-house proper was builded, the frame of which is in the present Town Hall opposite at the hale old age of 145 years. Mr. Lee was a man of commanding figure and of pleasing address. He preached the Election Sermon in 1766 before the Governor and General Court of the colony.
This sermon contains the following sentence, “Domin- ion, or right to rule, is founded neither in nature or grace, but in compact and confederation." This was uttered nine years before Lexington, but it sounds revolutionary enough, and accounts for the spirit of '76 that showed itself so heartily in his congregation when the time came.
In tracing some family lines recently I came across a sale of land by Jonathan Lee to one Ketcham for twenty-six hundred pounds, say $13,000, and at first drew the conclusion that, since the first pastor of this church had so much thrift, it was a pity the secret should have died with him. But, as the transaction occurred during the Revolution, when a person went to market with his money in a basket and brought home his goods in his pocket, it may be that Brother Jonathan was after all, like the rest of his kind, the kind who are "always with you."
Mr. Lee was famous for his Latin, and the baptismal page in our register opens with this sentence, " Baptizavi hos quorum nomina subscripta sunt." Under this head is the entry, "for Ephraim Ketcham viz Sarah, & one & one more name forgot and hannah : 65," that is 1765. Also, "for Joshua Porter's wife Joshua : 60 : & abigail : 62 & Eunice & peter Buell 73 & Augustus non memor temporis Sept 23." While on the subject, it is recorded that for Elijah Owen he
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baptized, "Neomi, Sarah phebe & Elisha : 60: & Lois 67 patience Elijah Esther & Ann Ambros Julius Electa." No wonder the good man wrote occasionally, " nominis oblitus sum." His forgetfulness reminds us of another dominie of the same date, the Rev. Samuel Mills, whom our senior parishioner, Mr. S. S. Robbins, now 90 years old, then a boy, had occasion to drive somewhere. Mr. Mills asked the boy his name, and receiving the response, "Sam Robbins," replied with profound reflection, "Robbins? Robbins? seems to me my first wife was a Robbins."
In 1770 the town had grown to about 1,800, and the church enlarged accordingly. Perhaps the political excite- ment from this onward drew attention away from religion, for in five years thereafter we discover no additions to the church on profession, and in four years only one each. In the Revolutionary War Salisbury was afire with patriotism, and sent forward a full quota, 100 men and 25 commissioned officers. Among other companies was a troop of horse, which formed, under Colonel Sheldon of this church, the first efficient cavalry that joined the Continental army. Salis- bury, indeed, was a military center; Washington, Jay, and other officers of Congress were here frequently, superintend- ing the casting of cannon and shot for the army and navy. The armaments of the Constitution and Constellation and most of the American vessels were made here. Army officers en route from the eastern states to the headquarters on the Hudson passed this way. At the close of hostilities renewed interest appeared in the church, and numbers joined on pro- fession. In 1787 the first of the Methodist circuit riders visited the town, and were kindly received. Instead of suffering outrage, as elsewhere, they were entertained by one of the deacons, Nathaniel Buel, who offered the use of his house for the meetings. In 1788 Jonathan Lee died, after a faithful ministry of forty-four years. He had re- ceived into the church 276. His remains lie in the old bury- ing-ground in front of this church, and a rude carving of himself in his pulpit robes adorns the head-stone.
After the death of Mr. Lee the church spent eight un- happy years. In six of them not one united with it on pro- fession. Several candidates were called and declined. French irreligion was rife. As Professor John Fiske calls the
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earlier years of this term, " The critical period of American history," so we might call it the critical period of this church. In this interval occurred the birth of our neighbor in this village, the St. John's Episcopal Church. In 1793 the church adopted a constitution and confession of faith, instead of the Cambridge platform, which had been their previous guide. The presiding officer of the church meeting being a Scotch- man and a Presbyterian, temporarily supplying the church, and, doubtless, having a hand in framing the articles, the name inadvertently slipped into the title as "The Presby- terian Church at Salisbury," but, on the fourth of July fol- lowing, the matter was corrected, and, by vote of the church, we are to be properly called, not as one might suppose, The Congregational Church, but "The Church of Christ at Salis- bury." There was no emphasis then placed upon the " The," and there is none placed now; we claim merely to be one of several churches of Christ in Salisbury, and bear love and good-will to them all.
In 1796 a call was extended to a young man of 21 years only. He was born at Taunton, Mass., soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, and, accordingly, was given the name of its hero, JOSEPH WARREN CROSSMAN. He was a graduate of Brown University, and had studied theology with the minister at Sheffield, Mass., one year. In Mr. Crossman's bishopric many notable events occurred. One of them was the rearing of the present edifice in 1800. Another was the dissolution of the relation between church and state, and the formation, in 1804, of The Ecclesiastical Society, which has ever since provided the means for maintaining worship. Another was the first systematic census of the church, when the resident membership was found to be 96. About this time occurred a strange incident, which has never been satisfactorily explained, and which grows more mysterious the more it is investigated. It was the famous case of stone throwing against the house of Mr. Sage, of Sage's Ravine. Stones and pieces of mortar were thrown through the win- dows, breaking over fifty panes, often many pieces in succes- sion following through the same hole. A peculiarity of it was that the missile dropped down upon the sill as soon as it broke the glass, as though it had been pushed through a pane of paper. The mystery of it was that although hun-
THE REVEREND LAVIUS HYDE THIRD PASTOR, 1818-1822
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dreds of people assembled to witness the affair, which extended over several days and nights, and among them clergymen and town officers, no one was ever able to detect the source of the throwing. It remains to-day just as it was left then, a conundrum. In 1812 the town was visited by a scourge of typhoid pleurisy, called The Great Epidemic. The labor of attending upon the sick and dying told severely upon the pastor, and, after delivering the Thanksgiving dis- course, he was laid low with the same disease. He declined rapidly, Dr. Reid tells us, until the morning of Sabbath, Dec. 13th, when he fell asleep, his last words being, “ Be faithful." During his ministry of fifteen years 88 joined the church, 57 of them by profession of faith.
After this, for nine years, we enter upon the "dark ages" of this church, dark with indifference and strife. The epidemic, which carried off a hundred and fifty people in two seasons, seemed only to stiffen the ungodly. It was the time of the second war with Great Britain, hard times in business, harder times in religion. At the lowest point, however, when the male members of the church were reduced to seventeen, came extraordinary help. Rev. Asahel Nettleton was invited here to preach. He spent one night on the field, but, distrusting the condition of things, started for another place the next morning. At the earnest solicitation of the deacon he consented to remain, and almost im- mediately a powerful revival broke out, one of the most famous and blessed in all his wonderful ministry. From Massachusetts to the Sharon line the mighty wave swept, and more than three hundred people were converted. One hundred and eighty-eight joined this church at that time. Incredible as it may seem, we have one member of our church living with us to-day, the fruit of that revival. Mrs. Mary Hutchinson, the daughter of one deacon and the wife of another, is with us yet, the oldest communicant of this church, which she joined in 1815. [While we are on the subject I venture to speak of another of our treasures, Mrs. Olive Pratt, who did not happen to join this church as early as Mrs. Hutchinson, first joining a church elsewhere, but who, in point of age, is most venerable of all. She is to-day 98 years, 8 months, and 20 days old; she has lived under every president of the United States, and her birth precedes
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every pastorate of this church except Mr. Lee's. Next to the virtue of honoring thy father and mother is the virtue of living in Salisbury, "that thy days may be long upon the land."]
The great revival lulled the dissensions in the church, but did not kill them. They broke out again over the matter of candidates. With a divided vote the church called the Rev. LAVIUS HYDE in 1818. He was born at Franklin, Conn., graduated at Williams, studied at Andover. His wife is the author of several hymns in The Songs for the Sanctuary. It is said that a minister should have a tender heart but a tough hide; the Hyde in this case was not so. His feelings were lacerated for four unhappy years, caught, as he was, in the jaws of a quarrel he did not originate and could not suppress. He was a gentle godly man, who sacrificed himself in hopes of promoting church union. Personally he was ever highly esteemed .* In 1822 he re- signed, but the irrepressible conflict remained. At this point the church called a council to prevent a split and in hope of restoring harmony. An entire day was spent by the church in humiliation, fasting, and earnest response to that old entreaty,
"O pray for the peace of Jerusalem, They shall prosper that love thee."
And the prayer was answered. Mutual confession and reconciliation followed, and to this day the church has remained harmonious and united.
In 1825 the fourth pastor was called, Rev. LEONARD ELIJAH LATHROP, D.D., born at Gilead, Conn., graduated at Middlebury, Vt., then thirty years of age. He was the ablest man who had, up to this date, labored in Salisbury, and the attachment between himself and his people was un- usually strong. Preeminently was he distinguished for the genial current of his soul; he could talk with the woman at her wash-tub or with the judge at the bar. He could put anyone at ease anywhere, even a boy on a bee-hive.
As illustrative of the way in which he drew people out on familiar topics, it is related of him that on making a round of parish calls, accompanied by Mrs. Lathrop, he remon-
* See an extract from the Society's records on page 72.
THE REVEREND LEONARD ELIJAH LATHROP, D.D. FOURTH PASTOR, 1825-1836.
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strated with her after leaving a certain house for saying so little. She replied that she could think of nothing to talk about. "Nothing to talk about! Why didn't you talk about the cook-stove? Didn't you see they had just bought a new one? " Perhaps this is a case of the well instructed scribe's bringing forth things old and new.
Dr. Lathrop worked in an atmosphere of warmth, be- lieved it to be essential to spiritual success. He never bap- tized anybody with ice-water. As a wise master-mason, he did not attempt to build the temple with frozen mortar, nor to work in the 32°. Not but what he was a good stiff Cal- vinist. Woe, indeed, to the man that tried to oppose him on the doctrines ! He might come out against him one way, but he would flee before him seven ways. Now, to this genial and masterful minister was given the most signal divine favor ever accorded a Salisbury pastor. Great revivals accom- panied his ministry ; in all, one hundred and fifty-eight con- verts were gathered in, an average of over fourteen for each year. No other pastor ever approached this record, and the average for the entire life of the church is but six on confes- sion per year. "The great mistake of my life," he after- ward said, "was in leaving Salisbury "; and, when oppor- tunity was afterward given him for repentance, he came as near to us as he could, and settled at Sharon.
The high opinion he had of this congregation may be gathered from a remark he once made, that he had seen standing on the church steps enough men of brains to form a presidential cabinet !
Dr. Lathrop left the church in a strong, happy, united, evangelistic condition. Almost immediately afterward they found a young man who had been preaching at Amenia, N. Y., a few months, and who before that had emigrated from the Highlands of Scotland. He brought with him "the strength of the hills " and the salt of the sea, and for one and forty years he wrought those ingredients into the lives of this people. Salisbury Church became Salisbury Cathedral, and ADAM REID was its bishop. The brass tablet before you records his name, but the memory, the heart, the character of this congregation record the man, and will re- peat the record at the bar of the Judgment Day. It may be said of him as Hiram wrote of Solomon, "Because the
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Lord hath loved His people, He hath made thee king over them." Adam Reid reigned in Salisbury, and his pulpit was his throne. When he rose in this place a silence that could be felt fell upon the people. It was the hush of expectancy. The Scotch accent gave a peculiar fascination to his speech, and he had a weird way of whispering a sentence, penetrating to the farthest corner of the church, sending a thrill through the audience, and giving him rightfully the name of spell- binder. He was deeply read in literature, especially in Scottish poetry, which he could recite like a Homeric bard. Few knew that he could sing." But theology was his native heath, and upon him did Williams College appropriately confer the degree of Doctor Divinitatis. Many of his sermons are extant, written in his fine and shapely hand, breathing dignity, seriousness, intensity. Often have his hearers called for a volume of them, and it is hoped that even yet they may be put in type. Tall as a cedar, straight as an ash, he was a marked man wherever he rose to speak. His reputa- tion everywhere preceded him as the man whom Hartford and Boston and Brooklyn had in vain tried to lure from Salisbury. In his later years he was distinguished as being the senior pastor in the state. When he preached his fare- well sermon this congregation rose as one man to do him reverence, and the veteran, whose bow still abode in his strength, passed down the empty aisle among them. As he issued from that door it seemed to them like the glory de- parting from Israel.
But, lest I paint him in too sombre colors, let me add that he had the lighter graces of his kind, and relished the flavor of a Scotch joke with anybody. Mr. Tom. Norton, who darkened his door many a night, by reason of sitting on its threshold with his daughter, used to get together with him in his study, and those two experts play out yarns like a Scotch reel. It was birds of a feather flocking together, --- those two good jays, jocundity and joviality. I am not aware that he was like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the
* Yet one relates that when a boy, having the run of the Doctor's library, he came across a volume bound in plaids, containing The Caledonian Songs, which the minister seized with burning eye and sang the whole repertory, including "When the kye came hame," " Maxwelton braes are bonnie," but especially the old Jacobite ones, like " Over the water to Charlie."
THE REVEREND ADAM REID, D.D. FIFTH PASTOR, 1837-1877
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Lord, but the sun looked down upon no better fisherman than he. All these brooks he whipped with the rod of men, and every trout in Salisbury, on his approach, felt his life tremble in his scales. To this day his people are accus- tomed to think of him as combining the gifts of the pro- phetical and apostolical offices : in the pulpit he was Elijah the Tishbite, but by the brookside he was Peter the fish-bite. Dr. Henry M. Knight related an experience with him on one occasion when the canny Scotsman suggested with great artlessness, "Now suppose I go ahead and fish with a fly, while you follow on and take everything in with a worm." The physician demurred, on the ground that it was the cus- tom for a minister to follow the doctor, but finally yielded to his pastor's persuasion, with the result that at sundown Dr. Reid had all the fish and Dr. Knight helped him carry them home. Henry Ward Beecher was very genial with Dr. Reid, and together they canvassed this whole country in the trout interest more than once. It might have been just after one of those " scrambles among our Alps " or after coming down the neck-breaking gorge called Sage's Ravine, that some one asked him what he thought of Mr. Beecher, to which the Doctor replied, "Very impulsive man! Astonishing what things he can say ! I've been fishing with him!" Dr. Eldridge of Norfolk was perhaps his nearest friend in Connecticut, both of them men of long pastorates, and blessed with the loyalty of a devoted people.
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